Chapter 120: Dragon Oni Nanatsuki
"Hah... wait, wait a moment, sister, I'm about to... die of exhaustion..." Nanatsuki lay on the ground, the wooden sword in her hands already unsteady.
Her thin white clothing was completely soaked with sweat.
Ever since she had been discovered last time, Nanatsuki's life had entered hell mode. Every day was nothing but training and more training.
Physical conditioning was bearable enough — she would simply pass out from exhaustion. But swordsmanship training was a different story. Every single time, Yayoi would beat her half to death, and even now her entire body was still covered in wounds.
"You can't handle even this much?" Yayoi asked coldly. All she did each day was have Nanatsuki run one hundred laps around the deck of Thriller Bark while carrying weights, followed by one thousand squats and one thousand sword swings.
Then came a ten-kilometer swim alongside the ship. Was that really so much?
One lap around Thriller Bark was approximately 576 meters, making one hundred laps about 57.6 kilometers. In Yayoi's eyes, this amount of exercise was nothing.
But for Nanatsuki, it was already far too much — let alone with the added weights.
And all of that was just the morning routine. The afternoons were reserved for sword sparring.
Yayoi had originally planned to deny Nanatsuki food if she failed to complete her tasks, but fortunately Ren had stopped her. He felt such a punishment was completely unnecessary.
Training already consumed a person's stamina. If they weren't even given meals on top of that, the combined drain would only break Nanatsuki's body down completely.
It was just like the prisoners laboring in Udon. They worked gruelingly every day, yet received very little food in return. Over time, even a body as mighty as Hyogoro's, like a living Wisdom King, would shrink to the size of a dried bean curd.
Proper exercise, proper meals, proper rest — that was what Ren considered healthy training. Strong fighters were not forged through starvation.
But even with Ren's help, Nanatsuki seemed to be reaching her breaking point.
"Her body was simply too weak to begin with. Yayoi is in a rush, and the training intensity is a bit beyond what Nanatsuki can handle." Yukiko explained.
Yayoi was deeply worried about battles that could erupt at any moment, so she wanted to make Nanatsuki stronger as quickly as possible. But she had been too impatient, and it was having the opposite effect.
"Get up right now, Nanatsuki!" She gripped her wooden blade and roared without a shred of mercy. Sometimes even Yukiko felt she was being excessively harsh — perhaps even more so than Yukiko herself.
"No... I can't..." Nanatsuki replied weakly.
She was not being lazy. She genuinely could not get up anymore.
Her arms and legs felt nothing but pain apart from exhaustion. She had swallowed back so many tears over these past few days.
Beneath her plain white kimono, her hidden body was almost entirely covered in wounds. Even the lightest fabric brushing against her skin caused a dull ache, and whenever she sweated, the wounds stung with a fierce burning sensation.
Even so, Yayoi walked forward, intending to drag Nanatsuki to her feet and force her to continue training.
"That's enough, Yayoi. Nanatsuki's body cannot take any more." Ren walked over and stopped Yayoi.
He scooped Nanatsuki up from the ground. The poor girl had long since passed her limit.
"If she keeps going, her body is going to collapse entirely. The injuries from her previous training haven't healed yet — they've only gotten worse."
"I'm sorry, Lord Ren... I was too impatient..." Yayoi gritted her teeth and lowered her head.
She was the last person who wanted to treat Nanatsuki this way.
But every time she thought about Nanatsuki facing enemies, she simply could not hold back.
"She doesn't need to actually go to the battlefield. Staying on the island is fine."
"The thunderstorms will protect it." Ren said. In his arms, Nanatsuki had already drifted off to sleep, her tension finally released.
"How can that be acceptable? She followed us out on her own without permission, which has already caused enough trouble as it is." Yayoi hurriedly protested.
"If she doesn't even pull her weight..." She had not forgotten her own sin of originally plotting to assassinate Ren. Both she and Nanatsuki were guilty in his eyes — they were servants, nothing more.
Ren knew it would be difficult to change her mindset, so he simply said, "If that's how you see it, then both of you are my property. And I'd rather not suffer any losses."
"Tell you what — if you insist on training her, then make Nanatsuki an Oni Warrior." Ren said.
An Oni Warrior was, in fact, someone who had obtained the soul of a Devil Fruit through absorption. In previous experiments, it had already been confirmed that a person could acquire the soul of a Zoan Devil Fruit without any side effects.
By now, Ren had already assembled a small squad of Oni Warriors, known as the Hundred Demon Corps.
Becoming an Oni Warrior carried no side effects. They did not fear water, and they could still eat a Devil Fruit normally like any regular person. Ren had actually wanted Yukiko and the others to become Oni Warriors as well.
However, aside from Ren himself, a person could only absorb one animal soul with his assistance. Absorbing more than that would still cause the body to explode. So until he found Devil Fruits that were strong enough, Ren had held off on this plan.
"How about this one — the Ancient Zoan Velociraptor Fruit." Ren thought for a moment, then produced an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit.
"An Ancient Zoan? Giving such a precious Ancient Zoan to Nanatsuki — isn't that a bit..." Yayoi hesitated.
As an older sister, she naturally hoped for Nanatsuki to receive this fruit's soul. But as Ren's servant, she felt it was somewhat wasteful.
On the Devil Fruit market, however, Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits were not actually valued all that highly. Ancient Zoans were merely rare, not necessarily stronger than their modern animal counterparts. The Tyrannosaurus Rexes of Little Garden might not even be a match for Wano Country's komainu guardians.
Zoan types, as long as they were not Mythical Zoans, generally were not worth very much. After all, the development path for these fruits was purely physical enhancement. Compared to the early-game invincibility of Logia types or the bizarre abilities of Paramecia types, they were simply too straightforward.
Nanatsuki had no objections to the idea. Soon after the velociraptor's soul was placed into her body, Nanatsuki began to change.
The first change was her size. Originally, Nanatsuki had been of normal height, a little over one meter sixty. But after the transformation, she immediately grew significantly taller.
Perhaps because the velociraptor was a smaller type of dinosaur, the newly tallened Nanatsuki did not break two meters. She stood at nearly the same height as Ren.
The most striking feature was her arms. From the elbows forward, they had completely turned into dinosaur skin, while the upper portions remained human.
Her legs followed a similar pattern. Behind her, a slender green tail swished back and forth constantly.
At the same time, Nanatsuki's cheeks and head also underwent some changes. Her teeth grew sharp, and her skin and bones became slightly more pronounced, displaying distinct dinosaur characteristics. Overall, though, she still leaned far more toward a human appearance.
This was the nature of Oni Warriors. Unlike traditional Zoan users who possessed three transformation forms, Oni Warriors had only two — a human form and a half-beast form.
If you're enjoying this story, consider supporting on Patreon. You'll get 30 advance chapters immediately, plus monthly updates and bonus content. Every subscription keeps the chapters coming.
Patreon: patreon.com/anish_44
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/anish_44