Vodka Island, Royal Palace Prison.
Admiral Zephyr had finally awakened from the deep, magical sleep York had forcibly imposed on him.
Regarding his profound contemplation of absolute justice and the World Government, his subconscious had already found some terrifyingly clear answers in his sleep. Consequently, he did not attempt to violently break out immediately upon waking.
For a powerhouse of Zephyr's caliber, Seastone handcuffs were absolutely not unbreakable restraints. By utilizing Advanced Armament Haki (Internal Destruction), he wouldn't even need to physically damage the Seastone restraints themselves; he could simply project his Haki inward to destroy the internal lock mechanism and easily escape. The exact same principle applied to the reinforced dungeon walls itself.
However, precisely because of his ideological crisis, he was not in a blind hurry to escape the Empire right now.
"Where is Sakazuki?"
York had noticed Zephyr's awakening via a surveillance Den Den Mushi in the corner, and he casually came down to the cell to meet with the Admiral again.
When Zephyr spoke, his voice hoarse, he naturally asked about the aggressive student who had disappeared from the neighboring cell.
"He was ransomed back by the Marines."
York did not hide anything. He leaned against the bars and immediately told Zephyr the exact details of the extortionate transaction he had just made with Admiral Sengoku.
"Ginny has successfully completed the transaction with your high command and is currently escorting the unearthed coffins of your wife and son back to this island as we speak."
Zephyr's previously calm, resigned aura instantly turned violently volatile.
He struggled fiercely, his massive hands instantly snapping the thick iron chain connecting the Seastone handcuffs on his wrists. He lunged at the cell bars like a ferocious, cornered tiger, bending the arm-thick steel railing with sheer, raw brute force.
"YORK! You despicable scoundrel!!" Zephyr roared furiously, his eyes bloodshot. "Leave my wife and son alone!! They are already dead! You want to dig them up and desecrate their bodies for leverage?! That is absolutely not the justice you spoke of!!"
York calmly gazed directly into Zephyr's furious eyes, utterly unfazed by the killing intent, and spoke softly. "What if I told you there was a genuine, scientific chance I could bring them back to life?"
Zephyr's enraged pupils contracted violently. His first instinct was to curse, "Absolute bullshit!!"
But the words ultimately died in his throat. He thought of the terrifying miracles of Devil Fruits.
"Do you intend to desecrate them and animate their corpses using some vile Fruit ability?! I will absolutely not allow it!!"
"It's not a Fruit ability," York replied, his tone remaining perfectly calm.
"It is the absolute power of cutting-edge science and genetic technology. If I explain it complicatedly, a brawler like you might not understand, so I will summarize it simply."
York crossed his arms. "The scientists currently under my command have recently achieved a miraculous breakthrough in genetic technology. They can successfully clone people who have already died."
"The cloned person possesses a living, breathing biological body completely identical to the original's... but they are born without the exact same memories."
The furious Zephyr froze entirely. His massive hands stopped bending the steel bars, his eyes fixed intently, desperately on York.
York curled his lips into a subtle, calculating arc and continued. "I will personally ensure the original bodies of your wife and son are properly, respectfully laid back to rest on this island. I will only allow my doctors to carefully extract microscopic tissue samples from them."
"Afterward, my lead scientist will perfectly clone two living people exactly like them. These two people..."
York deliberately paused here, the wicked smile on his lips becoming more pronounced, and he posed the ultimate question back to the broken Admiral.
"Make your choice, Zephyr!"
"Will you choose to remain stubbornly defiant in this cell, simply waiting to die for a World Government that failed to protect them... or will you actively form a new family with the two people who have been miraculously reborn?"
"Having already lost them once because of your 'Justice', consider this choice very carefully."
With that devastating psychological blow delivered, York left the time and space to Zephyr, turning on his heel and exiting the dungeon.
Zephyr, however, looked as if absolutely all the strength and certainty had been instantly drained from his towering body. He collapsed, half-kneeling on the cold stone ground, then slowly turned around to lean his back heavily against the bent cell bars, remaining in complete, agonizing silence.
Ginny's return voyage was incredibly smooth.
In the current waters of the New World, the name of the Crimson Harvest Pirates was sufficiently, terrifyingly renowned. As the only pirate crew to openly fight the Marines several times and ultimately achieve total victory, they commanded enough awe and absolute respect from other pirate fleets. Except for arrogant greenhorns just entering the New World from Paradise, absolutely no one would willingly provoke a ship flying York's flag.
Upon her arrival at Vodka Island, Ginny immediately delivered the two secure coffins containing Zephyr's wife and son to the Royal Palace. Then, York personally proceeded to bring these two coffins down to the prison block.
He met with Zephyr once more.
Zephyr had already used his Haki to completely remove the handcuffs from his wrists and the heavy shackles from his ankles. He was completely physically unrestrained, yet he still sat obediently and silently inside the open cell.
"Zephyr. Come out and help us verify your wife and son."
York and his vanguard's arrival naturally caught Zephyr's attention, but the very moment they entered the corridor, Zephyr's gaze completely bypassed York and focused entirely on the two transported coffins. He stared at the polished wood with such intensity that he didn't even seem to hear York's words.
Seeing that Zephyr had no violent reaction to his presence, York immediately knew that the two coffins were highly likely to be authentic. Although the bodies inside could not yet be biologically confirmed, at least Zephyr's emotional reaction was a very good sign.
Thus, York stopped talking and casually waved his hand, signaling a guard to fully open the cell door.
Creak~
The largely symbolic iron door swung open, and York spoke calmly, "If you wish to personally witness their rebirth, follow me."
Seeing that Zephyr still showed no reaction after he finished speaking, York added a sharp barb. "If you don't mind my subordinates dissecting them haphazardly in a lab, stay here. Otherwise, it would be best if you actively supervised the sampling process."
Clatter!!
Zephyr stood up so violently from the wooden plank bed inside the cell that the edge of the bed scraped loudly against the stone floor.
Zephyr's fierce eyes erupted with intense, protective killing intent. He walked straight out of the cell and stood about a meter away, towering over York.
"Lead the way!!"
The dull, commanding four-word reply made York's lips curl upward once more.
He waved his hand, and a massive, floor-length glass mirror was wheeled over by a pirate behind him.
Turning and stepping forward, as if passing effortlessly through water, half of York's body sank directly into the solid mirror. He looked back at Zephyr from within the glass.
"This is Stussy's Miru Miru no Mi (Mirror-Mirror Fruit) ability. My most valuable scientists are all hidden securely within the Mirro-World."
Zephyr did not hesitate for a microsecond. After York, his armed subordinates, and the pirates carrying the two coffins entered the Mirro-World, Zephyr also lifted his heavy boot and stepped directly into the glass.
Passing through the thin glass boundary was exactly like dipping one's face into a perfectly calm water surface. After a brief, dizzying moment of spatial discomfort, the bizarre world before him opened up completely.
The primary color for the infinite floor was a vibrant red, and the primary color for the towering walls and endless ceiling was a deep purple. Dark red and light red, deep purple and light purple—these four specific colors interwove in pairs, forming evenly distributed, surreal square grids that stretched to the horizon.
If York hadn't explained the Devil Fruit beforehand, Zephyr might have logically mistaken this bizarre place for an unusually decorated, avant-garde art museum.
He withdrew his gaze from observing the surreal surroundings and looked ahead. York and the others who had entered the Mirro-World earlier were leading the way down a path of floating glass.
And directly in front of them, a massive, magnificent laboratory castle stood prominently at the exact center of this hidden dimension.
Zephyr quickly followed the procession and began observing the castle's architecture. The castle's design heavily resembled the grid-like floor and walls of this world—it was largely square, rigid, and straight, with very few curved structures.
Moreover, the exterior was entirely pragmatic, not ornate. Aside from being constructed entirely with uniformly sized, reinforced stone bricks, it lacked even exterior paint, giving it a brutally simple, highly functional, and dignified overall appearance.
Entering the castle, the interior maintained an almost identical, brutalist style; to put it bluntly, the entire place was essentially a massive shell construction.
However, when they passed through a specific, heavy steel door marked with a glowing sign for the 'Research & Development Department,' the interior scenery changed completely into the pinnacle of modern science.
Immaculate, sterile white tiles were affixed perfectly from the base of the walls all the way to the ceiling, and the entire ceiling area was covered with square metal ventilation panels made of an unknown, high-tech alloy. The floor was even more impressive. The light gray marble floor tiles were incredibly bright and glossy, perfectly reflecting the silhouettes of the people walking on them under the sterile, shadowless illumination of the square embedded lights in the hallway ceiling.
After winding through the pristine corridors of the entire research department, they finally arrived at the entrance of an isolated, maximum-security laboratory simply labeled: JUDGE.
After York pressed his thumb to the biometric doorbell, the heavy metal door automatically slid open to the sides with a pneumatic hiss, revealing the advanced scene inside.
Inside the lab was a massive examination bed equipped with various complex, robotic machinery, and a tall young man in a pristine white lab coat with striking, vibrant golden hair. Of course, he was actually wearing a surgical cap and mask at the moment, but Zephyr instantly deduced Vinsmoke Judge's hair color from the golden strands peeking out from the edges.
"The biological subjects have finally arrived?"
A massive hint of fanatic, scientific excitement beamed on Judge's partially obscured face.
Truly cloning the dead! A biological resurrection in disguise!
This was a forbidden domain belonging solely to the gods! Although Judge had successfully cloned several living soldiers in the Germa Kingdom before, perfectly cloning the deceased from degraded tissue was truly a world-first experiment for him.
"I brought them. And I even brought the family member to supervise." York smiled as he completely handed the technical matter over to Judge.
After carrying the two coffins into the sterile empty space in the center of the laboratory, the pirate grunts behind them tactfully, silently left and closed the door. This left only Judge (the lead researcher), York (the Emperor), and Zephyr (the family member) in the room.
Judge looked greedily at the two coffins on the floor, incredibly excited to open them immediately and begin his work. But as he eagerly bent down, he noticed the towering Zephyr violently stepping forward, his Haki flaring. Judge immediately stopped his hands, looked up, and smiled professionally at the protective Admiral.
"Please remain calm, sir. I will only take microscopic, partial tissue samples. I absolutely won't extensively damage or desecrate the bodies."
Hearing this scientific guarantee, Zephyr finally, stiffly nodded slightly.
Judge then cautiously, respectfully unlocked and opened the coffins.
When the heavy wooden lids of the coffins were slowly lifted by the scientist, Zephyr's breathing abruptly, violently stopped.
He stared intently at the bodies inside the coffins, whose peaceful appearance was miraculously almost identical to when they were alive. His knuckles turned entirely white from clenching his massive fists, and his Adam's apple bobbed heavily, yet he could not utter a single sound.
That incredibly familiar, gentle smile on his wife's face—even while quietly lying there in the eternal slumber of death—instantly brought forth absolutely all the agonizing, warm memories buried deep in his broken heart.
York was genuinely slightly surprised by this specific sight.
He hadn't expected Sengoku or Zephyr to have had his wife and son so perfectly, chemically embalmed before burial. But this pristine state was absolutely perfect, as it further proved without a doubt that Sengoku had not deceived him with fake bodies.
"I need to carefully extract a small amount of skin tissue, a few intact hair follicles, and microscopic, dried blood samples from the marrow," Judge explained, taking out the sterile, high-tech sampling tools he had prepared. His voice was notably softer and more respectful than usual as he looked up to ask Zephyr for his final consent again. "These specific samples are more than sufficient for cell activation and clone cultivation, and will absolutely not physically damage the appearance of the remains."
Zephyr closed his eyes in pain, then nodded slightly once more.
Holding a miniature, laser-guided sampler, Judge gently, precisely made an extremely shallow incision on the inner arm of Zephyr's wife. After carefully extracting a small amount of tissue, he immediately used sterile medical glue and gauze to flawlessly repair the incision, then performed the exact same delicate operation on the remains of Zephyr's young son in the adjacent coffin.
The entire meticulous sampling process took no more than ten agonizing minutes, but to the grieving Zephyr, it felt like several torturous hours.
His massive body was rigidly tense throughout the entire procedure, his desperate gaze never leaving his relatives in the coffins for a microsecond. Only after Judge carefully placed the sealed sampling tubes into a glowing, cryogenic incubator, meticulously repaired the microscopic wounds on both bodies, and respectfully closed the heavy coffin lids, did Zephyr slowly let out a massive breath. Though, his broad shoulders remained rigidly straight.
"The sample quality is absolutely excellent. Thanks to the embalming, the cell viability is significantly higher than I originally expected," Judge reported, looking at the glowing sampling tubes in the incubator, his eyes gleaming with mad, scientific excitement.
"Next, we will immediately proceed with biological cell resuscitation. It will take exactly about three days to complete the initial cellular cultivation phase. During this crucial cultivation, we need to continuously, electronically monitor the cell division status to ensure the clone's genetic sequence is completely, flawlessly identical to the original."
York leaned casually against the pristine laboratory wall, hands deep in his pockets, and watched Zephyr intently staring at the humming incubator. A knowing, manipulative arc curved the Emperor's lips.
"Zephyr, during the upcoming three-day experiment, you can comfortably stay in the guest rest area of the Mirro-World and personally monitor the cultivation progress on the screens at any given time. Of course, if you want to understand the specific, complex principles of cloning technology, Judge can give you a brief, layman's explanation."
Zephyr did not respond immediately. His gaze remained entirely, desperately fixed on the humming incubator, as if trying to visually see the microscopic cells being miraculously cultivated inside the metal container.
After a long, heavy silence, he slowly spoke, his voice carrying a subtle, agonizing hoarseness.
"The people who are cloned... they truly, definitely won't possess the memories from their previous lives?!"
"No!" Judge answered unequivocally, shattering that specific hope. "I have not yet mastered the technology to artificially replicate or transfer organic memories."
Judge adjusted his glasses. "However, I can assure you that the people I clone and revive will have flawlessly identical biological body structures and exact appearances to the originals, with not the slightest, microscopic difference even in physical characteristics or voice!"
"No memories..." Zephyr repeated the words softly, his scarred face twisted in a deeply complicated, agonizing expression.
Could a new 'wife and son' without their shared memories truly be considered them?
But on second thought, as long as he could see them physically alive and breathing again, and hear their joyous voices again... even if they were merely 'new lives' born with the exact same faces, it would be a massive, overwhelming form of emotional solace for him.
In his earlier, ambitious years as a Marine, he was entirely engrossed in realizing his dreams of Absolute Justice, constantly, selfishly neglecting his wife, making her wait alone for many years. Only when he was officially promoted to the rank of Admiral at age thirty-eight did he finally give her the answer she deserved, called marriage.
However, after their marriage, he became even more incredibly busy with the overwhelming, global work of an Admiral, once again constantly neglecting his loyal wife and newborn son. His boy grew to be four years old, and the tragic number of times Zephyr had actually met him was countable on one hand.
If it hadn't been for this constant, duty-bound absence, they wouldn't have been left alone and vulnerable to be attacked by vengeful pirates. It was absolutely all because he, the husband and father, was constantly absent for the Marines, giving the pirates a perfect opportunity.
Only after violently losing them did he truly, agonizingly understand how to cherish them.
Now that there was a scientific hope of bringing them back to life, even if they lacked their former, warm memories, it meant Zephyr had a miraculous, second chance to compensate them and be a real father anew.
York saw right through Zephyr's agonizing inner thoughts and the desperate hope blossoming in his chest. York smiled darkly and spoke softly.
"Retrieving their former, biological memories is not entirely impossible, Zephyr."
Zephyr, whose expression was complicated yet slightly downcast, abruptly, violently turned his massive head.
"What did you just say?!"
"The power of a Devil Fruit is truly wondrous and logic-defying, Admiral!" York grinned, showing his teeth.
"I know of a very specific Devil Fruit called the Paramecia-type Memo Memo no Mi (Memory-Memory Fruit)!"
York stepped away from the wall. "The Fruit's ability grants the user the extraordinary, terrifying power to manipulate memories as if they were film strips. It can not only forcefully peek into the minds of others, but also weave entirely new dreams, implanting fabricated memories directly into others' brains, subtly rewriting the past and completely blurring the boundaries between reality and illusion."
York's eyes glowed. "Theoretically, with an Awakened user, it can also actively extract the lingering memories of the dead and seamlessly transfer them to the living clones, achieving a true, perfect resurrection in an alternative sense."
After hearing York's incredible explanation, Zephyr's strong, towering body involuntarily trembled violently with a surge of impossible hope.
He asked with a desperate, trembling voice, "The Memo Memo no Mi!! Do you know where this specific Memory-Memory Fruit is located right now?!"
"I don't know."
York gave a wicked, teasing smile and casually shrugged, watching the desperate hope in Zephyr's eyes instantly dim into crushing despair, before slowly, deliberately adding...
"However... I know of another specific Devil Fruit that can achieve an incredibly similar, miraculous effect."
York crossed his arms. "And that specific Devil Fruit has already been safely eaten by one of my loyal subordinates!"
.....
.....
.....
Checkout new fanfics: JJK: Cringe Energy and Siste AHEM Solo Leveling (R+18)