Chapter 259: Developing the Mind Clone
Island No. 6!
Just after exiting the spiritual world, Luo Han paused in surprise.
He realized that the Perfect Armament Haki coating his projection in the spiritual world hadn't disappeared.
And he didn't feel any mental strain from it!
Normally, Luo Han's Perfect Armament Haki wasn't infinite—once it exceeded the limits of his willpower, he couldn't maintain it.
In essence, if it lost its connection to his willpower, it would vanish.
But now, the Perfect Haki inside the spiritual world seemed to have become something else—like telekinetic force. He could manipulate it using only his mind, just like he controlled his telekinesis.
"What's going on?"
Luo Han was stunned but quietly delighted. Was this another step toward being truly invincible?
Shing!
He summoned a new layer of Perfect Armament Haki—one meter thick again.
He sank his mind back into his spiritual world. The old layer of Perfect Haki was still there, identical to the one in reality.
"Let's try moving this one into the spiritual world!"
With a thought, the real-world Haki vanished.
Inside the spiritual world, his projection absorbed the newly transferred Haki layer.
Now the thickness had reached nearly two meters.
"It really stacks!!!" Luo Han was ecstatic.
He was already imagining the future—a Perfect Armament Haki version of Susanoo, complete with a fully formed giant armor.
A several-kilometer-tall Haki colossus—if he turned out to be the final boss, what would future Pirate King Luffy even do?
"As long as I don't appear in a movie-only plot, I shouldn't get defeated by forced logic!"
Luo Han chuckled at the thought, making a mental note to stay within canon and avoid filler arcs.
Otherwise, even he wouldn't know how he died.
Haha!
He got a bit carried away with excitement, imagining absurd scenarios.
"I'll condense another layer of Haki and add it to the projection."
Excited by the mental image, Luo Han began to gather another layer.
But…
Thud!
He suddenly dropped to the ground, holding his head, dizzy.
"Guess not... there's a limit," Luo Han muttered in disappointment.
He had generated and split his Haki twice already today. While his willpower hadn't depleted…
His body couldn't keep up!
After all, Armament Haki was ultimately a physical power.
To split off Perfect Armament Haki twice in such a short time was like... well, doing that twice—it left his body weak.
Sure, he could replenish stamina using Sea Kings, but the cellular-level fatigue couldn't be cured with just energy.
Still, no rush. If he generated one Haki layer per day and stored it in the spiritual world…
Thirty years from now, it would be about a kilometer thick.
"A pleasant surprise!" Luo Han smiled and left Island No. 6.
Whoosh!
He teleported to the Penguin and collapsed on his recliner, diving inward to focus on cultivating his body.
Fully dedicating himself, he could evolve his physique even faster with spiritual guidance.
...
While Luo Han was training—
Outside the ring current!
Aishi had finished growing the two new "Sabaody"-style islands, three kilometers apart.
Each island was semicircular. The straight side faced the ring current, while the curved side had jagged, tooth-like extensions, each two to three kilometers long.
From above, they looked like two outward-facing hedgehogs.
"Stussy, Tuck, the ports are your responsibility now," Aishi said from one of the new islands.
"No problem, Boss Lady!" Tuck thumped his chest.
"Yes, Lady Aishi ," replied Stussy humbly—she was now under Bie Tianshen control.
Mhm!
Aishi nodded and flew off. This kind of administrative work wasn't her thing.
"Hmm…"
Passing by the shipping lane, she frowned.
"Not much improvement…" Although ships now had a place to dock outside the current,
Sea God's transport efforts were still being heavily disrupted by the currents. Vessels wobbled and veered mid-crossing, sometimes even colliding.
"Should I… build a bridge for the ships to cross?"
"..."
She shook her head. Solving problems like this wasn't her forte.
Leave it to Luo Han!
She thought, and flew off.
...
That evening, during dinner, Aishi brought up the issue.
Luo Han didn't have an immediate solution either. But the idea of a bridge sparked a glimmer of inspiration…
Only to vanish again before he could grasp it.
"Just leave it for now," he replied casually.
Both of them hated hassle, so they dropped the topic.
...
Late night.
Above the central lake on Ark Island—
Huff!
Huff!
Huff!
Three heavy sighs were released, and the Penguin's swaying stopped.
Luo Han lay between Akatsuki and Aishi , tightening his grip on the softness to his right. He gently asked, "Aishi , can your golden scale fruit become something like the thunder cloud homies?"
"What do you mean?"
Aishi turned her head in confusion. "Did you find another Human-Human Fruit?"
"No," Luo Han laughed. "Those aren't exactly easy to come by."
Aishi scowled. "Then why do you want to make the golden scale fruit 'human'?"
"You little perv. I'm not enough? Now you want another me?"
"Hmm…" Luo Han picked up on her phrasing.
"What do you mean by 'another you'?" he asked.
"You don't actually think every golden scale fruit can eat a Devil Fruit, do you?"
"They can't…?"
"Of course not!" Aishi scoffed. "I was only able to eat a Devil Fruit because my full consciousness was already inside the golden scale fruit."
She explained: "The ones I produce now don't have any consciousness. They need at least a hundred years to develop even the weakest sentience."
"So if you want another me, you'll have to wait a century. Otherwise, it's just a rock."
"Can you feed a Devil Fruit to a rock?" she asked.
Oof.
Not really. Even if you could, why would you?
And from what Aishi was saying, if a golden scale fruit did eat a Human-Human Fruit, the form it took would look just like her.
For some reason, Luo Han found the idea of a second Aishi strangely exciting.
"You want to make it like a thunder cloud homie—what's your goal here?" Akatsuki asked, breaking his imagination. She rolled against him, fixing her hair on his shoulder.
"Yeah! Why did you suddenly ask that?" Aishi echoed.
Luo Han smiled. "Remember when I said I wanted to connect all the world's oceans to Evernight City using the Door-Door Fruit?"
"I didn't consider how much stamina that would take—keeping open a space gate that links all the seas is exhausting."
"So I thought, if I could find someone with infinite stamina to eat the fruit…"
"Then I wouldn't have to worry about it ever shutting down," he explained.
"And you thought of Aishi …" Akatsuki raised an eyebrow. "Even if you found a Human-Human Fruit and recreated her…"
"She still couldn't eat the Door-Door Fruit, right?"
"Exactly," Aishi added. "If you brought it up, you must have a workaround—some way to give the golden scale fruit consciousness without a Devil Fruit, right?"
Heh.
Luo Han chuckled. "I thought you'd figure it out."
"Didn't I ask earlier if the golden scale fruit could become like a homie?"
"Ohhh!" Akatsuki suddenly got it. "You're planning to have Big Mom turn it into a sentient being—like Zeus!"
"That's the idea!" Luo Han confirmed. "I asked Aishi just to make sure, since the fruit is part of her. I wasn't sure it would work."
"So what do you think? Can Big Mom do it?" he asked Aishi again.
"Hmm…"
Aishi thought for a moment, still uncertain. The golden scale fruit lacked consciousness, but it was still linked to her—technically a part of her.
"You can try. I don't know if it'll work," she said at last.
"Alright!"
Luo Han nodded. "Then give me a fruit, and I'll go see Big Mom."
"Luo Han!" Akatsuki said suddenly.
"What?" he looked over.
"I might be remembering wrong, but doesn't Aishi only have infinite stamina because of her Devil Fruit powers?"
"And even if you do create a new version of her, how can you be sure it'll have her infinite stamina or clone abilities?"
Aishi was confused too—her abilities did come from her Devil Fruit.
She didn't know how Luo Han planned to solve that problem.
"I've already thought of a workaround!" Luo Han smiled. "If the transformation works, I'll test it then. No point explaining now."
"Time to sleep!"
He pulled both women into his arms.
Seeing that he wasn't going to explain further, Aishi and Akatsuki let it go. They'd find out soon enough.
...
The next day!
Luo Han moved fast—he teleported to Totto Land early in the morning.
On the new Cake Island, he found Charlotte Linlin.
She was surprisingly cooperative this time—maybe because Luo Han didn't greet her by launching her into the stratosphere.
Last time, his dramatic entrance had left her no choice but to rage.
This time was peaceful. Luo Han presented the freshly-grown golden scale fruit from Aishi and explained his request.
"No problem!" Linlin agreed at once, secretly relieved. She wasn't ready to fight Luo Han again just yet.
Until the Ancient Weapons were found, she would endure anything—because one day, she planned to make Luo Han wish he were dead.
"Here."
Luo Han handed her the fruit. "Hurry up. You'll never get revenge in this lifetime anyway."
He knew exactly what she was thinking. But compared to his Perfect Haki Susanoo and Sea King army…
She had no chance.
Linlin didn't respond to his provocation. She casually pulled a soul orb from a lackey and infused it into the golden scale fruit.
"Bye now."
As soon as it was done, Luo Han teleported back to the Penguin on Ark Island.
What came next wasn't for others to see.
Fwoosh!
A humanoid-shaped soul flame appeared in his palm.
Without hesitation, he pressed it into the transforming golden scale fruit.
Soon—
The fruit twisted and reshaped itself into a two-meter-tall young man.
His face was sharp and angular—military-like in demeanor.
He looked slightly confused, likely surprised to see Luo Han instead of Big Mom.
"Let's see if this works…"
Luo Han dove into the young man's spiritual world.
No willpower, just a blob of basic awareness.
Just like the homies, Luo Han used Bie Tianshen to wrap around the fledgling consciousness.
But this time, he did something different—he projected a phantom version of his own willpower from the spiritual world.
That projection was his own will made manifest.
He inserted it into the young man's mental space, merging it with the existing awareness.
Then activated Bie Tianshen!
Within moments, a brand-new willpower seed began to form.
And then—
Transformation complete. A flash of clarity appeared in the young man's eyes.
"So it worked…" he turned and looked at the towering Luo Han. "Funny seeing myself from the outside."
The young man—
No, Luo Han's mind clone—clenched his fists, marveling at how real he felt.
It was a success. By projecting his own will into a new seed, Luo Han had shaped a second version of himself.
Now, he could descend his consciousness into this clone and take over entirely at will.
"Perfect!"
Luo Han smiled, exited the mental world, and returned to his original body.
"Boss!" the young man asked. "What's my name?"
His voice was a bit stiff—more intelligent than the homies, but still robotic.
Must be because the willpower projection overrode his original thoughts, leaving him with a kind of default programming.
Luo Han pondered, then said, "Your name is James Bond."
"Yes, Boss! I'm James Bond from now on!" the young man replied mechanically.
Next, it was time to bring in Aishi for help. Whether this worked long-term would depend on the next experiment.
Luo Han smiled slightly, took Bond, and teleported away.
...
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Bankai10