The Power of a New Devil Fruit

Seeing this, Mobius chuckled happily. Whether it was the Whitebeard Pirates, the Giant Kingdom, Fish-Man Island, or the Kuja, all of them were forces worth winning over.

Of course, some intelligence could be shared, while other information did not need to be revealed yet.

For example, Harald's lover, Ida's illness—telling them about such things would only invite trouble.

Shakky thought for a moment, seeming to recall that intelligence as well. She nodded with certainty and voiced her agreement, making Harald even more convinced.

"Elbaf welcomes your visit."

King Harald extended the invitation. He acknowledged this friend!

Mobius smiled and raised his glass. "As long as I can help. I'm also very interested in Elbaf, and I'll visit someday."

"Definitely."

Their glasses clinked through the air, and Mobius took another great step toward the future.

Everyone had something on their minds. The Whitebeard Pirates were troubled over Wano Country, Neptune was concerned about Tiger, Shakky and Rayleigh were gathering Hancock and her sisters, and Harald cared about his friends. The banquet's discussions quickly came to an end.

Harald soon said his farewells. His position was somewhat troublesome, and he could not stay long.

Harald planned to head for the Grand Line first. As for Rayleigh's matter, he left behind subordinates to take them to the Giant Kingdom.

Harald's most urgent task now was to bring Dorry, Brogy, and the others back to Elbaf.

Besides, Harald understood perfectly well that if he returned, Scopper Gaban would leave the Giant Kingdom, then head to Wano Country with Rayleigh to fight Kaido. If the World Government found out, that would be troublesome. It was better to stagger their departures.

Rayleigh naturally understood this as well and would not trouble Harald.

The Giant King had come quickly and left just as quickly. Leading the giant warships, he vanished from the waters around Fish-Man Island in the blink of an eye.

Mobius came to see him off. After Harald departed, he spoke gravely.

"This Giant King trusts the World Government a little too much. That isn't a good thing."

Neptune nodded subconsciously. Before meeting Mobius, he had barely trusted humans at all.

Shakky looked back at Mobius helplessly and quickly realized that the brat was declaring his position.

"Didn't you say you were a Marine, Mobius? Those aren't the kind of words you should be saying."

"Precisely because I'm a Marine, I can see the World Government clearly from within."

"Perhaps, for the world, its benefits outweigh its flaws. It just could theoretically be better."

Mobius returned her smile. Once again, he did not want to be like his old uncle, capable as he was yet only able to clock in at work every day.

Shakky looked away, naturally walked to Rayleigh's side, and linked her arm through his.

"Then let the young people handle such things. But do you know what you have to accomplish before establishing a career?"

Mobius fell silent for a moment, then turned and left. Damn old woman.

Back in his room, Mobius made sure no one was nearby before beginning to examine his new powers.

First was the Book-Book Fruit, the one he cared about most.

He raised a hand and summoned a book. It was square and proper, seemingly utterly ordinary, but when he opened it, its interior was completely blank, waiting to be filled.

With a slight mental command from Mobius, the book opened in midair, then flapped its pages and took flight like a bird.

"This could be used to carry people through the air, even as a drone, or a communication device."

Through the open pages, Mobius could easily sense the environment facing the book's pages. This could even be used for face-to-face communication.

"Face-to-face communication, huh~"

Mobius smiled. A bold thought suddenly came to him. E-books counted as books too; perhaps the Book-Book Fruit could accomplish that as well.

"Next up..."

Looking around, Mobius picked up a vase. After examining it from top to bottom, he shoved it directly into the pages of the flying book.

Without the slightest resistance, the vase slipped easily into the book's pages, and content appeared on the blank paper.

Flipping to that page, Mobius tapped it lightly with a finger. A sensation like a torrent of words surged forth.

"Purple, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, dragon-patterned design..."

Lines of descriptions related to the vase appeared on the page. The ink was clear, and everything described was true, without a single error.

Mobius had a thought and tried to deliberately make an incorrect description, but a strong feeling of rejection immediately arose from the page. Real things could not be presented with false information.

Interesting!

Mobius grew excited. Once the concept of books spread out, it could become unimaginably terrifying. Judging from this Devil Fruit's original abilities, it already possessed a formidable power like the Book World. Now, it even faintly carried the power of higher-level narration.

Thinking of Gecko Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit, shadows originally moved according to their hosts' actions. Yet under the Shadow-Shadow Fruit's power, the relationship could be reversed, allowing the host to change according to the shadow's movements.

Then, could the same be reversed in this Book World? Rather than descriptions following objects, could objects change according to their descriptions?

Mobius began experimenting, but the rejection coming from the book was incredibly severe. In the end, he had no choice but to abandon the idea.

"Is it impossible, or are there some requirements? Or can it only be done after awakening?"

Devil Fruits had different abilities, and their conditions of use were equally different.

The Gold-Gold Fruit could only control gold. It could neither produce gold nor assimilate it into the user's body. Without awakening, it was not particularly useful at all.

Mobius remembered Gecko Moria saying something once: shadows were also part of the soul.

So, could objects without souls not be altered according to descriptions within the Book World?

Mobius sank into thought, planning to test it on a fish someday.

Or perhaps...

"Does it require a combination of Fruits? Like how Common Zoans can combine into Mythical Zoans."

Related to the Book-Book Fruit's descriptions, a Paramecia Devil Fruit appeared in Mobius's mind—the Paint-Paint Fruit.

Anything drawn could become reality, even living beings.

Right, books were merely the medium. If he wanted to rewrite something, he would certainly need ink and a brush.

That Devil Fruit happened to be related to Wano Country as well, but...

Mobius's expression changed. The Paint-Paint Fruit's user, Kanjuro, was an undercover agent Kurozumi Orochi had planted beside Kozuki Oden. He had already been sent into the future by Lady Toki and would not appear for another fifteen years.

If they had to be used together, Mobius sighed. He did not know whether another copy of the same Devil Fruit would exist during that time, as long as its current user had not died.

He would go find Shyarly later and ask her to divine it.

For now, he would continue studying the Devil Fruits.

Ryugu Palace was still being cleaned up, and with Rayleigh and Shakky around, it was not convenient to test his abilities.

Mobius shifted his gaze to the book before him, opened its pages, and stepped inside.

The Book World.

It was entirely blank, without even a distinction between heaven and earth. Perhaps because the book had just been born, its pages contained no content whatsoever.

Mobius turned his gaze and discovered a vase drifting slowly into the distance.

He shrugged. Creating this world first was more important.

An azure sky appeared, a blazing sun rose, white clouds drifted past, and the earth emerged. Then came the ocean, soil, trees, rocks, one after another...

Standing in this somewhat crude world, Mobius decided to leave it like this for now. This was his first time using real creation mode, and a simple environment was enough.

Next came the other Devil Fruits.

The Mochi-Mochi Fruit... Hmm, his body could assimilate into a substance similar to rice cake, and it could also produce rice cake. Its base stats were merely average, though, so he would have to train it himself.

The Heat-Heat Fruit... A very simple ability. It just continuously heated things up, raising temperature and range.

The Steam-Steam Fruit... Huh?

Mobius let out a soft cry. This Fruit had a resonance? The target was...

Mobius transformed, taking on the lion-dragon-like Suanni Form, then opened his mouth and exhaled.

What emerged this time was no longer gentle white smoke, but bluish-purple, somewhat murky lamp smoke.

The smoke gathered and eventually formed a humanoid shape. A familiar demon form appeared. Mobius closed his mouth, sensing that he could split this demon apart.

However, after it split, the light in the demon's eyes vanished. Its independent consciousness disappeared, and it became nothing more than a puppet that followed orders.

Advance, turn into a blade, slash...

Following Mobius's mental commands, the demon carried out each action with absolute obedience.

"Puppets that can be mass-produced, at the cost of losing their intelligence."

Mobius nodded. Soldiers conjured from scattered beans?

No, it was somewhat similar to the Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit's biscuit soldiers. This should be part of its development as well.

Smoke, huh... Smoke...

Mobius understood the compatibility of his Devil Fruits even better now. Their affinities had to match.

A Fruit related to smoke... Smoker, I'll borrow your power in the future. The Smoke-Smoke Fruit probably doesn't suit you.

The Dark-Dark Fruit's extraction ability could control whether it harmed the host. At the very least, when Mobius had previously extracted the animal Fruits from those two blades, the blades had not been damaged afterward.

Right, now that he had heat, could his Chimera Form breathe fire?

Mobius began another round of combination practice.

Time passed little by little. Somewhere in the Grand Line, a red Fish-Man covered in old scars held a newspaper, his eyes alert.

When he saw the newspaper's headline, his vigilant gaze instantly turned to shock.

<Changes on Fish-Man Island! The Whitebeard Pirates declare their intention to occupy Fish-Man Island!?>

"This is... No, I have to go back and see what's happening!"

The red Fish-Man hurried away with astonishing speed. When he reached the place where he was staying, however, he fell silent without realizing it.

Before him stood a crowd of ragged, emaciated humans, Fish-Men, merfolk, giants, and people of other races.

"Big Brother Tiger, you're back?"