Chapter 220

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While Raki was out in the Happo Navy trying to learn Hasshoken and while Ace was in Impel Down and the Five Elders were deciding what to do with him, Amon was in Judge's lab located on a branch of Giant Jack.

He was sitting in a chair with a bunch of bounty posters in his hand. Big Mom was a threat, a Big one at that, killing her was bound to cause the people involved bounties to spike up, that's exactly what happened with his crew. Amon wasn't present to witness it because of his time in Alabasta, but now that he was back in Skypiea, he was getting up-to-date with his crew's new bounty.

[The sin of Wrath, Raki. Bounty: 1.9 Billion.]

[The sin of Pride, Wyper. Bounty: 1.4 Billion.]

[The sin of Gluttony, Urouge. Bounty: 990 Million.]

[The sin of Lust, Boa Hancock. Bounty: 950 Million.]

[The sin of Sloth, Yona. Bounty: 900 Million.]

[The sin of Greed, Tsumi. Bounty: 800 Million.]

[Motor Gang Leader, Shortmotor. Bounty: 600 Million.]

[Soul King, Brook. Bounty: 400 Million.]

All the Sins' previous titles like 'Heavenly Princess' were changed and dumped since many of the pirates around the world were confused about their identity at one point or another, so the Marines had to do this. Now they were simply referred to as the Sins, just like the other Emperors commanders' titles.

At last, Amon moved his gaze at the last poster, his poster, which previously had the bounty of 4.2 Billion, but now...

[Emperor of the Sky, Amon. Bounty: 4,610,000,000]

"Exactly 1 million lesser than Kaido, eh? Kinda funny." Amon snickered.

What was this? Were they trying to prove that Kaido was still above him? Even after he killed Big Mom? Funny, funny.

From Hina, he learned the reason as to why his bounty only increased 400 million after killing an fucking Emperor of the Sea. In the case of a normal person, this would have thrown their bounties directly on the 2 billion, or even 3 billion categories, but this was not a normal person. The unwritten rule is, the more bounty a person has, the less it'd increase over time, so that there stays a balance between things. If not, Whitebeard would have long surpassed Roger since it's been 20 years following his death.

Other than that, there was a personal reason initiated by the Celestials. Apparently, giving Amon a bounty above Kaido would cause him to grow more arrogant thus causing him to do his Piracy job to extreme lengths. Yes, before they were fighting to increase his bounty in the hope that some Emperor would be pissed and attack him, but after this recent incident, they were against it. They feared.... If the other Emperors attacked Amon, and if somehow they lost and got killed, there would be no one between Amon and the World Government.

Then who would save them from him...?

After a talk with Imu, Five Elders knew that they didn't possess enough power to hold Amon off, well, other than the great Imu-sama, who unfortunately was locked under the Barrier-Barrier fruit's barrier.

Amon, who wasn't 100% aware of this, chuckled softly. "Oh, well, the War of the Best is there for a reason... that's my biggest opportunity until now, in my 22 years of life."

After countless emotions and glee of opportunity flashed by his eyes, a sigh left his lips as just then a huge figure walked in. "Milord." It was Vinsmoke Judge. "He's ready."

"Oh?" Amon nodded his head and put the posters down, getting up from the chair, he then walked to Judge. "Lead the way then."

For a power play, he walked a few steps in front of Judge who directed him towards a cell hidden under the chamber. Reaching the chamber, Judge walked forward and opened the door with a key.

Amon peeked inside with an inquisitive look on his face. Inside, a black-haired man was chained against the wall with a frown on his face.

"It's you, ya."

It was one of the SuperNovas, Trafalgar D. Water Law.

"Is it finally time for ya to tell me why I am here?" He asked while eyeing Judge, as his gaze then drifted to Amon. "Or would he tell me?"

"Oh, hi, I believe you know me already?" Amon gave him a short smirk. "Hope my men treated you well these days."

Law chucked at this. "Heh, treating me well? That they did, ya. But with my crew as a hostage, it doesn't really matter, does it now? Y'all are just trying to use me, for reasons I am still not aware of."

Amon crouched down, chuckling. "Oh, you don't need to be aware of it, to be clear. You are a doctor, but you're only at your level for your fruit. If not for the fact that a new person with Op-Op Fruit would need to learn things from the get-go, you'd have been killed by now. I do have better doctors on me, after all."

Law clicked his tongue. "Another one after my fruit."

Amon shrugged at this. "If you don't have the power to protect something so precious, then avoiding situations like this is impossible. Though giving you this type of advice is meaningless now."

It's been a week since Law was found by Amon's network. Marines usually get the news of a pirate's location very late, and when the news does reach them, another problem arises. By the time a Marine reaches the island that a pirate is supposed to be, the said pirate usually already leaves for the next island. So catching a Pirate based on news is almost improbable.

However, that is not a problem with Amon, not at all, with his incredible speed, capturing Law was a piece of cake after Wingless Valkyries notified him of Law's current position. Unfortunately, Amon doesn't have his eyes in other blues, so it was hard to find Law a few years ago unless he sent a few troops after him specially. Which he didn't, since there was no immediate need for Law, and instead waited for him to reach the Grandline.

"So what's going to happen to me now-"

Law was forced to shut his mouth as Amon grabbed his jaw with his hand.

"Shhh, quiet now. I don't enjoy conversation with dead people."

Law's eyes widened. 'Dead...!?'

His fear came true. He didn't know what to do as Amon grabbed his skull with his hand just as extreme pain invaded his brain. He felt his nervous system overloading and some of his nerves bursting forward. He desperately tried to activate his fruit, in the hope to reverse-operate his brain, but unfortunately, he was chained with sea stone shackles.

"Grggh!!"

Law struggled, foam started to leak from the corner of his lips as his heart started to pump faster. At last, when reality sank in him, just as he realised that something worse than death was happening to him, he tried to kill himself, he tried to bite his tongue, but just then... his brain shut off and rebooted itself.

All this happened in less than a second.

"..."

Law's body slouched down as he started ahead with blank eyes.

Amon drew his hand back from his head and hissed. "Not really a fan of brainwashing anymore. Maybe I am growing soft."

Behind him, Judge stood with an indifferent look on his face. He didn't seem affected at all.

"Anyway," Amon stood up while wiping his hand with a handkerchief and threw it away. "Bring him to the main chamber. I am really excited about all this."

Judge nodded.

«—(★)—»

Yamato sat on the floor while eating a burger slowly. Her eyes drifted all around the high tech medic room with barely any interest present in them.

"Mm... you guys really... have the most developed technology, huh?" She talked in between eating as Karna nodded.

"But of course. Technology is our main department of work." He laughed softly. "There was once a time when we didn't even have TV, from what I heard from Mom."

"Whoa, really? What's a TV though?" Yamato gulped the last bite of the burger.

"..." Karna looked at her with narrowed eyes and shrugged. "Woman, why are you here in the first place?"

"I wanna see Amon's transformation."

Karna frowned while Yamato wiped her lips. "Did he permit you?"

"He said it's fine." Yamato's eyelids drooped, showing her sleepy state. "I just want to watch him become an Oni, we're quite rare after all."

Yamato was asking constant questions when she was being experimented on, which Amon allowed Karna and Judge to answer to keep her complying.

"Bleh." Karna scoffed and turned to the Monitor, where a (^_^) face was displaying. This was clearly "Seraph", the supercomputer AI who was connected to all the Computers in Shandora, along with this Lab.

He clenched his small fist. He wouldn't have been able to succeed in decoding Yamato's DNA and make it implantable in others if not for the AI. He was still an incompetent being... Vegapunk was many times greater than him.

"That's enough."

Just then, Amon, who talked, walked inside with Judge and Law.

Amon walked to Karna and patted his head. "You did fine. Don't forget you're but a child who hasn't even turned 10. I am sure you'd be able to do great things once you reach your 20s."

Karna gave Amon a surprised look that soon turned into a smile as he hugged Amon's legs. "I believe in you!"

'Well, you should.' Amon shrugged. He made Isa eat medicines when Karna was in her wombs. They weren't harmful, not at all, instead, they were similar to the medications that help the development of a baby from earth... just that, the ones made by Amon lacked a bit of testing since he was far from a doctor back then. So Karna by no means was normal. He can be considered a genetically enhanced human too, but the enhancement only happened in his brain. So it might not be very far-fetched to say that he has the capability of becoming one of the best scientists in the world.

The experiment this time got a lot of help from Karna but it was mostly Judge. First, using Germa Lieane Factor manipulating techs, they tried to implement Oars' DNA directly onto humans, who died instantly as the DNA started to merge with theirs because instead of merging, Oars' DNA started to devour their own.

Next, they researched Ceaser's experiment on the kids. After that, to make the humans' DNA adaptive, they started to feed them special medications made by none other than Kureha, the best doctor in the world. The result was slow this time, but after trying to change their DNA according to Oars, they indeed started to change, albeit slowly, day by day. However, just like the drawback in Ceaser' experiment, since the subjects were adults they all died before the transformation could have been completed 100%.

After that, luckily Judge got his hands on some failed Onis, the Numbers from Kaido's army. They had Oars like strength, but they lost their mind in the process. That wouldn't have done, so Judge demanded strong people who would be able to bear the stress of the experiment without breaking. That's where the Charlotte Children came. Using them, Judge was able to make more promising progress. Things weren't that good at first, but they didn't just die after a single experiment and the effect still stayed, so the progress was calculable and things were going smoothly.

That was until they learned that Oars' race is called Oni based on the Poneglyph and some ancient texts that Robin found. They figured out using Moria's zombified body (by Yona) that he was an Oni too, and Kaido was most likely one too. This made sense with the previous rivalry of Kaido and Moria, as well.

The great change began when they got their hands on Yamato, a true, alive, Oni. And when they got Yamato to freely experiment on, the progress of the experiment skyrocketed, and in a matter of weeks, they were able to make an elixir - "The Great Demon Blood".

After drinking this elixir, the test subjects' DNA was so flexible that it was almost possible for them to eat another Devil Fruit. Almost.

And now, Amon was there, with that same elixir in front of him.

"Here, milord." Judge respectfully handed Amon the elixir that he accepted with a calm face.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the cap of the bottle and devoured the contents in one go. At that moment, he almost fell on his knees as his leg bones felt like noodles, but Judge grabbed him and helped him stay standing.

"Careful, as I explained in the way since the elixir made your Lineage flexible, they are now quite timid. So you'd not be able to exert your strength much." Judge explained as Amon nodded.

"Heh, it's been a while since I felt this weak...." He simply chuckled while his body shook like an old man. "Anyway, guide me to the incubator."

Judge nodded while he helped Amon walk to the glass incubator in the middle of the room. The glass of the incubator is very durable, but if a strong person really wanted it, they'd be able to break thus killing Amon easily. It was honestly a little worrying since there wasn't anyone there other than Yamato, who he knew can be trusted based on her surface thoughts and emotions.

That's why Law was here.

If anything happened, he can just teleport away with Amon, and in the worst-case scenario, if the experiment starts to fail, he can use his Op-Op no Mi to reverse-operate on Amon any moment and save his life. Law was a lifeline.

As Amon stepped inside the incubator, and as many metallic tentacles surrounded him, stripping him naked while raising him in the air, dozens of metallic pipes made a hole in his spinal cord and connected with his whole body.

[Operation starting, please be prepared for Hell... Master.]

With Seraph's voice vanishing slowly into thin air, Amon felt a suck in his soul...

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