Chapter 241

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Amon stood over Marshall D. Teach's body…

"Zehahaha!"

...Who laughed frantically.

"The Sky Emperor not only lives but even exceeds his reputation. To think you'd be looking for ways to get multiple fruits."

He added. "But really, what made you think I have answers to that?"

Amon ignored his words entirely. The madman can keep talking all he wants. He was strapped to a metal table, unable to move, as his hand and legs were locked under restraints made of sea stones. The only thing he could do now was talk, and even that would stop… soon.

Amon grabbed a fruit, a devil fruit, and walked to Teach.

"We will soon see about that."

As Blackbeard's eyes widened, Amon pushed the fruit inside his mouth. Blackbeard resisted but it was all to vain. He was forced to gulp on the large orange fruit whole. 

As the lump passed by his throat, he coughed and glared at Amon.

"Watch out, Sky Emperor! Don't make me angry!"

Amon smirked at him and grabbed another fruit. Without hesitation, he pushed it inside Teach's mouth again. 

Teach grumbled, resisted, but gulped in the end.

"Stop…" He huffed, his eyes wet. "One more, and I will die. Believe me."

Amon nodded. "I can tell. My Future Sight can be useful at times."

He could see the near future, where he pushes another fruit into Teach's mouth, and the man explodes into bits. The explosion starting from his heart.

Previously, Amon needed to use a super camera to see such a thing, but now, he was strong enough himself. That's how far he has come.

"But why 3 fruits, exactly?"

Amon asked Teach, who growled and kept his mouth shut.

"Both of them were paramecia, so the limit is not surely something along the lines of one fruit from each category, is it?"

Teach grumbled again. Amon rubbed his nose.

After a while, he walked out of the experiment room and sat on a chair in front of the Super Computer.

It's been a week since the War of the Best ended. His army was busy with claiming Whitebeard territories and soothing Dressrosa, where every toy was back to normal after Sugar was knocked unconscious.

Amon was busy with his other works for the past week, such as Gaban and Marco. It's only recently that he started to give his attention to Blackbeard.

That man was more bizarre than he had initially expected.

Looking at the Super Computer's screen, he asked, "Sera, so which one of the theories is correct?"

[The multiple DNA one.]

An answer came immediately.

So it wasn't multiple hearts, even though the body's explosion started from the chest? But that could be answered in many ways. The heart is the base of a body, it pumps out blood to the whole body. Maybe it does the same thing to Devil Fruit powers as well?

[I am surprised myself. I have never seen such a thing before. Living beings aren't supposed to have more than one DNA signature.]

At the Artificial Intelligence's words, Amon rubbed his chin. 

She didn't know, as expected. But that's because she wasn't from the 21st Century, where even if the technology wasn't as advanced as herself, the scientists were better – at least the majority were.

Amon wasn't as surprised though. 

Taking a breath in, Amon immediately dived into his brain, into his memories. Now that he had unlocked more powers of his fruit, gained more control even, he could stimulate his brain to show his old memories. Memories from even his previous life.

There, inside his mind domain where everything was a flash of a scene from his old life, the memories of his family and his time with his loved ones, Amon sighed and instead searched for something related to the problem at hand. 

It was like using [Find and Replace] in a word document.

Seconds later, he saw it — Years ago, in his old life, he came across a random internet article.

"People can have two different sets of DNA. It can happen when a woman is pregnant with fraternal twins and one embryo dies very early on. The other embryo can 'absorb' its twin's cells. They are called human chimaeras."

Fascinating.

Amon returned back to the present with a release of breath.

Did that happen with Blackbeard? If so, then that's not that big of a surprise. If something like "double DNA" was possible in the real world, something like "triple DNA" shouldn't be that shocking in a Fantasy World such as this one.

But was he really born like this, or was this… artificial?

He hoped it was artificial, then he would be able to maybe do it to himself as well.

But he didn't have an answer to that as of now. Blackbeard wasn't a man he could force to talk in a small span of a single week. Nor did his brainwash work on the creature. Most likely a feature of his multiple DNAs.

Then again, did having multiple DNAs mean someone wouldn't need to sleep? Blackbeard didn't need to sleep, as far as he knew. He also got confirmation of that. Since Blackbeard first woke up 7 days ago, he hadn't gone to sleep at all.

Why was that?

Mysteries.

Amon hated mysteries that held him back from more power.

Just like that, another week passed.

—★—

Amon reached a final conclusion with the help of Law and Seraph.

Using the OP-OP no Mi to disassemble Teach's body and inspect it thoroughly, he reached the ultimate conclusion: Blackbeard was not natural.

Blackbeard gained the 3 different DNAs using artificial means.

It was quite impossible to be sure, but OP-OP no Mi was the champ at doing and checking if there was an operation or not. Law learned there actually was a sign of Operation in Blackbeard's body.

A sign left by the same Op-Op no Mi, to be exact. Surely, it's previous user.

So OP-OP's previous user, for some reason, decided to experiment on a young Teach's body?

Why?

Amon wanted to know, but Teach didn't want to talk.

Amon knew one thing though. All of this was related to Rocks D. Xebec.

Teach was connected to Xebec somehow. Amon was sure of it. In Canon, Teach even named his main ship "Xebec". It all couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

But that was for later. That was the main reason why Blackbeard was even alive. Killing the man and experimenting on him thoroughly would be faster and more efficient than using Law to keep the <Room> active for as long as possible and then experiment – like he was doing now.

For now, he had to come up with a way to modify his body like Teach's using OP-OP no Mi. 

But Amon refused to do it.

He realised this week, Blackbeard had multiple personalities. Probably related to his multiple DNAs.

So, did having Multiple DNAs cause someone to sprout out multiple personalities?

Maybe the DNA of the other two persons that were implanted into Teach's body formed a will of their own?

'That isn't that far-fetched.'

Amon concluded.

If people's Will could be passed on via Devil Fruits, such as what happened to Sabo in canon, why can't the DNA, the root of a physical being, not hold their Will/Spirit/Soul as well?

That was concerning. Amon didn't want other people in his head, let alone his whole body. Never.

Moreover, Law wasn't ready to do such an experiment. He would need to master his fruit, awaken it, and then use an extreme amount of Haki to successfully operate the surgery.

But Law was a mindless puppet, a Will-less being. His current will is to serve his master, and that's where his Haki originated from. That will isn't strong enough to do a surgery like this.

Amon would die instead.

This meant he would need to give the fruit to someone else. 

But that won't work either. In canon, Law only awakened his fruit after more than 13 years, and he fought all those years because he was on the run. 

Amon needed to give someone that fruit, then wait for probably more than 13 years since it would be hard to simulate the feeling of danger Law felt all his life, and then go through the surgery.

Amon refused to wait that long.

He knew the fight with Imu was coming short. And as strong as Goro Goro no Mi's awakening was, he didn't believe he could win against Imu with this alone. Seraph said so last time.

He needed another way to gain multiple DNAs, to gain Multiple Fruits.

And he had exactly that way in front of him.

"Why am I here?"

Raki grumbled from behind.

Amon shot her a smile. "Hey, I might die and never come back, don't you want to be present at your brother's last moments?"

Raki's face darkened. "What bullshit are you saying?"

Chuckling, Amon ignored her. He looked at the actual way in front of him.

A man with a serious face, wearing a hat. He had a large figure and held a Bible between his arms.

Bartholomew Kuma.

The Cyborg, Kuma, was guarding the Strawhats ship in Sabaody. Abducting him wasn’t that hard. Amon just had to control the cyborg’s brain using electricity and then bring him here. He did that 3 days ago and spent 3 days patching up to listen to his orders instead of the World Governments’ like he was initially patched into.

Now, Kuma was just a mindless puppet, who had the answer to multiple fruits in his palms. Or rather, in his paws.

The Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, or the Paw-Paw fruit that this cyborg had eaten, is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that bestows him the ability to repel anything and everything he touches.

Anything, as in, anything.

Even metaphysical things such as pain, that he demonstrated in person in the Canon timeline.

In that case, how far-fetched is it to say that he can repel a Devil Fruit eater's DNA outside his body in the form of a Paw-bubble?

‘It’s not far-fetched at all.’

There was another problem, just injecting someone’s DNA inside the patient's body wouldn’t work, the DNA needs to be compatible. Moreover, even if the DNA is compatible, a different personality will most likely form inside the patient’s body.

Amon had answers to both of those questions in his hand.

A clone. A mindless clone who couldn’t think, and didn’t have a personality. A clone would completely match his own DNA, too. That way, instead of having multiple DNAs, Amon would have one single DNA that would be big and strong enough to hold on multiple fruits since it would already be filled.

Having multiple DNA would be like putting an external memory card onto the body, while the internal one is filled. This, on the other hand, will just be enlarging the already existing internal memory using materials that would also be filled with information from beforehand.

Like making a 128 GB memory card into a 256 GB one.

That was perfect. That way, Amon wouldn't be restricted by the unknown reason that makes Blackbeard's body unable to handle more than 3 fruits.

The Germa 66 were best at making clones, and Amon owned them.

Amon had ordered a few clones already from before, just after the War ended. He guessed there would be a need for that.

Now, beside Kuma, a giant Amon stood. A Clone. 

It didn’t have Amon’s fruit, so it couldn’t control its body size. This also meant; while the devil fruit affects the eater's DNA, it doesn't get affected by Cytokinesis, where the cell division happens. That's why clones and children of the eater don't get the powers.

That's not the point here, though. The point is…

“Kuma, if you will.”

Amon told Kuma, who moved to a corner of the room where another man was present.

Marco the Phoenix.

Marco was sitting against the wall, chained with sea stone, his glare hot as the sun.

Kuma grabbed the chain attached to the wall and yanked it off. He then bought Marco in front of Amon and dropped him on his knees softly.

Marco's glare intensified, and Amon ordered again.

“First, push out his [Devil Fruit Mastery].”

Neither Marco nor Raki knew the full meaning of his words, but Kuma nodded.

He put a palm on Marco’s back, sending a pulse of <Repulsion> forward. Immediately after, a bright blue paw-sized bubble came out of his body.

That was the progress Marco made with his devil fruit, his Devil Fruit Mastery. All his years of experience with the fruit. This was something ethereal and metaphysical like ‘Pain’. So Kuma could indeed reflect that.

Marco screamed aloud. It was more painful than getting his skin peeled off, something he had experienced once in his life already, back when he was but a mere child.

After screaming for a whole minute, Marco fell on his face while breathing heavily. The blue bubble rested ahead, and Amon nudged Raki's arm.

“Use a sword made of light to cut his head. I feel killing before an experiment might cause my bad karma to spike up and kill me out of bad luck.”

Staring at him for a second, Raki nodded and then did so, soon Marco’s head rolled on the ground with blood coming out of his severed neck.

Marco was far easier to break than Gaban or Teach, who were still holding on. Marco had already spilt the beans Amon wanted to hear, so his death was only beneficial.

Soon, on the fruit basket kept on the table, a normal pineapple started to turn blue, and a devil fruit materialized on it.

The Mythical Zoan; Bird-Bird fruit, Model Phoenix.

Amon grabbed it and flew at the giant Clone Amon. Parting the giant's mouth with great strength, Amon threw the devil fruit in there and forced him to chew and gulp the fruit.

With a burst of blue flame, the Clone Amon stood still again.

Amon smiled and his body started to grow large. Soon, he stood face to face with the other 30 feet giant. They looked like twins, except for the fact that he wore a large white jacket and pants, and the other wore black.

Amon grabbed Kuma and placed him on his left palm then guided the palm on the Clone Amon who had eaten Marco’s fruit.

Kuma placed his hand on the chest of that Amon. 

The clones were merely mindless objects, they didn’t have the bit of Haki that Law had. Because of that, Kuma’s fruit easily worked, and soon, a blue bubble of Paw, paler than the [DF Mastery] bubble, came out of the giant's back.

Amon took a breath and put Kuma down. Then he walked behind the other Amon, and with his giant body, stepped into the bubble.

That was the [DNA Bubble], something that held the DNA of the Clone Amon. Unlike the case of Cytokinesis, this held the DNA of the clone that was wielding the DNA of the Phoenix fruit.

The bubble sunk into Amon’s original body, it didn’t hurt at all, and Amon even looked to be in delight.

Slowly, the entire giant bubble sunk inside Amon’s body and he heaved out a breath.

Raki stared at the scene with a worried but otherwise indifferent look on her face. The AI also stayed silent the whole time.

Amon’s body then started to shrink back to its human size. He then walked to the other blue bubble that was shining brightly. This was human-sized, this was the [DF Mastery] bubble.

Amon stepped into it, and it started to sink inside him as well. This one seemed to hurt based on the painful twitch on his face, but Amon still seemed excited.

After a minute of silence as the light slowly subsided inside him, Amon breathed out with an expressionless face.

Next, from his palm, a flickering blue flame erupted like a volcano.

“Whoa, guess I am not dead.”

He said with a cheeky smile on his face. 

From the start, he knew he wouldn’t die. It would need Amon to gain Omnipotence for him to stop being cautious and wary. And that, that was a long way ahead. He has already experimented on 7 others before.

Raki sighed in relief. Still curious why she was here. 

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Author’s Note: Amon's getting a power up every 20 chapter 🤣 and he'd really need that.