Thunder cracked above Brambledeep.
Inside the ruined broadcast tower, Ravina stood at the center of a growing storm — lightning orbiting her body in erratic pulses. Her pupils glowed like twin sparks, and her voice came out layered, echoing with the static of stolen frequencies.
"Guilt burns cleaner than justice ever could."
The people who'd gathered to worship her power didn't understand what they were watching.
But he did.
A tall man with skin like forged iron stepped forward through the crowd, his coat torn and his chest covered in crude lightning-bolt tattoos. Metal bolts lined his arms, grafted into muscle and bone — a walking lightning rod.
Name: Varn Cragg.
Former bounty: 118 million.
Crime: Ate a failed artificial fruit and lived.
He bowed before Ravina, mechanical spine groaning.
"I felt the signal," he rasped. "You called."
"I didn't call," Ravina said, voice distorted. "The current summoned you."
"Same thing," he said, raising his head. "I want power. I want more than the fake lightning that fruit gave me. You're the real source. Let me sync to your current."
Ravina's gaze pierced him.
"And what do I get in return?"
"Loyalty," he growled. "And when the others come hunting you — Marines, Cipher Pol, Forge Master — I'll be your lightning shield."
Ravina stepped forward, sparks crackling beneath her bare feet.
"Then prove it."
She grabbed his chest.
A surge exploded outward — not electricity, but emotion.
Guilt. Memory. Pain. Regret.
Varn screamed as her power searched him. Searched his past, his failures, his shame. It judged him — not by strength, but by what he tried to forget.
After a moment, Ravina released him.
He collapsed, twitching.
"You'll do," she said.
Kaien — miles away — in his hidden forge beneath Irka
Kaien plunged his hand into a tank filled with what looked like black oil. It wasn't oil.
It was raw fruit memory.
Essences collected from half-formed Devil Fruits, failed awakenings, and dead fragments left behind after Devil Fruit users were erased.
He pulled one out — a flickering core shard, barely stable. It pulsed with data-light and animal instinct.
Core Signature: ZOAN-TYPE (Predator Class)
Status: Split | Aggressive | Echo-Infested
Kaien grimaced. "No stability. But enough for a weapon."
He turned to a metal cylinder in the wall — his emergency growth chamber.
Inside was a fruit still in formation. It wasn't ready.
But Kaien was out of time.
Ravina had gone loud.
Dreego was moving pieces.
And now strange names were resurfacing — ones tied to Voidcraft.
He placed the predator core inside the chamber.
Lights flared. Circuits screamed. The fruit spasmed, as if resisting its own birth.
Kaien began forging.
Meanwhile — Dreego's floating lab above the clouds
He stared at a slow-rotating projection of the Wraith Spark Fruit's energy map. It now spiraled in impossible geometries — tapping frequencies that only ancient weapons were known to access.
He smiled.
"She broke the simulation," he whispered. "The fruit is evolving outside its lattice."
His assistant — a cloned homunculus in the shape of a small child — floated beside him.
"Shall I inform the Elders?"
Dreego shook his head.
"No. Let them keep chasing shadows. We've already breached the Godfruit's lock."
He held out a hand.
A new fruit floated into it — sleek, black, and humming with impossible density.
"Chimera Fruit Prototype 002."
"Compatible with multiple users."
"Designed to fracture identity."
"We'll call this one… Echoframe."
He smiled.
"Let's send it to Kaien. As a gift."
Brambledeep — Ravina's Hideout
Varn paced beside her, now wrapped in lightning-resistant chains to keep his powers from overloading his heart.
She could feel her power growing unstable. The Wraith Spark wasn't just feeding on her guilt — it was starting to feed on the city.
She felt memories in the air.
A child's scream from years ago. A betrayal whispered into a dead man's ear. A Marine confessing to murder on a dying broadcast line.
The entire grid was alive with pain.
And she was drowning in it.
She looked at her hand. It flickered in and out of reality.
"Kaien…" she muttered.
She didn't regret eating the fruit.
But she regretted not listening to his final warning:
"The first time the fruit feels what you fear the most… it will remember it forever."
Back in Irka — The Forge Room
Kaien stepped away from the forge.
The new hybrid fruit floated in front of him — small, dark-blue, and marked with three glowing scars.
BEAST SINK FRUIT
Type: Zoan-Paramecia Hybrid
Ability: Consume animal-based abilities. Override them. Mutate the body.
Catalyst: Territorial dominance.
Trigger: "Only activates when outnumbered."
It was volatile.
Ugly.
Perfect for war.
Kaien slid it into a containment lockbox and sealed it.
"I need someone desperate enough to take it."
His eyes shifted toward the map.
Ravina's signal spiked again.
She was about to cross a line.
He had no choice.
"If she burns too hot, I'll have to forge a counter."
Final Scene: A Mysterious Underground Prison
Somewhere beneath the sea, a man lay chained to a wall of sea-prism stone.
He was covered in brands.
His mouth had been sewn shut with haki-thread.
His fingers trembled against the restraints.
On the wall beside him, a devil fruit symbol pulsed.
The guard outside knocked once.
"They're forging again," he said through the bars.
The prisoner smiled.
His tongue moved under the thread.
One word pulsed into the air:
"Kaien."