40 Experiment

( 3rd POV )

Vanze, Law, and the clown man now faced each other in the meeting room. Vanze harbored curiosity about what the clown man wanted to say, a sentiment shared by Law.

"Alright, we can talk now, Rosinante," he said to the clown man while taking a sip of hot tea that he had just brought out from his inventory.

"Um, I want to ask for something. It might sound rude to you guys, but could you hand over the Doflamingo pirates to me?" He made his request to Vanze after gathering a lot of courage just for this moment.

"Cora-san...!?" Even Law was surprised to hear such words coming from him.

"Cough, cough... Hold up, can you say it one more time? I think I heard it wrong." Vanze choked on his tea after hearing the request. He was quite shocked to hear it, after all.

"I mean, could you give me permission to take over my brother's problems? I want to end his journey by myself. He is a plague born from my family's fault, and I wish to bring justice to every victim he has ever hurt," he said with conviction flashing in his eyes.

Hearing Rosinante's words, Vanze just stared at him silently. As the silence continued in the room between the two, Rosinante began to show signs of nervousness being stared at so solemnly by Vanze. Law, who saw this scene, remained silent on the sidelines and decided to watch.

After witnessing the fight between Hancock and his brother, Rosinante also asked Uta about their individual strengths. What he heard from her was mind-boggling. He didn't know whether to believe it or treat it as child's words, but he saw how his brother got wrecked with his own eyes and heard that every single member of this group had Haoshoku Haki. He even doubted if the entire Marines had that much owner of Haoshoku Haki.

Whether he liked it or not, Rosinante knew he couldn't mess with this group of people, especially when they were the ones who saved him regardless of their true intentions. But he truly intended to solve his brother's matter with his own hand.

"I know it sounds improper for me to ask thi-" As he was about to continue persuading Vanze to hand over Doflamingo to him, he got cut off by the man himself.

"Are you sick...!?" Vanze said with rage in his voice, glaring at Rosinante menacingly before continuing his words.

"Why the fuck should I give that pinky to you!? Let me clarify something to you, clown. He was defeated by MY CREW! The one who ended their slaughter on that island is also MY CREW! Who do you think you are!? Just because you are a marine doesn't mean you have authority over this matter! You didn't even move a single fucking muscle, didn't even help with any intelligence about them, and yet you dare to ask me to hand him over to you...?

If I want to hand him over to someone, it'll be the one who brought him down. I'd rather let Hancock decide his fate than let some delusional person shouting about righteousness without even doing a single fucking thing take Doflamingo."

After Vanze finished his harsh words, the room returned to silence, but it still carried an intense atmosphere for Rosinante. Every word that Vanze spoke felt like a slap right across Rosinante's face. He looked ashamed after hearing his words.

"I asked you one last time, why should I give him to you?" He stared at Rosinante with an indifferent gaze.

Law also felt puzzled and left frowning after hearing his benefactor's request. He agreed with Vanze because everything he said was a fact. His trust in the Marines had already hit rock bottom when someone like Vergo could even wear their uniform. Heck, he wished he could even kill that pinky himself now.

"Vanze-san, I know what I asked is quite outrageous, and you have the right to be angry. But I, as his brother, hope that at least I can send him to Impel Down, let him be judged, and show to the rest of his victims in this world that they don't need to worry about his tyranny anymore. Let justice be served," he said with a lot more conviction while staring back at Vanze. He was thinking that maybe because they are not a pirate, he can convince him with his word alone.

He felt guilty to his dead father and mother for what his big brother had become. This was his way of redeeming himself, not only as a marine but also as Doflamingo's younger brother.

"Oh please, don't talk about justice right in front of me. I know everyone has their own way of justice, but I will not trust an organization that is capable of slaughtering innocent civilians in Ohara when they sought refuge to them and also managed to massacre countless pregnant women who knew nothing without any hint of remorse in their actions, just because of some baseless rumor. If you still insist on your belief, then I respect that, but my answer is still no," Vanze said with contempt in his tone when he talked about marine hypocrisy.

"What...?" Both people who listened to his words were shocked at his revelation. The only difference was that Law looked as pale as a sheet of paper, while Rosinante frowned and doubted Vanze's words.

Seeing Rosinante's expression, Vanze noticed that he seemed unaware of the higher-ups' decision. "I see, you don't know about it. That's why you're always preaching their justice left and right. How unbelievably naive you are."

"B-but how could they be...?" Rosinante voiced his doubt.

"It's normal, Marines are supposed to be the banner of justice for the people in this world. They can't let their names be tainted by such actions. If you still don't believe me, why don't you ask your adopted daddy? Maybe he will tell you the truth," Vanze said with a teasing smile on his face.

Rosinante was silent and left pondering whether Vanze's words were real or not. He couldn't believe it, or rather, he didn't want to believe it. Meanwhile, Law was already numb after hearing numerous Marine atrocities. Even now, he stared blankly into the air in front of him.

As time passed, the room was still filled with silence. Vanze observed Rosinante and Law's expressions and found they seemed lost in thought. Realizing their conversation had reached a dead end, Vanze slowly got up from his seat and prepared to leave.

"Alright, I think this matter is over for now. I still need to do something, and Rosinante, if you still want to persuade me, then wait until Hancock is awake. The answer depends on her," he said before walking out of the room, leaving those two behind.

Rosinante also didn't have any more reasons to stop him and just sat there, pondering in his own thoughts. But what he didn't notice was that after Vanze left the room, he had a small grin on his face.

.....

( Vanze POV )

'What a stubborn clown...'

After leaving the meeting room, I feel so refreshed. I don't care what Rosinante is thinking, but now I'm heading toward one of the cells that holds the new prisoners.

[ You slapped him quite harsh, brother. ]

'He needed it, he needed to wake up from his delusional dream.' I replied to Seele.

I have mixed feelings about Rosinante. He's a nice guy, but this type of person will be the one who gets killed first and brings disaster to those around him. I hope after I tell him about marine hypocrisy, he will sober up and stop courting death. The plan is already in motion; now I just need to wait.

'Anyway, let's forget about him for now and start heading toward Azel's location. It's time to start the experiment.'

[ If the experiment is successful this time, you don't need to waste a lot of coins in the mall just for acquiring powers for your guild members. It also proves that at least our hypothesis is correct in some way. ]

'You're right Seele. Let's hope it'll work.'

I speed up my walking pace after finished talking to Seele. I'm feeling eager to do this monumental expriment, hehe.

.....

As I descend to the lowest level of our ship, I enter the room in front of me. It's a prison filled with cells made of sea stone, and I find Azel here guarding those bastards.

"Thanks for the good work, Azel," I said to him while patting his shoulder.

"It's fine, it's what I should do anyway," he replied with a shrug. As always, he is indeed a dependable man.

I look at the people who are locked up with my KG on for a while before deciding to go to one of the people I've chosen as the lab rat. I walk towards his cell with Azel serving as my guard, even though I don't really need it.

"Let's start with the big one. I hope this time it'll work," I said before pulling out my sword and a fruit from my inventory.

"Hold it for me." I give the fruit to Azel, and he holds it before approaching his position.

"Are you sure it's gonna work this time, Vanze-san? I won't put much of my hopes in it..." He voiced his doubt when we are about to do this experiment.

"C'mon dude, we've been through many trials and errors just to get to this point. Even if it failed, we just need to try it again. This is also for our guild's future," I said to him, trying to encourage the wing man.

"Sigh, alright boss. As long as you're ready."

[ It's normal for him to doubt it. What we are about to do is basically impossible to achieve as far as this world's inhabitants know. ]

'Blackbeard did...'

[ ..... ]

Heh, that put her in silence. I also don't know how Teach is able to do his stuff, but I think it's because he has his devil fruit power to help.

This experiment is about how to steal devil fruit abilities from one owner to the other. Just like how Teach did to his daddy. There are so many devil fruits that are powerful and useful but already have an owner. I intend to take them for ourselves, but before that, I need to figure out how to do it without the help of Yami Yami no Mi.

After doing this experiment for a year, I somehow managed to get a gist of it. I and Seele believe that a devil fruit is not just a simple 'devil fruit', but a seed of power that contains a fragment of a certain concept of the world, the power of law. Just like my time power or Hancock's love power, if we can reach the awakening, then we officially managed to comprehend the beginning of the power of law.

But because of the curse in it, the fragment of a certain law inside of it got corrupted, and the user cannot even fully master it. Heck, even the world itself seems to reject and limit the fruit to a certain extent. Luckily for us, with the help of power card from the system, we managed to purify it and break the world limitation of it. The devil fruit is more like a heavenly seed from a cultivation novel for us now.

So, comprehending the power of Law is just a matter of time and effort for us, hehe. I'm planning to give my companion more of it in the future.

Anyway, back to the present, I close my eyes and take a deep breath once again to get ready. I'm feeling nervous. As I open my eyes, my KG is on full throttle scanning the body of Pica in front of me. I lower my vision toward his heart and saw an otherworldly aura around it. A rainbow ball-like energy nestled in his heart, that's my target.

"Now!"

I slash my sword right in front of his heart. Blue ripples appear as my sword passes through his heart, with an intense focus using my KG I aim it right through the target.

I've experimented on it several times, but it always fails at the last moment because my mastery over my sword is not enough. I know my sword has a sentient in it, and this thing likes to devour any type of energy it encounters, so as I almost separate the devil fruit energy from its users, the greedy little bastard just snatches it away and devours it rather than holding it for a second.

But not this time, you glutton!

As the sword tip makes contact with the rainbow ball energy, it immediately gets sucked, and I focus myself to somehow communicate with my sword and hold the rainbow ball from getting eaten by it. I need to stabilize it and keep the energy on the tip of my sword before injecting it to the fruit that Azel is holding.

Thankfully, this time the little bastard is not so voracious and cooperates with me. As the rainbow ball of energy gets attached to it, I immediately pull my sword from Pica's heart and stab it again through the fruit in Azel's hand. The peach fruit is not damaged as the sword passes through it and sends the devil fruit energy inside it.

I pull my sword back, and the blue ripples are fading as the sword power is turned off. As I watch the peach fruit nervously and hope it all goes well, the fruit suddenly changes its color to dark gray while a bunch of swirl patterns appears on its skin.

Me and Azel watch this phenomenon with dumbfounded expressions before turning to excitement in just a split second.

"Hahaha, Finally! After 24 failed experiments I finally managed to do it! Hahaha!!!" I laugh loudly as I express my joy. I also confirm that Pica himself is still alive, and there is no trace of devil fruit power left on his heart. This means I don't even need to kill the victim if I want to.

[ Congrats, brother. With Pica's being alive as the last prove of your successful experiment, I assume project YOINK is getting a green light? ]

'Hahaha, of course.'

"Congratulations on your success, Vanze-san, it is a monumental moment. I doubt anyone in this world could replicate your deed anytime soon." Azel sends his own congratulatory message to me, and I pat his shoulder excitedly to express my thanks. Even though I know Vegapunk managed to do something similar to Kaido's Devil Fruit, but I think my method is much better.

"Thanks, dude. But, I think there is someone out there already managed to do something similar to this... Anyway, this deserves a celebration, but before that let's continue snatch their treasure before they wake up." I say to him before stepping out from Pica's cell and scanning the other prisoners.

"Right." He replies with a simple word before handing the new fresh DF back to me, and I send it back to my inventory.

As I said, this technique also requires the target to be in an unconscious and weak state. So, the target needs to be getting beat up first before I manage to Yoink their belonging.

"Saa... Who should I pick next?"

.....

--------------

A/N: I realize I never update his sword panel so here it is...

[ Equipment:

A black sword (???)

It is a sword born from void energy, a piece of the owner's soul, and €°§•~|×∆

Skill:

1. Space ( Separation )

The sword has the ability to be able to cut through anything, even the very fabric of space itself. It can also separate one thing into two different forces. The true power of this skill is remained unknown. 

2. Devour

It's a powerful skill that allows the sword to consume and harness various types of energy. Its full potential is remained unknown. 

??? ]