September 5, 1501, Age of the Sea Circle
The enraged giant swung her sword with violent force, causing the air around her to twist and churn, unleashing an unexpected gust of wind. Orion, the target of Lily's attack, focused his Observation Haki, determined the path of the strike, and dodged it using Soru.
"Despite being so big, her speed is impressive," murmured Orion, carefully analyzing Lily.
This was the first time he had ever seen the mythical giant race, and he had to admit he was completely satisfied with the power Lily had displayed. She was not using Haki or any sophisticated techniques, but simply relying on her immense size and monstrous strength to deliver the most straightforward, direct, and brutal attack possible.
There was no denying that giants were a race with an innate talent for combat, and this was especially true of the giants of Elbaf, who, due to their cultural traditions, learned the art of fighting from a very young age.
"Stop right there! Why are you so slippery?!" shouted Lily in frustration, after Orion had dodged several of her continuous attacks without much difficulty.
Even though the range of each of her strikes was vast, Orion was able to use his Observation Haki to find the blind spots her sword could not reach, and by using Soru to move at incredible speed, he managed to avoid Lily's unrelenting onslaught.
The giant began to pant, a little exhausted after attacking for several minutes without landing a single blow, and she decided to change her strategy. Discarding her sword, Lily lunged at Orion with her bare hands, ready to catch him like a tiny insect, just as Orion had done to her when she had been trapped in her miniature state moments earlier.
However, Orion would never make the mistake of letting himself be caught by the girl, especially now that she was completely enraged. After all, while Orion had great confidence in his power and endurance, he doubted he could withstand the crushing grip of the giant if she decided to squeeze him to death.
Even so, Orion had no intention of fighting Lily seriously, and he hadn't even drawn his sword. This was because he had used his Prism Eyes on her and confirmed that she was at a positive morality level, which meant she was not an "evil" person.
The fact that she was attacking him now was the result of a series of events that, in part, had nothing to do with Orion. Lily had already been nervous and unsettled after being reduced from a giant to a miniature version of herself, and Orion's actions—capturing her and inspecting her out of curiosity—had simply been the final straw.
Right now, she was not in the best mental state, and Orion had no intention of punishing her for the violent behavior that had sprung from her unsettled emotions.
"Orion, do you need help?" shouted Lucky Roux from a distance, his stance utterly carefree.
Meanwhile, Hototogisu and Gab were already prepared to enter combat. Hototogisu had assembled her spear, which she usually carried disassembled for easier transport. This spear was a special design Orion had purchased from the System's kingdom shop, and he had had to recruit specialized artisan blacksmiths to forge it.
Gab, on the other hand, was concentrating his Shamanic power in his throat, and if Orion gave the order, he would not hesitate to unleash a devastating attack against the young giant.
"No, there's no need. Just stay back and make sure you don't get hurt," Orion replied from a distance, waving his hand to signal that they didn't need to do anything.
If it were a fight to the death, Orion wouldn't have hesitated to call for his subordinates' help, but in this case it wasn't necessary.
He continued dodging Lily's attacks, and even though she had changed her fighting style, she still couldn't lay a finger on him. After a few minutes, Orion was satisfied with the information he had gathered from the brief exchange with the giant, and he prepared to move on to the offensive.
Until now, Orion had been on the defensive, but he couldn't stay like that forever. After all, he had already spent quite some time detouring to search for the energy source, and Shanks was surely waiting impatiently for him.
Although Orion had a somewhat peculiar relationship with the red-haired pirate, he respected him and didn't want to break his word after promising he would come to see him and help with whatever it was that he needed.
Breathing heavily, Lily watched as Orion began bouncing lightly on the spot, looking rather adorable—at least from her giant's perspective. Yet in the blink of an eye, Orion vanished after a single leap, leaving no trace, only to reappear behind Lily's head.
Channeling his Armament Haki into his fist, Orion launched a direct strike at the giant's temple. To her, it felt as though she had been struck by a hammer, and she staggered back two steps, nearly toppling to the ground.
"Her endurance is unbelievable. An all-out strike to a weak point barely caused any damage," said Orion, gazing at Lily with admiration.
"That hurt!" Lily said indignantly, as if she hadn't realized that only moments earlier she had unleashed far more violent attacks that, if they had connected, could very well have killed Orion.
"And this will hurt more!" Orion replied with a playful smile, using Geppo to propel himself into the sky before launching three Tempest Kicks straight at Lily's face.
The giantess saw the waves of energy closing in and instinctively shut her eyes, covering her face with both hands and bracing for the impact. Yet, before the Tempest Kicks could reach her, her body suddenly trembled violently and began shrinking at incredible speed, until once again she was reduced to the size of a small doll.
Not feeling the expected impact on her face, Lily timidly opened her eyes, only to find that everything around her had once again become enormous. No—it wasn't the world that had grown bigger, it was her who had shrunk back to a tiny size!
Perhaps because she was a giantess, she was having a harder time than an ordinary person would in controlling the new powers of her Devil Fruit.
Seeing that she had shrunk again, Orion decided to act decisively to prevent further trouble. Using Soru, he appeared in front of Lily and grabbed her once more in his hand as if she were a toy. Then, before she could start resisting again, Orion pulled out a syringe and injected her without a word.
Lily felt sleep washing over her, her eyelids closing against her will. Unable to resist, she fell into a deep slumber, bringing her confrontation with Orion to an end.
"Orion, are you kidnapping people again? Didn't you say you wouldn't do that anymore?" Hototogisu said bluntly.
Orion felt as though an arrow had pierced his chest, and with indignation he tried to defend himself.
"I'm not kidnapping her! I just gave her a sedative because she was too agitated. When she wakes up, we'll be able to talk more calmly," Orion explained.
"But you're taking her with you, aren't you? Isn't that a kidnapping? You're being a kidnapper," Hototogisu replied, her expression unchanged, her logic irrefutable.
Then, before Orion could say anything, she added,
"Besides, why are you drugging a woman to kidnap her? That's what villains do. Are you going to become a villain? I'll tell Giolla."
Hearing Hototogisu's accusations, Orion didn't know how to feel, but he had no choice but to concede defeat in the argument, admitting that he had relapsed into his habit of kidnapping, since he had no desire to prolong the conversation any further.
When he admitted his defeat, Hototogisu gave a slight nod, then declared with absolute firmness,
"It doesn't matter if you're a kidnapper, Orion, I'll love you all the same, so you should fuc—"
Orion quickly covered the girl's mouth before she could finish her words, and when he turned around he found the other two boys watching. Gab was trying to stifle his laughter, while Lucky Roux was openly roaring with laughter at the exchange between Orion and Hototogisu.
"What's so funny? If you have time to laugh, maybe you need some extra training so you're not so idle!" Orion said angrily, and both boys instantly assumed serious, solemn expressions that were anything but natural for them.
Seeing the constipated look on their faces, Orion shook his head with a smile and said,
"Alright, you don't need to fake that much seriousness! Surely you're not that afraid of a little training."
Even so, the two boys kept the same constipated expression, refusing to fall into Orion's trap. For Orion, the amount of training he could assign as punishment wasn't much, but that was only because he was addicted to training. For someone normal like Gab, or someone lazy like Lucky Roux, the extra training Orion imposed was nothing short of torture.
Suddenly, Orion felt a damp sensation in the palm of his hand, and when he turned he saw Hototogisu staring at him intently, running her tongue in circles over the palm that was still covering her mouth.
He immediately pulled his hand away and tried to calm the bubbling emotions rising inside him. Now that he was far from home, he had no one to help him deal with the needs brought on by his heightened libido, so it was best not to get into ambiguous situations with Hototogisu, or it would be difficult to avoid an accident.
With a small sigh, Orion looked at his three eccentric companions, then down at the giantess who was still in her miniature form resting in his hand, and said,
"Come on, let's go back to the sea, we need to continue our journey."
As for Lily Enstomach, Orion intended to take her with him on his voyage, hoping to convince her to join his kingdom. If she refused, they could always part ways later. After all, Lily was completely alone here, with no one waiting for her. What difference would it make if she stayed on the island or traveled with them?
Or at least that was what Orion thought, unaware that he truly was relapsing into his obsession with kidnapping people.
…
September 10, 1501, Age of the Sea Circle
"Hey, Orion, I'm hungry, give me more food!" said Lily, who, despite her tiny size, devoured a completely ridiculous amount of food. By comparison, the glutton Lucky Roux, who always had something to eat in his hand, looked like an ascetic.
"Again? You just ate an entire Sea Beast!" Orion said, somewhat worried about the girl's voracious appetite.
They had been traveling together for five days, and during this time, Orion had realized that recruiting Lily would probably cost him more than whatever advantages he could gain.
Even though she had remained continuously in her miniature state for the past several days, she still consumed an amount of food that was enormous even for a normal giant. On the first day alone, she had nearly emptied the food reserves in Orion's inventory, leaving him with no choice but to hunt giant Sea Beasts to feed her.
After Lily awoke from the day-long coma induced by the sedative Orion had given her, she had become much calmer, as though, for some strange reason, sleeping had completely soothed her.
In the following days, Orion had interacted with her quite a lot, discovering a few things about the cheerful giantess.
To begin with, she was originally from Elbaf, as she had loudly declared during their battle days before. She had run away from home to travel through the Grand Line, not because she dreamed of a pirate's adventure like so many others who set sail, but simply because she didn't want to be a burden on her father.
Apparently, Lily had been a glutton ever since she was little, but as she grew, her appetite became a real problem for her father, who, with no other choice, had gone out to sea as a pirate to steal large amounts of food just to feed his daughter.
Even Lily, with her bright and carefree personality, hadn't been able to avoid feeling weighed down by the pressure her very existence put on her father, so one day she had simply decided to run away from home and find her own food.
That was how her journey had begun, and she had traveled from Elbaf in the New World all the way to this part of Paradise, where she encountered Orion.
According to her story, she had been eating everything she could find on the island when she came across some small grapes—though in truth, they were the paired fruits resembling melons that Orion had seen—and had started eating them eagerly.
She had not suspected, however, that she would unknowingly eat a Devil Fruit, which caused her body to shrink in size uncontrollably. Luckily for her, she hadn't also consumed the other Devil Fruit in that unusual pair of twin fruits, because otherwise she would have died, like anyone else who ate more than one Devil Fruit.
After spending a few days with Orion, Lily had grown fond of him—mainly because he gave her huge amounts of food—and for the first time in a long while, she had made a friend.
Still, she knew she also represented a burden to Orion, just as she had to her father, so she planned to leave without saying goodbye the first chance she got. As soon as she found an inhabited island, she intended to abandon Orion, not wanting to keep troubling him with her presence.
Or at least, that had been her plan, but what would happen today would change things drastically.
"Sorry, Orion, I know I'm a nuisance to you, but I can't control my appetite. I'm starving," Lily said, her head down, answering Orion's earlier question.
Seeing her like that, Orion couldn't bring himself to scold her about her appetite anymore, as he didn't want to hurt her feelings further. Over the past few days, he had grown quite fond of this lively girl who ate mountains of food and couldn't control her powers, remaining constantly in her miniature form.
"Don't worry, Lily, it's no problem for me to hunt a couple of Sea Beasts for you," Orion said with a kind smile, placing his index finger gently on the tiny giantess's head and affectionately stroking her green hair.
It had to be said that in her miniature state, Lily was rather adorable, like a little doll.
After comforting Lily, Orion took off his shirt, revealing his defined muscles, and prepared to dive into the perilous waters of the Grand Line to get food for the tiny giantess. However, before he could do so, a bell rang in his mind, and new notifications appeared on his system screen.
*Ding*
*The source of power has been successfully absorbed*
*The remaining power has been transformed into system points. 246 SP obtained*
*Your ability "Un Fleur (incomplete)" has been improved*
*You have acquired the special ability "Gigantification (incomplete)"*
Orion read the notifications carefully with great joy, then closed his eyes, feeling a vast surge of energy coursing through his body. Almost immediately, the size of his Pocket Dimension nearly doubled, although the system had issued no notification about an upgrade to his "Space Door" ability.
Moreover, though Orion didn't realize it, the range of his Canvas Realm had also increased slightly after absorbing the Maxi Maxi no Mi.
After a few moments, Orion opened his eyes again and immediately tested the enhanced strength of his special ability, "Un Fleur."
With complete concentration, he managed to materialize an entire arm—an amount considerably greater than his previous limit, which had only allowed him to produce something the size of a finger.
Although the number of appendages he could summon still seemed limited to one, Orion was quite satisfied, since he knew he would surely find a way to use his improved "Un Fleur" more flexibly in the future, even if he would probably need some practice first.
Finally, Orion examined the new ability he had obtained: Gigantification (incomplete).
This ability allowed him to increase his own size until he reached that of a giant, and it also let him enlarge inanimate objects. However, it could not be used to increase the size of other people.
Even so, Orion was tremendously pleased with this ability, which would undoubtedly help him accomplish great things. Perhaps now he could fulfill the dream of so many men of culture: to go to Elbaf and win over the beautiful giant warrior women who lived there!
In any case, after receiving these new benefits, Orion couldn't help but think that the wait had been worth it. This time, the absorption of the power source had taken much longer than before, and Orion guessed it might be because, technically, he had only absorbed half of the original energy source, since the other half had been consumed by Lily.
These strange twin fruits contained opposing powers, and while Lily had gained the ability to shrink herself, Orion had obtained the opposite ability.
Looking at the hungry giantess, now in her miniature form and waiting for him to hunt a Sea Beast to sate her appetite, Orion smiled and decided to put his powers to the test.
With a mere thought, he pulled a cake out of his inventory and then activated his new ability. Immediately, the cake began to grow at tremendous speed, until it became too large to fit on the ship, forcing Orion to stop its growth even though it hadn't yet reached the maximum possible size.
Meanwhile, Lily Enstomach stared at the gigantic cake that had appeared in front of her, her tiny mouth forming a perfect "o" of surprise.
"Lily, don't you want to eat this cake?" Orion asked, watching her astonished expression with great interest.
Orion's words were like a call back to reality for the tiny giantess, who wasted not another instant before diving onto the enormous cake and devouring it at an incredible pace.
It seemed that perhaps feeding the gluttonous giantess in the future might not be so difficult after all.