It was pure chance that the pirate ship happened to pass by.
The captain was on deck, enjoying his meal and the cool sea breeze, when the watchman reported, "Huh? A small boat adrift?"
"Aye, and someone's on board. What do we do, Captain?"
"Leave it be... no, wait. Didn't I hear about a black market merchant's ship sinking around here recently? Caught in a storm mid-transaction, they said."
"! You think she's a survivor? She might have something valuable!"
The pirates launched their own small boat, sent a few sailors over, pulled alongside the drifting craft, and boarded it.
Inside, they found a single girl. She was severely emaciated and weak, clearly having been adrift for a long time.
The pirates paid no attention to the girl. After a cursory glance, as if dismissing something trivial, they snatched the bag lying beside her.
Inside, they found a few gems and other valuables, but nothing near what they'd hoped for. Clicking his tongue in disappointment, the captain pulled them out.
"Captain, that's all there is."
"What the hell? Is that it? These tiny stones wouldn't even cover a round of drinks."
"Exactly. Well, we might as well take them... Huh?"
"! What is it?"
"Oh, never mind. Look closer—this girl has a collar around her neck. Looks like she was a slave."
"Probably one of the slaves from that Black Market Merchant's ship. Must have escaped, drifted out to sea, and died of exhaustion."
Finding nothing worthwhile, the captain immediately lost interest. With a bored expression, he tore off a chunk of bone-in meat, chewed it thoughtfully, and continued to speak:
"Whatever. Just grab what you can and get back to the ship. We're casting off."
"Right... Huh?"
As the sailors turned to head back to their ship, one of them suddenly stopped. He looked down and saw a gaunt girl's hand clinging desperately to his ankle. He'd assumed she was dead, but apparently, she was still breathing.
The sailor twisted his face in annoyance. "Let go, brat!" he snarled, kicking her hand away.
But the girl kept reaching out, trying to grab his leg again.
"Tch... Stubborn little corpse. You just won't die, will you?"
"Hey! What's taking you so long? Get back here now!"
"S-sorry! This one's still alive..."
"Stop wasting time, you idiot! If she's just a nuisance, put her out of her misery already!"
The pirate's irritation, already heightened by the delayed withdrawal and the captain's shouting, reached its peak. He yanked his saber from its scabbard.
He swung his saber down at the girl's neck, eager to silence the irritating, dying girl for good.
The blow landed precisely, severing her head from her body in a single, clean stroke, ending her life—or so everyone thought.
Then...
"Huh?"
The man who had swung the saber was the first to notice something was wrong. He sensed two strange discrepancies.
First, there was no resistance. Despite having just severed a human neck, there was no satisfying thunk or crunch. Even on a scrawny neck, cutting through flesh and bone should have felt like something solid. Instead, it felt like he'd swung at air.
Second, there was no blood. If he'd severed the neck of a living person—a person with a beating heart—blood should have gushed everywhere, and his blade would be covered in it.
But there was nothing.
Something felt wrong, so the man took a closer look at the girl's corpse.
Flap...
Right before his eyes, the girl's body began to peel apart from the wound, its thin layers unraveling.
Flap... flap...
The entire body—her emaciated frame, her severed head—dissolved into countless sheets of paper that scattered into the air.
"Huh?"
As the bewildered man watched, the swarm of paper descended upon the small boat, tearing the men apart in an instant.
"Ugyaaaahhhh?!"
Their bodies were slashed to ribbons, soaked in blood, as they collapsed into lifeless heaps or tumbled into the sea.
While the pirates on the main ship stared in disbelief, the paper blizzard rose into the air again and surged toward their vessel.
It gathered in an empty corner of the deck... and reformed into a human shape.
The emaciated girl who had been on the ship just moments before stood before them, swaying as if she might collapse at any moment. But the captain saw her eyes, burning with a fierce, predatory hunger, like those of a starving beast.
"C-could this brat be an Ability User?!"
"Captain! Torval and the others—!"
"...! You bastards, kill her!"
At the captain's command, the pirates raised their weapons in unison. Swords, spears, guns, and every other kind of weapon were leveled at the girl who had boarded their ship. They charged, intent on ending her life... and failed.
Neither blade nor bullet could harm her. She effortlessly evaded every attack by transforming her body into sheets of paper, letting them pass harmlessly through her.
Then...
"U-ugh... Aaaah! The paper... it's attacking us?!"
"It hurts! This paper can cut?!"
"Stop... damn it, stop! Don't come any closer! Aaaah!"
A hellish paper blizzard raged across the entire ship. Each razor-sharp sheet tore through the pirates, shredding them mercilessly. They were helpless against the onslaught.
The carnage lasted a full minute, finally ceasing only when the screams and curses of the pirates had fallen silent.
All that remained was... countless pirate corpses...
...and in the center of it all, a lone girl frantically devouring the pirates' half-eaten meals.
"...munch... gulp... burp... gasp... cough, cough... cough... munch... glug... gulp... Huh? ...Where am I? What was I doing?"
Okay, let's try to sort this out.
How did I end up here? On some pirate ship, surrounded by the corpses of the entire crew, casually eating in the middle of it all?
It feels like my memories are fragmented. But I think I can piece it together if I try.
Right, I remember being adrift in a small boat, pushed to my limits. I thought I sensed a ship far off in the distance.
Then, hours later, a ship actually appeared! I wasn't imagining it! I was saved!
Though, to be fair, I was half-unconscious at the time, so it's more like I think I remember thinking that.
But it was a pirate ship, and they were about to make off with all my valuables. "Seriously? At least help me out!" I grabbed their leg...
They snapped, slashed me with their sword, and killed me... No, wait.
I thought I was dead, but I was still alive. Then... Oh.
"Right, I did this."
Finally remembering and understanding, I clapped my hands softly as I surveyed the gruesome scene of piled corpses.
I set the bone-in meat I was holding down on a plate and focused on my hand.
Then my hand unfurled into a sheet of paper.
"...So that Devil Fruit was real after all."
This is my power... My body can turn into paper. How interesting.
But... I don't remember seeing a Devil Fruit like this in One Piece. At least, not in the main story.
Well, no use worrying about it now. Maybe it's one of those Devil Fruits that exists in the world's lore but hasn't been featured in the manga.
For now, I'm just relieved I survived that life-threatening situation.
After finishing my meal and resting for a bit, I started thinking about what to do next. I decided to take the entire ship for myself.
The crew had all just died, so I figured they wouldn't mind.
First, I threw all the pirate corpses overboard and cleaned the blood-soaked deck.
Then I rummaged through the ship's storerooms and food lockers.
Wow, they had plenty of supplies, enough for a whole crew.
There was also quite a bit of loot on board... Had they just finished a raid?
I couldn't possibly take everything myself, so I sorted out the most valuable items and packed them into bags, ready to grab later.
I checked the other rooms one by one, collecting anything that looked useful.
In what I assumed was the Captain's Quarters, I found several Eternal Poses, nautical charts, and the ship's log. One of the corpses had a Log Pose strapped to its arm, so I took that too.
The logbook revealed our approximate location, so I decided to head for the nearest island, naturally using the ship.
Thank goodness they'd hammered in at least basic navigation skills during my "Elite Slave Education."
Still, I decided to lower the Pirate Flag. I didn't want to attract the Marines or cause a scene when I went ashore.
After several days at sea, I finally reached the island I'd been aiming for. I gathered as much food and valuables as I could carry and left the pirate ship behind.
Oh, and one more thing.
I had successfully become a Devil Fruit Ability User, but it took me a while to figure out exactly what kind of fruit I had eaten.
It wasn't until I stumbled upon a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia on another island and flipped through it that I found something that seemed to match:
The Paramecia-type Paper-Paper Fruit.
It allows the user to transform their body into paper, becoming a "Paper Human."
Though classified as Paramecia, its ability to completely lose physical form is similar to a Logia-type fruit.
Yeah, that's probably it.
To be continued...