Soru Soru no Mi

The Soru Soru no Mi is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to interact with and manipulate souls. It was formerly eaten by Carmel, but the ability was somehow transferred to Charlotte Linlin after Carmel's death.
==Etymology==
*"Soru" comes from , the Japanese pronunciation of "soul".
==Strengths==
The fruit's power of soul manipulation, as demonstrated by Big Mom, consists of manifesting and drawing out the souls of people who feel fear towards the user. The manifested souls take the form of a light-pink, spectral-looking but (for the user) tangible substance, which leaks out of the victim's body like smoke. The user can extract the victim's soul by grabbing it once it is surrounding the target's body and pulling it out. This effectively steals from the victim's very lifespan, the amount of which is determined by the user: it is possible to steal decades of a person's life at once should they desire, or mere seconds. The user can steal part of the victim's lifespan, leaving their remaining lifespan that much shorter, or even take enough years to steal a victim's entire remaining lifespan, killing them instantly.
By infusing objects with soul fragments, the user can "humanize" them. Recipients (which are referred to as "homies") gain human-like intelligence, as well as the ability to speak. Almost anything can be made into a homie, including plants, minerals, food, clothing, furniture, air, light, and even living animals. Inanimate objects are brought to life and gain the ability to stand upright and move independently, their most notable feature being that they have a human face. Some of them can gain special abilities, such as a carpet homie becoming a flying carpet. Animal homies become more human-like, not only gaining the ability to talk and walk upright, but also fighting and using weapons. According to Big Mom, the more powerful the individual the soul was taken from, the more powerful the resulting homie will be. Additionally, homies will be more powerful if they possess a larger quantity of soul fragments within them, and can eat other homies to absorb their soul and become stronger.
The user can even infuse souls into substances produced by other Devil Fruits. For example, Big Mom can give life and autonomy to Cracker's Biscuit Soldier puppets and Perospero's candy constructs. In certain cases, this also allows Big Mom to exert control over another person's Devil Fruit substance. For example, by creating a homie from a mound of Perospero's candy, she is able to control the movement of the candy much like Perospero himself.
Homies are subservient to the user, as they fear and respect their powerful soul, allowing them to easily create more and more subordinates with every soul taken. Since a Vivre Card is naturally infused with the owner’s soul, a Vivre Card created from the user of the Soru Soru no Mi will allow the person wielding it to command the homies just as if they were the fruit's user themselves. However, the user's presence and commands supersede those of the person with the user's Vivre Card. The card itself exudes a bright-pink aura that only homies can see, and seems to frighten them. Even if a homie does muster the nerve to turn against and attack the user, they are typically powerless to do much as the user can rip out the soul inside them with ease.
The user can also use fragments of their own personal soul to create "special homies", who tend to be more powerful than regular ones. It is currently unknown how using one's own soul to create special homies might affect the user's own life expectancy. The user may also manifest their own soul in the form of roughly human-sized, dark, somewhat humanoid blobs (known as "Incarnations"), which possess limited sentience and can take people's souls as well.
While souls cannot be infused into living beings, the user themselves appears to be an exception to a certain extent. It is possible for one to sacrifice a portion of their own lifespan in exchange for extra power and size, with the amount of strength gained being dependent on the strength of the soul. In addition, the user can turn their individual body parts into homies themselves, allowing said parts to act independently of the user's own normal bodily functions. Big Mom, for example, can give life to her own skeleton and order it to restructure itself in case of broken bones, thus providing a unique form of self-healing.
==Weaknesses==
While incredibly powerful, the Soru Soru no Mi comes with several limitations. One limitation is that the user also has to be in close proximity to the target in order to be able to take away their lifespan, as they need to physically grab and pull the soul out to extract it from their body.
The most prominent limitation is that in order for the soul to be extracted, the target needs to be afraid of the user, even if just a little. Individuals who do not feel any fear of the user are completely immune to soul extraction. Big Mom is able to avoid this weakness most of the time thanks to her infamous reputation, imposing appearance and incredible power. However, strong-willed individuals such as Jinbe, Trafalgar Law, and Eustass Kid were all immune to her ability due to their lack of fears and absolute refusal to be afraid of her. In addition, the user must invoke an incantation of sorts and the target must hear it in order for their souls to be extracted, meaning that if the user is forcibly silenced, then the targets will not be affected, even if they are afraid of the user.
While soul fragments can be infused into animals, plants and lifeless objects, they cannot be infused into other people or corpses. However, it appears that a person's own soul can be returned to them after being extracted, circumventing this limitation, which restores an amount of lifespan equal to how much of their soul was returned; even lifeless bodies can be revived this way. This was shown with Charlotte Moscato, who was seemingly killed by his mother after having all his remaining lifespan taken away during her rampage on Sweet City, but was later seen alive on the Queen Mama Chanter. But it seems that only entities capable of physically interacting with souls (such as the fruit's user, or their Incarnations) can perform this process, as Mont-d'Or was seen ordering two Incarnations to gather "every last second" of Moscato's lifespan they could find, indicating that he was unable to do it himself.
 
Homies are fully alive beings, and are thus susceptible to physical pain and fear. They can be injured and even killed with a lethal enough attack, with their faces being 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 both Prometheus and Zeus, who have been harmed by Brook, Jinbe and Zoro despite their intangible, elemental compositions. If homies experience extreme fear, they will instantly die and wither away. Another consequence of the living nature of homies is that the user of the Soru Soru no Mi can only control them if their commands to them are audible.
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 special homies created by the user's own soul can be coerced into switching loyalty. 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, and in fact must obey the owner of the Vivre Card; although this can be overridden when the user themselves is present to give orders directly to the homies.
Homies created from others' souls are also weak to the soul mastery allowed by the Yomi Yomi no Mi and will faint against its user if they exude the energies from their own soul, although powerful homies created from the Soru Soru no Mi's user's own soul are immune to this.
When a soul is implanted into a homie, it will possess the memories of the person the soul belonged to. 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, they may be more vulnerable to being manipulated or distracted by outside influences.
A soul fragment will inhabit whatever object it first makes contact with. Thus, if the user is not careful as to where a soul fragment is placed, it could be absorbed by something they did not intend for. This was seen when Big Mom tossed Zeus' disembodied soul toward Hera with the intention of her eating it; however, due to the close proximity of Nami's Sorcery Clima-Tact, Zeus' soul went in the Clima-Tact instead.
Otherwise, the user experiences the standard Devil Fruit weaknesses to water and Seastone.
==Usage==
===Carmel===
Carmel used the fruit's power to manifest fragments of her own soul and create homies. By applying this to the flames created by the destruction brought by a rampaging Linlin at Elbaf, she compressed them into a sun homie called Pandora, convincing the denizens of Elbaf that she had summoned the sun god. She also seemed to have made use of homies for weather manipulation, making it seem like she had made the rain stop and the sunshine on her during the show she had orchestrated with the Marines, in order to trick the giants into trusting her and allow her to enter Elbaf.
She had also at some point used the power to entertain and show a "magic trick" to the children of the Sheep's House, by imbuing life to a flower.
====Techniques====
*: 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 from the fires that were raging on Elbaf. Geburtstag is the German word for "birthday".
===Charlotte Linlin===
As the queen of Totto Land, Big Mom has imposed a toll on her citizens, forcing them to give up a month's worth of their soul every six months or leave. Those soul fragments are collected by her Incarnations and sprinkled all over Totto Land, where they settle into random objects or animals to turn them into homies. She can also drain the bestowed souls out of her Homies, weakening them. She also often uses her powers to kill people by taking a lethal amount of lifespan from them, as her tremendous strength and status as one of the Four Emperors means that very few individuals are capable of not showing any fear when confronted by her.
Big Mom has also created three special homies out of pieces of her own incredibly strong soul; these homies are far 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. In addition, Big Mom can use either of these two homies to fly around or enhance the power of her melee attacks by merging their respective elements with either her bare hands (such as her Raitei technique) or Napoleon in his sword form (such as her Cognac technique). Prometheus in particular has also shown the ability to fuse with Big Mom's hair, becoming a flaming mane. Napoleon is a bicorne that Big Mom wears on her head at all times, except when sleeping, who can receive telepathic signals from other nearby homies and relay the information to Big Mom. Napoleon can also reveal a blade and hilt to transform into a sword with devastating offensive power, being able to both attack on its own and be wielded by Big Mom as her personal weapon.
Despite each of Big Mom's special homies being extremely strong on their own, Zeus' carefree nature often led him to act in ways that hindered Big Mom, such as when he was temporarily swayed by Nami due to her feeding him thunderclouds, and later chose to willingly join her. This often led his fellow special homies to treat him with disdain and consider him a burden. Although Big Mom managed to reclaim Zeus during the war at Onigashima, after once again being hindered by him, Big Mom became fed up with Zeus' incompetence and, at Prometheus' suggestion, used a piece of her soul to create a new thundercloud special homie named Hera to replace him. Hera turned out to be more in-sync with her fellow special homies than Zeus ever was, allowing the three of them to unleash more complex moves that, according to Prometheus, were previously impossible due to Zeus' general foolishness. Big Mom later ordered Hera to consume Zeus in order to merge the two pieces of her soul together and increase Hera's power. When Zeus attempted to rebel against Big Mom, he was picked up by the Emperor and had his soul extracted from his body, weakening him and allowing Hera to devour him unimpeded. Zeus' soul fragment, however, successfully escaped into Nami's Sorcery Clima-Tact, granting him a new body.
====Applications====
*: 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 Japanese in the anime.
*: Homies are things that have been brought to life and anthropomorphized after being infused with a soul fragment, gaining sentience and the ability to speak and move. 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. Big Mom has used her powers to create homies that live all over Totto Land, and her ability to create homies gives her an almost endless supply of subordinates. Some homies in particular act as part of Big Mom's military forces, including the Chess Soldiers, which function as the Big Mom Pirates' rank-and-file infantry; the Seducing Woods, a forest of homies that act as a defense mechanism for Whole Cake Island against intruders, constantly moving around to block off exit routes and shift the forest's layout to confuse and trap them; the Queen Mama Chanter, Big Mom's flagship who is itself a sentient homie, or Randolph, a rabbit homie and a combatant of the Big Mom Pirates. Most homies, however, are weak against powerful souls, particularly against 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, and they are much stronger than regular Homies, lacking the weakness 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. She later created a new thundercloud special homie to replace Zeus due to considering him a failure.
====Techniques====
*: Big Mom's signature technique. She speaks directly to the soul's attachment to life, demanding that the person either give into her demands or give her their lifespan; she generally words these demands with the phrase Life or X or X or Life, with the word opposite to being whatever Big Mom desires at the moment. If the person shows fear for even a moment, Big Mom will be able to take their lifespan in any amount that she chooses, even their entire remaining lifespan, killing them instantly. However, if the person is completely fearless when they choose to have their lifespan taken, or if Big Mom's voice cannot be heard by the victims, Big Mom will be unable to do so. This was first seen used against Charlotte Moscato, and 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 every six months 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 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 incantation commonly used by magicians, "Hocus-pocus."
===Homie-Based Techniques===
====Zeus====
*: Big Mom summons Zeus around her left hand, charging it with electricity, and then slams it down on her opponent, striking them both with her superhuman strength and a powerful bolt of lightning. It was first used against Vinsmoke Judge, and was powerful enough to knock him out in one hit. This is called Thunder Bolt in the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations.
*: Big Mom uses Zeus to shoot a horizontal lightning bolt at an enemy. It was first used against Killer. "Indra" is the deity of heavens, lightning, thunder, and storms in Hinduism.
*: Big Mom commands Zeus's lightning to strike through the clouds in all directions, bombarding her surroundings with an electrical thunderstorm. The lightning itself is sentient, and can change direction to strike at targets who are trying to dodge or 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 manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called God of Lightning Tenjin.
====Prometheus====
*: Big Mom grabs Prometheus and either throws it at her target or uses it to augment her punch, which creates a large, fiery explosion upon impact. The flames are powerful enough to hurt even someone who is wearing 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 VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations.
*: Big Mom has Prometheus spit a number of powerful fireballs, one at each of her opponents. It was first used against Luffy, Law, and Kid during the Onigashima raid. "Bonbons" are small chocolate-covered candies, typically filled with liquor. In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Heavenly Bon-Bons.
*: Prometheus charges at his opponent and takes the form of a powerful blast of fire that shoots through them. It was first used against Trafalgar Law. The name of the attack is likely a reference to the mythological Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. It may also be a pun on the German fruit bread Stollen. In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Stolen Fire.
====Napoleon====
*: 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 , and as noted by Luffy, it is very similar to Dorry and Brogy's combination attack, "Hakoku". In the VIZ manga and Funimation subs, it is called Ikoku Sovereignty.
====Hera====
*: Big Mom uses Hera to shoot a large horizontal lightning bolt at her target that creates a massive explosion on impact, causing tremendous destruction to whatever it strikes. It was first used against Eustass Kid and Killer, and was strong enough to create a giant hole in the Skull Dome of Onigashima. "Fulgora" is the name of the female personification of lightning in Roman mythology; the attack's name is also a pun given the near-matching pronunciation of the kanji: , , .
*: Just like Zeus' technique, Big Mom commands Hera's lightning to strike in all directions, bombarding her surroundings with an electrical thunderstorm. It was first used against the Kid and Heart Pirates. In the Viz Manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called God of Lightning Tenjin.
====Combined====
*: Napoleon turns into its seax form, and Big Mom sets the blade alight with Prometheus's flames, resulting in a weapon that both cuts and burns the opponent. This is apparently Napoleon's most powerful form, as Big Mom's children were surprised that Jinbe was able to block it, even if only for a few moments. Napoleon can also stretch the blade to increase its range, at least to the entire length of the Thousand Sunny. "Cognac" is a type of liquor that is typically used to flambé food by creating a burst of flames, referencing how Napoleon's blade is similarly set alight by Prometheus' flames.
:*: With Cognac activated, Big Mom swings Napoleon horizontally at her opponent. This attack has a tremendous amount of power, sending 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, referencing Big Mom's many children and grandchildren. This is called Mama-Mash in the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations.
:*: With Cognac activated, Big Mom swings Napoleon down vertically at her foe, with the impact creating a fiery explosion. The attack name is a pun on . This is called Happy Mother's Blaze in the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations.
:*: A combined attack by Big Mom and Kaidou. Standing side to side, Big Mom swings Napoleon in its Cognac form, while simultaneously Kaidou in his Human-Beast form swings his kanabo Hassaikai. The combined power of the Emperor's strikes create a powerful explosion-like shock wave of force that quickly travels forward and absolutely devastates anything in its wake; the attack was shown to dwarf the island of Onigashima, and Roronoa Zoro was heavily injured even by just attempting to block the attack for a moment. Like Ikoku, this move is very similar to Dorry and Brogy's combined Hakoku technique, featuring even the same poses. In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Conquest of the Sea.
*: A combined attack by Hera, Prometheus, and Napoleon. The three homies assemble together, with Napoleon's gladius blade piercing through Prometheus at its base and Hera at its tip, and Prometheus and Hera merging their respective elements, forming several tendrils of lightning and fire that join in a large circular energy ring in between them. Then, by swinging Napoleon, Big Mom unleashes the energy in the form of a thin, highly concentrated laser-like beam that can pierce through flesh in an instant and culminates in a large explosion. It was first used against Ulti, easily piercing through her tough scaly skin and immediately knocking her unconscious despite her superhuman durability. A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves, especially microwaves, through amplification by stimulated emission. The technique's name may also be a reference to the Maser Cannon, a fictional weapon in the Godzilla film franchise. In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Maser Cannon.
*: Big Mom infuses Napoleon with Hera's lightning and jumps in the air, somersaulting forward while holding the blade before striking downward with a lightning-powered slash. This was first used against Eustass Kid. The name of the attack seems to be a pun on "marmalade", "mama" and "raid". In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Mama-Raid.
*: Another combined attack by Hera, Prometheus, and Napoleon. Assembling in the same way as for Maser Ho, instead of firing a beam the homies form a continuous energy blade that Big Mom can use as a sword by wielding Napoleon. It was first used to cut Kid's metal bull clean in half. 
**: Big Mom summons a giant female homie made of flames and lightning called "Misery" from her Maser Saber. The homie can act independently from Big Mom, pursuing its targets while unleashing great destruction. The attack's name is a reference to the anime 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother. In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, this is called Mother's Visit Cannon: 3000 Leagues of Misery.
==History==
At some point, Carmel consumed the fruit and used it to deceive the giants of Elbaf. When she died, her powers were somehow transferred to Charlotte Linlin, who used its powers for sixty-three years to create her dream country.
==Trivia==
*This fruit's power greatly 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, Napoleon, and Hera are considered special homies.
***The special homies (with the exception of Hera) share the same Japanese voice actor.
**The strength of a homie and zombie created are both determined by the strength of the victim in which the essence is extracted from. Both Moria and Linlin believed that Monkey D. Luffy's shadow and soul would make powerful soldiers for them.
**The user's of the respective fruits can empower themselves and others by placing their respective substance inside 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 dies, 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).
*The Soru Soru no Mi is similar to Kuma's Nikyu Nikyu no Mi and Bonney's Toshi Toshi no Mi, being able to extract and sublimate intangible aspects of a living target, making them tangible (Big Mom with souls, Kuma with pain/fatigue and memories, and Bonney with age).
*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.
==References==
==External links==
*Soul – Wikipedia article on the concept of a soul.
*Life Expectancy – Wikipedia article about life spans.
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