The Hell Pirates were all in, chasing their grand dream of turning their base into a pirate haven. Even Golden Lion Shiki, zapped and howling from lightning, toughed it out to haul Raijin Island back to their territory!
Something about that island was special—its core churned out storm clouds non-stop. The moment it was dragged near Elan Island, dark thunderheads gathered, kicking off a daily barrage of lightning strikes.
Charlotte Linlin's thundercloud, Zeus, loved zipping around there. Even Redfield started training on the island, eyeing a chance to mimic the awakened powers of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit!
The Golden Ark's lightning storage units and Thunder Shells soaked up the island's endless electric juice. It was like scoring a free energy goldmine!
Brook wasted no time, ordering Vegapunk to whip up a device to convert the island's lightning into everyday electricity. Soon, every island under their control would be powered up!
Vegapunk also revamped the Seastone chamber for recycling Devil Fruit powers, crafting a tighter, more secure setup ready for experiments.
And with that, the Hell Pirates threw another feast to celebrate.
...
Mind-reader Redfield, Memory Seahorse, vampire Shakky, Charlotte Linlin, and Brook gathered for the occasion. Even ship doctor Crocus insisted on joining the party.
Crocus, with a straight face, pitched a wild idea: keep the 900-million-Belly bounty Sandy alive as a blood bank to churn out blood crystal dandelions indefinitely!
Shakky and Linlin shot the idea down hard. They wanted to drain Sandy dry in one go. Crocus's plan made sense—sustainable blood harvesting was smart—but Brook stood to lose the most. Harvesting Sandy's soul was his ticket to boosting his own power, and that meant killing the guy!
Still, a soulless, partially drained Sandy could survive, minus some blood and lifespan. Brook reluctantly nixed Crocus's plan, needing that top-tier pirate soul to fuel his army.
But he gave Crocus a nod for the ruthless ingenuity.
"Brilliant thinking, Crocus! Next time we nab a non-Devil Fruit-using top pirate, we'll keep 'em as our 'voluntary blood donor' for the long haul!"
Brook had his sights on big names like Shirokiri, Skal, or Ochoku—top-tier swordsmen and brawlers. Sure, he wanted their souls, but sparing one for a "blood donor" gig could work. Business, after all, was about playing the long game!
Inside the massive research lab on Golden Island, Vegapunk's genius turned everything futuristic. Automated machines hummed, making it feel like a sci-fi wonderland.
No wonder he'd already pulled off half-cyborg animal mods back on his home island, Baltigo! The guy's brain was a force of nature.
...
"Brook, I surrender! Don't kill me!"
Sandy, bound head to toe in Seastone chains, screamed in terror. He didn't want to die. He'd clawed his way through mountains of corpses in the Rocks Pirates to become a top officer.
After all those years, to go down to Brook like this? No way he'd accept it!
In the Rocks Pirates, strength ruled, and loyalty was a myth. Faced with death, Sandy had no qualms betraying Rocks to save his skin.
"Sorry, pal," Brook said, his skull grinning. "I'd love to take you in, but my crew's itching to juice up their powers with you. Time to head to the underworld! I hear it's booming down there—might even score you a big break, yohoho! What do you say?"
Brook conveniently forgot to mention that Sandy's soul wouldn't reach the underworld—it'd be enslaved as one of his ghostly generals!
Redfield, done probing Sandy's mind, slipped away to sort through scraps of intel about the Rocks Pirates.
...
Memory Seahorse and Shakky got to work, sinking their metaphorical teeth into Sandy. As fear gripped him, Linlin ripped out his soul, plundering his lifespan like a kid in a candy store.
Crocus sighed nearby, mourning the loss of a prime "blood cow." All he had left were a few buckets of Sandy's blood in his lab—small change for a mini-giant like Sandy.
Shakky, though, wasn't impressed.
"This blood's barely better than Brelco's 700-million-Belly haul," she grumbled. "Not as potent as I expected."
Finally, Brook took pity on Sandy's miserable, half-dead state.
"Time to send you off properly," he said, tossing him into the Seastone chamber to recycle his Devil Fruit power.
Brook left the technical stuff to Vegapunk. All he cared about was snagging Sandy's bone-control Devil Fruit. What exactly could it do? He was eager to find out.
...
Next, Brook turned his attention to the Kurozumi siblings—Higurashi and Semimaru. Their Clone-Clone Fruit and Barrier-Barrier Fruit were tempting. The Clone Fruit felt a bit underwhelming, though—just copying appearances? Could it copy strength, too? That'd depend on how it was developed.
Take Chameleone's Copy-Copy Fruit, for example. It mimicked looks, moves, and a sliver of Devil Fruit powers—way stronger than the Clone Fruit!
Then there was the Mythical Zoan Nine-Tailed Fox Fruit, packing transformation, insane recovery, and physical boosts. By comparison, the Clone Fruit seemed lackluster. Could it be pushed further? Maybe mimic skills instantly?
Imagine a Clone Fruit user mastering moves just by watching—stealing techniques and claiming them as their own!
...
Snapping out of his daydreams, Brook noted Shakky's disinterest in the Kurozumi siblings. She passed on their blood, heading off to digest Sandy's instead.
"Kids these days," Brook muttered. "So picky! Where are we gonna find more top-tier pirates? These guys are rare as phoenix feathers in the New World!"
Memory Seahorse and Linlin, less fussy, dug into the Kurozumis' essence. Redfield, meanwhile, seemed to have struck gold with some juicy intel from the siblings.
"Brook, we're about to hit the jackpot—but it's gonna be tricky!" Redfield said, grinning.
He spilled the beans: while posing as someone else, Kurozumi Higurashi had snooped out a bombshell. The Celestial Dragons had been hoarding or outright stealing some of the most powerful Devil Fruits!
And the trail led to their stronghold , a mysterious hub near the Red Line, practically a mirror to the Sabaody Archipelago.
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+300 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg