Pollock Island, Hallsta City
In the master bedroom on the second floor of a white villa.
A Spatial Gate opened. Sephiroth, wearing a black robe and a mask with a cunning smile, stepped out with a small wooden box in his arms.
After throwing the black robe and mask into his Butcher's Space, Sephiroth sat on the bed, opened the small wooden box, and took out the Ope Ope no Mi.
For a long time, Sephiroth, through the Umbrella Corporation's intelligence network, had been secretly following Vergo's movements and the location of the Ope Ope no Mi transaction, just like in the original story. After gathering information from various sources, he successfully determined the time and place of the transaction.
This allowed him to easily obtain this Devil Fruit. The greatest value of this fruit was the Immortality Operation, which granted eternal life to a person at the cost of the user's life.
Sephiroth was curious whether this Immortality Operation was the same as unlimited life force. If this hypothesis was correct, then if he underwent the Immortality Operation, his Doa Doa no Mi ability's limitations on using the Spatial Gate would be greatly reduced in the future!
Sephiroth had two limitations for using Spatial Movement over a very long distance.
The first limitation was the range of his perception, which he had already solved with bat localization. Now he could sense a blood bat that had sucked a large amount of his blood, even if he was half a planet away.
The second limitation was his life force reserves. The farther he moved, the more life force he consumed. If he were to move space halfway across the planet, his life force wouldn't last long.
Because of this limitation, Sephiroth often had to replenish his own life force. Therefore, he wanted to try the Immortality Operation to see if it could make up for this shortcoming.
Sephiroth had a bold idea: what if the caster of the Immortality Operation wasn't a human, but a robot? Would the robot still die after performing the operation?
Of course, this was just an initial idea, and there were still many problems he needed to solve before he could implement it.
Sephiroth looked at the Ope Ope no Mi for a moment, then he stored it in his Inventory Space, opened the room door, and went down to the first floor of the villa.
Where does this gust of wind come from?
Though I ask, the sky never answers;
This song, where will it end?
I want to find the answer myself.
In the living room, with a microphone in her hand, Uta sang with deep emotion. Perona, Kuina, and Iska sat side by side on the sofa, listening intently.
After this period of adjustment, Uta, comforted by Perona and the others, gradually emerged from her trauma and adjusted her mentality. With her own music, she had conquered the three girls and become the idol of this small family.
In order not to let Uta's talent be buried, Sephiroth specifically hired famous musicians from other places and paid a high salary to teach her. However, to prevent the Uta Uta no Mi Devil Fruit from running amok again, Sephiroth regularly performed conscious hypnosis and read her memories, always monitoring her mental state.
After all, Uta had a poor grasp of her own abilities. She often unconsciously pulled people who listened to her sing into a dream world. Sephiroth had to remain vigilant.
While he was busy in the kitchen for over an hour making dinner, the four girls were already asleep, holding on to each other. He could only shake his head.
"Wake up... It's time to eat!"
Sephiroth went to the sofa and gently nudged the four girls, waking them from their dreams.
"Oh! Food! Food!"
After hearing that, Perona suddenly became energetic. She cheered, floated up, and quickly flew into the dining room.
Kuina stood up, stretched her waist, and said with a hint of emotion, "Uh-huh~! It feels like after listening to Uta sing and taking a nap, the fatigue from training is much less."
"Yeah! The quality of sleep is so good..." Iska echoed.
"It makes me feel like I can only sing lullabies..." Uta pouted, complaining with a little dissatisfaction.
Wano Country, Onigashima Island
A blood bat was quietly hanging under the roof of a warehouse used to pile up debris.
Yamato, whose clothes were stained with blood and whose nose was bruised, was in a relaxed position, lying on her back on the floor with her eyes half-open. Her head was a little dizzy.
The reason she was in such a mess was that she had just gone to challenge Kaido again!
Recently, she had learned Rokushiki's Soru and Geppo under Sephiroth's guidance. Although Yamato didn't know the names of the two techniques, she felt her strength had greatly increased after mastering them.
However, Kaido's club was extremely lethal! As expected, Yamato was beaten again and again! Because of this, she could now only temporarily hide in the warehouse loft and lick her wounds.
Uh-huh!
A Spatial Gate opened, and Sephiroth walked out with a large dinner plate in his left hand, piled high with lobster, grilled fish, and duck in sauce.
The alluring aroma of the food wafted to Yamato's nose, making her conscious from her drowsiness. She immediately sat up.
"Gulp!"
"So delicious!"
Yamato stared intently at the dinner plate in Sephiroth's hand, her eyes sparkling, and drool dripping from the corner of her mouth.
"Delicious!... Delicious!"
With her left hand, she picked up a grilled fish and put it in her mouth, making her cheeks puff out. Meanwhile, her right hand grabbed a lobster, ready to put it in her mouth too.
"You went to find Kaido again!"
Sephiroth said, then pulled out a life-enhancing potion from the Spatial Gate on his butcher knife and injected it into the girl's right arm, helping her recover quickly from her wounds.
"Only by defeating Kaido can I be free and let Wano Country be established, so I can repay the samurai's kindness to me..."
"If you're free, what do you want to do?" Sephiroth probed.
"Of course, go on an adventure at sea and see the wider world," Yamato replied confidently.
Since drinking with Yamato at the Fire Festival and chatting all night, Sephiroth felt that this child still had hope of mending her personality. She was naturally rebellious toward Kaido, but she was also a great filial child who always thought of a way to repay her father's kindness.
So, throughout the year, Sephiroth, in addition to occasionally giving her food, also chatted with her, subtly changing her perception of certain things and reshaping her views.
Perhaps even Yamato herself didn't realize that she had previously only worshipped Kozuki Oden and wanted to help Wano Country be established. But unconsciously, she also wanted to repay the three samurai who had once eaten with her at that time and help Wano Country find its independence.
After a while, Sephiroth saw that Yamato had finished her food. He immediately opened a Spatial Gate and took out healing items such as medicine, bandages, and plasters.
Seeing this, Yamato pushed aside her blood-stained kimono, leaving only her loincloth. Meanwhile, Sephiroth calmly squeezed the plaster and applied it to the girl's wounds. They had known each other for a year, and this routine had been repeated so many times that it had become a normal thing for them.
"Heh heh! With you helping me heal my wounds, I'll be able to challenge Kaido again soon!" Yamato laughed.
Hearing that, Sephiroth immediately raised his right hand and flicked the girl's forehead with his index finger. He said angrily:
"Go easy on yourself! Otherwise... one day, I'll only be able to collect the scraps of your body!"
"Oh~!"
Yamato still smiled nonchalantly, looking indifferent, and clearly didn't listen to him at all.
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