Vane first picked up that purple pineapple-shaped Devil Fruit.
In his impression, many fruits with this kind of appearance were Logia-type Devil Fruits.
Since he had plenty of time, Vane did not call Monet in to identify it, and instead flipped through the Devil Fruit encyclopedia himself like opening a treasure chest.
He went straight to the Logia section, and in the end, the encyclopedia did not disappoint him. This was indeed a Logia-type Devil Fruit, and one he was very familiar with.
The Logia Gas-Gas Fruit, which was later Caesar Clown's ability—a purely powerful Devil Fruit that had been completely wasted through poor development.
But how did the Gas-Gas Fruit, which was inside the Celestial Dragons' treasury, end up being eaten by Caesar?
Perhaps the person who ate the Gas-Gas Fruit died shortly afterward, and after the fruit reincarnated, it was encountered by Caesar Clown.
"A Logia Gas-Gas Fruit! Truly a good thing."
Vane took the Gas-Gas Fruit out of the box. At the same time, an indigo fragment appeared—exactly the same type of fragment he had obtained earlier after defeating the Snow-Snow Fruit ability user. The two fragments could fit together.
But there was still no energy reaction. It seemed that only by gathering the complete fragments could it be activated.
He put down the Gas-Gas Fruit. He would temporarily seal away this Logia fruit. In his mind, there was already a suitable candidate to eat it, but it would take some time.
Vane then looked at the second mysterious fruit. If there was anything distinctive about this fruit, it was that its leaf stems had an extremely obvious feature.
The characteristic appearance of Devil Fruits often revealed certain information, and this fruit had nine leaf stems—clearly an obvious clue.
"Nine leaf stems."
Vane quickly flipped through the Devil Fruit encyclopedia, and soon an excited expression appeared on his face.
Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Nine-Tailed Fox Model!
That's right, this was a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit. Its nine leaf stems represented the nine tails of the Nine-Tailed Fox, just like how the Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Yamata no Orochi Model had eight heads and nine leaf stems.
"A Mythical Zoan, actually."
The first time this Devil Fruit appeared was on the Crescent Moon Hunter rescued by Blackbeard from Impel Down. It was unknown whether this was originally the Crescent Moon Hunter's own ability or something Blackbeard had plundered.
Currently, only one ability had been demonstrated—that it could mimic other people's appearance like the Clone-Clone Fruit. However, the Nine-Tailed Fox's mimicry should be its innate transformation ability.
The Clone-Clone Fruit could only imitate someone's appearance, but it could not change the user's clothing, whereas the Nine-Tailed Fox's transformation could change even the clothes.
The former was imitation, the latter was transformation—far more seamless.
At the same time, the Nine-Tailed Fox also had the enhanced physique typical of Zoan types. Its speed enhancement was especially obvious, while its strength increase was not as powerful as those strength-focused Zoans.
Mythical Zoans were not all perfect. Many Mythical Zoans had their own shortcomings. For example,
Marco's Phoenix had monstrous recovery ability, flight ability, and speed enhancement, but it had shortcomings in strength.
Very few Mythical Zoans were as perfect as the Azure Dragon fruit, with top-tier strength, speed, and attack all combined.
"This fruit…"
Vane reached his hand toward the Nine-Tailed Fox fruit. According to the classification of the Dog-Dog Fruit, he should be able to obtain a Gyarados-related item, because the earliest Dog-Dog Fruit had summoned Gyarados.
But this was a Mythical Zoan. It couldn't be that simple.
At that moment, when Vane touched the Nine-Tailed Fox fruit, a crystal fragment appeared in his hand… a red crystal fragment.
This was not a Pokémon energy item—those items were not transparent crystals.
Instead, aside from its color, the patterns and structure of this crystal were extremely similar to the indigo fragment from before.
A crimson fragment, and an indigo fragment.
Vane fell silent. It wasn't that he couldn't recognize these two things, but when placed together, they were simply too obvious.
If taken out individually, he would have to consider many possibilities, but when placed together, there was only one possibility.
The indigo one represented the ocean's "Kyogre."
The crimson one represented the land's "Groudon."
These two were first-class legendary beasts of the Pokémon world. When one appeared, the other would inevitably appear as well.
One wanted to flood the world, the other wanted to expand land and fill the seas. They were natural mortal enemies.
And when these two legendary beasts met, they would also attract a third legendary beast—the "Caterpie."
"So after all this, it turns out to be the power of these two legendary beasts. Unfortunately, without gathering the complete fragments, their power cannot be used."
If he could use the power of Kyogre and Groudon, then Articuno feather would have to step aside.
He could look forward to the future moment when all fragments were gathered.
For now, he still needed the power of Articuno feather. Speaking of which, the energy of the ice feather was already nearly depleted, and he would soon begin absorbing the energy of the ice crystal fragments.
The further he progressed, the faster his energy absorption speed became. Unlike fantasy or cultivation novels where growth slowed down later on.
Thinking about it carefully, this situation also matched the world of pirates. Didn't Luffy become stronger faster and faster as time went on?
Additionally, the ice fragment collection speed was very fast. Before arriving at Sabaody, he already had four fragments. After attacking Mary Geoise, he obtained the Rust-Rust Fruit and the Arrow-Arrow Fruit, which gave him two more fragments.
That made six fragments already.
If he found an opportunity to knock Hancock unconscious, that would be another fragment.
There were also two rescued slaves on the ship who were Devil Fruit users. After arriving at Fish-Man Island, he would see what abilities they had.
"Baccarat, go help me call Kaku in."
Not long after, Kaku arrived at the captain's cabin.
"What are your orders? I've already completed today's training."
On such an important day, Kaku was still strictly training himself. It was clear he possessed both talent and diligence.
"Kaku, your potential is extremely strong. But some things cannot be achieved through physical training alone."
Although Teacher Kaido kept saying that Haki was the strongest power, most of the moves he threw out were still Devil Fruit abilities.
Haki and Devil Fruit abilities did not conflict. Sometimes, when Haki talent was insufficient, Devil Fruit abilities were the best supplement.
"Are you planning to let me eat a Devil Fruit?"
Being called alone into the captain's cabin as a non-female was basically a fixed procedure for eating a fruit.
"That's right, Kaku. Originally, I wanted you to eat the Paramecia Arrow-Arrow Fruit. But now, I want you to eat this one even more."
Vane pointed directly at the Mythical Zoan Nine-Tailed Fox fruit.
Vane knew very well Kaku's talent in Zoan types. This Nine-Tailed Fox fruit was far superior to the giraffe by an unknown margin.