Kaien's hands moved faster than thought.
A silver panel slid open in the forge wall, revealing a sealed terminal — smooth, surgical steel etched with micro-runes and pulse threads. No one alive had access to this system.
Not even Vegapunk.
But Vegapunk built it.
Or at least… the version Kaien met.
Kaien inserted the Wraith Spark echo-bead — the fragment he'd siphoned from Ravina during her last Forge session. The console pulsed once, scanned the emotional print, and began to unlock.
Counterfruit Protocol 01: Reversal Thread Engaged.
Only seven people in the world knew this existed. Kaien was the only one not dead or detained.
He muttered:
"Wraith Spark. Logia shell. Paramecia imprint. Catalyst: guilt. Spike signature: broadcast-grade emotion-looping. Viral potential: high."
The console bled heat.
A glyph-logic thread slid down, projecting a schematic of the Wraith Spark Fruit in its current mutated state. It had evolved well past its intended boundaries.
Too emotional. Too intelligent. Too alive.
Kaien began building a solution.
Not a weapon. A counterfruit.
He would use core inversion — Vegapunk's disallowed technique from the Ghost Core Project — and suppress Ravina's overload by destabilizing her essence resonance.
But the cost?
The fruit would mirror Ravina's guilt.
To erase her power, he'd have to erase her pain.
And she wouldn't let go of it easily.
Cipher Pol Aigis Zero — Mobile Flagship "Judgement"
"Sir, we've confirmed hybrid resonance signatures in Brambledeep," said the faceless agent at the terminal.
The Cipher Pol Aigis Zero (CP-0) commander sat in silence, the wind fluttering the black sash across his armored coat. His face was hidden by the customary white mask — handpainted, bone-white, cracked once across the chin.
He tapped his gloved finger against the Godfruit symbol glowing on his private monitor.
"Confirm the signature," he said coldly.
The agent flinched. "Confirmed. It matches the unauthorized Wraith Spark design in the forbidden index. Designated Class-Ω—"
"I don't care about the classification," the commander interrupted. "Is it Kaien?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then prepare a memory trap. I want him alive long enough to explain how he bypassed the Fruit Codex."
Irka – Kaien's Inner Forge Lab
Sparks flew.
The forge's glyph-thread interface churned with layered blueprint logic as Kaien pulled pieces from broken prototype cores. He used a hollow shell — grown from tempered Seastone dust, fused with Sky Island coral — and inserted a core fragment labeled:
"Failed Fruit No. 72 – Seismic-Type / Glassquake"
Logia instability. Causes refractive memory dissonance.
This fruit hadn't just hurt its last user — it shattered their memories, leaving them speaking backwards in broken song.
Kaien injected an emotional scaffold: suppression.
Not erasure. Just… numbness.
He added a mirrored Paramecia splice — one that recognized guilt and inverted it. Instead of fueling power, it would bleed it dry.
As the final trigger sequence locked in, the fruit hardened in his hands.
Smooth. Bone-white. Laced with translucent fracture lines. Like cracked porcelain.
REMNANT BREAK FRUIT
Hybrid Type: Logia + Paramecia
Effect: Dampens active Devil Fruit resonance in proximity.
Catalyst: Acceptance of loss.
Trigger: "Activates only when user has forgotten their worst memory."
Risk: Core instability possible if trauma returns mid-use.
Kaien stared at the fruit.
If Ravina ate this, she'd be freed — but not healed.
She'd lose the memory that gave her power.
Her daughter.
He clenched the fruit in one hand.
"Do I take away the only reason she survived… just to save her?"
Meanwhile — Brambledeep, Broadcast Tower
Ravina stood alone at the top of the tower.
The city's riot fires glowed behind her. Varn had taken the loyalists below. She didn't need protection now.
She felt the guilt of the entire city.
It was beautiful.
She could feel every dirty secret leaking through the cables — every confession, every buried scream, every heart that never got to say goodbye.
But the worst was her own.
And it was fading.
"Don't you dare forget her."
Her voice was ragged.
Lightning flickered. Her arm phased in and out of visibility.
"Don't you dare take her from me."
And yet… somewhere deep inside her—
Something was trying to help her forget.
CP-0 — Undercover Extraction Unit, entering Brambledeep
Cipher Pol Aigis Zero moved like shadows.
One touched a den den mushi receiver Ravina had corrupted — and recoiled as the static lashed him across the face.
"Confirmed. Target has passed into broadcast-phase mutation."
The commander's voice hissed in his ear.
"Change of plan. Prepare the Reclaimer."
"Sir? That's a Forge-tier protocol."
"Exactly."
Final Scene – Kaien's Forge
Kaien sealed the Remnant Break Fruit in a memory-locked case. It could only be opened by someone who didn't know what was inside.
He carried it to the sea.
He knew where Ravina was.
She wouldn't let go of her guilt.
So he'd have to offer her a choice:
Burn forever…
Or forget.
His den den mushi buzzed.
Dreego's voice came through, slow and amused:
"I see you've built a cure. So tell me, Kaien…"
"What happens when she chooses to stay broken?"