[Stelle held the baseball bat horizontally in front of her, her knuckles turning white from excessive force. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the impending impact—]
[However, nothing happened.]
[There was no deafening explosion, no tearing pain in her body, not even the slightest wind pressure. Only a strange, hair-raising silence.]
[Stelle slowly opened her eyes.]
[The Monarch floated in mid-air, its massive body twitching at an unnatural frequency. The blue light on its carapace flickered on and off like a faulty light bulb.]
[Stelle stared blankly at the scene before her. The Monarch's body began to collapse at a visible speed, shrinking smaller and smaller until it finally turned into countless tiny points of light and dissipated into the air.]
[The True Sting insects that had split from its body also perished together, leaving nothing behind.]
["In 56 seconds, it could no longer maintain its own existence and was completely annihilated, as if it had never been born."]
[On the second-floor platform, the plaster-headed man coldly watched everything happening below. After confirming the Monarch was completely dead, he let out a cold laugh and left without looking back.]
——
One Piece.
Holy Land Mary Geoise.
"56 seconds? A guy of this level also deserves to be called an Emanator? That girl Stelle didn't even pull out her Flame Lance. It wasn't even enough for a warm-up."
Green Bull casually set down the wine bowl on the table as the vines generated by his five fingers lazily retracted. "…And they even said 'blooming unprecedented life.' I did see the 'blooming,' but the 'withering' happened way too fast. Speaking of which… didn't Ruan Mei exaggerate?"
Fujitora gently stroked the hilt of his staff blade, lost in thought. "Perhaps this Emanator was just one of her failures. Not only its life force, but even its power was greatly reduced."
After watching the entire battle between the Emanators on the Xianzhou, Fujitora had formed a preliminary judgment on the combat power between Emanators — a serious Emanator was absolutely capable of destroying an entire civilization.
But this bug couldn't even destroy a civilization. Its fight with Stelle didn't even alert Herta and Screwllum. Not only was its life force greatly reduced, its power seemed to have been weakened to almost nothing.
But this was also a good thing. Whether out of concern for Stelle's safety or the lives of the innocent crew members on the space station, Fujitora did not want a [Propagation] Emanator with 100% power to take action — even if it meant missing an exciting fight between Emanators.
Green Bull narrowed his eyes and looked back at the Celestial Screen. "Ruan Mei knew this bug's power was incomplete, so why didn't she tell Stelle in advance? Could it be because she doesn't trust her?"
"She said she doesn't trust anyone except herself," Fujitora nodded. "Although this lady excels at research, she seems rather insensitive to human emotions."
"Tch… No wonder those two 'darling' lines sounded so casual." Green Bull clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "Compared to her, Screwllum is actually the most human among these three geniuses… even though that guy is a robot."
——
[Stelle arrived at the platform and found Ruan Mei once again.]
[The Genius Society meeting had already ended. The result was not important to her; what mattered was Stelle's side.]
[Seeing Stelle's serious expression, Ruan Mei was momentarily stunned. She lowered her eyelashes as the cold light of the platform cast faint shadows on her face. "Judging by your appearance… you're angry, right? I'm sorry, I have nothing to defend myself with. To this day, my experiments have failed countless times, and the outcome has always been within expectations."]
["I created a replica, but the distance between it and that Emanator… is ultimately unreachable."]
["You didn't have to hide it from me," Stelle said irritably.]
["How should I explain this to you? I'm not good at communicating with people…" Ruan Mei's tone remained light. "Limited by time and venue, its life composition could only be considered a semi-finished product. I reproduced the moment of its birth, but soon it will dissipate into particles."]
["A negligible step — the same answer as expected."]
["But it almost ate me," Stelle grew even angrier.]
["I told you, if you encounter an insurmountable danger, I will take action to strike it down." Ruan Mei shook her head gently. "In fact, I don't like everything always proceeding exactly as I planned. Experiments without variables are boring."]
However, in this story that arrived as scheduled in Ruan Mei's eyes, there was still an unexpected joy — precisely the little ones she had originally considered "failures."
They possessed emotions, which was touching. The expression of emotions could be positive or negative. But among them, the love rooted deep in the heart is eternal and unchanging.
They were still far from being true Geniuses, so they couldn't distinguish whether this love was friendship, familial affection, or romantic love. But for Ruan Mei, she also couldn't do it… nor did she understand what "love" was, and she had no way to respond to their feelings.
——
Demon Slayer.
"So this is the flaw of a Genius…"
Shinobu Kocho gently put down her teacup, gazing at Ruan Mei's somewhat lonely figure on the Celestial Screen and sighing softly. "She clearly possesses the most top-tier mind in the universe, yet she cannot understand the most basic human emotions. It's like a double-edged sword — pushing her further from people, yet bringing her closer to her goal."
Mitsuri Kanroji blinked, her pink-green hair swaying gently as she tilted her head. "Eh… is that a good thing or a bad thing? For a genius scholar like Miss Ruan Mei, it should be a good thing, right?"
"But for the little ones she nurtured, it's not a good thing."
At this point, Shinobu's expression became somewhat sad. The cat cakes Ruan Mei nurtured reminded her of the stray cats she and her sister fed together as children. Her sister's personality was completely opposite to Ruan Mei's — if a small animal rubbed against her feet, she absolutely couldn't walk away.
Unfortunately, after her sister was eaten by that folding-fan demon, she never saw those stray cats again. Now, seeing the cat cakes blinking their big eyes with such pitiful looks made her wish she could dive into the Celestial Screen and hug them.
They had the cuteness of cats, didn't shed fur, and could understand human speech… They were practically perfect pets!
——
["Stelle, in your eyes, did I do something wrong?"]
[Looking at Stelle's hesitant expression, Ruan Mei smiled gently. "You don't need to tell me the answer. I was just… expressing my feelings. How to take care of them? Leaving them on the space station might be the best choice."]
["Also, the effects of the Truth Serum will soon wear off. In the future, if anyone mentions me, feel free to say whatever you want, or say we never met."]
["Anyway, the memories between us will soon dissipate like smoke."]
——