Summary
One of the most prominent applications of Dr. Vegapunk andVinsmoke Judge’s discovery of the Lineage Factor— said to be the blueprint of life itsef inOne Piece— lies in the production of Artificial Devil Fruits. Although the scope of their creation and the success ratio involved in administering them to test subjects varies considerably, many have exploited the powers of Artificial Devil Fruits to ascend the current hierarchy of the pirate world. In effect, they grant powers to users much like a normal Devil Fruit would, with all the same weaknesses, but the manner in which they function is quite different when compared to normal fruits.
The fruits work on the foundation of how a Devil Fruit affects and alters a user’s Lineage Factor inOne Piece, rendering such results by means of their blood. That being said, these kinds of man made Devil Fruits have been produced in a number of different ways, by both Vegapunk, and Caesar Clown, his former colleague in the illegal scientific research institute MADS. While both of them have found success to varying extents, the process of getting there was extremely difficult for both of them,despite Vegapunk’s unparalleled genius. At present, only Zoan and Paramecia type Devil Fruit powers can be replicated through scientific means — with Logia types being too difficult to recreate — and this is how the two scientists were able to do so.
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Vegapunk’s Artificial Zoans
When first attempting to create Artificial Devil Fruits, Dr. Vegapunk believed that he could replicate any fruit of the Zoan class. His belief extended even to theextremely rare case of Mythical Zoan fruits, although this required a major investment in terms of time and money. To do so, he utilized the Lineage Factor of existing fruits and their users to create his Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits, which yielded results that were near perfect in some cases. Diverging from the unique shapes and swirl patterns of normal Devil Fruits, Vegapunk’s Artificial Zoans were roughly shaped like apples and had smooth surfaces with ring patterns adorning them.
Easily the most well known of this group of Artificial Devil Fruits is the one that was eaten by Kozuki Momonosuke. Developed with the Lineage Factor of Kaido, the former Yonko and leader of the Beasts Pirates, this Devil Fruit gave its user a power similar to that ofKaido’s own, the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu. However, instead of transforming into an Azure Dragon in Kaido’s case, Momonosuke first turned into a smaller pink dragon and was unable to maintain control of this form or utilize any of Kaido’s abilities such as flight and breathing fire. Due to this, Vegapunk and his benefactors in the World Government deemed the fruit to be a failure.
Interestingly, all these faults, save for the color of Momonosuke’s dragon form, were revealed to be the result of his age and inexperience with the fruit. On being aged 20 years by Shinobu, Momonosuke was able to take on a dragon form that rivaled Kaido’s in size, and was able to go up against the Yonko at the end of the Raid on Onigashima. With a little practice, Momonosuke could also utilize flame clouds to fly proficiently, and even managed to breathe fire, hinting that the fruit was not a failureas Vegapunk had deemed it to be. It remains to be seen how the success of this fruit could fuel the development of similar Zoan fruits belonging to the base, Mythical Zoan, and Ancient Zoan classes in the future, along with the ramifications of such developments.
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Caesar Clown’s SMILEs
Contrasting Vegapunk’s method, Caesar Clown utilized the Lineage Factor of normal animals, to create what were called the SMILEs. Besides this, there were a number of points of distinction between Caesar’s SMILEs andVegapunk’s Artificial Zoan Devil Fruits, beginning with the basis of their creation. Most SMILEs were produced from normal fruits, which were irrigated with a special substance called SAD that consists of a combination of Lineage Factors to be fed into the fruits.
SMILEs do notgrant powers like normal Zoan Devil Fruitsor even Vegapunk’s Artificial Zoan Fruits, which allow users to turn into animals or animal-human hybrids. Instead, SMILE users will grow animal parts, or even segments of an actual sentient animal from their body. For the most part, these changes are irreversible and cannot be activated or deactivated at will as in the case of normal Zoan Devil Fruits. These abilities are also noticeably weaker than those afforded by normal Zoan Fruits or even Vegapunk’s Artificial Zoan Fruits.
The act of eating a SMILE fruit also carries a great deal of risk, as only 10 percent of them will actually be successful in giving powers to their users. On the other hand, those who eat a SMILE and fail to gain powers, will not be able to to swim — like with traditional Devil Fruits — but they will also lose the capacity to express any emotion other than joy, which is the source of the moniker “SMILE.” These dud fruits will continue to render such effects even if they are only partially eaten.Kaido made use of thisby making 5000 members of the Beasts Pirates consume SMILEs, where 500 managed to acquire powers and rise to the rank of “Gifters,” while the remaining unsuccessful test subjects were known as “Pleasures.”
The Seraphim’s Green Blood
In addition to his exploits with Artificial Zoan type Devil Fruits, Vegapunk was able to surpass Caesar’s efforts even further and replicateParamecia type powers in the Seraphim. He was able to do this through a substance known as Green Blood, which is synthesized with the Lineage Factor of a Devil Fruit user to reproduce their power in another individual. The substance here is both the base medium and a substitute for blood in the Seraphim, catalyzed by the Lineage Factor of the Devil Fruit user they have to emulate. While this is not exactly an Artificial Devil Fruit in the conventional sense, the end result is virtually the same.
Having Green Blood inside their veins renders the Seraphim unable to swim and exhibit weakness in the face of items or materials that contain the sea’s energy, as in the case of Seastone. By the time of the Egghead Island Arc, Vegapunk was able to infuse four Paramecia type powers into his Seraphim. These included — Daz Bonez’s Supa Supa no Mi, which is used by S-Hawk, the clone of Dracule Mihawk, Senor Pink’s Sui Sui no Mi, used by S-Shark, who is JInbe’s clones, Boa Hancok’s Mero Mero no Mi, used by her clone S-Snake, and Bartholomew Kuma’s Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, in his clone S-Bear. When looking it how far Vegapunk has come in this quest, it will be no surprise if he actually manages tomimic Logia Devil Fruit powersas well towards the end of the story, turning the global balance of power inOne Piececompletely on its head.
