The Origins of Blaze

by xenosaiyan

Blaze, a 2 year old whose life was changed once he received an artificial devilfruit from the marines to destroy the pirate age, grew up as a marine. However, his devil fruit was wanted by less than savory individuals. When a twist of fate forced him into another world, he must survive. Yet, as convoluted as his new home is, he must remember his origins in order to thrive. Prequel

2. Chapter 1

NARUTO DOESN'T BELONG TO ME! ONE PIECE DOESN'T BELONG TO ME. AND UNFORTUNATELY THE POWER OF READING MORE THAN TWO SENTENCES OF THE TERMS AND AGREEMENTS FOR THIS WEBSITE DOESN'T BELONG TO ME!

YO! TIME FOR ANOTHER CHAPTER! I'LL RESPOND TO MY REVIEW AS MUCH AS I CAN. I'D LIKE TO THANK THE FIRST WHO FAVORITED ME, ROOT OF DARKNESS. YOU'RE AWESOME! I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK BLAKE2020 FOR BEING THE FIRST REVIEWER AND ALSO LIKE TO THANK THE VITRUVIAN MAN! THANKS EVERYBODY.

THIS IS XENOSAIYAN AND ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Chapter 2:

"Where should I put Blaze, though?" Asked Riveteer. "Should we put him into a new room?"

"No." Said the Professor. "Even though I am going to act as his surrogate father, it would be good if he has another part of the family to look up to. Put him in the same room as project Hellfire Phoenix."

Riveteer grinned. "So you want him to use his abilities on that brat later in his life? True, it would be good to start with a logia for training, instead of a zoan or a paramecia."

Lucci raised an eyebrow, and turned towards the professor. "Professor, what exactly are the abilities of the implanted artificial devil fruit you gave him. You said that it would be considered as the most powerful devil fruit ever, but you never said what his abilities are."

"It's cause you're not of a high enough rank like me. You're not awesome enough yet." Boasted Riveteer.

"Don't be like that Riveteer. It is imperative that Lucci knows what his abilities are, as both of you are going to teach him later." The Professor chastised. Without allowing Riveteer time to respond, the Professor turned towards Lucci. "The reason I called his devil fruit the most powerful devil fruit is because his devil fruit isn't exactly one ability. It's five."

Outwardly Lucci looked composed, however on the inside Lucci was shocked. "Five!" Lucci exclaimed. "You mean he has the power of five devil fruits?!" Asked Lucci.

"No, not really. The power of the fruit inside Blaze is the ability to copy. If he touches his opponent for about two minutes, he can copy the ability and basically use at the level of the person he copied for ten minutes. However, if Blaze touches the opponent for three minutes, he can permanently have that ability. However, if Blaze does this, the ability will be like if he just ate the fruit. Take for example that Blaze permanently copied Fire Fist Ace's Mera-Mera no mi. Instead of being able to shoot a fireball that can easily decimate twenty warships immediately, he would instead be able to shoot a fireball that can light a tree on fire, but not really cause more damage than that. He would have to train immensely with the devil fruit for him to get to Fire Fist's level of mastery of the devil fruit. He can only copy an ability permanently five times, hence the fact that I said that his devil fruit has five abilities." The Professor explained.

"While it has it's handicaps, that devil fruit does show immense capabilities to be extremely powerful. That, coupled along with his healing factor, does show a fearsome combination." Noted Lucci. "It's main handicap is that it takes a long time to acquire the proper gifts and it takes even longer to train it. However, another huge advantage is that it provides a lot of diversity in battle, and that is not easily overcome. Couple that with the rokushiki, and the diversity only increases. Also, if he obtains a logia type devil fruit, he will already be able to deal with most of the lower ranks of pirates.

"Yeah." Said Riveteer. "If the kid learns how to switch between the fruits that he will absorb in a second then he will become a real threat. Imagine if uses the elemental immunity of the logia one second, then uses a mythical zoan type the next second. He would be a true threat to reckon with for the yonko."

"Exactly." Said the Professor while nodding. "That's the vision I had while creating the serum." The Professor downed the last of the Blue moon in All Blue while Riveteer gazed mournfully, wanting more of the delicious wine. "However I don't think it would be a good idea if we gave him all five immediatly. I'd rather have him have one powerful weapon and learning a second one, rather than giving him five different types of butter knives. That's why I'm going to have you, Riveteer, place him in the same room as Project: Hellfire Phoenix. If Blaze sees the devil fruit he's going to one day permanently copy, instead of being closed off and thinking in only one way, he can find multiple different ways of utilizing that devil fruit."

RIveteer nodded and said, "Got it Professor," before he swung away and went through the door. Navigating through twists and turns, Riveteer eventually got to a hall. All of the doors were brown except for one, which had a red, blue, and green flame painted onto it. Riveteer rapped on the door and waited until a small boy answered. The boy who answered had raven black hair, falling until just short of his shoulders, most likely never cutting his hair in his life, considering how long it was compared to his age. He wore a black button down shirt, even though he refused to actually button it up. His body boasted of a slight muscular frame, well-toned and akin to a streamlined body but not quite there yet, and he was still thin enough to be quite a fast runner, unlike those muscular ripped barbarians who would be challenged by a snail in a race. He also wore blue pants, tight enough to show his leg muscles, but loose enough to not hinder his movements in a fight. But, however nice his body was, he was slouching and there were bags under his eyes.

"What do you want RIveteer-san? It's the middle of the night." He grumbled.

"It's 10 AM, Flare." Responded Riveteer dryly.

"Is it?" He yawned in response. "I was up late last night reading. Though I suppose it would be up early reading considering I went to bed at 5 AM. What do you think?" He asked.

Riveteer shrugged in response. "You got a new baby brother, Flare." He said out of the blue.

"I do?" Asked Flare, bewildered. "Dear God, I feel bad for the girl that got drunk enough to hang out with Professor-san nine months ago.

Riveteer roared in laughter at the response. He grinned cheekily and said to Flare, "I taught you well."

"That you have Riveteer-san, that you have. Is he sharing my room?"

Riveteer nodded in response. "Yeah. It's going to be awesome for you ain't it? You've always wanted a baby brother, haven't ya?" Riveteer asked.

"Yeah." Flare nodded in response. "Even with all the books, it can get really boring around here with just training and reading, especially since you haven't showed up recently.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Riveteer said sheepishly. "The Professor's been running is ragged and I haven't had time to stop by recently."

"I could tell," Flare said dryly, this time him responding with dry humor.

"Can I come in?" Asked Riveteer.

"Sure. No problem Riveteer-san," Said Flare, pulling door so Riveteer could step through.

When Riveteer entered the room, he was greeted with the site of a bedroom coated with red and blue images, with one red and blue image of a giant flame being plastered to a tarp and being hung on the wall. The fluffy carpet was completely scarlet and the bed was a blood like crimson color. There was even an oak bookshelf that was completely painted in red, with psychedelic grooves burned onto each side in the shape of three circles slightly overlapping each other, with a blue fire in bottom most one, a green fire to the upper right one and a red fire in upper left circle. This groove was also burned onto the crimson painted wall, opposing the tarp with the red and blue fire. Riveteer and the Professor always wondered what the groove was about, but when asked, Flare always refused to say. RIveteer was half convinced that Flare somehow joined a cult, or even created a new one. It was pretty worrying for a couple people, because nothing screams Admiral like being a leader of a cult right?! ...Then again Akainu is an admiral so maybe.

Riveteer snorted. "If you remove the green, it's basically his hair color."

Flare smiled in amusement. "Yeah. That's a pretty cool hair color of his. By the way, since we're gonna be brothers, what's his name?"

"Blaze is the little guy's name." Riveteer said in response.

"...Really?" He asked in disbelief. "Blaze and Flare, the Hellfire brothers? Is the Professor secretly a friggin arsonist?"

Riveteer sniggered in laughter before saying. "Yeah I guess. He's a bit too into flames. And where the hell did you get the Hellfire Brothers from? Hell, it makes you seem more like an arsonist. Hell, you are an arsonist for god's sakes. The powers that you got from the Professor was the scientifically replicated Logia from the Captain of the 2nd division of the Sea Emperor Whitebeard's pirates, Fire Fist Ace!" Riveteer raised his voice into a womanly soprano-like fashion and said, mockingly, "Oh look at that handsome Marine Vice-Admiral go by! He's so young and so powerful! What was his nickname again? Right, it was Fire Fist Flare! Along with his little brother, Blaze, they make up the Hellfire Brothers of the Marines. Oh they're so hot!" Swooned Riveteer before collapsing to the ground in laughter.

"Shut up! Baka Riveteer-san!" Exclaimed Flare, as he lit his fists on fire and started punching Riveteer, even though it only caused Riveteer to laugh louder. Even Blaze started giggling cutely. Flare stopped punching Riveteer with flaming fists. "Not you too!" Flare said in exasperation. He glared at Blaze, who was still giggling at his act with RIveteer. He sighed in exasperation as he turned towards Riveteer who was finally stopping his laughter, albeit slowly.

"Ah," Riveteer said while wiping a tear from his eye from all of his laughter. "You really made my day, brat."

"Hey, Riveteer-san." Said Flare, trying to capture Riveteer's attention. "How long will it be until he starts to train?"

"Same as you. Start training at age three and first mission at age five." Riveteer responded. Flare nodded in return.

"What are his powers?" Asked Flare. "If it's like mine, I could help train him."

"Ah. You see," Riveteer said awkwardly. As Riveteer repeated what the Professor said about Blaze's powers. Flare's left eyebrow raised higher and higher with every sentence Riveteer uttered.

"Damn." Flare said breathlessly, glancing at Blaze, who was also staring back at him, looking as if he was expecting Flare and RIveteer to burst out into another improvised act. "Shortstop over there really is that powerful?" He asked.

"Yep." He can be insanely powerful one day." Agreed Riveteer. "However, in order to fully utilize that potential, Blaze has to train an insane amount. Even to master one devil fruit is absurdly difficult, but to train five… he might never reach that pinnacle."

"Yeah. If he doesn't awaken his devil fruit, he will never stand a chance in the new world, but to awaken a devil fruit… that's something most devil fruit users can never do. He will most likely never be able to awaken all five. Especially if you add mastery of haki, and then mastery of the rokushiki. I trained myself for multiple years but I am still only able to use two of the rokushiki. I am also unable to hold armament haki for long periods of time. " Flare considered. "However the flip side must also be considered. While the chances of him of failing to master everything are astronomically high, If he is able to awaken all five of his devil fruits, master haki, and all of the rokushiki, he will undoubtedly become the most powerful person in the world. Even the old Pirate King Gol D. Roger, would probably become mere fodder for him."

"Whatever it is, his life is gonna be a hell a lot of work if he wants to accomplish that." Riveteer said. "Also don't sell yourself short. Mastering even one of the rokushiki at age eight is enough for you to be considered beyond a prodigy. Mastering two… prodigies should worship you as a deity, for god's sakes." Said Riveteer. "Which one did you newly master anyway? Last I checked you only mastered one.

Flare smiled with pride at Riveteer's high praise. However laid back he is, to get compliments from Riveteer was extremely difficult, as Riveteer holds himself with extremely high regards, and for good reason too. Riveteer feels pride in knowing that to many he is extremely strong. However, Riveteer knows that he still has a long way to go, and reminds himself that pride is before a crash, which Riveteer knows by experience.

"I learned Geppo a couple days ago." Flare said with pride. "Along with that, I already knew Soru."

"Nice job!" Said Riveteer with a grin, as he fondly ruffles Flare's hair. "While you got a long way to go, you've come down the road more than most people. Your training is only going to get tougher from here on out though, Flare. We've recruited an old CP9 member named Lucci. He also has a zoan type devil fruit, but look out. He's quite a sadist. He also believes in absolute justice. Once, he was on a mission to kill all the pirates in a certain kingdom because they were holding five hundred soldiers hostage. He did kill all of the pirates, but he also killed all the soldiers too since he believed that since they surrendered to pirates, that they were also criminals. My training is after Lucci's so you can show some weakness like exhaustion to me, but never show weakness to Lucci. It's one of his biggest pet peeves. Got it?"

"I got it Riveteer-san." Said Flare firmly, as he looked up to his role model. Riveteer was the strongest person that Flare knew and also the kindest. He wanted to be like that one day.

"That's my boy." Said RIveteer proudly. "Come here." He said as he pulled Flare in for a hug.

They separated and Riveteer said, "No, but seriously where the hell did you get Hellfire Brothers from?"

"Well, I don't exactly have a last name right? Also, the project where I got my devil fruit powers from is called Project: Hellfire Phoenix so I thought it would be cool to call my last name Hellfire." Said Flare excitedly.

Riveteer felt a pang in his heart when he heard how Flare said that he didn't have a last name.

'Get ahold yourself, you buffoon! The safety of the world comes first, then you can apologize for… all of it.' Riveteer thought.

He tried to force a smile, but to Flare's point of view it looked more like a pained grimace.

"You okay Riveteer-san? It kind of looks like you're hurt." Said Flare concerned.

'Man, does that fake smile look that bad? Geez, Riveteer work on your acting skills!' Riveteer thought. On the outside RIveteer said "It's nothing kid. Sorry about cutting this short, but I have to get back to the Professor. He was expecting me to come back right after I got Blaze here. If I'm any more late, he'll skin me alive! Or worse, not give me any more of that wine! I'll come visit you later okay?" Without letting Flare respond, Riveteer got up and walked out of the room.

"What the hell was that about?" Flare muttered. "And what wine? Ah whatever." Flare turned to look back at Blaze, cradling a blanket in his tiny palms. Flare flopped onto his bed, bouncing slightly before relaxing on grinned in a sadistic manner that would have made even highly trained marines nervous.

"Hello, little brother. In two years I will only be able say one thing about your training.

Welcome to hell…"

Insert spongebob time skip narrator here…

(2… years… later. Or more like 1.5. It's about 6 months before luffy returns.)

"Ksh! Ksh! Ksh!" was the sound that reverberated throughout a specialized training room in the submarine located under the Sabaody Archipelago. If one poked their through the doorway they would find three interesting things.

1. The sounds were originating from two sword fighters, one who was towering over the other, wearing a suit and a top hat, which was quite a strange choice of clothing for a swordfight, which needs a lot of dexterity. The other one was a small child with red and blue hair that was wearing a torn up red button down shirt with black pants. He also had a black belt around his pants.

2. Even if it could be technically classified as a swordfight, it was more of an absolute ass kicking with the four year old barely able to even lift up the swords and block as the adult was using crisp strokes to knock the swords down to floor with the four year old barely able to hold the swords each time Lucci knocks it down.

3. They would also feel a blade through their necks before being decapitated as Lucci was in a very, very bad mood.

Lucci knocked down Blaze's swords one more time and kicked him in the middle of the chest, sending him flying into the stone wall. As Lucci limited his power, Blaze didn't go flying through the wall, but he did kick him hard enough that there was a Blaze shaped indent in the wall. Blaze fell down, tearing up a bit before shouting "What the hell Lucci-san?! That hurt a lot!"

"Shut up Blaze!" Lucci said, his eyes flashing angrily. "You think your enemies are going to care if your back hurts a lot? At this rate, you won't even win against five million beri pirates even when you're 30! At this rate you'll be nothing but a big waste to the Professor! Riveteer-san has been spoiling you since you're still a kid, but I won't do something as that."

"Whatever." Blaze said as he picked himself up. "Not like it matters that much anyway." Blaze rolled his eyes. While Blaze didn't see it, Lucci's eyes went red slightly for a half-second due to unconsciously tapping into his devil fruit's powers.

"He's still a kid, Lucci-kun. You don't have to push him that hard. You can't just put the entire world on his shoulders and expect him to lift it." Said a female voice behind the door. She opened the door before Blare cried out, "Urohana-san!" (I love making up japanese names in these stories. It's just so...easy! Just combine two from an anime or two different ones. I.E. Urahana- Uraraka, from boku no hero academia, and Unohana, from bleach!)

Stepping out from behind a door was a woman in her mid 30s, with black hair waterfalling to her hip. She had a face that would make most men and a few woman feel blood rushing to their face and a body that nearly all women would kill for. Add her kind personality, and also her smarts, she could have nearly everybody drooling. She was wearing a purple flower dress, with a black background and high heel shoes. She also had two golden flower earrings, with an emerald in the middle of them.

Blaze stared at Urahana before running at her and jumping into her arms.

"Now, now Blaze-kun." Urahana chastised, even though she was inwardly happy at his delight from seeing her. "Before hugging me, you should ask Lucci-kun if you. It's only respectful to your sensei after all.

"Tch, he can leave. He's just a waste of time anyway." Lucci grumbled.

"Don't listen to him Blaze-kun. He's just grumpy today for no reason at all." Urahana said while Blaze pouted. "You're always really cool."

"Really?" Asked Blaze.

"Really." Urahana agreed. "Now let's get you out of here." She picked him up and put him against her shoulder. Blaze turned to Lucci and stuck out his tongue while Urahara walked out of the room. A tick could be seen on the right side of Lucci's forehead.

"God...fucking...damnit!" Lucci said as he used a Rankyaku against the door, accidentally beheading an assistant who came to tell him something, splattering blood all over another a terrified assistant. "That kid is annoying. He has so much potential, but he doesn't even bother training that hard. His brother is going to become more than a hundred times more powerful than him at this rate, and he's fucking fine with that?! How?! Why?!" Lucci growled in outrage.

"And what the fuck do you want?!" Growled Lucci towards the terrified assistant.

"T-t-t," Sputtered the assistant, between his sobs,terrified of Lucci.

"Spit it out already, you mongrel." Snarled Lucci, releasing bloodlust along with slight conqueror's haki into the air, not enough to knock the assistant unconscious, but enough to make sure that if the assistant's pants weren't already wet with piss, they were definitely now.

"T-t-th-the Professor wants an update sir!" The assistant gasped, retching at the metallic pang of the taste of his now dead friends blood. Lucci turned around stiffly, growled, and walked through the hallway and turned out of view. The moment Lucci was out of view, the assistant threw up onto the floor. He was quietly sobbing and retching, wishing he never got involved with the hell that is known and praised as the Marines.

Lucci walked through the steel halls, built like that to make sure that the ship doesn't succumb to the water pressure. Being underwater, and having a devil fruit is nerve-racking enough. Add in the stress of training that fucking kid and you got a really tensed up Lucci who, unfortunately for a couple people in the submarine, is also quite a sadist. Lucci snarled when he thought of Blaze as he turned into the laboratory part of the submarine. Over the years, the Professor redecorated the laboratory, as he has much more funding from the world government now. As of late, it's been reduced a lot last year's summit war and a lot of the funding is going to rebuilding the headquarters of the world government.

The laboratory had steel tiles layered on top of each other, and machines for which the use was unknown to Lucci, as he neither knew or cared for what purpose the machines were for as long it could be useful. The Professor had his head inside a flap door, which was protecting the delicate insides of the machine, and was tinkering in the machines which was made of… ferrosteel? Lucci guessed.

Lucci cleared his throat as the Professor was fixing something in the machine and the Professor was muttering something that sounded like, "Ech-oh-ul." Lucci assumed it was some gibberish only highly qualified scientists could understand.

The Professor took his head out to see what the noise was and exclaimed, "Oh Lucci! You're here! Good, good." The Professor was bobbing his head, as in tune with some song. "So how is Blaze's training coming along?" He asked. A tick could seen on Lucci's forehead but before he could say anything, a new voice came and asked, "Yeah, how is Blaze's training with you coming along, my cute kohai?" Lucci's tick grew more developed as he recognized the voice and turned around to see the face of Riveteer.

Lucci took a deep breath before telling Riveteer and the Professor, "He is lazy and undedicated. He just wants to lie around all day or just play around instead of actually dedicating his time into developing his skills to become stronger. He is basically the exact opposite of his brother, who has his head into the game and has already mastered all the Rokushiki in record speed, can use all three forms of Haki, and is pretty good with utilizing his devil fruit in unorthodox ways to catch the opponents off guard. However, Blaze on the other hand can barely hold a sword straight. He doesn't care if he gets stronger or not, and is content just loafing around and playing with that Urahana person. Along with that, he isn't even close to even using one of the Rokushiki, let even alone mastering one, and he wouldn't even be able beat ten year olds in a fistfight, and completely breaks down even when only gets a slight cut. Basically, right now Blaze is complete trash, and doesn't want to work hard enough to be above trash." Lucci finished off with a growl, angry with the complete waste of potential whose name is Blaze.

"Lucci, you have to factor in that Blaze is only four. I'm sure that he will start working hard soon. Since there is next to no connection to the outside world, Blaze is a guy that is extremely loyal to his friends. Once he realizes that power is needed to protect his friends he'll definitely work a lot harder." Riveteer said. "I know the kids like the back of my own paws, trust me when I say this, kay?"

"I will trust you with that, Riveteer." Said the Professor. "You are the closest to both the boys, since you are the only one here that has as much maturity as a ten year old boy or lower-"

"OI!"

"-So you can relate to them on a level where only people with low maturity-"

"Did you not hear me say OI?!"

"Can reach." The Professor finished with his mouth threatening to transform into a small smile at Riveteer's reaction. Lucci just had a smirk on his face, his annoyance with Blaze not forgotten, merely pushed aside, when he looked at Riveteer's annoyed face as Riveteer huffed and went out of the room, probably sulking with Blaze and Flare cheering him up.

As Lucci turned to also go out, most likely going to train harder as he never forgot the humiliation that Monkey D. Luffy gave him just a year and a half ago, as the Professor called out, "Wait Lucci." Lucci turned to look at him with his left eyebrow raised, wondering what else the Professor needed with him. Usually these days, he just reports how Blaze and Flare are doing with their training.

"I have a plan I want you to hear out. It's for Blaze's training." Lucci grew annoyed at another mention of Blaze's training. But as the Professor continued explaining, Lucci grew less annoyed and more interested. When the Professor finally finished, Lucci had a sadistic smirk on his face.

"I've said this before Professor, but you really are a genius." The Professor also smirked and said, "I know right?!" With this Lucci sweatdropped and thought inside his head, 'Smart definitely. Humble… maybe not so much. Though he does definitely have a good reason to be. '

"However for this plan to work, we have to give Blaze a power. Give Riveteer the go ahead for Blaze to copy Flare's power." Professor said excitedly, ecstatic to finally see his project in action.

"We will also need some time for Blaze to adjust to the power so maybe a period of one month will also be needed before the plan can be put into action."

Lucci nodded. "I'll give the go ahead now." Lucci turned around and smirked. He wanted to see the most powerful devil fruit in action with his own eyes. "Show me to my own eyes… the power that has the potential to put Whitebeard to shame, Blaze!" He muttered, as he walked down the corridor.

He turned into into the red, blue and green room which signifies that it's Flare's and Blaze's room. Riveteer was also there, and all of them were watching the television. On the television there was a team of four. There was a young man of average height and weight. He has short and slightly spiky chestnut-brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing an outfit which consists of a gold-trimmed green mantle, white shirt, pants and leather boots. There was also a woman with blue hair that waterfalled to her waist-line and had clothes which was carrying a blue color scheme, with her attire consisting of a vest, detached sleeves, thigh-high boots, a miniskirt and a transparent underskirt. The next was a young girl with shoulder-length dark brown hair and crimson colored eyes. She was wearing a classical witch attire such as a black cloak with gold border, choker, wizard's hat, fingerless gloves, and carries a black staff. The final one was a tall, beautiful young woman. She has light blue eyes and straight, long blonde hair, usually kept in a ponytail tied with a braid and red hair clips secured on both sides of her bangs. She was clad in armor. (AN:Konosuba for the WIN! Megumin, AKA Crazy girl, AKA The girl with an explosion fetish= Awesomeness!)

Lucci called out their names. "Riveteer-san, Flare, Blaze."

The three of them turned around to Lucci and said, "Yes. I am-" and then they said their own respective names. Lucci sweatdropped, wondering what was with the weirdness, until he saw the female with the blond hair in the show calling out the male's name with the male responding like, "Yes, I'm Kazuma." Lucci face-palmed, and thought, 'This is what happens when you have next-to-no contact with the outside world in your first years of life, and an anime-fanatic is your "Father", basically.' He thought inwardly with a groan.

"Hey Riveteer-san, how come you made us skip episode nine? Something important might have happened!" Cried out Blaze.

"Nah. I already saw Konosuba before. There wasn't anything in episode nine." Said Riveteer, thankful that both boys were behind him so they couldn't see his panicking face.

'I CANNOT SHOW THEM THAT EPISODE! I will not show a four-year old and a ten-year old boy the fanservice in that episode.' Riveteer thought. 'Wait a second… I already taught Flare sex jokes, like, two years ago! Shit, I'm a horrible role model!' Riveteer realized. A storm cloud could be seen above Riveteer's head as he fell into depression.

Lucci finally recovered and said, "Blaze, Flare-"

"Yes, I'm-" as they said their own respective names, Lucci ignored it and said, "Blaze you are allowed to copy Flare's devil fruit now."

"No thanks." Blaze and Flare chorused, as they turn back to the TV.

'.1.' Lucci thought, counting down in his head.. At the end of one Blaze, Flare, and Riveteer looked up towards Lucci and said, "Eh? EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH?!" They all rapid fired questions towards Lucci and Lucci smiled, pleased with their mutual interest. Then he realized what he was doing and quickly tried to hide the smile with a sneer. Nobody, not even Blaze was fooled by that though, (Mostly because Blaze didn't know what a sneer was. Not many four-year olds do.) Riveteer, and Flare were trying not to show shock on their face, and failing miserably, while Blaze jumped off the red, leather couch and started pulling on his pant leg while simultaneously saying, "Stop smiling Lucci-san. Please!"

Lucci frowned at Blaze, wondering why he would ask that. He decided to just ask.

"Blaze, first of all, I was not smiling." After this statement, both Flare Riveteer snorted and gave each other a high five. "Second of all," Lucci gritted his teeth together in annoyance. "Why shouldn't I smile?"

"Because," Blaze said with child-like innocence in his wide, emerald eyes, "Riveteer-san and Flare-niisan said that every time you smile, multiple cute kittens and puppies are sacrificed." Blaze's eyes started filling with his tears at the thought of puppies and kittens being killed.

Lucci looked at Blaze in disbelief, then turned and glared at Riveteer and Flare who looked at Blaze stunned, then looked at each other, then they started laughing so hard, Flare fell off the top of the couch, even though he tekkai(ed?) instinctively due to his training with the Rokushiki.

Kind of went like this. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, tekkai, HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Once they finally stopped laughing, with multiple gestures from Lucci, which was multiple shigans piercing their bodies. Thankfully, Lucci didn't feel the need to put in haki, or else Flare might have actually died from the sharp, compressed air shockwaves that passed through Flare's flame form, though it had the intended effect of stopping him from laughing. Flare looked behind him and paled when he saw a bullet like hole but much deeper in the floor.

"What the hell Lucci-san?!" Complained Flare while Riveteer tried to calm himself down.

"Alright everybody. Just calm down." Riveteer said while gasping for air.

"Riveteer-san, you're the only one still laughing." Said Flare deadpanning.

"Yeah, yeah brat. But Lucci, what do you mean Blaze has the go ahead. It's supposed to be another year before he should copy it.

Lucci shrugged. "The Professor gave the go ahead. Don't know why but he did." Lucci lied smoothly.

Riveteer squinted at him for a second, before shrugging and turning to Blaze to say, "Well? Light em up kiddo!"

"Light what up?" Blaze asked curiously.

"Riveteer-san, it should be obvious that he doesn't know." Chastised Flare. He turned around to Blaze, who was staring at him with wide, confused eyes. "How to explain this to a four year old?" Flare wondered out loud. 'Okay, so even though he has more intelligence than a normal kid his age has, due to the Professor and his love of books, he is still a kid so we kind of have to dumb it down.' He reflected.

(AN: For the future. Damn you 4 year old kids, and your bad understanding of vocab! This conversation hurts me)"Erm...okay Blaze, this is the deal. You know how I can shoot out flames?"

"Yeah, I know nii-san." Declared Blaze.

"The thing is... just like me you also have a super special power!"

"I do?" Blaze questioned in awe.

"Yep!" Flare agreed. "And here's the thing… it's not just an awesome power like mine, but it's even more powerful!"

"It is?" He asked while gazing at him in excitement. He started jumping around, ecstatic. "I'm awesome!" He declared.

Lucci just rolled his eyes. "This physically and mentally hurts to listen to." He thought inside his head. Then he realized what he thought and scowled, knowing he's been spending way too much time with the brats and Riveteer to think like that.

Riveteer was on a similar wavelength to Lucci. "How do I feel about this? Yeah, no, this hurts my soul. Then again, he is only four...Nah, doesn't change a thing." He reflected.

Flare just sweatdropped, hoping he wasn't like this when he was four. "Yeah, you are really awesome. The thing is, while it's more powerful, you need to practice even harder than me." Flare said, knowing how Lucci felt about Blaze's training, and he hoped to get him at least training a little harder, if not a lot harder.

Blaze stopped jumping around, and puffed his out his cheeks to show the obvious displeasure on his face for that fact.

"Okay so your powers is the ability to copy power from other people." Flare said hurriedly, not wanting Blaze to complain right in front of Lucci, as he could already see Blaze opening his mouth. "Basically, you can copy my ability and four other abilities permanently. This way you can also shoot fire along with me." Flare said, and, as an afterthought, said "You can truly become a Hellfire brother little bro," knowing that would make Blaze ecstatic. And ecstatic he was, if the huge smile on his face was any indicator.

As Blaze danced around, Flare cleared his throat to catch his attention. As Blaze looked back at him, Flare started to end his explanation. "Your abilities are great little bro, but in order for it to grow you have to put in hours and hours of work every day." He warned. As Blaze looked a little put out and wanted to say something, he flinched back from Flare, who was glaring at him. Blaze looked scared of his big brother for once, as Flare also allowed a trickle of conqueror's haki to flow outside of him, not enough to knock Blaze unconscious, but enough to make him scared. He didn't want his little brother to be scared, but Blaze needed to get this idea pounded inside of his thick skull. "Because if you don't," Flare growled. "I'm the one who will have to carry back your broken body."

Blaze just nodded dumbly, wanting to do anything, needing to do anything so his brother stopped pouring out bloodlust. He could taste it, blood and its metallic pang. He could hear war drums pounding in the background, smelled soot and ash around him, feel dried and cracked blood on his fingers while he saw broken bodies lying around, being consumed by fire. He stumbled back, frightened by his brother. He knew it wasn't true, wasn't real, but he could see a devil behind his brother, betrothed in red fire for clothes, laughing as he stabbed, carved, and ate the bodies around him. The devil pointed a long, gnarled finger and said "You can be next. How I wonder you will taste like?" The devil started laughing. Blaze tried to convince himself it wasn't real, that the devil was an illusion but he couldn't. Even if he was only four, his primal instincts told him to run, his slightly cozy life not doing a thing to prevent the most primal version of his brain from acting up. His brain tried to rationalize it, that the image was just that, an image. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and coughed. Everything about it was real, or at least felt like it. The coughing due to smoke inhalation, the crackle of fire being the exact same when Flare lit something on fire, all of his five senses felt that it was real. The devil had a bone in his right hand and the sight of his blackened teeth cracking and sucking the marrow out of the bone, a black tongue slithering over his lips to show his delight sent Blaze over the edge, a four-year old's mind not supposed to be subject to such horrors. His mind shut down, trying to escape as he passed out. The illusion reverted to show how Blaze was unconscious on a fiery red beanbag while Flare towered over him, his eyes flashing in a mix of emotions.

Riveteer chuckled and asked, "When did you become so scary and powerful? Mixing your conqueror's haki and observation haki with your fire devil fruit to produce that image, that's high level shit right there. Hell, you mainly focus on armament haki, so your other haki isn't as powerful but you're still able to do that?"

"I'm not that good at it just yet." Admitted Flare. "There's no way that I could use this in battle right now, and even if I could, it takes a ton of energy and can only be used on weak opponents. High level opponents like you or Lucci-san would probably just shrug it off." He turned towards Riveteer and Lucci and they could see numerous beads of sweat pouring down his face. He was also breathing a tad bit harder than usual.

Lucci narrowed his eyes a bit at Flare. It took a true genius to be able to do such things at ten. No, genius isn't the right word. Even a genius shouldn't be able to do such things at least until eighteen to twenty. He cut it down by half. Flare… is something else. "Did you have to make him pass out though?" Asked Lucci finally. "We have to make him copy your powers."

Flare just looked at him and said, "I'd rather have him have no powers and staying smart about being alive rather than him having powers and charging in when he isn't ready and be killed like a lamb for slaughter." He leveled a glare at Lucci as if daring him to argue against him. Lucci just looked back without responding, and Flare just turned around to look at Blaze's unconscious body. He gripped his sofas' cushion so hard his fingers burst into the white stuffing beneath but he didn't care. "I can't have Blaze dying on me." Flare said, his voice raw with emotion. "I don't care if he doesn't want to, I will drag him, kicking and screaming down that road of power. He's in a world he doesn't understand, where power is necessary, is everything. He will die as he is." He turned to face Lucci again. "I have two goals." He said. "To be pirate king level, and for him to be pirate king level. If we're going to face people such as the Yonko and their armies then we will need to be that level to come out on top. I'm going to make sure he doesn't die, and he needs a taste of that world which civilians, most pirates, and most marines will never experience that. That's why I showed him that image." He turned his body to face Both Lucci and Riveteer at the same time. "We are the forefront of the war against pirates. For that, we need to become stronger, stronger than anybody." He jumped off and started slowly walking to the door. "That's why that technique is called war cry." He said finally and disappeared in a funnel of flames, not wanting to be disturbed.

Riveteer just shook his head at the dramatic exit and walked out, presumably to tell the Professor that the ceremony for copying would take place later. Lucci realized he was the only one left in the room, and he groaned when he realized that he would have to stay there when Blaze woke up. He growled to himself and debated just leaving, but then realized that the Professor would probably skin him alive. It took all of his professionalism to not just say 'Screw it' and leave or just curse so much that Riveteer would want to take lessons from him. He flopped down onto the coach and, after a minute of staring at Blaze, he grabbed the remote and started watching a random show.

Lava was pouring over everywhere, burning innocent victims slowly. Blaze was viewing the disaster with a horrific face. A devil, no, the devil was boiling everyone in a cauldron and slowly sipping from it. The surroundings itself were volcanos upon volcanoes upon volcanoes. Everywhere there were volcanoes erupting. Blaze couldn't breath, the ash going into his lungs if he tried. The devil pointed towards him with the same gnarled finger and gravity turned sideways as he was pulled towards it. He was caught in it's hands and the devil said, "I'll guess I do get to taste you after all," with a sick grin, it's blackened teeth clacking together. Blaze kicked and screamed as the devil opened it's mouth, showing the abyss within. He was slowly getting dragged into that blackened hell and he redoubled his efforts despite knowing it was useless. Tears stung his face as he froze when he saw a fiery light at the end of the devil's mouth.

"Hellfire." He whispered before he stopped moving. His head was put in and screamed a final time before darkness. "AAAAHHHHH!" He yelled out into the comfort of the beanbag. He jumped and crawled away from the beanbag before his mind registered where he was. He collapsed into another beanbag on the opposite sides of the room, face soaked in sweat. He was still screaming when someone grabbed his shoulders and forced him deeper into the beanbag.

"Calm down Blaze!" Lucci said quietly. He repeated it multiple times before Blaze quieted down, using a calm voice to get through his hysteria. Once Blaze calmed down, Lucci asked in a steady voice "Are you okay?" Not trusting his voice that most likely went raw from his screaming, Blaze just nodded. "Good." Lucci said. "You have to understand something though. The pirates that you will face soon? They are even worse than the devil you saw just now." Lucci said, correctly guessing that Blaze had a nightmare about the devil from Flare's illusion.

Blaze's eyes widened as he couldn't imagine anything more terrifying than what he just saw.

"The reason they are more terrifying than what you saw," continued Lucci as the flinch from Blaze before was enough confirmation that his theory of what Blaze was dreaming about was right, "Is because those pirates aren't monsters. They are humans, but they are doing things that not even the devil could dream about. They are just like us, but still choose to murder everyone, innocent people. That's why the marines are there. To make sure that the pirates won't hurt the civilians. We place our lives on the line to protect other people, and we must do whatever is necessary to secure the safety of people, even murdering some pirates instead of bringing them in." Lucci's eyes flashed darkly, showing his belief of absolute justice by basically saying the definition to Blaze just then. "That's why we want train you and make you stronger. This way, you aren't just another casualty, you are someone who can beat back the evilness of the pirates. That's why you shouldn't be mad at Flare for showing you that. He cares for you and he doesn't want you to die." Lucci said trying to convince Blaze. "He would rather die himself than let you get hurt, but he can't always be with you. Not always. There will be times when you both have to go separate ways for different missions. If you die, and he isn't there to protect you, he will blame himself." Asserted Lucci. With shaking eyes, Blaze looked at him and Lucci spoke the final words needed to push Blaze over the edge. "You're a marine Blaze. You will become a powerful marine too, an Admiral level. You shall become the strongest hero. You will protect everybody from evil. You will protect the innocent from the evil monsters that live as pirates." With these words, Blaze's eyes shone with a new kind of strength. While uncertainty was there, there was a shine of determination that aren't usually in kids. Instead the shine of innocence, it shone with the gleam of determination and power.

"He-ro." Blaze said slowly as if it was a new word he was testing out for the first time.

"Yeah. I want to be a hero."

Lucci didn't exactly smile, more of a smirk really, but he nodded his head. He turned around and walked to the door leading out. He reached for the red, brass handle and said before leaving, "Get some rest. Training starts at first light tomorrow." Blaze nodded, slightly anxious of the training. Before opening the door, Lucci said, "Remember. Your last name might be hellfire, however I will show you true hell in training." Blaze nodded slower, thinking the Lucci couldn't see him. While that maybe true, Lucci has been training nonstop for a year and a half. He was able to use observation haki to "see" that Blaze nodded. "The only reason your training is going to be hell," He continued, "is because you will show your opponents true hell." After this Lucci walked out, while Blaze tried to summon his determination but could only find anxiousness.

'Would he be alright? Can he really be a marine?' he wondered.

Mentally, Blaze set his determination onto the task and vowed to himself that he would definitely work hard, no, train hard to be the best Marine. He resolved himself to be the best hero and promptly fell asleep, exhausted with today already.

Meanwhile, when Lucci stepped outside he wasn't that surprised to find the Professor outside.

Lucci opened his mouth but the Professor interrupted him by saying, "You aren't surprised so I'm guessing your observation haki is much better than it was when it first started."

Lucci stiffly nodded and the Professor said, "Well I guess you aren't incompetent at haki after all Lucci-san." Lucci growled slightly. "Careful Lucci, remember who is stronger here." The Professor warned. Lucci just nodded fearfully and backed off and the Professor just laughed,

"I was just joking! Man, did I really give you that much of a beating when you came?"

Not knowing what to do, Lucci kept his mouth shut and kept his facial expression blank.

The Professor just laughed and stalked off. Before he turned from the current hallway to the next he stopped and stated darkly, "Oi Lucci. Remember the plan. Don't go overboard on his training, we need him to lose it later." To punctuate this, the Professor allowed his haki to flow throughout the room. Lucci was driven to his knees terrified.

Realites crashed around him and time burnt. The king lowering his hand down onto the slave slowly, letting the slave know that his life will end. A dagger appeared and stabbed his eye, no, his brain, no, his lungs, no, his heart! He was dead, he was alive. He was burnt, he was drowned, he was electrocuted, he was dissolved. Everything around him crumbled into ash as he woke up to a flickering machine. Hundreds of thousands of millions of bodies were in the grand hall all attached to a machine. A mirror was above them so that they could see what will happen. The Professor is here. The Professor is here and he wants knowledge. He will do anything to attain it. Lucci screamed as his organs were dug out, splashing into the bucket next to him and was replaced as he viewed himself being tortured, no, dissected, like a small powerless animal that just happen to have something interesting to someone. Over and Over. Over and Over and Over. Over Over and Over and Over Over and Over and Over again. Make it stop, please, make it stop, PLEASE MAKE IT STO-!

The Professor turned around the corner and Lucci could breath again and he immediately threw up. All of his stomach acid poured out of his mouth to the ground. He should be unconscious, why why wasn't unconscious?! Why wouldn't sweet darkness come to relieve him of this pain, of this foreign feeling of absolute terror leave him. It was foreign, it was a close brother to him back when he was young, orphaned and left to defend for himself. It was foreign! He was the strongest of CP9, he shouldn't be puking up his entire digestive system on a floor on this Kami-forsaken submarine! That doesn't matter, why hadn't he fallen unconscious yet?!

Then he realized. The Professor didn't want him to fall unconscious! He wanted Lucci to remember… to know what will happen if he doesn't follow his plans! He puked over himself again with the illusion still engrained in his mind, the phantom pain in his stomach still pounding at him, sending him reeling.

He puked once again and staggered to his feet. His haki took a beating from that, blocking a bit of the damage, and he walked back to his room shaken. He cleaned off the puke from himself by taking a quick shower and opened his closet, showing twenty copies of the previous shirt and pants he wore. While he was putting on his clothes, as if it was remembering the one who dealt it attacked his owner again, the scar that looked as if someone took a small cannon ball made of fire and hit him with it at the speed of sound. Normally, such things wouldn't even leave a mark on his body, but, unfortunately, in this case he was comparing himself. It's as if someone took a small cannon ball made of fire and ramming through a normal, civilian body, not one of someone who could now shrug off such attacks in his sleep. Bottom line, Lucci had circular, ridged scar outlining the lower left part of his stomach and a burn that completely filled the inside. He could remember exactly he had gotten that scar too, trauma usually does that to you.

It has been a month since Lucci's defeat at the hands of Monkey D. Luffy. While he might have won, Monkey D. Luffy was in a critical state which could only be healed with time, and excellent medical help from professionals. Lucci was captured, and after given medical attention, he was thrown into a smallish jail cell with the bars made of kairoseki. The kairoseki wasn't really necessary, he was understanding of his position. With the defeat of CP9 at the hands of mere pirates, he failed the Marines protocol for CP9.

'Do not be discovered. Always finish the task, no matter what the cost, physical, mental, men, or otherwise. Never fail. From now on you aren't people. You are instruments to be used, tools for torture, a mechanism for murder, a contraption for undercover missions. If you are found and defeated, you will be denied as a Marine. You shall be a pirate trying to trick the World Government into sabotaging public relations with the country you are found in. The world should and will not know about you. From now on, all of your records, all proof that you are alive will be wiped from reality. There is no going back.' The person who was conducting his inauguration into CP9 stated. Lucci just looked back, and the instructor continued, not caring if Lucci agreed or not, and said "You will train for two years in the style of assassination, and front up combat and then you will receive your first mission and truly become a part of CP9." After this statement, the instructor used soru to disappear from sight and Lucci was left sitting there until someone came up behind him. Knowing what was about to happen, Lucci tensed up before the person behind him inserted a needle into his neck, knocking him out and carried him all the way to Enies lobby. He was eleven years old at the time.

Lucci finished reminiscing about the time he was inaugurated when his sharp ears heard a pair of footsteps walking towards his cage. He didn't open his eyes, however, thinking that he it was his time to be executed. It was much much worse. Somebody rapped on his cage and said, "Get up! Someone important is here to see you!" Lucci quirked his eyebrow in confusion. He could swear he only heard one pair of footsteps and that should be the jailer. He opened his eyes and stood up, averting his eyes at the bright lamp in front of him brought by the jailer, due to being without light for some time. Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot the middle height of the jailer, and a tall man. Forcing himself to look, he saw the tall man in a white lab coat with bloodstains on it. Lucci narrowed his eyes, thinking he was going to be tortured first. He knew the man before him was one of highest ups in the marines, probably just below vegapunk as nobody could match Vegapunk's genius. No matter, Lucci could accept that the man before him was most probably going to end his life, most likely in a very gruesome way. That this man was a professor for the marines, and the shinigami for him.

"Good morning, Lucci-san! It's a beautiful day right? What with the shadows, and the lamp, the couple dead cockroaches, the couple alive cockroaches, and ooooohhh is that dried blood on the wall? You sure have it made!"

… Son of a bitch. Why did they have to send this happy go lucky fool that probably never stepped outside his lab and never work out for his execution! Can't he get at least one serious person?! The wolftard Jabura, that fool of a boss Spandam, Iceberg for a boss and the list has more! Lucci was immensely irritated but only showed this with a barely visible raise of his right eyebrow.

The Professor continued saying, "Eh, you're pretty strong right? How would you like to come and work for me?" Lucci's body showed very little reaction, as he had trained to make sure that his body showed no reaction, however, even he can't show no body language with a second chance. Was there a catch? There had to be, other than working for this clearly half-insane man.

As if he could read thoughts, the Professor immediately said, "Hah! Just joking." Lucci didn't dare let his hopes rise up with the Professor's previous remark, however he couldn't help but feel slightly crushed. And those slightly crushed hopes quickly gave way to anger.

"What do you want?!" Lucci snapped at him. "I'm not foolish enough to actually believe the Marines would let me live, much less work for them again! I know the code of CP9 and I broke it by lo-" Lucci tapered off, and growled, accepting that he lost to strawhat, but abhorred actually saying out loud.

"Since you lost, yadayada, get over it!" The Professor said to him loudly, Lucci growling even louder. Due to his increasing anger. "Look at you! You're filthy, and I don't mean in a physical way. You pride yourself on being strong but you're weak! You pride yourself on being able to uphold the Marines absolute justice but you can't even beat someone who who wouldn't survive a single minute in the New World!" Lucci tried getting up to throttle the man before him, spouting off what he refused to accept as true, but the kairoseki chains barely allowed him any leeway.

"Look at what you are doing, first of all! CP9 members always receive emotional training to prevent emotion from influencing any decision out in the field, and I'm just jabbing at you a little and you already have your emotions out of control. Clearly, your loss has affected you a lot more than you want to show." Lucci wisely kept his mouth shut to not give the Professor any more ammo, but could feel his fury rising, only proving the Professor's point, and in turn making him more mad in an eternal cycle.

"You have slacked off on your training." The Professor said. The Professor continued, saying "And I'll prove it to you! Jailer, unlock the door and chains."

The jailer just looked at him as if he was insane while Lucci narrowed his eyes.

"Him, fight against me? He's either very cocky and prideful… or he is very strong." Lucci thought. 'What he was saying about Strawhat not surviving for a minute in the New World either means that he is underestimating the current strength of Strawhat and knows the New World from rumors, he knows Strawhat's current level and is exaggerating the danger of the New World, Strawhat can survive the New World but he is trying to goad me by saying as I lost to Strawhat I would stand even less of a chance in the New World than Strawhat who apparently can't survive in the New World by his lie, he knows the New World from experience but is underestimating the power of Strawhat… or he is speaking the truth on how the New World is both beyond my and Strawhat's reach right now.' Lucci surmised quickly.

"If it's the last one, then it's an impossibility to win currently" Lucci thought frustrated. "However it is most likely not, as he is a scientist, and by the way he looks, he is one that spent his life dedicated to science so in turn didn't work on his physical abilities at all.

'Today please! I've more important things to do than watch you look at me if I was insane."

The Professor snapped at the jailer. The jailer just nodded dumbly, thinking the 'dude in the lab coat' was insane for trying to challenge Lucci. He unlocked the door, and with a special key, he unlocked the chains of kairoseki. Lucci rubbed his hands newly and just nodded at the Professor and the Professor said, "Well? Come on, you know where the Arena is located." The Arena is what is available to all high level marines for a spar. Unlike a normal battlefield, this Arena is a large stadium, formed by wapometal, the same metal later used to create the siege wall which withstood even one of Whitebeard's attacks. It also had filaments of kairoseki in it to prevent damage to it from Devil Fruit users. Of course if the Admirals went full power, the Arena wouldn't survive, another reason why the future battle of Aokiji and Akainu took place in Punk Hazard and not the Arena, but anything less than the full power of Admirals wouldn't damage the Arena. Even at full power the Admirals have to hit the walls multiple times to actually break it, like how it would take Whitebeard two hits to break through it without using Armament Haki.

The Arena was basically a large stadium with hundreds of seats everywhere, usually when the Celestial Dragons come to see fights between high-ranking Marine officers. Imagine the Roman Coliseum, opening to the air in case if there was a gaseous logia fighting, to prevent any of the Celestial Dragons experiencing discomfort. There was also a reinforced, manipulated wapometal from Vegapunk himself, to allow the Celestial Dragons to see the fight through protected cover, and you can't tell it's there unless you touch it. Even if the walls are dented somehow, the wapometal are shape-memory alloy so once it's heated it can be reverted to its previous shape. Lucci recalled all this information quickly once he walked through the entryway of the Arena onto the battlefield. The Professor walked in after him, his lab coat billowing after him. They separated to opposite ends, the Professor accidentally kicking his toe against the extremely hard wapometal. After a long minute of colorful words, the Professor stood at the opposite end of Lucci, showing the universal for gesture of "Bring it, bitch." by gesturing him to come at him. Lucci, who highly doubted the scientist in front of him was stronger than himself after apparently taking a lot of damage from a stubbed toe, just launched himself at the Professor, not going into leopard form immediately as he should have done, though it wouldn't have helped. Lucci jumped in front of him, and used soru to disappear and attacked the Professor from behind with a knee to the back. He nearly shattered his own knee. He yelled out in pain, and retreated seeing a black cover over the Professor's back.

"A devil fruit?" He wondered to himself as he retreated while the Professor just smiled at him.

"No normal human can do that. Logias can't do that, I would just go straight through him. So either a weird Paramecia or a Zoan. If it's a Zoan classification, then maybe a cockroach or beetle? Paramecia… a steel type? If he could reinforce it a lot, then that may be enough to hurt me. Oh Kami, if he can reinforce it to the point of Wapometal, then I'll have trouble breaking through that. He could also see through my soru, so his reflexes are very good also, for a scientist." Lucci deduced. "This might be overkill but just in case." Lucci's body swelled, growing taller and wider, his pale skin changing to yellow fur, muscles popping and swelling. He transformed into his full leopard form. The Professor slowly turned around and grinned, not even flinching in the intimidating gaze of Lucci's leopard form.

"Oh wow. So scary. He devolved from a human to a leopard. Oh no… I'm sooo frightened. I'm just pissing myself over here." The Professor moaned sarcastically, causing Lucci's left eyebrow to twitch. "Hey…" The Professor started interested. "Do you cough up hairballs in that form?" Lucci was getting annoyed quickly. "You should say yes," The Professor stated. "It would save you from a lot of you having to be neutered jokes, as I could still say you have some balls left in you." The Professor continued. "Granted, they're not near the same cheeks, if you know what I mean, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?

"Die!" He roared, fed up with the annoying scientist before him as he launched a rankyaku at him. The Professor used his haki again to block the Rankyaku.

"Che! That protection again!" Lucci grimaced as he witnessed the rankyaku splitting once it hit the black cover. "That protection is hard I'll give it that, to be able to split a rankyaku even when I'm in leopard form is no small feat, even though it wasn't full power."

Lucci ran at the Professor again, using soru to get behind him again before using geppo to get above him. Lucci used shigan seven times, only to get a dislocated index finger in return as the Professor used his armament haki to block it once again.

This was all Lucci needed.

He twirled his tail around the Professor to prevent him from escaping and pulled him into Lucci's two fists waiting for his strongest move. "ROKUSHIKI HIDDEN ART! ROKUOGAN!" He shouted before a devastating shockwave released from his hands in order to decimate the Professor!

The Rokuogan is the final seventh technique of the "Six" Powers, only accessed once the user has supposedly mastered the other six techniques. It unleashes a massive shockwave to decimate the opponent's innards, even capable of bypassing the normally blunt damage ignoring, rubber body of Monkey. D. Luffy, and is even more powerful than a reject dial. Lucci used his usual last resort move immediately because he could see that toughness of, he didn't back then that it was haki, the Professor's devil fruit. So instead of trying to break through his opponent, Lucci went immediately for the innards to incapacitate the Professor to end the match as quickly as possible. Lucci panted as he let down his guard to call for immediate medical help from the shocked jailer watching, just in case the fool who challenged him was of any importance to the marines.

It was all the Professor needed.

Lucci spat out blood, as the Professor sucker punched him with a full armament haki coated fist, and unleashed a small laser straight into Lucci's unsuspecting lower left half of his belly, similar to what Silvers Rayleigh, AKA Dark King, AKA The right hand of the Pirate King, would later do to blast away an elephant, showing Luffy haki. The laser or beam is an advanced topic of haki, a combination of observation haki to visualize the beam, and armament haki to maintain and form the beam to, as Lucci found out, rip through the opponent's body, eviscerating the innards of said opponent in a particular painful way.

Lucci was thrown, no blood spilling by the gallon out of his body as it was already cauterized.

That's not to say it didn't hurt like a complete bitch though. Imagine, if you will, to think if someone blew a hole into you, took an industrial flamethrower and meticulously sealed it up, while not putting you into a drugged induced sleep, and you couldn't pass out either.

The only difference for Lucci was that he didn't receive such pleasantries step-by-step but instead experienced it all at once, and was allowed to pass out.

Lucci was allowed to receive medical help once again, and after healing, he woke up to see the Professor over his bedside. Well, not exactly. Lucci, as he was trained to do whenever he woke up, remained relaxed and had his eyes shut to make it look like he was still sleeping while he surveyed the room by smell, and recalled why he was in a bed in the first place.

"Get up hairball-san." The Professor jokingly said.

Lucci tensed up, not liking how he was found out so easily. He then experienced burning pain in the lower left part of his stomach. He grimaced in pain, refusing to verbally acknowledge the pain he was now experiencing, and instead asked, "How did you know I was awake? I did the same thing from my training to make sure no one noticed I was awake."

"How" The Professor repeated amused. He tapped his ears and said, "Your voice is different than when you were sleeping rather than awake."

Lucci frowned. "I didn't say anything though." He started. "I also made sure to regulate my breathing."

The Professor just smirked and said, "That just shows how much you don't know, ya little rookie." The Professor leaned back and crossed his arms, laying one foot on the wooden bed that Lucci was lying on and looking smug.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the time explain the entire concept of the power to break reality to you right now. Rest assured though, you will learn it in time. However," The Professor leaned towards him, light gleaming on his glasses, a typical sign for genius manipulator. All he has to do is move the pieces in the right position.

"You will only learn this power if you come with me. If not, you will be executed for not doing your mission as CP9 operatives, and for losing to the Strawhat pirates." Even though Lucci didn't show any response to this on the outside, the Professor can see his words taking effect on Lucci's psyche. "That's not all." The Professor continued. "That black armor you saw was part of the same power, not part of a devil fruit like you suspected." Lucci's only response was a slight widening of his eyes. "Though it is a very advanced topic, that attack I did to you," The Professor nodded towards Lucci's new scar, "Is also part of the same power. This power is known as haki, which is a power that anybody can achieve, though few do." He leaned in even closer to Lucci. "You can learn this power, and one of the best things is that this," He raised his arm and activated his armament haki to make it have the black coating again, "haki can go through devil fruits. So your little buddy with the rubber body can't use his rubber to deflect blunt force damage while using this." Lucci tried to speak, but he moved a tiny bit which irritated his injury, causing the burning pain again as he tried not to yell out, barely succeeding.

"Also," The Professor continued, acting as if he didn't see Lucci's pain flashing through his eyes, "there is a third version of haki, which only prodigies are born with, which you might have."

The Professor stopped speaking, letting all of this new info soak into Lucci before going in for the metaphorical kill. "With all of this power, you have a chance to find Strawhat again, and kill him." The Professor could see predatory joy flash through Lucci's eyes before adding, "You will need to train extremely hard for this, but it is definitely a possibility for you to succeed. However you need to first heal up."

The Professor activated his conqueror's haki, allowing an image of an angel came up behind him. Lucci stiffened instinctively, the pain from his wounds not even bothering him compared to his primal instinct to run, run away and run far from the monstrosity before him.

"This is my commandment, the commandment of heaven. SLEEP!"

As if Kami himself (or herself. Gender Equality!) commanded it, Lucci fell into a deep trance, passing out on the bed.

"Hah,hah." The Professor panted, sweaty and tired. He hadn't expected for Lucci to take at least that amount of conqueror's haki to knock out.

"Hell of a will on that one." The Professor said to himself, before standing up and exiting. "Well, back to work. Still have that pain in the ass project to complete."

God that was long. Well maybe long to write, maybe not to read. How's it going guys? It's xenosaiyan here. Hope my writing is pretty good so far. Please, please, please leave reviews! It would be awesome so please! I'll respond to all reviews that I can so join and leave a review so I can actually respond. Oh also my chapters will probably be around this long, or even longer maybe. I have nothing witty to say so… yeah. Wait… WAIT A SECOND THAT'S RIGHT!

PRAISE THE LOG! BE ONE WITH THE LOG! THE LOG IS THERE FOR YOU SO BE THERE FOR THE LOG! REVIEW AND GOODNIGHT KONOHA!