June 4, 1504, Age of the Sea Circle
More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and Orion continued carrying out his mission as Germa 66's cook without any problems. Now, he only had to spend one more week in this role, and he would be able to obtain the precious rewards he had been looking forward to for so long.
After he finished repairing the damage to Sora's body caused by the effects of the poison she had taken years ago, the beautiful queen's condition had stabilized completely, although it was still necessary to remove the poison that remained in her system and had fused with her blood; otherwise, she would return to her previous state within a few months.
According to the information Orion had received from his grandmother Bianca, she was just about to finish producing the necessary antidote, having been delayed a little longer than expected due to the lack of certain rare ingredients that were irreplaceable in the formula.
His grandmother had told him that the poison used by Sora was a rudimentary version of one of the most famous poisons of the royal family to which she belonged—the Vespa—and that was why she had been able to find a solution to the beautiful queen's problem so quickly.
Although Sora was undoubtedly an expert in poisons, she still was not at the level of someone like Bianca, though not because she lacked talent, but simply because she lacked practice and training.
With the help of the system, Orion had analyzed Sora's talent and confirmed that she possessed an astonishing aptitude for the creation and manipulation of poisons, one that far surpassed the talent of his grandmother Bianca—who was considered one of the most capable members of the Vespa clan.
The reason Sora had not been able to fully exploit this talent was mainly because she did not possess a theoretical foundation as robust as Bianca's, who had access to the Vespa research, which represented centuries of accumulation and experimentation.
Sora had told him that she had also inherited, through her mother, knowledge regarding the production and manipulation of poisons, and that the one she had used during her pregnancy was among the most powerful, being considered one of the clan's secret techniques.
Even so, although Orion had not investigated the nature of Sora's maternal clan in depth, it was obvious that its level was inferior to that of the Vespa, as demonstrated by the fact that his grandmother Bianca was capable of producing an antidote for Sora's current condition, whereas the beautiful golden-haired queen had been forced to resign herself to certain death.
On the other hand, Sora also possessed great talent in Observation Haki, although surprisingly her greatest ability was "Motherhood," a passive skill that increased the innate talent of all her children and could also accelerate the development of those talents, provided that she personally raised them.
The beautiful queen of Germa 66 was truly talented, but until now she had been unable to demonstrate it, since she had spent many years confined to a bed due to the poison that threatened her life. However, once Orion completely cured her and took her back with him to Pacific Kingdom, she would be able to spread her wings and soar in all her splendor.
In any case, one of the traits that had attracted Orion's attention the most when analyzing Sora's abilities and characteristics with the help of the system was that she possessed a large number of passive skills, some of which were quite "peculiar."
Perhaps the one that excited him the most was the one called "Romantic," which caused her to fall deeply in love as soon as she felt a connection with someone. This explained, at least in part, why she had been so proactive toward Orion during the past few weeks despite having known him for only a short time.
For Sora, who was a hopeless romantic and had spent her entire life dreaming of a storybook romance, her life had been tremendously disappointing, as she had ended up trapped in a political marriage with a man who could not even satisfy her sexually.
For that reason, when Orion suddenly appeared, treating her injuries and promising that he would help both her and her children, Sora had been unable to contain her long-suppressed romantic feelings, and all the frustration she had accumulated over the years transformed into an intense desire for Orion.
Because of the queen's delicate health condition, he had been avoiding the matter with great difficulty, although with each passing day the distance between them inevitably grew smaller.
…
After spending some time in Sora's mansion reading a few medical books he had obtained in the North Blue and had not previously had the opportunity to review, Orion left the place, walking through the Vinsmokes' artificial island while spreading his Observation Haki.
Since Sanji was responsible for bringing lunch to his mother every day, Orion did not need to cook for her at noon, although he still had to visit the mansion and pretend that he was cooking in order not to expose his apprentice.
It had to be said that Sanji had improved enormously during the three weeks he had spent learning cooking from Orion, and that could be clearly seen in the increasingly elaborate lunches he prepared for his beloved mother.
Likewise, Sora was incredibly happy to see her son becoming more cheerful and lively with each passing day since Orion had arrived on the island, and that only caused her affection and love for Orion to grow even further. After all, for a loving mother like Sora, there was nothing more important than her children, and Orion had earned quite a few points in her eyes by taking Sanji as his apprentice, even though he had not done so with Sora in mind.
But Sanji was not the only one whose life had improved since Orion's arrival on the island because little Reiju had benefited as well. Just as Sora had requested nearly two weeks earlier, Orion had gotten in contact with the mature girl, and after identifying the issue in question, he had begun treating her condition, something he had been gradually working on over the past several days.
Orion had thought that after finishing the repairs to Sora's body he would finally be able to rest a little without having to use his Room continuously, but he had ultimately discovered that Reiju's situation required him to keep making use of the powers of the Ope Ope no Mi, which were especially useful for this type of complex medical treatment.
Even so, fortunately, Reiju's situation was not as urgent as Sora's, which meant Orion could ration the use of his Room throughout the day and avoid exhausting himself to the point of falling asleep while cooking in Germa 66's kitchens, as had happened before while he was treating Sora.
Basically, Reiju's problem was that Judge had genetically programmed a control mechanism into her so that the girl would be unable to disobey him, something that was obviously very dangerous for Orion and Sora, who planned to leave together for Pacific Kingdom in a month's time.
Fortunately, the manifestation of this genetic manipulation was fairly easy to identify within the girl's synaptic wiring—at least for Orion, who possessed the Prism Eyes as a tool—so once he identified the abnormal synaptic connections, he began the painstaking work of eliminating them without damaging the rest of Reiju's brain in the process.
This was an extremely cumbersome procedure that required tremendous precision and could not be carried out quickly, which was why Orion had already spent ten days working on it and was only now finally entering the final stretch of the treatment.
After all, he had to manually destroy the specific synaptic connections responsible for the mind control and then isolate the neurons so they could not form new connections with one another and restore the previous state.
Judge had not performed these modifications on Reiju manually. Rather, they were information written directly into her own DNA—the product of Judge's Lineage Factor research—which meant Orion's treatment could not solve the problem at its root and was merely an intermediate solution.
Just as was the case with Mitsu's condition, Orion did not possess the necessary knowledge regarding the special physiology of these enhanced humans to completely solve the issue through his medical abilities and his Room. Therefore, Reiju's mind-control problem could only be fully resolved after he completed the system mission and obtained the necessary information from Judge and Vegapunk's research into the Lineage Factor and its applications.
In any case, even if he failed to obtain that information, the treatment he was currently performing on Reiju would still be enough to temporarily stop Judge's control over her, although he would eventually have to repeat the procedure since the root cause would remain unresolved—a situation similar to Sora's poison problem.
He was treating the symptoms efficiently, but he still needed to solve the underlying issue in order to successfully cure both mother and daughter, though he was confident that he would be able to do so.
Orion continued walking through the streets of the Vinsmokes' artificial island while observing the situation around him with his Observation Haki and thinking about the treatment of Sora and Reiju. However, just as he was about to go find Sanji for their daily cooking lessons, he suddenly stopped and frowned.
Making sure there was no one around, Orion entered the Pocket Dimension and traveled a short distance until he reached the area of the Vinsmokes' central castle, where his young apprentice was being mercilessly beaten by his three brothers.
"Oi, Sanji, why aren't you fighting back? Weren't you saying some pretty brave things a moment ago? What happened? Did your courage run out that quickly?" Yonji said as he repeatedly kicked Sanji while he lay on the ground.
"..." Sanji said nothing and simply remained sprawled on the floor, his hands positioned between his legs, leaving himself completely exposed to his brothers' attacks.
"Why do you have your hands there? Are you afraid of getting kicked in the balls?" Niji asked mockingly.
"As if he even has balls! This coward doesn't have anything worth protecting down there! Hahaha!" Ichiji added as he kicked Sanji in the head without the slightest concern about seriously injuring him.
From inside the Pocket Dimension, Orion clenched his fists so tightly that a loud cracking sound echoed out. He had been ignoring the abuse Sanji suffered at the hands of his brothers because he could not risk taking action and ruining his cover as a cook.
After all, he still had to complete the system mission, and he also needed more time to fully cure Sora and Reiju. However, now that he was witnessing his beloved apprentice's suffering directly, he could no longer stand by and do nothing.
The only reason Orion had been able to tolerate Sanji suffering from bullying over the past few weeks was that, after he arrived in the floating kingdom of Germa 66, Sanji had stopped receiving daily beatings from his brothers.
This was not because they had suddenly developed empathy and realized that beating up their brother was wrong, but simply because Sanji had been taken on as Orion's apprentice and therefore spent a large portion of his free time cooking inside the Pocket Dimension.
For that reason, the bullying Sanji received from his brothers was now limited to the times when they trained together, since during the rest of the day he would disappear without a trace, leaving the three little monsters unable to find him.
However, it was obvious that today Sanji had been unable to escape the clutches of his three brothers, who, perhaps frustrated by not having been able to beat him up over the past two weeks, had decided to follow him more diligently and prevent him from getting away.
From within the Pocket Dimension, Orion watched the beating Sanji was receiving, and he also noticed Reiju hiding nearby in a corner with a worried expression. She could not oppose her brothers, because doing so would attract the attention of her father, Judge, and for years she had silently and helplessly watched the aggressive actions of the three brothers against Sanji.
At that moment, Orion thought bitterly that he had become so concerned with the mission and everything else that he was actually considering allowing his beloved apprentice to endure his brothers' assault in silence.
He had always been a very pragmatic man, but there were certain lines he could never allow himself to cross, because otherwise his entire sense of self would collapse, and one of those lines was standing by while someone he cared about was hurt without doing anything about it.
For that reason, Orion stopped worrying about unnecessary things and, opening a door in the air, emerged from the Pocket Dimension without the three brothers noticing his presence.
Then he released a wave of Conqueror's Haki that crashed directly into the three troublesome boys, causing them to lose consciousness instantly without any chance to resist.
Even though they had been genetically modified to be physically superior to normal humans and had also been stripped of emotions such as fear and empathy, there was no way they could withstand Orion's Conqueror's Haki, as they were merely children without the spiritual resilience necessary to endure it.
The three boys collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut, and Orion approached the stunned Sanji, who did not fully understand what was happening.
"Are you alright, Sanji?" Orion asked with a gentle smile as he extended a hand to help him up.
"Master?" Sanji murmured upon seeing Orion, his eyes quickly beginning to light up.
In an instant, he understood that it had not been a miracle that stopped his brothers' attack, but rather his master who had come to his aid.
Until now, Orion had been teaching Sanji how to cook, but he had never shown him his terrifying combat power, so up to this point his young apprentice had believed that he was merely an ordinary cook—with a few strange magical abilities such as the Pocket Dimension.
However, now that he had witnessed his three powerful brothers—who constantly harassed him and whom his father Judge called the ultimate weapons—being defeated by Orion without him even needing to lift a finger, Sanji finally understood what true strength was. For the first time, he felt interest in something beyond cooking, wondering whether he too might one day become as strong as Orion.
Naturally, Sanji possessed enormous combat potential, and Orion had intended to train him from the very beginning so that he could develop that talent. However, he had been waiting until they returned to Pacific Kingdom before doing so, which was why he had never mentioned it.
"I saw how you protected your hands above everything else. I'm proud of you for taking care of your tools as a cook, but I don't want you sacrificing the rest of your body to do it. How are you supposed to cook if every bone in your body is broken?" Orion said, praising Sanji's tenacity and commitment to protecting his hands while also reproaching him for neglecting the rest of his body.
Sanji nodded after hearing his master's words and said firmly,
"I'll remember this lesson, Master. Next time, I won't let them hit me like that!"
It was as though a new flame had been ignited within Sanji, and Orion could only smile in satisfaction as he saw his determination, even though he knew that in his current state he would still be beaten senseless by his brothers even if he actively fought back.
"Very good. Then starting today, I'll begin training you in combat as well!" Orion said, placing a hand on Sanji's head and lightly ruffling his blond hair in a friendly gesture.
"Yes, Master!" Sanji said, raising both fists with determination, although his battered appearance from the beating he had received before Orion arrived completely ruined the image and made him look rather pitiful.
Orion shook his head with a smile as he planned Sanji's future training. Although he possessed a solid level of skill in hand-to-hand combat, he was not particularly proficient in the use of kicks, which was where Sanji's monstrous talent truly lay.
For that reason, Orion thought it would be best to personally teach him the fundamentals of combat, the use of Haki, and the Rokushiki, while leaving specialized kicking techniques in the hands of an expert.
Unfortunately, Orion did not currently have any experts in kick-based combat under his command, so he would have to find one. He would need to ask Stussy to gather information on famous fighters so that he could recruit one in the future, as Sanji's talent in that area was far too great to leave undeveloped.
Finally, Orion looked at the three children lying unconscious on the ground as a result of his wave of Conqueror's Haki and let out a sigh, thinking that the situation could become complicated if he did not handle it properly. Fortunately, he already had a decent plan in mind to avoid any problems, although the fact that only one week remained before the mission's completion was the most important point, since he could at least keep the situation under control until then.
"Come on, let's begin today's lessons," Orion said with a smile as he opened a Space Door for Sanji to enter the Pocket Dimension.
Then he turned toward the corner where Reiju was still hiding—who out of shame for not having intervened earlier, did not dare show her face to Orion— and using Soru, he appeared directly in front of her.
"Ah!" Reiju let out an adorable cry when she saw Orion suddenly standing before her and immediately lowered her head, not daring to look him in the eyes.
"Reiju, what are you doing standing there? Come on before the guards show up and find you here. Let's start today's treatment!" Orion said without mentioning anything about the earlier situation with Sanji.
He knew very well that Reiju's life was far from easy and that there were good reasons why she had not stepped in to help Sanji. Orion had no intention of judging her and simply wanted to leave the area before they attracted the attention of any of the castle guards.
Reiju's eyes filled with tears while she adorably puffed out her lips in a small pout, and taking Orion's hand, she entered the Pocket Dimension alongside him without saying anything further about the previous incident.
The three emotionless little soldiers of Germa 66 remained sprawled on the ground, and it would be quite some time before they recovered, utterly unable to understand what had happened.
Only when Orion put his damage-control strategy into action would they gain an explanation for what had occurred. However, they would not learn the truth, but only the version Orion had prepared for them, which, in his opinion, was far more novel and entertaining than what had actually happened.