The first half of the Grand Line, Angel Island.
On the second-floor corridor of the mountaintop villa.
Sephiroth reached out and opened Kozuki Hiyori's room door, walking in. Kozuki Hiyori followed behind him, consciously closing the door.
"Master! What do you want me to cooperate with you on~?"
Saying this, Kozuki Hiyori knelt down, slowly crawling on her hands and knees towards Sephiroth, and gently rubbed her cheek against his white suit trousers, just like a little cat purring.
Seeing this scene, Sephiroth couldn't help but think:
This vexatious little vixen… if it were yesterday, when I had just come out of the Rainbow Mist, I would definitely make you cry and beg for mercy!
Sephiroth squatted down and gently lifted Kozuki Hiyori's chin with his right hand. He said with a smile:
"I want you to cooperate with me on a Fruit ability test… Honestly, if this test is completed, your strength should increase significantly, directly breaking through the Sword Master realm and taking a big step towards Great Swordsman! However, at that time, you will also develop some weaknesses, such as being afraid of sunlight, not being able to be exposed to sunlight for a long time, etc… This is just like the characteristic of Devil Fruit users fearing seawater."
"Hehehe! Is this true?
To be able to increase my strength, that's really great!
Anyway, I'm also very afraid of strong sunlight now, afraid of getting my skin tanned, so I always bring an umbrella when I go out!" Kozuki Hiyori giggled.
"Okay! Since you don't object, let's start now!"
As he spoke, Sephiroth took out a blood-red pill from his trouser pocket, opened his mouth, and swallowed it.
Gulp-!
The moment he swallowed the awakening medicine, a bloody ribbon appeared on Sephiroth's body, and he instantly entered his Hybrid form.
Before Kozuki Hiyori could react, Sephiroth hugged her tightly, plunged his vampire fangs directly into her fair neck, and began to rapidly suck her blood.
Because he injected neurotoxins while sucking blood, at this moment, besides feeling extreme pleasure, Kozuki Hiyori didn't notice that the blood in her body was being lost in large quantities and quickly reached the critical point of death from excessive blood loss.
Only then did Sephiroth begin to inject a small amount of his blood into the girl's body with his fangs, maintaining her basic life state.
But…
He still didn't stop sucking Kozuki Hiyori's blood!
At this moment, Sephiroth was using his Vampire Fruit's awakened ability to attempt something… the First Embrace!
This is a power he can only use after activating his Fruit's awakened state and developing the power of blood to its extreme.
He could drain a large amount of blood from Kozuki Hiyori's body, bringing her to the brink of death. Then, he would introduce his own Source Blood while she was weak, dismantling and collapsing her immune system. Ultimately, he would achieve the permanent parasitism of his blood within her body.
Source Blood. This was a special ability that Sephiroth could only condense upon entering his awakened state. It was the materialization of his power. He could share it with others, allowing the recipient to gain part of his power, thus transforming the other person into a vampire.
But...
In exchange, as the bestower of power, he would also lose a corresponding portion of his power, causing his own strength to decline.
Afterward, he would need a long period of recovery to restore the lost Source Blood.
Although Sephiroth's strength growth had become very slow after reaching the Emperor level due to existing conditions, he was at least slowly getting stronger. He was actually quite unwilling to let his strength decline or anything like that.
Therefore, this matter became one of the main reasons Sephiroth had been struggling with whether or not to use the First Embrace and create blood relatives.
As the blood in her body was lost, Kozuki Hiyori, in Sephiroth's arms, gradually saw her pupils begin to dilate, and her face became extremely pale.
The girl's hands, which had been holding him, dropped powerlessly, and the life force within her body weakened to the extreme, like a candle in the wind that would be extinguished with a gentle puff.
Sephiroth estimated in his heart that the time was about right. Only then did he begin to rapidly inject his own blood into the other party's body, helping her quickly restore her vital signs.
At the same time, he also integrated a part of Kozuki Hiyori's blood into his own blood, mixing them together, creating a special soul connection between them.
Finally, a special blood energy, condensed from Sephiroth's limbs and bones, was injected into Kozuki Hiyori's body through his vampire fangs. It integrated into her blood, disappeared without a trace, and was hidden in the deepest part of her body.
At this point, Sephiroth withdrew from his awakened state, held the unconscious Kozuki Hiyori, and lay down on the soft pink large bed.
Weak!
Very weak!
An inexplicable sense of weakness came from all over his body. Sephiroth could clearly feel that his overall strength had declined by about one-tenth, and his Haki and physique showed obvious signs of deterioration.
He materialized one-tenth of his power from an abstract concept into a special ability substance and transferred it to Kozuki Hiyori.
He estimated that this portion of lost energy would require a year and a half of recovery to restore.
A ray of morning sunlight shone into the room through the gap in the goose-yellow curtains, falling upon Kozuki Hiyori's fair cheek.
Red spots erupted on her skin the instant she was exposed to sunlight, as if burned.
"Ugh~! It hurts...."
Kozuki Hiyori whimpered softly. The pain on her cheek shocked her back to full awareness, and she sat up from Sephiroth's body, retreating from the direct sunlight.
When her cheek moved out of the sunlight, the redness vanished, and her skin returned to its smooth, fair state, showing no sign of the burn it had just received.
This was Sephiroth's Source Blood, which granted her the power of super-regeneration...
At this moment, Kozuki Hiyori had become a vampire!
Her situation was different from Sephiroth's. For him, blood was just a supplementary energy source.
But...
For her, blood was the only thing that could provide her with energy!
She could go without food, but she had to replenish energy by drinking blood...
After all, having become a vampire, she could no longer obtain the special energy her body needed through normal food.
"What's going on...?"
Kozuki Hiyori blankly reached out and touched her cheek where she had felt pain, but she found nothing unusual.
Puzzled, she extended her right palm into the sunlight shining through the gap in the curtains.
Soon, large red burn marks appeared on her slender, fair hand, as if the skin had been scalded by boiling water.
After Kozuki Hiyori pulled her hand back, the red burn marks vanished in less than a second!
Next, she experimented several times and found that even when exposed to direct sunlight for a long time, she would only suffer skin burns, with no more serious effects.
This was because Kozuki Hiyori was a second-generation vampire, transformed by Sephiroth using his own Source Blood, and possessed extremely high resistance to sunlight.
If Kozuki Hiyori were to create other blood relatives in the future, they would lose this resistance and would burst into flames the moment they were exposed to direct sunlight!
"Master, will I never be able to bask in the sun again from now on!?" Kozuki Hiyori asked with a hint of regret.
Once she was fully conscious, she could clearly feel, through her Observation Haki, that an extremely powerful force had been added to her limbs and bones out of nowhere.
She was now at least twice as strong as before!
Therefore, even though she knew she couldn't be directly exposed to sunlight anymore, it wasn't unacceptable.
Anyway, it didn't cause her much trouble.
After all, if she wanted to go out during the day, she could completely rely on her Nue Fruit ability to create clouds and block the sunlight in the sky!
Sephiroth gently rubbed his chin and mused:
"Under normal circumstances, you truly can't bask in the sun anymore! But... you might not believe it, but the reason you can't is this: The ultraviolet rays abundant in sunlight are a potent catalyst for energy absorption for your body! When exposed to ultraviolet rays, your body rapidly absorbs free energy from the air, leading to an energy overload which then causes burns."
"Ah!? Listening to you, Master... Ultraviolet rays are actually a beneficial type of light for me, right? But with too much of a good thing, a large amount of ultraviolet rays instead hurts my body..."
"Exactly! Therefore, when you're exposed to trace amounts of ultraviolet rays in the moonlight at night, your body will instead enter a state of excitement, and your overall strength will slightly increase..." Sephiroth explained patiently. Through years of research, he had a considerable understanding of his own energy conversion. Ironically, ultraviolet rays are surprisingly beneficial for vampires, capable of accelerating their use of blood to synthesize the energy needed by the body! It's just that the vampires artificially created by Sephiroth couldn't possess special organelles in their bodies that could regulate ultraviolet absorption like he did. This caused them to produce excess energy and self-immolate... All along, the reason Sephiroth was able to rapidly recover his stamina and maintain his physical condition at its peak was thanks to the catalytic effect of ultraviolet rays on energy absorption! Through his Observation Haki, Sephiroth clearly sensed a flicker of disappointment in Kozuki Hiyori's heart. He immediately raised his hand and stroked the girl's head, saying with a smile, "Don't worry! If it were in the past, I might not have had a solution, but... By chance, I obtained something that can perfectly solve this problem!"
Saying this, Sephiroth reached into his suit jacket pocket and fumbled around, taking out a silver ring with a piece of pure gold inlaid on its inner side.
He gently held Kozuki Hiyori's left hand and placed the ring on her ring finger.
"Try extending your hand into the sunlight again."
Kozuki Hiyori nodded slightly, and she extended her hand into the sunlight once more.
This time, her skin felt a slight warmth, but there were no signs of burning.
"Huh!? What's going on...?
I really won't get burned anymore!"
Kozuki Hiyori looked at the young man before her with a joyful expression.
"The pure gold inlaid on this ring, and the light it emits, can greatly slow the growth rate of living beings, thus granting them eternal life. But what surprised me is that it can also limit the amount of ultraviolet light vampires absorb, preventing them from bursting into flames from the sun's rays! In a sense, pure gold is almost an item invented specifically to let vampires stand in the sun..."
Sephiroth stared at the ring on the girl's hand. Various thoughts jumbled in his mind.
"Huh!? Wait, Master, you just said that wearing it grants eternal life!? Is that true...?" Kozuki Hiyori asked, a joyful expression on her face.
Sephiroth raised his hand and gently pinched the girl's small, delicate nose. He said with a slightly doting tone, "Little fool! Once I turned you into a vampire, you already became immortal! The pure gold just helps you not fear sunlight!"
"Hehehe! Master, you are so good to me..."
"Then you must be obedient from now on, get along well with the other girls in the villa, don't cause trouble anymore, and don't hide any other thoughts, understood!"
"Yes! I understand!"
Hearing this, Kozuki Hiyori immediately nodded in agreement.
However…
Less than two seconds later, she slowly lowered her head and said in a voice full of apology, "Um... Master... Actually, there's something I've hidden from you for many years... Today, I want to confess to you... Actually, I use the alias Xiao Zi... I am from the Kozuki family of Wano Country, the daughter of Kozuki Oden, Kozuki Hiyori... When I said before that I wanted Enma and wanted to become stronger, that was just an excuse. The purpose was merely to retrieve my father's sword, Enma..."
Sephiroth didn't interrupt Kozuki Hiyori's confession, but just listened to her words.
The reason the girl suddenly confessed wasn't because she suddenly felt guilt, but because of a special phenomenon that occurred after Sephiroth transformed her into a vampire… acknowledging her lineage!
Anyone who harbored strong feelings of goodwill, love, and admiration towards Sephiroth, after being turned into a vampire by him, would become absolutely loyal and obey all his commands.
Even if the command went against their original intentions, they would still obey unconditionally…
However, this phenomenon is limited to only the vampires he directly transforms; subsequent generations of vampires won't experience this influence.
"Is that so?... Actually, I had already guessed your identity a long time ago, but I didn't care."
After Kozuki Hiyori finished her confession, Sephiroth gently stroked her cheek and asked with a serious expression:
"However, what I'm a little concerned about is... If one day the Kozuki family stands against me, will you choose to stand on the Kozuki family's side and be my enemy, or... Choose to help me eliminate the Kozuki family as an enemy...?"
Hearing this, a brief look of astonishment and hesitation flashed across Kozuki Hiyori's face.
After three seconds of silence, she looked up and said in a serious and firm tone, "I will stand on Master's side!"
If the Kozuki family poses a threat to Master, I will be the first to step forward and eliminate this hidden danger!"