The next day, at nine in the morning.
Sabaody Archipelago, Island 33, Bubble Amusement Park.
After the six of them bought tickets at the ticket office and walked into the park, all they could see were amusement park facilities full of bubble elements, such as bubble roller coasters, bubble Ferris wheels, bubble lifts, bubble pedal bikes...
The dazzling variety of amusement projects really made their eyes pop.
There were people coming and going in the amusement park, and there was constant laughter. Some stores selling snacks and toys attracted many children to visit.
"Come on! Let's have a great time today!"
Kake waved cheerfully to the people behind him. At his strong recommendation, everyone was dragged by him to take a ride on the bubble lift.
After everyone sat down on the lift seats and fastened their seat belts, the lift slowly started to rise.
Smoker had two cigars in his mouth. He muttered disdainfully:
"What's so fun about this kind of project? It's so slow, man..."
However...
When the lift reached the highest point, a height of 150 meters, it suddenly accelerated and started to fall!
"Ahhhh!!!"
...
"Ahhhh!!!"
Under the strong contrast from extreme stillness to extreme movement, everyone sitting on the lift chairs immediately let out loud screams.
When it was about to reach the ground, the lift began to buffer and decelerate, and slowly came to a stop.
Just then, the pink-haired girl Tina turned her head and glanced at the empty seat beside her. She immediately looked surprised and said:
"Huh!? Tina feels so strange. Where did Smoker go?"
Maynard gently stroked his chin and muttered:
"Could it be that he didn't fasten his seat belt and flew out?"
As if thinking of something, everyone looked up together and found that Smoker had actually used his elementization ability to turn himself into a cloud of white smoke.
He was slowly floating down in mid-air, still looking terrified on his face.
"Pfft!"
Shiwa couldn't help it first. She covered her lips and let out a soft laugh, which made everyone immediately burst into a fit of loud laughter.
Soon, Smoker landed with a scowl on his face and stood on the ground again.
However, everyone didn't keep laughing at him. Instead, they quickly started the next project.
After playing for a while, Sephiroth rented a large bubble pedal bike. He lazily leaned back half-sitting on the bubble seat, holding a five-layer ice cream in his right hand and taking the occasional bite, looking absent-minded.
After a while, Shiwa also walked over with an ice cream in her hand and sat down next to him.
"Little brother Sephiroth, why don't you go and play with us? What are you thinking about here alone?"
Hearing this, the silver-haired boy turned his head and looked at the long-legged mature woman beside him. He said indifferently:
"Nah, nothing. Just not into it."
"Oh man! You're so young, and you're not into this stuff. What a pity!"
As she spoke, Gion gave a sultry glance, sticking out her small, rosy tongue from her mouth and gently licking the ice cream in her hand. Every now and then, she'd take a lick or swirl her tongue around the ice - cream ball teasingly.
Seeing this, Sephiroth's eye corners twitched involuntarily. He bent slightly and murmured to himself:
"So dirty!"
Come to think of it, expecting a woman well - versed in all sorts of amorous geisha skills to be as pure as a white flower was basically wishful thinking...
Thinking of this, Sephiroth couldn't help but blurt out subconsciously:
"You're crazy!"
Seeing the other party so discomfited, Gion was greatly amused. She covered her mouth and let out a light laugh:
"Giggle...! If you like big sis, and if you're willing to confess your love to me a hundred times, I might just reluctantly say yes!"
"Hehe!"
Sephiroth didn't want to bother with this vulgar woman anymore. He jumped off the floating bubble scooter in mid - air and walked hunched towards the haunted house not far away. He planned to calm down and clear his messy thoughts.
The six of them played from morning until afternoon before they were ready to take a boat back to Marineford. Sephiroth bid farewell to the group, saying he had other things to do, and left alone.
...
At a shipyard on Island 52 of the Sabaody Archipelago.
A burly man, two meters tall, with long gray hair and a hideous scar on his left face, led more than twenty pirates into the shipyard. Many of them were carrying bags and wooden crates, clearly in a state of readiness to set off.
The scar - faced man first glanced at the three - masted sailing ship moored in the inner bay of the shipyard, then turned to the six shipbuilders in the workshop and said:
"Hey! It's been two days. Have you finished coating our ship yet?"
Hearing this, among the six shipbuilders, a burly man with short brown hair and a full beard nodded slightly and said:
"The coating is completely done now. You can directly sail the ship to Fish - Man Island."
"I see... "
The scar - faced man grinned, drew out the Anaconda revolver from his waist, and pointed it at the brown - haired man.
"Please cooperate... Lord Grey Wolf Bello is here to rob now!
Hand over all your money!"
As the scar - faced man finished speaking, the more than twenty pirates behind him raised their guns and swords one after another, grinning evilly at the six men.
However...
What no one noticed was that on the rooftop of the shipyard, a black bat was hanging upside down from the eaves, quietly watching everything below.
This bat was a creation of Sephiroth using his Vampire Fruit ability.
Long before he went out with Gion and others, he had split into many such bats. These bats patrolled back and forth on Islands No. 50 to No. 59, where shipyards and coating shops were concentrated, in search of pirates...
Through his development of the fruit's abilities, the bats split by his power not only had the ultrasonic capabilities of normal bats but also had vision very similar to that of humans. They could also share their vision and hearing with him.
The abilities of a Devil Fruit would continuously grow stronger as the user developed and used them.
Recently, he had even evolved the throat ultrasonic vocal organ that he could only have in his bat form while in his vampire state.
Sephiroth's current approach to developing his Devil Fruit was similar to that of other Zoan - type Devil Fruit users. They all tried to integrate the advantages of the beast form, the hybrid form, and the human form. They learned from each other's strengths to make up for their weaknesses.
Therefore, some Zoan - type users who had developed their Devil Fruits to an extremely high level would even display the organ characteristics of beasts in their human forms. This was a partial physical change they made to compensate for the shortcomings of the human form by incorporating the characteristics of beasts. Zoan - type users who could achieve this level had basically touched upon the realm of Devil Fruit awakening...
Under the threat of the pirates, the shipwrights had no choice but to obediently raise their hands. The brown - haired man said with a grim face:
"Mr. Pirate... We just finished the job for you. Isn't it a bit too much for you to turn your back on us like this?"
"Pfft! You charged me 500,000 berries just to coat my ship, you goddamned profiteers!"
"Your ship is a medium - sized sailing ship. It costs the same everywhere for coating..."
"Cut the crap and hand over all your money right now! Otherwise, you'll all die!"
"We earn our money the hard way, and there isn't much savings in the shipyard..."
Bang!
Before the brown - haired man could finish speaking, Bello the Gray Wolf pulled the trigger of his revolver. The bullet hit the former's thigh, instantly bursting into a spray of blood.
"Aaaaaah...!"
The brown - haired man "thumped" and fell to the ground. He covered the gunshot wound on his thigh with both hands and curled his body up.
"I'm a big - time pirate with a bounty of 76 million berries. I ain't in the mood to listen to your bullshit...
I advise you, if you don't want to die, hand over all your money!"
"Hahaha!"
"Hahaha! That's right! That's right!"
...
"These lousy shipwrights got what they deserved!"
More than twenty pirates laughed wantonly, their faces looking extremely hideous and terrifying, just like evil spirits crawling out of hell...