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It didn't take long for Neji to receive feedback from the puppets:
The facility was secured.
Almost everyone had already been subdued. Only a small group of pirates, used as test subjects, had put up any serious resistance.
They called themselves the Brownbeard Pirates and none of them were decent people.
If Neji remembered correctly, back when Whitebeard died, this same Brownbeard had been among those who immediately raided the islands Whitebeard once protected.
With Izumi at his side, Neji walked deeper into the research complex, eventually arriving at the massive freezing chamber.
Inside were giants some towering over fifty meters tall, each one sealed in thick ice.
The sight made Izumi raise a hand to her lips, eyes wide.
"These giants… they're enormous."
Neji's gaze drifted across them. Many of these faces were familiar he had personally captured several of the test subjects.
"These were once normal humans," he explained. "They were used in the Giantification Experiments. The process broke their bodies and minds… this is the result."
He paused.
"Humanity has limits it's not meant to cross so easily."
Vegapunk had discovered something… something that caused him to halt these experiments entirely.
Neji wasn't sure what that revelation was, but the man had simply declared the research forbidden and moved on.
But Caesar, desperate for recognition, still tried to imitate Vegapunk.
And failed over and over.
Driven into Big Mom's territory, forced by her crew to continue giantification research, Caesar eventually scammed her out of money and fled.
Now he was being hunted by the Big Mom Pirates and clinging to life under Doflamingo's protection… all while producing artificial Devil Fruits for him.
---
After passing through several structures, Neji stopped at a certain room and pushed the door open.
The creaking hinge startled a small figure inside a child reaching for a strange fruit.
The kid flinched, jerked his hand back, and tried to hide behind the shelf of failed artificial Devil Fruits.
Neji smirked.
This little pervert… not happening this time.
Behind the fruit crates was none other than Momonosuke.
Hearing footsteps approach, Momonosuke's heart hammered in his chest. Sweat gathered on his brow.
Then a shadow loomed above him.
The fruit he'd been trying to eat was casually lifted by a large hand.
His stomach growled loudly.
He hadn't eaten in a long time, and seeing the fruit disappear from his reach made him swallow painfully.
But before he could even process the disappointment—
Stab.
Something pricked his arm.
His eyes widened in terror as a liquid was injected into his bloodstream.
Momonosuke yelped, scrambling backward and slamming into the wall.
Neji straightened and twirled the empty syringe before sending it into his inventory.
Izumi, watching the trembling child, tilted her head.
"Why is there a little girl here? And… why is she wearing boys' clothes?"
Momonosuke immediately panicked.
"I'm a bo—mmpf!!"
What came out of his mouth was a soft, delicate voice unmistakably feminine.
He froze, horrified.
Then, with shaking hands, he looked down.
His face drained of all color.
"…Father… Father… what… what happened…?"
Tears welled in his eyes.
His jaw trembled.
The heir of the Kozuki clan had just realized the unthinkable his lineage might end with him.
Neji spared him a single glance nothing more.
"Let's go, Izumi. We have what we came for. Someone else will come looking for this kid soon enough."
Izumi hesitated, clearly confused, but ultimately followed Neji out.
The door closed with a groan.
Alone at last, Momonosuke broke down completely.
He collapsed to the floor, pounding the ground with his fists.
"Why… why did this happen…? Father!! Kin'emon!!"
His now girlish voice echoed pathetically in the room.
His stomach rumbled again, but he curled into a ball, sobbing into his knees.
---
Neji inspected the artificial Devil Fruit he'd taken.
He could feel something inside it but it clashed violently with his chakra.
Rejection.
A natural incompatibility.
"Interesting… maybe someone with chakra can't eat a Devil Fruit at all."
The idea was worth considering. He wasn't going to let any of his allies try this failed prototype anyway.
Even though the fruit had worked for Momonosuke, its effects were unstable.
Whether it was due to the flawed fruit or Momonosuke's age, he couldn't control its power properly.
---
As they continued down the hall, the puppets had already begun cleaning the facility.
Neji stepped into the next major chamber a room once designed by Caesar as a twisted daycare for test subjects.
It looked like a surreal children's playroom.
Kids of different sizes were running around, laughing, and shouting.
Even the usually stone-faced Law was surrounded by clingy brats pestering him endlessly.
Nami and Chopper were crowd favorites, while Sanji flirted shamelessly or would have, if he didn't have to keep extinguishing his cigarette around the children.
Franky had several small kids hanging off him, poking his robotic nose and giggling as he changed his hairstyle back and forth.
And in the middle of it all…
Only Kin'emon's head was present, his body somewhere else, due to Law's earlier operation, loudly yelling as children swarmed him, screaming, "KYAA!! PUT IT BACK!!"
At that exact moment, Neji entered.
Sanji, Franky, and Law all turned toward him.
Sanji stepped protectively in front of Nami, cigarette unlit, eyes sharp.
"So… you're the master of this place?"
Neji nodded then shook his head.
Confusion spread across the group.
Law stepped forward, freeing himself from the children tugging on his coat.
"I didn't get to finish explaining earlier," he said. "This lab used to belong to Caesar. But now… it belongs to Neji."
"You don't need to see him as an enemy," Law continued. "If anything, he's the one who saved this place."
As he spoke, his eyes moved to Izumi still uncertain about her origins.
He remembered how she had appeared out of nowhere before and guessed Neji likely had other companions as well.
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