Deals and Experiments

_________ POV Narration_________

"I'll go first since we have come to an agreement." Big Mom decided to be the one to uphold her part of the deal.

'If it's just basic information about souls, then I should be able to help him more than anyone else in this world... Better start with the basics though.'

"Tell me how much you already know about souls and what you've already researched," Linlin said as she looked at the injured Enel, her tone not any more polite than usual.

Enel simply sighed and went into the details he had found regarding souls.

The way that the soul was composed of 3 distinct parts, the few things he had found in various religious texts.

Linlin was rather impressed, it seemed there wasn't much she could tell him at the end of the day. Maybe just confirm a few things for him.

Then he mentioned something that even Big Mom hadn't known about before.

"In a more obscure school of thought, it's believed that only one part of the soul is truly eternal. The mind, and the other two parts, spirit and desire, die alongside the body." Enel said as he remembered more about Plato's theory on souls.

Big Mom was actually shocked to hear that. 'The hell? How much research did he do on this?! He knows more than me already...'

Linlin was starting to sweat a bit as she tried to think about what she could add to Enel's research.

"Well, you are right about most things you've said." Big Mom coughed in her hand a bit. "Truly, I can confirm that most of what you've said is true.

More specifically is the soul made out of three parts. We had never bothered to name them though, we were just calling them the 3 structures."

"Now, it seems you already know this much. So what more do you wish to find out?" She decided to not bother bullshitting Enel, and just asked him exactly what he wanted.

"I want us to run a little experiment. I wish to learn how the soul affects haki, and which parts of the soul affect which form of Haki." Enel tapped his white walking stick on the ground as a smile rose to his lips.

"Affecting Haki?..." Big Mom's eyes widened when she heard that. "I guess Willpower is inherently spiritual... But do you have any proof that it is tied to the soul in any way?"

She hadn't thought to make such an experiment in the past. She had tried to make her Special Homies and Chess Soldier Homies use haki at some point, but she couldn't quite get the results she wanted in the end.

"I am proof of that. More specifically, my Conqueror's Haki seems to be affected by my 'situation'.

For the experiment, we will need a willing participant from your crew or a prisoner. Someone with a full soul that can use Observation and Armament would work just fine."

Big Mom was surprised to hear that. 'I guess that's why he wants to learn more about souls? Well, I can't blame him... Too bad I can't take a good look at his soul...'

"Understood, I'll take your word for it. You don't really have any reason to lie about this anyway, you are coming to me for help after all..." Linlin scratched her chin as she stood up.

"BRING ME A PRISONER! THE STRONGEST YOU CAN FIND!" Big Mom's voice rang out throughout the palace, immediately confusing her children. But no one really questioned their mother's orders.

Not long after her voice rang out, Katakuri's tall figure walked in, dragging a prisoner by the collar. The prisoner was a middle-aged man, someone that Enel couldn't really recognize.

"A former young pirate that tried to challenge my position in the past...

Now he's nothing more than a captive here. His soul is intact, so he should do just fine." Big Mom said as she walked over to the prisoner, signalling Katakuri to leave the room.

The Dough Human nodded, and turned around to leave, throwing a key on the prisoner's lap as he did so, just in case they needed to take off his shackles. He did also end up giving Enel a confused side-ways glance as he left.

Enel simply shrugged it off and also walked over to the prisoner. He was wearing a seastone collar around his neck, his eyes seemed to be lifeless, most likely drained of any stamina after a long period of incarceration.

"Hmm... Will he listen to us and use Haki when we want him to?" Enel asked as he grabbed the man's hair and looked at his face with a raised eyebrow, looking directly into the prisoner's empty eyes.

"He'll listen. He was trained to follow orders. The spark of ambition that he once had has long since been snuffed out..." Linlin shook her head as she spoke.

"Fine." Enel shrugged, not really in any position to criticize Big Mom's handling of prisoners after the massacres he had committed himself.

"Pirate! Use armament Haki." Enel said as he tapped the man's leg with his cane. The cane then turned into a small tentacle and unlocked the seastone shackles in an instant.

The prisoner simply followed instructions, not showing even a sign of fighting back.

"You could've just used the key... But fine." Big Mom said as she looked at the key on the ground beside them. Enel simply coughed in his hand and started speaking.

"Good... Now, Big Mom, I want you to completely take away a part of his soul, leave the 'Mind' intact though."

Linlin simply nodded, her large hand reaching out and taking a large white cloud out of him. Letting it dance around in her arm as she coldly looked at the writhing Prisoner.

The process was obviously painful, but Enel sighed, as it was needed for the experiment.

"I've completely removed his 'Desire'." She spoke out as Enel glanced back at the prisoner, who was gasping for air.

"Prisoner, what do you feel... Try to use armament." Enel said as his earlobes picked the man up from the ground and forced him to sit straight.

The man followed the instructions even through the pain, trembling as his entire body turned black.

"Hmm... Are you able to use Observation Haki?" Enel asked as he tilted his head at the prisoner.

"N-no... Rather, it's extremely weakened, and it seems to be fading away each second..."

The prisoner said in a raspy voice, clearly gripped by fear at what was happening around him. But who could blame him, really?

After many years of incarceration and being seemingly forgotten, he was only taken out to be used in a sick experiment by two cold and callous monsters.

Still, he could do nothing but comply. Cling to whatever life he had left. He knew that disrespecting orders given directly by Big Mom would only serve to get him killed.

Enel took out a notebook with his only hand and started writing something down with his earlobe.

"Good, Big Mom, put his soul back together, will you?" Enel said after a few seconds, looking up at Linlin who seemed quite interested in the whole situation.

She didn't waste any time, merely shoving the white cloud back into the man's body.

"So, it seems that the 'Desire' part is in some way linked to Observation Haki.

This already confirms my hypothesis, but it might be better to test with the other part as well, just to make sure." Enel said as he finished nothing things down and looked back up at Big Mom.

The Large Emperor just nodded, her hand reaching back out at the prisoner that was still recovering from having a large chunk of his soul taken out of his body forcefully.

Without any effort, she ripped out another section of his soul. This time the section that Enel had named 'Spirit' or 'Will'.

The man immediately fell limp to the floor, like a puppet with its strings cut off. It made Enel somewhat pity him.

Enel walked back over to the prisoner and grabbed him by the collar, making him stand up as he struggled to not fall unconscious.

"Try to use Observation Haki," Enel said as the prisoner sweated and struggled.

The tired man nodded, spreading out his observation as far as he could. "I-it works..." Enel nodded, as a hint of a smile formed on his lips.

Enel observed the will manifest around him, only to fizzle out quickly. Like a broken lightbulb, flickering slightly before finally disappearing.

"I-I can't..."

The Lightning Emperor simply nodded, as he let go and allowed the prisoner to fall to the ground.

He then started noting down a few more things.

"Different parts of the soul affect different types of Haki..." Was the conclusion he finally reached as he smiled.

Big Mom shoved the part of the soul that she was holding back into the prisoner, before looking at Enel, a bit confused.

"But Haki is just one type of energy, isn't it? I mean, all forms of Haki are just methods of using that energy in different ways..."

"Well, that's clearly not the case... Besides, if Haki all originated from one energy source, you wouldn't really have people more talented in one type of haki." Enel shrugged as he walked over to the table and sat back down.

"We can safely assume that Conqueror's Haki is affected by the 'Mind'..." Enel tapped the notebook with his pen as Big Mom also walked over and joined him, with a pensive look on her face.

"I guess... Though confirming it might be more difficult. Won't find many users of that type in the first place."

Enel simply scratched his chin. "There's no real need to test that... Instead, would you be able to try and look at my soul again?"

Big Mom narrowed her eyes when hearing that. 'I don't like where this is going...'

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Pretty simple experiment right? It can't really be done without Big Mommy tho.

Anyhow, sorry about yesterday, again. That break is approaching more and more. But at the same time, I feel like I could just continue like this and finish the story regardless :))

If I do burnout completely, I'll just take a break then.

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)