When it came to stealing Devil Fruit powers, anyone who had read the manga would immediately think of the Dark-Dark Fruit. Xie Wen had initially considered that unusual logia Devil Fruit too, but he soon rejected the idea himself.
For starters, the Dark-Dark Fruit was Whitebeard's spoils, and Blackbeard murdered its finder, stole it, and ate it the very night it was obtained. Xie Wen would have no chance to make a move. Even if he found some way to join the Whitebeard Pirates now, he could never beat Blackbeard, who had both greater seniority and greater strength, to it.
Even if he got absurdly lucky and actually obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit, he would end up facing Whitebeard's hostility and Blackbeard's covetous attention at the same time.
Even if, against all odds, he found the Dark-Dark Fruit before Whitebeard's men did, Blackbeard, who had spent most of his life patiently lying low for that fruit, probably would not let him off easily.
Most importantly, Xie Wen was not actually all that interested in the Dark-Dark Fruit. Or rather, he was not particularly interested in acquiring a Devil Fruit Ability in the first place.
If a fruit with an incredibly powerful ability landed in front of him, then of course he would eat it. But Xie Wen had no desire to deliberately pursue any particular ability. His main goal in collecting Devil Fruits was to fill out the catalog. Whether he ate them himself, fed them to the cats, or even sold them afterward was a question for later.
The only thing about the Dark-Dark Fruit that appealed to him at all was its ability to steal powers from other people. But stealing someone else's Devil Fruit Ability was not something only the Dark-Dark Fruit could do.
Hadn't Vegapunk developed the Seraphim, which could replicate other people's abilities, in the original story?
Of course, neither the Seraphim nor the green blood they used meant much to Xie Wen. That artificial Sakura Dragon Fruit, on the other hand, might qualify for inclusion in the Hunter's Notes catalog.
As for Caesar's half-finished SMILE Fruits, their chances of being included were considerably lower.
And for Xie Wen, aside from the Dark-Dark Fruit and Artificial Devil Fruits, there might be another method: the Carving Knife in his possession, which had the Material Carving ability.
During the Paramount War, Blackbeard had extracted the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power with the Dark-Dark Fruit some time after Whitebeard had died. That meant a Devil Fruit did not reincarnate immediately after its user died, but remained inside its former host for a fairly substantial period.
The Carving Knife in Xie Wen's possession could extract a single "thing" that a creature possessed from its corpse.
Most of the time, those things were bodily tissues such as scales, claws, bones, teeth, skin, blood, fur, or feathers. But in the games, you could carve materials representing a monster's abilities, such as wyvern gems, flame sacs, and paralysis sacs... Even if those were also parts of a monster's body according to the setting, it still suggested a possibility.
Besides, "humanoid monsters" such as Shakalakas and Melynx could yield external possessions like ores, jewels, and Commendations. So carving a Devil Fruit out of a user's body was not merely wishful thinking on Xie Wen's part.
Failure would be no big deal anyway. If he succeeded, however, Xie Wen would gain another way to acquire Devil Fruits, and all he had to do was stab a Devil Fruit User's corpse with the Carving Knife after killing them... No matter how he looked at it, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Unfortunately, Devil Fruit Users were still relatively rare outside the Grand Line. Otherwise, he would have loved to find a pirate who had eaten a Devil Fruit and try it out right away.
After two days at sea, Cody's ship finally rendezvoused with his fleet. There were not many ships in the fleet, only five in total, but every one of them was a large sailing vessel. The flagship was two or three sizes larger than the ship Xie Wen and the others were aboard.
At that moment, the other ships, including the flagship, were all moored in a harbor larger than Paper Lantern Town's. Yet this harbor had been built beside a small village that was nowhere near the size of Paper Lantern Town.
According to Uncle Bax, this was actually Mr. Cody's hometown, as well as their home base. More than half the sailors in Cody's fleet were villagers from here... It was only because Cody and his men had not become pirates that the place could not be called a pirate stronghold.
Also, small as the village was, it was actually safer than Paper Lantern Town. There was a Marine Base on the other side of the island, so neither gangs nor pirates dared come here to cause trouble.
Aside from Cody's personality as their leader, the nearby Marine Base was probably another reason his fleet had never turned into Pirates.
"Say... Uncle Cody wouldn't happen to have been a Marine, would he?" That thought suddenly occurred to Xie Wen after he heard Bax's explanation.
Then he saw Bax staring at him with his mouth hanging open, as though he had seen a ghost... Apparently, he had guessed right.
Xie Wen curled his lip. Wasn't that a perfectly natural guess? Still, the world of One Piece was full of idiots and goofballs, so a reaction like that... Fine, he still wasn't quite used to it...
Although he felt a spontaneous surge of intellectual superiority, Xie Wen also worried that the goofballs here might rub off on him someday.
Just like Trafalgar Law in the manga. When he first appeared, he had clearly been the calculating strategist type, but after spending too much time with Luffy, he had gradually started turning into a goofball too.
Since the trade fair would not begin for a while yet, Cody planned to spend a few days in his hometown. That would also give Xie Wen the perfect opportunity to explore the island and uncover its map.
But just as Xie Wen was about to head out with the cats, Cody came looking for him and offered him two cutlasses.
"You're the guard I hired. I can't have you using lousy weapons." To keep Xie Wen from refusing, Cody added as he offered the swords, "These aren't anything particularly special, either, but they're a little sturdier than the weapons ordinary gang thugs and pirates use."
Actually... If you wanted to give me a couple of Famous Swords, I wouldn't turn them down either...
Although Xie Wen muttered that inwardly, he did not accept the pair of cutlasses.
For someone who had mastered Armament Haki, the quality of his swords was not particularly important in a place like the West Blue... Unless they were Famous Swords that could help him unlock a page.
Still, Xie Wen knew that being given a Famous Sword for a single escort job was clearly unlikely. After thinking for a moment, he pushed the two swords back and said, "Well... If possible, could you get me a Nodachi? That's actually the weapon I'm best with."
"Huh?! You mean you weren't even using your best weapon when we sparred?!"
Before Mr. Cody could react, Bax had already jumped up beside him.
Xie Wen shrugged. "What else could I do? None of the gang members Klee blasted unconscious used a Nodachi, so I just picked a couple of swords and made do."
The corner of Bax's eye twitched violently twice. He said nothing more, but although he had originally planned to enjoy a couple of days off, he now silently resolved to put himself through some brutal training.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cody was somewhat surprised, but even more pleased. As far as he was concerned, the stronger Xie Wen was, the better. So not only did he readily agree to find Xie Wen a Nodachi, he also had no intention of taking back the pair of cutlasses.
After giving it some thought, Xie Wen stopped refusing his kindness and accepted the two cutlasses.
Personally, I don't really like adding important items that weren't in the original story. And with Devil Fruits, aside from ordinary zoan types, any new fruit you add requires a lot of consideration, such as what its powers do, how they can be developed, and so on.
You even run the risk of Oda drawing the same fruit later... For example, one of the anime-original storylines featured another Heat-Heat Fruit whose effects practically made it an Akainu killer.
So I had to come up with a way to obtain Devil Fruits that already existed in the original story, which led to the Carving Knife concept. At first, I had only planned to give Xie Wen a Salted Fish Long Sword and the cats, without even an inventory.
I've added character pictures and tags for Klee Meow and Sanji Meow. As for Xie Wen... If any of you are interested, you can make those yourselves.
Before you continue