After the heavy rain, the sky was now spotless, as if it had just been thoroughly cleaned. The sun shone brightly, casting its rays across all of Water Seven, and the air felt fresh, sweet, leaving traces of rainbows in various corners.
In one corner of Water Seven's Commercial Street, Sephiroth stood before a gun shop window, his eyes tracing the rows of knives, rifles, swords, shields, and armor with keen interest. After a moment, he pushed open the glass door and stepped into the dazzling weapon shop.
Behind the counter, a middle-aged man with a distinctive curly mustache, wearing a white shirt, black vest, and red bow tie, greeted him with a smile. "Welcome!" he said cordially, "What would you like to buy, customer?"
"I want to buy a good sword, a famous one, if possible," Sephiroth replied.
Hearing that, the curly-mustached man observed Sephiroth from head to toe, then said with slight hesitation, "A famous sword? I have two 'Quick Swords' in my collection, but each costs over one million Berry..."
Sephiroth nodded slightly, not too surprised by the high price. "One million Berry, I can barely afford it. Show me the quality of the sword first." Honestly, a million Berry for a sword wasn't expensive in this city. In this very gun shop, there were several complete sets of equipment ranging from two to five million Berry. For most people, the value of armor was higher than weapons, as it could withstand sword slashes and bullet impacts. It was no wonder armor typically cost much more.
To buy a good sword, Sephiroth had already searched his house and found 2.6 million Berry in cash in his father Karl D. Parl's bedroom. As for his father's bank savings of over 150 million Berry in the passbook, that was another story. His father, Karl D. Parl, though listed as a sea casualty, his body hadn't been found. According to Water Seven law, to declare him dead and inherit the legacy, Sephiroth had to wait at least another year.
The curly-mustached man didn't delay. He walked to the nearest shelf, took two sheathed sabers, and placed them on the table. Sephiroth picked up one, and with a 'clang', he drew the saber. On the straight blade, strange purple patterns spread, making people feel an inexplicable chill from the depths of their hearts.
"This quick sword is called 'Ghost Slayer'. Its blade is 84 centimeters long, 1.7 centimeters wide, its edge about 0.8 millimeters thick, the handle is 23 centimeters long and 2.2 centimeters wide. Its price is one million Berry..." As he spoke, the curly-mustached man's tone hesitated for a moment, then he continued, "However, I must also remind you, young man, this sword is a cursed blade. Its three previous masters all died tragically..."
Swish!
In the astonished eyes of the curly-mustached man, Sephiroth, expressionless and silent, swiftly and incomparably, sheathed the sword in his hand, tossed it onto the table, and immediately picked up the other sheathed sword.
The curly-mustached man: "..."
Clang!
Sephiroth casually drew the second saber. The straight, fiery red blade was like a burning autumn leaf, and slightly heavier than the previous one.
"This quick sword is called 'Autumn Leaf'. Its blade is 96 centimeters long, 1.8 centimeters wide, its edge about 0.7 millimeters thick, the handle is 25 centimeters long and 2.3 centimeters wide. Its price is one million five hundred thousand Berry..."
Sephiroth swung the fiery red sword a few times, feeling its balance, then asked hesitantly, "This one isn't a cursed sword either, is it?"
Hearing this, the curly-mustached man quickly shook his head and explained, "No, this sword is of excellent quality and its sharpness is almost on par with the Fifty Best Quality Swords."
Sephiroth thought for a moment, then reached out his left hand to take a pencil from the table, holding it in front of him. With his right hand holding the Autumn Leaf Sword, he swung it towards the pencil. He felt almost no resistance, and this fiery red sword instantly split the pencil in his hand into two with perfect precision.
Not bad! he thought. Far stronger than the training saber he used before, which even struggled to cut wooden posts.
Sephiroth came to this gun shop because his old sword was no longer suitable. Plus, the Marine Lieutenant at the base had already called and said that his identity check was fine, and in three days, he would go to Marine G3 Branch for recruitment training. Therefore, he didn't need to save too much, as the Marines would provide food and lodging in the future.
"Alright! I'll take this sword." Sephiroth opened the inside of his blue jacket, pulled out two stacks of ten thousand Berry banknotes, counted one and a half stacks, and handed them to the shop owner.
"Hehehe! Young man, you're straightforward!, By the way, I have other excellent weapons here, including high-powered firearms. As the saying goes, ten years of martial arts are not as good as one bullet, I wonder if you're interested?" The curly-mustached man quickly counted the money with both hands while smiling, his eyes glancing at the remaining five hundred thousand Berry in Sephiroth's hand.
"I've just received a new type of revolver called 'Python'. At close range, even an elephant can be killed with one shot, and it only costs one hundred and fifty thousand Berry. If you buy it now, I'll also give you sixty rounds of ammunition..."
"Huh, no thanks..." Sephiroth shook his head, refusing the shop owner's offer, with no intention of buying firearms. He had already confiscated a pile of firearms on the slave ship, and now those weapons were just collecting dust at home. Although firearms were very helpful to him now, over-reliance on them was not good for him. It could make him feel complacent and neglect his physical fitness training.
The top experts in this world basically had very strong Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) protecting them. For example, in normal circumstances, as long as Big Mom Charlotte Linlin wasn't having a mental breakdown, she could be shot and riddled with bullets without being harmed in the slightest. As for Kaido the Monster, even less could be said. He routinely sought death, jumping from ten thousand meters high and still being fine, at most just a little dizzy...
As Sephiroth was absorbed in his thoughts, he had unconsciously arrived at the market area. He thought that it was almost midday and time to buy groceries to cook. He took the opportunity to buy some foodstuffs, preparing to return and cook.
Passing a lamb butcher shop, he stopped and walked in. He passed the glass counter in front displaying dried goods like cured lamb and lamb blood sausage, then walked to the back, to a corner with several iron cages. Sephiroth pointed his right index finger at an iron cage, which contained three white sheep. He turned and asked the blonde young man standing in front of the butchering table, who was drawing a cleaver and carving up a whole lamb, "Excuse me, how much is a live lamb?"
"If you buy by the head, it's 500 Berry per jin..." The young man glanced back, then shouted, "Lilith, a customer wants to buy a lamb! I'm busy now, come out and help me."
"Understood, brother!" A melodious voice replied. A graceful blonde girl pushed open the back door of the shop and entered. Although there were a few spots on her cheeks, it still couldn't hide her youthful and beautiful appearance. Overall, she was a very beautiful woman.
Lilith opened the iron cage, tied a white lamb with a rope, and brought it to the large iron scale. The blonde girl added weights to the scale bar while asking, "Customer, would you like us to slaughter your lamb?"
"No, I just want it alive," Sephiroth shook his head, declining the other party's suggestion. In fact, he was buying a live lamb only to extract life force from it to replenish his life reserve consumed during his latest training.
During this time, through his development and research of his Devil Fruit, his reserve lifespan had increased from three hundred years to five hundred years. He was also pleasantly surprised to learn that the range of his life force extraction wasn't limited to humans. As long as the creature had blood, he could extract life force. Fish, chickens, dogs, and other animals were all possible, but the amount that could be extracted was much less than from humans. Additionally, he also found that compared to normal eating for energy, using blood absorption to satisfy hunger was actually more efficient. This was a good thing for Sephiroth, at least he wasn't limited to only extracting life force from humans.
In the original story, the Celestial Dragons had a strong obsession with eternal life! For this, they even extensively used CP0 to search for vague legends circulating hundreds of years ago, which claimed that obtaining "Pure Gold" could grant eternal life... God knows, if Sephiroth's Vampire Fruit ability, which could gain eternal life and youth by extracting others' life force, were discovered by the World Government, would he be captured by CP0 and thrown to Vegapunk for various research! The thought was so vivid, he couldn't even imagine it! Therefore, he had to be careful and discreetly hide his true abilities.
Sephiroth's decision to join the Marines also took this into consideration. The Marine talent development system was the most promising path to becoming stronger that he could access now! He estimated that when his strength reached the Shichibukai level, the World Government wouldn't be able to do anything to him. After all, the Ope Ope no Mi had always been something the Celestial Dragons dreamed of, but Trafalgar Law, the Ope Ope no Mi user, after his strength reached a certain level and he openly joined the Shichibukai, the World Government didn't immediately capture him for research, which was a good example.
In other words, as long as Sephiroth's speed of becoming stronger was fast enough, strong enough that others dared not provoke him, then problems would simply vanish!
Lilith saw the scale's balance reach equilibrium, then said with a smile, "Exactly one hundred jin, total fifty thousand Berry!"
"Okay!" Sephiroth nodded, then pulled a small stack of money from inside his jacket, counted five ten-thousand Berry notes, and handed them to the blonde girl.
Bang bang...!
Several continuous gunshots suddenly shattered the peaceful atmosphere on the street, and citizens panicked.
"Pirates are here!"
"Run!"