Dim firelight, the gentle rocking sensation of the ship, the hard feel of the wooden planks.
"Sister, he seems to be awake."
"Really? Let me see."
Sephiroth felt his cheek being pinched a few times by a hand.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a cute girl with long black hair, wearing only a red short top and a short skirt, with a white cloak draped over her shoulders.
Standing beside her were two equally beautiful girls also wearing short tops and skirts, one with orange hair and one with green hair.
Sephiroth raised his right hand, which was bound by metal shackles, and called out in a weak voice:
"Water—!"
Hearing this, the girl with long black hair quickly brought over a wooden bowl, helped the young man up, and carefully fed him the soup from the bowl little by little.
Based on the taste of the soup, Sephiroth judged it to be fish soup, but there was no meat or bone in it.
Gurgle!
As the fish soup went down, the hunger in the young man's stomach was instantly awakened, letting out an embarrassing sound.
"You must be very hungry!...Here!"
The girl with long black hair covered her mouth and chuckled softly, handing over a piece of black bread.
"Thank you!"
The dry and hard texture of the black bread made Sephiroth frown slightly, but being hungry now, he had no choice.
He swallowed the black bread bite by bite, washing it down with the remaining fish soup.
After finishing the food, he finally regained some strength and then looked at the three girls.
"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 am their older sister."
"Boa Hancock...!?"
The names of the first two people sounded a little familiar to Sephiroth, but he couldn't recall anything until he heard the self-introduction of the girl with long black hair.
Only then did he look surprised, carefully observing Boa Hancock, and gradually overlaying the image of the arrogant Empress with this innocent girl in front of him, merging the anime character with the real person.
"How annoying~! Why are you looking at me like that."
The current Boa Hancock completely lacked the arrogance and willfulness of the future Pirate Empress.
When the young man stared at her, she would shyly turn her face away, not daring to meet his gaze.
"Cough~! I just think your name is very special...
Hmm! You will definitely become a great beauty in the future."
Sephiroth noticed the somewhat strange looks from Sandersonia and Marigold, and only then did he awkwardly shift his gaze.
After all, the number one beauty in the One Piece World from his previous life had appeared before him like this, and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
As an old fan of One Piece, Sephiroth's goodwill towards the girl with long black hair instantly increased significantly in his heart, and his guard also lessened considerably.
This feeling was somewhat like a fan who had been following a star for a long time, and one day their favorite idol suddenly appeared before them, even though the other person had not had much interaction with them before, they inexplicably felt a strong sense of goodwill...
However, in his previous life, Sephiroth was craving her... cough!
"Hmph! Even if you praise me like that...
I won't be happy!"
Boa Hancock raised her head proudly, but her slightly upturned lips betrayed her true feelings.
The current Boa Hancock had not yet experienced the dark life of a slave, and her personality had not become distorted; having left Nine Snake Island for the first time, she was still somewhat naive and her personality was just that of a normal girl.
"Is this ship... a slave ship?"
Sephiroth tugged at the metal shackles on his hands, and a hint of gloom flashed in his eyes.
The hands of the three girls were also wearing the same type of metal shackles as his.
The cabin where the four of them were held was sealed by a metal grate, and the kerosene lamp in the corridor was the only light source in the cabin.
Inside the cabin, besides the toilet for waste, there were only four wooden bowls, and absolutely nothing that could be used as a weapon...
Hearing this, a look of sadness also appeared on Boa Hancock's beautiful face.
"Yes, this is a slave ship..."
She never expected that on her first voyage out to sea, she and her two sisters, while on patrol duty on the Kuja Pirates' ship, would be knocked out by slave traders who emerged from the sea, using handkerchiefs smeared with drugs.
By the time the three girls woke up, they were locked in this cabin.
If she hadn't been so overconfident at the time, believing herself to be a qualified Amazon warrior, and thus refused the company of other crew members, this wouldn't have happened...
Boa Hancock didn't dare to think deeply about what their fate would be next.
Sephiroth pulled hard at the chains on the shackles, a look of helplessness appearing on his face.
Although, having eaten the Vampire Fruit, he could clearly feel his strength, eyesight, and hearing had improved.
But...
To break the iron chains on the shackles, with his current strength, he still couldn't do it.
How great it would be if the fruit I ate was a Logia type... I could just elementalize and break free from these shackles.
As Sephiroth was thinking this, he felt an unusual sensation on his body, his hands seemed to have an urge to split apart on their own.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!...
To Sephiroth's surprised and joyful gaze, his hands actually split into numerous black bats, flying into the air, constantly flapping their wings, and the shackles fell onto the ship's deck with a 'clang!' sound.
"This is... the power of a Devil Fruit?"
Boa Hancock exclaimed softly, and at the same time, a hint of joy flashed in her eyes.
They had hope of escaping!
Boa Sandersonia scratched her beautiful green hair, a look of confusion on her face:
"Didn't those people use Sea Stone handcuffs when they caught you?"
"Sea Stone is a rare mineral, few people besides the Marine have this kind of thing," Boa Marigold explained.
Under Sephiroth's mental control, he found that he could command these bats as easily as his own limbs.
"Sephiroth, can you control those bats to get that bunch of keys over there?"
Boa Hancock lay on the iron grate, pointing to a bunch of keys hanging on the wall about three meters away at the end of the corridor.
"I don't need to control the 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, drilling out from the iron grate, and re-forming in the corridor.
Sephiroth stood in the corridor and glanced sideways, finding that on this level of the ship, besides the cabin they were in, there were three other cabins, one of which was empty.
The other two cabins each held a rare and exotic beast, one was a small elephant with tiger fur, and the other was a dog with goat horns and a goat tail.
Sephiroth couldn't name either of these animals, and they even exceeded the scope of his common knowledge.
In the end, he could only lament that in the One Piece World, there really was all sorts of bizarre stuff.
The idea of finding helpers completely fell through, making the silver-haired young man slightly disappointed, but he quickly got the key ring and opened the iron grate door of the cabin where the three girls were, letting them out.
To Sephiroth's surprise, he actually found the key to the shackles on the key ring.
After unlocking the shackles for the three girls, he spoke:
"Do you have any information about the enemies?"
Boa Hancock crossed her arms and said in a deep voice:
"When we were brought onto the ship, we saw nine people, they all had Sabers and guns..."