Chapter 70: The princess is NOT in another castle

It’s been a bit more than two days since Rick was sent flying by Kuma and he was bored as hell. He could have used his gravity to go faster by himself  but he wasn’t sure where his destination was. He already passed over one island, who's to say the next one will be the one he’s supposed to land? So he just waited with boredom as his only companion. He had checked the system for any kind of divertisment but sadly there were none and even if there was, how could he have used it at the speed he was going? The thing would have been blown away immediately once he brought it out of the system into the real world. 

He hoped that Kuma sent him to Vegapunk and not the liberation army. The Shichibukai may have interpreted his last words wrongly. The chances were slim for his survival. Vegapunk may be the greatest genius in this world, Rick doubted he could fix him before his body reached its time limit if it ever reached it. Afterall Rick had Ace to save and maybe Whitebeard too. If he could save both the karma gain wouldn’t be small and maybe the goddess would be more lenient in his punishment for failing. After all, one of the four emperors and the son of the pirate king are not some random person with no power to change the world, so without Rick alive there was still a possibility of the world to be saved.
The odds were not good, perhaps a bit better than his own survival but they were not zero so hope was still there.

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt his body starting to lose altitude. Turning himself around he saw a really small island not far. Clearly this was the end of his flight. As he came closer he saw a small castle in the middle of a lake. Not waiting anymore, he used his gravity to take control of the flight and landed right in front of the building. Taking a better look he saw many technological… things, sprouting from the walls and the roof like huge pipes.

Rick went to a gigantic double door and used one of the big door knocks to… knock. It didn’t take long before a young maid greeted him.

“Hello sir, how may I help you?”

That was said in a monotone voice, completely devoid of any emotions.It was in accordance with her eyes, glazed as if life had departed from them. That surprised Rick quite a bit.

‘What is she? Even the zombies at Thriller Bark sounded more alive. Is she… one of the experiments of the imperfect bodies series? But how? The research said that they had no will, how can she move and talk?’

Quickly stopping his thoughts when the maid began to close the door he answered her.

“I have come to see the master of the castle.”
“I’m sorry sir, but Doctor Vegapunk does not receive visitors.”
“My name is Rick Wald and I’m sure the good Doctor would make an exception for me.”

The maid just looked at him and nodded slightly in agreement before closing the door for good this time but not before asking him to wait a bit for her to tell her master. As he was patiently waiting, Rick was formulating numerous plans to get Vegapunk to help without having to end up as a guinea pig. He knew nothing of him after all. Was Vegapunk a mad scientist? Driven by the search of knowledge with sociopathic tendencies, not caring about the means and only the results? He hoped not, but from experience he knew the smartest the people the less emotional and empathetic they were. He also hoped that the doctor had advanced further his research on the imperfect bodies at least a V3 if anything, haki able or not.He had check the system but found nothing but that didn’t mean it didn’t exist, after all he didn’t know how the system worked and how it had the things it has. Was the research on the shop because it was ‘public’ or because it just existed? He always thought it was the latter, but now seeing the maid… the former was quite possible.

‘Whichever it is doesn’t matter, What matters is the time. I need to go save Ace before he’s transferred to Marineford. Nothing good comes out of that war.’

He was once again brought out of his thoughts when the maid opened the door.

“Doctor Vegapunk will receive you, please follow me.”

The young woman led him through the castle for quite a while until they entered a room. Contrary to what the size of the door may imply, the room was quite small. From the furniture it seemed to be a tea room, big windows - giving view to a well maintained garden - a round table with a tea set on it and two chairs. In one of them was a very slim man with greyish hair with half-moon glasses drinking tea. The maid got close to the man.

“Doctor, I have brought you mister Wald.”
“Thank you Sarah, you may go.” was all the man said, not averting his eyes from the nature he was looking at beyond the big window in front of him.

The maid bowed once and left the room. Rick walked towards the scientist and sat down in the unoccupied chair, serving himself some tea before speaking up.

“Hello doctor, I hope you like the surprise.”
“I’m not one to like them but I have to say… this one is a really pleasant and intriguing one young man.”
“I would have thought that Sengoku would have warned you about what kind of person I am.”
“That he did. It was another pleasant surprise, to think that all those years he managed to keep the fact that someone ate two devil fruits and survived…”
“He wasn’t quite sure what the world government would have done to me if that information was known, especially you I’d guess.”
“Oh, I would have studied you for sure. Nothing barbarous I assure you but studied nonetheless. You are the living proof of what I tried to achieve for decades after all.”

“I’m sure you have plenty of questions regarding that and so have I actually but that’s not the main reason I am here.”
“Oh? What is it then?”
“I can feel it, my time is coming to an end and since I’m one of your creations; If I am to believe your research which I do; you may be the only one that can help me.”

That piece of information startled Vegapunk and made him turn his head to look at Rick.
“One of my creations?”
“From your notes I believe I am the result of the imperfect bodies V2 series.”
“How do you know about any of that?” asked the doctor, narrowing his eyes.
“Well for one no matter what I can’t use haki, as for your notes? Let's just say… I’m resourceful.” said Rick with a smile.

Vegapunk kept looking at Rick, maybe hoping to find answers to the questions he had if he looked hard enough.

‘So someone really did use my research. I knew the destruction of that lab was not an accident. The timing was too perfect for it to be a coïncidence either.’

“You can’t be a product of the I.B. V2 series, you’re too old.”
“I know. The V2 average lifespan is twenty years yet I’m 28.”

‘So he does know what he’s talking about.’ thought the doctor.
“Well, since you’re saying your time is limited, let’s not waste it anymore.”


~~~~~

It wasn’t long before Vegapunk brought Rick into his lab and harvested samples. Blood, sperm, skin. Everything that could be useful was taken. While waiting for the results he asked his subject some questions.

“The Fleet Admiral told me about your early life and your memory loss.”
“Yes, no memories before I awoke in LogueTown in east blue when I was four.”
“No recollection since you left the marines?”
“None.”
“I see. How did you get in here in the first place? This island is not on any map.”
“Batholomew Kuma sent me here with his power. From a previous interaction I told him about my predicament, just before he left me for dead. A few days ago our path crossed again and he was surprised at my will to live. I think he’s curious about my fate. Will I defy it again and survive or just kick the bucket?”
“That... is something that Kuma would do… Why do you think your time is running out?”
“I… don’t heal as fast as before. I hav -had an abnormally fast regenerative ability, way above what a normal human should have. But now, I almost heal as fast as a regular human. That’s not counting on this gut feeling of doom that is omnipresent. If I had to take a guess, I’d say my body has reached its limits.”
“But why now, that is the question. An I.B. V2 lasted for about twenty years, the longest was twenty four yet you, if you are  really an I.B V2, lasted twenty eight. Why? And why is your body failing now?”
“Let’s compare how I lived with how others like me did.”
“They didn’t live. The correct term would be… existed. They had no will so they just withered away.”
“What about your maid?”
“Sarah? She’s not an I.B V2.”
“Really, I would have sworn she was. Anyway, I’m guessing you know how I lived until I quit the marines a bit more than ten years ago so I won’t go over that.”
“Indeed there is no need.”
“As for this missing decade from the public view, well… I just lived normally? Building a home, gardening, growing crops while exercising lightly daily to keep my body fit.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it until a few months ago when I came back from my exile and joined a pirates crew. From there it was fights after fights. With plenty of serious injuries, I even die odne time for a few minutes. Oh! And a very active sex life.”

Vegapunk seemed to ponder for a moment, digesting and analysing the information he just got.

“A very different life from the others…Perhaps that is the reason. You had a healthy life while they didn’t. You didn’t strain your body much or let it deteriorate at least until a few months ago. My guess is you would probably have lived a lot longer if you didn't join that pirates crew. Perhaps your body, to deal with your strenuous activities, compensated with its life expectancy? I’m going to research further on that.”
“That would make sense, healing through use of vitality is not that uncommon.”
“True. Now I do have a more important question: how are you, you?”
“You mean living? As not a mindless bag of flesh and bones?”
“Yes!”
“I got a soul?”
“How do you even know about...”
“Your notes doctor. Besides, one of my crew mates is a skeleton, and I mean a literal skeleton. He ate the Yomi Yomi when he was alive but his soul only found its way back to his body after a few decades.”
“Fascinating.” said Vegapunk in awe.
“So if I had to guess, I’d say this body got a soul. How? I don’t know, but that would explain my memory loss. On the other hand I should be able to use haki, since the soul is the source of the ego which is the source of the will and yet I can’t use it.”
“That’s… peculiar.”

At that moment an alarm, from one of the machines running tests on the samples Vagapunk took from Rick, rang. The doctor looked at the results and frowned.

“Make yourself comfortable because we are here for a while.”


~~~~~


Four days.

Vegapunk had studied Rick for four days before he came up with something.

“I have news.” said the scientist.
“Good or bad?”
“Oh, they are all bad.”
“Great.” said Rick in a sarcastic tone.
“I mean some are good but considering your current situation…”
“You were right, you are dying. Your body has reached its limits. On the other hand I found out why.”
“That seems pretty good to me, doctor but if you say it’s not… You can’t do anything about it? Or not in the time I have left, right?”
“You are correct. If I had the time, yes I could. Maybe a year or two at best but you…”
“Don’t have enough time, I get it. So, what’s the reason my body reached its limit?”
“Well, it’s a bit complicated but in simple terms the soul keeps the body alive.”
“But I do have a soul.”
“Yes, I’ll get back to that in a moment. As for how the soul keeps the body alive I don't know yet but the both are linked, I’m sure of that.”
“How do you know?”
“Thanks to Big Mom.”
“What has that food junkie got to do with it?”
“Big Mom has the power of the Soru Soru no mi, the soul fruit. Among many things she can take the soul of someone and put in anything. For example she put a soul in her sword making her sword alive. It was more than forty years ago.”
“If the soul keeps the ‘body’ alive, why isn’t everyone immortal then?”
“My guess is because the body naturally reaches its limits. While without a soul the body deperished a lot quicker. Now back to why yours is deperishing while having a soul my only guess is because it's not properly synchronised to your body.”

Rick looked at Vegapunk as if a second head sprouted from his neck.

“What?”
“That would explain why the sea devil can influence you and take over your body while you can’t use haki.”

During the first day of tests, Rick had talked about his laps of memory and his demonic state to the doctor. The latter hypothesised that since Rick ate two devil fruits and survived because of his body constitution, the sea devil’s influence was a lot stronger. A normal person who ate a devil fruit couldn't be taken over as the fragment of the sea devil was countered by the person’s soul. By eating a second fruit the sea devil’s would be stronger than the soul and take over should the soul be weak, however the body couldn’t handle that hence why they exploded.
But the I.B V2 is artificial, especially made to be a stronger vessel and able to contain two devil fruit powers but since it’s artificial it doesn’t have a natural soul the sea devil can take it over. In Rick’s case since he does have a soul the sea devil can and did take over in moments of extreme emotional weakness. Should Rick's soul have been fully sync with the body, the sea devil would have had an easier time to take over.

‘ So I couldn’t use haki not because of the imperfect body but because my soul was not properly sync to begin with since the system just updated my body when I changed it for another version. The goddess messed up when she sent me into this world!’

“Well… I guess that’s it. Thank you doctor.”
“You’re welcome! Or not considering the circumstances. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”
“It’s fine. Maybe there are other people like me out there that can benefit from those results.”
“I doubt it.” said Vegapunk with a frown.
“You never know. Aren’t I proof of that?”
“True.”
“Now if you excuse me, I have to go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“Where my family is and spend the little bit of time left with them.”

With no further talks Rick exited the castle. It was time for him to save Ace from his fate. He had spent longer than necessary here than he wished. If he wasn’t exactly sure when the execution was to take place. He remembered it was about a week after the crew got separated by Kuma but was not sure. He will have to fly fast.

Once in the air, he brought out from the system an eternal pose for Impel Down and followed its course.

Hrist_Waltz

So Rick finally met Vegapunk. And surprisingly the doc is a normal smart dude. Not a mad scientist or anything. Just a guy curious and who likes to experiments and make some test.

It is perhaps the one and only time we'll get to see him, if it's not well we won't see him again for a loooong time. He was just a goal that drove Rick. As the saying goes, it's not about the destination but the journey.