Soru Soru no Mi

The Soru Soru no Mi is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to freely interact with and manipulate souls. It was eaten by Carmel, but the ability was later transferred to Emperor Charlotte Linlin after Carmel's death.

Etymology

 * "Soru" comes from Souru (ソウル), the Japanese pronunciation of "soul".
 * In the English dub, it is called the Soul-Soul Fruit.

Strengths
The fruit's power of soul manipulation, as demonstrated by Big Mom, consists of drawing out and manifesting fragments of human souls into a light-pink, spectral-looking but (for the user) tangible substance, which the user extracts by grabbing at it once it is surrounding the target's body and pulling it out. This effectively steals from the targeted human's very lifespan, the amount of which being determined by the user, shown to be up to and possibly beyond decades at once and down to the second if desired. Thus, if they lose too many years at once, victims may be killed instantaneously.



By infusing objects and living animals with soul fragments, the user can "humanize" them. Recipients (which Big Mom refers to as "Homies") develop human-like intelligence, with inanimate objects gaining a life of their own in the first place, and undergo transformations to more closely resemble humans. Though the only prominent change in objects are their human faces, animals will more so have their general physique affected to varying degrees, such as becoming able to stand up-right. If a Vivre Card is infused with a soul fragment, instead of becoming anthropomorphic, the card will exude a bright aura that only Homies can see.

The ability to infuse souls also works on inorganic objects produced by other Devil Fruits. For example, Big Mom can give life and autonomy to Cracker's Biscuit Soldier puppets. In certain specific cases, this also allows Big Mom to exert control over another person's Devil Fruit substance to an extent. For example, by creating a homie from a mound of Perospero's candy, she is able to control the direction of the candy much like Perospero himself.

In addition to stealing and using the souls of other people, the user may manifest their own soul into living fragments (which Big Mom refers to as Incarnations) in the form of roughly human-sized, dark, somewhat humanoid blobs, which possess limited sentience and can take people's souls as well.

Weaknesses


Soul fragments extracted from one's lifespan cannot be infused into other humans or on corpses. Furthermore, the target of the soul extraction must be at least somewhat afraid of death in order for the user to take their lifespan; if the target is not afraid in the slightest, the user's powers will have no effect on them. Similarly, if Homies experience extreme fear, they instantly die and wither away. Homies cannot attack anything infused with the user's soul, such as the user's Vivre Card, even if such an object is in the hands of an enemy; this can be overridden when the user themselves is present to give orders directly. Homies created from others' souls are also weak to the powers of the Yomi Yomi no Mi and will faint against its user if they exude the energies from their own soul, although Homies created from the user's very own soul are immune to this. Homies are also susceptible to physical pain and can be injured or even killed with a lethal enough move, their faces suggested to be their most vulnerable spots. Prime examples include: Kingbaum, who was severely injured after being vertically bisected by Amande; a door Homie whose face was carved out; and Prometheus, who was wounded by Brook (despite its elemental composition).

While the Homies are typically subservient to the user and will not ordinarily defy them, they do possess their own minds and can turn against their creator if motivated enough, even going so far as to attack other Homies; even special Homies created by the user's own soul can be coerced into switching loyalty. Also, when the soul is implanted into a Homie, the Homie will possess the memories of the soul infused. If those memories are recalled or manipulated through a method like the Memo Memo no Mi, the Homie will proceed to carry out the details of the memories, confusing and distracting them. While the Homies are in this state, the user of the Soru Soru no Mi will be unable to control them. The user also has to be in their right state of mind in order to properly control the homies. Otherwise, the homies may be more vulnerable to being manipulated or distracted by outside influences.

Other than these things, the user experiences the standard Devil Fruit weaknesses to water and Seastone.

Carmel


Carmel has used the fruit's power to manifest a fragment of her own soul to create Homies. By applying this to flames, she was able to suppress its destruction and compress it into a sentient form, and making the denizens of Elbaf believe that she summoned the sun god. Moreover, she seemed to have made use of weather manipulation in order to trick the giants into trusting her during the show she had orchestrated with the Marines.

She had also apparently used the power to show a "magic trick" to the children of the Sheep's House by imbuing life to a flower.

Techniques

 * Geburtstag (ゲブーアツターク): Carmel manifests a piece of her soul from the palm of her hand and infuses it into an object or animal, turning it into a homie. She was first seen using this technique to create Pandora. Geburtstag is the German word for "birthday".

Charlotte Linlin
Big Mom has imposed a toll on all citizens of Totto Land, forcing them to give up a month's worth of their soul and lifetime every six months or leave. Those soul fragments are collected by her Incarnations and sprinkled all over the islands of Totto Land, where they settle into random objects or animals to turn them into Homies. She has also used the power to kill people by taking a lethal amount of lifespan from them.

She has also created three special Homies out of pieces of her own soul; these Homies are more powerful than regular ones, and as such are more resistant to the powers of the Yomi Yomi no Mi. These special homies are Napoleon the bicorne, Prometheus the sun and Zeus the thundercloud. The latter two can be used to produce massive amounts of fire or electricity, and can also combine their powers to create great storms, granting Big Mom control over the weather. On the other hand Napoleon is a sentient bicorne that Big Mom wears for the entire day and can receive signals from other Homies all over Whole Cake Chateau, sensing any intruders and relaying the information to Big Mom. Napoleon can also reveal a blade and handle to become a sword for combat, being able to both attack on its own and be wielded by Big Mom as her personal weapon.

Applications



 * Incarnations (化身): The Incarnations are large, black, humanoid blobs who collect the Totto Land residents' biannual payment of a month's worth of their lifespan. They are made from pieces of Big Mom's own extremely powerful soul, and are themselves capable of extracting other people's souls, via Soul Pocus. They are intelligent enough to be capable of human speech and understand basic orders. They are voiced by Masaya Takatsuka in the anime.




 * Homies: The Homies are objects that have been brought to life as a result of being infused with the collected soul portions, anything turned into a Homie is anthropomorphized, thus gaining the ability to talk and move independently. Nearly anything can be made into a Homie, including plants, minerals, buildings, furniture, food, air, light, and even animals. The only things that cannot be made into Homies are people and corpses. Homies have their own autonomy, but are subservient to the Soru Soru no Mi user, though an object containing a portion of the users soul, such as a Vivre Card, works just as well to control them, however the presence and commands of the Devil Fruit user themself takes priority. According to Linlin, powerful homies can be created by using the souls of powerful individuals, as she intend to steal Luffy's, a Worst Generation Pirate, soul to create a powerful homie. Homies are weak against powerful souls, such as that of the user of the Yomi Yomi no Mi.


 * Special Homies: Special Homies are created when Big Mom infuses fragments of her own super powerful soul into objects. Special Homies are much stronger than regular ones and lack the weakness of being vulnerable to the Yomi Yomi no Mi. Big Mom keeps three Special Homies with her at all times; a fireball, a thundercloud, and her hat that can transform into a sword.

Techniques



 * Soul Pocus: Big Mom speaks directly to the soul's attachment to life, demanding that the person either give her what she desires or give her their lifespan. If the person fears death for even a moment, Big Mom will be able to take their lifespan in any amount that she chooses; she can even take a person's entire remaining lifespan, instantly killing them. However, if the person is completely fearless when they choose to have their lifespan taken, Big Mom will be unable to do so, nullifying the technique. It was first seen used against Charlotte Moscato, and was later named by Morgans when Big Mom used it on her cooks. The Incarnations are capable of using a lesser version of this technique, where they take a month of every Totto Land citizen's lifespan if they wish to stay in Totto Land. Unlike Big Mom's other usages, the people will have their lifespans removed if they choose to do so; it is unknown if fear plays a role in this. This technique's name might partially come from the magical incantation pronounced by magicians, "Hocus Pocus".

Homie Techniques



 * Heavenly Feuer: Big Mom grabs Prometheus and throws it at her target, creating a large, fiery explosion upon impact. It is powerful enough to hurt someone who is using a fire-resistant Raid Suit. It was first used during her rampage in Sweet City, but was only named when used against the Sanji Retrieval Team. Feuer is the German word for "fire". This is called Heavenly Fire in the FUNimation subs.




 * Raitei (雷霆): Big Mom summons Zeus around her left hand and charges it with lightning, she then slams her hand down on her opponent, striking them with a massive bolt of lightning. It was first used against Vinsmoke Judge, and was powerful enough to knock him out. This is called Thunder Bolt in the FUNimation subs.




 * Ikoku (威国): Big Mom swings Napoleon in its longsword form with such force that she creates a shockwave that destroys everything in its path, enough to pierce through a large part of Whole Cake Island. The speed and range of this attack is such that Kingbaum, a noted fast runner, could not completely avoid it in time, losing about a third of his face to the wave. Befitting its description as "Spear of Elbaf" (エルバフの槍), and as noted by Luffy, it is very similar to Dorry and Brogy's combination attack, "Hakoku". In the Viz manga, it is called Ikoku Sovereignty.




 * "Tamashi no Kuni" no O-tachi ("魂の国"の主達): Big Mom combines the power of her Special Homies all at once. While riding a full-powered Zeus, Linlin reveals Napoleon's strongest sword form and makes a full-powered Prometheus merge with her hair, granting her a long flaming mane. How much stronger she is in this form is unclear, but it does apparently make for a significant power-up, as it seems to be used only as a last resort, so rare that not even Big Mom's own children knew about this form. This form is named in the game One Piece: Treasure Cruise.


 * Hahaba: With Napoleon in its Cognac form, Big Mom swings it horizontally at her opponent. This attack has a tremendous amount of power, as it sent Jinbe flying a great distance away despite him trying to block it with Haki. The pun of this attack name is that its pronunciation is the same as haha (母) and ba (婆), Japanese for "mother" and "grandmother" respectively. This is called Mama-Mash in the Viz Manga.


 * Heavenly Bonbon (ボンボン): Big Mom has Prometheus spit a number of fireballs, one at each of her opponents. It was first used against Monkey D. Luffy, Trafalgar D. Water Law, and Eustass Kid during the Onigashima raid. Bonbon is the German word for "candy". Also "Bonbons" are small chocolate confections typically filled with liqueur.


 * Indra: Big Mom uses Zeus to shoot a powerful bolt of lightning at a distant target. It was first used against Killer. Indra is the deity of the heavens, lightning, thunder and storms in Hinduism.




 * Tenman Daijizai Tenjin (天満大自在天神): Big Mom commands Zeus's lightning to strike through the clouds in all directions. The lightning itself is alive and can change direction to strike a target who is trying to take cover. It was first used against the Worst Generation members on the roof of Onigashima. "Tenman Daijizai Tenjin" or simply Tenjin is a god of thunder in the Shinto religion. In the Viz translation, this is called God of Lightning Tenjin.


 * Haha no Hi (刃母の炎): With Napoleon in its Cognac form, Big Mom swings it vertically at her opponent. The impact of the attack creates an explosive blaze. The attack name is a pun on "Mother's Day" (母の日). This is called Happy Mother's Blaze  in the Viz Manga.

History
At some point, Carmel consumed the fruit and used it in deceiving the giants of Elbaf. When she died, her powers were somehow transferred to Charlotte Linlin who would have the power for sixty-three years and used it to create her dream country.

Trivia

 * This fruit's power resembles that of the Kage Kage no Mi, as it can take a normally intangible part of a person (in this case, souls instead of shadows) and insert it into something else, which becomes animated, and that when the said part is taken, it becomes detrimental for the owner.
 * Similar to the Kage Kage no Mi technique Doppelman, the user of this fruit is able to project part of himself that share some of their abilities called Incarnations.
 * While zombies retain the original shadow owners' personalities, homies retain their memories.
 * The fruits' current users created an individual(s) which is classified as "Special": Oars was a special zombie while Zeus, Prometheus, and Napoleon are considered special homies.
 * All three special homies share the same voice actor.
 * The strength of a homie and zombie created are both determined by the strength of the victim in which the essence are extracted from. Both Moria and Linlin believed that Monkey D. Luffy's shadow and soul would make powerful soldiers for them.
 * One of the major differences between the two is that while a Kage Kage no Mi user takes the shadows of humans and can insert them into any other form of life, even other humans and corpses, a user of the Soru Soru no Mi cannot insert the soul fragments into another human or a corpse.
 * Another difference is that the shadows taken by the Kage Kage no Mi will disappear when the original host will die, while the Soru Soru no Mi can take the entire lifespan of the target and its soul is still usable.
 * Furthermore, while a reanimated corpse through the Kage Kage no Mi uses the entire shadow of the victim (therefore, making the victim shadowless), a homie requires a very small piece of a soul, equivalent of a month of one's lifespan.
 * Zombies created by the Kage Kage no Mi have their wills bound to the user's and will absolutely obey, while homies created by the Soru Soru no Mi have their free will and can, with sufficient motivations, defy the user's orders.
 * Like many other Devil Fruit's creations, a zombie's shadow will leave its body when it comes into contact with sea water, leaving the zombie lifeless. Homies however were shown to be able to travel the seas, engulf themselves in it, and even sallow sea water and remain active.
 * This fruit's power also resembles that of the Mero Mero no Mi, as it requires the target to feel a certain emotion towards the user for their powers to work on them (fear and lust, respectively).
 * Big Mom mentions that lifespan is her favorite food, thus implying that she can eat the life she takes. However it is currently unknown if this gives her any benefit other than flavor.
 * This fruit is the second one to display soul-related powers, with the first one being the Yomi Yomi no Mi.
 * Big Mom's Soul Pocus may be based off the practice of trick-or-treating.
 * This fruit is one of only three where its previous user was introduced after its current user, along with the Mane Mane no Mi and Bari Bari no Mi.
 * The substance this Devil Fruit can make for the user to grab from other living beings in order to take their lifespans is quite similar to the paranormal substance believed to exist by spiritualists and parapsychologists called ectoplasma.
 * The Soru Soru no Mi is the second Devil Fruit that was obtained through unknown means; the first being the Gura Gura no Mi.
 * This is the second Devil Fruit introduced in the series that has the ability to take the lifespan away from others, the first being the Horu Horu no Mi.

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