As Hina imagined Arton using both hands to make Ain's chest even fuller, she couldn't help lowering her head to look at her own breasts.
There had been a time when she'd been pretty confident in her figure.
But after seeing the state of Ain's body now, Hina suddenly felt a little deflated.
Even if bigger wasn't always better, Hina still wanted to have a chest that didn't lose out to other beautiful girls.
"Ain's already become this outrageous."
"Now what kind of body she'll have in the future…"
"Yeah... whether it's her figure or her strength, Ain's going to become something incredible."
Hina murmured softly to herself.
Ain was willing to offer herself to Arton this decisively for Zephyr's sake.
There probably wasn't any obstacle that could stop someone like that.
Hina didn't know whether Ain had already truly climbed onto Arton's ship in every sense of the word, but she knew that even if she hadn't yet, she definitely would in the future.
"...What the hell is wrong with Hina?"
"Have Hina really been locked up so long that her thoughts have started running wild?"
Hina lifted her cuffed hands and knocked herself lightly on the forehead, trying to drive those thoughts out of her head.
But the more she tried to stop, the less she could.
She had even started wondering whether, after getting Ultear's template, Ain's chest would grow even fuller the way Kaya's did after getting Tsunade's template.
"If Hina wants to know whether that'll happen, then Hina first need to see whether Ultear herself has an incredible body."
Hina muttered that under her breath.
And after saying it, she could only sigh again over the fact that she still hadn't stopped herself from spiraling.
"Chest first, body second...?"
Ain had kept her diary copy open the whole time, so she naturally saw what Arton had written.
Staring at those bold, glaring words, Ain blushed hard, but still tightened her arms around him even more.
As if doing that would let Arton feel her more clearly.
In the end, it was Nami and Carina who couldn't take it anymore and finally spoke up to stop her.
"Ain, if you keep this up, Captain won't even be able to hand the template over to you," Nami said.
"Exactly. Don't you want to get your template already? Let go of Captain first so he can properly explain Ultear's template to you—and to the rest of us."
Carina stood there with both arms folded under her chest as she spoke.
And she wasn't lying.
Sure, Carina was a little jealous of Ain hugging Arton, and yes, part of her wished she were the one in Ain's place.
But that didn't mean she didn't care about Ultear's template too.
Even if it wasn't going to be hers, understanding the powers a future crewmate would wield was still important.
After all, they were all on the same ship, and they'd be fighting together in the future.
The more they understood each other's abilities, the better it would be for future battles.
"I... I understand."
After hearing Nami and Carina, Ain finally let go of Arton, though not without obvious reluctance.
Still, her eyes never left his.
That gaze of hers was so openly full of hope that Arton could feel it with just a glance.
"Ahem. All right, all right, you don't have to keep worrying, Ain."
Arton smiled helplessly.
"If I said this template can go to you, then I'm not lying. I'll hand it over to you in a bit. For now, let's first let you, and everyone else, get a proper look at this template's power."
"For you, seeing the template in action will help you understand how to use it and what direction to take when you start training with it."
"And for everyone else, it'll let them understand what kind of abilities your template will have in the future, which will help lay the foundation for working together later."
Arton looked around at everyone present as he said it.
Chapter 664: Ultear's Ice Control Is Stunning
"I understand, Captain."
"Please, show us."
Ain nodded hard, her voice full of anticipation.
Nami and Carina also turned their eyes toward Arton's face, waiting eagerly for him to display the power of this brand-new template.
Arton had no intention of keeping everyone waiting for too long.
He simply raised a hand and snapped his fingers. In the next instant, everyone in the Flameblade Pirates was brought, through Arton's system authority, into a special demonstration space.
Then, just like that, an extremely gorgeous black-haired woman with long, straight hair appeared before them.
"She's so beautiful."
Ain lifted both hands to her mouth and sighed in amazement.
"She feels like a very confident woman, and that body... isn't it a little too ridiculous?"
Nami let out a breathy sigh, then glanced over at Kaya beside her.
She honestly felt that Ultear's figure was on the same level as Tsunade's—at least when it came to her chest.
And because Ultear was wearing tight pants, her beautifully shaped ass was on full display too, drawing another round of awe from the women present.
Even as women themselves, Nami and the others could not help being impressed by Ultear's body.
Looking her over from every angle, the only thing they could say wasn't a standout feature was her height.
But even then, she was still at least as tall as an average woman.
At the very least, Nami didn't think she was any taller than Ultear.
Girls as tall as Boa Hancock were rare, after all.
If Ultear had also been as tall as Hancock, Nami felt she might have started getting jealous for real.
Whitey Bay: "Ain's right. Ultear really is gorgeous, and that figure is incredible."
Hina: "With a body like that, if Ain gets this template, her figure should improve too, right?"
Kujaku: "She's a woman with such a confident smile. Honestly, this template feels like it would suit me pretty well too. Too bad I have no way of getting a template from Arton right now."
Kozuki Hiyori: "To get a template from Arton, you first have to find him. But with my current situation, I have no way to go out to sea."
Yamato: "And even if you do go out to sea, there's no telling when you'd finally find Arton."
Stussy: "With how tightly Arton's crew guards him, finding him really is way too hard."
"First, let's show the ice ability."
Arton raised his hand and snapped his fingers again. Immediately, the Ultear before them extended both hands.
One hand opened into a palm, the other clenched into a fist, and the two struck together.
In the very next second, mist rose around Ultear's body.
"Ice-Make Magic: Rosen Krone."
Ultear murmured the words softly, then slammed both hands downward.
At once, an enormous field of ice spread out and swallowed her figure from view.
And it did not stop there.
That frozen domain kept expanding outward without pause.
Ain blinked. In what felt like an instant, she found herself standing in a rose garden made entirely of ice.
"So beautiful."
As she stared at the roses and twisting rose vines sculpted from ice, the words slipped out of her mouth on their own.
"Yeah... it really is beautiful."
"I never imagined ice powers could be used like this."
"What absurdly fine control."
Tashigi's eyes lit up as she spoke.
For no particular reason, she found herself envying the Ultear template Ain was about to receive.
There was no helping it—most girls wanted to be beautiful.
And Tashigi was no exception.
Even if she usually dressed plainly—far more plainly than Nami or Carina ever did—that didn't mean she had no desire to become a little more beautiful herself.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.