Night, cloudless, with a crescent moon hanging in the sky and stars twinkling.
Nine Snake Island, Royal Palace.
In a spacious bathroom filled with steaming white mist, Sephiroth stepped into the large bathtub full of hot water and sat down.
The hot water in the tub reached just below his chest. He leaned his back against the edge of the tub, a look of laziness and weariness on his face.
Once a Devil Fruit user's body is largely submerged in water, whether it's seawater or freshwater, their physical strength will be weakened, causing the user to feel a sense of fatigue.
Because Sephiroth had just gone through an exhausting battle, and also because he deliberately kept his stamina at a low level, he didn't even want to move a single finger right now.
Therefore, Marigold had to take a towel and gently wipe him, cleaning various parts of his body.
Hancock, with her hands resting on the edge of the tub, having her back gently wiped by Sandersonia with a towel, said weakly:
"Hey~! Sephiroth, now you should tell us where you've been for the past half month...?"
Hearing this, Sephiroth slowly closed his eyes and, with a lazy expression, recalled and said:
"Well! I went to a strange space called the Rainbow Mist and experienced a very bizarre journey through time and space, traveling back and forth between different world nodes...."
"And... I accidentally drank a new medicine I developed... and by a strange twist of fate, I even went to the underworld, the Yellow Springs, and saw my past and present lives before the Three Lives Stone..."
"If that guy who guides the dead for reincarnation before the Three Lives Stone hadn't let me come back, I might have kicked the bucket... Hahaha!"
"..."
Suddenly! Sephiroth felt the soft flesh around his waist being pinched by a hand. He opened his eyes, turned his head to look, and saw Hancock's adorable puffed-up cheeks, as well as the worried expressions on Sandersonia and Marigold's faces. Hancock, while twisting the soft flesh around Sephiroth's waist, emphasized:
"Really! Sephiroth, please, from now on, can you not do such uncertain and dangerous things anymore...."
"If something happens to you, we will all be very worried about you...."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!.... I know, I rarely do things that I'm not confident about and are high risk.
That time was really an accident...."
Sephiroth looked helpless, raising his hand to stroke Hancock's smooth, waist-length black hair.
"Oh! Right, I have a gift for you...."
Saying this, Sephiroth stood up from the bathtub, letting the hot water flow onto the floor.
He walked over to the bamboo basket where his two Sabers and clothes were placed, drew the butcher knife from its sheath, and opened his spatial pocket.
From the pile of items inside, he found a small wooden box and took out three silver rings from it.
Sephiroth sheathed his Saber, closed his spatial pocket, and then re-entered the bathtub and sat down.
He handed the three rings in his hand to the Boa Sisters.
"Is this... an engagement ring?"
Hancock asked happily, carefully examining the ring in her hand. She noticed a piece of gold embedded on the inside, constantly emitting a golden light.
Hearing this, Sephiroth scratched his head, subconsciously avoiding the topic of "engagement." He said, "Uh!?... This... The metal embedded on the inside of the ring is called Pure Gold. The light it emits contains an extremely special energy that can greatly delay the growth rate of all living beings."
"In other words, it has the effect of making people immortal. The person wearing it will have their physical age maintained at the exact moment they put it on..."
"If that's the case... then this thing must be a priceless treasure!"
As she spoke, Sandersonia put the ring on her left ring finger.
Sephiroth nodded slightly. "Pure Gold is indeed a priceless treasure, even the World Nobles covet it immensely..."
"However, after putting on this ring, if you don't take it off, your body will not be able to continue growing, and your physique will also stop strengthening."
"Ah! Doesn't that mean that if we want to stay young and beautiful forever, we won't be able to gain powerful strength?"
Marie Gold looked at the ring in her hand with a conflicted expression.
No woman could resist the temptation of being forever young and beautiful, but if they wanted to stay young, they had to give up improving their strength...
Conflicted.JPG
"Then wouldn't it be fine not to wear it while training...?"
Hancock smiled nonchalantly, put the ring on her left ring finger, and examined it carefully.
"Actually, the peak physical condition for ordinary people is probably around 25 to 30 years old..."
"Once past this period, the physique basically won't grow anymore."
Hearing this, Marie Gold thought for a moment and said with slight surprise, "Huh!? But... I've noticed that the female warriors on Nine Snake Island, even after they turn 30, their physical strength and overall power are still steadily improving!?"
Sephiroth recalled the research data from his laboratory and explained, "Their strength can continue to increase because the quality of their Armament Haki has been continuously improving..."
"Even if the physique stops growing, the quality and quantity of Armament Haki can be slowly increased and accumulated through training."
"Therefore, the peak strength for regular Haki of Armament practitioners is generally around forty to fifty years old."
"At that time, their bodies, tempered through countless trials, have not yet aged, and the quality of their Armament Haki has reached its peak state through years of cultivation."
At that time, their bodies, tempered through countless trials, have not yet aged, and the quality of their Armament Haki has reached its peak state through years of cultivation.
"The stronger the Haki, the better the amplification effect on muscle fibers. That's why they can exert strength far exceeding that of their twenties and thirties, their youthful period, when they are in their forties and fifties!"
"Thus, you get the illusion that their muscle strength is stronger than in their youth!"
"However, no matter how strong a Haki practitioner is, after the age of fifty-five, due to the gradual aging of the body and various old injuries, their strength will gradually decline."
"If they take good care of themselves, this can be delayed for a few more years, but by the time they are seventy or eighty, they ultimately cannot escape the fate of physical aging and a significant decrease in strength..."
Hancock gently turned the ring on her left hand, smiling.
"Hehehe! I'm already twenty-two this year, and my physical growth seems to have hit a bottleneck, with no improvement at all."
"Anyway, I can still train Haki while wearing this thing, so I'll just keep it on..."
"After all, Sephiroth, you've always been very fond of young girls!"
"I don't want to turn into an old hag so quickly..."
"What if you dislike me after I get old?"
Sephiroth: "..."