"Captain! Mail — in the training room!"
Kuzan handed the letter to Sharn.
"Poisoned!"
Smack — Kuzan collapsed on the spot the moment he delivered it.
"Kuma, Ginny — help him!"
At Sharn's shout, Kuma and Ginny used their powers to purge both the abstract and physical toxins. They pulled Kuzan back from the brink.
"Congratulations — your constitution just got stronger!"
Sharn grinned. Thanks to CP0's trickery, Kuzan had accidentally become tougher. As repayment, Sharn planned to throw CP0 straight to the deep sea.
Sharn opened the envelope. The poison itself was nothing to him.
"You must have heard my name — Chameleon.
Tracking you from Drum to Alabasta wasn't easy.
Turns out you even saw through our tavern scheme. I underestimated you.
Come to Mogu Town. This time it's real — I hear you're collecting Devil Fruits. I think you'll like this one."
— "With admiration, the Chameleon who would like to neutralize you and hand you over to the Gods."
So CP0's tavern trick had indeed been bait. They meant to lure Sharn into a trap — except their plan blew up in their face.
Sharn tossed a silver coin and bought a paper; the headline made things obvious.
"Kurin, the Lion-Tiger — the last surviving CP9 — returns from the New World to the Grand Line!"
"He's escorting a Devil Fruit; reports claim it's a Logia: the Ice Fruit, to be delivered to Navy HQ."
"The long-lost Giant Pirate captains, Dorry and Brogy, reappear and call giants to arms — the Giant Pirate Corps will be rebuilt!"
Sharn barely glanced at filler reports about Drum — they said the king and the Navy had pushed Sharn's crew out when he briefly visited, and that the pirates vanished. Uulki was stunned at Drum's wintry scene — he'd never seen snow like that above the clouds.
"We head next to Mogu Town," Sharn said, sliding the letter across to Kaido. Kaido shrugged off the poison; the paper made Sharn's intent clear.
"They failed the first time. Now they're baiting us openly. The Five Elders really want you dead," Kaido laughed. "Anyone who tries to kill me will be repaid in kind."
Sharn wanted to know more about Kurin and the Chameleon — the CP9 and CP0 legends from the Rocks era. Kaido filled in what he knew: Kurin was a monster, a CP9 peak: the ancient-type Cat-Cat fruit (Lion-Tiger form) combining brutal power and speed; the Chameleon belonged to the Celestial Dragons' inner circle, a master of disguise who could copy others' bodies and Devil Fruit powers — a top intelligence asset whose Dual-Color Haki was said to rival even Impel Down's wardens.
"Got it. One's tough, one's flashy." Sharn shrugged it off.
"Sleep now. We act when we arrive." Sharn lay down in the cabin, staring into space — the kind of idling that lets his abilities mature.
"My choice is No. 3."
[Choice complete.]
Sharn committed to taking the Vampire-form reward (Choice 3). Though the Mimic fruit and Kurin's Lion-Tiger would be useful later, he wanted the Vampire power now. He prepared.
The ship drifted. Sharn used the Dwan-Dwan (吞吞) and Paw (肉球) fruit combo to swallow his own kidney together with the Resonant Thunder Fruit (响雷果实), then ejected the incompatibility and systemic rejection. Time blurred; to the crew Sharn looked like he was zoning out for three days.
Then he burst out laughing crazily. "I did it — I made it!" He staggered out of the cabin, shaking everyone awake. Olvia braced with her weapon-body shield — even that barely stopped him; his grip strength was monstrous. He raised his hands and laughed to the sky. The clear weather turned sudden and violent; he laughed because his kidney had become invincible.
Using a one-in-a-million process that exploited the interaction of two superhuman-class Devil Fruits, Sharn first swallowed his kidney and the Resonant Thunder Fruit into his Dwan-Dwan space, fused them there, and ejected the trauma and rejection components. The organ became a separate, autonomous entity (like Vegapunk's weaponized components), then Sharn recombined it with his body. The Paw fruit was used to cancel rejection and unify the whole.
The result: a brand-new Resonant-Thunder Kidney.
His kidney crackled with electricity. The purple lightning in his palm grew tenfold in power and its effective range expanded a hundredfold — by harnessing ambient electrostatic charge, Sharn could weave a sensory web like Enel's, integrating it with Observation Haki and projecting influence across an island. He also unlocked a new suspension/flight method — electro-suspension — alongside Geppo, wings, flame-clouds and bounce-launch.
"One more week and I can turn my spleen into Rubber!" Sharn shouted with manic joy. His fighting power had just shot up again: a ludicrously tough body plus elementalization.
Inside him, not just the kidney carried lightning — his three hearts now bore the markings of his three earlier assimilations: the Azure Dragon heart, the Paw-pattern heart, and the Dwan-Dwan mark.
"Another week? Stop talking nonsense!" Kaido scooped him up. He'd almost thought he was seeing an electric leak in Sharn's waist. "Work harder on those fruit abilities, and you'll learn too!"
The ship had entered the Mogu Town area; half of Gaia Island still lingered there. As they approached harbor, ships and warships crowded the bay — the tavern today was packed. Rumor-hunters and waiting hands filled the place.
"They're here!"
Seated at the bar was the Chameleon — he lifted whiskey to his lips. His eyes flashed red.
"CP0, assemble! Everyone else obey Kurin's orders. Let's trap them in the jar!"
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