Chapter 120

Title: The Shadow-Shadow fruit!

....

Swoo!

The pink-haired girl, Perona, spammed ghosts towards Amon, but Amon didn't seem to be affected at all.

He didn't explain why, while Perona was dead-confused. 'This never happened before... why are my ghosts not working?'

'And... what up with that deadly aura?!'

It was as if a predator was playing with it's prey!

A few seconds passed, seeing Amon not showing any hostility, Perona stopped.

She decided to first inquire about his identity.

"W...who are you?"

She was still on her guard, but he didn't attack.

Amon stared at her with aloof eyes. "Lucifer, The Sky Emperor."

Amon's smile radiated the same dangerous gleam it was radiating in his bounty poster. Perona's body shook.

'Dangerous...'

Even in her shocked state, Perona seemed to catch on to his words as her round eyes grew. 'Now that I look at him... yes!'

She pays attention to the newspaper, so she recognized him even though her mind was hyperactive right now. But just as she recognized him, another thought crossed her mind.

'Wait, no... this is not a good thing. Why is a Former Warlord of the sea, a current EMPEROR of the sea here?!' She only reached one conclusion as her legs became weak. 'He's here to hunt Gecko Moria!!'

Perona took steps back, if Moria is hunted down, she will also be because of being his subordinate, wasn't that right?

But she won't give up without a fight. Even if her negative hollow was nullified, she had more attacks. They would damage him for sure!

But... would it be a good idea to provoke an Emperor?

Ultimately, at that thought, Perona stopped. Her life was precious, besides the aura around Amon didn't let her think of any smart moves.

She decided to take the easy route and inquire about his intention.

"S, Sir. How can I help you?"

Sweating, Perona gulped a few times in this short sentence.

"Haha," Amon laughed reassuringly, but his dangerous aura was still present there. "I won't harm you, considering you stop attacking me."

Perona gulped again.

"It's good that you recognize me." She nodded shakily. "I am not here to harm you, rather, I am here to recruit you, I need strong people like you."

Amon had a smile on his face. Perona knew she wasn't that strong to attract an Emperor of the sea, but she felt good being complimented.

Normally, Amon would have chosen a more laid-down approach. He would have talked reassuringly, but since Perona's personality was that of a laid-down person, acting the same won't work. Acting hard was the way.

Amon continued. "Join me, you will receive tremendous bonuses, there aren't many restrictions either."

Amon smirked seeing Perona's eyes glow for a brief second. After all, an invitation from a person like him is a big deal.

He pushed further. "I'm sure you don't like this place filled with corpses. After joining, I will grant you a place to stay above the clouds."

A few seconds passed while Perona's surprised mind understood what he meant.

An Emperor was inviting her!

For the first time, she felt a little relive in his presence. 'Won't he provide more protection than Moria...?'

To begin with, she was only working at this shabby place because of protection from Marines, being under a Warlord was beneficial. But, if she can get more protection... then why not? After all, Moria doesn't even treat her nicely!

The word, 'bonuses' also caught her attention. She almost decided it, but-

She had a thought. Currently, everyone's top priority was Amon, marines, pirates and Emperors would bite him the moment they get a chance. Will it be a good idea to go under him?

Perona gulped, "And... what if I decline?"

While she managed to ask that, Amon's smile turned cold and his eyes darkened. His previous aura returned as Perona felt her legs shake, she was one step away from peeing herself.

This was the aura of an Emperor!

"It's pretty clear, isn't it? You will be tortured before I kill you." Amon finished his words with a crazy snicker.

'Psy... psychopath!"

Did she have any choice other than to accept his offer now?

«...★...»

As her first job, Perona was ordered to propose the same offer to the other 2 'Mysterious Four' other than Gecko Moria. If they declined, she should capture them. So Perona left to do so in fear.

The mad doctor Hogback accepted her offer since he was only here for his dead crush. The offer included the well-being of his crush even after Moria's death, so he didn't mind accepting it.

However, Absalom didn't accept it. He retorted but Perona easily defeated and captured him. All this happened in under 5 minutes, so Moria was still unaware of it all.

Amon forced Absalom's body to shut down by injecting electricity into his brain. He will brainwash him later in Baccarat's presence.

'Truly, the power to hypnotize and brainwashing people is very handy.'

Amon felt lucky that he researched the Hypnotic guy's boy from years ago, if not, he might have missed a lot of opportunities now. Now, rather than meaninglessly killing them, Amon can use human beings to their fullest.

'The things that are unachievable by hypnotism can be done by brainwashing.'

.....

"Alright, your job is done, Perona. I rate you a 5 star for your first job."

Perona smiled smugly. She liked how he didn't just kill Absalom. Maybe, he wasn't as bad as she thought.

She opened her mouth excitedly. "Then-"

"It's fine." Amon cut Perona as if he knew what she was about to say. "You don't have to fight Gecko Moria, I will take care of it myself."

"Rather, send your ghosts all around the island. Try using them as eyes, soon, all the shadows will leave the zombis' bodies, I need you to deliver me to their locations."

Amon couldn't sense shadows using Observation. Even though he could use Thunder Eyes to back that weakness up, it would generate light. While it won't harm the shows themselves, the light generated will hurt, and even kill, the shadowless people lingering on the island.

'They are precious test subjects, I can't let them die... Now it's Moria's turn.'

Deciding this, Amon teleported to Moria's room.

«...★...»

"Hmm, hmm~".

In a huge room, an ugly white-skinned humanoid creature was lying down with his back, his hands locked behind his head in a carefree manner.

He was laying around like he always does, a person who dreams to become the Pirate King by lazing around. It was Gecko Moria! One of the seven warlords of the sea!

Zzzz...

'...Meh,' Hearing the sound of passing electricity, Moria rather dismissed it as flies roaming around with his eyes closed.

'No... Something is off.' After a few moments of silence, Moria felt a little strange as he opened his eyes with a frown.

"...?!"

His eyes met an old pocket watch moving in front of his eyes. They were instantly locked on the watch's rhythmic movements as Moria's eyes then started to spin.

"Eh.... Where~ am~ I~?"

Slowly, a man's silhouette appeared in front of him, he was the one holding the watch.

"Good grief, this wasn't even a challenge. Lazy bastard."

.....

After Amon teleported behind Moria, he only observed as Moria lazed around.

In the end, expecting that even hypnotizing would work, Amon took out his pocket watch.

'Generic hypnotization doesn't work on everyone, ambitious, smart or strong people, and some specific people are immune to it. But Moria was none of them. Lazy idiot.'

Amon easily hypnotized Moria with his decent skills in this field that he's been cultivating for 8 years before revealing himself in front of him.

He had only one question for Moria: "What did your devil fruit look like?"

It was a question many people heard from Amon in 19 years of his life, but no one is alive to tell the tale of it.

"It looked like... a Muttokin."

Moria answered the simple question in a simple way and received a... simple death.

«...★...»

–Amon Pov–

'Moria was a worthless man. Such a deadly devil fruit was wasted on him.'

Yes, he 'was', but not anymore.

I looked in front of me, Moria was lying on the floor with a hole in his chest, not breathing anymore. I have killed him without him even realizing it.

'Warlords are weak...'

In my left hand, there is a fruit basket. I brought this from Skypiea a second ago. The basket contains 5 round green fruits of the same type that didn't exist in my previous world. However, I know this was the 'Muttokin' fruit that he was talking about since I do memorize their names every day, even now.

There are millions of fruits in this world, I only know a small part of them.

'There were cases where my victims didn't know what their own fruit's name was, so I had to miss out on some good fruits. Such a shame.' But after I gain memory reading abilities, this won't be a problem anymore.

Slowly, one of the fruits started to turn strange. The green skin became black in color and started to form golden encrypts on it, there were green leaves that started to pop up out of nowhere. The fruit now looked like a proper devil fruit.

'Hm...?'

Suddenly, I sensed someone approaching this room.

The person pushed open the door.

Kreak!

"Hey, mister! All the zombies are collapsing and shadows are leaving the bodies!"

It was Perona who I asked to watch after the shadows.

"What do you want to do no–...?!"

She stopped talking after seeing Moria's dead body and the hole in his chest. She was too caught off guard by the crimson blood to notice the strange fruit in my hand.

"Gecko Moria..." Perona gulped. "Is dead?!"

Perona was shocked. But I didn't care. She was a pirate, she obviously killed many people in her life. This shouldn't be too much for her to bear.

I ordered her: "Ignore him, he's already dead." She knew if she didn't want the same to happen to her, she had to obey. "Provide me the shadows' location."

I threw a walkie-talkie at her. "Talk in that thing, I will hear everything with my earpiece. Now, start."

Perona was still shocked but she pulled her courage to move her lips. Who can guarantee that this man won't kill her too?

"Y-Yes, there are 150 shadows in the northeast area..."

I nodded.

Zzztt...

Teleporting around, I entered my slow world.

Around me were countless shadows, flying out of the island. I started to grab them and tied them up with a rope.

Yes, a shadow freed from the clutch of the Shadow-Shadow fruit user can be touched by normal people. It was shown in anime too if I recall right...

'Luckily, Shadows are immune to light, so they didn't perish by my flash...'

Like this, I grabbed a few and tied them. Grabbed and tied. Grabbed and tied.

Perona kept giving me the locations on my earpiece. 'Her ghosts are useful.'

Some shadows have already left the foggy area, but I didn't care. I just moved fast and brought them back here. These shadows were important to me, they are like an army. I only missed the ones who already entered the bodies of the people residing on this island.

"Oh, my shadow returned to me!"

"Y, Yes!"

I could even hear some of their voices from up here. Though their happiness would be definitely short-lived. First, let me give the fruit to Yona, then I will deal with them.

...

I continued capturing shadows for another 10 minutes before I was able to gather around 6,000 shadows.

...It was fun, to be honest.

Well, now time to give this to my Dragoness.

'First, let's talk with her a little.'

I'm not sure if she will accept this. Since Shadow is a second soul, will she be fine playing with that so-called mortal soul?

-

—

-

"So, what do you think?" I asked Yona. "It's a good fruit."

Yona had a darkened face as she exchanged glances between me and the fruit.

'This is harder than I thought.'

I also noticed Brook who was broken into pieces in a corner of the deck, acting to be dead.

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[Read 15+ chapters before release in P.A.T.R.E.O.N]–

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This chapter was proofread by Discord members and edited by @Retuculum and @AyyZelos and @Shortmotor!

Discord: discord.gg/sek3gZV2jg