Chapter 89 — The Hidden Truth
Gazing at the six pairs of shimmering, multicolored wings cloaked in black flames, Tachibana Kyūjō's expression turned grim. Through his Infinite Perception, he had uncovered the truth that had long been veiled—Azazel's abilities… were absurdly overwhelming.
Having Haki on par with his own was already a problem. But on top of that, Azazel possessed six distinct powers resembling Devil Fruits—and all of them were beyond broken.
With that kind of arsenal… how was he even supposed to fight him?
From what Kyūjō could see through his Infinity-based perception, those wings weren't just for flight. They weren't decorations, nor symbols of status. They were mediums.
Each pair of wings served as a conduit for Azazel to activate a different demonic power.
That's why Azazel could wield so many abilities at once. And more importantly—if even one pair of wings were destroyed, the corresponding power linked to it would disappear as well.
There were six pairs of wings, each colored differently—gold, white, red, black, green, and pink—and each one granted a different ability:
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Pink Wings (lowest pair): Teleportation
Short-range spatial transfer. The range was determined by how far the shimmering ripple from the pink wings could spread.
Of course, a busted power like that didn't come without a price. The wider the range, the higher the energy cost. The farther the destination, the more energy it devoured exponentially.
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Green Wings (second pair from the bottom): Regeneration
A high-speed healing factor that consumed Azazel's own energy to recover damage. Just now, Kyūjō had seen it firsthand—a deep gash nearly cutting to the bone had completely healed in under a second.
That kind of regeneration was downright unreasonable.
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Black Wings: Soul-Flaying Hellfire
These emitted black flames that wrapped around Azazel's body—not burning the flesh, but targeting the soul itself. A terrifying power that couldn't be blocked through physical means.
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Red Wings: Physical Reinforcement
They dramatically boosted Azazel's physical prowess. Combined with Colorless Haki, Kyūjō was convinced that a single punch could obliterate Mariejois down to its very foundations. The man was less a living being and more a walking natural disaster.
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White Wings: Parasitism
This was one of Azazel's two original wings from birth—and by far the most important. Thanks to it, he had fused with the human Imu over 800 years ago… and slowly taken over.
The primary ability? Parasitism.
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What's interesting was… Azazel had only ever used this power on other demons.
Why?
Back when Azazel was first born, he only had two pairs of wings—gold and white. Just the basics.
But after parasitizing another demon, he discovered something insane…
Whenever he successfully hijacked a demonic host, a new pair of wings would manifest—along with a new power inherited from that demon.
In other words, Azazel could steal the abilities of other demons by infesting their bodies like a parasite.
That was his deepest secret—the one he was willing to sacrifice everything to keep from the other demons.
And when he tried using it on a human—on Imu—that had been a mere experiment.
To his fortune, the result was a success.
Humans could serve as hosts too.
And with Imu as his vessel, Azazel was able to gain dominance over the rest of his kind, picking off the other demons one by one… and sealing them away.
After all, left unchecked, the demons would've eventually consumed humanity completely. And once that happened—what then? Abandon this world and search for another habitable planet?
In fact, that exact question had once been raised—along with a solution.
By a demon named Hakutaku.
When they first arrived on this world, Hakutaku proposed a massive-scale plan:
Humanity should be farmed.
Like cattle, human souls would be harvested in a controlled, scheduled manner, based on the power hierarchy of each demon. That way, the consumption cycle could be sustained long-term.
But that idea had a fatal flaw.
Demons were, by nature, manifestations of greed and lust.
How many of them would actually stick to a "scientific feeding schedule"?
Even if they pretended to follow the rules on the surface, who could guarantee they weren't stealing more than their share behind the scenes?
Azazel understood this better than anyone.
Because he did the same.
And to take full control of this world for himself—to eliminate all rivals once and for all—Azazel didn't resist the fusion with Imu.
He welcomed it.
And the plan worked.
Azazel and Imu ruled this world... for over 800 years.
Except for a few uniquely gifted demons, nearly the entire demon race had been sealed away—transformed into mysterious fruits that shared the same taste, but varied in type.
Still, a few "special demons" had managed to survive.
Including two siblings: Apate (Face-Face Fruit) and Joy Boy (Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika).
What made them so unique?
First off, Apate's power was often misunderstood.
It wasn't some ability that made people "show her face" or bow in deference.
Her true power was: Deception.
A rule-based reality-warping ability that allowed her to manipulate cause and effect through self-created illusions.
With this power, Apate literally tricked herself into becoming a Devil Fruit.
By doing so, she preserved her consciousness—and fooled Azazel for centuries.
The so-called "Face-Face no Mi," which allegedly made enemies respect or bow to her, was nothing but a mask. Apate loved adding bizarre rules to herself—and thanks to her power, those rules became real.
Things like "immune to seawater," or "opponents must bow when I activate my ability."
Her odd habits had caused Azazel to catch her "fox tail" several times across the last 800 years…
But time and time again, Apate slipped through his fingers using her trickery.
And one of the people she secretly helped escape… was Red-Haired Shanks.
In fact, it was Apate who nudged Shanks to take his brother—Joy Boy, wielder of the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika—to meet a true member of the D. clan, the one fated to flip the world upside down:
Monkey D. Luffy.
Unfortunately… judging by the way things were unfolding now—
It seemed the tale of the "Future King"—Luffy—was drifting farther and farther away from the center stage of this world.
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