High above the sea near the Sabaody Archipelago—
"Purururururu!"
Cain, who was currently flying through the air, suddenly heard the urgent ringing of a Den Den Mushi.
He instinctively began patting himself down, only to remember that he was in dragon form right now and had no pockets at all.
'Where the hell was the thing even hidden?'
He twisted his enormous body around trying to search for it, nearly tying himself into a dead knot.
In the end, he had no choice but to transform back into human form and sit on a Flame Cloud.
Only then did he finally pull out the Revolutionary Army's Den Den Mushi.
'It was probably Sabo calling because he had forgotten to mention something.'
Thinking that, Cain answered the call, and Dragon's voice immediately came through the receiver.
"Cain, there's something I need to tell you. Our people encountered one of your crewmates on the Bridge Kingdom's labor island—Nico Robin."
Only then did Cain suddenly remember.
This time, Ace had not died.
Only Whitebeard had fallen, and Luffy had not had much personal connection with Whitebeard.
'So how were they supposed to tell the rest of the Straw Hat crew about the agreement to meet again in two years?'
'Were they supposed to break into Marineford again?'
Cain shook his head.
He decided to leave the matter aside for now. After all, the others would not be leaving their respective islands anytime soon.
They could discuss it once Luffy woke up.
Cain told Dragon the truth: everything would be left for Luffy to decide.
"Also…"
Dragon had just begun to continue when a frantic scream suddenly came from the other end of the call.
"CAIN, YOU BASTARD! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! NOW I CAN'T GO BACK! AAAAAAH!"
"Lilith?!"
Cain was clearly startled.
"How did you end up with the Revolutionary Army?"
"Isn't it all because of you?!"
Lilith's voice was almost tearful.
"I helped you so much during the war, and what did you do? You ran off on a ship without even saying goodbye!"
"If I hadn't known Dragon's location and had Kuma send me flying away in time, Borsalino would've found me!"
"And when I contacted the Stella, he actually said it looked like I was having fun? Fun, my ass! I haven't even uploaded these memories to Punk Records yet!"
Cain did feel a little sorry after hearing Lilith's complaints, but when he heard the tone she used afterward, it became a little…
"And then he said the World Government noticed movements from 'Vegapunk,' so surveillance around Egghead has been tightened. If I don't want to be wanted, I shouldn't go back for now or whatever… waaaah…"
"Hey, hey. The moment I remember that you're basically a lousy old man on the inside, hearing you cry like that feels really weird."
Cain instinctively retorted.
"And can this really be blamed on me? You're the one who told me to use that form. You had to know it might cause trouble, right?"
"I don't care! Sure, it doesn't really affect us, and being monitored makes sense, but I really didn't think that far ahead! So it's your fault!"
Lilith's voice was full of unreasonable grievance.
"STELLA DIRECTLY CUT OFF MY CONNECTION TO PUNK RECORDS AND TOLD ME TO STAY WITH DRAGON FOR THE TIME BEING!"
Her shout made the Den Den Mushi buzz violently.
"SO HOW ARE YOU GOING TO COMPENSATE ME?!"
Then another burst of chaos came from the other end of the call.
Dragon finally managed to calm Lilith down, then quietly spoke to Cain.
"That is roughly what happened. Vegapunk's Satellite has arrived on our side. Although it may be somewhat unethical to say this, Cain, you did well. With this genius doctor joining the Revolutionary Army, we should be able to advance even further."
Cain was visibly stunned.
Dragon always looked like such an upright, serious man.
Cain had not expected him to say something like that.
But after thinking about it, the Revolutionary Army really did need someone like Lilith.
He then told Dragon about Kuma and said Dragon could ask Lilith for the details.
Cain also specially reminded him to take Lilith around and let her have some fun, treating it as compensation for Cain failing to fulfill his earlier promise.
Once Dragon had fully calmed Lilith down, Cain asked Lilith to take the call again.
He had something he wanted to ask her.
"Go on. What else do you want to say, you bastard?" Lilith still sounded angry.
"I wanted to ask you about that technology that lets weapons eat Devil Fruits."
Cain went straight to the point.
"Your research can only give Zoan Devil Fruits to weapons, right? What about Paramecia or Logia fruits?"
"How would that be possible? Theoretically, it doesn't work at all!"
Lilith immediately rejected the idea.
"Zoan fruits contain the will of an animal, which is why they can be attached to weapons through Lineage Factor technology. Paramecia and Logia fruits don't have that kind of vessel!"
Cain continued asking,
"Then what if we didn't use any scientific method at all and simply let the weapon 'eat' it? I mean literally eat it. Do you think a weapon could obtain a Devil Fruit ability that way?"
"How would that be possible? Are you planning to give those weapons mouths or something?…"
The other end of the call fell silent for a moment.
Then Lilith's suddenly enlightened voice came through.
"You mean the Soul-Soul Fruit?!"
Cain nodded and admitted it.
"Yeah, exactly. If that works, then suppose a weapon given life by the Soul-Soul Fruit eats a Paramecia Devil Fruit."
"After that, if the life or soul granted by the Soul-Soul Fruit is extracted again, would the fruit's power remain inside the weapon?"
Lilith thought for a very long time before finally nodding.
"Theoretically speaking, once a Devil Fruit is inherited, the fruit will only be reborn when the host dies."
"But if the host itself was never truly alive, and its soul was merely something granted to it… then if that soul were extracted…"
"As for whether the Devil Fruit ability would be lost…"
"Give me some time to think. I don't know either."
"And even if the soul is extracted and the fruit power remains, how is a weapon with no will supposed to activate the ability?"
"Honestly, which one of us is supposed to be Vegapunk here? You really gave me a difficult problem, you bastard."
Lilith clutched her head and wailed.
Originally, she wanted to reject Cain's idea outright.
After all, she was only Vegapunk's evil Satellite, and practical research like this was not supposed to be her responsibility.
But now that the Vegapunk Stella had cut off her signal to Punk Records, she still possessed all of Vegapunk's previous knowledge.
In the end, she could not help thinking seriously about the problem.
-----
Author's Note: Some people still do not understand this point: the idea that Devil Fruits contain "devils" is only a folk rumor.
It is like how, in the Four Blues, Devil Fruits themselves are treated as legendary things.
The rumor only exists because no one can eat two Devil Fruits.
You can refer to Enies Lobby and Kaku's description before eating his fruit. The only Devil Fruits stated to contain a will are Zoan-type Devil Fruits.
When Luffy awakened Nika, the Five Elders clearly said that Zoan fruits contain a will.
Paramecia and Logia fruits do not.
Weapons can eat Devil Fruits only because Zoan fruits are special compared to the other two types.
That is all.
So Logia and Paramecia fruits do not have so-called wills, and there are no actual devils inside them either.