The dim light from the cabin wall torches danced, casting long, shifting shadows that swayed with the gentle rocking of the ship. Sephiroth felt the rough wooden planks beneath him, slowly drawing him from unconsciousness.
"Big Sister, he seems to be waking up," a soft voice whispered, filled with relief.
"Really? Let me see."
Sephiroth felt his cheek gently pinched, several times, by an unfamiliar hand. His eyes slowly opened. Before him stood a girl with long, flowing black hair, elegantly draped. She wore only a short red top and a mini-skirt, a white cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Beside her, two other equally enchanting girls, similarly dressed, one with bright orange hair and the other with emerald green hair.
Sephiroth raised his right hand, bound by metal shackles. The burning thirst in his throat could no longer be endured. "Water!" His voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.
Hearing this, the black-haired girl quickly grabbed a wooden bowl. With careful movements, she helped the young man sit up, then spoon-fed him soup from the bowl little by little. From the taste, Sephiroth recognized it as fish soup—oddly, there was no meat or bones at all in it.
Gulp!
As soon as the fish soup was gone, the gaping hunger in the young man's stomach immediately awoke, emitting an embarrassing rumbling sound.
"You must be very hungry! Here!" The black-haired girl covered her mouth, chuckling softly, then handed him a piece of hard-looking black bread.
"Thank you!" Sephiroth mumbled. The dry, hard texture of the black bread made him wince slightly, but the gnawing hunger left him no choice. He swallowed it little by little, moistening it with the remaining fish soup.
After finishing his meal, strength slowly returned to his limp body. He looked at the three girls before him. "My name is Karl D. Sephiroth, what are your names?"
"My name is Boa Sandersonia."
"My name is Boa Marigold."
"My name is Boa Hancock, I'm their older sister."
"Boa Hancock...!?"
The names of the first two rang vaguely in Sephiroth's mind, but he couldn't recall them clearly. However, upon hearing the black-haired girl's introduction, his eyes widened in shock. He scrutinized Boa Hancock carefully, slowly overlaying the image of the arrogant and majestic Pirate Empress with the innocent girl standing before him now. The anime figure he had only ever seen on screen now existed in reality before his eyes.
"How annoying~! Why are you staring at me like that?" The current Boa Hancock possessed none of the future Pirate Queen's arrogance and assertiveness. When the young man looked at her, she shyly turned her face away, not daring to meet his gaze.
"Ahem~! I think your name is very special..." Sephiroth cleared his throat awkwardly, noticing the strange glances from Sandersonia and Marigold. "Hmm! You'll definitely be a beautiful woman in the future," he added, trying to divert his gaze.
After all, the "Most Beautiful Woman in the One Piece World" from his previous life had appeared before him like this. He couldn't help but feel a little surprised. As a loyal One Piece fan, Sephiroth's goodwill towards the black-haired girl immediately soared dramatically in his heart, and his vigilance instantly lessened. This feeling was similar to a long-time admirer of a star, and one day their favorite idol suddenly appeared before them—even if there hadn't been much interaction before, for some reason, there was a strong sense of goodwill...
However, in his previous life, Sephiroth had strongly desired... cough!
"Hmph! Even if you praise me like that..." Boa Hancock proudly raised her head, but her slightly upturned lips betrayed her true feelings. "...I won't be happy!"
The present Boa Hancock had not yet experienced the bitterness of life as a slave. Her personality had not yet been distorted. After leaving Amazon Lily for the first time, she was still somewhat naive, with a personality like a normal girl.
"Is this ship... a slave ship?" Sephiroth pulled at the metal shackles on his hands, and a hint of gloom crossed his eyes. The three girls' hands also wore the same metal shackles as his. The cabin where the four of them were imprisoned was sealed by metal bars, and a kerosene lamp in the corridor was the only source of light in the cabin. Inside the cabin, besides a toilet for waste, there were only four wooden bowls, and absolutely nothing that could be used as a weapon.
Hearing the question, a clear expression of sadness appeared on Boa Hancock's beautiful face. "Yes, this is a slave ship..." She had never imagined that on her first voyage to sea, she and her two sisters, while on patrol aboard a Kuja Pirate ship, would be incapacitated by slave traders who emerged from the sea, using drug-laced handkerchiefs. When the three girls awoke, they were already locked in this cabin. "If only I hadn't been so overconfident then," Hancock lamented, regret in her voice, "believing myself to be a qualified Amazon warrior, and refusing to be accompanied by other crew members, this wouldn't have happened..." Boa Hancock dared not think deeper about their subsequent fate.
Sephiroth pulled hard on the chain of the shackles, a helpless expression on his face. Nevertheless, after eating the Batto Batto no Mi, he could clearly feel that his strength, vision, and hearing had increased. But... to break the iron chains on the shackles, with his current strength, he was still unable to do so. "How great it would be if the fruit I ate was a Logia type... I'd just change my element and break free from these shackles," he thought in despair.
As Sephiroth pondered this, he felt a strange sensation in his body, his hand seemingly wanting to split apart on its own.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!...
Before Sephiroth, both surprised and delighted, his hand actually split into many small black bats, which fluttered into the air, continuously flapping their wings. The shackles fell to the ship's deck with a 'clank!'
"This... is the power of a Devil Fruit?" Boa Hancock exclaimed softly, and at the same time, a hint of joy shone in her eyes. They had hope of escaping!
Boa Sandersonia scratched her beautiful green hair, a confused expression on her face: "Didn't those people use Seastone handcuffs when they caught you?"
"Seastone is a rare mineral, very few people besides the Marines possess something like this," Boa Marigold clarified.
Under Sephiroth's mental control, he found that he could command these bats as easily as he controlled his own limbs.
"Sephiroth, can you control those bats to bring a bunch of keys over there?" Boa Hancock lay against the iron bars, pointing to a bunch of keys hanging on the wall about three meters down the corridor.
"I don't need to control bats to get them, I can go out and get them myself..." As he spoke, his body transformed into a large swarm of flapping bats, pouring out of the iron bars, and reforming in the corridor.
Sephiroth stood in the corridor and glanced sideways, finding that on this ship's deck, besides the cabin they were in, there were three other cabins, one of which was empty. The other two cabins each contained a rare and exotic animal, one a small elephant with tiger stripes, and the other a dog with goat horns and a goat's tail. Sephiroth couldn't name any of these animals, and they even went beyond the scope of his general knowledge. In the end, he could only lament that in the world of One Piece, there truly were all sorts of strange things.
The idea of finding helpers completely failed, making the silver-haired young man a little disappointed. However, he quickly grabbed the keyring and opened the iron bar door of the cabin where the three girls were, allowing them to exit.
To Sephiroth's surprise, he actually found the shackle keys on that keyring. After unlocking the shackles of the three girls, he said: "Do you have any information about the enemy?"
Boa Hancock crossed her arms and said in a deep voice, "When we were brought onto the ship, we saw nine people, they all carried swords and weapons..."
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