As Souta Kiryuu and Xiru made their way toward the Lunar Core Mining Base, they paused mid-step when they came across a massive, chaotic battle raging in the distance.
"Looks like every damn one of them's a Devil Fruit user," Xiru muttered with a grin, cigar clamped between his teeth. "Finding a normal fighter in the Kiryuu Pirates is almost impossible these days."
He could've eaten a Devil Fruit anytime he wanted — Souta had offered him several — but none suited his taste. Watching Trafalgar Law teleport across the battlefield again and again, disappearing and reappearing in flashes of white light, made Xiru's eyes gleam with envy.
"That kind of power… unpredictable, deadly. That's the kind I like," he said under his breath.Too bad he couldn't get it.
Souta glanced at him, smiling faintly."If you took a Mythical Zoan Fruit, your body might become strong enough to handle genetic modification. You could gain the Transparent ability through surgery."
He was thinking of Queen the Plague, the Ancient Zoan user of the Brachiosaurus Fruit. Queen had used his monstrous regenerative power to transform his body — grafting in laser cannons, flamethrowers, electric emitters, and invisibility tech, mimicking the Vinsmoke lineage factors.
A walking fortress.Yet in the end, Sanji, the "failed experiment," had defeated him in one strike.
Hearing that, Xiru chuckled, smoke curling from his lips."If that's true, maybe I should try one of those Mythical Zoans after all," he said, his tone suddenly more serious. The possibility of combining a Mythical Zoan's power with invisibility was too tempting to ignore.
Across the battlefield, Douglas Barrett roared with laughter, unleashing overwhelming might. Even surrounded, he wasn't being pushed back — in fact, he was pressing the others down.
The once-feared Crocodile, who had once been considered Barrett's equal, now looked like a mere shadow of his former self.
"Go ahead, Xiru," Souta said with a grin. "Barrett looks like he's getting bored."
The swordsman's eyes gleamed."Heh, fine by me."
With a flick of his wrist, Xiru drew his demon blade, Raiju, and shot forward in a blur. He didn't hold back.
Sparks exploded as his blade met Barrett's arm. The man's black military jacket shredded apart, revealing his obsidian-colored skin — hardened with Armament Haki so dense it glimmered.
"Xiru!" Barrett barked, grinning wickedly. The irony wasn't lost on him — not long ago, he'd been a prisoner while Xiru was a warden.And now? They were comrades under Souta's flag.
"You've recovered faster than I thought," Xiru replied coolly, cigar still in his mouth. He had to admit — Barrett's talent was monstrous. Twenty years in a cell hadn't dulled his edge.
With Xiru joining the fray, Barrett finally began to feel pressure. Surrounded on all sides, he was forced to defend himself as Enel's lightning, Law's teleporting strikes, Moria's shadow spears, and Crocodile's corrosive blades of sand battered him relentlessly.
"Ahahaha! That's it! More! Don't stop now!" Barrett bellowed, veins bulging with excitement. Even while being ganged up on, he only grew stronger — a true battle maniac.
Souta watched from afar, teeth flashing in amusement."Now that's the kind of madness I like," he said, chuckling. "That's exactly how I learned Conqueror's Haki infusion — through pure insanity."
He remembered his own brutal training — fighting the divine warrior Garling and later receiving a few tips from Kaido himself.
As the battle escalated, Souta began instructing from the sidelines, explaining how to compress and control Conqueror's Haki infusion.He also lectured on how one might awaken the rarest power of all — Conqueror's Haki itself.
"Death's shadow, the rage against fate, the urge to protect someone precious, or pure, unbridled fury," he said."These are the sparks that ignite a king's spirit."
Add a little willpower — and a touch of talent — and you just might awaken what only one in a million ever do.
The clash raged for hours before Souta finally stepped in and ended it by force.Had he not, someone might have died for real.
After forcing the exhausted fighters to get medical treatment, Souta headed deeper underground to check on the Moon Core extraction project.
Progress was slow. Even with a Star-Core Cutting Blade, the Lunar Core was unbelievably tough.Most of the captured pirates had been reassigned to city construction, while only a few specialists handled mining operations.
"Boss! You're here!"
Catarina Devon rushed over the moment she saw him, her voice dripping with flattery. She had shapeshifted again — this time into the beautiful Vice Admiral Gion.
Souta frowned. "...Change back to your original form."
The thought of Catarina's grotesque, long-nosed true appearance made his skin crawl.If he wanted Gion, he could just take her himself — he didn't need a shapeshifter pretending.
"Understood…" Catarina replied awkwardly, her illusion fading. She wasn't happy about it, but fear of Souta's power kept her obedient.
Souta continued on, making his rounds through the mine. He kept the prisoners disciplined through a mix of fear and incentive, offering small rewards between acts of intimidation.
He wasn't lucky like Buggy the Clown, whose sheer absurdity seemed to carry a "Conqueror's Luck," but Souta had his own kind of charisma — one that made even the most dangerous criminals bow their heads.
Satisfied that things were running smoothly, he left the mines, heading back to the surface — to finally relax with his woman for a while.
But his plans for power were far from over.Next, Souta intended to undergo lineage factor modification — fusing Big Mom's "Iron Balloon" genetics into his own body.
Meanwhile, Vegapunk's six satellites were nearing the end of their research into Blackbeard Teach's mutated physiology.
Their findings confirmed what Souta already suspected:Teach's body truly contained three distinct souls, allowing him to house three different Devil Fruits.
Each soul rotated control of the body in shifts, meaning he never needed to sleep — a man literally incapable of fatigue.It was an anomaly so strange that even Vegapunk couldn't fully explain it.
"This isn't science," the scientist had admitted once. "It's… a miracle. A freak occurrence. Uncontrollable, unreplicable."
No one — not even Law, with his Op-Op Fruit — could replicate soul separation or fusion.Law's Shambles could move hearts, minds, and consciousness, but not the soul.The Devil Fruit ability always remained tied to the original body.
It was like when Franky once piloted Chopper's body, or Tashigi inhabited Smoker's — the soul never truly transferred, only the awareness did.
Soul and mind — they were worlds apart.
Even Law himself couldn't grasp the concept of a true "soul operation," let alone perform one. Which meant Souta's dream of wielding multiple Devil Fruits… was likely impossible.
Still, he smiled. His hybrid bloodline — the evolving fusion of countless genetic factors — was already something beyond normal humanity.
He didn't need multiple fruits.
If the Iron Balloon modification succeeded, his body would become harder than steel, more resilient than any creature alive.
Even without the Dark-Dark Fruit or any other stolen power, his sheer physique, combined with his mutating Artificial Azure Dragon abilities, would make him one of the strongest beings to ever live.
After layers of security preparations, Souta lay once more upon Vegapunk's surgical table —two years since the last time he had been here —ready to begin the next stage of his evolution:the Iron Bloodline Procedure.