Melody

When the sounds of battle aboard Gion's warship died down, Kane collapsed onto the deck, bruised and battered.

His eyes were lifeless, his breathing ragged, and his body was covered in wounds. Even his hands and feet twitched uncontrollably.

Gion sat cross-legged beside him, idly tapping Kane with the bamboo sword in her hand. The force was light, but the humiliation was immense.

"Instructor, I don't recall humiliating corpses being one of your hobbies."

"So you've discovered my secret. Looks like I'll have to silence you."

As Gion spoke, she tapped Kane's lips with the bamboo sword, signaling that he had been silenced.

Kane lay helplessly on the ground, unable to resist. He could only look up at Gion, but his gaze kept being drawn to her magnificent curves and inevitably slipped toward her low neckline.

"Does it look good?"

Gion's question came abruptly, yet it did not startle Kane.

He had heard, seen, and even experienced similar situations many times. In short, lying or concealing the truth led to a miserable end, while honesty left one unharmed.

So Kane answered with heartfelt praise.

"Very good."

Gion glanced at him and rested the bamboo sword on her shoulder. Her clothes could barely contain her generous assets, yet she did not care in the slightest.

She had taken Kane's Rokuogan head-on. Protected by Haki, she had not suffered much damage, though several buttons on her clothes had been blown off.

Only then had she realized that Kane had been holding something back, all so he could give her an unexpected surprise.

After realizing that, Gion was not angry at all. Instead, she became even more excited, and her bamboo sword immediately transformed into a raging storm that crashed down upon Kane.

And thus Kane ended up bruised, battered, and covered in wounds.

"I truly didn't expect you to have mastered the Six Powers so well. You've even grasped its ultimate technique."

Gion stood and removed her tattered coat of justice. That was the result of Kane giving it his all without using his Devil Fruit ability.

Her tall, beautiful figure was fully revealed beneath the moonlight. Kane forced himself upright. His limbs were still not very responsive, but his eyes worked perfectly well.

He watched moonlight spill across Gion's body and flow down along the contours of her figure.

Her shoulder hollow quickly filled, and the moonlight overflowed. Part of it poured into the shallow shadows of her collarbones, while the rest ran over her smooth, pale shoulders and slid down her slender arms.

Kane's gaze followed the flowing moonlight, pausing for an instant at Gion's delicate wrist bone before finally gliding over the back of her hand and along her slender fingers.

As it passed her pink fingernails, Kane saw the moonlight reluctantly leave behind a faint gleam like crimson shell before flowing onto her slender waist.

The path ahead became much smoother, but her astonishingly long and perfectly proportioned legs still made the moonlight travel for a long time before it finally reached Gion's pale ankles.

The moonlight seemed to know it was nearing its destination. It lingered around her ankles for a long while before running over the jade-smooth tops of her feet and falling onto the deck.

The moonlight rippled with satisfaction and regret. It could not return the way it had come. Kane seemed to hear its sigh, then grinned.

You can't... but I can!

Hahaha...

Laughing freely in his heart, Kane's gaze decisively retraced its path. He enjoyed the scenery all over again, and then he...

Met Gion's eyes.

It was not a direct stare, but a glance cast through her lashes.

Kane could even see the shimmer in Gion's eyes, like a deep pool brimming with moonlight, floating with clear, radiant splendor.

"Have you seen enough?"

Gion's cool yet gentle voice rang out, asking the same question as usual.

"No."

Kane answered honestly, rising from the ground and looking directly into Gion's eyes.

"Even if you haven't seen enough, it's time to go back. You've been looking for a long time."

"Yes, Instructor."

Kane did not believe her. How long could he possibly have been looking? Yet the exhaustion that had faded by more than half told him that he really had been staring for quite a while.

Stunned, Kane watched Gion walk toward the cabin, blinked, and summoned his light screen.

[Gion, Favorability: 29]

Sure enough, it was still 29...

Three years...

It had not risen at all...

Kane shook his head and turned away. He felt that Gion deliberately kept her distance from everyone.

Beneath her seemingly gentle, straightforward, and carefree exterior was a heart sealed shut. She rejected anyone who tried to enter it—aside from Tsuru, of course.

Back in his warship cabin, he endured the pain and took a shower, then lay facedown on the bed and let out a long breath.

It was not that he did not want to lie on his back. There were simply more wounds on his back than on his front. Less pain was better than more.

Robin looked at Kane's scarred back, tears welling in her eyes. Yet she silently gritted her teeth and applied medicine to his wounds.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine by tomorrow morning. If you really can't bear it, give me an oil massage."

"What's an oil massage?"

"Like this..."

Kane patiently explained it to her, while Robin listened attentively with her big eyes blinking.

In the end, Robin blushed furiously as she poured the medicated oil onto herself. Under Kane's guidance, she learned as she went, awkwardly but adorably putting it into practice.

Facts proved that properly administered treatment could make injuries and illness disappear at the fastest speed.

When Kane woke the next morning, all the pain from his wounds was gone.

Although the physique of a Zoan Devil Fruit user had played some part, he always believed Robin's treatment was the greatest reason for his recovery.

After enjoying the breakfast Baby-5 had carefully prepared, Kane carried her around the warship for a wild romp before heading to Gion's warship.

Gion, who was accustomed to rising early, was already waiting for him. She had changed into a new sleeveless shirt, its collar still cut low. Without her coat of justice, she looked far more capable and neat.

Kane's face twitched slightly at the sight. He understood that Gion thought the coat got in the way, but it also meant she would hit even harder than yesterday.

"Kane, go for it! If you can't beat her, surrender!"

Kane looked toward the source of the cheering. Cuckoo was bouncing around and waving her arms, while her generous assets bounced along with her.

Are you trying to murder your husband?

In Gion's eyes, surrender meant giving it everything he had and then being beaten until he could not get back up...

"Focus. I don't like people getting distracted during battle."

"Yes, Instructor."

Kane composed himself, slowly placing a hand on his sword hilt as he stared at Gion, who stood casually before him.

The next instant, their gazes collided in the air, and they lunged at each other at the same time!

This battle ended quickly. Because there were spectators, Gion not only refrained from humiliating Kane after he fell, but also had a medic from her ship treat him.

The medic's methods were highly professional, but Kane felt that the treatment was not as effective as Robin's.

And so, time flew by amid their nonstop sparring.

One night, after Kane once again lay bruised and battered on the deck, Gion, her hair disheveled, began idly tapping him with the bamboo sword in her hand.

After several days of training, Kane had discovered that Gion only humiliated "corpses" at night, and only when the two of them were alone.

"Instructor, is this a song?"

Gion did not answer, but her tapping paused for a moment.

Suddenly, she lightly tapped Kane's lips with the bamboo sword, signaling that he had been silenced, then continued tapping.

Kane felt out the rhythm of her taps. After hearing it repeated for many days, he had already memorized it.

But if his body were treated as an instrument, there was no instrument whose notes could correspond to both Gion's rhythm and the places she struck.

As though she had noticed what Kane was thinking, Gion smiled. The rhythm of her tapping suddenly became brighter and livelier.

"Instructor, can you sing it? As an instrument, I have the right to hear the song."

"An instrument talks too much, and it knows too much as well."

Gion tapped Kane's lips again with the bamboo sword, signaling that he had been silenced. Then, in time with her tapping, she softly hummed a melody.

Gion's voice was lovely, melodious and light, making Kane feel as though his heart and mind had settled into peace.

But the melody was extremely short, only a dozen seconds or so, after which it repeated again and again.

"Instructor, this isn't a nursery rhyme, is it?"

Gion stopped tapping. The bamboo sword landed on Kane's lips and rubbed back and forth over them for a long time without being lifted away.

Suddenly, the warship began to sway from side to side, and a gust of sea wind surged onto the deck, sending Gion's loose hair flying wildly.

The warship had sailed out of the Calm Belt...