Chapter 120: Becoming One of Two

A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn

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(Finished)

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Chapter 120: Becoming One of Two

***

-Kureha POV-

As I was outside of my underground lab, I went out for a break, looking at what was inside could make someone go crazy. I sat on the chair outside that I had prepared for breaks, and couldn't help but contemplate if what I was doing was the right thing.

Someone at my age could recognize maliciousness when they saw it. And if malevolence had a physical human body, then it would be Max. He wasn't evil, no, he was far from it. If put in a position of judgment, I would rather expect a good person to unknowingly do more evil than Max. But if he wanted to do pure evil, he would drown the world in blood and not bat an eye. He understood what he did, he just didn't care.

It was scary how he saw the world, himself, and those around him. In his eyes, no one was special, not even himself and that was what made him the most dangerous. Everyone, whether it was family or friends, can be replaced because in his eyes nothing and no one was too special.

Not if I was younger and stupider, I might have had some sense of misguided justice and tried to get rid of Max in any way I could. But no, you don't go pissing off people as dangerous as him. I only like to annoy good people because they won't do anything about it. But Max would cut my pretty head off without a second thought, because to him, even I was probably replaceable. 

You don't go fighting against monsters like him, you want someone like Max on your side rather than against you.

Suddenly I heard someone's footsteps coming down the stairs and I immediately knew who it was. Only one other person knew about this place.

'Think about the devil and he shall appear.' - that was what religious people always preached. And honestly, I would rather meet with the devil than the guy coming down the stairs.

"Kureha," Max's voice rang through the hall, and like always he had an unreadable smile on his face. "I heard you have been busy, have things gone great?"

He had refused to ever talk in Transponder Snails about the research we were running. So Max had no idea how it went. Or at least that was what I would like to think. I can never be too sure about him. Sometimes it felt like I was talking to two different people.

"It has been going well," I tried to calm my heart and talk to him normally. Max was like a bloodhound and could smell weakness, so it wasn't smart to show any part of it in front of him. "Even the human trial has been... successful." 

The experiment we were doing was to see if a human could have two Devil fruits. Now that was ludicrous, as it was basic knowledge that scientists who have studied Devil Fruits have concluded that it was impossible. Even people like Vegapunk couldn't make it so a human could eat two Devil Fruits.

I thought the same thing too, that it was impossible. Until Max had said; 

So what if a person can't eat two Devil Fruits? I just want two abilities, whether I have to munch down on the fruit doesn't matter. 

Then ridiculously, we had made a machine by using the Munch Munch Fruit of the now-dead Wapol by using some of Vegapunk's notes on how to feed objects a Devil Fruit. The machine's most prominent power was to combine two things and make them one. The Germa 66 technology had just perfected the experiment and made it 100% successful.

Max seemed enthusiastic as we entered my lab. It was filled to the brim with naked bodies that looked like Max, they were in glass capsules of greenish liquid. Though I knew none of them had his conscience since Max would never let me map out his brain and create a copy of him. Not like I would want to, the world could barely handle one of him. 

There was also a prisoner in a glass cell in the room. His limbs transformed into springs and his body morphed into a monkey as he tried to break out of the glass. He looked at me hatefully, but he couldn't do anything.

I didn't feel sorry for him, he was a man who would prey on children and women so no one would care if he disappeared. Max made it easier to experiment on humans by getting me scumbags like him. No wonder so many people followed him, he made even things like human experimentation not feel that bad.

As we walked into the huge laboratory, at the end there was a thin, starving clone Max and he was laid out there on the ground with a cage around him. Since he had no conscience he couldn't feel pain, but the instinctual hunger to eat still stood there. Max had said to starve out this one.

He took out a white apple-like fruit and threw it in the cage. Immediately the clone got up and devoured the fruit like a mad animal. As soon as he ate it, Max broke into the cage, bending the steel bars like they were made out of paper, and knocked his clone out with a slap to the clone's head.

"Now we will start the experiment, this time on me," he ordered and I nodded along. I couldn't refute him on this. 

***

-Max POV-

I didn't trust Kureha at all, but I kneiw that her intelligence was something very rare in this world. With the Germa 66 research notes, she had been able to create clones within two months. 

The idea behind this research had been for me to get two Devil Fruits. That was for one of my clones to eat one Devil Fruit and then by using the Munch Munch Fruit we would fuse. Technically I wasn't eating two Devil Fruits, we were just fusing due to another Devil Fruit Ability. I also knew due to some tests that even if the Munch Munch Fruit goes back into the circle of reincarnation, the things he had fused won't change.

I casually throw myself and the clone within the machine. Slowly darkness surrounded me and I kept looking at Kureha, waiting for her to make any moves against me. She didn't do anything suspicious and just calmly glanced at my body as it was broken down.

*

An undetermined amount of time passed as I spent time in a space full of darkness, it felt like a minute, but it could have been days for all I knew.

I opened my eyes and my clothes were all intact and Kureha looked at me with wonder in her eyes. She seemed shorter. No, I had grown taller. The clone's body mass had been added to me.

"How long was I out?" I asked. 

"Not even a minute," Kureha hesitantly answered and a look of regret passed her eyes for a split second. But I caught it and thought about eliminating her later.

Smirking, I looked at my hand and a white bubble slowly formed around it.

"N -No…" Kureha looked at the white bubble in shock. This power was quite famous and she had probably seen the broadcast of the Marineford War.  It was the mightiest Paramecia Fruit out there, the one that made Whitebeard known as the strongest man in the world… The Tremor Tremor Fruit. 

<Soru>

Fwish! 

I moved like a snake through the labyrinth-like underground hallways. 

*

In a couple of minutes, I was outside on top of my castle. Like a child who just got a new toy, I couldn't wait to test this new power out. But just as I was about to swing my fist in the air, I stopped myself mid-swing. 

It wasn't the right time for the world to know about this yet. But soon, I will shatter everything that I feel like was in my way. 

******

A/N: Kureha is afraid of Max. Many people see him differently and she sees him in her way and what she thinks of him. Also, Max used the Germa 66 to create clones of himself. There are a lot of theories about how Blackbeard was able to eat two Devil Fruits. Even Max doesn't know the 100% true answer, but he had his own method to eat the DF by fusing with a clone who eats it.

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(I have a longer explanation about how Max's method works here)