Drink More Hot Water

Late at night, the snow stopped.

Above the curtain of night hung a waning moon, spilling boundless silver-white radiance.

"198!...199!"

Sephiroth braced both hands against the deck of the fast-sailing ship, doing push-ups one after another.

"200!"

When he finished the last one, he collapsed onto the cold deck like a deflated ball, panting heavily.

This body's strength had never been great to begin with, and due to its long-term lack of exercise, it could even be called frail.

Even with the enhancement of the Vampire Fruit, without using Vampire Transformation, it only made him somewhat stronger than an ordinary adult.

Speaking of which, Zoan-type Devil Fruits allowed their users to gain the wild strength unique to animals, improve their physical qualities, and acquire the corresponding animals' traits.

At the same time, users possessed three forms: human form, human-beast form, and beast form.

The human form of the Vampire Fruit meant no animal transformation, which was Sephiroth's current state.

The human-beast form was when he transformed into a vampire. His speed and strength would increase, and wings capable of flight would grow from his back.

As for the beast form, the time he had split his body into a swarm of bats in the prison had been his beast transformation. In that state, he would completely possess all the traits of a bat, such as emitting and detecting ultrasonic waves...

Moreover, in that state, even if most of the bats were killed, as long as he was willing to spend Life Force as the price, he could restore his body in full.

All in all, it was an incredibly powerful life-saving skill!

Aside from absorbing other people's Life Force to maintain eternal youth and life, Sephiroth could also consume a large amount of stored Life Force to heal rapidly.

It could be said that as long as his Life Force was not completely depleted, aside from Sea Stone and the sea, so long as he did not deliberately court death, killing him completely would be quite difficult...

As he consumed a small amount of the Life Force stored within his body, the exhaustion, muscle damage, and other problems caused by his push-ups...

Were all swept away in the blink of an eye. He once again became a youth brimming with vigor and drive.

After Sephiroth stood up from the deck, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and carefully sensed his condition. He could not help muttering to himself:

"This ability is good, but... it burns through lifespan a little too quickly!

Since this lifespan was absorbed by me and never truly belonged to me, its efficiency isn't especially high...

Just recovering my stamina and injuries cost me three days of lifespan!

Still, the mental fatigue remains. It seems rapid healing isn't omnipotent either..."

After finishing his push-ups, Sephiroth picked up the sheathed long sword leaning against the ship's rail and drew it with a sharp clang.

Chop, sweep, lift, slash, deflect, thrust upward, parry, stab...

Thirteen moves. Every one was a basic movement, plain and unremarkable, without any flair.

According to Marigold, who had taught him swordsmanship, even the most formidable techniques evolved from the basics. Only by laying a solid foundation could one learn anything quickly.

Given that all three women were qualified warriors of Amazon Lily Island, had developed Armament Haki at a young age, and had become official members of the Kuja Pirates.

As a complete novice in combat, Sephiroth could only choose to trust their advice.

Thus, Sephiroth set himself a daily task of rapidly swinging his sword thirteen thousand times, one thousand times for each move, striving to turn those movements into instinct as quickly as possible.

When he first began swinging his sword rapidly, he felt that he was in fairly good condition.

But gradually, the sword in his hands became increasingly heavy. His arms grew sore and weak, and pain even began to flare up.

This left him with no choice but to use his lifespan to restore his stamina and ease his physical fatigue, allowing him to maintain the rapid sword-swinging motion...

Even so, it still took him more than eight hours to complete the thirteen-thousand-swing training.

In truth, if an ordinary person underwent such high-intensity sword training, unless their hands were made of titanium alloy...

Their hands would definitely be ruined in less than a month!

At the very least, Sephiroth had consumed a full half-month of lifespan just to complete the sword-swinging training...

The main reason Sephiroth had decided to practice with a sword was because this world possessed a special substance known as Sea Stone, which could render Devil Fruit users weak and powerless.

If he chose unarmed combat as his fighting style, then once Sea Stone came into direct contact with his body, he would become weak and powerless, leaving himself severely countered.

That was why he felt that using a sword as a weapon would be best. It would prevent him from making direct physical contact with enemies and keep them from using Sea Stone to grab his body during battle and exposing a fatal weakness too early...

After completing his training goal, Sephiroth sheathed his sword, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and took a silver pocket watch from his clothes pocket to check the time.

4:36 in the morning.

The time he and Hancock had agreed to switch shifts was four in the morning. Thirty-six minutes had already passed, yet she still had not come.

Sephiroth sighed helplessly. He could only leave the deck, enter the cabin, and prepare to wake the black-haired girl.

After that bout of high-intensity training, his physical condition was still fairly good, but mentally, he was already exhausted.

Right now, all he wanted was to take a proper bath, fall into bed, and sleep...

In the cabin corridor, Sephiroth held a kerosene lamp in his left hand as he stood outside the captain's bedroom. He raised his hand and gently knocked on the door, but there was no response from within.

He tried pushing open the half-closed wooden door, only to find Hancock still lying in bed beneath the blanket, her eyes tightly shut as though she were still asleep.

"Hancock, wake up! It's your turn to keep watch."

The youth reached through the blanket and gave the black-haired girl a push. She immediately answered weakly and indistinctly:

"Okay..."

"Hm?"

After noticing that something was off about the girl's voice, Sephiroth instinctively reached out and touched her forehead.

But the next second, he remembered that he had just finished exercising and his body temperature was elevated, making it completely meaningless as a point of reference.

So, he extended his right hand beneath the blanket, took Hancock's hand, and checked her pulse.

"She actually has a fever... Didn't you say you'd never been sick?"

Sephiroth looked speechlessly at the girl lying in bed.

He remembered that not only had she been soaked by the rain today, she had also worn wet clothes for half the day in freezing weather...

If she did not catch a cold after that, it would be absurd!

Hancock propped up her upper body with her right hand and said weakly:

"Sorry, I overslept.

I'll go up to the deck and keep watch now..."

"If you're sick, get some proper rest. As for keeping watch...

I'll discuss it again with Sandersonia and Marigold..."

As he spoke, Sephiroth pressed Hancock back onto the bed and tucked the blanket around her.

There was a first-aid kit on the desk in the bedroom.

Sephiroth opened the box and examined its contents by the light of the kerosene lamp. Gauze, alcohol, anti-inflammatory medicine, needles and thread, anesthetic—everything was for treating external injuries, but there was no medicine for colds or fevers...

Seeing this, Sephiroth could not help muttering a curse:

"What idiotic humans!"

Sailing the seas without preparing enough common medicine—weren't those people worried about getting sick...?

He picked up the anti-inflammatory medicine from the box and frowned slightly.

Anti-inflammatory medicine was effective against fevers caused by inflammation, but Boa Hancock's fever had been caused by cold entering her body. Still, her forehead was injured, so a bacterial infection could not be ruled out...

After thinking it over, he still poured out one anti-inflammatory pill, intending to give it to the black-haired girl.

Without the proper medicine, it was not as though he could somehow mix up saline solution without equipment and give her an IV, right?

Water!?

Right, how could I forget that!

With that thought, Sephiroth went to the kitchen, lit the gas stove, and boiled a kettle of water.

Without suitable medicine, sometimes a kettle of hot water was also a good option.

Once the water boiled, Sephiroth carried the kettle back into the Captain's Cabin. He went to Hancock's side, poured a cup of hot water on her bedside table, and placed the anti-inflammatory pill beside it.

"You have a fever. You need to sweat, so drink more hot water!

That way, you'll get better faster."

"Mm!"

Boa Hancock groggily climbed out of bed and slowly swallowed the anti-inflammatory pill with the hot water.

Afterward, Sephiroth brought her another blanket from another cabin and covered her with it...