"Come hang out again when you've got time," Fubuki said warmly. She didn't mind that Xiao Mei had been essentially just tagging along. Everyone in the chat group was so overwhelmingly capable that it made even her feel a little inferior sometimes. Having someone weaker than her for once was… kind of nice.
"If anyone bullies you in the future, be sure to tell Fubuki so she can let me know, and I'll—I'll send Kizaru over to back you up!" Tatsumaki straightened her back and put on her mature big-sister act. It was only in front of Xiao Mei and Ai Haibara that she could comfortably play that role.
"Mm-hmm, thank you, Big Sis Tatsumaki!"
Xiao Mei clearly knew exactly what Tatsumaki wanted to hear, and that one "Big Sis" made Tatsumaki beam from ear to ear. She nearly grabbed Xiao Mei's hand and tried to swear sisterhood on the spot.
Fubuki simply smiled beside them, watching everything play out. Of course, she knew exactly what her older sister was thinking. But it wasn't like she wanted to look more mature than Tatsumaki on purpose.
Unless she shrank herself with some poison like Ai-chan had, Fubuki genuinely didn't know how to look younger than her sister.
As Xiao Mei disappeared alongside Ai Haibara in a flash of white light, Tatsumaki couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed—just as Kizaru's expression turned strangely thoughtful.
He glanced at Tatsumaki's sulking face and scratched his head, shifting his consciousness into the dimensional chat group.
---
[Chat Log]
@RoadsidePasserbyWhoWantsToClingToLuoFeng: Whoa! Are you serious?! So if you eat a Zoan Devil Fruit, you can cross over to other worlds through the chat group? That means I can too…?
@RoadsidePasserbyWhoWantsToClingToLuoFeng: Oh wait, I could already travel between worlds. Never mind.
@Kobayashi: But didn't Kizaru-san say that even if a human eats a Zoan fruit, they're still considered human? You didn't turn into a gorilla, did you?
@RoadsidePasserbyWhoWantsToClingToLuoFeng: It's a Kong-class giant ape! Get it right, Kobayashi!
@Kobayashi: Ohhh, Kong-class giant ape. Got it.
@Orochimaru: Heh. It's true Roadside-kun is still technically human. But the dimensional chat system's restrictions can be circumvented.
@Orochimaru: Let's set aside Kobayashi-san's dragon for now. Didn't Kizaru-kun just try sending an alien through the system? Is an alien not a "person"? Hard to say, isn't it?
@Kizaru: A Zoan Devil Fruit, huh? Orochimaru, how confident are you?
@Orochimaru: Let's just test it and see. I already had one of my test subjects eat the Zoan fruit you gave me earlier. Anyone want to help verify it?
@Orochimaru: Don't worry, he was a heinous bandit before I turned him into a lab rat. Not a single tear would be shed if he dies.
@Kizaru: I'll do it. Send him over. If it works, I'll trade you another batch of Zoan fruits so we can confirm the risks.
@Orochimaru: Heh. Prepare to receive him.
---
Kizaru had barely returned his consciousness to reality when he received a trade request from Orochimaru.
Technically, the dimensional chat group wasn't designed to allow people to cross over. But leave it to Orochimaru—the loophole king—to exploit the trade function and launch a side hustle sending snake creatures from Ryūch to other worlds.
Kobayashi followed suit, helping Tohru the dragon sneak across the same way. Then Kizaru had used the trade function to transport Boros and his spaceship to another dimension.
Now Orochimaru was pushing a new theory: that someone who had eaten a Zoan fruit no longer counted as "human." If that workaround succeeded, it could expand the chat group's potential far beyond its original purpose.
And the key to that expansion? Kizaru himself—because only he, living in the One Piece world, had access to a supply of Zoan Devil Fruits.
At least until Orochimaru found a way to clone or synthesize them, this functionality was practically tailor-made for Kizaru.
---
[Ding!] Orochimaru has initiated a trade request. Target: @Kizaru. Accept/Reject?
Kizaru didn't hesitate—he hit "Accept."
A beam of white light flared, and the next thing he saw was a half-beastman with a blocky head and feline features appearing in front of him.
The sudden transition between worlds clearly scared the beastman, but once he looked around and saw nothing but a ridiculously tall man and two girls—one big, one small—he immediately broke into a wide grin.
He didn't know what had just happened, but judging from the surroundings, he'd escaped from that terrifying Orochimaru!
"Awesome! Sis, that means you can go to Kizaru's world too!" Fubuki exclaimed happily, hugging Tatsumaki.
She'd already seen Orochimaru's chat messages. As long as you ate a Zoan fruit and maintained beastman or full-beast form, the system wouldn't register you as human.
In other words, even Tatsumaki could now "sneak across" dimensions. Granted, she'd still need Fubuki's help to come and go, and she wouldn't be able to interact directly with the chat group.
But for someone like Tatsumaki, who was always glued to her sister anyway, that hardly counted as a problem.
"Tch, it's not like I really wanted to go to his world anyway…"
Tatsumaki pouted, still trying to act tough, but the joy in her eyes was impossible to hide.
"Hmm… if that's the case, should I raise the exchange rate for Zoan-type Devil Fruits? Or just cancel their exchange entirely? I wonder if artificial Devil Fruits would have the same effect…"
Kizaru rubbed his chin, his thoughts a bit tangled. Given a choice, most people would naturally prefer Logia or Paramecia-type Devil Fruits.
After all, compared to those two, the potential of Zoan types was clearly lower—unless it was an extremely rare Mythical Zoan or a special Ancient type. Otherwise, Zoan fruits were generally the least valuable.
But now, thanks to Orochimaru exploiting a loophole in the chat group system, a whole new use for Zoan fruits had been discovered.
Never mind others—Kizaru himself could already think of several practical scenarios for this. And it was only a matter of time before the rest of the chat group began mass-requesting them as well.
Even though he was soon to become Fleet Admiral of the Navy and was planning to overthrow the World Government in the near future, gathering enough Zoan fruits to meet demand wasn't going to be easy.
He had originally been wondering which Yonko to deal with after Whitebeard. But now, it seemed the decision had been made for him.
After all, Kaido had a notorious obsession with recruiting Zoan-type users. Sure, reclaiming fruits by killing current users was inefficient—but clearing out a few would free up some spots regardless.
"Hey! You kid over there! Where the hell is this place?!"
While Kizaru was still busy calculating how to gather more Zoan fruits, the "half-catman," having come down from his high of excitement, suddenly began yelling arrogantly at him.
Kizaru's towering three-meter height might intimidate most people—but his youthful, handsome face often misled others about his age.
And now that this half-catman had undergone some "upgrades," he clearly didn't take the tall guy in front of him seriously.
"Huh? You talking to me?" Kizaru replied, a faint look of confusion on his face.
He couldn't even remember the last time someone dared speak to him like that. Must've been back in the Navy Academy days. If memory served, that guy had ended up under Kizaru's command—and every time they crossed paths afterward, he looked like his spine had turned to jelly.
"Tch, looks like you're just a dumbass. Let me tell you, I'm known as the Spider Demon—"
The catman hadn't even finished his sentence when Kizaru let out a snort and reached casually toward him.
Furious, the catman unsheathed his claws, planning to teach this "tall punk" a painful lesson.
That plan didn't go well.
Kizaru casually grabbed the half-catman mid-swing and gave him a light shake—just enough to drain every ounce of strength from his body.
"Shift back to your beast form. Or I'll kill you."
Kizaru spoke decisively.
According to Orochimaru's hypothesis, only Zoan-type Devil Fruit users in either their beast-human or full beast form could exploit the loophole in the chat group system. But for Tatsumaki's safety, Kizaru needed to run more tests to make sure it wasn't a one-time glitch or fluke.
"…H-How do you know that?"
The half-catman, still limp from Kizaru's earlier grip, was suddenly struck with dread. He had no idea what kind of experiments Orochimaru had done to him, but ever since then, he'd gained the ability to transform.
He had carefully hidden the fact that he could shift into an animal form, and Orochimaru had never exposed him.
Who would've thought that a young man he'd never met could not only easily subdue him but also immediately call out the secret he had worked so hard to conceal?
"Three… two…"
Kizaru began to count down in a deadpan voice.
Just a faint release of bloodlust from him was enough to make the poor guy nearly wet himself.
In the blink of an eye, the half-catman transformed into a Pallas's cat.
It was a small creature resembling a puffed-up house cat, but with a fierce temperament and decent combat ability—one of the relatively stronger types among ordinary Zoan fruits.
"Cat-Cat Fruit: Pallas's Cat Form, huh? What a waste…"
Kizaru shook his head. A single Zoan fruit wasn't anything significant to him—under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even bother.
But now, with Zoan fruits essentially acting as one-way tickets to other worlds, things had changed.
If the Celestial Dragons back in the One Piece world found out, the value of these fruits would skyrocket by dozens or even hundreds of times.
Of course, that's assuming Kizaru was even willing to help them cross worlds. But by the time this secret got out, odds were high that there wouldn't be any Celestial Dragons or World Government left to speak of.
"L-Lord, please…"
The "Pallas's cat" dangled from Kizaru's hand with an awkwardly cute smile, clearly trying to beg for mercy.
Too bad it didn't get the chance to finish its plea.
Kizaru simply initiated the trade and sent it back to Orochimaru without hesitation.
There was still more cross-world testing to be done with this particular lab rat. And if it managed to survive through everything, one final experiment still awaited it.
They needed to determine whether, in another world, a Devil Fruit could be reclaimed by killing the ability user—and if not, would the fruit reappear in the Shinobi world? Or the One Piece world? Or vanish entirely?
°°°
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