"I can show you how my power affects creatures," Marcus offered.
Indigo looked at Shiki with pleading eyes, clearly desperate to see this demonstration.
But Shiki's gaze remained fixed on Marcus' wrists. "The cuffs stay on."
Over the past day, he hadn't simply let Marcus wander around enjoying luxury treatment. He'd been observing him carefully, gathering intelligence about the so-called "Miracle Maker" behind Marcus' abilities.
He'd quickly confirmed that Marcus had eaten the Cube-Cube Fruit. But what he'd demonstrated went far beyond any recorded abilities in history.
He had also thoroughly examined the Going Merry. The Devil Fruit power was undeniable, nearly seventy percent of the ship was constructed from restructured blocks. The hardness of the material, and the fact that the structure remained stable even with its user suppressed by sea-stone... that was extraordinary.
But what had really caught his attention was something else entirely: the infinite water source in the bathroom.
Yes, infinite water.
Water that responded to his Float-Float Fruit ability.
Water he could stretch, manipulate, and control as much as he wanted.
He'd pulled out nearly a hundred tons from that single block, and could have kept going if he hadn't stopped.
The moment he withdrew his power, the infinite water vanished instantly. He'd have to use his ability again to reshape and control it.
This completely broke his understanding of how Devil Fruits worked.
And controlling this water was ridiculously easier than controlling seawater. Manipulating the ocean felt like lifting heavy weights with his bare hands. Manipulating the infinite water felt like flicking his fingers. The energy expenditure was maybe one percent of normal for a hundred times the effect.
He was thrilled, but also deeply intrigued. His evaluation of Marcus had skyrocketed. What he'd initially dismissed as just a talented youngster turned out to possess an ability that was perfectly complementary to his own powers. And now Marcus claimed those mysterious square animals were also products of his ability.
There was no way he was letting this treasure slip away. Which meant he couldn't risk anything happening to Marcus right now.
Indigo's face twisted in confusion. If they couldn't remove the power-restricting handcuffs, how could a Devil Fruit user demonstrate his ability on living creatures?
But Marcus just smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "You don't need to unlock them. I can still use my power."
Both men froze.
"Impossible!" Indigo blurted out instinctively. As a biologist and scientist, he couldn't accept what he'd just heard.
---
Ten minutes later, Indigo was staring blankly at two of Shiki's battle bulls as they stood next to a tiny, perfectly cubic calf.
The two bulls had given birth to this calf after Marcus fed them something he called "wheat." Both of them looked a little traumatized by the experience, one kept glancing suspiciously at the other, as if questioning whether it had really been a bull at all.
"This doesn't..." Indigo's eye started twitching.
His entire understanding of biology was crumbling, everything he'd studied for decades was being turned inside out. His mind raced through countless theories, from microbiology to macro-evolution, trying to find some framework that could explain what he'd just witnessed.
"Biology doesn't exist anymore," he mumbled, then louder: "Nothing makes sense! Piropiropiro!"
He started laughing hysterically, his brain clearly struggling to process the impossibility he'd just seen.
"This is amazing! I've achieved... no wait, what have I achieved? Piropiropiro!"
Smoke was practically coming out of his ears as he cycled between euphoria and existential crisis.
"Well, that's something you don't see every day," Shiki muttered. He'd seen a lot of crazy shit in his decades as a pirate, but this was new.
The two bulls were staring at their offspring with equally confused expressions.
"MOOO?" one lowed questioningly.
"MOO!" the other responded defensively.
The blocky calf just stood there.
If Chopper had been present, he probably could have translated. Something along the lines of:
"How did we do that?"
"Don't look at me!"
"But we're both males!"
"I know I am! But not sure about you!"
Even Scarlet, standing nearby, seemed deeply disturbed by what he'd just witnessed. The gorilla kept looking between the bulls and the calf, as if trying to understand the mechanics involved.
Marcus looked at the group's reactions and couldn't help but smile.
"Are there any other gorillas around here?"
Shiki glanced at Scarlet. "Actually... we could probably arrange that."
"No, you really couldn't," Marcus said flatly.
He reached into one of the storage crates and pulled out a Minecraft banana.
Scarlet's eyes went wide, and a strange sensation seemed to wash over him.
"HOOHOO!"
Marcus tossed him the banana.
Scarlet caught it like a kid receiving the toy he'd wanted for his birthday. The moment he bit into it, little hearts started appearing around his head, floating heart symbols that popped into existence and slowly faded.
Shiki's eyes narrowed as he recognized the same effect he'd seen on the bulls earlier.
"Want one?" Marcus offered a banana to Shiki.
Shiki felt something clench uncomfortably and his brain short-circuited for a second. He blurted out something he instantly regretted: "Humans and gorillas can't—"
"What are you talking about?" Marcus interrupted, looking at him like he'd lost his mind. "Forget it if you don't want it."
He peeled a banana and started eating.
Shiki's face flushed red. What the fuck had he just been thinking? Humans and animals? Absolutely not. It shouldn't even cross his mind.
He grabbed the banana from the table and ate it, partly to cover his embarrassment. And... actually, it was pretty good. Surprisingly flavorful.
Indigo had finally recovered from his mental breakdown. His eyes now burned with fanaticism.
"Is your ability only capable of producing cattle like that? What about the sheep and chickens I saw? Can you modify existing creatures? What about hybridization? Cross-species breeding?"
"Slow down," Marcus cut him off. "I can make sheep, chickens, pigs, cows. If you fed them Devil Fruits, maybe. As for your IQ plant mutations mixing with my power..." He shrugged. "No idea. Never experimented with it."
For every question they asked, he answered honestly. Whether the information was useful was another matter, but he wasn't holding back.
Seeing how cooperative Marcus was being, Shiki eventually gestured for him to follow. "Come on. There's something I want to show you."
They walked through several corridors before arriving at the main hall.
The floor was covered in tatami mats, and the architecture had a distinctly formal style, low tables, cushioned seating areas, the kind of setup you'd see in old-school Japanese estate houses or yakuza headquarters. The kind of place where deals were made and oaths were sworn.
One of the most iconic scenes in the movie came to mind: the Straw Hats' most stylish entrance ever. All of them in black suits. Back then, they had appeared to rescue Nami. Now… he was the one being captured.
Marcus felt strangely off, as if he were about to be the "beauty rescued by a hero."
"Why bring me here? Weren't we going to check the surveillance room?"
Shiki clapped his hands twice.
The doors slid open, and a procession of women entered. They were all the attendants who'd been assigned to serve Marcus over the past few days, the same ones he'd politely but firmly declined.
"What's this?"
Before Shiki could answer, another group entered: dozens of men in black suits, clearly fighters and crew members based on their builds and the way they carried themselves.
"If you want," he said calmly, "all these women can be yours. Every comfort, every luxury. Or..." he gestured to the assembled crew, "... if you prefer, all these men can be your subordinates. I'll give you command of your own division within my fleet."
Marcus finally understood. This wasn't about showing him something. This was a recruitment pitch.
"Power, women, wealth, territory, as long as you follow me, I can give you all of it."
"So? What's your answer?"
Marcus looked at Shiki with an expression that was hard to read. After a long moment of silence, he asked, "Can I ask you something first?"
"Go ahead." Shiki was in an excellent mood, clearly confident about how this conversation would end.
"Why do you value me so much? I'm just some nobody from the East Blue. Sure, maybe I've got a useful ability, but that's it. There are plenty of Devil Fruit users out there."
Marcus didn't understand. In the original story, Shiki had valued Nami because her weather-sensing abilities were beyond what any professional meteorologist could achieve, she could detect storms tens of minutes before they arrived, which was exactly what Shiki needed.
The Float-Float Fruit's greatest weakness was simple: when there were no natural disasters, Shiki himself was the greatest natural disaster. But when he encountered a storm? That became a fatal threat to his powers.
The ship's rudder lodged in his skull was proof of that. During his legendary naval battle with Roger, he'd lost because of the weather. His powers had failed him at the worst possible moment, and that rudder had ended up embedded in his head as a permanent reminder.
Ever since then, he had obsessively assembled teams of meteorologists, all with the singular goal of preventing such a tragedy from happening again. Weather forecasting had become his fixation, his insurance policy against fate repeating itself.
That obsession was why, in the movie, he was shown attacking his own subordinates, one of the few times he turned on his own crew. Bad weather predictions were unforgivable mistakes in his organization.
But Marcus? He wasn't a meteorologist. He couldn't sense storms. So why was Shiki offering him the same treatment that should have been reserved for Nami?
Shiki's smile widened. "Your talent is one factor. Your abilities are another. But most importantly... You're someone even the World Government and Celestial Dragons want desperately. That makes you valuable."
Marcus' expression shifted slightly. "The Celestial Dragons, huh."
"In this entire world, my territory is one of the very few places where you'll never have to worry about the Celestial Dragons reaching you. They have no power here."
Shiki leaned forward slightly. "But let me ask you something. Your companions, where are they right now? It's been days since I brought you here. Have they even tried to rescue you?"
He snapped his fingers.
A section of the ceiling in the center of the hall quietly opened, and a projection screen descended.
On it played footage of the Straw Hat crew on the White Sea, training, conducting research, seemingly living their normal lives without a care in the world.
Marcus was surprised. He hadn't expected Shiki to have already located where Luffy and the others were hiding. The surveillance was thorough, showing multiple angles and recent timestamps.
"Look at them. They haven't even attempted to save you. They're just going about their business like nothing's wrong. These are the companions you chose to protect."
Shiki watched Marcus carefully, waiting for the look of betrayal, the expression of hurt and disappointment that would make breaking him so much easier.
Instead, Marcus just studied the footage.
That reaction, or lack thereof, left everyone present confused. Shiki had expected anger, despair, maybe even denial. Not... casual observation.
Seeing their silence, Marcus suddenly realized he was supposed to be upset. He quickly put on an exaggerated expression of anger.
Which only made the situation more awkward.
Shiki, Indigo, and even Scarlet just stared at him.
"You're... not angry?" Shiki couldn't understand Marcus' attitude. His companions were clearly visible on the White Sea, living comfortably, and yet he seemed completely unfazed by their apparent abandonment.
Marcus didn't bother hiding his reasoning. "Even if they came, what could they do? You're Shiki the Golden Lion. They'd just be delivering themselves to their deaths."
A strange silence followed.
Shiki didn't know whether to feel pleased or disappointed. The words weren't flattery, they were a cold assessment of reality. But somehow, they still felt satisfying to hear.
Shaking off the odd feeling, he pressed on. "But that's not the point. Even if they know they can't win, they should still try something. They should be anxious, maybe secretly plotting a rescue attempt. Shouldn't they?"
As he spoke, he acted out what he expected, pacing nervously, wringing his hands dramatically, playing the role of worried crewmates.
Marcus had to admit, Shiki had some theatrical flair.
He probably hadn't attacked Luffy's group because he wanted to show him their situation first, to make the betrayal sting more.
Indigo nodded vigorously. "Exactly! Even knowing the power gap, they should at least make an attempt. I even designed different challenge routes for them to try infiltrating! I spent so much time setting up those traps, and not a single one of them has even tried. What kind of friends are they?"
Seeing these three standing up for him in their own twisted way, Marcus felt weird about the whole situation.
He found himself thinking: if he'd first arrived in the Grand Line instead of the East Blue, and met Shiki instead of Luffy... could he have refused an invitation like this? Probably not. Power, wealth, safety from the World Government, what person wouldn't be tempted?
But that wasn't what happened. And that made all the difference.
He smiled and shook his head. "The reason they haven't come to rescue me is simple. I told them not to."
The two men and one gorilla froze mid-motion. Their expressions turned strange.
"What do you mean?" Shiki asked slowly.
"Because if I wanted to leave, I could do it anytime. I don't need rescuing."
The words came out calmly. But there was something in Marcus' tone that made them sound less like a boast and more like a simple statement of fact.
Shiki's expression gradually darkened. He looked at Marcus, clearly restrained by seastone handcuffs, clearly powerless, and yet his Observation Haki was screaming warnings at him.
It was the strangest sensation. Like Marcus was simultaneously present and already gone, like he was existing in a superposition of being captured and being free.
His instincts were giving him a clear premonition: if he tried to force Marcus to stay, the man would simply disappear.
What kind of bizarre situation was this?
Indigo didn't have Observation Haki, so he couldn't sense what Shiki was experiencing. But Shiki's increasingly troubled expression made it clear that Marcus wasn't bluffing.
Shiki changed tactics, "You're from the East Blue, correct? Have you heard about what's been happening there recently?"
"Your East Blue destruction plan? Yeah, I know about it."
Marcus' confirmation should have been impossible. He'd been completely isolated here, with no access to outside information. Yet he spoke as if he'd been reading the newspaper every morning.
Shiki chose not to question how. Instead, he nodded slowly. "If you choose to stay with me, I can spare your homeland. I'll cancel the entire operation in the East Blue. And I can guarantee protection for your companions' home islands as well."
It was a genuine offer, and both of them knew it. He had the power to make good on that promise.
Marcus looked at him seriously. "Your plan won't succeed anyway."
"You're planning to stop me?"
Marcus shook his head. "I don't need to. Your plan is based on Poseidon, the Ancient Weapon, isn't it?"
Shiki's entire body went still. Then his expression became complex, confirming that Marcus had hit the mark perfectly.
In this world, there were three legendary Ancient Weapons: Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus.
Pluton was said to be a warship capable of destroying entire islands with a single shot.
Uranus was even more mysterious, its power only vaguely hinted at in ancient texts.
Poseidon was unique, the Ancient Weapon that could command all Sea Kings, the massive creatures that ruled the ocean depths.
Shiki's plan was to create a fourth Ancient Weapon: the Beast King. A force of mutated creatures so powerful and numerous that they could rival the legendary weapons of old. That was what years of preparation had been for.
"So? What makes you so certain I'll fail? Do you think my creatures are too weak?"
"They're not weak," Marcus said bluntly. "Honestly, they're probably even stronger than most Sea Kings in pure combat ability. They're more aggressive, vicious, and completely ruthless. If you could control them the way Poseidon commands Sea Kings, they might actually work as a viable force."
"But that's all they'd ever be."
His assessment contained both praise and criticism.
Indigo, who'd dedicated years to studying IQ plants and their mutations, felt a flash of pride at the affirmation. But the second half of Marcus' statement hit like cold water.
"What do you mean?"
Marcus looked at each of them in turn before answering. "The reason Poseidon is considered one of the Ancient Weapons isn't just about individual power. It's about scale and sustainability. The oceans are massive, and Sea Kings are constantly reproducing in those depths. New ones are born every day, growing stronger, expanding their numbers. And Poseidon can command all of them."
He gestured vaguely toward the island floating around them. "Your creatures? Yeah, you've developed some seriously dangerous beasts over twenty years. But they can't reproduce naturally, can they? Or at least not reliably."
Indigo opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
"The ones that can multiply, like those bulls and swordfish you showed me, they've got long growth cycles. Twenty-plus years, and you still only have relatively small populations, right?"
He looked directly at Shiki. "It comes down to limited numbers and slow regeneration. Which brings me to my real question: how much time do you have left?"
Shiki's expression didn't change.
This was indeed the flaw with the synthetic beasts. But it was also what made them controllable, and he valued control. He wasn't trying to destroy the world, he was trying to rule it. Controllable weapons were useful weapons.
The beasts were limited in number by design. But that limitation meant regenerating losses required significant time, and time was the one resource he couldn't replenish.
That was the real reason he'd hidden away for twenty years before making his move.
He was old. And he was running out of time.
Indigo wanted to argue, but the truth was undeniable. The stronger they made the creatures, the more biologically isolated they became from their base species. Not just physically incompatible, but fundamentally unable to produce viable offspring with normal animals.
Sure, they could reproduce if you perfectly matched male and female pairs of the same enhancement type. But even then, the gestation and growth periods were painfully long. You couldn't accelerate biology, not with chemistry alone.
But Marcus was different. Creatures affected by his ability could reproduce quickly and grow at accelerated rates. He was like a solution to a problem he hadn't even fully admitted existed.
"But you can fix that. Your ability lets organisms reproduce rapidly and mature faster. It's perfect for what we're trying to accomplish here."
"Except there's a problem," Marcus said flatly. "The 'creatures' my ability produces don't inherit traits from their parents. You saw that with the calf."
"Give me time! I can make it work!" Indigo insisted, though his eyes shifted toward Shiki, clearly looking for support.
Shiki understood now just how valuable Marcus could be to their operation. But he also understood something else.
His Observation Haki was screaming at him. The sensation hadn't faded, if anything, it had grown stronger.
He didn't respond to Indigo's pleading. Instead, he kept his focus on Marcus.
This was the second man he had truly wanted to recruit. The first had been Roger. He'd acknowledged Roger's strength, and respected him as an equal and rival.
Marcus was different. Shiki acknowledged his ability, his potential, and the sheer utility he represented.
But fate seemed determined to deny him both.
He took a long drag from his cigar, smoke curling around his head. His gaze drifted slightly, becoming distant.
"I'm curious. What do you want? Why follow the Straw Hats? Is Luffy strong? Not particularly. What can he give you? From what I've observed, you're the one constantly giving. You're not even the captain."
He leaned forward slightly. "So what's keeping you on that ship? The women? I'll admit, your crew does have several attractive young ladies. But if you agreed to join us, I could have them brought here. If you joined us, they'd probably follow you anyway."
Hearing this left both Indigo and Scarlet shocked. He was negotiating. It was completely unlike him.
The sight of Shiki being this diplomatic stunned them both.
Ever since they'd captured Marcus, the intelligence and analysis teams had been operating at full capacity. Every scrap of information about the Straw Hat crew, verified or rumored, had been collected, sorted, and categorized for review.
That was the advantage of a major organization. Want intelligence? It was already on your desk.
"If it's about your homeland in the East Blue," Shiki continued, "as I said before, I can guarantee their safety. Your family, your companions' families, their entire islands, all of them can become part of the territory I'll rule."
What Marcus had already demonstrated was more than enough to make Shiki want him as an ally. If he knew about the Devil Fruit copying ability... he'd probably lose his mind.
Because what would Devil Fruit duplication mean for an organization like this?
The Beasts Pirates had become a top-tier power just by controlling Wano and trading weapons and firearms. They were a major threat with conventional resources.
But imagine if every crew member had a Devil Fruit ability. An entire army with the Sickle-Sickle Fruit. Or squads equipped with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit.
That kind of force could challenge the World Government.
Marcus smiled, and for a moment Shiki thought he might actually agree. "I'm genuinely honored."
"Then you'll—"
"But I'm sorry. The path you're walking isn't the same as mine."
The moment the words left his mouth, Marcus vanished.
Only the seastone cuffs remained, suspended in mid-air for a split second before gravity remembered they existed.
Clink.
The metallic sound of the cuffs knocking together echoed through the sudden silence as they dropped onto the floor.
Shiki had already seen this future through his Observation Haki. He'd known it was coming. But knowing and experiencing were different things.
Indigo and Scarlet stared at the empty space where Marcus had just been standing.
"How?!" But then Indigo remembered the calf incident, Marcus making two bulls produce offspring while wearing those same seastone cuffs. Seastone suppressed active powers, but it didn't undo things that had already been created.
But what kind of creation allowed a person to vanish into thin air?
The only explanation was teleportation. Either a Warp-Warp Fruit, or maybe the Op-Op Fruit. Both had powers capable of instantaneous movement.
But how had he done it right in front of Shiki? With Observation Haki actively monitoring him?
He jumped around in agitation. He'd forgotten to speak entirely, just making strangled sounds.
Shiki remained silent, staring at where Marcus had stood.
Different paths.
He turned the phrase over in his mind, trying to understand what it meant.
"Admiral!" Indigo suddenly shouted. "Look!"
He was pointing at the projection screen still hanging from the ceiling. On it was Marcus, already back on the White Sea with the Straw Hats.
Shiki watched the screen. He stood there for a long moment, smoke from his cigar drifting up toward the ceiling.
Then, he simply turned and walked away.
---
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