After squeezing the last bit of value out of the Blood Knife Pirates,
Noah sealed the unconscious parrot man, Guro, inside a card.
Then he used a napalm combustion card on the pirates' corpses, which had been gathered together.
Immediately afterward, he detonated the combustion cards attached to the pirate ship.
Boom! Illuminated by flames that soared into the sky, the Blood Knife was blasted to pieces and sank to the seabed amid the raging fire.
The corpses were also quickly burned to ashes by the napalm.
He wasn't one of those people who would be careless. To prevent information about himself from leaking out, he had to grind these pirates' bones to dust and scatter their ashes, lest someone had secretly left some information on their person or was playing dead.
After all, the Devil Fruits of the pirate world came in all sorts of strange varieties. There might even be one similar to the Revive-Revive Fruit.
After destroying the corpses and the pirate ship, Noah and his companions searched the deserted island again. Sure enough, there was no sign of the Smooth-Smooth Fruit.
That was the uncertainty of divination.
Even knowing that the Smooth-Smooth Fruit was in these waters, he still couldn't pinpoint its exact location.
That evening, considering that the Blood Knife Pirates had appeared here, Noah abandoned his plan to spend the night on the island. He piloted the Nautilus beneath the sea and sailed underwater toward the next deserted island.
Five days later.
Over the past few days, they had searched seven deserted islands in all, but had still found nothing.
Today was October 13, 1503.
Noah glanced at Lilith's nautical chart. There were three deserted islands nearby, one of which even had a name: Goat Island.
Many people might not be familiar with the island, but if Alvida were mentioned, probably everyone who had watched One Piece would know the name.
Goat Island was Alvida's base back when she was fat, and it was also where King Luffy defeated her.
Noah took out his tarot cards.
Looking toward Clover No. 11 Deserted Island, the island closest to Goat Island, he performed a divination and drew cards.
The journey will go smoothly, but the outcome is uncertain.
Noah frowned.
The Hierophant, the Nine of Wands... Does that mean two Hierophants will have a debate and quarrel, each stubbornly clinging to their own views?
He drew cards again.
The Hierophant, the Knight of Cups? A false friend, a stranger and a seducer. Decisively seize the fate before me.
Noah seemed to understand something. He turned and ordered, "Lilith, full speed ahead to Clover No. 11 Deserted Island."
"Yes, Brother Noah."
The Nautilus quickly changed course and headed toward Clover No. 11 Deserted Island at full speed.
Four hours later, a small island with a radius of less than two kilometers came into view.
Without wasting time, everyone quickly split into groups to search the island.
Before long, Mary and Vic's group found the Smooth-Smooth Fruit in a coconut grove near the beach.
As soon as they found the Smooth-Smooth Fruit, Noah recalled everyone. Instead of staying on the island, they sailed underwater toward their next destination.
Around six hours after the Nautilus left.
On the beach beneath the setting sun.
A gust of wind swept up, and a figure appeared on the beach.
Looking at the footprints in the sand, the eyes beneath the green hood flashed with a trace of thought.
Very fresh footprints. They were made today, and whoever made them left in a hurry. Could it have been the Blood Knife Pirates?
A moment later, the figure vanished without a trace.
Only the still-swirling gale remained, whipping up fine, glimmering sand.
After leaving the waters around Goat Island, the Nautilus was now sailing toward Dawn Island.
Dawn Island was the island where the Goa Kingdom was located.
But the Goa Kingdom wasn't Noah's destination. This time, he was headed for the most beautiful island in the East Blue, Sixis Island.
Sixis Island was also known as "Hell Ant Nest."
The island was famous throughout the East Blue because ships that entered never returned, and rumors often spread on nearby islands that there was treasure inside.
It lay roughly 436 kilometers southeast of Dawn Island.
Noah didn't know whether there was treasure on Sikasis Island, but there were definitely plenty of shipwrecks on the nearby seabed.
After all, the climate in the waters around the island was very unusual, somewhat like the Calm Belt. With a circular current surrounding the entire island as well, old-fashioned sailing ships had no way to leave unless they were new-style ships equipped with steam power or the like.
Over the previous few months, Noah had already used his once-a-month specific divinations.
He had now basically confirmed that the Flame-Flame Fruit was on Sixis Island.
Three other Devil Fruits had also been accounted for. The Scythe-Scythe Fruit had already been eaten, the Sound Wave-Sound Wave Fruit was within the Oykot Kingdom, Nami's homeland, and the Paste-Paste Fruit was in the Domini Islands, 733 kilometers north of the Organ Islands.
The Steel-Steel Fruit and the Whisper-Whisper Fruit probably had yet to respawn.
Devil Fruits were a shortcut to rapidly increasing the strength and potential of the family's members.
In the Nautilus's kitchen, Lilian cut the Smooth-Smooth Fruit into pieces and handed them to Mary, who stood beside her.
Mary opened her mouth wide and quickly stuffed the pieces of flesh inside.
"It tastes awful... Boo-hoo-hoo..."
But at the thought of Noah's expectations, Mary forced down her nausea and urge to vomit and swallowed all the remaining flesh in one go.
"Quick, Lilian, give me some apple juice."
Lilian had already prepared a large bottle of apple juice.
Mary took the bottle and gulped it down.
Gulp, gulp...
"Phew... I'm finally alive again!"
"Mary, your skin's become so smooth. Quick, try out your power." Lilian touched Mary's arm with some envy.
Mary picked up a kitchen knife and slashed at herself. The next instant, the knife seemed to meet something and immediately slid off to the side, nearly striking the floor.
Before she ate the Smooth-Smooth Fruit, Noah had already told her how to develop its abilities.
The fruit's power was very strong, and it was one of the few fruits whose user didn't have to fear Seastone or seawater.
The reason it had performed so unremarkably in Alvida's hands was naturally that the user's knowledge was insufficient to develop the Smooth-Smooth Fruit in depth.
What did it mean to be smooth?
It meant that the particle structure on a substance's surface was arranged very evenly, creating a kind of surface tension that prevented other substances from adhering to it.
In other words, once the user employed the Smooth-Smooth Fruit's power, a thin force-field membrane of surface tension would form around their body. No matter how thin it was, it would still form a barrier between the body and the outside world.
It was precisely because of this barrier that Seastone particles couldn't come into direct contact with the user's body.
As long as the Smooth-Smooth Fruit user had enough stamina, even swimming in the sea was possible.
The Smooth-Smooth Fruit could also perform functions similar to the Gum-Gum Fruit, such as speeding up the flow of blood through the body to gain an instantaneous burst of power.
Lastly, there was a conceptual extension of the Smooth-Smooth Fruit that could produce effects similar to the Paw-Paw Fruit, such as sliding toxins, fatigue, pain, and memories out of the body.
Although the Smooth-Smooth Fruit's power couldn't affect anything outside the body before awakening, it had a wide range of uses even when applied solely to oneself.
Since they were inside the submarine, Mary could only experiment bit by bit in her own cabin.