Pirate: I Loaded the Game Panel

Once the ships drew close enough, several pirates at the front flung grappling hooks onto the merchant ship's railing. They hauled themselves across on the thick ropes attached to the hooks and charged the defenders gathered on deck.

The pirates fought like mad dogs.

"Kill them!"

"Take everything!"

"The treasure's ours!"

After a brief fight, the merchant ship's guards lay bleeding on the deck. They were no match for pirates who risked their lives every day.

The tall, vicious-looking pirate captain pushed past his men and stepped to the front. "I'm Johnson, captain of the Blade Pirates! Hand over all your treasure, and we won't take your lives. Resist, and I'll throw you into the sea to feed the sharks!"

Helpless and despairing, the passengers surrendered their valuables.

Captain Johnson took a swig of wine and shouted, "Boys! Don't forget, their pockets aren't the only things worth taking! There's cargo belowdecks. Haul it all back to our ship!"

While the Blade Pirates ransacked the merchant ship, up in the captain's cabin...

"Penelope! Penelope!"

Captain Clivatt, who had kept his composure before the sailors, stumbled through the cabin door. He called urgently for his wife, keeping his voice low so no one would hear.

"What is it, Clivatt? What was that noise downstairs? I thought I heard something awful..."

A beautiful, mature woman emerged from the bedroom in a black silk pleated nightdress. She had captivating, round eyes and thick, fluffy pink hair tied into spiral twin tails that fell nearly to her waist.

"Pirates! They're stealing everything downstairs! There's no time to explain!" Clivatt said anxiously.

"What? Pirates?" Penelope's relaxed expression turned to terror.

"They haven't come up here yet! How's our daughter? Was little Perona frightened?"

"She's fast asleep. She didn't hear a thing." Penelope's voice softened at the thought of their sleeping daughter, then grew worried again. "What do we do, Clivatt?"

"Take her and escape! Take our treasure, too!" Clivatt said firmly. "I won't let pirates threaten my daughter's life!"

"What about you?" Penelope asked.

Clivatt's expression grew conflicted. After a moment's hesitation, he answered with resolve. "I'm the captain of the Clearwater! I can't abandon my ship and my sailors now!"

"But—" Penelope began.

"There's no time to argue, Penelope!" Clivatt cut her off, afraid her tenderness would weaken his hard-won resolve.

"Pack quickly! Use the hidden door in the bedroom. There's a passage from this cabin straight to the hold. No one but me knows about it, and I've already prepared an escape boat!"

Clivatt pushed Penelope into the bedroom.

"Oh, and this!"

He hurried to the locked case beneath his desk, entered the combination, and took out a small treasure chest. Then he pulled a brass key from an inside pocket of his suit, opened the chest, and handed it and its contents to Penelope.

"This is—"

"A Devil Fruit?!"

A strange young voice rang through the room, full of disbelief and delight.

"Who's there? Who said that?"

Startled, Clivatt spun around and shielded his wife. He slowly reached for the pistol at his waist—his last defense.

"Are you a pirate?" Clivatt asked coldly, staring at the young man who had suddenly appeared.

The intruder hardly looked like a pirate. He wore a wide-brimmed hat, a black tweed coat, and a dark-gray waistcoat, with a brass-chain pocket watch hanging from it.

He looked more like a gang member from the West Blue than a pirate who lived at sea.

"No, no." The newcomer waved his hands. "I'm not a pirate. I just happened to be passing by."

"And happened to wander into the captain's cabin?"

Clivatt whipped out his pistol, but before he could aim, the young man vanished from sight. His pupils contracted.

Behind him, Penelope gave a piercing scream. Her hand was suddenly empty: the strange white fruit etched with curling spiral patterns had somehow ended up in the intruder's hand.

"Pointing a gun at someone is terribly rude, Captain Clivatt."

Adrian held up the white Devil Fruit and spoke lightly.

Who else could the stranger aboard the Clearwater be?

"Put that Devil Fruit down, boy!"

Clivatt gripped his pistol with both hands and kept it trained on Adrian.

"I'm afraid not. This Devil Fruit will be my fair payment." Adrian shook his head. "Would you care to make a deal?"

"I said put down that Devil Fruit, you—"

Clang!!

A white arc flashed through the air.

Clivatt felt his gun grow strangely light. Looking down, he saw the front half of its barrel slide onto the cabin floor.

"Hiss..."

Clivatt sucked in a sharp breath.

"Interested in discussing that deal now?"

Adrian glanced regretfully at the slight curl in his sword's edge. He was still far from being a swordsman who could cut iron. His extraordinary speed and strength had done most of the work.

In short, he had forced his way through with sheer power.

But that was hard on the blade. A few more cuts like that, and the sword would probably be ruined.

"P-please, go ahead." Clivatt swallowed, lowered his head, and spoke respectfully.

At sea, the strong called the shots. This young man might not rank among the truly powerful, but Clivatt knew he had no way to deal with him.

"I'll take care of the Blade Pirates downstairs." Adrian pointed at the floor, then weighed the white Devil Fruit in his hand. "And I'll take this as my fair payment."

On hearing Adrian's offer, Clivatt brightened, then looked troubled. "But this Devil Fruit belongs to the Capone Gang."

If the Capone Gang learned he had given it away, he would likely never be able to live in the West Blue again.

Adrian raised an eyebrow at the familiar name.

The Capone Gang, also known simply as the Gang, would be led by Capone Bege, one of the Supernovas, more than twenty years from now...

Recalling what he knew about the Capone Gang, Adrian smiled mockingly. "Weren't you about to send your wife away with this Devil Fruit? Why weren't you worried about the Capone Gang then?"

Whatever happened, Adrian had no intention of giving up this Devil Fruit.

Devil Fruits were genuine treasures of the sea, with an attraction few people could resist.

Adrian had no aversion to them. Becoming a Devil Fruit User had always been part of his plan.

He had begun planning for one soon after arriving in this world two years ago.

Of all the Devil Fruits in the world of the Pirate King, the relatively easiest to obtain was surely the Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit on Sky Island!

And there was no question how powerful the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was!

Adrian had planned to travel to Birka on Sky Island in the Grand Line sometime over the next year to seek it out. He had not expected a Devil Fruit to fall into his hands here.

If this fruit was the one he suspected, he had even less reason to let it go!

After all, its power was nearly impossible to counter!

Seeing Clivatt fall silent, Adrian asked, "Well? Do you accept the deal?"

"Clivatt..." Penelope tugged at her husband's sleeve and nodded slightly.

Clivatt came to his senses with a bitter smile. What was he hesitating for?

He could not defeat this young man. The fact that Adrian had offered a deal at all was a stroke of luck. The brutal pirates downstairs would probably have cut him down and taken the fruit.

Rather than worry about what the Capone Gang might do later, he needed to survive this pirate attack first!

"I accept!"

Clivatt nodded firmly.

"Good."

Adrian nodded, satisfied. Unless he had to, he did not want to force anyone's hand.

"Now give me the key and the chest."

"You aren't going to eat the Devil Fruit right away?" Clivatt asked in disbelief.

"Do you know what it's called?" Adrian asked.

"No." Clivatt shook his head.

"Neither do I." Adrian shrugged, placed the fruit in the chest, and tucked it away. "I don't like gambling, and I won't give up swimming for some unknown power."

Clivatt seemed to believe him.

Before leaving the cabin, Adrian asked, "One last question. What's your daughter's name?"

"Perona! Clivatt Perona!"

Dealing with the Blade Pirates was no great challenge for Adrian. His level was not especially high, but his attributes gave him a huge advantage over West Blue pirates whose average level barely reached thirty. Losing to them would have been the hard part.

After Adrian brought Captain Johnson, their strongest fighter, down with two easy slashes, the remaining pirates promptly dropped their weapons and shouted their surrender.

Clivatt hurriedly summoned his crew to tie them up. He planned to turn them over at a Marine Base for the bounties later.

Though the pirate attack had been resolved, it had still damaged the merchant ship's reputation. Clivatt could only hope the bounties would offset some of his losses.

Later, Adrian politely declined Clivatt's invitation to a victory feast and sailed away alone, just as he had arrived.

In the captain's cabin at the top of the Clearwater, Penelope held her daughter and watched Adrian's boat shrink to a speck on the horizon. She found herself recalling what the courteous young man had said before leaving.

"Your daughter has a lovely name, Mrs. Penelope. Barring any surprises, I'll spend most of the coming year at the Tree of Knowledge of Ohara. If anything happens and you need help, send someone there to find me. My name is Adrian. Don't be wary of the offer—consider it a little extra with our deal."

"Adrian..." Penelope absently brushed a lock of hair from her forehead, then looked down at her still-sleeping daughter. "Little Perona, we were lucky to meet such a kind man..."

Elsewhere...

With the unexpected Devil Fruit in his possession, Adrian steered his small boat toward Ohara at greater speed.

He now had another compelling reason to visit Ohara: the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia!

He was fairly sure he knew the name of the fruit in his hands, but without checking the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, he could not be certain.

Who knew whether Clivatt Perona was the Ghost Princess Perona who would appear more than twenty years later?

Could you be... the Hollow-Hollow Fruit?

Adrian touched the chest hidden inside his coat and pushed the boat faster still.

By evening, having spared no effort to keep up his speed, Adrian reached the scholars' island of Ohara half a day early.

Ohara looked unlike any island he had seen in the West Blue. At its heart stood the Tree of Knowledge, more than five thousand years old.

Even from afar, its vast, dense canopy seemed to cover the whole island. Its trunk rose from the island's center like a pillar holding up the sky, sheltering the tireless scholars below from wind and rain.

Peaceful quiet and solemn rigor together gave Ohara its distinctive atmosphere.

No one stopped Adrian when he landed. Ohara's scholars welcomed anyone who sought knowledge.

Without needing directions, Adrian reached the brightly lit Tree of Knowledge Library at the island's center.

Following the rules, Adrian obtained a library card at the front desk.

He turned the little card over in his hand, declined a kindly librarian's offer of a tour, and walked alone through the quiet library.

A Brief History of Ohara, Basic Machinery Repair in the Kingdom of the Future, A Detailed Atlas of the Ilusia Kingdom, Diagrams of Longarm Tribe Arm Bones, An Introduction to Human Blood Types...

Books packed the shelves, covering geography, history, astronomy, calendars, medicine, and nearly everything else. Adrian hardly knew where to look.

No wonder it was called the Tree of Knowledge Library!

Before long, Adrian found the section he wanted.

An Overview of Devil Fruits, A Study of Devil Fruit Appearances and Features, The Hierarchy of Devil Fruits, An Analysis of Devil Fruit Types... and, most important of all, the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia!