"No way… Could it be…?"
Noah squinted at a fruit, the size of a fist, hanging at the tip of a bamboo branch. The afternoon sun filtered through the sparse bamboo leaves, casting a soft glow on it. Sure, there were a few trees in this grove with fruit, but this one? This one had him hooked.
Why? Because the faint, winding patterns on its surface made it stand out from all the others.
He grabbed his bamboo stick and started swatting at it.
Five or six minutes of persistent whacking later, the fruit finally fell to the ground.
Noah tossed the bamboo stick aside and bent down to pick up the fruit. The greenish-blue skin was covered with swirling vine patterns, each one arranged in neat little squares.
"It's really a Devil Fruit! But this shape and type... doesn't look familiar at all."
He stared at the fruit, pondering. The more he looked, the more he was sure it didn't resemble any of the Devil Fruits he knew. "Should I eat it?"
He stood there, face scrunched in indecision for a solid ten seconds, before grimacing and stuffing the whole thing into his mouth.
Honestly, he wasn't all that torn up about it. When it came to eating a Devil Fruit, he didn't have much of a choice. Even if this one turned out to be just some boring old animal-type, he wasn't going to complain.
A lot of people would dream about getting their hands on something like the Goro Goro no Mi or the Vampire Fruit.
But the reality was, he was stuck in the East Blue, and he was just a regular guy. Even if he trained himself to death, he wouldn't magically gain rear admiral-level combat power overnight. Without that kind of strength, he wouldn't even make it out of the East Blue, let alone reach the Grand Line to go after something like the Goro Goro no Mi or the Vampire Fruit.
So here he was, with a Devil Fruit right in front of him. If he didn't eat it now, and pirates showed up on the island tomorrow—or worse, something else dangerous came creeping out of the shadows—he'd be kicking himself. Hard.
Gulp. As the fruit slid down his throat, a strange energy rippled through his body. At the same time, his mind filled with instinctive knowledge.
"Cards... Ah, I see. It's the Card Fruit."
Noah placed his palm on the bamboo pole, and suddenly a card appeared on the surface—a blank card.
Creation?
He held the card in his hand, a thousand ideas racing through his mind. He picked up the rock he'd used earlier to knock down the fruit and pressed it against the blank card. The rock sank into the card as if it were dropping into water, vanishing from sight.
As the rock disappeared, a picture of it appeared on the card. Noah could feel the stone inside, along with a tiny pocket of space—about a cubic meter.
"Just as I thought. The Buku Buku no Mi (Book-Book Fruit) user in Big Mom's crew can create storage space in books. The Card Fruit does the same thing. They're pretty similar in that way."
Noah tried turning his body into a card, but nothing happened.
Clearly, the Card Fruit wasn't a Paramecia-type that alters the body. It was more of an ability-based fruit.
He didn't mind. After all, there are no useless Devil Fruits—only useless users. Sure, that line might be a bit exaggerated, but it still had some truth to it.
At least Noah didn't think the Card Fruit was trash. If he developed it properly, it could become seriously powerful.
After a bit more experimentation with the fruit's abilities, he looked up at the sky. The sun was still blazing, but he only had two or three hours left before sunset. Time to call it quits for now.
Dragging the broken bamboo stick behind him, he headed toward a rocky slope nearby.
Soon enough, he found a good spot to build a shelter. Near the bamboo grove, a large rock jutted out from the stone slope, extending a little over a meter. With a bit of cleaning up, it'd be enough to lie under for the night.
Before it got dark, he quickly gathered a huge pile of dry branches and leaves from the bamboo grove and mangroves. He also peeled some bark from a palm-like tree, which was perfect for weaving into rope.
In no time, he'd woven a sturdy grass rope. Using the bamboo and a dry tree branch, he crafted a simple bow drill.
Smashing a dent into a hard piece of wood, he filled it with dry wood shavings he had prepped earlier. He set the bow drill spinning, generating friction with the hardened wooden bit.
Ten minutes later, sweat dripping down his face, Noah saw a thin wisp of smoke rise from the wood. He stopped drilling and quickly leaned over.
"Huff… huff…"
Gently blowing on the embers, the fire slowly began to grow, finally sparking into a small flame among the wood shavings.
Adding more dry leaves and branches, the fire quickly took off.
With the flames crackling, Noah felt a little safer. Well, at least now the island critters might think twice before bothering a guy with a bonfire.
He tossed a few more thick logs onto the fire, grabbed a burning stick, and—with a card holding a cubic meter of dry leaves—made his way to the large rock.
"Release!"
The card's seal lifted, and the pile of leaves spilled out. He lit them with the burning stick, letting the flames and smoke drive away any snakes or bugs hiding under the rock.
Half an hour later, he smothered the fire with several cubic meters of sand he'd hauled from the beach. He dragged over a dozen bamboo poles, setting up a rough barricade around the large rock.
Afterward, he started another fire on one side of the rock.
As evening settled in and the sun dipped below the horizon, Noah's makeshift shelter was looking solid. He'd collected hundreds of pounds of firewood and a few green coconuts. Half a coconut shell sat on a makeshift stone stove, boiling clams and sand crabs.
Taking a sip of hot water from the other half of the coconut shell, Noah smeared some juice from a plant called "ghost chrysanthemum" on his face and arms. This stuff was great for keeping mosquitoes and bugs at bay—people on Starfish Island used to dry it out and turn it into mosquito coils. He didn't have the time to dry it, so he applied it straight from the plant.
After a simple dinner of gritty clams and crabs, night fell completely.
Sitting cross-legged on the sand, Noah fed more wood into the fire, while continuing to experiment with his Card Fruit.
He picked up a burning piece of wood and tried sealing it inside a card, but the moment the card touched the flame, it burst into flames itself. The Devil Fruit's power vanished along with the burning bamboo card.
"Huh, guess wood cards don't like fire."
Noah scratched his head. Then, he pried a stone card from the rock wall behind him. He tried again, sealing the burning wood inside. This time, it worked. The stone card now bore the image of a flaming piece of wood.
Looking at the card, another idea popped into his head. "Does time stop inside the card space?"
Half an hour later, he released the seal on the stone card. The burning wood inside was exactly the same as it had been when he sealed it, confirming his theory: time really did freeze inside the card space.
Next, he pulled out a card that had sealed a live sand crab. When he released it, the crab popped out just as lively as before.
He wasn't too surprised by that, though. The Buku Buku no Mi (Book-Book Fruit) could seal living things, too.
But compared to the Buku Buku no Mi (Book-Book Fruit), the Card Fruit seemed a bit more flexible. After all, cards could be used individually, while books had to be pulled out all at once, which could get awkward in some situations.