Kessoku Band

--Noon the next day, aboard the Thunderhawk.

The Bunbu bustled about. These two-head-tall, rabbit-eared robots were modified by Sephiroth based on the little helpers called "Bangboo" from Zenless Zone Zero, a game from his previous life.

Aside from their appearance, they were no different from the Servo Angels on Sky Island.

There were limits to Sephiroth's reverse engineering of lunar technology. His so-called "inventions" were more like cobbling different scripts together and running them to see what happened.

Most of it was called "micro-innovation" but spelled "reskinning."

Only in areas where he could cheat with his fruit, such as electromagnetic technology, did he barely manage any genuine "innovation."

Unfortunately, once his innovations lost the charging and maintenance provided by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, they were little different from scrap metal.

At that moment, Sephiroth was watching Perona sleep inside the Learning Device.

She's clearly a year older than me, so how does she still look like this...? Based on what he knew of the original story, Perona would not "grow up" for another five or six years.

Perona was currently absorbing the musical knowledge stored in a Memory Crystal.

Using lightning teleportation, Sephiroth needed only a few seconds to travel between Sky Island and Twin Cape.

The Thunderhawk carried a stock of ordinary two-color Haki Memory Crystals, but none containing musical knowledge. That was why he had flown back to Twin Cape at supersonic speed that morning.

The so-called Learning Device looked like the login pods in virtual-reality gaming novels. The Thunderhawk was equipped with two of them.

It was one component of the Lunar Robot production line, and Sephiroth had copied it exactly. He did not really understand its underlying principles.

The device had originally been used to write personalities into robots. After burning through several hundred pirate test subjects, he had finally figured out how to use it safely on humans.

His experiments showed that memories could be input and read... but not deleted. Doing that would be far more than a little dangerous.

Sephiroth could learn the knowledge in Memory Crystals directly, but everyone else needed the Learning Device to do so.

"...Hmm."

What Sephiroth found hardest to understand was actually someone else.

A skeleton lay inside the other Learning Device...

--Brook doesn't even have a brain anymore, so how the hell can he use this machine!?

Although this was not the first time, and Sephiroth had repeatedly reminded himself not to make a fuss over the absurd things Devil Fruits could do.

The sight before him still made him desperately want to call bullshit.

It even gave him the illusion that he might be able to achieve controlled nuclear fusion with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit...

How could the Rumble-Rumble Fruit possibly do that!? If this were in a novel, the readers would tear it to shreds.

Of course, Brook was not learning music. He was learning two-color Haki.

The best two-color Haki Memory Crystal Sephiroth currently possessed came from Tyrant Kuma. He had read it himself, but the results were nothing special. No matter how advanced the techniques were, the gap in their physical capabilities was simply too large.

Besides, the stamina required to shatter a rock with Haki could power an electrical discharge strong enough to shatter a rock tens of thousands of times larger. That was before even considering the use of naturally occurring electrical charges.

Sephiroth's reason for learning Haki was that he might as well, and it could improve his physique a little. But he would absolutely never fight at close range.

The LED changed from red to green. After several hours of sleep, Perona was the first to wake.

"--I actually learned to play guitar and Bass Guitar~!"

After waking, she needed a few seconds to recover and separate the "illusions" of the learning process from her present "reality." Perona stared at her hands in shock.

"Actually, you haven't quite learned them yet."

What someone gained from a Memory Crystal could roughly be divided into knowledge and experience.

The knowledge component was equivalent to memorizing all the theory.

The experience component lacked any "real experience" to prevent emotional interference. It was closer in nature to a first-person VR movie.

When the person actually encountered a relevant situation, those experiences would produce a sense of déjà vu, replaying themselves like a semi-automated driving assist.

Putting them into practice therefore required a period of practice and adjustment, though that process would not take very long.

"Lord Shining!"

Seeing Sephiroth standing beside her, Perona launched herself at him and clung to him.

For the band, the provisional lineup was as follows--

Sephiroth, Brook, and Perona would take turns as lead vocalist depending on the song. Whoever sang lead would also play rhythm guitar.

When Perona was not singing lead, she would be the Bass Guitar Player.

Sephiroth and Brook would alternate between lead guitar and Bass Guitar Player.

The drum kit would go to Kumashi, a Servo Angel in a bear suit, while the other Bunbu would handle the keyboard.

"We'll practice together for a bit, then go make some noise."

"Yay~!"

Sephiroth really wanted to tell Perona that saying "yay" was forbidden.

In truth, "making some noise" mainly meant letting the world know that [Satellite Shining] was a Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit user.

On this trip back to Sky Island, besides handling some work and bringing a Memory Crystal for Perona, he had one other task: "editing" the footage of his fight with Moria.

He had used a satellite and magnetically levitating drones to record the battle in which he killed Moria. After returning, he edited it into a finished video that looked as though it had been filmed secretly.

He then leaked it through Mechanical King Babbage's channels.

After all, the current administration of Titans was much like the Black Organization in Detective Conan. The World Government, the Underworld, and Big News Morgans all learned that a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user had killed Moria of the Shichibukai.

Over the course of a single morning, several copies had already been made of the Visual Den Den Mushi recording.

Sephiroth did not know when his Shining identity would make the news, but it should give the entire world a shock.

"Yohohoho! How incredible!"

Brook climbed out of the Learning Device and threw both arms up in celebration. He had learned Kuma's two-color Haki.

"No, you're the incredible one..."

Just as Sephiroth made that dry remark, a Bunbu hopped over and handed him a Den Den Mushi that was ringing with a "Bulu Bulu" sound.

Recognizing the Den Den Mushi's appearance, Sephiroth took it and vanished from in front of Perona and Brook in an instant.

--Click.

"Mr. Great Angel--thank you so much!"

It was Kuma speaking. He clearly understood the entire plan Sephiroth had outlined for him, but he had never expected this Great Angel to actually eliminate a member of the Shichibukai in such a short time.

The Revolutionary Army had also learned the news. It looked as though Satellite Shining was about to become famous.

"Don't worry, I'll proceed with the plan as quickly as possible, Mr. Kuma. And Bonney is doing very well on Sky Island. She misses you, so you should visit her today."

Bonney was recuperating in the Temple for the time being and had become good friends with Aisa, who was two years older than her. She had also slowly begun trying to get along with the others and was doing quite well.

"Thank you! Truly... thank you!"