The smoke-shrouded steel fortress gradually disappeared behind them.
With Sabo and Jeno clearing the way, the Eclipse Pirates carried their heavy spoils through the ruined streets with ease and reached the outer harbor.
A massive three-masted armed transport ship that had belonged to the warlord forces was moored there.
Jeno slammed the several-ton chunk of Starfall Black Steel onto the transport ship's wide deck with a resounding clang, making the entire vessel rock violently. Buggy and Carina also panted as they tossed their large backpacks, stuffed with treasure and Devil Fruits, into the hold.
"This transport ship has enough draft and carrying capacity."
Jeno expertly checked the machinery in the wheelhouse and got the ship moving.
They then waited for Ace to bring the Eclipse over. After using thick chains to firmly lash the Eclipse to the transport ship's stern and tow it along, Sabo took the helm. With the two ships sailing one behind the other on a favorable wind, they quickly left the war-torn Steel Country behind.
Two days later.
Somewhere along the Grand Line, on an unnamed, uninhabited island.
Far from the bustle of the main route, the island was covered in lush vegetation, and tens of thousands of enormous seabirds nested among its cliffs. Their deafening cries echoed across the skies, making the island feel both full of life and incredibly noisy.
The transport ship and the Eclipse were moored side by side in a secluded bay.
As soon as they came ashore, Jeno eagerly shouldered the Starfall Black Steel and his pile of mechanical tools, then plunged into the Eclipse's lower deck. Amid the shrill whine of metal cutting and the dazzling sparks of welding, the fanatic mechanic began a comprehensive upgrade of the Eclipse.
Leona, meanwhile, carried the Bone-Cleaving Blade and headed into the island's depths. For her, exploring the unknown ingredients on a new island was the best way to ease her post-battle fatigue.
And on the soft sand of the bay...
Carina emptied all the heavy backpacks, and the glittering treasure piled up into a small hill in the sunlight. Sitting among the treasure, she held a book they had looted from the Warlord Fortress: the Devil Fruit Illustrated Guide (Incomplete).
Beside her lay an exquisite wooden box.
Inside it rested the Paramecia Barrier-Barrier Fruit they had intercepted on the black market in Loguetown, as well as the unknown fruit they had seized from the vault in the steel fortress.
The unknown fruit was a strange grayish purple all over. Its spiral patterns weren't rounded like those on ordinary fruits; instead, they formed an unusual radiating pattern, like ripples or zigzags.
Carina searched through the incomplete guide, her frown growing deeper.
"No, this guide is missing too many fruits. There's no record of this grayish-purple fruit anywhere."
Carina closed the guide in disappointment and looked up at Ace, who was sitting on a reef some distance away.
Ace had his eyes closed, enjoying the sea breeze.
Hearing Carina's complaint, he jumped down from the reef and walked over to the treasure pile, his tall figure casting a steady shadow across the beach.
"If we can't find it, then so be it."
Ace's gaze fell on the grayish-purple fruit. Rather than look through the book, he slowly closed his eyes and unleashed his Observation Haki without holding back.
As he drove his Observation Haki to its limit, the noisy waves and the seabirds' cries gradually faded from his ears.
His consciousness sank into an exceedingly mysterious state—the Voice of All Things.
To ordinary eyes, the Devil Fruit was nothing more than an inanimate object. But within Ace's perceptive web, it gave off an extremely faint yet distinctive pulse of life.
After a long while, Ace opened his deep, dark eyes.
"This fruit contains no violent aura of destruction, and it doesn't have the powerful physical wildness of a Zoan, either."
Ace looked at Carina and distilled the vague information he had "heard." "The energy it gives off is very strange. It's something extremely faint, like invisible threads or ripples. It's trying to radiate outward and establish some kind of 'connection.'"
"Connection? Ripples?" Sabo, standing nearby, sounded curious. "It doesn't sound like the kind of ability you'd use in a head-on fight."
"It's not a combat-oriented fruit."
Ace nodded, his gaze fixed intently on Carina.
"If you eat it, it probably won't directly increase your strength or physical prowess. It should give you some kind of support ability related to perception, communication, or the mind."
Ace spoke calmly, leaving the choice to her.
"Carina, you're the Eclipse's treasurer and intelligence chief. I promised to protect you, but on these seas, having power of your own is what truly matters. We know very little about this fruit. Whether you eat it is up to you."
Carina stared at the strange fruit in the wooden box and fell silent.
Images from the past few days played unbidden through her mind.
Ace's fist, shattering an old-era Admiral like a demon god; Sabo's Fire Fist, moving with ease through ranks of soldiers; Leona's madness as she sliced through steel even on the verge of death; and even Buggy, usually the least reliable of them all, turning the tide amid the chaos of battle.
Everyone aboard the Eclipse was a monster.
And Carina, no matter how good her aim or how clever she was, was still just an ordinary human being. If they encountered enemies in the New World who couldn't be hurt even by a Fire Pistol, would she be forced to hide behind the others forever, a burden they had to protect?
"I don't need power that can destroy heaven and earth."
Carina took a deep breath, a note of resolve and wildness flashing in her purple eyes. "The captain already has all of you monsters to charge into battle. But a crew that plans to overturn the world absolutely can't do without intelligence. I want to try!"
Carina reached out without hesitation and grabbed the grayish-purple fruit.
"I'll eat it."
Without a trace of hesitation, she opened her mouth and took a large bite.
"Ugh... blech!"
An indescribable stench exploded in her mouth. Carina's pretty face twisted into a grimace, but she pinched her nose and forced the fruit down.
The instant she swallowed it...
Carina's body stiffened, and a strange, rippling light flashed in her purple eyes.
In her perception, the entire world suddenly transformed.
The tens of thousands of seabirds in the sky had been shrieking in a disorganized cacophony, but now their cries became clearly defined "frequencies" in her mind. She could even sense the faint bioelectric signals radiating from Jeno's muscles as he swung his hammer in the lower deck.
"How is it? What do you feel?" Sabo asked with some concern.
Carina kept her eyes closed as she experienced the feeling for a long while. When she opened them again, an irrepressible grin had spread across her face.
"Captain, I bet right."
Carina sprang to her feet, excitedly reporting at a rapid pace. "Paramecia—Signal-Signal Fruit! My brain is like a super base station now! I can gather information from my surroundings, a little like Observation Haki. Most importantly..."
"Once I establish a 'Frequency Contract' with you, no matter how far apart we are—even if we're on different islands—I can talk to you directly in our minds with no delay and pinpoint your locations. I can even start a group chat with everyone! And if you agree, I can share your vision, too."
Carina grew more excited as she spoke, casually picking up a gold coin from the treasure pile.
A faint glow flickered at her fingertips, and the ordinary gold coin seemed to undergo a subtle, strange change.
"That's not all. I can imbue any inanimate object with these radio waves. If I scatter these coins around, they'll turn into tiny listening devices and trackers!"
Hearing Carina describe her ability, Sabo's mouth fell slightly open in shock.
As someone who had dealt with intelligence for years, he knew exactly what an ability like this meant in a war. It was an ultimate intelligence network that defied all reason and covered an astonishing range!
Ace looked at the excited purple-haired girl before him, a blazing light kindling in his deep, dark eyes.
So what if it wasn't a power that could destroy heaven and earth?
On the Grand Line, where countless powers vied for supremacy, the strategic value of intelligence and absolute communication within a crew far exceeded that of an ordinary Logia!
"Hahahahahaha!"
Seeing the Eclipse's most crucial piece of its intelligence network fall into place, Ace could no longer contain his elation. Facing the seabirds wheeling overhead, he let out a hearty laugh that rang across the bay.
He looked at Carina, his eyes brimming with absolute confidence in the future.
"Well done, Carina."
"With this network, every secret on these seas will be laid bare to us—and only us!"
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