Fruit of Strength

West Sea, near the latter half of the Grand Line, is renowned as the birthplace of the infamous Mafia. Chaos, violence, and crime are the norm here. Once a sacred archaeological sanctuary, Ohara Island was the gathering place of the world’s most eminent archaeologists, home to the greatest number of scholars and the largest library—the Tree of Knowledge—overflowing with archaeological knowledge and resources. The scholars delved deep into the study of the Poneglyphs, striving to uncover the secret of the “Blank Century.” This endeavor provoked the world government’s extreme panic; fearful that Ohara would reveal the truth after deciphering the Poneglyphs, they eventually unleashed the merciless Buster Call, eradicating Ohara and all its archaeologists from existence.

Five years after the Buster Call, Ohara Island had become a deserted wasteland. Wild grass grew unchecked, and the remains of the Tree of Knowledge lingered as faint traces, with only animals now inhabiting the island. Spreading her observation haki, Shalia gazed upon the deserted Ohara and sighed softly.

As a transmigrant, she mourned for the innocent lives lost in Ohara. It was undeniable: the world of One Piece was cruel, dark, and ugly. Shalia Krindo was a transmigrant who had lived in this world for twelve years; she was fifteen this year. Her current ambition was to survive in the One Piece world, developing her powers and enduring until the very end.

The original host, at the age of three, when all in her village were slaughtered by pirates, had been replaced by Shalia’s consciousness. By sheer luck, she had acquired a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit—the Force-Force Fruit. Everyone knew that Paramecia fruits had immense potential: with proper development, their abilities could rival Logia fruits; yet their lower limits were so trifling, it was easy for them to be considered useless.

The saying goes, “The bolder the person, the greater the harvest”—the development of Paramecia-type Devil Fruits depended entirely on imagination. As a university graduate who had completed nine years of compulsory education, Shalia’s knowledge far surpassed 99% of those on the Grand Line.

After consuming the Force-Force Fruit, the most immediate change was her strength: she became as powerful as an ox. But instead of simply amplifying her own strength, Shalia’s first instinct was to develop the fruit towards conceptual powers.

Regarding the concept of “force”—magnetism, gravity, buoyancy, attraction—these physical forces were evident. But creativity, resilience, psychic force—were they not also forms of “force”? Since they were all “force,” why shouldn’t a Force-Force Fruit user attempt to master them?

Currently, Shalia was still fully engaged in developing her Devil Fruit. After seven years of experimentation, every “force” she could wield appeared in her mind as numerical attributes, just as in a game.

Her “force” attributes ranged from 0 to 100. For an average person, basic strength maxed out at around 50. If someone was injured, their strength would drop, reflected in their attribute value.

After first consuming the fruit, Shalia’s strength attribute cap instantly rose to 60. Now, after years of development, her strength cap had reached 78.

Moreover, since strength was the most direct ability granted by the fruit, Shalia could even use its power to enhance others’ strength, raising their attribute caps—though it was taxing to do so.

Usually, Shalia kept her strength attribute between 50 and 60, just above the average person.

Because if she exerted too much strength, it was easy to break everyday items.

She had also explored and developed other force-related attributes. “Creativity” was currently her best-developed attribute, with a cap of 83.

Using creativity, Shalia could manifest objects from her imagination in the world of the Grand Line. However, the success rate was low—only about 5%.

Her hometown was in the West Sea, far more dangerous than the peaceful East Sea; one careless step could mean death.

For safety, after developing “creativity,” Shalia began to use it to create clones.

Thanks to her previous gaming experience, and using the fruit’s power, she created tangible character cards through “creativity.”

Once the character card was materialized, it could serve as a clone, allowing her to act freely in place of her true self.

If a clone was destroyed by an enemy, it would vanish, and Shalia would lose control over it.

Although any injury to the clone would be reflected upon her original body, if the clone “died,” Shalia herself would only suffer equivalent pain and harm, but not death.

Having clones greatly ensured her own safety.

Thus, controlling clones to roam the West Sea was like playing a massive 3D exploration game.

Battling pirates through her clones allowed her to gain experience and indirectly improve her own combat abilities.

With no fear of death, this was an exhilarating method.

However, if a hard-earned clone was destroyed, all the effort poured into it would be wasted.

To gain a new clone, she would have to use “creativity” to build a new character card from scratch.

A new character card clone would take one to two years to create.

Yet after being created, the clone’s force attributes were lower than an ordinary person’s.

To bring a new clone’s physical attributes up to par, she had to train it from the ground up, gradually boosting its strength, speed, endurance, and more.

Every clone Shalia currently used had been painstakingly trained, both through combat and through the fruit’s power, incrementally raising its force attributes to make it formidable.

The process was lengthy and arduous. If a well-developed clone was destroyed, it would be a tremendous loss.

Additionally, anything created through “creativity” required Shalia’s own “vitality” to sustain it; otherwise, the creation would disappear.

Thus, unless necessary, Shalia rarely used “creativity” to make anything.

Shalia’s “vitality” attribute currently capped at 69.

Maintaining her character card clones consumed an average of 10 points of her vitality per day.

This meant that if her vitality ever dropped to 10, she would instantly die.

Therefore, Shalia seldom let her original body participate in combat.

Clones were semi-independent from her original self; the stronger the clones, the greater Shalia’s overall strength.

Beyond boosting her own combat abilities, Shalia was also enhancing her clones’ overall qualities.

At six years old, after experiments confirmed that character card clones could consume Devil Fruits, her first thought was the “Rumble-Rumble Fruit”—the strongest Logia—on Sky Island.

After some time, her clone successfully reached Skypiea and obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

She also encountered a young Enel, still a teenager at the time.

Back then, Enel was frail, ostracized and mocked for his unusual long earlobes.

After a brief consideration, Shalia knocked Enel unconscious, took him away from Sky Island, and sent him to the Navy headquarters at Marineford to serve as a Marine.

Of course, before leaving Sky Island, she pocketed a fair amount of gold as startup capital.

Shalia treasured every character card clone, never abandoning any unless absolutely necessary.

Especially her “King of Hearts” Charlemagne clone, who had consumed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

Currently, Shalia possessed three character cards:

“Queen of Hearts” Judith—the persona Shalia was currently using, her clone form, to visit Ohara.

“King of Hearts” Charlemagne, now a famous liquor merchant in West Sea, wielding the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

“Queen of Clubs” Aginni, whom Shalia was controlling on Kraigana Island.

Shalia’s intention was to seek out the world’s greatest swordsman, Hawk Eyes Mihawk, on Kraigana Island to learn swordsmanship.

In the Grand Line, swords and blades are inseparable, both deadly weapons.

Shalia’s sword skills were basic, relying solely on the university PE course in Taiji Sword.

In her original world, Taiji Sword was merely a performance or fitness practice to her.

But in the Grand Line, wielding a longsword in battles with the ever-emerging pirates of West Sea, she suddenly had an epiphany: she began to apply the techniques and moves of Taiji Sword to real combat.

Its fluidity and balance of hardness and softness proved advantageous, prompting Shalia to aspire to become a swordswoman.

However, it seemed she arrived at Kraigana Island too early.

When her clone Aginni reached the island, Mihawk had not yet settled there.

The Kingdom of Shikkearu on the island was still embroiled in endless war, with the air thick with blood and smoke, and corpses everywhere.

The intelligent baboons living on Kraigana Island, who could mimic human behavior, learned to wield weapons and fight by observing the savage humans.

Controlling her Aginni clone, Shalia did not intervene in the island’s war.

Since she was already there, she saw no need to recall the Aginni character card.

When a clone lost Shalia’s control, it reverted to a card.

To prevent the Aginni card from being destroyed by baboons or humans on the island, before withdrawing from the clone, Shalia dug a concealed tunnel on Kraigana Island.

She left the Aginni card hidden in that underground passage.