Intelligence and Collapse

With a gulp, the sound of swallowing saliva followed, and everyone's gaze turned to the trembling Kozuki Toki. She had just made that sound, seemingly out of surprise and nervousness.

It seemed that Stussy's words had caused some misunderstanding, Kozuki Toki's face now had a tearful expression. If it weren't for the effect of Kotoamatsukami, Vegapunk felt that she would have already activated her Devil Fruit power and escaped.

Vegapunk glanced at Kozuki, who was trembling with fear and terrified of being forced to serve him in Kozuki Toki, and couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.

Knowing that Kozuki Toki is now under Kotoamatsukami's control, if she really had any ideas, what other choice would she have but to come up to him cleanly?

It's just that I don't want to do that kind of thing for the time being... After all, what's more important than research? If it delays the development of Kozuki Toki's abilities, that's the real problem.

"Here, this is for you!"

Vegapunk casually took out a small black pill from his hand and tossed it to Kozuki Toki, who was still lost in thought.

"This is Oral Chakra Seed I created. After taking it, it will directly give you the power of Chakra in your body. As long as you fuse your spiritual power and physical power, you can extract Chakra!"

"Although it doesn't have any other effects, Chakra is very helpful for developing your Devil Fruit abilities. Train hard and develop your Devil Fruit powers!"

"By the way, we also have information about your daughter now. As for her exact location, you can ask Stussy!"

Just Kozuki Toki of relief, he heard news about his daughter, and his expression immediately tightened. He turned to look at Stussy.

A slight smile appeared on Stussy's lips as he looked at Kozuki Toki, as if he were a big bad wolf seeing a little lamb:

"So you're Kozuki Hiyori's mother! Hehehe... Finally, I've found someone to settle scores with! That girl has caused me a lot of trouble!"

On the surface, he was all smiles, but in reality, he was gritting his teeth. Seeing Stussy's performance, Kozuki Toki's expression froze again.

In reality, Vegapunk didn't pay much attention to Kozuki Hiyori. He basically let her grow up freely, giving her some basic enhancements before sending her to work as Umbrella Corporation.

However, Kozuki Hiyori's talent is not bad either. After all, she is Kozuki Oden's daughter. Putting aside Kozuki Oden's thought process, his combat talent is definitely monstrous.

After being strengthened by Vegapunk, Kozuki Hiyori fully unleashed her talent, surpassing the level of Ame no Habakiri at the young age of just over ten years old, thanks to her Ame no Habakiri.

Although the strength of a swordsman is not much, considering that before Vegapunk left, Kozuki Hiyori was only fourteen or fifteen years old, she could already be considered a top genius in swordsmanship, and she had a good chance of becoming Great Swordmaster in the future.

However, the reason why Kozuki Hiyori was willing to work for Vegapunk was because of her mother, Kozuki Toki. Otherwise, Kozuki Hiyori would have no goodwill towards Vegapunk, who had a secret connection with Kaido and could be considered an enemy.

Therefore, when Vegapunk left Dream Star in silence, Kozuki Hiyori found that she could no longer contact Vegapunk and could not see her mother, she naturally would no longer stay at the Umbrella Corporation.

Around that time, the World Government launched an attack on Future Island, resulting in heavy casualties for the entire Navy and the sinking of the Future Island. As a result, even Kozuki Hiyori believed that Vegapunk and her mother had died in the battle, and after her grief, she severed all ties with them.

Kozuki Hiyori immediately defected from Umbrella Corporation. Of course, that alone wouldn't have made Stussy so angry. More importantly, before she ran away, Kozuki Hiyori stole important items from Umbrella Corporation.

That was the only Paramecia Imitation Soul-Soul Fruit that Vegapunk created using Charlotte Linlin's blood and body tissue!

Moreover, because it was created using Charlotte Linlin's blood, it also possesses a degraded version of Charlotte Linlin's superhuman strength and Iron Skin. For ordinary people, its effects may be even better than the original Soul-Soul Fruit.

It can be said that any ordinary person who obtains this Devil Fruit will have at least the potential of Sweet Four Generals.

The only problem is that this Devil Fruit is just a prototype created by Vegapunk. According to his estimate, the chances of success, death, and madness are each one-third, which is why no one has used it yet.

However, it is clear that Kozuki Hiyori, who is burdened with a deep-seated hatred, does not care about these things. After obtaining the Devil Fruit, she directly ate it and overcame the defects of the imitation Devil Fruit with her strong willpower. Her strength increased dramatically, and she directly broke through the Umbrella Corporation and escaped.

This infuriated Stussy, of course. Putting aside the losses suffered by the Umbrella Corporation, the loss of that Devil Fruit alone was enough to break her heart.

Even though that Devil Fruit has powerful side effects, it is priceless to the vast majority of people on this ocean!

Didn't you see how a huge number of people from the Beasts Pirates in the original work were clamoring for that Artificial Devil Fruit that only had a 1/10 success rate and would turn them into deformed beings?

Those artificial Zoan Devil Fruit can only slightly improve physical strength at most. Compared to this replica Soul-Soul Fruit, it's worlds apart. This shows the true value of this Devil Fruit.

Stussy was naturally furious that Kozuki Hiyori had stolen such a treasure from him, but with Kozuki Hiyori's own strength and that Devil Fruit, she had already reached a level close to that of Shichibukai in just one or two years of training.

Even without Vegapunk as her backer, Stussy wouldn't be able to do much against such a powerful person unless Stussy himself took action. Otherwise, most of his subordinates would definitely be no match for Kozuki Hiyori.

Even if someone could defeat Kozuki Hiyori, that would be a trump card Vegapunk left for Stussy. The ever-calm Stussy ultimately did not choose to hunt down Kozuki Hiyori, but only used his influence in the World Government to cause her some trouble and leave her Kozuki Hiyori a considerable bounty.

After listening to Stussy's smiling account, Kozuki Toki's face also showed a mixture of joy and bitterness.

Kozuki Toki was naturally very happy that his daughter was not only alive but also doing quite well.

The crucial point is that he is now in the hands of Vegapunk and Stussy, and can even be said to be completely manipulated, unable even to commit suicide...

However, the debts of a daughter are incurred by her mother. Although Kozuki Toki felt bitter, she did not blame her daughter. On the contrary, she was quite gratified by her daughter's actions.

At worst, I'll just have to give up this body; I was already mentally prepared for that after I was controlled...

Vegapunk stroked his chin. This was the first time he had heard about Kozuki Hiyori's detailed experiences. Before that, he had only learned about Kozuki Hiyori's defection from Stussy, so he was already mentally prepared for it.

But actually, that little girl ate the artificial Paramecia Devil Fruit I made? That's really unexpected...

It seems this experimental subject also needs to be salvaged...

"Stussy, where is Kozuki Hiyori now?"

Upon hearing Vegapunk's question, Stussy smiled slightly:

"That's a good question. As far as I know, Kozuki Hiyori should be staying in the Florian Triangle right now!"

"I wonder what that little girl is thinking. She seems to be looking for trouble with Gecko Moria!"

Kozuki Hiyori is causing trouble for Gecko Moria? Vegapunk felt a bit confused after hearing this. How did these two completely unrelated people end up together?

If the only point of connection between the two is Black Blade Shusui and Shenron, perhaps it's also their hatred for Kaido?

Thinking about this, Vegapunk had a vague idea in his mind. Could it be that Kozuki Hiyori wanted to ask Moria to retrieve the Black Blade Shusui and Ryōma's remains? Or perhaps she wanted Moria's help to fight Kaido?

"In that case, Stussy, you should rest for a bit. We'll go to the Dark Ghost Zone together to look for Kozuki Hiyori!"

Stussy was somewhat surprised to hear Vegapunk's words. When did his boss become so proactive?

"It's a good opportunity to capture Kozuki Hiyori. She's the only rare experimental subject who ate an artificial Paramecia Devil Fruit. Perhaps the future development of artificial Paramecia Devil Fruit will depend on her!"

"Compared to bloodline transplantation, the development of Artificial Devil Fruit is much more difficult!"

What Vegapunk truly desires is not to imitate Devil Fruit, but to develop a genuine Devil Fruit using his own abilities.

Devil Fruit are the crystallization of desires formed from the condensation of spiritual power. Although this conclusion has long been reached, Vegapunk still does not know exactly how Devil Fruit are formed.

This is the real reason why Vegapunk has been tirelessly researching Devil Fruit. Otherwise, it would have been simpler to just research Devil Fruit bloodline potions, and there wouldn't have been such a high failure rate.

So that's how it is, Stussy thought to himself. This is his boss, who is only interested in various research and rarely wastes time on things like hunting down enemies, which are not very beneficial.

However, upon hearing Vegapunk's words, Kozuki Toki's face turned deathly pale. He looked at Vegapunk with utter terror, immediately kneeling on the ground and pleading desperately:

"My lord... Hiyori is ignorant and doesn't know any better. Please, I beg you, forgive her this time!"

She may not know much about Vegapunk, Hancock and others' strength, but after seeing Vegapunk's triple attack on the Red Line, Kozuki Toki was well aware of their strength. She didn't think her daughter could fight against these monsters!

Vegapunk glanced at Kozuki Toki and spoke calmly:

"Don't worry, I'm not going to dissect her. After all, she was a precious experimental subject."

"Experimental subject..."

Kozuki Toki immediately recalled his days as an experimental subject, and when he thought of his daughter, he panicked even more. However, Vegapunk ignored Kozuki Toki and left directly.

"Experimental subjects, how pitiful. They'll definitely be fed large amounts of drugs by the boss, and they might even have their internal organs and brains directly examined!"

Nico Robin sighed and began her dark and depressing speech again, which made Kozuki Toki, who was kneeling on the ground, tremble all over.

Stussy covered her mouth and giggled, then leaned down gently to whisper in Kozuki Toki's ear:

"Oh dear, I wonder what kind of treatment poor Hiyori will receive? I remember she was also an experimental subject created by a boss, but because she was disobedient, the boss cut off her brain lobe, and she can only survive on a life support system!"

"Oh, right, the boss said that although that experimental subject couldn't move or even have any senses, it still possessed soul fluctuations!"

"You can't see anything, you can't hear anything, you can't do anything, yet you can still think. Tsk tsk, just thinking about it sends chills down my spine! If you were to fall to that level, you'd be wishing you were dead!"

Upon hearing this, Kozuki Toki's pupils contracted, his body went limp, and he collapsed completely to the ground...

Late at night, in the palace on Amazon Lily.

Kozuki Toki, dressed in a thin kimono, stood at the entrance of the palace, her face full of hesitation.

Faint moans drifted from the palace, interspersed with words that made one blush, causing Kozuki Toki, who was standing at the door, to lower her head, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"What... besides Hancock, there's also Robin... after all this time, is it still not over?"

"What are you doing at the door, Lady Kozuki?"

Hearing the sound behind him, Kozuki Toki turned around in a panic like a fawn, only to see Stussy dressed in a transparent gauze dress and white stockings, with light red lipstick, looking both sexy and charming.

"What... do you really want to wait until it's over before going in? To get something for nothing, and then beg the boss when he's exhausted and no longer in the mood? That's wishful thinking!"

Stussy smiled as she spoke, gently stroking her lower abdomen. The Sealing Array Hancock had set up for her—hoping that the boss would exhaust her strength—was probably wishful thinking!

Kozuki Toki's previously flushed face turned ashen, her lips trembled, and she couldn't utter a single word. Stussy slowly approached Kozuki Toki's ear and whispered something like a demon:

"I heard from the boss that you're completely under his control. You have to do whatever he tells you to do. What do you think would happen if the boss asked you to deal with Kozuki Hiyori?"

"Will she fight her mother, or will she just surrender? Hmm... I'll ask the boss to make you a lab assistant, and your daughter will be the test subject. How about that?"

After saying that, Stussy chuckled, pushed open the door to the palace, and went inside.

The palace gate opened, and the previously Otogakure sounds suddenly became louder. Just as Stussy was about to reach out and close the door, a pair of fair and delicate hands blocked the door.

A slight smile appeared on his lips as Stussy looked up and saw Kozuki Toki, who was now cornered at the doorway.

Kozuki Toki's eyes were empty and lifeless, looking completely broken. He slowly walked in, staring at the scene inside that made him blush.

As she walked, Kozuki Toki reached out and untied her kimono. Beneath the seemingly elaborate kimono, she wore nothing. The garment slowly fell to her feet, and she gently kicked it aside. She walked to the bedside and performed a perfect dogeza (a traditional Chinese kowtow) with her smooth body.

"Lord Vegapunk, I've come to serve you..."