#artificial devil fruit

[hannahbarberra162]

Under the Microscope (Yandere Sabo x Reader) Part 8

on Ao3 18+ MDNI

All the other chapters

This particular chapter is fluffy. I promise Sabo's coming back to the island soon. And that he's just as focused as he was before :)

Remember I don’t know anything about science! If you do, just pretend you don’t either!

Your POV

“Make a Logia fruit? Um, that’s kind of the opposite of what I’ve been working on,” you explained, wiggling your toes in your wet socks. Your butt, feet, and sleeves were wet from the sea water lapping gently at you as you sat on the beach. The temperature was dropping steadily and you felt the chill of the night starting to bother you as you splashed. “I’ve been trying to reverse engineer the fruits and find a way to nullify their powers. I was thinking that maybe, um, Sabo…or someone..could um..I’m not sure really. But I can’t - those fruits shouldn’t exist and it’s all my - all my f-fault…S-Sabo tried to tell um tell me -” Your heart started racing again, beating faster and faster as your thoughts returned to the collateral damage you’d caused.

You felt Ace’s hand on the back of your neck. He was probably trying to bring you comfort but right now it felt more like the weight of a guillotine. You shook him off, wanting to wallow in the feelings you deserved in spades. You hugged your knees and rested your head on top as you ran your hands along the parts of your pant legs that were still dry. You realized your hands were stinging from salt water that had entered the open wounds left from biting your fingers.

“I caused a lot of pain and suffering, too. I get it,” Ace said, stretching out his legs. You hummed, you couldn’t imagine any one person had unintentionally brought so much devastation to the world as you had.

“Did you watch Marineford? The Paramount Wars?” Ace asked while observing the sunset. 

You took a deep breath, held it in for a moment, then exhaled. “Um, no, Sabo already asked. I was supposed to watch it live but I was too busy and then I never got caught up. I had just started getting assignments from the higher ups at that time and -”

“That was me. I caused all those Marines to die, my friends to die. Brought my brother into my mess, almost killed him too. Even killed my own father.” Ace said with no emotion in his voice.

“You - you didn’t kill your father. Are you playing with me? I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to tell sometimes,” you said, wiping your running nose on your sleeve. You hoped he was joking but the stiffness of his shoulders belied his calm tone.

“No. I’m Portgas D. Ace, Gol D. Roger’s son. I was sentenced to execution but Luffy came to save me. Whitebeard and the crew too.” You tried to take in all the information Ace was telling you but it had your head swimming. 

“Is Luffy your other brother? The one in the picture with you and Sabo?” you asked an obvious question to avoid the awkwardness of his statement. Helping others with their emotions was never your strong suit.

“Yeah. Strawhat Luffy. Me n’ him n’ Sabo aren’t related by blood. Roger was my biological father but Whitebeard was my dad. Died trying to save me. Buncha my crew siblings died too. Good men.”

“Oh.” You wanted to support him like he’d supported you but you were afraid to say the wrong thing in case he started crying or got angry. “That explains a lot of your lineage factors,” you added quietly. “If your dad was Gol D. Roger, it makes sense you’d have Conqueror’s Haki.”

“Didn’t help me much,” Ace lamented. “Luffy even got me free and all I did was waste the opportunity by taking bait from Akainu. Fucker tried to kill Luffy and punched me through the chest. The only reason I was revived is Law brought me to his sub.”

You blinked rapidly. “Law? Trafalgar Law? Dr. Trafalgar D. Water Law?” Ace grunted.

“Yeah, Trafalgar Law. How come you know him but not me’r Luffy? I’m more famous than him,” Ace said in a half hearted joke. 

“Oh, I’m familiar with Dr. Trafalgar from his articles, not his piracy. He’s brilliant, his articles are always so intriguing. I pay for a subscription out of my own pocket to the journals that publish him, actually. His last article was about heart replacement complications, I wonder if that was from you,” you mused. You cringed as you realized that was not an appropriate statement to make, considering it was likely Ace’s heart he detailed in the article.  

“Probably. He said it was difficult, but I didn’t ask about the details,” Ace said unbothered.

“How did he save your life?” You were curious about the intricacies of Dr. Trafalgar’s devil fruit power and how he used it in conjunction with his medical knowledge and skills. You’d hoped to be invited to a Warlord meeting and catch a glimpse of him but it had never happened.

“I dunno, I was dead for that part,” Ace stated, flicking his long hair over his shoulder.

“Right,” you said, wishing you could bury your head in the sand much like your toes were. If Sabo were here he’d know what to say, you thought. Unlike your own awkward nature, Sabo was suave and charming and would know how to soothe his brother. 

“Are you still healing? Is that why you still have all those bandages?” you asked. Ace raised his eyebrows and looked down at his own chest.

“Oh, no. I’m healed, there’s just a huge scar I don’t like seeing and the yukata doesn’t cover it.” he explained.

“Why don’t you wear a shirt then?” Ace frowned like you’d asked him to eat sand off the beach.

“Nah, not my style. Besides, all the shirts here are Sabo’s and uh…they’re a little too frilly for me,” Ace said. Shirts weren’t his style? What on earth did that even mean? And why didn’t Sabo bring him any? Maybe Sabo was keeping Ace on the island too, not letting him leave. You decided to gently press for information while Ace was in a sharing mood.

“So how long has Sabo kept you on the island?” you asked, hoping Ace would reveal some negative feelings towards Sabo. If Ace wanted off the island, maybe the two of you could work together and figure something out.

“Hm? He doesn’t keep me here. Actually, he’s been trying to get me to leave for a while. Wants me to “reintegrate back into society.” Ace said, using air quotes and mimicking Sabo’s voice, your hopes of escaping dashed. Still, you stifled a laugh at Ace’s impression, trying to keep your composure for the serious conversation. Ace gave you a small smile. “It’s OK, you can’t say anything to me I haven’t said to myself already.” The sun had set, leaving the two of you in the chill of the dusk. “C’mon, it’s cold and I’m sure the water’s making you feel shitty. Let’s go back to the house, get changed. If you get sick, Sabo’s gonna yell at me even more than he’s already gonna.” 

Ace stood up and offered you a hand, pulling you to your feet as well. The two of you walked in companionable silence for a minute before he spoke again.

‘But just hypothetically speaking, could you make a Logia fruit? From a scientific standpoint?” Ace asked curiously.

Ace’s POV

Ace knew you fell for his bait when you slowed your stroll and began chewing your lip. He could practically see the cogs turning in your head as you thought through the possibilities, your wet socks squelching on the path to the house.

“Well….the other fruits were made in advanced scientific labs. I don’t have the equipment needed to engineer something like that…” you trailed off.

“No, no. Not to actually make it here. But could you make an artificial Logia fruit?” 

“I could use the- well, it depends which one,” you said, starting to gesticulate. “The fruit I’d have the most success in creating would be the Mera Mera that you and Sabo ate. You still have the lineage factor which provides a large part of the genetic material needed to make an artificial fruit. Oh, and a strand or two of Sabo’s hair, that’s definitely here. Oh, and maybe part of my own lineage factor? Even though mine is paramecia it might help with some of the active components… And I could probably use any fruit, but for a Logia I would probably want something with a similar quality, maybe some kind of spicy - no that wouldn’t really make a difference, I think Vegapunk used apples? But there aren’t any here so maybe from a common fr- no, no…” you were off in thought, talking to yourself about how the fruit could be made. Reaching the deck of the house, you stopped before you went up the stairs. You stared off in the distance in silence, giving Ace pause.

“Hey, are you alright in there? Didn’t mean to start anything, I was -”

“The flame flower,” you stated. 

“Right.” Ace nodded knowingly, but had no idea what you were referring to.

“I could use the flame flower as the base and the genetic material provided by your and Sabo’s lineage factor. That’s how I could make it work,” you said, nodding slowly. Ace’s mouth dropped open as he watched you staring off into the darkness, Sabo hadn’t exaggerated. Your genius was on par with Vegapunk and other top scientists of the world. You looked at Ace and tilted your head. “But again, I can’t actually do anything without a lab. And a lot of money. So, hypothetically probably. In reality, no.” You nodded to yourself and entered the house, going up the stairs to change your clothes. Ace trailed behind you, pulling on your sleeve to get your attention.

“But can’t you like….” Ace trailed off, using his fingers to pantomime pulling marionette strings.

“What? I don’t follow,” you replied, looking worn out. He should really leave you alone and let you sleep but Ace couldn’t drop the idea, not after you said it was possible.

“I’m not - I don't know how to say it, but like, can’t you like change stuff? Like move the molecules around or cells or whatever?” You blinked rapidly while frowning. 

“Say more,” you commanded, your brow furrowed. You looked like how he’d found you in Sabo’s office, completely focused on one thought. The intensity of your stare almost rivaled Luffy’s when he was serious. 

“Like, um, y’know, like change stuff when you magnify it. Like move the stuff around to make other things? Aren’t molecules the building blocks of life? So move the blocks around?” Ace finished with something Sabo had taught him, trying to get his idea across to you. He wasn’t a scientist but he knew devil fruits could be awakened, he’d tried to do it on his own but ran out of time before his death. Maybe this could be the key to your own fruit awakening and to him getting his powers back.

You stopped walking and stared past him, blinking rapidly. Ace waved his hand in front of your face after a moment. You were on the stairs, he didn’t want you to fall and get hurt when you finally surfaced again. You moved your head away from his hand but didn’t resume walking. Sighing, Ace picked you up, disrupting your thought process.

“H-hey! Put me down! I’m not a child,” you protested while making no movement to get out of his arms. 

“Go do your big thinking after you change your clothes. Like you said, none of this is possible here and if you get hypothermia Sabo’s gonna kill me for real this time,” Ace joked. Depositing you in Sabo’s room, you smiled at Ace.

“Thanks Ace. Good night,” you said, holding the door to shut it.

“Good night, kid,” Ace replied, smiling. He turned and walked away to his own room, getting inside before he heard you yell. 

“I’m not a kid! I think I’m older than you!” Ace chuckled lightly, reaching to unwind his bandages. 

Your POV

You were exhausted from the panic attack and the subsequent heart to heart with Ace. But you couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said to you. You were turning the thoughts over and over in your mind, thinking about artificial devil fruits and the implications of changing the molecular structure during magnification. Like you’d told Sabo, you could get to the sub-atomic level but it took a lot of concentration and effort. You closed your eyes to rest but you were fixated on Ace’s idea. You tossed and turned for what felt like hours until your stomach rumbled. Oh yeah, you remembered, you hadn’t eaten since earlier that day. It was going to be a long night for you anyway so you might as well eat some food while you thought through the creation of artificial Logia devil fruits.

Heading down to the darkened kitchen, you took out a bowl and some rice. You’d made jambalaya a few days prior so now you’d give your stir-fried rice a shot. There still wasn’t any fish in the house but it would taste ok without it. You were able to make the dish on autopilot, washing the rice and vegetables while thinking about molecular changes. As you thought, you noticed the droplets of water that had landed near the colander. 

You could probably… try what Ace suggested. Changing h2o to h2o2 wouldn’t cause a huge reaction or anything, it would just be hydrogen peroxide. And only one molecule… If you changed the wrong elements or made too many molecules unstable, you could cause a huge chain reaction but that would take so many molecules and this was just one…this was just water…After starting the rice and starting the vegetables sauteing, you magnified a water droplet on the table. Getting down to the molecular level took a few moments but shortly there were two h2o molecules in front of your eyes. Careful not to erase the image, you used your thumb and forefinger to try and pluck one of the oxygens from a molecule and put it into the other. Picking it up felt like static electricity and your heart was racing as you tried to move the oxygen from its current molecule. It almost felt sticky, like it didn’t want to move, but it didn’t take much effort to disrupt its bonds.

You held your breath as you placed it within the bonds of the other molecule. If it didn’t work, at least you tried. You let go.

It worked. 

You were now looking at a molecule of hydrogen peroxide and an hydroperoxyl radical left over. “Holy fuck,” you said softly, looking at the newly formed molecule. You rotated it under your magnification and it looked identical to every other hydrogen peroxide molecule you’d ever seen. The implications were….

“Boo,” a voice said from behind you.

You shrieked like a banshee, jumping in fright. Ace laughed loudly and you swatted him with the spatula you were holding while cursing at him.

“Ace!! What the fuck?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why would you do that?!”

“Hey! Ow. Stop hitting me! Ow, that hurts! It was just a joke!” You huffed but you weren’t really mad as Ace dodged your well aimed spatula strikes.

“Why are you awake?” you asked, looking at the clock. It was the middle of the night, surely he had been sleeping like you should have been.

“Smelled good food cooking and I’m hungry,” he shrugged. You noticed he was wearing his yukata but no bandages underneath. The scarred skin on his chest was a deep red and in a circular pattern, blazing out from where his heart was. It was large and raised and had likely taken months to heal. You knew you were staring but the scar was so large and harrowing, you couldn’t stop looking at it.

“Stop undressing me with your eyes. You’re not my type,” Ace teased, sitting at the bar to wait for the food to be done. 

“Oh? And who is?” you asked, genuinely curious. You weren’t offended. Besides Sabo, you’d never been anyone’s type. And even Sabo was just pretending.

“Men,” Ace said offhandedly. Ah. Well, that made things between you a little easier since you didn’t have to worry about any sexual tension between the two of you. 

“Nice,” you replied, stirring the dish on the stove.

“Whatcha cookin’?” Ace asked, standing on the rungs of the bar stool to look over the counter and into the frying pan.

“Stir-fried rice. It’s one of the three dishes I can make, you’ve had the other two. Usually I put seafood in there too but we don’t have any,” you said, giving Ace a pointed look. 

“Well, there is a boat on the island,” Ace began, scratching his cheek. Your interest was immediately piqued - maybe you could use it to escape at some point. “But it’s my old one, Striker. It’s powered by fire and since I don’t have my devil fruit anymore, I can’t use it. There’s a sail but that’s not to propel it, just to direct it.”

You sighed, another plan to escape the island foiled. You thought in silence for a few moments, adding in the rice to the dish.

“What were ya lookin’ at?” Ace asked, watching you cook. You bit your lip, unsure if you should tell Ace about your experiment. You couldn’t think of a reason that the information could be used against you, and it was his idea anyway.

“Um. Well, it’s um. Not that big of a deal and I didn’t think it would work but um. I did kind of do what you said and, ah, changed the structure of a molecule - only one! Just one, it’s fine, don’t worry. And um it. It did work. I changed it by hand, so to speak. So I - that’s what I was looking at.” Ace waited patiently while you stumbled over your words.

“That’s amazing! So what does that mean? Does that mean you can make the devil fruit? The Mera Mera?” He exclaimed, his face breaking into a huge smile and eyes alight. 

“Um, yes, I suppose hypothetically speaking, I could potentially make a Mera Mera artificial fruit. It would be a huge undertaking but again, hypothetically, I could do it. Um, there’s enough genetic and lineage factor material here and I probably could if I worked on it enough but I don’t think -”

“This is wonderful! Oh my god I can’t wait, I’m gonna blow up Sabo when he comes back,” Ace exclaimed. He was off the chair and on his feet, pacing in front of the kitchen. “He’ll be fine, it can’t hurt him. Ooh, maybe we can finally fight each other! That little fucker has been using my moves, I know it. Gonna teach him who’s the real boss, ha! And I can finally make my way back to Wano! Maybe see Luff? I know his bounty is way higher -”

“Ace -”

“But before all that I need to find Marco and the crew. And Deuce, oh my god, Deuce. I miss that man so much, gonna kiss him first thing, did you know he was my first mate? I wonder -”

“Ace!”

“He might be doing better off without me, he wasn’t really a pirate, more of an intellectual type. You’d like him a lot. But I also need to go thank Traflagar and hug Bepo, there’s so much to do -”

“ACE!” 

Ace finally stopped pacing and chattering and looked at you. “Ace, I said I might be able to do it. I just made��one molecule , do you know how much work it would take to engineer something like that?” Ace shrugged and waved off your concern, continuing to pace behind the counter.

“So what? You’re a genius, you’ll figure it out. Besides, it’s not like you have anything else to work on right now,” he said, unbothered by your hesitation.

“No,” you stated, crossing your arms. Ace turned on his heel to face you immediately.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” he asked worriedly, racing to the counter. 

“No. I’ve been working on ways to undo the damage my research has caused, not increase the damage. It’s unethical to bring yet another artificial devil fruit into the world, no matter who it goes to.” 

Ace held you in his gaze for a moment, staring into your eyes. Even though he wasn’t related by blood to Sabo some of their mannerisms were eerily similar. He plopped back down on the bar stool with a sigh and ran his hand through his tangled black hair. “You can’t undo what you’ve done. Trust me, I’m the first one to wish things were different, that I could change what I did. But it’s not possible. Doflamingo already made the money, Kaido got the soldiers, Vegapunk made the Seralinas or whatever. You can’t undo it. What were you going to do? Make a new fruit for them to eat? It won’t work, what’s done is done.” Ace got up and walked to where you were turning off the heat on the stove and put his hands on your shoulders. You looked up into his freckled face.

“The only thing to do now is to help the good side win, help people like me ‘n Sabo. Y’know, fight fire with fire,” he said seriously. 

“I don’t know, Ace….I don’t know if that’s something I want to do,” you hesitated. Ace hummed. 

“It could be a one time thing, make the Mera Mera and be done with it,” Ace pleaded, shaking your shoulders lightly. 

“Ace, even if this works, you’ll still be you. You’ll be the same person, with or without the fruit. It’s not going to solve all your problems. You need to work on your emotional healing, not just your body. You can’t even show your chest most of the time,” you said quietly. Ace didn’t respond, looking away to avoid your eyes.

Ace took his hands off your shoulders and went over to the cabinet, pulling out two bowls. His face was impassive but his departed enthusiasm spoke volumes. You plated the food and set the bowls side by side on the counter, Ace bringing you a fork. You ate in silence for a few minutes, Ace mostly pushing the food around his plate. You thought about what he’d said about Striker and getting off the island. If Sabo found out you could manipulate matter, you didn’t think he’d ever let you go. Your only window of escaping closed once Sabo came back to the island. Steeling yourself against your better judgment, you faced Ace.

“I’ll do it. On one condition,” you said, looking at him. Ace’s cheeks were puffed out wide with food.

“Hwaf cuhdihun?” Ace asked, not bothering to chew or swallow.

“You have to take me off the island. Away from here,” you stated. You knew Sabo and Ace were brothers but maybe the desired reward would offset his loyalty to Sabo.

“Hmm,” Ace mumbled as he chewed. You watched him closely to see his reaction, this would make or break your escape from Sabo.

“Sure, why not?” Ace said, quirking his eyebrow with a small smile. 

“You’re sure? You know I mean you need to take me away from Sabo, right?”

“Yeah, I got it. I can get you off the island if the fruit works. It won’t help you,” Ace said, scooping the last of his food into his mouth. His careless attitude made you worry that you’d fallen into a trap you set yourself.

“What do you mean, it won’t help me?” you asked, frowning.

“Sabo’ll just chase you. And he’ll find you, no matter where I take you,” Ace shrugged, literally licking his bowl clean.  

You chewed on the skin next to your nail for a moment. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m not -”

“I’m sure. He’d follow you to the South Pole if he had to. So I’ll take you out, but you won’t get far. He really likes you.” Ace replied, patting his belly.

“He doesn’t, it’s all an act. He’s just using me for - well, for this. To have me finish Project Seraphim for the Revolutionary Army. I heard him tell Dragon,” you protested. Ace stared at you, eyes softening with an unknown emotion.

“Whatever you say,” Ace said lightly, getting up and plugging the sink to begin washing the dishes. You tasted blood as you bit too hard on your already chewed thumb.

Sabo’s POV

Sabo wasn’t sure exactly what set off his internal warning signal. He and Ace had been calling back and forth every few days over the weeks, exchanging information and pleasantries. Ace had been in an elated mood, which he chalked up to becoming better friends with Sunny. Sabo noted Ace hadn’t been wearing the bandages around his chest anymore which was an interesting development. According to Ace, you worked in the morning and took a short walk with Ace before lunch. After eating, you’d work again until the evening when you and Ace would eat dinner and go stargazing or hang out in the house. You’d spoken on the snail a few times, you sounded happy and refreshed. But Ace was up to something and had dragged Sunny into it, Sabo was sure of it. The end of his trip was approaching and Sabo was eager to sail back home and see Sunny. And Ace, of course.

Narrowing his eyes, Sabo wanted to catch Ace in whatever dumbass idea he’d concocted. Sabo was between meetings and ducked into an empty storage room to call. It was nearly lunch, not his normal time to connect with Ace. With luck, Sabo would be able to detect what was going on.

Puru puru puru puru puru puru

“Hey Babo, what’s up?” Ace said, using a childhood nickname Luffy had given him.

“My ‘Ace is doing something stupid’ alarm is going off. Are you doing something stupid?” Sabo asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Almost always. But right now I’m making lunch. Potato salad,” the Ace snail said.

“And where’s Sunny? What’s she up to?” Sunny was an incredibly poor liar, even worse than Ace. With only a little pressure, Sabo would get the truth out of her.

“She’s working in your office, wanna say hi?” Ace asked, the snail throwing a kitchen towel over its shoulder.

“Inna minute. How are you guys doing? How’s she feeling?” Sabo asked, trying to keep from projecting his worries into his voice.

“Good, good. She’s working right now, like always. Sleeping enough, I make sure of it. Eats food, drinks coffee and water ,” Ace said proudly. 

“Alright, put her on.”

“Gimme a sec,” Ace said, the sounds of boots on the wood floor coming through the receiver. Ace pounded on the door three times.

“Yo, Sunny! Wanna -”

“Fuck off Portgas, I’m busy!” you yelled through the door. Sabo’s gut twisted with the ease and familiarity in your voice you used for his brother. He’d been feeling jealous for a few days now even though the jealousy made him feel guilty. He had brought you to the island partially for just this reason - to befriend his brother. And now that the two of you were friendly he was seeing green. Sabo wished you were just as comfortable with him , telling him to fuck off or spending all your meals together voluntarily. Sabo tried to rein his feelings in but it was difficult when he saw that you’d given Ace a haircut, or you were wearing Ace’s old clothes, or saw how well rested you were looking. During the calls between the three of you, it was difficult to contain himself from making snarky comments. Sabo was homesick for you and Ace, his meetings felt endless and the two of you were up to something. He could feel it in his bones.

“Nah, it’s Sabo, c’mon.” Ace urged you. Sabo heard a huff and the door open.

“Fine, but you know the penalty for disturbing me when I’m working,” you said cheerfully as the snail changed its visage to your bright smile. Sabo had never made that smile appear before, he thought.

“Ow! Owww ! That hurts! Stop pinching!” Ace whined in the background as you laughed.

“No, you get five pinches for disrupting my flow. I was moving the mol- er -” you looked at Sabo, afraid you’d almost said something.

“Moving what?” Sabo asked brightly.

“Uh, nothing! Nothing, um just moving the, um, mol- um…mole. The mole,” you finished lamely. Sabo quirked an eyebrow. 

“The mole?” he asked incredulously.

“Yeah, um the mole. It’s um, gotten into the office and um Ace and I have been trying to catch it and I um, oh lunch is ready! I have to go!” you stammered. The snail turned back to Ace, who was laughing into his palm.

“I know you’re up to something dumb and I’m gonna find out what it is. If Sunny gets in trouble because of you…” Sabo trailed off menacingly.

“Ok, love you, see you sooooon!” Ace chirped happily and hung up the snail.

The call ending quickly gave greater credence to Sabo’s theory that some Ace-derived foolishness was afoot. He sighed and leaned back against the nearest crate. He was leaving for the island in a few short days and it couldn’t come quickly enough. 

Your POV

You and Portgas D. Ace stared at the flower-turned-fruit held in the palm of your hand as you sat side by side on the beach. You’d experimented and developed it for the past few weeks almost constantly. You’d worked harder than you ever had in your life, racing to complete the project before Sabo returned in the next few days. True to his word, Ace had locked you out of Sabo’s office at 8 every night but that alone didn’t turn off your brain. For the first few weeks after your discovery, you stayed up late in the night in the darkness of your room, rearranging molecules and perfecting your craft. Ace had figured out you weren’t resting enough and started sleeping on the floor of Sabo’s room to get you to go to sleep. Eventually, you’d invited him into the bed because you were tired of seeing him toss and turn on the hard floor. You enjoyed having a warm body next to you but it wasn’t the same as Sabo’s heat and pleasant aroma.

You weren’t sure if you missed Sabo or not. Ace was fun, dynamic, engaging, and easy to talk to. He made you laugh, either intentionally or from his antics, and he had interesting insight to share. Ace was an endless talker, providing you with background noise to listen to while you walked together. He told you stories about Whitebeard, the Spade pirates, his brothers, anything he could think of. Ace enjoyed your company and would watch you work in Sabo’s office, sometimes falling asleep and snoring to your amusement. You thought you and Ace were friends and you’d miss him when you left the island.

But a little part of you missed Sabo, too. He treated you like you were worth the world, not just what you could make or produce for him. Ace claimed repeatedly that Sabo was romantically interested in you, which always made you flush. You found Sabo attractive and charming, unlike Ace who felt more like a sibling. He was smart and intelligent and enjoyed the same intellectual pursuits that you did. He had kidnapped you but through his actions you’d realized how drained you were from the Marines, subsisting on coffee and loneliness. You had been miserable, sick, and stuck, even if you didn’t see it yourself at the time.

“Hey, your hand’s shaking,” Ace noted, bringing you out of your thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“Haven’t seen that in a while,” Ace mused. You didn’t answer, too nervous about the outcome of your experiment. There was no way to test anything and make sure you’d gotten everything right. You used parts of your other research, Sabo’s hair, Ace’s saliva, and sheer willpower to craft the hideous looking fruit in front of you. It didn’t look like the Mera Mera no Mi, it looked like a sad black sea urchin covered in molten red spots. Your lips were bloody and Ace had bandaged all your fingertips after you bit them too much.

“This is a bad idea,” you said.

“Yeah,” Ace replied.

“It might not work. You might not get any power and you won’t be able to swim.”

“Yeah.”

“It might kill you.”

“Maybe.”

“Sabo will be mad.”

“Furious.”

“You gonna try it?” 

“Yeah,” Ace said, taking the fruit from your sweaty palm. You had the urge to reach out to take the fruit and fling it into the sea, to let life stay the way it was. But Ace’s brow was furrowed and his jaw set, you knew he wasn’t going to hesitate. You held your breath and covered your eyes with your hands as Ace bit into the fruit, scowling as he chewed.

“You got the taste right. Not something you forget,” he joked, trying to lighten your mood. You took a little peek and he hadn’t exploded or projectile vomited. That was a good sign.

“Did it - did it work?” you whispered. Ace ate the fruit in a few bites, one of the advantages to his eating habits, you supposed. He wiped his hands on his yukata and stood up.

“One way to find out,” he grinned, pointing his index and ring finger like the barrel of a gun.

Fire bullets shot out of his hand rapidly, making you scuttle backwards on the beach. He whooped loudly and beat his chest with his fists, screaming at the top of his lungs. Turning and running full force at you, you squealed as he picked you up under your arms and spun you around in circles. His arms were too warm, almost burning you as he laughed wildly and spun.

“Ace! Ace! Too hot!” you yelled into his ear, trying to get him to put you down.

“Ah! Sorry, kinda forgot about that,” Ace said, grinning from ear to ear. He set you down only to give you a huge kiss on your cheek. You couldn’t help but share in his happiness and laughed along with him. He looked so much younger, his face radiating pure joy as he raised his arm to continue testing his strength.

“Hiken!” he yelled, his arm outstretched. A column of flame burst forth from his fist, the raw destructive power it posed sending a shiver down your spine. He turned and winked at you, finger still made of flame. 

“And that’s why they call me Fire Fist Ace.”

Tag list: @mfreedomstuff

[polarspaz]

Sanji eats an artificial devil fruit meant for Luffy, saving his captain but damning himself in return, transforming him into human, snake monster.

Unused to his new form, Sanji is barely able to slither or push himself off the ground at first, but No worries, Luffy's has no problem carrying him around until he figures it out!

[madscientistshowdown]

PROPAGANDA

Agatha Heterodyne

The main character mad scientist in a comic full of them

She's the titular Girl Genius, which is a good start. In the comic, mad science is genetic and called the Spark; she's the latest in a long line of of powerful, mostly evil Sparks who terrorized Europa for centuries, until her father and uncle became heroes instead. She's a bit in between the two extremes. Some of her greatest hits include: building a small army of self-replicating robots, briefly killing one of her romantic interests in order to cure him of a terminal illness (he thought it was a brilliant idea), repeating the procedure on herself, nearly blowing up after glimpsing the fabric of the universe, repairing the sentient castle at the heart of her town, frequently having to shuffle around brains that end up in the wrong body (they are usually happier afterwards), building a giant robot in order to ask the Godqueen of England to dance, and making coffee. At this time in the comic, she recently rescued her town from being frozen in time and is working to kill a horror from another dimension.

Caesar Clown:

Pathetic ass man that gaslights everyone around him in order to use them as experimental guinea pigs as he makes chemical weapons of mass destruction after he blew up an island to escape being locked up. The only thing he has somewhat affection for is his pet that he made from poisonous gas and unleashed it against everyone on an island. Also, he has a weird ass laugh that goes like this “shirorororo”.

He worked with Dr. Vegapunk! When they broke up, he moved into one of Vegapunk's old labs and continued working on weapons of mass destruction to sell on the black market, and kidnapped children the government didn't care about to experiment on them.

He is a master chemist, part of which comes from being a gas-man. He works seemingly only on evil projects and is very selfish. Caesar Clown has no problem abducting and gaslighting children into being test subjects for his concoctions, not caring what happens to them. He is jealous of the greatest scientist in the world, his former boss, and has done a lot of harm in his attempts to become the greatest himself. He is part of an Evil Scientist alliance. He is the manufacturer of an artificial substance that is key in a mutation-making fruit sold on the black market and discarded as the only food available to some poor communities. Many characters in One Piece have real life inspirations, Caesar’s seem to include Julius Caesar, two pirates, Pierrot dolls, and a particular 1940s German experiment-driven man.

This guy took children from their families and altered their DNA to make an army of giants out of them. He made them addicted to a candy so they wouldn't escape from the lab. He created a giant axolotl made out compressed poisonous gas. He also made atificial Devil Fruits but a large amount of them were failures, making the ones who eat them never being able to stop smiling and laughing.

[otaku553]

HI

I’m back in my crossover bs. Lmao.

[Albedo in One Piece]

This arose from a conversation with my friends where they asked me if I ever planned on rebranding form otaku553 and then one of them suggested onepiecealbedo553 to combine my interests and I said. Wait that could work. The crossover not the username

This is like the Kirby crossover more of a fandom fusion crossover. The main points stay the same— albedo is still an artificial life form created by Rhinedottir out of inorganic materials, left to his own devices after she leaves him. He’s able to play off most of the “being a homunculus” by saying he ate a devil fruit that made him into chalk, and most people believe him because nobody really scrutinizes devil fruit users that much.

Initially his main goal is to get to Vegapunk to ask if he knows the whereabouts of Rhinedottir, but perhaps because Rhinedottir was not on good terms with the marines he doesn’t want to interact with the world government or marines much either. I arbitrarily chose to put him with the Spades, mostly because the Spades are the kind of rough-and-tumble crew that he would be out of place in, but still filled with individuals that don’t feel that they belong elsewhere.

I probably won’t do any more for this crossover, it was just a fun thought exercise to distract me from work

[crezz-star]

⚔👒🗡

So I actually have a little idea about that ⚔️👒🗡️ ot3 (EGGHEAD ARC SPOILERS)

Seraphim!Zoro was the first human clone prototype Vegapunk did but he was just, dumped in some cell like a prisoner for any random testing. Until the marines attacked egghead and his cell was opened and he saw Luffy and Zoro fighting alongside one another. Seeing Luffy, he felt something stir within him. something familiar and pleasant. Excitement and delight. So when Zoro and Luffy defeated Lucci and they has a short respite, that's when 'Prototype' popped up and started to follow Luffy like a lost puppy and everyone got spooked for a minute thinking its one of the warlord pacifistas but Luffy saw he looks like Zoro. 'Prototype' is what Seraphim!Zoro was called by the vegapunk crew. Zoro's dna was used and his fighting data back at east blue was also used. Vegapunk tried to imbue him with an artificial devil fruit but his DNA keeps strongly rejecting it. So 'Prototype' is considered a failure by vegapunk but still uses him as a test subject. 'Prototype' was still being given updates in battle memory as they follow Zoro's improvement as a pirate and as time passes. Not to mention, Moria once lent a helping had to vegapunk who also studied and analyzed every move the Ryuma zombie made and fed that info to 'prototype' so his skills are also a no joke. Not to mention,

the Seraphim!Mihawk trains with Seraphim!Zoro. Which was only one of the reasons they kept prototype around.

Vega punk also made an imitation of Shusui that 'prototype' uses.

So prototype is very much like a quiet puppy. Feral when in battle but keeps to himself and is calm when not in battle. another reason Vegapunk deemed him a failure for not being aggressive like the successful new pacifista seraphims.

Vegapunk told Luffy not to worry about 'prototype' and that he's a failure and he will get rid of him but Luffy got mad and almost punched the vegapunk that said it. Luffy then saying, " DON'T TREAT HIM LIKE SOME ITEM. THAT'S ZORO'S CLONE. " covering 'prototype' protectively.

Vegapunk not really having a care for his failed experiemnts, just, told luffy he can have him.

So seraphim!zoro joins the crew. His name being give to him by Zoro - after Luffy's endless coercion LOL- Shiro. since his hair is white. The crew even scolding him to think of a proper name, that shiro makes it sound like Zoro is just naming a dog. But luffy likes it so they go with that.

Once Shiro joins joins the crew, Shiro eventually develops his personality to be closer to Zoro although, more quiet and stoic than Zoro.

Shiro also has sense of direction, but only because vegapunk made sure the seraphim intellect is high to create detailed tactics for war and battle.

[l-in-the-light]

Law didn't know about the kids in Punk Hazard

This will be an unpopular opinion, because fandom loves to think Law is so shocked here because of Strawhats crazy antics. But I believe that the actual reason why Law looks so horrified is because of the kids. He didn't know Caesar was experimenting on kids and right under Law's nose. He spent months there and yet he didn't know.

How is that possible? Because Law had to agree to two conditions so Caesar would allow him to stay on that island: 1. give up his heart in exchange for Monett's 2. not be nosey about Caesar's research. And if Law would break that deal, his heart would get crushed at any moment. So why would he break the deal before he would figure out how to get his heart back? He stayed there for months and I doubt he needed to stay there for that long, he was just stuck there because of that stupid condition. And yet soon after he found out (thanks to Strawhats), he reacts like this and betrays Caesar:

I still have no idea who Caesar reminded Law of. At first I thought "Doffy, right?" but Doflamingo despite being manipulative never had to actually drug people not to leave his side, that's exactly why he is so scary in the first place. My current bet is Vegapunk, for two reasons:

1. Everything Caesar does or did is implied to be a copy of Vegapunk's inventions, just worse quality: artificial zoan fruit dragon = smile fruits, that's why Caesar knows how to "respawn" devil fruits as well, don't think it's his own achievement. Also we're being fed to a lie for the whole duration of Punk Hazard: Caesar isn't the only person capable of producing SAD, Law reveals it on Sunny on their way to Dressrosa: "he only found an use for Vegapunk's lineage factors" - which means any other scientist could have done the same as long as they knew the method. At first Vegapunk was also part of the illegal science group of Punk Hazard, which means both him and Caesar did experiments on humans (prisoners, Kaido, Alber, but not kids, but it's still experimenting on humans). All things considered it doesn't have to be a stretch that Law might mean Vegapunk here, after all he did read a lot about world government's experiments that were previously done on Punk Hazard (he did share a bit about gigantification for example and that was also an experiment Vegapunk was involved in!).

2. It could have been Judge, but I don't think Law ever met him. His surprise at seeing Stealth Black for real was enough of a proof to me, he never met any Germa before.

Remember Flevance and all the kids dying? Or Law's novel when one of the first feats Law does after forming Heart Pirates together with Bepo, Shachi and Penguin is to rescue people from pirates? I even think it mentions "rescue kids" specifically.

Staying on Punk Hazard and having a deal with Caesar who experimented on kids and Law having no idea about it must have been a big blow to him. He probably thought he's partially responsible for that. And despite the fact we don't see much of his emotions in that arc, we do see two little hints of it:

Overreacting much? He didn't really need to cut them up, seems like he released his anger there.

This one's easy to miss. He eats while looking at the kids, gulps his soup in one go and throws away the bowl. For someone so calm and composed that seems like such an uneccessary display and has like nothing to do with his talk with Smoker. But if we compare it to a certain someone having a flashback to his trauma, it all suddenly makes sense:

I see the parallel here, even though it's subtle.

In summary: Law wasn't a cold bitch, he was actually genuinely traumatized after Punk Hazard. That line between "good" and "evil" the marines painted feels even more symbolic, all things considered. Law believes himself to be a villain there and hates it.

Bonus: Yes, I remember that Law told Strawhats to forget about the kids when they told him they want to save them. He probably thought they can't pull it off or maybe he still felt bound by his deal with Caesar. Instead of being a counterargument I feel like it just makes the whole thing worse: he thought there's no way to save them which in turn for sure made him feel even worse about himself. He ended up being what he hated the most: the government's decision of not even trying to help Flevance and dooming it, just like Law himself doomed the kids.

Strawhats literally saved his heart a little bit there, in Punk Hazard. Didn't help him feel better about himself, but made him believe slightly more in miracles.

[fireheartwraith]

I have a theory that is half formed in my head, but hear me out

Vegapunk, Judge, Queen, and Ceasar were all together in MADS. Some of the things they were researching were devil fruits (what they are, their different kinds, if they can be artificially replicated, etc), cloning, and body modification like cyborgs.

One of the main characteristics of the devil fruits is the swirly pattern they all have. Sanji and his siblings, who were experimented on my judge while still in the womb, all have that swirly pattern in their eyebrows. But neither Sora nor Judge have that, so where did it come from? Let's put a pin on that.

Now, when he first meet the other Vinsmoke siblings, both the audience and the characters go "wow those people look just like sanji!". You know who else made the audience go "wow that person looks like sanji!"? Vegapunk Lilith.

Though all the Vegapunks share a brain, none of them look even remotely related to each other and, as we learned when Atlas was injured, they're all some form of cyborg. You wanna know what else we learn in egghead? That Vegapunk has created the Seraphims, clone hybrids with Lunarian blood — an ancient race connected to the void century, skypeia and all of that — and green blood, which gives them the abilities of a devil fruit. And the Pacifistas were created using a Buccaneer as a base. So Vegapunk can definitely create android cyborgs robots or whatever using the bloodline elements of these ancient races. So who's to say he hasn't that one more time?

Lilith is first Vegapunk that we meet and the one we are still with right now. She was literally in Oda's newest color spread so she's definitely Important and she didn't do all that much in Egghead to justify her importance. Another thing about her is that she is supposed to be the Evil Vegapunk. York was definitely Greedy, Atlas was Violent, etc, but Lilith has never been Evil, and this has even been commented by other characters! And why would a genius create an evil version of himself when he knows the damage that his inventions can cause? So no, I don't think Lilith is Evil, but she’s definitely Something. And we know Vegapunk had an interest in the Void Century and all that stuff, and you know who all of them, both the Vinsmoke kids and Lilith, look like? Sora, Sanji's mom.

I don't think we're quite done with MADS yet, so here's my crazy theory: the scientists managed to track down a member of one of the ancient races that the government wants to exterminate really badly. The Lunarians are connected with Skypeia and the Moon, the Buccaneers are connected with Sun God Nika, so maybe there's a third mysterious race that is connected to our third one piece mystery: the devil fruits.

So let's say Sora is this person. When MADS finds her, they give her an option: they could rat her out to the government and leave them at their mercy or they could offer her protection and a place to hide in, but only as long as she agreed to share her blood with them. And so, she joined MADS. Judge, who has never heard of the word ethics in his entire life, goes a bit too far with his experiments and decides to impregnate her and pump the baby with some weird chemicals to try and create the perfect soldier. Reiju is born, but she still has emotions so he decides to try again. That's a bit much for Vegapunk so the group disbands and Judge takes Sora with him back to Germa. But Vegapunk still has some of her bloodline elements, and years later decides to use them to create his own weapon, but one that he can monitor very closely due to the sharing the same brain and one who was not created by experimenting on children (due to how he acts with Bonney, I think that is the one line he won’t cross). And so, he decides to hide this new weapon among five others so no one will look too closely at her face.

And we know that the Vegapunks can hide things from each other, so maybe Lilith herself doesn't know about this but the others do. We see Atlas sacrificing herself to make sure Lilith can escape Egghead, and why would she try to guarantee that the Evil One will be okay unless there's something in Lilith they can't lose or replace, unlike with the rest of them?

So yeah, that's my theory. Sora something something devil fruits something something ancient races something something Lilith

[dofushiza]

The Sheeple Theory: Cloning Experiments in One Piece

The One Piece world is no stranger to science, experimentation, and genetic engineering, as evidenced by the likes of Vegapunk, Judge, and Caesar Clown. One particularly intriguing corner of this lore involves a recurring theme of sheep-like humans. These characters, scattered across the series, may hint at a deeper connection to the shadowy history of cloning technology in One Piece. This is the foundation of what I call the Sheeple Theory.

The Observations: Sheep-Like Humans in One Piece

Five notable characters in the series exhibit sheep-like traits:

Merry the Butler: Kaya's loyal caretaker in Syrup Village has distinctly sheep-like horns.

Caesar Clown: The mad scientist from Punk Hazard is identified by Sanji as "sheep-like," largely due to his prominent horns, though no further explanation is given.

Bankuro: A lesser-known member of Roger’s crew with a sheep-like appearance.

Toto Land Resident: A background character in Big Mom’s Totto Land also bears sheep-like features.

Atlas: One of Vegapunk’s satellites, resembling a human with sheep-like traits. Notably, someone on Reddit mentioned her design may reference Dolly, the first cloned sheep in real-world history.

Key Distinctions: Sheeple vs. Other Hybrids

These sheep-like humans differ from minks, zoan Devil Fruit users, or SMILE fruit mutants in critical ways:

Minks: Minks are anthropomorphic animals with distinct fur, features, and cultural identities, far more animalistic than these “sheeple.”

Zoan and SMILE Users: These transformations are the result of consuming Devil Fruits or artificial SMILE fruits. Their traits appear temporary or artificially induced, not innate.

Caesar’s minions: Some are ram-like, but they were created by Law very recently.

Instead, these sheep-like traits seem to be a subtle but permanent part of their genetic makeup, closer to something engineered.

The MADS Connection: Early Cloning Experiments

This theory suggests that the sheep-like individuals seen in various contexts might have been among the earliest human clones, with sheep DNA spliced into their genetic code due to the relative ease of cloning sheep. The rationale behind this is the relative ease of cloning sheep, as evidenced by early scientific experiments such as the creation of Dolly, the first cloned sheep. A possible key figure in this early stage of cloning technology is Dr. Vegapunk.

When Caesar was born, Vegapunk was only 10 years old. This timeline raises interesting questions: Was Vegapunk a child prodigy whose intellect was enhanced by his devil fruit powers, or did he join the cloning project at a later stage? Regardless, it is clear that over time, Vegapunk mastered and refined cloning technology. This knowledge was likely shared with Judge during their time together in MADS, and Vegapunk later used it to create his satellites, including Atlas, who might be a tribute to those early cloning experiments.

The connection between the MADS scientists—Vegapunk, Judge, Caesar, and Queen—and cloning technology runs deep, as they collectively spearheaded advancements in biology and genetic engineering.

Supporting Points:

Judge’s Expertise in Cloning: Judge's successful development of cloning technology, as seen in the creation of Germa 66's clone army, likely stems from the groundwork laid during his collaboration with the other MADS scientists. His achievements hint at a shared foundation of cloning knowledge developed during that era.

Vegapunk’s Satellites and Cloning Inspiration: Vegapunk’s satellites, particularly Atlas, might pay homage to Dolly, drawing a symbolic connection to the first cloned sheep. This idea supports the notion that Vegapunk’s cloning techniques were inspired by or evolved from the early sheep-human hybrid experiments.

Caesar Clown: The Prototype Clone

Among the sheep-like characters, Caesar Clown stands out as the most human-appearing and influential. This raises the possibility that he might have been an early and highly refined clone. Caesar’s eventual partnership with Vegapunk and his role in the Punk Hazard experiments suggest a mentor-mentee relationship, rooted in their shared origin. Perhaps Vegapunk saw potential in Caesar as the "most perfect clone" of his time and groomed him into the scientist he would later become.

Because Vegapunk is a nice guy, he possibly let the other clones go freeto live their lives or helped them escape, and they ended up scattered all around the world of One Piece. 

The Legacy of Cloning

Vegapunk’s creation of Atlas and the other satellites solidifies the idea of cloning's continued legacy in the One Piece world. As one of Vegapunk's satellites, Atlas could symbolize a perfected culmination of cloning technology. The homage to Dolly in her design suggests that Vegapunk may still respect and acknowledge the earlier, flawed cloning experiments—possibly a subtle nod to Caesar, Merry, and others.

[animeyanderetalker]

What if Reader isekai'd in world One Piece wasn't an ordinary human, but a real magical mythology creature/cryptid, so many enemies, such as trophy hunters, scientists, marines, government, pirates, etc.

Being Selkie and saving Luffy from drowning in sea. Being Dragon and fight Kaido too as 3rd one. Being Kikimora, and helping Nami to steal, as being small, agile and grabby critter. Being Harpy and flying near Marco. Being Sphinx and fighting off artificial "Sphinxes" in jail. Being Unicorn/Kirin and heal everyone, especially from poison. Being an apple nymph and feeding everyone with this fruit.

It's highly possible that darling will be mistaken as a Devil Fruit user until someone witnesses that she is capable of swimming in the water. Honestly, possibilities with a darling that is a mythical creature from birth on is pretty vast as they are countless folklores. Darling could be anything from a Baigujing to a vampire or to some really powerful creatures such as the Hydra or the Leviathan.

[just-a-regular-fan]

I'm catching up with Mom Piece and Mama Drawk said something that went over my head when I was watching anime and rereading manga.

Miss Goldenweek isn't a devil fruit user.

Do normal people even remember her?

That kid from Baroque Works who's bending the reality to her will. AND NOW I'M LEARNING SHE'S NOT A DEVIL FRUIT USER? WHAT.

And I'm not exaggerating.

The title of the first cover story is "Colors Trap 'Rainbow of Dreams' Transform Into Whatever You Imagine!" and she managed to somehow transform Croc and Mr.1 even though they were quite away.

But based on the recent chapters I'm starting to think she might be like Bonney, maybe her power is also a result of human experimentation performed by WG. We don't know exactly wht's a difference between powers given by fruits and human experimentation. Maybe artificial devil fruti power allows user to swim, or to eat a real devil fruit as well and have more than one power.

But here's another thing.

Both her and Bonney's powers seem to rely on imagination a lot and I'm starting to think that maybe both of those powers were created in attempt to recreate Nika's fruit. Because if they could recreate it and just provide this power to their strongest soldiers, nobody could ever stand up to them.

[eustasskidagenda]

Just curious what kid would do with his partner if they had robotic limbs too during their rough love sessions.

If ok fem partner too

Hi hi dear, yes, always willing to write for Kid! And that was fun to write :D I hope the result will match your expectations, enjoy our favorite angry tulip and thank you for requesting. ☆ 

☆With a s/o who has a robotic arm

CW : f!reader, MDNI, smut, creative use of DF, rough sex, size kink, v!sex, reader has a robotic arm, dirty talk, spanking, hair pulling, Kid has a filthy mouth as always, fingering, slight praises, slight degradation (whore/slut are used), slight choking, let me know if I forgot something

WC :   1,6k

"Now, that should work." With a satisfied grin, Kid throws his precision tool onto the desk and runs a finger along your robotic limb. His beautiful amber eyes shine with a glint of pride. Your artificial arm is truly a masterpiece. All made by your creative and skilled boyfriend. The design is more intricate than his own, featuring delicate curves and advanced technology. The day Kid decided to replace your old, rusty prosthesis with a new one designed by himself was truly one of the most beautiful days of your whole existence. A gift from a man as tough as Kid is something that means everything. So you love this arm and you crave for this moment when Kid needs to replace some parts or make sure everything is working well. The view of his skilled hands and deft fingers working with the metal is astonishing. Kid may be loud and rude, but his delicacy in working with metal, particularly on your arm, is mesmerizing. Subtle and  yet extremely appealing. It makes you eager. Eager for his broad hand to roam over your body, and for his metal arm to pin you down on the mattress. Eager for his talented fingers to trace their way against your soft skin, running along your inner thighs, and eventually sliding inside you. 

"Thank you, Kid!" You smile and he just mutters something unintelligible before helping you to fix the artificial limb. "Move your arm." He orders, closely watching if all the metal connections are working smoothly. As it happens, he proudly grins. "We need to test it out in more intense activities." He adds with a shrug. Although his hot-headed brain is probably thinking about a good old-fashioned fight, your only desire is to feel Kid's hands crushing you on the mattress or bending over the desk. So you grab his fleshy hand and intertwine your fingers together. "We can figure it out now." He grins and shakes his head. "Damn Y/N, you're always so horny when I work on your arm, what a whore." It's his fault. "Blame it on that beautiful skilled hand of yours." He sneers, fidgets with his thick, manicured fingers, and pulls you toward him with a gesture of his forefinger. You can't fight against his devil fruit. In all honesty, you don't want to fight. Even without all this metal, you would always be dragged to Kid. Maybe he's a mess, but a beautiful one. Your beautiful mess.

Immediately, his hand finds its way to your ass. He digs his fingers against your clothed bottom, roughly fondling your cheeks with a husky sigh. "You need me so bad, yeah?" You just moan as he slides his hand under you skirt, pressing his digits roughly against your already soaking wet panties. With a satisfied, low grunt, he removes his hand and stand up, his massive figure looming over you. Sadly, you don't even have the time to appreciate his broad chest or the way his hair fall free on his fore-head as he quickly takes off his goggles. You can't even take a look at his large, already hard cock, pressed against the fabric of his pants. With one swift motion, Kid uses his devil fruit to bend you over his desk. Wearing metal rings and bracelets is not a good idea with Kid, and having a robotic limb neither. Because now, your arms are crossed behind your back and all you can do is bend over, helplessly, squirming, so needy for more. 

Kid poses for just a second, taking a look at your drenched panties. Wet, so wet and just for him. That makes his heart melt with pride. "Bend more," he gruffly grumbled, crushing his hand on the small of your back, forcing you to lean your upper body against the cold, hard surface of the desk. Your breasts are roughly pressed against the wood. Now, you're so helplessly offered to him. Just the way he likes it. His cock twitches in impatience as he watches your ass presented to him and immediately, he slaps your ass cheek with his heavy hand, enjoying the nice jiggle and the bright red mark of his fingers. "Lemme see how wet you're" Without any consideration, he rips your panties, exposing your glistening wet folds to his eager eyes. "Fuck, you're already a mess." He slightly kicks your ankles, forcing you to spread your legs wider. Then, he slides his middle finger inside you, a low grunt fall from his lips as he feels your tight walls around his thick finger, so hot, so wet, so tight and just for him. He adds two more fingers, circling his thumb against your clit. He's hitting all your sweet spots with each thrust, you mewl, move your hips, and try to impale yourself further. Your body clenches with ferocity.

You need more.

You need him to fill you up to the hilt. "Kid, fuck me, please." He merely laughs. "Such a good slut, always so needy for my cock." He takes out his fingers and as you turn your head to the side, you can watch him suck his fingers, glistening with your wetness. "So good." He growls while licking his manicured fingernails.

He unbuckles his belt, and removes his pants, his thick cock leaking in pre-cum springs free, pointing right away at you. He jerks his throbbing member. The way his cockhead disappears in his veiny fist with a slosh and wet noise is so obscene. You need him. "Kid, please fuck me", you whine, and he just slaps your ass roughly. "You like looking at my big cock, little whore? Need me to fuck your tight hole? " You squirm, flushed and flustered by his words. "Please," you just beg and he snarls a sharp 'Shut up. And this moron doesn't stop. He uses his devil fruit, magnetizing your entire body to his robotic limb. Your face is roughly pressed against the desk, Kid doesn't waste any more time teasing. With great force, his hips slam forward, sinking his entire length deep inside you. 

"Shit," he groans, feeling your walls clamp around his thickness.  He stretches you wide open, filling you up the hilt. Kid wraps his flesh hand around your throat, squeezing slightly while his metal hand roughly holds your ass. With his devil fruit, he keeps your arms magnetized behind your back, and your robotic limb is almost magnetized to his own. "Take it, take it all" he growls, slapping your ass once more, leaving bruises on your sensitive skin. All you can do is shout his name as he thrusts roughly in an out of you.

And he watches.

He watches how you core swallow his large member glistening with your juice. A low grunt rumbles in his throat. "Fuck, you were born to take my cok." The force of his hard pounding makes it impossible for you to answer, speak, or breathe. His throbbing member rubs against your sweet spot as he plows into you. Your legs are feeling so weak, and he keeps going. "What a nice collar you got there, little slut," he grins, squeezing your throat, enjoying how you choke and drool because of his hand and his member.

Because of him alone.

Kid can only grunt in delight as the beautiful, sinful melody of your moans and skin slapping against skin fills the room. You look gorgeous, with your tiny body completely wrapped around his big, metallic hand as he uses it to keep you steady. No matter how much you squirm, you can't even move. All you can do is take it. And you won't complain. Because it feels way too good. The way he holds you, the way he fucks you at a spine-breaking pace, the way he's losing his mind because of your body. That makes your mind dizzy. You're pulsing around his cock while he continues to chase his highs, grunting huskily. You're addicted to this feeling. He uses his devil fruit mercilessly, almost breaking your spine while he grunts and twists your arms behind your back. It's almost painful. Kid, let go of your neck, grab a hand of your hair, and lean your back against his broad torso. With each kiss on your neck, you know he's smearing his red lipstick everywhere. All those marks are showing to everyone that you belong to him, and only to him. 

"Kid, I can't hold back" you whine. He smacks your ass. "Shit, you're tightening even more. You won't let me go. Like my dick that much?" You squirm, soaking wet, clenching tightly, desperately around his member as you cum hard, all over his cock. Kid continues to pound away at your cunt, relentlessly, his breath hot against your ears. You whine, struggling to get enough air through your nose as he keeps stimulating your sensitive body. With a deep, hypnotic groan, he cum, filling you up with his hot seed before collapsing against your back, his head buried in the crook of your neck. He continues to give sloppy thrusts. "You look so pretty with my marks" he whispers, running his fingers along the bruise on your hips and ass. "You're always so good to me, such a good girl" he praises, pulling out in a squelching sound. He looks at his semen leaking out of your pussy and stuffs it back with his thumb. 

"You're alright?" You struggle to breathe, your legs shaking from exhaustion.Actually, you might even fall appart, Kid always leaves you both exhausted and satisfy. Your dear captain just laughs and slaps your ass. "Alright, come here, pretty girl." He lends you his coat and wraps your body in it to cover your nudity before taking you to the bedroom and laying you down on the bed. Grinning, he gives a playful tap to your robotic limb. "Well, I guess it's proof-tested now."

[sassypantsjaxon]

You know... this joke becomes kind of sinister when you know that the person who made Sanji was in a fucked up little science club with the person who was making artificial devil fruits

[madscientistshowdown]

PROPAGANDA

Marisbury Animusphere:

Spoilers for Fate/Grand Order. So. He’s got a grand plan to save the world and it has several components that are at least incredibly dangerous. First off, he needed an incredibly high amount of magical energy (he went for a Holy Grail, I could go on a rant as to why it’s not). Next, he needed 7 people to solve the 7 Singularities (he was gonna blow up the people to blow up the singularities) in order to save the world (we do it without a single casualty after the original explosion). Finally, he swapped the Earth with a reproduction in order to rebirth his own daughter as the alien god.

Protecting the world by destroying it feels pretty mad. Also, he killed himself in order to protect his plan.

Shot himself for the sake of continuing the plan

Caesar Clown:

Pathetic ass man that gaslights everyone around him in order to use them as experimental guinea pigs as he makes chemical weapons of mass destruction after he blew up an island to escape being locked up. The only thing he has somewhat affection for is his pet that he made from poisonous gas and unleashed it against everyone on an island. Also, he has a weird ass laugh that goes like this “shirorororo”.

He worked with Dr. Vegapunk! When they broke up, he moved into one of Vegapunk's old labs and continued working on weapons of mass destruction to sell on the black market, and kidnapped children the government didn't care about to experiment on them.

He is a master chemist, part of which comes from being a gas-man. He works seemingly only on evil projects and is very selfish. Caesar Clown has no problem abducting and gaslighting children into being test subjects for his concoctions, not caring what happens to them. He is jealous of the greatest scientist in the world, his former boss, and has done a lot of harm in his attempts to become the greatest himself. He is part of an Evil Scientist alliance. He is the manufacturer of an artificial substance that is key in a mutation-making fruit sold on the black market and discarded as the only food available to some poor communities. Many characters in One Piece have real life inspirations, Caesar’s seem to include Julius Caesar, two pirates, Pierrot dolls, and a particular 1940s German experiment-driven man.

This guy took children from their families and altered their DNA to make an army of giants out of them. He made them addicted to a candy so they wouldn't escape from the lab. He created a giant axolotl made out compressed poisonous gas. He also made atificial Devil Fruits but a large amount of them were failures, making the ones who eat them never being able to stop smiling and laughing.

[otaku553]

Straw hat women redesigns :) I was trying to doodle some of the crew and came to the realization that I just Could Not with Nami so I wanted to play around with it a little bit

Some more design notes below:

Nami’s design actually went a lot smoother for me than Robin’s! I think canon post timeskip Nami is a very low bar. While you can argue that to some extent Nami being vain and seductive is part of her character, I do feel that there are many more integral parts of her character that can be highlighted in her design, namely map making and her combat. Though not one of the stronger straw hats, Nami does seem to be well practiced with her staff outside of its use for weather manipulation, and I think her being a physical combatant, even slightly, can be better reflected with more loose clothing for better mobility.

For her mapmaking, I wanted her to have constant easy access to her tools and to information about the locale, so around her waist she has one large pouch at the back for books and scrolls and maps in progress and one small pouch to the side for writing utensils and measurement tools. As backup she also has 2 pens in her bun, which also act as pins for keeping her hair up if she ever needs to move a lot.

I’m not sure how clearly it shows up in the notes, but Nami’s shoe soles are also made from whatever artificial cloud material makes up the weather island she stayed on during the timeskip, so that it both pads her steps to make them soundless and bounces for better mobility. The shoes are naturally shaped like heels but without the actual heel, since she tends to move around on tiptoes anyways- a nod to her epithet as cat burglar and her past as a thief.

I made her shoulders a bit broader because I think they probably get a lot of exercise with her staff, and changed out the bikini top for a more supportive chest wrap, with a loose tank over it for breathability. The compression socks and sleeve are more stylistic than anything, since I like layers, but they might come in handy for her if she spends extended amounts of time sitting down making maps for the crew.

Robin’s was a bit more difficult for me to figure out, and I might go back and revisit it at some point. For Nami, it was a bit easier to imagine what would pair well with her combat methods and her needs as a mapmaker, but with Robin, she’s an academic who fights almost completely hands off, without a specific weapon to her name. Because her strength lies mostly in her devil fruit, she has a bit more room for style over functionality, but I also still wanted her to have something that made sense with what she was. I don’t really think I succeeded in that regard, but it’s also hard to convey what she does visually— she’s more of like a professor than a field archaeologist I think.

I really really enjoy her cowboy hat but I didn’t think it would match with the rest of the outfit so I switched it out for a wider brimmed hat and kept the orange sunglasses on it, as a nod to the revolutionaries with the combination of headwear and eyewear. She deserves a trench coat. I don’t make the rules. And the rest of the fit mostly came down to things I think I would enjoy wearing, haha

The trench coat is partially a nod to the scholars of ohara, who seem to wear white coats like lab coats in some screenshots of robin’s backstory. I think also the reading glasses help to make her seem a bit more academic, but aren’t prominent enough to leave a strong impression. All in all I do wish robin’s design had more functionality in it but I also think that robin is a character who probably enjoys dressing up nicely like this, especially in the comfort and stability of the straw hats.

[pushovermediacritic]

Theory: One Piece, the Straw Hats, and Botany

I think Oda has a major twist planned regarding plants.

Time and time again, trees and plants have been important to the story. The tree of knowledge at Ohara, the Adam tree on Elbaph that the Sunny is made from, and the Eve tree above Fishman Island are just a few examples.

But it goes deeper than that. In this prototype concept art for the Straw Hats, the crew doesn't have an archeologist, but they do have a botanist, the creepy guy with the bandanna second from the left.

We later learned that this image was doctored to remove Jimbei the helmsman, who was between Zoro and Luffy. Jimbei was always planned to be a Straw Hat, Oda plans things out WAY ahead of time.

But that's not the whole story. Because in the original version, there is another piece of prototype concept art in the bottom-left. This art has never been re-released in a clearer resolution, and I believe that's because it's much further along in the development process and thus much more spoilery.

My evidence for it being further along is that this art swaps the little floating kappa guy (the shipwright) with a big guy next to Brook who is much more recognizable as Franky. Chopper is also much shorter, closer to his final design. I also think that this second image had Jimbei in it, standing behind Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji on the left. Maybe the reason this art hasn't been re-released in higher resolution is that there is a second erased character on the left, who would be a major spoiler even now?

But the main thing I'm focusing on is that it swaps the bandanna guy for a tall woman standing between Usopp and Chopper, who is identified as Robin... but still has the job of BOTANIST. Not archeologist. Even this late into the planning phase, Oda still thought that a botanist would be absolutely essential for the crew. Who knows why he eventually switched Robin over to being an archeologist?

But whatever botany elements may have been scrapped in the planning stages have gradually come back over time. Robin's powers ostensibly don't have anything to do with actual plant-life, but they are still associated with flowers and petals and blooming. Usopp switched over to a mostly plant-based moveset after the timeskip.

Nowadays, the Straw Hats' ship is absolutely filled with plant-life. There are four separate plant features on the Thousand Sunny. The first is that the main deck is covered in grass. The second, third, and fourth are all together near the rear of the ship, and those are Nami's Mikan Trees, Robin's Flower Bed, and Usopp's Pop Green Garden.

Why does Robin have a flower bed? Nami's trees are important to her from her backstory, and Usopp's garden is the source of his armory. But why does Robin have a flower bed? Is Oda bringing back elements of her prototype job as a botanist?

I think the reason plants are so important to the Straw Hats and botany was an important role originally is that Oda has some great master plan regarding plants. Some major twist, on par with the "the world is flooding" twist we learned last year. Something he's had planned since the very beginning of the series, and has been patiently sitting on until the time is right.

I'm not sure what, exactly, but my guess is:

Devil Fruits. We've seen that Devil Fruits can be grown artificially, with Momo's Fruit and the SMILES. Maybe the origin of Devil Fruits and the means to fully understand them lie in botany.

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law and closeness part 5: What is he actually so afraid of and his reasons

This will be a slightly different post from the others, much more speculation, but I will include all hints and foreshadowing I gathered (which means this is a long post yet again). I might be wrong ofc, but I'm like 80-90% sure I read the signs right. Just in case my theory will turn out correct, I reccommend that you think twice before reading any further, especially if you would prefer for Oda's manga to reveal it properly and not get spoilered about the twist thanks to some tumblr post, which is totally understandable. Those who are fearless like a true D and still want to read this theory, a fair warning: this will be sad af. More so than previous posts.

Let's start with a short summary of our previous observations: Law always acts cold, he will draw clear borders and keep people at a distance, because he can't deal with losing people again. That's his major fear. His secondary fear is his fear of touch, the result of his trauma. With both of these we saw him making really decent progress on, thanks to Luffy especially.

I traced Law's progress all the way from Sabaody up to Wano. We saw him completely refusing any bonds in Sabaody, but then he takes the first step towards Luffy. Instead of trying to get closer he proposes for them to be in alliance, hiding behind the impersonal relation (Luffy's not getting any of that btw. And in case you think Luffy did it on accident it's not entirely true: he knows the actual difference between friendship and alliance, he did a normal alliance with Bege in Whole Cake Island no problem, proving to us he's not that stupid). Then we see Law slowly opening up, holding back less of his natural reactions (like getting openly angry), all while fighting his trauma related to touch and helplessness. Let's dive into his psyche.

Law is a doctor, that identity is very important for him not just because of his parents.

When he's a doctor and operates on people, he knows he has to touch them to save their lives. That's probably also the reason why he calls all his attacks and devil fruit abilities per "operations". This way he can create an artificial boundary in his mind, when he's in his "doctor mode" the touch is impersonal and professional so he is able to actually operate on people. And seems this depersonalization/desensitization technique works! The only time we see him comfortable being in contact with people is when he cuts them down into pieces like for an operation. And of course he had to be alright with touch when he operated on Luffy and Jimbei as well.

Here we have to note one more thing about his devil fruit's use. In Sabaody and Punk Hazard he cuts people into pieces and rearranges them, creating "monstrous creatures". This seems to reflect what he thinks of those people, people who usually treat him like a monster because of his devil fruit abilities (that must be a pretty traumatic experience, because doctors also called him monster before just because he was sick). So he pays them back for it, rearranges their bodies, because for him they were the monsters. This way he takes back his own liberty, he shows them that if he's the monster then they are as well. That being said, he does take advantage of his "Surgeon of Death" title, because inciting fear in enemies is helpful when you're a pirate. But after meeting Strawhats who so easily disregard the bad rep Law has and spending enough time with them together, Law stops creating monsters with misaligned human limbs. Last time we saw them was in Punk Hazard. He doesn't need that anymore, because he feels accepted for who he is, regardless of what some random marines talk about him.

His devil fruit is interesting because it creates a space in which he can easily switch items and people's positions without having to touch them. And he can activate most attacks by simply moving his finger a little or making a simple gesture, so that even in case his trauma kicks in and he freezes, then as long as he can move at least one finger, he can shamble himself away to safety. Seems like devil fruit powers rely heavily on the mind of the user, their traumas and wishes deeply influence how the power actually works. I wonder how would it work if Law didn't have his fear of touching.

Summing it up, in Wano Law didn't get touch-triggered even once, so seems things were working out well for him in this regard. He's managing it better, but I doubt that trauma is going anywhere and he will still need time to get more comfortable around people (he might never be truly done with it). But that's okay, that didn't stop him from creating a new friendship. So what's still holding him back? Is it just a regular progress-regress cycle of healing for him?

Is he just not ready yet? After all some decisions take time for him. We see it when he receives his devil fruit. We see it in Dressrosa when it takes him many chapters to admit his own desire to take down Doflamingo by himself. It takes him time to accept things he isn't mentally ready for. We saw that indeed everytime he needs to take an extra moment or two to brace himself to touch someone as well. So is that just it? He needs more time? I don't think so, actually.

Remember this beautiful moment? In my native language this translation of Ace's line is more poetic: I will accept the opened arms reaching towards me as well as the death by the blade.

What was it about accepting opened arms reaching for you? This is Trafalgar Law's first hug on screen. You can't make this shit up. This Ace-Law parallel is there in the story on purpose. And it breaks me every single time.

So I guess Law got over that obstacle as well. He's ready to move on and start new things. And then he creates a beautiful friendship with Kinemon only to retreat to step one at the end of Wano, not even wanting to admit they became friends, even though everyone knows they did (the same with Strawhats). We saw this beautiful progress, his regress for a moment in Dressrosa, him opening up and closing back again. But he improved a lot since Sabaody, he's not the same person anymore. Law in Zou won't retreat anymore before even making a first step.

I think what's holding him back now is his biggest fear. And he has a pretty good freaking reason for it.

Hint number 1: Ope-ope no mi might not be enough.

Hint number 2: lead bullets greatly affected his body.

Hint number 3: "You met Corazon and he managed to prolong your life just a little longer".

Hint number 4: "I don't have much longer to live!", why is Doflamingo reminded of that line in particular now if it's just a thing from the past?

Hint number 5: death is constantly on Law's mind.

I think we need to connect all those dots together. Yes, I know, this theory isn't new. But it makes more and more sense. Ope-ope no mi didn't heal Law from amber lead completely. He only managed to prolong his own life thanks to it. That's why his execution should be done with lead bullets, it's not because it's symbolic, it's because that's literally what will kill Law in the end. Doffy was going to make the process just a tad bit faster is all. Law isn't afraid of death, but he is afraid to die without achieving anything or "dying for nothing", like he says in his flashback. He managed to survive till age 26, but his time is running out again.

Law's supposed "awakening" means he can use rooms remotely, without the need to be inside them. Interesting thing about those attacks is that they all use anaesthesia. But shouldn't you want your enemies to feel the pain when you attack? Let's look more closely to what Law says here. "This influences your body in other ways". Interesting. Perhaps because that's the ability he uses on himself when treating his amber lead syndrome? That would explain the need for anaesthesia, otherwise the sickness would limit his mobility.

In other words: Law can remove/hide the symptoms, but he can't cure the source of the amber lead poisoning apparently. It shouldn't be so strange, he was clearly born with it, it was passed down from his parents, which means it's in his DNA. Using ope-ope no mi inside his own body is pretty clever and let me quote Doffy on that: "it's all about how you use your abilities". Doflamingo did the same with his strings to restore his organs, I think he got inspired by Law. And yes, all the hints come mostly from Doflamingo, so he knows Law is dying.

Let's look at events of Dressrosa again to see if my idea fits. In Dressrosa we learn for the first time that Law's ope-ope no mi requires a lot of stamina. Perhaps because he needs to constantly apply it to monitor his own body and that's why he can't spare as much for fighting enemies as he would want to. Then he gets shot with lead bullets and nearly loses his life as the result. Weird that few bullets could do it to him while he could take much more beating in general. Unless it's because his body is still weak to the lead and it makes the poisoning spread faster, which would make perfect sense. Then Law is put in seastone cuffs and carried by Luffy through half of Dressrosa all the way to the palace. There is no moment in which Law, no matter how tired he is by being manhandled, claims he could just run on his own. He doesn't even sit on the horse or the bull, is just lying down. There is no proper explanation as to why he was lying there lifeless like that, nothing was preventing him from just sitting down instead. Later he claims it was because he was saving up his energy.

But now let's look at this situation logically. He was lying down and compliant to insane degree, because he felt *sick*. Which should remind us of how he was sick before Corazon got him ope-ope no mi. At times he couldn't even move anymore. Putting Law in seastone cuffs means his ope ope no mi is not monitoring his body anymore so it saps out all of his strength. Remember this, this is how bad Law's health is already in Dressrosa.

Even with Doflamingo directly threatening them he can't lift himself up properly. This is emergency, this is not the time to be lying around, and yet he can't do anything and this might a sign of how bad his condition actually is. He's shivering here because he feels helpless and defenseless. His trauma isn't exactly helping either.

At the end of Dressrosa he is weezing, suffocating, but still uses room and shambles to bring Luffy to safety. We can see him there in the background afterwards, looks to me like his heart almost giving up on him. Few moments later he's lying down, most likely passed out. This all is very hard to notice. That room he used to bring Luffy to the ground was also huge, perhaps as huge as the one he used in the palace before to fool Doffy. And he says it cut down on his lifespan. Well, good to know he cut down his lifespan not once, but twice already, and just in Dressrosa alone. Oda didn't nerf Law in Dressrosa, that's not the reason of why he seems weaker than before.

If Law is dying and overdid himself in Dressrosa on top of that, then no wonder he would say this. He might have left his crew in Zou knowing very well that it might be the last time he sees them. Now it makes much more sense. But Dressrosa did tip the scales into making him believe he might literally not make it out and no strategy could help him to survive against the illness.

Now let's jump to Wano. Remember this puzzling moment? He didn't fight anyone, only did some warps, and yet he is already worrying about his stamina? Yes, I take it as a sign that his condition worsened siginificantly. It was ofc also used for the plot to move forward in direction Oda wanted it to as well, but he wouldn't do it *just* for that reason.

Now let's jump to fight against Big Mom. Law doesn't look alright here.

And he can't even get up after the fight for a while, he's panting all the time. Kid, who was also exhausted after the fight, is already back on his legs and moving around. Law meanwhile still can't. Not even when water is rushing their way and he needs to move.

That's some enourmous room he created there. It looks like 10 times size (if not more) of Onigashima. It looks bigger than the whole Flower Capital! So, how much lifespan did he cut down this time?

Now we're finally getting to Winner Island. Blackbeard used his yomi yomi no mi attack that renders the devil user who's hit with it unable to use his powers. We saw that happen with Ace, remember? (yes, this is yet another parallel to Ace. Both of them lost to Blackbeard). And this is how Law looks now without his devil fruit to support him. You have two shots from Winner, one from Dressrosa after he gets shot with lead bullets (lower left) for comparison, anime, and, finally, comparison to sick Law from the flashback. The only difference here are the missing white patches on his skin. Symptomps look exactly the same: heavy breathing, unable to move, shivering, and his forehead is shaded in same way which implies high fever. This is where we are right now: Law's now in as bad of a state (or very close to it) as the end of the flashback. I guess white patches take some time to appear, it's not instant after his devil fruit is unable to be used to repress it anymore.

We didn't yet reach this state, but it's approaching very, very fast.

Very subtle anime hints. The whole sequence with the poneglyph in Onigashima gave us a flashback to Corazon and shows him dying while covered by white snow. Whole flashback has slightly white hinge to it and Law enters the scene from the completely white background.

Just reverse the colors from that oddly coloured bit from fight against Big Mom. Oooff.

Absolutely despicable foreshadowing from One Piece Red. Hearts appear in the credits together with the ONLY line in the song that talks about death. I saw anime doing obscure hints like that countless times before, be it in openings or endings. Apparently some anime producers are aware of what's coming. The first time I noticed this scene with Law hiding his eyes and the lyrics I grew very anxious. I spent most of my life watching animes, I know what game they're playing here. Back then, I just didn't yet know what it foreshadows exactly.

Law accepted his fate and just like the lyrics suggest: "even if I disappear, my song will still ring out". Meaning even after he's gone, people dear to him will carry on and that soothes him. He smiles here, he likes this freaking song exactly because of this line. Those are his real thoughts, that's how he feels inside when he isn't pretending not to care.

This is also why he says things like this. He truly thinks it doesn't matter what happens to him, not just because he's suicidal or he wants to sound cool. No, he says it because he's going to die anyway, so indeed, it does not matter to him.

It's reversed from what we thought this was all about. It's not that he wants to kill Doflamingo so much he doesn't care for his life or chooses to die. It's gonna happen anyway. In fact, if he could, he would prefer not to die:

He wants to live.

There are many asian series dealing with terminal illnesses and protagonists coming to terms with it or embracing some difficult to make choices, like in Searching for Full Moon or Your Lie in April. But please let me tell you a short summary of Shiroi Kage/White Shadow, it's a Japanese live action series from 2001 (god, they don't make such good jdramas anymore, spoilers ahead) about a surgeon who is dying, but decides to keep doing his job till the day he actually dies. He shows a lot of compassion to his patients, because he can easily relate to their situations, especially those about to die soon. His compassionate heart saves a lot of people and helps them accept their own approaching death, even though the doctor is still struggling against it himself. He acts rough and cold towards anyone else than patients, people try to form meaningful connections with him, but he refuses any attempts. Finally he accepts someone in his life that he thinks will carry on happily even without him, because they embrace everything the life offers, no matter if it's love, death or rejection. That person becomes their most important person and shows them that it's okay to fear death. In the end the surgeon chooses how to die himself, without waiting for the illness to take him. White Shadow as a title is symbolic because white in Japanese culture is the color assocciated with death. Does that remind us of a certain disease that shows as white patches on the skin?

The actual reason why Law keeps everyone at distance is probably the same that the main protagonist in Shiroi Kage had. It's for the sake of others, not his own. He doesn't want them to get attached, to feel devastated when he dies, and if they never grow close then they might feel a bit sad but easily move on. This is how he wants to die: so people won't miss him and won't despair the same way he despaired when his parents, sister and Cora-san died. That's his kind heart right there. Kinda the same way Your Lie in April uses the concept. Luffy is still grieving Ace, he doesn't need another heartbreak of someone important like a friend dying, so Law would rather lie that this was never friendship just so Luffy can carry on.

Law doesn't have much time left. And he wants to take down as many bad guys as possible, he might have even set some plans in motion that will succeed even after he dies, Drake and/or other people will carry them out to the end even after Law will be gone.

Remember the cold goodbye in Wano? He stayed at the port after battle, he avoided Luffy and Strawhats (besides Franky) and even tried to make them leave on different day than him. He acted extra cold thinking it will prevent attachments, especially if he thinks he's seeing them for the very last time, with his health in such a bad shape.

This scene should remind you of Punk Hazard, it's a callback to it. Law already then decided that this will be how he will say his goodbye.

Q.E.D., the reason behind his uneccessary coldness is solved, every loose ties got explained, there are no inconscistencies left. That's why I think I read all the signs right, even though it's just a theory based on hints and speculation. But it all fits.

Law thinks Luffy isn't attached to him much yet and that he will move on happily without lingering too much on his death. Oh boy, he's so wrong about that. That's because he didn't see Luffy's reaction in Dressrosa after he passed out.

Luffy cares for him deeply. We saw how unusually happy he was when they reunited on Punk Hazard by chance. How much he bragged about Law being a good guy. How insightful and considerate he tried to be towards him! Sure, he pushed Law's boundaries a bit, because he thought otherwise Law would never be ready to start new friendships (and was he wrong? probably not). Luffy said goodbye to him in Wano with a smile, probably thinking Law just really wants to go for his own adventure, or maybe he needs some time to get ready to admit stuff. And Luffy accepts it and waits for him.

Once Law will realize his mistake he will regret ever starting that alliance in the first place. Because he fucked up, he will leave someone behind very devastated if he dies.

If this post made any of you sad, then I'm sorry. Please remember it's mostly just a theory. Tomorrow I will make a post that will instead make you shed happy tears instead, hopefully.

We all know Luffy or Chopper will somehow cause the miracle and Law will get cured, right? Even if Law's flower is the Queen of The Night that dies before dawn (that's another foreshadowing at work here btw). We need to believe and prepare a whole truck of tissues. Fate always found a way to spare him, we need to believe in it again.