With Kuzan's help, Diarmuid didn't have to deal with the murky, dirty seawater. He easily retrieved the small treasure chest.
"It looks like a chest containing a Devil Fruit," Kuzan said, speaking from experience.
Diarmuid was stunned for a moment. He thought it looked familiar. It seemed like people in this world always used similar small treasure chests to store Devil Fruits. He had no idea why.
"Why don't we open it and find out?" Diarmuid said with a smile.
With that, he used his hands to break the small lock on the chest. Then he opened it.
Sure enough, as Kuzan had said, inside was a Devil Fruit.
Diarmuid tried to recall what the Devil Fruits in the original story looked like.
But after all, not many Devil Fruits appeared in the story. After checking a few, none of them matched.
"Do you recognize it? What kind of Devil Fruit is this?" Diarmuid asked, looking at Kuzan.
Kuzan held out his hand and said, "Let me see."
Diarmuid didn't hesitate. Kuzan was already a Devil Fruit user, so it was impossible for him to eat another one, right?
Besides… to be honest, the Marines were different from pirates.
For pirates, generally, whoever finds something gets to keep it. But for the Marines, the spoils of war were considered "seized goods" and had to be turned over.
After all, the Marines earned a salary; they didn't rely on plundering.
So even though Diarmuid found this Devil Fruit, it didn't belong to him yet.
Of course, if he were a little bolder and just ate the Devil Fruit, the Marines probably wouldn't do anything to him.
But it wouldn't be worth it. From the looks of it, Diarmuid felt he had already made a very good impression on these high-ranking Marines.
If he followed the plan, he would have a good future sooner or later.
Besides, Zephyr was waiting to train him at Marineford, so there was no reason to throw all that away for a Devil Fruit.
What's more, he had no idea what kind of Devil Fruit this was…
What if it was a useless type? For example, the Human-Human Fruit, which allows you to become a human.
That ability would be useless to him, wouldn't it?
That would be idiotic.
Of course, Diarmuid didn't think it would be that useless. He figured the ability would be very strong. After all… this was something found on the ship of a big-shot like Shiki.
With Shiki's strength and taste, he probably wouldn't have a weak ability on his ship!
Maybe… it's a Mythical Zoan?
Thinking about this, Diarmuid felt his heart stir.
Kuzan took the Devil Fruit and looked at Diarmuid again. He asked with a smile, "Do you really want it?"
"Of course. I've already told you that I want to gain power, status, and strength. A Devil Fruit can give me powerful abilities quickly, so of course, I want it." Diarmuid said without hesitation.
He had never hidden these things.
"That makes sense…" Kuzan smacked his lips and then smiled. "Don't worry. Even though the goods we seize have to be turned over, there are exceptions. Devil Fruits… have been secretly kept more than once. With how Sengoku-san looks out for you, as long as you ask for it, I think it's very likely that this Devil Fruit will be yours."
Diarmuid smiled and nodded. "I think so, too."
He had already done a great service this time. On top of that, Sengoku had a good impression of him and had been taking good care of him.
If he were to ask for it, he figured Sengoku would most likely not refuse him.
This was one of the reasons why he hadn't acted impulsively.
"But before that, can you help me take a look? I don't want to just eat some random Devil Fruit without knowing what it does," Diarmuid said with a smile.
Kuzan nodded and then examined it carefully. After a long while, he frowned slightly. "I don't recognize it either. I've seen the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, but I don't remember it clearly…"
Diarmuid rolled his eyes at Kuzan. What good are you? You useless thing.
Of course, Kuzan noticed Diarmuid's look. He didn't mind and said with a smile, "I'm not a professional. But judging by the patterns, it should be a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit. If I'm not mistaken, Vice Admiral Tsuru has a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. You can borrow it later and compare."
"A Paramecia-type…" Diarmuid said with a hint of regret.
He naturally knew that there were distinct patterns on the three types of Devil Fruits: Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia.
Therefore, he didn't doubt Kuzan's judgment.
But he was a bit disappointed. Compared to Paramecia, Diarmuid preferred the Zoan-type, especially the Mythical Zoan, and the Logia-type.
Mythical Zoans, needless to say, as long as they weren't too bad, could make someone strong.
For example, Kaido, Sengoku, and Marco.
As for Logias, the future three Admirals were proof. Although it seemed that in the original story, Logia users were overly countered by Haki in the later stages and their performance was a bit disappointing.
The fact that the three Admirals were the top power of the Marines proved that their strength was nothing to joke about.
Therefore, the power of a Logia was still very much recognized.
Diarmuid had even considered finding a chance to go to Skypeia to see if he could steal Enel's Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
In Diarmuid's opinion, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was undoubtedly very powerful. It wasn't a joke to call it "invincible."
He just didn't have the opportunity right now.
Of course, he was only slightly disappointed. If this Paramecia-type Devil Fruit was very powerful, he wouldn't mind eating it.
After all, what he actually consumed was what belonged to him, Diarmuid.
His strength was very average right now. If he just fantasized about the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he might die before he even got the chance.
Therefore, strength was the foundation of everything. If there was a chance, he had to take it first.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!
After playing with it for a while, Kuzan handed the Devil Fruit back to Diarmuid for safekeeping.
Afterward, the Marine soldiers quickly swept through the dilapidated Apollo Lion that was half-submerged in the sea.
Seeing that things were mostly handled, Kuzan took Diarmuid back to the ship to find Tsuru.
By the time Diarmuid got back to the ship, the Marines had already finished cleaning up the battlefield.
After all, everyone who was in a wreck here was a pirate, so the Marines' cleanup operation was stress-free.
"Admiral Sengoku is back," a few Marines shouted from a distance.
Diarmuid and Kuzan, who had just boarded the ship, turned their heads to look. Sure enough, Sengoku and Garp were using Geppo to jump from one piece of ship wreckage to another, heading their way.
It seemed that after Garp's fruitless search for Roger, he went to help Sengoku, a Devil Fruit user, to ensure his safety at sea.
But from the looks of their empty hands, it seemed that Shiki had managed to get away.
This was normal. Diarmuid wasn't surprised. The fact that Shiki didn't say a single harsh word when they saw each other and turned around to run was a testament to how decisive he was.
With his ability, even though the current environment was a huge constraint, running away was not a problem at all.
This was what made Shiki so difficult to deal with. He seemed to be naturally invincible. Even if something went wrong, he could still outrun his opponent if he couldn't beat them!
Soon, seeing that Kuzan and the others were on Tsuru's ship, Sengoku and Garp flew straight over.
Looking at the expressions on their faces, even though they were a little disappointed about not catching Shiki, they were generally happy.
In this battle, the Marines completely got an easy win. Without firing a single cannonball, they reaped a huge victory.
When they got back, they could easily embellish the story in the newspapers, declaring that the Marines had achieved a great victory in the New World, wiping out Shiki's great fleet in one fell swoop, with only Shiki escaping in a sorry state.
This would undoubtedly be a huge boost to the Marines' declining influence in the New World!
"Diarmuid, good job!" Sengoku praised Diarmuid as soon as he arrived.
After all, if this kid hadn't been so persistent and if he hadn't had a soft spot for him, they would have already turned back and never entered the Edd War Sea.
If that happened, when he found out about all this later, he would be filled with regret. Not to mention, they just got this huge victory without any effort!?
"Thank you, Admiral!" Diarmuid said with a smile, his voice sounding a little mischievous.
But at this moment, everyone was in a great mood. The more they looked at Diarmuid, the more they liked him, so no one cared about his mischievousness.
"What's that?" Vice Admiral Garp asked, looking at the treasure chest in Diarmuid's hand.
Kuzan seized the moment and said, "It's a treasure chest that Diarmuid found on Shiki's ship. There's a Devil Fruit inside. We couldn't figure out what it was, so he wanted to borrow Tsuru-san's Devil Fruit Encyclopedia to compare."
Kuzan's words were very considerate. Although he didn't mention Diarmuid's intentions with the Devil Fruit in a single word, it was implied.
That was, if Diarmuid liked it after comparing it, he wanted to eat the Devil Fruit.
After all, if he wasn't interested, why would he come all this way just to compare it? He could have just turned it in.
Sengoku, of course, understood what he meant. He said without hesitation, "Is that so? Then let Tsuru-chan help you out. If the ability is good, I think we should just let Diarmuid eat it."
He was the highest-ranking officer there, and his relationship with everyone else was good. There was no need for anyone to refuse him and make things awkward. Besides, everyone now thought that Diarmuid was a promising talent, and since his credit for this mission was the biggest, it was perfectly reasonable for him to secretly keep a Devil Fruit as a reward.