"We're… we're saved."
"Feels like my legs don't even belong to me anymore."
The pirates… no, the Rocket Team grunts were sprawled all over the place at their starting point, lying every which way. They had already been chased in circles around the town countless times.
"Vane-sama's stamina is terrifying. He didn't even break a sweat."
"Otherwise how could he so easily defeat Big Blade Buri."
In their memories, Big Blade Buri was still an extremely terrifying character. Vane taking on two opponents alone and ending the fight so quickly was downright monstrous.
"You! Massage each other's thighs. When I get back, we're doing push-up training."
Vane shot the group of "grunts" a glare, then walked over to Meowth and a group of children.
"Why did you suddenly call me over?"
"We found this on an apple tree, meow. It feels really strange, so we wanted you to take a look, meow."
When Vane saw the banana-shaped object Meowth took out, his gaze froze instantly.
"This is a Devil Fruit?"
That's right—this was the most famous and distinctive setting of the pirate world: the Devil Fruit.
Eat a Devil Fruit, and you gain miraculous abilities, becoming an ability user.
Devil Fruits are mainly divided into Zoan, Paramecia, and Logia types.
Each type has its own characteristics, but the most precious among them are the Mythical Zoan fruits and the Logia fruits.
"So this is the legendary Devil Fruit that can sell for a hundred million Belly, meow? Why does it look kind of poisonous, meow?"
Meowth never imagined that the strange banana it was holding was actually a Devil Fruit.
"Looks like a Zoan-type fruit."
Vane remembered that the Giraffe Model looked like a banana.
Zoan fruits sometimes show animal shape characteristics. Paramecia fruits have the widest variety of shapes. Logia fruits tend to look more like pineapples.
It's not one hundred percent accurate, though. After all, the originally Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit, with its melon-like shape, had already become the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Sun God Nika.
"I remember you saying Zoan types are kind of a weaker Devil Fruit, meow?"
Vane: "Not necessarily. If it's a Mythical Zoan, it's no worse than a Logia. Ancient types are also pretty good… Even ordinary Zoans are a huge boost for physical fighters. In short, it's something you can't just run into easily."
Meowth's eyes lit up. "Can Mythical Zoans produce energy, meow? Like Electabuzz, carrying electricity on its body."
As soon as Meowth finished speaking, the space in front of the Devil Fruit in its hands suddenly twisted. Then it spat out a red-and-white Poké Ball.
Vane was extremely familiar with this scene—this was exactly how Meowth had been transported here back then.
"Meowth, say you want another Pokémon."
"I want Pikachu, meow."
No reaction…
As expected. Could it be that one Devil Fruit can be exchanged for one Pokémon?
Can all Devil Fruits be exchanged for Pokémon? Or only Zoan types?
Can all Pokémon be exchanged—like directly trading for a legendary? That didn't seem very realistic.
Right now, Vane really wanted a few more Devil Fruits to run experiments.
"Meowth, bring the Poké Ball and the Devil Fruit and come with me."
After coaxing the group of Rocket Team reserve kids back home, Vane pulled Meowth into the forest.
"If I'm not mistaken, there should be an Electabuzz inside."
Vane pressed the button on the Poké Ball. A beam of light shot out, landed on the ground, and condensed into an Electabuzz about 1.2 meters tall.
"Elebuzz!"
As expected—it really was an Electabuzz. Electabuzz looked a bit like a small tiger standing upright, with lightning-shaped black patterns on its body. The things on its head—whether ears or antennae—looked somewhat like alien appendages.
"It really is Electabuzz, meow! That's great—now the energy problem is basically solved, meow."
Electabuzz could be used as a battery—and a very powerful one at that. It wasn't afraid of electricity either. Supposedly, in the wild, it would climb to high places during thunderstorms and let lightning strike its body.
"Then this Electabuzz is entrusted to you. Electabuzz, from now on you're Meowth's bodyguard. Meowth, you also have to learn how to command Electabuzz to use its moves at the right time."
If each Pokémon had a fixed amount of skill points, then Meowth had basically spent all of them on learning human language, walking upright, and inventing things. It didn't know many Pokémon moves.
In terms of combat power, Meowth was roughly equivalent to a pirate with a bounty of several million.
A Pokémon like Electabuzz, covered in electricity and capable of martial arts, was much stronger. As long as it was trained properly, beating pirates worth tens of millions of Belly wouldn't be a problem.
Someone at Big Blade Buri's level would be knocked flat after taking one or two Thunder attacks from Electabuzz. And ordinary people would never expect a land creature to unleash such intense electric currents. Under such unexpected attacks, anyone with weak defenses would be dropped on the spot.
"Me commanding Electabuzz, meow? But having a bodyguard is pretty nice too, meow."
"Elebu~zz!"
"From now on, you follow me, meow. As long as I have something to eat, you'll definitely have something too, meow."
Meowth dragged Electabuzz off to familiarize itself with its moves.
"Thunder, Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Fire Punch…"
Listening to Meowth's commands, the first few were fine—but why was there Fire Punch at the end? Isn't it Electabuzz? Vane, who had only watched the anime and had fuzzy memories, didn't understand, but he respected it.
He turned his attention back to the Devil Fruit in his hand.
At present, it was known that obtaining a Devil Fruit could "exchange" for a Pokémon, but it wasn't certain whether all fruits could be exchanged. After all, exchanging a Zoan fruit for an "animal" made sense.
Paramecia fruits… what if it exchanged for some super rookie instead?
Also, it wasn't clear what kind of Pokémon could be exchanged—could you trade for anything, or only for Electabuzz? Vane needed more experiments to be sure.
"This fruit has to be kept for now."
Returning to the value of the Devil Fruit itself, Vane didn't dare gamble on what its ability was. If it was just an ordinary Zoan fruit, there was no need for him to eat it at all.
Giving it to subordinates to eat also wasn't realistic at this stage. First of all, those subordinates weren't loyal enough yet to be worth investing a Devil Fruit in.
Most importantly, he didn't know what the ability actually was. If it turned out to be a Mythical Zoan, wouldn't he be taking a huge loss?
"There should be a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia in this world, right? I need to get one and see exactly what ability this fruit has."
Next time he had dealings with the underworld, he could try to see if he could buy a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia from them and cut off these thoughts early.
...
Thorn Rose Kingdom.
This sea region in the West Blue—poor and backward, usually visited only by pirates with bounties below ten million—was suddenly flooded with a massive number of pirates.
Among them were many pirate crews with bounties in the tens of millions, even exceeding twenty million. They rampaged through the islands of the Thorn Rose sea region, launching raids on the island residents.
The average death toll wasn't particularly high. A large portion of the pirates stopped killing once the townspeople gave up resistance.
Even though the frequency of killing was relatively low, these pirates would still burn entire villages to the ground in the end. Those who survived lost their money and their homes.
They were truly plunged into utter poverty, struggling to survive.
"Rose Island was attacked by pirates too, but the kingdom's army stopped them outside the city."
"These pirates are way too bold, daring to attack Rose Island."
"There's nothing we can do. We don't have Navy protection. The Navy bases are too far away, and there are too many pirates."
"Only by joining the World Government and becoming a kingdom under its protection can we build a Navy base."
At this moment, Rose Island and several other wealthy islands that hadn't yet fallen were more eager than ever to become affiliated nations of the World Government—even though it meant paying an extremely high sum to gather a 'Heavenly Tribute' for the World Government.
The Thorn Rose Kingdom had originally proposed a policy to pool together the Heavenly Tribute, but because the cost, when averaged per citizen, required everyone to pay an extremely high amount of Belly, the policy couldn't be implemented at all.
This pirate upheaval, however, ended up pushing the policy of joining the World Government through.
"The royal family will bear a large portion of the expense to reduce the burden on the people."
Princess Martha of Thorn Rose wrote the proclamation with a quill pen. Many islands had already been impacted and were unable to pay this sum at all. At a time like this, the royal family needed to shoulder responsibility and give the people confidence.