"You'd better watch out, or you'll face my wrath!" Queen roared, his jowls trembling, cold sweat streaming down his forehead. He tried to sound fierce—but the terror in his voice ruined the effect completely.
His pirate subordinates: "..."
Darren: "..."
Seriously? How do you deliver a threat in that tone?
"Kaido can wait. I'll deal with him later."
Darren walked toward Queen at an unhurried pace, a pleasant smile on his face. "Figured I'd check in on you first. It's been a while since I dropped by Wano…"
Queen's heart lurched.
"N-no! Don't come any closer!" he yelped, voice cracking.
This bastard was no longer the Marine brat he'd once locked in an underground cell and toyed with at his leisure.
Standing before him now was one of the most dangerous criminals in the world—
A monster who had declared war on the World Government, with a bounty higher than even Boss Kaido's.
If it were anyone else—even a Marine Admiral—Queen would be thrilled to test out his newest weaponry.
But staring at this lunatic who treated the Ice Oni Virus like mouthwash, Queen felt that even his mountain of fat wouldn't be enough to cushion the beating.
He staggered backward, every muscle tensed as if facing a natural predator.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the black-haired youth vanished.
Queen felt something clamp around his neck.
An arm hooked around his throat from behind, yanking his massive body off balance.
That arm carried a terrifying strength—so overwhelming that even Queen, enhanced by an Ancient Zoan, couldn't so much as twitch free.
"Relax, Queen. I'm just here for a friendly chat."
The madman's amused voice hummed right at his ear.
Damn it—he's gotten even stronger!
Queen's body went rigid. A chill seeped into his bones. His expression shifted through fear, despair, and calculation in rapid succession.
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
Queen suddenly forced a grin, lips peeling back from his teeth.
"Come, come, sit over here. Tea?"
Thump, thump, thump—
Several pirates nearby collapsed on the spot, fainting dead away.
Darren smirked, satisfied.
---
One minute later.
A handful of Queen's underlings, their faces bone-white, shuffled out of the storage room with boxes of sealed virus samples in their arms. Trembling, they stacked the crates on the lab bench.
Under their horrified gazes, Darren twisted open bottle after bottle without so much as glancing at the labels, and tossed them back one by one like cheap liquor.
Bottle after bottle…
Before long, the crates were empty.
He finally let out a full, satisfied burp, then turned to the dazed pirates and scratched his cheek, looking almost embarrassed.
"Ah… sorry, sorry. Got a bit carried away. Want some?"
The pirates shuddered as one and shook their heads violently.
"No, we're good!"
"We're really good!"
"You enjoy!"
"..."
"Fine, fine…" Darren sighed in regret, then glanced at the Overalls Fatso, who was now frantically adjusting the lab equipment. "So? What's the verdict?"
Queen's enormous body was wired to monitoring devices through a mess of tubes and cables. The readings had already burst past their upper limits, the instruments flashing warnings in a rainbow of colors.
"This is insane… absolutely insane!"
Queen's voice trembled with a mix of awe and excitement as he stared at the data. Behind his lab goggles, his eyes sparkled like a kid in a candy store.
"Your immune system is more than twenty times stronger than a normal human's! The exact figure is beyond what our machines can even measure!"
"The hardness of your skin and muscles—at rest, they're already one and a half times tougher than diamond. When you tense them, they're nearly twice as hard as diamond!"
"Based on your blood circulation and pulse readings… your heart is stronger than that of a giant dinosaur!"
"No wonder even my latest, enhanced Ice Oni Virus doesn't do a thing to you… this is unbelievable!"
His massive rear wiggled with excitement as he frantically scrolled through lines of numbers.
Darren booted him in the backside. "I didn't come here for a physical."
Queen hunched his shoulders, scratching his head with an awkward laugh. "R-right, right! Got a little carried away. Experimental subjects like you are practically one-of-a-kind."
Darren lit a cigar and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not the only one who's tempered his body into an 'Indestructible Body.'"
Queen's mouth twitched.
Sure, Boss Kaido's body was absurdly tough too—but there was no way Kaido would ever let him run tests. Just picturing that kanabo crackling with purple lightning was enough to make Queen's legs go to jelly.
"So?" Darren prompted, glancing at the jittering graphs on the monitors.
Queen grimaced and shook his head. "The enhanced Ice Oni Virus did invade your nervous and immune systems, but your natural defenses cleared it almost immediately. Aside from a bout of fever and dehydration from the immune overreaction, there were no other notable symptoms."
His eyes drifted to the empty crates of basic virus stock, the corner of his eye twitching.
"...Which is why you're so thirsty."
"That's it?" Darren frowned, clearly disappointed.
Queen's face flushed a furious red. His jaw clenched so hard it looked like his teeth might shatter.
That's it?!
Did this guy think everyone was a monster who chugged plagues like spring water?
He slammed his hand onto the lab bench. Cracks shot across the surface with a sharp crack.
"Don't you look down on me!" Queen bellowed. "This is the enhanced virus I poured my soul into creating! Without the antidote, even giant dinosaurs and giants would be down in less than thirty seconds!"
Darren's expression was all weary resignation. "But I don't feel anything at all. Honestly, it's kind of a letdown."
Queen froze, then roared through gritted teeth, "This is outrageous! Fine, I'll show you the true power of the Ice Oni Virus!"
He snatched up a blue vial and tilted his head back, ready to drink.
"No, Boss Queen, calm down!" his subordinates screamed, rushing in to restrain him, faces twisted in panic. "You're one of the All-Stars! You can't die here!"
Queen halted, thought it over, then nodded seriously. "That… does make sense." He paused. "In that case, you guys drink it."
Whoosh!
His men scattered instantly, putting as much distance between themselves and the vial as possible.
Darren shook his head, ripping off the monitoring tubes. "So… the path of science has failed us?"
"Plague Queen" Queen was one of the brightest minds on the Grand Line. In bioweapons and human modification, he far outstripped Vinsmoke Judge, surpassed only by the legendary Vegapunk, who claimed to be "five hundred years ahead of the world."
So, if even the strongest virus Queen could craft had no real effect on him, then the route of strengthening himself through drugs was likely a dead end
To be continued...