September 12, 1501, Age of the Sea Circle
Two more days went by before Orion finally reached the vicinity of Kolpi Island, where Shanks was located.
During those two days, Orion had been experimenting with his new ability, trying to determine its limits and figure out how to integrate it into his fighting style.
The most obvious use was enlarging himself until he became a giant. With this ability, Orion could increase his physical power, although not as much as he had wished.
While it was true that being in his giant form gave him greater destructive force, Orion considered the major drawback of having such a massive body—harder to defend and easier to target—meant it was not something he could rely on as a trump card.
Perhaps the difference in power between a normal giant and a normal human was truly abysmal, but when it came to the difference between a giant and one of the monsters that existed at the highest levels of strength in this world—such as renowned pirates or high-ranking marines—that gap was not nearly as vast.
Orion was destined to face that type of opponent at the very top tiers of power, and he did not believe his giant transformation would be an advantage against them. Still, Orion was pleased with his new ability, especially for the possibilities it offered him outside of combat.
In his giant state, Orion could perform many tasks that would otherwise be cumbersome. For example, he could use it for construction or altering the terrain within his kingdom. After all, there was a certain advantage in having such great size, even if many people would not care to admit it.
Yet, the greatest value this ability held for Orion, as a man of culture, was the chance to visit Elbaf with his head held high, and to have the opportunity to conquer the beautiful giant warrior women who lived there. Though for now that was a distant dream, since Orion had no immediate plans to venture to that legendary land in the New World.
After familiarizing himself with the new ability in recent days, Orion had also come to understand its limitations. He could not use this power continuously without concern, as it placed a heavy mental strain on him.
Over the last few days, he had been enlarging vast amounts of food to feed the gluttonous Lily, whose stomach seemed to be a bottomless barrel, and in doing so he had discovered something curious. If the objects he enlarged with his ability later returned to their normal size, the exhaustion Orion felt was much less.
On the other hand, if Orion increased the size of a portion of food that Lily then consumed, his fatigue multiplied several times over. Orion conjectured this was because once the food was eaten by the ravenous giantess, its structural change became permanent, which caused his power to be consumed in a different way.
For starters, Orion still did not fully understand how Devil Fruit powers worked, and consequently how his own special abilities extracted from those fruits functioned. He suspected there was some sort of invisible energy that formed within people when they consumed such fruits, and that this energy was what allowed their powers to manifest.
In Orion's theory, this energy would be something similar to Haki, limited in quantity, and something one had to learn to control.
This was the way Orion had managed to rationalize the workings of his powers, placing them into perspective with his personal experience and giving himself an explanation for the limitations he sometimes felt when using his special abilities.
In any case, what mattered was that Orion could not enlarge objects indefinitely, since doing so consumed vast amounts of energy and left him severely fatigued. Moreover, if the object remained permanently in its enlarged state, as happened when Lily devoured it, the energy cost was far greater.
Taking these rules into account, Orion had not simply let Lily eat without restraint in recent days. Instead, he had only given her enough food to satisfy her appetite—still a massive amount. Additionally, Orion had supplemented the tiny giantess's diet with sea beasts, which he continued to hunt anyway, to avoid exhausting himself too much by enlarging other foods.
One thing he had not been able to experiment with, however, was the time limit of his giant transformation. Since he was traveling on a small ship, there was no way for him to remain in giant form for extended periods, and he had only tested the ability after diving into the sea for a few minutes.
Finally, he had also discovered it was very difficult for him to use both his Age Change and Gigantification simultaneously, which left him with no choice but to return to his natural eleven-year-old body before turning into a giant.
The last few days had been rather interesting for Orion, not only because of his new ability, which he had experimented with extensively, but also because of Lily's addition to his ranks of subordinates.
That was right, the tiny giantess had finally agreed to become Orion's subordinate, and she had done so for one reason only: the sheer amount of food Orion could provide her!
Moreover, after the system had finished absorbing the Maxi Maxi no Mi, an unexpected change occurred: a connection had been established between Orion and Lily through the system, similar to the one that existed with Shyarly.
Until now, Shyarly's case had been unique, happening spontaneously, which Orion had considered simply an anomaly or a miracle. However, the appearance of another similar connection forced Orion to reconsider his initial thoughts.
Perhaps there was a special reason behind these connections, and in Lily's case, Orion suspected it was related to the "Twin" Devil Fruits.
Maybe the fact that Lily possessed powers of a very similar nature—but opposite—to the ones he had just obtained after absorbing the Maxi Maxi no Mi was the key piece of the matter.
But whatever the case, Orion could now communicate with Lily at a distance, just as he could with Shyarly, though not through video calls, but simply through thoughts, just as it had been at the beginning with the little mermaid. Furthermore, the type of messages that could be sent was quite limited, reminding him of his connection with the great Tree of Knowledge he had planted in his kingdom.
Even so, for Lily this connection was something completely incredible, as she had never felt anything like it, and she immediately thought she had found her soulmate, which explained such a magical bond. I
n her eyes, Orion seemed to have a halo of light surrounding his body. Not only did he share this strange mental connection with her, but he could also provide her with all the food she wanted! To her, this man was simply the perfect partner!
It was because of these thoughts that Lily had accepted joining Orion's kingdom, though she still planned to return to Elbaf to see her father and let him know about her plans, so he would not worry too much.
However, when Orion told Lily that for now he could not accompany her back to Elbaf because he had other matters to attend to, the tiny giantess replied that it didn't matter, and that it would be enough if they went sometime within the next twenty years. This reminded Orion of the strange way giants experienced time, given their long lifespans.
For now, Lily Enstomach had officially joined Pacific Kingdom, and Orion was planning to put her through training so she could learn to control her Devil Fruit, since it was rather dangerous for her not to. Still, it was at least an advantage that she remained continuously in her miniature form, which allowed her to travel aboard Orion's ship without any problems.
All that, however, was something to consider later, because for now Orion had other matters to attend to. He had finally arrived at the location of the red-haired pirate, and could see his position clearly on the map. After a year without seeing Shanks, it was time for their reunion.
…
September 13, 1501, Age of the Sea Circle
The ship Orion traveled on with his companions entered a river and began to advance inland. Yesterday, after Orion reached the island's vicinity, he had called Shanks, who answered by complaining that he had taken too long to arrive and that he was dying of boredom.
Of course, Shanks was only complaining casually to tease Orion, and was not truly upset about the delay. Orion did not know it, but during the time the redhead and his crew had been waiting for him, they had been having a great time. Not only did they hold banquets daily, but they also drank themselves unconscious until the following day.
During Shanks' journey through the Grand Line over the past year, the red-haired crew had found a delicate balance between work and pleasure. It was true that Shanks had certain ambitious goals for which he was willing to make his crew work to the bone, but at heart, he was a laid-back man who enjoyed life's pleasures.
For that reason, Shanks' crew could normally be found either idle, feasting, or completely drunk. But when it was time to work, they did so intensely and in bursts that did not last too long. One could say they had mastered the art of working efficiently so they could rest and enjoy their free time as much as possible.
This time, however, they had remained in this place longer than planned while waiting for Orion, meaning they would later have to work twice as hard to make up for it. Still, they were not too worried about it and had taken advantage of this rare opportunity to indulge freely in drinking and partying.
Unfortunately, the island they were on had no town; otherwise, they would also have found themselves a few prostitutes to satisfy other kinds of desires.
Finally, after sailing for a couple of hours, Orion reached a large lake situated within what seemed to be the basin of a massive inactive volcano. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but this island's geography was somewhat similar to the one where he had encountered Lily just a week earlier.
In the Grand Line, where every island seemed to be completely different from the previous one, this kind of similarity became even more noticeable.
In the distance, Orion could see Shanks' ship—or rather, his new ship, since it was different from the one he had seen a year ago in the East Blue.
"Orion, are those your friends?" asked Lucky Roux, pointing toward a distant beach.
Orion focused his Observation Haki into his eyes, activating his Prism Eyes ability, and zoomed in to observe what Roux could simply sense with his monstrous Observation Haki. There, he spotted the familiar faces of the red-haired pirate's crew, who were drinking merrily.
Most of them had not yet noticed Orion's presence, but of course Shanks was an exception, since his Observation Haki was even more monstrous than Lucky Roux's. Seeing the red-haired pirate sitting there in a cool pose, Orion felt a twinge of irritation and the urge to give him a beating, influenced by the emotions of little Orion, who still held a rivalry with Shanks over Makino's love, even though the red-haired pirate knew nothing about it.
On the other hand, Shanks simply smiled brightly and waved at Orion in the distance, knowing that he was being watched.
Orion anchored the ship and stepped onto the lake's shore, advancing with his four subordinates. After a few minutes, he finally reached Shanks, who welcomed him with a smile.
"Orion, you finally made it! I was starting to think you wouldn't keep your word!" Shanks said, patting Orion on the shoulder.
"I just had to make a quick stop along the way, I didn't take that long," Orion replied, crossing his arms.
"Haha, still as stubborn as ever. But it doesn't matter, what's important is that you're here!" said Shanks.
"By the way, how you've grown in just a year—you're a full adult now. Feels like yesterday you were just a brat wetting the bed when I held you in my arms," the pirate added, pretending to shed a theatrical tear.
"Don't talk nonsense! You never held me in your arms, and I've never wet the bed in my life!" Orion shot back, unable to control his irritation. There was something about Shanks' presence that always managed to make Orion act far more irrationally than usual.
"Hahaha, it's just a joke. Didn't Roger ever teach you not to be so serious?" said Shanks, laughing cheerfully as he kept patting Orion's shoulder.
"And why are you in your adult form? Your natural form is nicer. For some reason, seeing your adult self makes me want to punch you in the face," Shanks went on, still laughing.
"Enough! Stop with the nonsense and tell me why you called me here," Orion snapped, slapping Shanks' hand away from his shoulder.
Shanks clutched his hand with a wounded expression and, using his scarce acting talent once again, pretended to shed tears.
"You've changed, Orion. When you were a child, you weren't like this. I remember as if it were yesterday, changing your diapers…" Shanks was happily immersed in his jokes, but when he saw Orion's expression growing rather dark, he decided to stop before it turned into an unnecessary fight.
"Ahem! Well, anyway, it's good to see you, Orion. How have you been? Is this your crew?" said Shanks, choosing to drop the jokes and speak normally.
Seeing that Shanks had finally stopped clowning around, Orion let out a small sigh and looked at his four subordinates, who were listening intently to his exchange with Shanks, before answering the red-haired man's question.
"Yes, they're my nakama. We're on a little trip through the Grand Line," Orion said without offering too many details.
He didn't know how much Shanks knew about his current situation in the South Blue, or his movements in general, but he had no intention of telling him much. After all, his relationship with Shanks wasn't that close—or at least, not in that way.
Shanks nodded and, showing his great charisma, greeted the four young people accompanying Orion, unaware that two of them had originally been members of his crew in the original timeline.
After the initial greetings, Shanks finally got to the main subject, the reason why he had asked Orion to come see him on this occasion.
"Look, Orion, this is my daughter, Uta. Isn't she adorable?" Shanks said with a doting smile.
Orion didn't react right away, but when his neurons finally made the connection, his eyes widened in surprise as he said,
"Your daughter? When did you have a daughter?"
Orion's surprise was natural, since this little girl was also a Named Character who appeared on the system's map. Her name was Uta, and she was one year old. But clearly she was too big to be just one year old, so Orion suspected she was about to turn two.
If that was the case, wouldn't it mean she should have already been born when Orion met Shanks in the East Blue last year?
"Five months ago, I found her in a chest," Shanks replied simply, with a broad, carefree smile.
Orion finally understood what was happening. This baby named Uta was not Shanks' biological daughter but rather adopted, and by coincidence, he had found her in a chest just as Roger had found Shanks many years ago during the God Valley incident.
"You found her in a chest? What happened? Can you tell me?" Orion asked, curious.
"It was nothing extraordinary — we just had a fight with some other pirates. Of course we crushed them and took all their treasure, and little Uta was in one of the chests."
Shanks began to tell the story in his usual carefree tone, but when he reached that point his voice changed completely, becoming much more serious and charismatic, with a touch of tenderness.
"Considering the way Roger found me inside a chest, I felt it was fate that put her in my path. So I decided to raise her as my daughter."
Orion looked at Shanks, who looked like a proud father holding his little girl, and the irritation he normally felt when seeing him vanished almost entirely. After all, Shanks was a hard man to hate.
"Well, congratulations. She's an adorable baby," Orion said with a smile, but immediately the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
"Be careful with your actions, Orion. Even if you're like a little brother to me, if you lay a hand on Uta in the future, I'll have to castrate you," Shanks said with a murderous look.
"Fuck! Why is he acting like Hanafuda all of a sudden?! And why does everyone keep accusing me of things I don't plan to do?!" Orion thought indignantly, but seeing Shanks' murderous look, he decided it was better not to rile him further and said nothing.
"Ahem, I was just saying she's a healthy, adorable baby. I don't know what you're imagining, but don't let your imagination run wild," Orion said.
Immediately the great pressure in the surroundings — the kind that made many present have trouble breathing — vanished without a trace.
"That man scares me," Lily said, trembling slightly while sitting on Hototogisu's shoulder.
"He's an idiot; I don't like him," Hototogisu said with her classic deadpan expression.
"Ah! Shhh, don't make him angry," Lily said, totally terrified by Shanks' earlier behavior.
"Don't worry. If he tries anything, Orion will give that idiot a beating," Hototogisu replied with complete confidence in her husband.
Orion, who could clearly hear the two girls' conversation, felt his lips tremble slightly but tried to keep a solemn expression.
Meanwhile, after hearing Orion's words, Shanks had returned to normal, wearing his characteristic cheerful smile.
"In any case, Orion, this time I called because I need a favor. I need you to take care of Uta!" Shanks said, placing his hand on Orion's shoulder again.
"Take care of her? What do you mean? Aren't you her father? You want me to raise her?" Orion asked, completely confused by Shanks' words.
"No, no, no. I don't want you to raise Uta, I just want you to watch her for a while — it won't be long. About a month or so.
The guys and I have to go to a dangerous place to do some things, and it isn't safe for Uta. She's too small.
My idea is to leave her here with you, and in a month when I'm done I'll come back for her. What do you say?"
Looking at Shanks' smiling face and hearing his request, the irritation that had vanished moments ago returned, and Orion felt the urge to punch him in the face.
It seemed his trip to meet the Kuja would be delayed once again.
...
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