With Kuzan's assistance, Finn didn't need to face the muddy, filthy seawater. He easily retrieved the small treasure chest.
"Looks like a Devil Fruit container," Kuzan observed with experienced recognition.
Finn was momentarily stunned. It did look familiar. People in this world seemed to use similar small treasure chests when storing Devil Fruits. He didn't understand why that was standard practice.
"Just open it and we'll know," Finn said with a smile.
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand and forcefully broke the small lock on the chest, then opened it.
Sure enough, just as Kuzan predicted, there was a Devil Fruit inside.
Finn tried hard to recall the types of Devil Fruits from the original story.
But after all, not many Devil Fruits had been shown in manga or anime. After comparing mental images several times, none matched.
"Do you recognize it? What kind of Devil Fruit ability is this?" Finn looked at Kuzan and asked.
Kuzan extended his hand. "Let me examine it."
Finn didn't hesitate at all. After all, Kuzan was already a Devil Fruit user. He couldn't possibly consume another one, right?
And... honestly, the Marines were different from pirates.
For pirates, generally speaking, whoever found it owned it. But for the Marines, gains here were considered "battlefield spoils" and had to be turned in.
After all, the Marines relied on salaries, not plunder.
So even though Finn discovered this Devil Fruit himself, it didn't belong to him yet.
Of course, if he were bolder and simply stole the Devil Fruit and ate it in one bite, the Marines probably wouldn't do anything severe to him.
But this wasn't worth the risk. As of now, Finn felt he'd left an excellent impression on these senior Marine officers' minds.
If he followed proper procedures, he'd have a promising future sooner or later.
Simultaneously, there was Zephyr waiting to train him at Marineford. There was no reason to destroy all this just for a Devil Fruit.
What's more, he had no idea what kind of Devil Fruit this was...
What if it were one of those completely useless types? Like, say, the Zoan-type Sea Cucumber-Sea Cucumber Fruit—turning you into a slimy, spineless blob that spits out its guts when scared.
That'd just make you a soggy landlubber who can't even swim anymore.
Seriously, how dumb would that be?
Of course, Finn felt it wouldn't be so disappointing. The fruit's power would likely be quite strong. After all... this was discovered on the ship of the great pirate Shiki.
With Shiki's strength and taste, he should look down on weak abilities!
Maybe... it was even a Mythical Zoan or something?
Thinking this, Finn felt tempted.
Kuzan took the Devil Fruit, looked at Finn again, and asked with a smile, "Do you want it?"
"Of course. I've said before—I want to gain power, status, and strength. Devil Fruits can quickly grant tremendous power, so naturally I'm tempted," Finn said without hesitation.
He never concealed these ambitions.
"It seems so..." Kuzan clicked his tongue, then smiled. "Don't worry. Although our Marines turn in all seized supplies, there are exceptions. Devil Fruits... have been privately allocated more than once or twice. With Admiral Sengoku's care for you, if you simply request it when the time comes, I think it's highly likely this Devil Fruit will be yours."
Finn smiled and nodded. "I hope so"
He'd already made tremendous contributions this time. Admiral Sengoku had always held a favorable impression of him and taken good care of him.
If he asked, he felt Admiral Sengoku would most likely not refuse.
This was also one reason he hadn't acted impulsively earlier.
"But before that, you'd better help me identify it. I don't want to consume some inexplicable Devil Fruit without understanding what it does," Finn said with another smile.
Kuzan nodded, then examined it carefully. After a long moment, he frowned slightly. "I can't identify what this is either. Though I've seen the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, I don't remember it clearly..."
Finn rolled his eyes at Kuzan. "What good are you?" he teased. "Useless thing."
Kuzan noticed Finn's look but didn't care. He smiled. "I'm not a professional, after all. But judging from the patterns, it should be a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit ability. If I remember correctly, Vice Admiral Tsuru has a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. You can ask to borrow it later for comparison."
"Paramecia..." Finn said with a hint of regret.
He naturally knew the patterns on Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia Devil Fruits each had distinctive characteristics.
Therefore, there was no doubt about Kuzan's judgment.
However, it was somewhat disappointing. Compared to Paramecia types, Finn actually preferred either Mythical Zoan or Logia abilities.
Mythical Zoans needed no elaboration. As long as they weren't completely terrible, they could generally make someone powerful.
For example, Kaido, Admiral Sengoku, Marco, and so on.
As for Logia types, the three future Admirals were proof enough. Though Finn always felt that in the original story, Logia types were restrained too heavily by Haki in later periods, making their performance somewhat underwhelming.
But facts proved the three Admirals were the Marines' highest combat power. That wasn't mere talk.
Therefore, Logia power was still worthy of recognition.
Finn had even planned to find an opportunity to visit Sky Island, specifically Birka, to see if he could steal the Rumble-Rumble Fruit from that kid Enel.
In Finn's opinion, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was undoubtedly extremely powerful. Calling it "invincible" was no joke.
It's just that he currently lacked the opportunity.
Of course, it was only slight disappointment. If this Paramecia Devil Fruit was genuinely powerful, he wouldn't mind consuming it.
After all, what actually ended up in his stomach would belong to Finn.
His current strength was very ordinary. If he dreamed about obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit or something similar, he might die before the opportunity arrived.
Therefore, strength was the foundation of everything. As long as there was opportunity, he must seize it first.
A sure thing is better than a maybe.
After examining it briefly, Kuzan handed the Devil Fruit back to Finn for safekeeping.
Afterward, Marine soldiers quickly swept the damaged Apollo Lion, which was half-submerged in the sea.
Seeing the situation here was mostly settled, Kuzan took Finn back to the warship to visit Chief of Staff Tsuru.
In fact, by the time Finn returned to the warship, the Marines had nearly finished cleaning the battlefield.
After all, everyone killed here were pirates. The Marines' cleanup operation proceeded without stress.
"Admiral Sengoku is returning!" several Marines shouted from nearby.
Finn and Kuzan, who'd just boarded the warship, turned their heads to look in the distance. Sure enough, Admiral Sengoku and Garp were leaping toward them across the distant sea, using Geppo to jump from ship wreckage to ship wreckage.
It seemed after Garp failed to find Roger, he'd worried about Sengoku's safety at sea as a Devil Fruit user, so he'd gone to assist.
But judging from their empty-handed state, Shiki had probably escaped.
This was normal. Finn wasn't surprised at all. When they'd encountered Shiki earlier, he hadn't uttered a single threatening word before turning and fleeing. This sufficiently demonstrated his decisiveness.
With his abilities, even though greatly restricted by the current environment, simply escaping presented no problem.
This was the difficult aspect of Shiki. He seemed naturally invincible. Even if something went wrong and he couldn't win, he could always flee!
Soon, seeing Kuzan and the others were on Chief of Staff Tsuru's warship, Admiral Sengoku and Garp flew over directly.
Looking at Admiral Sengoku and Garp's expressions, though they showed some regret at not capturing Shiki, overall, both appeared happy.
In this battle, the Marines had simply taken advantage of circumstances. They hadn't even fired a single shot but directly reaped fruits of tremendous victory.
After returning, with some processing and embellishment, they could publicize in newspapers that the Marines won a major victory in the New World, completely wiped out the Golden Lion Flying Fleet in one fell swoop, with only Shiki himself escaping in panic.
This was undoubtedly extremely powerful boost for the Marines' declining influence in the New World!
"Finn, well done!" Admiral Sengoku approached and praised Finn directly.
After all, if not for this kid's insistence and his own moment of compassion, they would probably have already departed and never even entered the Edd Sea.
When Admiral Sengoku learned of these developments later, who knew how much he'd regret it. Moreover, winning such a major victory without any effort!?
"Thank you, Admiral!" Finn said with a smile, his tone slightly mischievous.
But everyone was in excellent spirits currently. They all looked at Finn favorably, so naturally no one cared about his playfulness.
"What's that?" Vice Admiral Garp asked, noticing the treasure chest in Finn's hand.
Kuzan spoke at the opportune moment. "It's a treasure chest Finn discovered on Shiki's ship just now. Inside is a Devil Fruit. He hasn't determined what its power is yet. He wants to borrow Chief of Staff Tsuru's Devil Fruit Encyclopedia for comparison."
Kuzan's words were very thoughtful. Though he didn't explicitly mention Finn's intentions regarding this Devil Fruit, his phrasing made the meaning clear.
Specifically, if after comparison Finn thought it was good, he hoped to consume this Devil Fruit.
After all, if he weren't interested, why come here to compare? Wouldn't he just turn it in and be done?
Admiral Sengoku understood the implication and said without hesitation, "Really? Then let Tsuru assist. If this ability is good, I think Finn should eat it."
Sengoku was the highest authority present. The others also had good relationships with Sengoku, so there was no need to offend him. What's more, everyone now considered Finn a promising talent who'd made the greatest contribution this time. It was completely reasonable for him to privately claim one Devil Fruit.
Chief of Staff Tsuru smiled gently and nodded. "Come with me, Finn. Let's identify what you've found."
As Finn followed Tsuru toward her cabin, he felt anticipation building in his chest.
A Devil Fruit from Shiki's personal collection.
What power would it grant?
And more importantly—would this be the key to accelerating his rise through the Marines?
Only one way to find out.