The Fiery Duelist

(I added some pictures to the paragraph comments in earlier chapters, but some didn't get approved. I won't bother trying again.)

-Lucifer's Glory, upper passageway.

At dinnertime, Laki arrived outside Sephiroth's door with a meal basket hanging from her arm and a deeply troubled expression. She slowly reached out and knocked. She was so nervous that calling it a light stroke of the door would probably have been more accurate.

Laki knew Sephiroth was inside. And Sephiroth did indeed know she was outside.

The awkwardness between the two, separated by a single door, was that Sephiroth normally didn't use emotion absorption on his own people. Unlike little Aisa's ability, his wasn't passive.

Even Mantra (Observation Haki) wasn't something he kept active all day. Observation Haki's active effect didn't target, while its passive effect did. There was only one condition for its passive activation: its activation window opened when an attack was declared.

Sephiroth thought Laki needed to steel herself for something-which was, admittedly, true-so he considerately stayed quiet, intending to let her compose herself outside before coming in. He pretended not to know she was there and continued the one-finger training method personally taught to him by Master Genkai (not really).

Worried someone might walk past, Laki turned her head and glanced around. She took a deep breath, then exhaled deeply to ease her nerves. Even so, with her hands gripping the doorknob, she still couldn't summon the courage to open the door.

The elder's order-"Whatever happens, we can't fall too far behind those people from Angel Island"-wasn't really a major issue for Laki.

As a Shandian warrior, she had long been mentally prepared. After four hundred years of holy war, the Shandia had few people left. Sooner or later, she would have to choose a mate to carry on their people.

It wasn't as though Laki knew absolutely nothing about adult matters. But saying her knowledge was limited to dubious basic theory wouldn't have been wrong either.

From her perspective, Sephiroth was strong and handsome. The Shandia also held tribal views on relationships between men and women, so she wasn't opposed to the elder's request. The real problem was... the old women in the tribe had said she only needed to drink with him and leave the rest to the man. They hadn't explained the crucial part at all.

That forced Laki to seek help from Conis. As someone with experience, surely Conis would tell her what to do. If possible, Laki hoped not to make too poor a showing in front of Sephiroth.

...Conis, who had become a steaming mess of embarrassment, calmed down and learned what Laki wanted. Feeling that she shouldn't be the only one subjected to this embarrassing ordeal, she handed Laki an Adult Balloon.

The old women said she only needed to tempt him with her lovely body and intoxicate him with wine.

Conis said she only needed to hand him this balloon.

And so, as though possessed by some finger-raising embodiment of inspiration, the genius Laki came up with an idea: couldn't she simply give Sephiroth both at once?

Laki finally composed herself, regained her usual dashing warrior's expression, and resolved to push open the door...

Only to find Sephiroth doing a handstand, supporting his entire body on a single index finger.

Seeing the High God behaving as strangely as ever in front of his own people suddenly eased some of Laki's nerves.

Then came their usual everyday conversation. Maintaining the outward pride of a Shandian warrior, Laki pulled the balloon from beneath the skirt under her armor and, with a bizarre air of determination, slapped it onto the table with a smack.

Honestly, it was the first time she had ever seen the High God look dumbfounded.

From Sephiroth's perspective, he hadn't expected Laki to be even fiercer than Lilith.

Isabella had high attack and low defense. She was always the one to approach him, but the moment he went on the offensive, she turned into a demure little wife. Despite being two years older than Sephiroth, she acted more like the younger partner when they were alone.

Lilith, on the other hand, never initiated anything herself. Once he attacked, however, what happened afterward was beyond Sephiroth's control. Fortunately, although Lilith was the older-partner type and three years his senior, she was far below him in both size and stamina.

Of the four, only Conis seemed like an ordinary, sweet, gentle girl.

"Hey, Laki. You don't need to leave tonight."

"Hm?"

After dinner and some red wine, the temperature between them seemed to rise. It wasn't that this little alcohol had gotten them drunk. It was mainly a matter of what came next.

In terms of looks alone, Laki admittedly couldn't compare to Bella and the others, but her identity as a warrior lent her a charm of her own. Isabella had the bearing of a young noblewoman knight, while Laki possessed a wilder beauty. If he had to describe it, Bella was a unicorn, while Laki was a leopardess.

Though both were warriors, Laki was taller and more robust than the slightly petite Isabella, with long, pale legs that were particularly alluring. Rather than an urge to protect her, she inspired more of an urge to conquer.

"Mmm-"

Laki's outfit today had taken inspiration from Erza, Fairy Tail's Fairy Queen: a white martial-arts top and a sea-blue miniskirt, with lightweight knight's armor over them. Before she even had time to unequip her armor, Sephiroth had pinned her down.

"Lord Sephi, what is that...?"

Laki lay on the sofa, feeling an unbearable tickle at her ear, but only then noticed a strange sensation farther down.

"That's... for blowing up balloons."

Sephiroth's turn...

Main phase one: set five cards.

An unsporting attack declaration: attack the armored Laki directly and inflict damage.

Main phase two: skip. End turn.

Laki's turn...

Main phase one: set two cards.

Attack declaration: a constricting attack like a python. Inflict damage.

Main phase two: shamelessly activate a trap card from her hand-Switch Positions.

Sephiroth's second turn...

Main phase one: activate the trap card Armor Destruction. Laki's breastplate was sent to the graveyard, while her arm guards and knight's boots remained.

Laki chained the trap card Trap Hole.

Attack declaration: attack Laki directly and inflict damage.

Main phase two: activate the trap cards Switch Positions and Time Seal.

Laki chained the trap card Two-Pronged Attack.

...The two played Yu-Gi-Oh! all night...

-Long Ring Long Land.

This island consisted of twelve smaller islands arranged in a circle, and took its name from its overall resemblance to a long chain. At first glance, it looked like an archipelago, but narrow strips of land actually connected the small islands. Treating it as a single island was perfectly reasonable.

As one of the islands closest to Titans, this wasn't Sephiroth's first visit. Still, every time he saw its bizarre creatures, he reminded himself not to take the workings of this world too seriously.

Long Ring Long Land had many strange creatures, all of them exceptionally "long": incredibly long dogs, towering bears, and elongated deer.

Take the dogs. They were about as tall as ordinary dogs, yet their bodies could exceed twenty meters in length, like snakes, and they could still stand and walk on four legs... Would natural selection really not eliminate them?

As Lucifer's Glory arrived, a village resembling a gathering place for nomadic tribes began cheering at the airship overhead.

They recognized the ship and the two flags flying aboard it.

Of those two flags, one represented Babylon. Based on Sephiroth's personal preferences and the actual circumstances, it used the angel emblem of Celestial Being from Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

The other flag bore Birka's Circular Three-Tomoe Crest. After all, most of the ship's personnel were Birka Knights.

Incidentally, Titans' national flag naturally used the original Titans emblem from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, while its military insignia came from the red diamond-shaped cross on Babbage's shoulder armor.

"Lord Great Angel! Welcome! Welcome, Birka Knights!"

Facing the crowd cheering at them from the grass, Sephiroth put on his public-facing smile and waved.

Lucifer's Glory descended, extended its landing supports, and settled on the ground. Sephiroth then led the knights over to the villagers.

"Lord Great Angel! Thank you so much for all your help."

An old man with white hair and a white beard bowed shakily to Sephiroth, while the young women looked at him as though to say, Move aside already, old geezer.

"I accept your thanks. This arrangement benefits both of us..."

Sephiroth wasn't so affected as to say something like, "We're only doing our duty." He had established two routes here: Babbage's sea route and Babylon's airship route.

Their main business was buying local specialties from the nomads and supplying them with everyday necessities at almost cost price, greatly improving their quality of life.

On top of that, Sephiroth offered free medical consultations whenever he passed through. To the local nomads, the Great Angel and his followers were genuine saints.

After all, living conditions on Long Ring Long Land were even worse than they had previously been on Jaya Island, where Titans was located.

There was little of value here, and the locals lived as nomads, leaving it something of a lawless backwater.

Pirates without much ambition had built an unconventional pirate paradise here. As a result, the locals suffered relatively few pirate attacks. At worst, they were bullied by the pirate crews stationed nearby.

Unlike Jaya Island, with its assortment of illicit and shady businesses, the pirates staying on Long Ring Long Land preferred to prey on weaker crews. Later, the Foxy Pirates had gradually absorbed them through Davy Back Fights, forming a more or less unified pirate force.

(In the original, they had played 920 games. Given that and the extent of their infrastructure, they had probably been entrenched here for years.)

When Sephiroth arrived here and discovered this pirate crew, he really did remember them.

Their captain, Foxy the Silver Fox, was a Slow Human who had eaten the slow-slow fruit, with a bounty of twenty-four million Beli. He had split broom-like hair, a long red nose, and a short, fat, ugly appearance. His fruit's ability was genuinely good: he could fire slowing beams that caused temporal stagnation in whatever they struck.

The pirate crew of over four hundred hadn't lasted long against the Birka Knights before they were all knocked down. Against Holy Knights who could use Mantra, Foxy's beams were meaningless if they couldn't hit.

After capturing them, Sephiroth investigated them through emotion absorption. For the first time, he found himself struggling to keep a straight face. It wasn't that they were good people, but compared to other pirates... they weren't quite so bad.

Apart from preying on other pirates, their main crimes were running an outrageously expensive amusement park, forcing transactions, counterfeiting, fraud, extortion, and honey traps...

They occasionally committed robbery, and it wasn't as though they had never killed anyone. The main thing was that they didn't deliberately kill people, and had never even engaged in slave trading or kidnapping.

It was his first time encountering a pirate crew that behaved so much like human beings, leaving Sephiroth momentarily at a loss for words.

He only packed off the key members with blood on their hands to the moon. The rest he dumped at the nearby Marine Base for the Marines to deal with as they saw fit.

As for Foxy the Silver Fox, his fruit ability was unusual enough that Sephiroth thought it might prove useful someday. He fitted him with a collar containing embedded seastone and tossed him into the lunar prison.

Given those circumstances, the locals of Long Ring Long Land were mainly grateful to Sephiroth for improving their quality of life. They hadn't paid much attention to the pirate problem.

What they didn't know was that they were lucky Titans had begun maintaining regular patrol ships and outposts nearby. Otherwise, with the Foxy Pirates gone, who knew what less-than-human pirate crew might come next?

"Lord Great Angel, could you treat me?"

"Lord Great Angel, my chest hurts!"

"...My stomach hurts!"

A chattering flock of young nomadic women surrounded Sephiroth. Intimidated by the Great Angel's peculiar majesty, however, they didn't dare reach out and touch him.

Besides, Laki's dark expression as she stood beside Sephiroth also discouraged them from approaching.

"If it isn't an external injury, please see our doctor."

The nomadic village was now as lively as a makeshift market. The locals and Skypieans traded regional specialties and other everyday goods.

Just then, Sephiroth sensed something flying toward them at tremendous speed.

"Everyone, be alert! Something's coming!"

A glowing white sphere several meters wide plummeted toward the ground, then struck with a boom, leaving a bear-paw imprint in the earth.

"...So it's him, of all people."

Emerging from the dust before them was a giant nearly seven meters tall-the future Shichibukai, the Tyrant, Bartholomew Kuma.

He had black, woolly curls and wore a white trapezoidal hat covered with scattered brown spots and topped with two bear ears, along with rimless glasses.

Tall and powerfully built, dressed in a black coat, he resembled a walking mountain and gave an impression of unshakable solidity.

"Hello. May I ask if you are the Great Angel, Lucifer Sephiroth?"

His voice was remarkably gentle, almost like a schoolteacher's. It was quite different from the stern, unsmiling figure Sephiroth remembered from his previous life.

...So this was Kuma in the year 1516, four years before the story began.

"That's me. What can I do for you, Mr. Kuma?"

Dressed in the Holy Covenant Reaper Outfit, Sephiroth spread his wings, a faint light shimmering around them.

Honestly, if a fight broke out, Kuma would be a troublesome opponent. His mobility didn't match the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's, but it was still impressive.

If Sephiroth fought without restraint, he was confident he could kill Doflamingo. A battle with Kuma, however, was destined to end without a decisive result.

"...I would like to ask you to save someone. If you can save her, I'll do anything you ask."

Kuma bowed deeply to Sephiroth. He had heard stories about the Great Angel, who had cured many difficult and unusual illnesses-though, in reality, that involved using bioelectricity to activate the immune system and let it run wild, or forcibly stimulating cell division to repair injuries.

"We can set that aside for now. I need to see the patient first."

...Oh? All those good deeds and free consultations hadn't reeled in the blind swordsman, but they had brought this man to me first.