Deep in the core lab of Punk Hazard, the rest of the Eclipse Pirates weren't idle while Jeno and Chopper hauled medical pod equipment around. A rare pass into the World Government's highest-clearance research base had everyone wandering the place like kids in a treasure vault.
"This place is massive."
Sabo walked slowly down an abandoned corridor, Flame Dragon Staff in hand. Scrapped mechanical parts and dust-choked filing cabinets lined both walls.
He shoved open an unlocked storage room door.
This was clearly where failed experiments went to die. A pile of desiccated animal specimens slumped in the corner. Scrap paper covered in dense formulas littered the floor.
Sabo flipped through the papers idly, ready to leave, when something in the back of the room caught his eye. A dust-coated glass cabinet, nearly swallowed by shadow.
"What's this?"
He crossed the room and wiped the grime off the glass.
Inside, resting alone, was a Devil Fruit. Its surface was etched with the familiar spiral patterns, but something was off. The fruit didn't radiate the usual aura of mystery or menace. Instead, it was a soft, almost delicate pink. The kind of pink that belonged on a candy shop shelf.
"A Devil Fruit tossed in the scrap heap?"
Sabo raised an eyebrow and opened the unlocked cabinet, lifting the pink fruit out.
"Carina, patch me through to the old man."
His voice cut across the mental channel.
"On it, First Mate. Channel open." Carina's crisp reply came right back.
"Dr. Vegapunk." Sabo turned the fruit over in his hand. "I found a pink Devil Fruit in your Section C scrap storage. Is this one of those artificial fruits you people cooked up?"
In the main lab, Vegapunk paused mid-sip of his tea. He linked into Sabo's shared vision feed.
"Oh. That thing."
The moment he recognized the pink fruit, undisguised disgust crept into his voice.
"Years ago, I extracted the Lineage Factor from a pirate and attempted to replicate a creature of myth. That is an artificial Mythical Zoan: the Azure Dragon Fruit."
"Mythical Zoan?! Azure Dragon?!"
Jeno, Carina, and the others on the channel gasped in unison.
"Old man, you can artificially make Mythical Zoans now?!" Jeno's voice cracked with excitement.
"Hmph. Don't remind me. That is the single greatest failure of my scientific career."
Vegapunk let out a heavy sigh. "The Lineage Factor extraction was flawless. The fruit's physical transformation was a success. But that fruit is a complete and utter failure. So I threw it in the scrap vault."
"A failure?" Sabo weighed the fruit in his palm. "Does eating it kill you? Or does it just not turn you into a dragon?"
"It won't kill you. And yes, it can turn you into a dragon."
Vegapunk adjusted his glasses. His voice shifted, turning unnervingly serious, laced with the particular madness of a true obsessive.
"But as a fruit born from the Azure Dragon Lineage Factor, the dragon it produces is... pink!"
"Pink! Can you even imagine it? A divine dragon that soars the heavens and commands the wind and rain, and it is pink! A sacrilege against the very concept of a mythical beast! An insult to the purity of science!"
He was nearly shouting now, voice rising through the channel. "A defective product with such a color deviation can never be called a successful scientific achievement!"
Silence.
The entire mental channel went dead quiet for a solid five seconds.
"All of this... because the color was wrong?"
Buggy's incredulous shriek broke the silence. "Old man, have you actually lost your mind? It's a Mythical Zoan! Who cares if it's pink or green? You can turn into a dragon!"
"Shut your mouth, red nose! You understand nothing of scientific rigor!" Vegapunk snapped back, a rare flash of genuine anger in his voice.
"Ahem."
A low laugh cut through the channel. Ace, who'd been quiet the whole time, couldn't hold it back anymore.
He knew exactly what that pink fruit was. He was a transmigrator, after all. This was the fruit Momonosuke would eat in the Wano arc, the perfect replication of Kaido's power. Aside from the color, its abilities to summon clouds and spit searing breath were nearly identical to Kaido's own Azure Dragon fruit.
And Vegapunk's obsessive perfectionism had labeled it garbage.
"Doctor, if this fruit is a failure, then it's just taking up space here."
Ace's voice came through the channel, calm and casual. "Let me dispose of it for you."
"Do whatever you want. Just never let me lay eyes on that nauseating pink again." Vegapunk grunted and cut the connection.
Minutes later, on the Eclipse's deck.
The crew gathered around the long table, eyes locked onto the pink fruit Sabo had placed at its center.
"A Mythical Zoan..."
Urouge swallowed hard. His own power was a Paramecia, but even he couldn't pretend he didn't feel a tug of envy at a fruit of this caliber.
"The color's a little strange, but the ability is absolutely top-tier." Leonora rested her chin on one hand. "If I'm counting right, Shark's the only one on the ship who hasn't eaten a fruit yet."
Every head swiveled toward the tall fishman standing by the rail, Samehada strapped across his back.
"Don't look at me."
Shark shook his head firmly, his slate-gray face locked in pure refusal.
"I'm a fishman. The ocean itself is my greatest weapon. Turning into a landlubber just to become a pink dragon? Absolutely not. That's the dumbest trade I can imagine."
"So what do we do with it? Sell it?" Buggy asked, suddenly playing the tycoon. "Not like we're hurting for cash."
"If nobody wants to eat it, then let a weapon eat it."
Ace picked up the pink fruit. His gaze shifted to the dark crimson alloy staff in Sabo's grip.
"Sabo. Your weapon's called the Flame Dragon Staff, right?"
A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Name's got 'dragon' in it. Feeding it a pink dragon fruit? That's almost too perfect."
"Feed a Mythical Zoan to a weapon?!"
Sabo froze. He looked at the staff in his hands, then at the fruit. "That... can that even work?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
Jeno strode over, eyes blazing with a mad inventor's fire.
"I've already cracked Caesar's method for fusing inanimate objects with Zoan Devil Fruits! I can absolutely feed this fruit to your Flame Dragon Staff!"
"Sabo, trust me. Once this staff eats that fruit, it'll become the most vicious living weapon on the seas." Jeno rubbed his hands together with barely contained glee.
"If Jeno says it can be done."
Sabo slammed the Flame Dragon Staff onto the table. His blue eyes lit up with anticipation.
"Then let's do it. I want to see exactly how strong a real, living 'Flame Dragon' can be."
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