Hearing Nicholas's words, Dr. Furumi fell silent in thought.
"Nika... you've mentioned that name to me many times, along with Joy Boy and the like. It seems you Celestial Dragons are very afraid of those two names..."
"Ah, of course we are..."
Nicholas did not deny it. Instead, he explained with unusual interest.
"When every Celestial Dragon is little, their parents use those two names to scare them... To us Celestial Dragons, they're even more frightening than demons..."
That left Dr. Furumi deeply curious.
"I never expected the Celestial Dragons, who call themselves descendants of gods, to have something they fear. What exactly are Nika and Joy Boy?"
"Well..."
Nicholas glanced at Dr. Furumi. Perhaps the experiments were progressing too slowly, and he was growing impatient. This time, unlike before, he did not avoid the subject entirely, but revealed some secrets known only to the Celestial Dragons.
"This goes back a very long time, all the way to when the race of gods first descended upon this world.
"As you already know, back then, this world was empty except for the sea and those two twin trees.
"But fortunately, the race of gods discovered an extraordinary energy within those twin trees.
"Using their own technology and combining it with that primal force, the race of gods created the first two beings. They were Uranus, the Sky King, and Poseidon, the Sea King.
"With the help of Uranus and Poseidon, the race of gods created more and more life.
"But just as you said earlier, the race of gods did not create those species to be their friends. They merely treated them as tools to reshape this world.
"So from the moment those lives were created, their emotions were erased. They became slaves who knew neither fatigue nor anything but work.
"Until a variable appeared, one even the race of gods could not understand. That was Nika.
"Because he possessed the first emotion those slaves had ever known. A smile..."
"A smile!?"
Dr. Furumi was astonished by that answer.
"Yes. When I first learned it, I was just as surprised as you are. Just a smile... Yet that very power turned Nika into a warrior of liberation..."
"His smile seemed to carry some incredible power. Any slave who saw that smile would be infected by it, begin to awaken emotions of their own, and learn to resist..."
"Those people gathered around Nika and gave themselves a new name. D. Their descendants were therefore known as the D Clan."
"I see. So that's the origin of the D Clan?"
Dr. Furumi had not expected the D Clan's origins to be like this.
But there was something he was even more curious about.
"Then did Nika succeed? Did the D Clan succeed?"
"Of course they succeeded. Otherwise, you and I wouldn't be meeting again."
Nicholas shot Dr. Furumi an exasperated look, seemingly unable to understand how he could ask such a foolish question.
Dr. Furumi, however, did not care and continued to ask, "Then what about Joy Boy? He wasn't the same person as Nika?"
"Of course not. That's just another story... And that story involves the laws by which this world operates..."
As Nicholas spoke, a strange smile appeared on his face.
"Although Nika succeeded in freeing the slaves from the race of gods, maintaining the operation of a world is not such a simple matter. Nika may have liberated the slaves, but the freedom he wanted, much like the existence of pirates today, was also destroying this world..."
"!!!"
"Just like water in a cup, the energy of this world is limited. But those liberated slaves, as possessors of the original Devil Fruit powers, were consuming that energy without limit."
"They could obtain food without labor, create countless things without production, know neither birth, aging, sickness, nor death, and each possessed a nearly endless lifespan."
"Especially those creatures brought forth by Poseidon, the Sea King, the beings we now call Sea Kings, were constantly wreaking havoc on this world..."
"Nika and his warriors of liberation realized all this, but they were powerless to stop it. In the end, they could only ask the race of gods they had driven from this world for help..."
"At that time, the defeated race of gods split into two groups. One completely left this world and went to live on the moon. The other stayed behind and lived in the world above our heads, the realm known as Skypiea..."
"The race of gods that remained in Skypiea accepted the request of those traitors who had betrayed them, because they too could not bear to part with this beautiful world. So, as the price for preserving the existence of this world, the warriors of liberation led by Nika sacrificed themselves and passed down their will and power in the form we now know as Devil Fruits. Of course, they were not called that at the time..."
"I see. What a shocking truth. Then does that mean my line of research was wrong? So Devil Fruits only appeared at that point? I always thought..."
But Nicholas shook his head.
"Your line of research is not wrong. The Lineage Factor is still the key to everything. The reason the warriors of liberation led by Nika became Devil Fruits was simply because the race of gods at that time altered part of their Lineage Factor."
"So what I want you to do now is restore the altered part. If that happens, I'll be able to possess eternal life just like the warriors of ancient times."
"And among them, the consciousness dwelling within Zoan Devil Fruits, as tools first created by the race of gods, is indeed the most likely key to unlocking that mystery."
"I understand."
Dr. Furumi also fell into thought.
"But you still haven't explained Joy Boy, have you?"
"Joy Boy!? Fine. I've already said this much today, so saying a little more won't matter..."
Nicholas looked at Dr. Furumi and spoke in a low voice.
"During the thousands of years after Nika and those warriors of liberation disappeared, the race of gods and the D Clan lived together in this world. But time can bury everything, and it can also awaken everything. As the legend of Nika and their liberation gradually faded away, slavery and rule rose once more. Only this time, the leading force was neither the race of gods nor the D Clan, but humans..."
"Humans..."
Dr. Furumi froze.
At that moment, a different kind of light flashed in Nicholas's eyes. Looking at Dr. Furumi, he said with barely concealed excitement, "Do you know, Dr. Furumi? The so-called Celestial Dragons are not descendants of gods at all, nor are they part of the D Clan. They're just humans. A group of utterly ordinary humans..."