Monster Hunter of the One Piece World

Speaking of snatching Devil Fruit powers, anyone who has read the manga would immediately think of the Yami Yami no Mi. Sherwin initially considered this special Logia-type fruit too, but quickly rejected the idea himself.

First of all, the Yami Yami no Mi was Whitebeard spoil of war, and on the very night it was obtained, Blackbeard killed someone to steal and consume it.

Sherwin had no chance to make a move. Even if he tried all means to join the Whitebeard Pirates now, there no way he could compete with Blackbeard, who has seniority and greater strength.

Taking a step back—even if he were absurdly lucky and somehow obtained the Yami Yami no Mi—that would mean he'd have to face both Whitebeard hostility and Blackbeard covetous gaze.

And taking yet another ten thousand steps back, even if he got to the Yami Yami no Mi before Whitebeard subordinates, Blackbeard, who had endured for most of his life just for this fruit, would likely not let him go so easily.

More importantly, Sherwin wasn't particularly interested in the Yami Yami no Mi. Or rather, he wasn't that enthusiastic about acquiring Devil Fruit powers to begin with.

If a powerful fruit were placed in front of him, he'd still eat it, of course. But Sherwin didn't have any strong desire to deliberately pursue a specific ability.

To him, the main purpose of collecting Devil Fruits was to fill out the compendium in the Hunter Handbook. As for whether he would eat it himself afterward, feed it to a cat, or sell it—those were questions to consider later.

The only slightly attractive feature of the Yami Yami no Mi for him was the ability to take powers from others. But the concept of extracting powers isn't limited to the Yami Yami no Mi.

In the original work, didn't Vegapunk develop the Seraphim, which replicate others abilities?

Of course, whether it was the Seraphim or the Green Blood they used, none of that had any significance to Sherwin. What might have a chance of being logged into the Hunter Handbook was that man-made Azure Dragon fruit.

As for Caesar semi-finished SMILE fruits, the chances of those being recorded were much lower.

And to Sherwin, beyond the Yami Yami no Mi and artificial fruits, there might be another way—his hunter knife that possesses the "Material Extraction" ability.

During the Marineford War, Blackbeard was able to extract the Gura Gura no Mi ability from Whitebeard body using the Yami Yami no Mi, even after Whitebeard had been dead for some time.

This proved that a Devil Fruit user power does not immediately reincarnate upon death, but instead lingers within the original body for a period of time.

The hunter knife in Sherwin hand could extract a "thing" from a creature corpse.

Most of the time, it would be something like scales, claws, bones, teeth, skin, blood, fur, or feathers—basically body parts—but in the game, it could also carve out items like Dragon Gems, Fire Sacs, Paralysis Sacs, which represent a monster abilities… Although these are technically considered part of the monster body by the game lore, they still represent a possibility.

Furthermore, from humanoid monsters like the Shakalaka and the Felynes, one could even carve out ores, jewels, and Proofs of Courage—external items—so extracting Devil Fruits from ability users bodies wasn't just some delusional fantasy of Sherwin.

In any case, there wasn't much to lose if it failed, but if it succeeded, Sherwin would gain an extra method of acquiring Devil Fruits. All he had to do was stab the corpse of a fruit user with his hunter knife after taking them down… No matter how you looked at it, it was a no-loss, all-gain kind of plan.

Unfortunately, before entering the Grand Line, Devil Fruit users were still relatively rare. Otherwise, he'd really want to go find a pirate who had eaten a Devil Fruit and try it out immediately.

...

Cody ship had sailed on the sea for two days before finally rendezvousing with his fleet. The total number of ships in the fleet wasn't large—only five in total—but each of them was a large sailing ship in terms of scale, and the flagship was even two to three times bigger than the one Sherwin and his group were currently aboard.

At the moment, all the ships including the flagship were docked at a port larger than the one at Color Paper Town, but this port was built beside a small village that was far smaller than Color Paper Town.

According to Uncle Bucks introduction, this was actually Mr. Cody hometown, and also their main base of operations.

More than half of the sailors in Cody fleet were villagers from this very village… If Cody and his crew had decided to become pirates, this place could practically be called a pirate stronghold.

Also, even though it was just a small village, it was actually safer than Color Paper Town, because on the other side of the island was a Marine base—so no gangsters or pirates dared to come here looking for trouble.

The reason Cody fleet hadn't turned into pirates likely wasn't just due to Cody personal nature—the nearby Marine base probably played a role too.

"Say... Uncle Cody wasn't a Marine before, was he?" Sherwin suddenly blurted out this thought after listening to Bucks explanation.

Then he saw Bucks staring at him, mouth agape and eyes wide, as if he had seen a ghost… judging by that reaction, it seemed he'd guessed right.

Sherwin curled his lips. Wasn't that a totally reasonable guess? But in the world of One Piece, there were tons of goofballs and idiots, so that kind of over-the-top reaction... Well, he still wasn't quite used to it...

Although he couldn't help but feel a surge of intellectual superiority, Sherwin also worried he might someday get assimilated by all the clowns in this world.

Just like Trafalgar Law in the manga—when he first appeared, he was clearly the cool and calculating strategist type. But after spending too much time with Luffy, he gradually began acting more and more like a goofball too.

Since the trading event hadn't started yet, Cody planned to stay in his hometown for a few days. That worked out perfectly for Sherwin—he could use the time to explore the island and uncover more of the map.

But just as Sherwin was about to head out with the cats to wander around, Cody came over first and gifted him two scimitars.

"You're the bodyguard I hired—using lousy weapons just won't cut it." Cody said this while handing over the blades, clearly trying to preempt any rejection.

"These two aren't anything fancy, but they're still tougher than what your average gangster or pirate wields."

Honestly... if you gave me two famous swords, I wouldn't refuse them either...

That what Sherwin muttered internally, but he didn't accept the scimitars.

Because for someone who had already mastered Armament Haki, the quality of weapons didn't matter much in a place like the West Blue… unless they were named blades that could help him unlock pages.

Still, Sherwin knew getting a famous sword just for a single escort mission was clearly unrealistic. So after thinking it over for a moment, he pushed the two scimitars back and said, "Well… if it possible, could you get me a nodachi instead? That actually the weapon I'm best with."

"Ha?! So you're saying that during our duel back then, you weren't even using your best weapon?!"

Before Mr. Cody could react, Bucks had already jumped up in shock.

Sherwin shrugged. "Can't be helped. None of the gangsters Klee knocked out were carrying a nodachi, so I just grabbed two random ones to make do."

Bucks eye twitched hard a couple of times, but he didn't say anything else. Still, although he had originally planned to take it easy for a couple of days, he silently made up his mind to go through some serious training.

On the other side, Mr. Cody was also a bit surprised, but more than that, he was delighted—after all, as far as he was concerned, the stronger Sherwin was, the better.

So not only did he agree without hesitation to help Sherwin find a nodachi, he didn't even plan to take back the pair of scimitars.

Sherwin thought it over and didn't reject the goodwill again—he accepted the scimitars.

(Personally, I'm not too fond of introducing important new items that didn't exist in the original work. And with Devil Fruits, aside from the common Zoan types, any new Fruit you add requires a ton of consideration—like how the ability works, the development path, and so on.

You even have to worry about Oda later introducing the same Fruit in the canon… For example, in one of the anime original arcs, there was another version of the Heat-Heat Fruit, whose effect could practically be considered an Akainu killer.

So I had to come up with a way to obtain already-existing canon Devil Fruits, which led to the creation of the hunter knife concept. Originally, I planned for Sherwin to only carry a longsword and the cats, without even an inventory system.)