Luo Xing had done some very good things.
The next morning he left the palace feeling refreshed.
Inside the room, Viola and Rebecca—the aunt-and-niece pair—were holding each other tightly. Rebecca's face was flushed as she buried her head in Viola's arms and whispered, "Auntie, I don't think I'll have the strength to go out for days."
Viola's face was also red; she snorted, "That bastard doesn't know how to be gentle with a woman at all."
"Auntie, don't call him that… call him brother," Rebecca mumbled, raising her little pink-haired head weakly. "We're both, uh, women of the same—"
Viola was exasperated. "You actually call him brother when he told you to? You're hopeless!"
Rebecca hid her head again and kept silent.
When you think about it, Rebecca was a pitiful girl. Her childhood, which should have been happy, had been turned into hell by Doflamingo. First her mother died; then her father was turned into a toy and she forgot he even existed. It's hard to imagine how, as such a young child with no one to rely on, Rebecca managed to grow into the nearly-teenage girl she was now.
Although Rebecca put on a brave face and even fought in the gladiator ring, inside she craved care and lacked a sense of security. Luo Xing—who had saved her, saved Dressrosa, and saved her father and grandfather—gave her a great feeling of safety. Last night that feeling had been magnified. Rebecca had already become emotionally dependent on Luo Xing without realizing it.
Viola sighed. She somewhat understood Rebecca's feelings—after all, she herself had long lacked security. Once a princess of a nation, she had lived on eggshells inside the Donquixote Family for years. It was Luo Xing who had rescued her from that torment. But that scoundrel, acting like a good man for them, still tormented the two of them! Viola cursed Luo Xing in her head several times to feel better.
After a moment she told Rebecca, "Auntie is older and can move around—I'll go get you something to eat. You used up so much energy; you must be hungry."
Rebecca purred an affirming sound like a kitten. Viola forced herself up, rubbed her sore legs, and muttered another curse at the so-called "good man."
Luo Xing—the one Viola called a scoundrel—went straight to the SMILE factory. Fuz-Fu hurried to greet him.
"Has the artificial Devil Fruit production been affected?" he asked.
"No, everything's normal," Fuz-Fu grinned. "After I killed that Pica fellow, the little people in the factory were so grateful. Runty and Page One brought more of the little people over. Production of the artificial Devil Fruits hasn't slowed—in fact, it's faster than before."
Luo Xing nodded in satisfaction and walked into the SMILE factory.
From a distance a grating laugh echoed: "Hee-hee-hee-hee." Fuz-Fu explained, "That's Caesar Clown, the twisted scientist who helped Doflamingo make SMILEs. I heard he used to work with Vegapunk."
Luo Xing already knew all of that. He walked over to Caesar. When Caesar saw him, the man shuddered like a mouse confronted by a cat—his gaseous composure nearly collapsed.
"L-Luo Xing… sir…"
Caesar shrank his head in fear. Who wouldn't be frightened? Even powerful Doflamingo had been easily killed by the man in front of him—what chance did Caesar, or anyone, have? This man's strength and influence far exceeded his old boss Doflamingo—ten or a hundred times worse.
Luo Xing said calmly, "Demonstrate your artificial Devil Fruit production process for me."
"Y-yes." Caesar, bewildered but too afraid to object, obeyed.
He obediently demonstrated his process step by step.
After watching, Luo Xing said directly, "Devil Fruits are indeed related to lineage-factor-level changes that grant abilities. But your method contains many errors. Some parts are completely wrong—your mistakes drastically lower SMILE success rates."
Caesar nearly jumped out of his skin. Throughout his life he'd been proud of his research ability, even refusing to accept critiques over Vegapunk. He disliked being questioned more than anything. But then he remembered who was speaking. Luo Xing wasn't just backed by the Beasts Pirates or possessed the power to crush Doflamingo—what truly made him terrifying was his scientific genius. He was an inventor even greater than Vegapunk.
Luo Xing had produced the Mutant Cell and the Senzu-formula; compared to that, Caesar's gas bombs and SMILE process—whose actual success rate was only one in ten—were pathetic. Realizing this, Caesar immediately behaved like a schoolboy in front of a master, nodding repeatedly.
"You're right, Lord Luo Xing."
Luo Xing stepped forward, took the equipment in hand, and told Caesar, "Watch carefully—this is the correct method and procedure for making artificial Devil Fruits. Memorize every single step exactly. If you screw up… I'll throw you into the sea to feed the fish."
Caesar trembled and widened his eyes, wanting to copy every movement.
When Luo Xing finished demonstrating, he asked, "You remember it?"
Caesar slapped his chest and declared, "Don't worry, Lord Luo Xing. I remember clearly; I won't make any mistakes!"
Fuz-Fu asked curiously, "Sir, what good will these steps do?"
Luo Xing casually answered, "They should raise SMILE success rates to eighty or ninety percent."
Eighty to ninety percent?! That bordered on natural Devil Fruit-like success! Caesar couldn't believe his ears. Fuz-Fu rubbed his hands excitedly: "If Kaido finds out, he'll be ecstatic. With SMILE success rates so high, we can rapidly increase the number of Augmenteds in our forces!"
Previously, ten artificial Devil Fruits might only make one Augmented. Now, eight to nine people could be made from the same material. Kaido would be overjoyed. The Beasts Pirates' strength would grow much faster.
This was exactly why Luo Xing had liquidated Doflamingo and taken control of Dressrosa. Rather than buying low-chance SMILEs, it was far more efficient to control the raw materials and factories directly—and, with his inventor skill set, to improve the manufacturing process.
Sure enough, an inventor who could build Mutant Cells easily read the SMILE technology and improved it almost immediately. It didn't take long.
A crowd of little people suddenly rushed over. "O benefactor! That's Luo Xing-Lando, our benefactor!" they chirped, crowding at his feet and calling him "Luo Xing-Lando." In their culture, adding "-Lando" to a beloved person's name was how they honored a hero like Vemura Rolando.
Luo Xing smiled kindly. The little people were pure and offered a good source of free labor. He noticed one tiny child and gently picked her up.
"I remember—you can use the Healing Fruit, right?" he asked.
The child was the little-people princess Mansherry. Mansherry obediently replied, "Yes, Lord Luo Xing-Lando. Do you want me to heal someone?"
Luo Xing shook his head and said softly, "Not for me. For Viola and Rebecca—they're in the palace."
Kind Mansherry immediately went to the palace. Seeing Viola and Rebecca, who were seriously wounded and could only lie in bed, she said worriedly, "Lord Luo Xing-Lando asked me to heal you; I'll do my best!"
Viola and Rebecca were stunned. Viola recovered first—she understood what Mansherry meant by "heal"—and her face burned crimson with embarrassment. She spat out, "You scoundrel!" in irritation, but secretly wondered if the injuries really could be cured.
On his way back, the returning Fuz-Fu thought again about Luo Xing's words. Worry gnawed at him. When he returned to the Moby Dick, that unease multiplied tenfold.
"What happened?" Fuz-Fu asked inwardly.
The usually loud and joyful decks were silent and heavy. Every face bore sorrow. Fuz-Fu scanned around, growing more disquieted, and asked, "Where are Ace and Satchi? And that insomniac from Ace's crew—Teach?"
At the mention of Satchi's name, sadness spread across the crew leaders' faces. Diamond Jozu patted Fuz-Fu's shoulder and said sadly, "Satchi's dead—killed by Teach. Ace went after Teach."
Fuz-Fu froze at that short sentence. After a long time, his throat dry, he asked, "Why?"
Jozu explained, "Because of the Darkness Fruit. Remember the day you left the ship—Satchi came back from a voyage with a strange Devil Fruit he wanted you to look at; you didn't and neither did we. That fruit was the Darkness Fruit. Teach had been waiting his whole life for that fruit."
Marshall D. Teach—Blackbeard—had once met Whitebeard as a child and pledged himself to joining the crew. He believed the strongest crew would have the best chance to find the Darkness Fruit. In other words, even as a child, Teach had ambitions far beyond his age.
Blackbeard was even more patient, more terrifying, and more ruthless than even Doflamingo.
Fuz-Fu closed his eyes in grief and clenched his fists. "That damn Teach."
He then remembered something else: "Why did Ace go after Teach alone?"
Jozu sighed, "You know Ace's temper. If Ace decides to chase someone, we can't stop him."
Fuz-Fu's worries swelled. He sensed some unseen connection between Ace's chase after Teach and the suspicious things Luo Xing had said in Dressrosa—but what exactly the link was, he couldn't figure out. He could only wait and see.
He took out the Senzu bean he had and went to Whitebeard.
"Father," he said, "no matter what, your health is the most important thing. Eat this Senzu bean."
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