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If Blackbeard's "atypical" body was indeed an artificial creation, then there must be a place where that creation occurred.
Arthur considered Teach's suspicious actions after he defected from the Whitebeard Pirates.
His future attack on the Drum Kingdom was the one piece that didn't fit, the one move that reeked of something strange.
Every step Teach took was a meticulously planned maneuver. He knew exactly what he wanted, and his every action was part of a precise and elaborate scheme with a crystal-clear objective.
He had hidden for decades within the Whitebeard Pirates, believing it was the best place to find the fruit he desired.
The moment Thatch acquired the Dark-Dark Fruit, Teach had murdered him without hesitation, consumed the fruit, and defected.
He had then gathered his five core crew members and gone to Paradise to attack the Drum Kingdom…
The first parts of his plan revealed his patience, his ruthlessness, his cruelty, and his intelligence. But the sudden diversion to Paradise to destroy an entire country… that was the part that made no sense.
What was the benefit? What could he possibly gain from it? To destroy a city out of anger?
If it had been Big Mom, Kaido, or even himself, Arthur might have believed it. But this was Blackbeard. It was completely out of character. His actions and his intelligence pointed to a man with a precise and detailed plan for his own rise to power. He would never do something so reckless.
Arthur's mind went even further. What if Blackbeard himself had been a test subject for these twisted experiments years ago? What if he'd survived some horrific procedure, escaped, and was now coming back for revenge?
And the idea that he destroyed the Drum Kingdom for Wapol's Munch-Munch Fruit? Impossible.
The Munch-Munch Fruit was powerful, yes. It could allow the user to consume another and temporarily gain their Devil Fruit ability.
Wapol had consumed his own brother, Musshuru, and gained the power of the Mushroom-Mushroom Fruit.
But that fusion was not a permanent acquisition of a second Devil Fruit. It was a temporary borrowing of another's ability. And things that are borrowed must eventually be returned.
Because Wapol himself was not an atypical, the only consequence of truly consuming a second Devil Fruit would be the two devils warring within his body until he exploded.
Blackbeard, however, was an atypical.
He could eat a second Devil Fruit, perhaps even a third. Why would he rely on the Munch-Munch Fruit to gain temporary access to other powers?
The idea of infinitely consuming Devil Fruits was a joke. The Munch-Munch Fruit's power was "synthesis." One must not forget the fundamental rule:
Devil Fruits cannot peacefully coexist in the same body.
If the Munch-Munch Fruit were truly that powerful—Blackbeard, who had read the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, would not have waited so patiently for the Dark-Dark Fruit, the so-called most evil fruit in history.
Therefore, Arthur suspected, Blackbeard's true motive for destroying the Drum Kingdom was not the Munch-Munch Fruit. It was to ensure that the secret of how he had obtained his atypical body was buried forever.
Only the dead tell no tales.
By destroying the Drum Kingdom, he would ensure that the black medical arts would never see the light of day again—and that he would remain the only one of its kind in the entire world.
Perhaps 'that' was the true motive for the annihilation of a country.
Arthur had thought about it for a long time. He was certain that the Drum Kingdom held a world-shaking secret.
Otherwise, it would never have attracted the attention of a man like Blackbeard.
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He had brought Shiryu here to find one person, to verify if his theory was correct. And Dr. Kureha, who had lived for so long and even knew the secrets of the "D. clan," was clearly the best choice.
For all he knew, the old crone might even be one of the practitioners of this forbidden medicine.
The Drum Kingdom was a medical powerhouse. The true extent of its medical development was unknown to the outside world.
The doctors of the Thunder God Pirates had once said that Arthur's injuries were impossible to heal by human hands, that only the power of a Devil Fruit could save him.
But Arthur himself did not believe that.
Because he knew that after Wapol took over the Drum Kingdom and began to slaughter the doctors, the remaining twenty, in a desperate bid to continue their research, had submitted to him and become the "20-Doctors."
And once, when Dalton, the captain of the guard and a user of the Ox-Ox Fruit, had cut off Wapol's head, no one had even panicked.
Dalton had calmly said something truly shocking:
"With 20-Doctors, a small wound like this is nothing."
To call a decapitation a "small wound"… outsiders could not possibly imagine the terrifying level of medical science that had been researched in the Drum Kingdom. And this wasn't a planned head transplant; it was an unexpected, direct decapitation.
So, even if he couldn't obtain the "black medical arts" or Blackbeard's secret, Arthur was confident that his own injuries would not be a problem for the doctors here.
Were his pulverized organs really worse than a severed head?
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The two of them trudged through the ice and snow, leaving a long trail of footprints that was soon covered by the blizzard.
The world was a vast expanse of white. A bone-chilling wind, like a knife scraping against bone, was relentless.
It was hard to imagine that anyone could live in such harsh conditions.
But the magnetic fields of the Grand Line were unpredictable. All sorts of weather were commonplace, and the culture of every island was different. Arthur had no desire to dwell on the climate.
He and Shiryu pressed on, crossing several hills and passing through a few villages, until they arrived at the foot of the highest snow-covered mountain in the Drum Kingdom.
The blizzard at the peak was even more violent, the wind so strong it was hard to keep one's eyes open. But the cold meant nothing to the two of them. They looked up at the steep cliffs, their gazes piercing through the veil of snow that obscured their vision.
A castle stood silently in the storm—huge, luxurious, yet seemingly cut off from the world.
There was no road leading up to it, only a few chains that extended from the high castle and were anchored in the ground at the foot of the mountain.
"It seems these chains are the only way to the top. Let's go, Shiryu."
He was getting closer to the answer. Arthur's will, which had been forged into steel, began to stir with excitement.
It was the same feeling he'd had on the White-White Sea of Skypiea, when he was searching for the Rumble-Rumble Fruit he had dreamed of for so long—the thrill of knowing that your life is about to change forever.
If this step succeeded, he would have taken a great leap towards becoming a true "god." This was the most crucial beginning.
Arthur's ambition was not merely to become an "Atypical," to eat a few more Devil Fruits and become the strongest on the seas.
To eat a few more Devil Fruits would not cause a true qualitative change in a person. His strength might increase, but the pinnacle of the world was where it was. It could not be surpassed.
At best, his every move would be world-shattering, like Whitebeard's.
But that was not a true evolution...
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