"I don't want to guess. Just tell!" Lily impatiently said.
"Speed Speed Fruit."
"Speed Speed Fruit?" Yamato surprisedly looked at him.
"Yes." He nodded his head. "Never got to use it though since I had Seastone shackles on my wrist even before he force-fed it to me. But I could feel that I was capable of running very fast, extremely fast."
"And he gave you Death Serum?" Bepo's body trembled in fear and anger at the same time.
"Yes. He injected it into my body and told me that if I wanted to return home to my sister with our Family's Treasures, then I must survive." He smiled. "And I did. Somehow, against all odds, even when everything else in my body was frozen and I was Clinically Dead, there were electrical signals still active in a few parts of my brain, and Mors was extremely concerned about it as he thought that I might not lose my Devil Fruit Powers."
"But you did." Lily nodded to herself.
"As time passed, the electrical signals started to weaken, and where it usually took three minutes for a Devil Fruit's Powers to leave a dead person's body, it took seven minutes for mine to leave." He told them. "And I managed to come back to life, but remained unconscious for the coming two days."
"He made you go through it again?" Yamato frowned.
"Yes. He made me go through it every nine months for the next four years. A total of four Trials." Sin nodded. "Speed Speed, Swap Swap, Storage Storage, Direwolf. Those were the Four Devil Fruits that he force-fed me."
"Your Healing Factor..."
"Has nothing to do with those Devil Fruits." He shook his head, and Kuina nodded her head. "Once a Devil Fruit leaves your body, there is no trace of it left in your DNA. I gained my Healing Factor from the Death Serum, which strengthened my genes every time I won the battle against death. It also gave me an extremely high resistance to poisons and a higher pain tolerance."
"Why did he never make changes to your body, Captain?" Augur frowned. "He did take away Enel's Wings and gave him that ridiculous Healing Factor."
"He did not want to mess up his main project by accident." He replied. "Since I survived the first Trial, I became his most precious treasure, his greatest hope."
"Hope?" Everyone frowned at those words, and the Oni-Girl curiously tilted her head. "He wanted to switch his Devil Fruit?" She guessed.
"Yes."
"Why?" She confusedly asked. "Mythical Zoans choose their Users, and it was made for him. Then why?"
Sin smiled at those words.
"It's because he had found a Devil Fruit that could grant its user Immortality."
"Immortality?" They all gasped, except for Bonney, Robin, and Augur, who already knew about it.
"Yes."
"Which Devil Fruit?" Bepo's heart was thumping hard against his chest as he asked that question.
"Cell-Cell Devil Fruit." Sin grinned. "The one he called the Absolute Fruit. And truthfully, with the knowledge he possessed on genetics and biology, that Power would have been Absolute in his hands."
He recalled the day Mors had shown him the Cell Cell Fruit and the Rumble Rumble Fruit, his two precious treasures.
"After consuming the Cell Cell Fruit, he wanted to start his next research on the Devil Fruit Compatibilities and to see if someone could consume two or more at the same time. The Cell Cell Fruit the key to this research."
"What?" Kuina was in sheer disbelief at those words.
"Yes." He nodded. "He wanted to possess the Powers of the Thunderbird and the Cell Cell Devil Fruits at the same time."
"He was crazy!" Lily horrifiedly said.
"Indeed." He nodded. "And I did not want to remain his Test Subject. So, I killed him."
His words tensed them again.
"Four years together was a long time, and he taught me a lot of things, showed me the memories of my parents, some of his own adventures, and made me watch people die as he experimented on them. In his own words, it was all to make me stronger, colder, and sharper. I know for certainty that Mors never hated me or even disliked me. He did not hold any ill will towards me either. He was just driven by his goals and was indifferent to the price it would take to achieve them." He chuckled. "Sometimes, I even wonder if he was fond of me and cared for me. But the Madman always hid his emotions from me, using his Conqueror's Haki, knowing well that I could see through the hearts of people."
"He wouldn't have done all that to you if he cared for you!" Bonney angrily said, not liking how he held the man in great regard even after all that was done to him, and he apologetically smiled at her.
"Yes." He nodded and then took a deep breath, suppressing the memories of the times he had spent with his uncle in his laboratory. He could never deny that the everything he knew, possessed, and achieved was undeniably thanks to Mors. However, Bonney was right too. He was a Madman. "Then again, I am no different. I killed my kin for my freedom. And I have no regrets."
He said, and whilst all their hearts ached at his words, Yamato was the only one to lower her head, clenching her fists.
She could guess that Sin was fond of Mors, and it was clear from his words that he revered the man. It was the same for her, who revered her father and hated him at the same time.
But even with all the hate she held for him, she knew that she could never bring herself to kill him, not even for her freedom. However, she was not allowed to dwell on her thoughts for long as Sin continued with the story.
"Seven years ago, when Mors had only four Death Serums left, he put me through my fourth and last Trial. And he made a mistake." Sin glanced at her and smiled when their eyes met. "He believed that I needed a couple of hours of sleep after the Trial since I never woke up right after it. But the truth was that after going through it for the first time, my brain was aware and capable of waking up any time I wanted to. I just chose not to wake up and remain sleeping because I was always left extremely weak. And Mors chose to Inject himself with the Death Serum right after I passed the fourth test."
"How did you get hold of two Devil Fruits?"
"Mors had dozens of them in the Laboratory, and he was careless enough to show me where he kept them. Weak as I was, I managed to wake up a minute after he injected himself with the Death Serum. I was cuffed to the table with the sea-stone shackle, and I could only drag it with me with all my might as I arrived by his side and took the key from his pocket. I freed myself and then rushed to the safe where he kept the Devil Fruits. He was careless, extremely careless because he not only showed me where he kept them but was bold enough to open the safe in front of me to show me his treasures one day."
He took a deep breath and shook his head.
"It was the only method that guaranteed his death and my freedom, and so, I picked two Devil Fruits and force-fed them to him when he was still unconscious. It was then that I learned that once you are injected with the Death Serum, your body shouldn't be moved, or the Serum would start melting ahead of time."
"He woke up?!" Nojiko, who was listening to everything quietly, exclaimed in shock, and he nodded to her.
"He did, but he was late." Sin smiled. "I was horrified when he opened his eyes, and I made a run for the safe. And of all the Devil Fruits inside it, I picked the Rumble Rumble, consumed it, and then made a run for my life."
He closed his eyes as he recalled hearing Mors madly laughing when he jumped off the tower.
"I knew you had it in you all along! Ahahahahahaha..."
Somehow, the man did not even seem to hold any anger towards him, and Sin remembered how his heart had tightened when he heard Mors' final whisper in the ear whilst he was falling down the Tower.
"Farewell, Kid."
Even though he did not see it with his own eyes, he sensed Mors' body rupture, and then his Aura was gone.
"The Sky Tower is quite high, and falling from it meant death if I had not consumed the Devil Fruit. But the real problem was Mors' slave, who lived at the bottom of the Tower and sensed me falling from it. He thought I was escaping, so he gave the chase, turning into a Vulture." He smiled. "I fought for my life against him despite the weakness in my body."
"Was he strong?" Kuina asked, Nojiko asked, already wincing.
"He was a decently strong Birkan." He nodded. "I almost died at his hands, but managed to electrocute his brains before losing my consciousness and falling down the White Sea."
"And you landed on Vice-Admiral Tsuru's ship." Bepo nodded.
"Yes." Sin smiled and then looked in the young girl's direction, whose body was slightly quivering. "Eavesdropping is not a good habit, Nami."
As soon as his words fell, the girl got up from the bed and rushed into his arms, hugging his neck, and shedding her tears.
They knew very well that Sin had glossed over a lot of things and kept smiling all the time, but that did not mean that what he went through was not hell.
"Oh, come on. I am here." He said and watched his crew shake their heads in dismay at how lightly he took his battles against death.
"With all due respect, Captain. You are crazy." Vigaro suddenly said, and his words made some grin, and the rest outright laughed.
"I know." He chuckled too and then stood up with Nami in his arms. "I am going to sleep now." He said and then disappeared from the place, taking the orange head with him.
When Nami opened her eyes again, she found them on the Black Pearl, with Sin getting into the hammock, and she immediately wiped off her tears.
"You gave me the Thunderbird Fruit, didn't you?"
"You chose the Thunderbird Fruit." He smiled and corrected her.
"You won't hate me, right?" She anxiously asked, and he tapped her head, making her wince in pain. "Ow..."
"I don't even hate Mors, and you are my silly little sister." He said and then nudged his nose with hers, making her giggle.
"So, does that mean I am a princess too?" She grinned.
"You thought you weren't a princess?" He chuckled, and she stuck her tongue out at him before laying down on his chest and closing her eyes.
"You are the best!"
"I know." He grinned and then stroked her back, helping her fall asleep.
Sin stared at the starry sky, lost in his thoughts, and eventually closed his eyes to get some sleep.