A mysterious phenomenon has begun to affect ordinary people in the New World.
Symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, loss of appetite, and most crucially, the loss of emotions. Fortunately, these symptoms disappear on their own after about a week.
Initially, this phenomenon was confined to the Mogaro Kingdom, drawing little attention from neighboring countries, while the rest of the world remained indifferent.
However, no one expected this phenomenon to spread rapidly like a plague.
The kingdoms of Prodence, Doerena, Majiatsuka, even Elbaf, and other major countries were not spared!
In just a month, hundreds of inhabited islands experienced the same symptoms.
People began calling this outbreak "Emotonia."
Although Emotonia isn't deadly, as it causes no fatalities, it cripples the economy of an island.
The countries in the New World were hit hardest by the Emotonia outbreak. Without a workforce, the economy grinds to a halt. In other words, kings and rulers are left struggling to find money to pay tribute to the Tenryuubito.
On the other hand, Emotonia does not only affect ordinary people. Whether pirates or Marines, as long as a place has a large population, they cannot escape Emotonia.
Seeing so many Marine officers affected by Emotonia, the World Government could no longer sit idly by. They deployed researchers and scientists from various fields, including the world's most brilliant scientist: Dr. Vegapunk.
Under the leadership of the world's top scientists, they quickly discovered some facts about Etomonia.
First, Emotonia does not infect everyone. Using Marine rank standards, only officers at the rank of Commodore and below are affected, while those above are unharmed.
Second, after analyzing the blood of Emotonia sufferers, scientists found no virus or bacteria causing the symptoms. This puzzled them for a while until Dr. Vegapunk speculated that Emotonia was neither a natural nor artificial plague, but rather the ability of a Devil Fruit!
Dr. Vegapunk, being the world's best scientist, managed to uncover the origin of Emotonia while other scientists were busy debating irrelevant matters.
After researching the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, the scientists agreed that the Devil Fruit capable of causing this phenomenon was the Kanjo Kanjo no Mi.
Following this, the World Government released this information to the public, declaring that the Etomonia plague afflicting the New World was the work of the Kanjo Kanjo no Mi user.
As a result, the mastermind behind Emotonia became an enemy to everyone. Unfortunately, no one knew his identity.
The only ones who knew the Kanjo Kanjo no Mi user's identity were Rayleigh, Doflamingo and his executives. However, they chose to remain silent.
Rayleigh was on Eiji's side, so he wouldn't speak up. On the other hand, Doflamingo didn't want to provoke a powerful enemy like Eiji, so he ordered everyone in the know to keep quiet.
❀❀❀
On a nameless island in the New World.
The one causing chaos in the New World, Kamiki Eiji, was meditating in a cave.
"Huft... The amount of emotion I have now is enough to give me a buff like the one Utahime-san provides. Plus, I can maintain it for 48 hours."
Opening his eyes, Eiji smiled in satisfaction at his hard work.
He had absorbed the emotions of tens of thousands of people.
To store all these emotions in his body, he mimicked the concept of Dantian from Chinese cultivation novels in Lin Fan's memory.
In the imaginary space in his abdomen, a colorful marble-sized ball represented the compressed emotions.
"If I unleash all these emotions in a single attack, I don't know how powerful it would be. Even Sukuna might be killed instantly, right?"
"Forget it, I'll only know once I face him."
Lying on a mattress he took from the Storage Ring, Eiji closed his eyes and rested.
After roaming the New World for a full month, his mind was exhausted. Moreover, he was no longer emotionless as before, and the desire to laze around often surfaced, affecting his thoughts.
"Still no news about the Toki Toki no Mi. Lin Fan's memory isn't much help either; it doesn't mention who the next owner of the Toki Toki no Mi is."
"This world is vast with countless islands. It's impossible for me to find the Toki Toki no Mi alone. Even a major faction like the World Government can't search for a specific Devil Fruit, and luck plays a crucial role."
"Should I meet Vegapunk first and ask him to research Marshall D. Teach's blood to uncover the secret of how he can consume two Devil Fruits simultaneously? It's worth a try. After all, I don't know how long Vegapunk will take to research this."
Having regained his emotions, Eiji had become more talkative than before.
"Considering Vegapunk is an important scientist in the eyes of the World Government, his research location must be highly secretive. Hmmm... If I'm not mistaken, Vegapunk's research base is called Egghead Island?"
"Lin Fan's memory about One Piece only goes up to the point where Monkey D. Luffy, Jinbei, and Jewelry Bonney land on Egghead. After that, Lin Fan died."
"So, how do I get to Egghead?"
The cave was silent, with only the sound of heavy rain outside and the occasional thunderclap breaking the silence.
"The Marine headquarters, Marineford, should have an Eternal Pose for Egghead, right? Should I sneak into Marineford? It's worth a shot."
"With only Fleet Admiral Akainu on duty at Marineford, and Fujitora heading to Dressrosa with no plans to return anytime soon. As for Aramaki... Not much is known about him. There's also the lazy Borsalino, who might be at Marineford too."
Admirals are among the top powerhouses in this world, but Eiji wasn't afraid of facing them, even in a one-on-three battle. After all, they had no means to breach his Infinity defense.
The power of the three Admirals' Devil Fruits was impressive, but their Haki achievements were mediocre.
For the people of the One Piece world to penetrate Eiji's Infinity, they would need a power capable of shattering space like the Gura Gura no Mi, or their mastery of Busoshoku Haki and Haoshoku Haki would have to be at an advanced level.
"Most likely, Akainu, Borsalino, and Aramaki are stationed at Marineford... So what? As long as I avoid them, I'll be fine. Unless they have advanced Kenbunshoku Haki, the Marines won't be able to detect me while I'm hiding in another dimension."
Eiji decided that tomorrow he would stealthily head to Marineford and steal the Eternal Pose for Egghead.