"Ghosts that represent other emotions?"
"I remember that back then, I felt especially wronged and miserable, and then my spirit left my body and instinctively created a Negi-negi Ghost. I think it was tied to my own emotions at the time?"
As she spoke, Perona looked at Mercer in surprise.
"How did you come up with that?"
"Are you saying the Hollow-Hollow Fruit can do more than just create Negi-negi Ghosts? It can make ghosts that represent other emotions, too?"
"You said it yourself. It's called the Hollow-Hollow Fruit, not the Negi-negi Ghost Fruit. Have you never tried developing ghosts with different emotions?"
"Negi-negi Ghosts are really useful! I'd never run into anyone who was immune to my ability before."
Hearing that, Mercer understood what she was thinking.
I'm already invincible, so why bother developing other abilities? That was probably her reasoning.
Seeing the look of exasperation on Mercer's face, Perona blushed and snapped:
"Who knew you two would be such freaks? One of you isn't affected by my ability at all, and the other can not only defend against it, but even grab my spirit!"
"Are people outside all this powerful? Is my ability really that useless?"
Seeing this, Mercer realized that the poor girl might have taken a hit to her confidence.
Mercer smiled and held his right hand out in front of Perona. Tiny, muted black-and-red arcs of electricity danced across it.
"What?" Perona pouted, looking unconvinced. "Are you showing off that you can use that Conqueror's Haki thing again?"
Mercer rolled his eyes and pressed his index finger against the nose of her spirit, poking hard enough to make her head tip back.
He said exasperatedly:
"Have you really not noticed? What does this kind of Haki represent?"
Perona wrinkled her nose, then suddenly bit down.