Linlin Has a Problem

Standing at the gates of Linlin's manor castle and looking back at the estate, Oak recalled everything that had happened the night before. He felt rather pleased with himself, but then he remembered something, and his expression swiftly turned grave.

Linlin had a problem!

That was the conclusion he had reached after getting carried away last night and unable to resist taking a sip of Linlin's blood.

As everyone knew, souls and lifespans were linked in this world. Linlin used the Soul-Soul Fruit to deprive others of their lifespans by taking their souls.

After becoming one of the Four Emperors, this had become one of her usual methods for intimidating and controlling others.

As for Oak, his Mythical Zoan Vampire Fruit ability absorbed others' lifespans through their blood. It worked along similar lines to Linlin's Soul-Soul Fruit ability.

The difference was that the lifespan Linlin's Soul-Soul Fruit took could not be added to herself. It could only be used in the form of souls to give life to objects. His Vampire ability, however, could use lifespans on himself, though it could not grant them to others—at least not yet. For now, he could only return the lifespan he had taken to its original owner.

After taking a sip of Linlin's blood last night, Oak discovered that her blood had two flavors. One was heavy and intense, while the other was faint. Moreover, the two flavors were completely opposite.

These flavors were not something an ordinary person's sense of taste could perceive. They were the Vampire ability's unique perception of lifespan. In other words, to a certain extent, the taste of blood Oak experienced was the taste of a person's soul.

He had tasted Kaido's blood before, and he had also tasted the blood of several others on his way back. Yet whether it was Kaido or anyone else, none of their blood had two flavors like Linlin's. They each had only one, and every person's flavor was different.

That was the normal state of affairs. Every person was an independent individual, different from everyone else, so the soul-flavor represented by their blood would naturally differ as well. And one person's soul could never have two flavors—unless that person had two souls!!!

Oak would not have considered such a possibility for an ordinary person, but Linlin was different. He recalled Linlin's experiences from the original story.

At the age of five, because her oversized physical development and terrifying strength had wreaked havoc on her hometown, her parents exiled her to Elbaf, the Land of Giants. She was then rescued by the nun Carmel and taken into Sheep's House, an orphanage filled with children. It was there that Linlin spent a happy childhood.

At the age of six, she once became so absorbed in eating that her Hunger Pangs erupted. When she woke up, the nun and all her friends from Sheep's House had vanished. Sheep's House had been completely destroyed, with only scraps of clothing left at the scene. After that, she gained the Paramecia Soul-Soul Fruit ability that had originally belonged to Carmel.

The original story never explained how Linlin had obtained the Soul-Soul Fruit ability. It only vaguely implied that during the berserk period of her Hunger Pangs, she might have eaten every child from Sheep's House, Carmel included!!

That gave rise to two possibilities. One was that after eating Carmel, she had inherited Carmel's Soul-Soul Fruit ability through some special means. The other was that Carmel had possessed her during that incident.

That was possible too, for two reasons. First, Linlin's first Homie, the fireball Prometheus, had originally been created by Carmel. Yet after Carmel disappeared, that fireball had never dissipated. Instead, it had continued to follow Linlin on its own.

Based on the characteristics of the vast majority of Devil Fruits in this world, once an ability user died or lost consciousness, their ability would fail.

Sugar, the user of the Hobby-Hobby Fruit during the Dressrosa arc in the original story, was an example. Her ability could turn anyone or anything she touched into a toy. Once she lost consciousness, her ability would fail, and those toys would return to their original forms.

But that was not absolute. The future Empress of Amazon Lily, Boa Hancock, was an exception. She had explicitly stated that even if she died, those petrified by her ability would not revert. Not even the next ability user could undo her power.

The second reason Linlin might have been possessed was her personality.

The difference between the childhood Linlin and the later Linlin was far too great!

Although the young Linlin often caused destruction because of her terrifying strength, and was even abandoned by her parents because of it, she had never done those things intentionally.

As long as her Hunger Pangs did not erupt, the young Linlin had actually been nothing more than an innocent, chubby girl. Aside from being protective of her food, she was kind to her companions and everyone else.

But the adult Linlin, especially during the period when she became one of the Four Emperors, had become exceptionally cruel. She was so brutal that at the slightest disagreement, she could kill even her own biological children without hesitation. Not to mention the dozens of husbands she had gone through without feeling any affection for them. That completely contradicted her childhood character and instead resembled Carmel, the human trafficker.

But that still could not prove that Carmel had definitely possessed her.

It was also possible that Linlin had followed the pirate Streusen from too young an age. With her immature mind, she might have been influenced by Streusen, gradually becoming a true pirate as she grew up and learning a pirate's brutality. That explanation made sense as well.

So, to uncover the truth, he needed to investigate carefully.

Oak currently had no means of probing a person, so there was only one way to investigate. He raised his head, looked toward a certain direction on the island, and started walking.

Streusen's residence on Hachinosu was a manor the size of a football field.

This was Oak's first time setting foot here. The moment he pushed open the door and entered, the scent of food rushed into his nostrils, thick and rich with fragrance.

This was a sea of food!

As Oak looked around, everything he saw was food. The ground was layered with ramen noodles. The growing trees had trunks made of enormous pieces of roasted meat, each thick enough for two people to wrap their arms around, while the leaves hanging from the branches were colorful pastries.

The castle in the center of the manor was made of a four-tiered cream cake, each layer decorated with different fruits.

All of this had been created by Streusen's ability. Streusen, known as the Gourmet Knight, was not only an outstanding chef, but also the user of the Paramecia Munch-Munch Fruit. He could turn any object into food, a perfect match between his ability and profession.

Oak casually plucked a pastry leaf from a tree and tasted it. The flavor was quite ordinary. No wonder Linlin had said in the original story that food made by Streusen's ability had no taste and could only fill one's stomach.