"!!!"
Yemu froze.
He had never imagined that the Kuro Brothers had such an extraordinary origin.
"Can you explain in more detail?"
"Of course. But what I'm about to tell you is only the result of my own research. It's a conclusion I reached after analyzing and verifying old records, that child Vegapunk's notes, and the secrets Nicholas told me."
"In truth, the so-called Devil Fruits contain two kinds of power. One is called the Lineage Factor, which is essentially the blueprint of life. The other is what I call Primordial Energy."
"To put it simply, you can think of Primordial Energy as a lump of living clay, while the Lineage Factor is a pair of hands that can shape that clay into all sorts of forms."
"However, Devil Fruits did not exist in the Ancient Era. When the God-kin descended upon this world, there was practically no life here. Naturally, there was no need to create Devil Fruits, which only show their power after being eaten by living beings."
"So the God-kin first used the Primordial Energy of the Twin Trees to create Uranus and Poseidon. But they soon realized that the power of Uranus and Poseidon was far too great, and that did not fit their definition of a tool. So they took another path. They used their own technology, what we now call the Lineage Factor or the blueprint of life, to create bodies. Then they had Uranus and Poseidon draw power from the sky and the sea through the Twin Trees. Once that power had been nurtured successfully, they placed it into those bodies. These were the so-called divine creations."
"However, unlike Uranus and Poseidon, those manufactured divine creations had no consciousness of their own. They were more like puppets."
"That lasted until, as you already know, the variable known as Nika appeared. The incredible power he possessed seemed to break the shackles binding their Lineage Factors and grant them lives of their own."
"And what Nicholas wants me to do now is repeat that process."
"By modifying his own body, he has already broken through some of the restraints in his Lineage Factor, but that still isn't enough. On top of that, because he was stripped of his status as a Celestial Dragon and forbidden from approaching Uranus, he has no way to obtain Primordial Energy. So now, he can only hope that I'll extract that energy from Devil Fruits through experiments."
"If it succeeds, he could become the closest thing to a god, a divine creation with eternal life. He might even become a god like Uranus or Poseidon."
After listening to Dr. Furumi's explanation, Yemu more or less understood.
He thought of himself.
According to Lillilu, when Rocks created him, the process seemed to have been something like this.
Linlin's Lineage Factor had been used as the vessel, together with that so-called Primordial Energy, which had originally been his heart.
It was only later that it had been replaced with Rocks's own heart.
But while Yemu understood, he now had even more questions. The most important one was this.
"Why is Nicholas so obsessed with immortality? Is it just so he can live longer?"
"Of course it isn't that simple."
As Dr. Furumi spoke, he grew faintly excited.
"Immortality is only a byproduct. The truly powerful thing is will."
"Will?"
Those words surprised Yemu.
"That's right. Just as Poseidon represents the will of the sea, Uranus represents the will of the sky, and Pluton represents the will of the earth, when the shackles of the Lineage Factor are broken and those restraints gradually disappear, you can become like them, part of this world's will. You can control everything and become all-powerful."
"!!!"
Yemu seemed to understand something.
But just then, he heard something even more unbelievable.
"Of course, a powerful will also gives rise to another kind of power, one you should be very familiar with: Haki."
"!!!"
The moment he heard the word Haki, Yemu was truly shocked.
Seeing Yemu's surprise, Dr. Furumi seemed somewhat pleased with himself.
"You're surprised."
"Of course... Doctor, what you've just said has answered many of the questions I had... So this is the origin of Haki?"
"That's right. This is the law by which this world operates. Lineage Factor, Primordial Energy, and Haki. These three complement one another."
"They represent the soul, energy, and will of a living being."
Those words made Yemu think of something, and he asked, "According to your theory, Doctor, doesn't that mean the shackles on a Devil Fruit user's Lineage Factor are doubled? They have not only the restraints of their own body's Lineage Factor, but also the restraints of the Devil Fruit's Lineage Factor?"
"Exactly. Otherwise, why do you think Celestial Dragons don't eat Devil Fruits? Devil Fruits can grant powerful abilities for a short time, but they also bind you."
At that point, Dr. Furumi's expression turned slightly heavy.
"Of course, there are exceptions. For example, the D Clan. They are born with a powerful will in their bodies, a power that has been passed down within them since the Ancient Era. It allows them to break the shackles inside themselves far more easily."
Hearing that, Yemu was a little dumbfounded.
By that logic, not eating a Devil Fruit would be the best choice.
Then, as a dual Devil Fruit user, hadn't he just made trouble for himself?
But then again, he was also a member of the D Clan, and he possessed Linlin's Lineage Factor.
According to Lillilu, Linlin's Lineage Factor was also the kind that might be able to break through those restraints.
Thinking of that, he asked Dr. Furumi curiously, "Is there any way for someone to understand the condition of their own body? I'm very curious about what state my body is in right now."
Yemu thought this would be rather troublesome, but Dr. Furumi answered easily.
"That's simple."
Dr. Furumi pointed at the steel structure in the center that looked like a boiler.
"If you're interested, you can go inside and try it. I can use the machine inside to scan the wavelengths emitted by your body and observe your physical condition."
"Wavelengths?"
"That's right. When I was trying to confirm whether Devil Fruits have wills of their own, I had an idea. Since human will produces something like Haki, then conversely, if I detected the same substance in Devil Fruits, wouldn't that prove that Devil Fruits also have wills? After all, both contain Lineage Factors. So I began researching Haki and Devil Fruits, and the results delighted me. Although I've only detected Haki-like wavelength changes in Zoan-type Devil Fruits so far, that is already enough to prove that Devil Fruits do indeed have wills of their own. What's more, by interfering with those wavelengths, I successfully awakened some Zoan Devil Fruit users. Conversely, this research can also be used to examine living beings."
"I see. Then I'll give it a try too."