Sabaody Archipelago, Island 23.
Under the dim streetlights, Sephiroth held a cigar in his mouth and an old book titled "Devil Fruit Encyclopedia" in his hand. He strolled leisurely down the increasingly quiet street, flipping through the pages of the book with curiosity.
After more than an hour of searching, he finally found this book, claimed to be the most complete Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, in a large bookstore for 50,000 Berries. While buying it, Sephiroth glanced at several pages according to the book's table of contents, and only bought it after confirming that the Devil Fruit illustrations recorded within it were very similar to the shapes of the fruits he remembered from his previous life.
Even so, most of the Devil Fruits in the encyclopedia only had their names and descriptions of their abilities. Only a small fraction were accompanied by illustrations of their fruit forms. He searched for a Logia or Zoan type Devil Fruit shaped like a green pumpkin, but found nothing. Even his own Devil Fruit, which he knew to be a Vampire type, he didn't find.
However...
As he had gone through almost half of the Paramecia section of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, his eyes stopped on an illustration. There was a green pumpkin shape with black spiral patterns all over it, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, the Door-Door no Mi!
Hiss!
After seeing the brief introduction, Sephiroth immediately took a deep breath. His heart was instantly filled with both excitement and conflict. The Door-Door Fruit, as one of the few spatial-type fruits, was undoubtedly very powerful, the escape ability it offered was top-tier. The user could open doors and escape anywhere. As long as the user wanted to run and didn't intentionally seek death, almost no one could kill them.
It was just that Blueno in the original story seemed foolish, he didn't use evasive tactics and insisted on using Iron Body, the strongest technique among the Six Styles, to directly withstand all of Luffy's attacks. Throughout this Pirate King era, everyone who dared to use Iron Body for defense always ended up in a crushing defeat! Anyway, when Sephiroth began to learn the Six Styles, he secretly made a decision: Iron Body was an offensive skill, and he would never use it for defense!
"Bring Binks' Sake to your side. Day by day. In the twilight of dreams, the waving farewell is no longer seen. Why frown? Tomorrow night, the moonlight will still be there! Bring Binks' Sake to your side. Come on, let's sing a song! The song of the sea. No matter who the person is, everyone will eventually turn into bones. Endless, just a joke..."
On a quiet street, in front of the iron bars of a human trafficking display window, a beautiful woman with long golden hair and a slave collar around her neck looked at the green-haired youth outside the window and said with a sincere smile, "Tesoro, your singing is so beautiful! I feel like listening to it forever."
"Stella, give me a little more time. I've saved half of the money. After that, I can buy your freedom."
The young man speaking wore a suit and had greenish-gray hair. Although his body was tired, a gentle smile remained on his face, and his gaze towards the woman was filled with deep love.
His name was Gild Tesoro, and he loved to sing, aspiring from the bottom of his heart to become a big star. However, he was born into an extremely poor family. Because of poverty, he was ostracized by his friends, and his father was a gambler who one day died of illness, leaving only his mother, who hit and cursed him every day, to live with him. However, every time he sang out of sadness or joy, his mother would always hit him and directly say that she hated his singing.
Finally, one day, he could no longer stand his mother's harsh treatment. He ran away from home, and became a street hooligan, living by stealing and occasionally singing in bars. He also used the money he earned to find "friends." However, this situation continued until one day he lost badly at a casino, all the friends he trusted ran away from him. In despair, after being beaten by the casino people, he desperately fled, avoiding the fate of becoming a slave.
On that day, he met the blonde woman named Stella before him. He was full of wounds, exhausted, and sat leaning against a display window, singing sadly. They were strangers, but Stella sincerely praised his singing. Tesoro, at the lowest point of his life, finally met someone who appreciated him. When they interacted more often and found similarities in their conversations, his heart was soon filled with an emotion called love.
Tesoro fell in love! He deeply loved Stella. For Stella, he turned over a new leaf, no longer committing evil deeds, and worked hard to earn money every day, all to buy Stella's freedom! Unfortunately, Stella's asking price was too high, he worked desperately for over a year and only earned half of it. At this rate, he would have to wait another year or more to successfully obtain enough money. This time was too long, full of uncertainty, and Stella could be bought at any time, but he didn't want to give up, so he could only continue to work hard to earn money.
Just as the two of them were engrossed in conversation, a silver-haired youth approached. He leaned against the iron bars of the display case and looked at Tesoro.
"Yo! Little brother, let's get acquainted. My name is Karl D. Sephiroth."
The greenish-gray haired youth's face initially showed surprise, but he still replied politely, "Hello, my name is Tesoro... May I ask what you need me for?"
"Your singing is beautiful! I happened to hear it as I passed by," Sephiroth said with a smile.
Hearing the compliment, Tesoro scratched his head a little shyly and smiled, "Thank you for the compliment!"
"I also just heard that you want to buy this beautiful lady's freedom, is that right?"
"Yes... yes." Hearing this, the green-haired youth's heart suddenly pounded, and a hint of unease flashed across his face. He was very afraid that the silver-haired youth in the blue suit in front of him would suddenly get ahead of him and buy Stella first.
"How about we make a deal?" Sephiroth leaned in slightly.
"What kind of deal?" Tesoro asked, his breath held.
"I will give you the money to buy Miss Stella's freedom. But in return... you will become my subordinate and work for me, how does that sound?"
Hearing these words, Tesoro and Stella were overjoyed, but they also looked at Sephiroth with expressions of disbelief.
"Why are you helping me like this?" Tesoro asked, suspicion mixed with hope.
Because you are the future Gold Emperor, the richest man in the world, and a Vice Admiral-level fighter. If it were anyone else, I probably wouldn't be kind enough to invest! If I gain your loyalty, Tesoro, it will be much easier for me to build my own power... Sephiroth thought this to himself, but what he said was a different story.
"Today, I witnessed the sad incident of a Celestial Dragon trampling on lives, so I want to see a comedy where a pair of lovers finally unite. And I think you are a very valuable person to invest in, so I want to help you... Of course, the final decision is yours. If you don't want to, I won't force you, you..."
"I'm willing! As long as you give me the money to buy Stella's freedom, I, Gild Tesoro, am willing to pledge my loyalty to you!" A man in love is always passionate and blind. Tesoro didn't think much and immediately agreed with Sephiroth, without even asking what his profession was or who he truly was.
People in the pirate world generally had a low level of education, coupled with a strong concept of brotherhood. Therefore, it was not uncommon, in order to repay someone's kindness, for them, with overflowing passion, to even be willing to die for that person. For example, Gin, Bellamy, Teabeard... these people, they weren't even considered good people, but they were very persistent in their loyalty.
Therefore, Sephiroth was now gambling. He was gambling that Tesoro, after receiving his help, would truly be loyal to him. After all, Tesoro was young now and hadn't experienced the most complete despair and darkness, and Stella made him hold onto beautiful ideals for life. If he lost the gamble, he would choose to cut his losses in time and look for an opportunity to kill Tesoro.
"Good!... How much money is needed to buy her freedom?"
"To buy Stella's freedom, it takes 38 million Berries, and I've already saved 19.3 million Berries..."
"38 million Berries, okay? Okay, I'll pay for everything. However, you'll have to wait for me for an hour or two, I need to go back and get the money." Sephiroth pretended to agree, but in his heart he was cursing. Is this woman inlaid with gold or diamonds? That's so expensive! The average price for an ordinary human is around one million; if there's no added value, the price wouldn't exceed ten million...
Muttering to himself, Sephiroth transformed his body into a vampire, and with a "whoosh," his black wings spread wide.
"This...?" Tesoro stared at the silver-haired youth who had suddenly transformed before him, and he couldn't help but be stunned.
"I'm a Devil Fruit user. You wait here, I'll go get the money now." As he spoke, Sephiroth flapped his pair of black, thick wings and shot straight into the air, disappearing into the night sky in just a few moments.
"That's great! Stella, you'll finally be free." Tesoro's face beamed with a bright smile as he looked at the golden-haired woman in the display case.
Stella reached out her right hand and gripped the iron bars, her face filled with worry as she said, "But... Tesoro, for my sake, you're pledging allegiance to someone of unknown origin as your boss. Is this really alright?"
The greenish-gray haired youth covered the golden-haired woman's hand with his own, and his tone was sincere, "For you, everything is worth it!"
"Tesoro..." Stella looked at the young man outside the display window, her whole heart melting, and she felt incredibly happy. Even if the other party asked her to die in the future, she would be willing, the girl secretly made a decision in her heart.
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