March 27, 1502, Age of the Sea Circle
"I don't care what you say, I'm mad at you," said Kalifa, crossing her arms adorably while pouting.
After pacifying all the girls who were angry about not being able to participate in the siege of the Nakamura base, Orion had gone to face the most difficult opponent this time: Kalifa.
The little girl, who would turn nine in less than a month, had been training her combat abilities for years, and although she didn't possess Rob Lucci's monstrous talent, she was undoubtedly a prodigy capable of putting any normal person to shame.
She was certainly strong enough now to defend herself against ordinary enemies, yet Orion still hadn't allowed her to join the great battle, which had left her somewhat indignant. Now that he had come to try to appease her, she found herself in a position of power over him, taking full advantage of the opportunity to act a bit more spoiled than usual.
After all, Kalifa was a very mature girl for her age, and she rarely allowed herself the luxury of behaving like a demanding child. She usually helped with government affairs, serving as an invaluable assistant, and even attended the public school as a teacher's aide.
With the little free time she had left, she trained almost to the point of collapsing, so it was understandable that she felt angry for not being taken to the great battle against the Nakamura, even if Orion had only been trying to protect her.
Despite being a genius, her young body had not yet developed enough to properly support her talent. In this magical world of One Piece, it was not unusual for people to experience a sudden surge in power upon reaching puberty—at least for the most gifted individuals.
Kalifa obviously belonged to that group, so once she entered adolescence, she would surely grow stronger at a rapid pace, her combat power increasing suddenly. However, for now, she needed to be patient, as her moment to shine had not yet arrived.
"Stop whining, Kalifa, you're such a brat. That's why people don't like you," said Hototogisu from the side, eating an ice cream in a "suggestive" way, trying to tempt Orion.
"Grrrr! Why don't you shut up?! Or do you want to fight?!" shouted little Kalifa, waving her tiny fists that didn't seem capable of hurting anyone—even though she could actually shatter large boulders with a single finger using Shigan.
In truth, one of the main reasons for Kalifa's frustration was that her greatest rival—although they were practically best friends and refused to admit it—Hototogisu, was able to fight on the battlefield alongside Orion without issue.
Because of the age difference between them, Hototogisu had left her far behind in combat level, and no matter how much Kalifa trained, she simply couldn't catch up. After all, it was the difference between an adult and a child.
"I don't want to fight you. Orion will get mad if I beat you up—he'll say I'm bullying you," said Hototogisu, sticking out her tongue playfully and sensually licking her ice cream again and again while staring at Orion.
Kalifa couldn't contain her indignation and, launching a Tempest Kick at Hototogisu, started fighting her directly, though it was obvious the two were merely "playing," not taking the matter seriously.
After a few minutes, Kalifa returned, frustrated after being completely defeated, and pouting, she said to Orion,
"I want a hug, and I also want you to train with me for a whole month."
Orion sighed in relief upon seeing that she had entered the "negotiation phase," and magnanimously agreed to her requests. Immediately emboldened, Kalifa went on to demand even more things to stop being angry with him.
"Also, I want you to give me a kiss, and I want you to cook me delicious food twice a week," said the little prodigy, trying to slip in a slightly exaggerated request in the middle.
"No kisses. I can cook for you whenever you want," said Orion, obviously not falling for her trap.
"Then promise me you'll take me to the next big battle! I can be useful!" said Kalifa, looking at him with determination.
In the end, Orion couldn't resist her gaze and agreed to her request. After all, he would only have to keep her safe when the time came, and Kalifa could gain some real battle experience—so perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all.
The little girl raised her arms cheerfully after securing the promise she had been seeking and threw herself into Orion's arms to claim the promised hug. After a few moments, she stepped back and gave Hototogisu a defiant look, as if trying to provoke the expressionless girl.
Hototogisu reacted immediately, and after making a sharp remark toward Kalifa, the two of them began yet another round of "friendly" arguing and fighting. Orion, meanwhile, took the opportunity to quietly slip away without leaving a trace, intending to go find Ginny.
Now that he had finally managed to calm all the girls who had been left behind without joining the battle, it was time to confront the beautiful revolutionary and confess his feelings to her.
Using Soru, he reached the base of the Southern Revolutionary Army, located a bit away from the rest of the kingdom in a mountainous area difficult to access—or at least it would have been if one relied on conventional methods, since Orion had used Nibble's abilities to establish a direct communication link between the base and the coast.
Orion entered the base and came across some of the recruits busy with their daily duties. After greeting them briefly, he headed straight for the central office, where Ginny was usually found, but upon entering, he realized there was no trace of the beautiful revolutionary.
Somewhat disappointed, he asked the revolutionaries present, who informed him that Ginny had departed a few days earlier for a nearby kingdom, where the Southern Revolutionary Army was carrying out an operation against the local government.
After hearing that she would take at least a couple more weeks to return, Orion sighed bitterly and left the place, thinking he had no choice but to wait for Ginny's return.
However, he decided that if she didn't come back within a month, he would go looking for her wherever she was, since he didn't want to postpone the matter any longer. Now that he had finally made up his mind to act and make their relationship official, he was feeling a little impatient to do it as soon as possible.
…
After leaving the Revolutionary Army headquarters, Orion ran toward one of the distant mountains, climbing a rocky cliff and admiring the beautiful view from up there. Although there were still powerful beasts in this central area of the island, with Orion's current power, dealing with them posed little problem, so he didn't worry about his safety.
Enjoying the autumn wind on his skin, Orion took out the King Cobra egg he had obtained after completing the special mission related to Hancock, and after injecting it with a generous amount of Conqueror's Haki, he looked at the egg curiously.
The egg had grown quite a bit in the past few months, now larger than the palm of his hand. Its shell gleamed with a pristine shine that seemed to grow brighter as the creature inside absorbed greater quantities of Conqueror's Haki.
When Orion focused his spirit on the egg, he could sense the beast within, which seemed to recognize his presence and respond happily. He could feel that the time for the egg to hatch was drawing near and guessed that it would probably happen before the end of the year, though he couldn't be completely certain.
After observing the egg for a while, he placed it back into the Pocket Dimension and opened the system screen, intending to invest some SP from his large reserve.
Since he had been saving SP for emergencies, the amount he had accumulated was truly enormous—exceeding 200,000 SP.
This time, Orion planned to invest 100,000, leaving the rest as backup just in case. After all, if a situation like Wano or Ohara arose again and he couldn't take part because he lacked SP, he would be terribly disappointed.
Looking over the many skills he could improve, Orion grew thoughtful and finally decided to invest some points in enhancing his general talent. Over the years, he had been silently and methodically spending a small portion of his SP to improve this talent, though as it increased, the investment required for noticeable progress also grew proportionally.
At present, Orion needed to spend around 10,000 SP to see a significant improvement, so he had recently been hesitant to invest in it, considering the cost not entirely worth it. Besides, he had a theory that once his body entered adolescence, his power growth would accelerate exponentially—though he wasn't sure about that.
Overall, he didn't know whether it was wise to invest SP in talent right now, but given the large reserve he currently held, he decided to grit his teeth and invest 50,000 SP.
As soon as he did, he felt his understanding of the world subtly deepen, and he thought that if he now trained some of his more complex techniques, he might obtain far more satisfying results. For a moment, he considered practicing his new technique, Door Collapse, but ultimately decided against it for now, since he wasn't in a suitable place to do so.
That technique left him completely exhausted, and if one of the powerful mountain beasts attacked him in that state, he could end up in more trouble than he wanted.
Focusing again on the list of available skills to upgrade, he decided to start by improving his Haki Talent, currently at level 5. This ability affected his use of all three types of Haki, making it particularly valuable. However, upgrading it required a ridiculous amount of SP—50,000 SP, to be precise.
Even so, Orion felt that each improvement in this ability greatly increased the natural progression of his Haki, so he decided to raise it by one level. And thus, somewhat anticlimactically, he had consumed the 100,000 SP he had worked so hard to earn.
Still, Orion decided to increase his Swordsmanship by one level as well, since he had felt that this ability was on the verge of advancing naturally and wouldn't consume too many points—though in the end, it ended up costing him almost 20,000 SP more.
Thus, Orion spent 120,000 SP in just a few moments, leaving his reserves at exactly 86,953 SP. That was his emergency fund, so he decided not to touch it any further.
Then, he took out an item he had kept unused for years: the Skill Upgrade Card.
He had been saving that card for an emergency ever since he discovered he couldn't use it to enhance his Conqueror's Haki, but it had been sitting in his inventory for so long that it had practically become a decoration—or a good luck charm.
Just like those precious items in the video games of his past life that players hoarded until the very end without ever using, this card had suffered the same sad fate. For that reason, Orion had decided to simply use it without overthinking.
As for the ability he chose to upgrade, it was Medicine, which was currently at level 6.
The reason he had chosen this skill instead of a combat one was that it was particularly difficult to raise without proper resources. At present, he stood at the very peak of "normal" medical knowledge, and the only way forward was to step into the realm of the "miraculous"—something far from easy, especially for someone like him, who wasn't exactly a genius in the field of medicine.
Skills like Swordsmanship could be improved through hard work and practice, since his talent in that area was quite strong, but Medicine was different; without external help, he would likely have remained at level 6 forever.
Not only did he have the mission to heal Whitebeard, but he also wanted to find a cure for Dragon's wife's illness, so an improvement in his medical skill was undeniably essential for his future endeavors.
Sitting high on the mountain, feeling the autumn wind brush against his skin, Orion closed his eyes and sensed a vast amount of knowledge pouring into his mind. No matter how many times he experienced that sensation, it never stopped feeling magical to him.
Finally, after a few minutes, he opened his eyes, his perception of the world slightly enhanced thanks to his newfound medical understanding. Even his grasp of combat had improved through this new insight, showing that his skills didn't function in isolation from one another.
With a hint of laziness, he stood up, stretched, and began his descent toward the growing city visible in the distance, as the night slowly fell.
…
April 26, 1502, Age of the Sea Circle
A month passed in the blink of an eye, and during that time Orion returned to his daily routine of training and developing his kingdom. After speaking once more with Scarlet about the wedding date, they decided to postpone it for a full year, planning to hold it on March 21st of the following year.
By then, they would be harvesting the first batch of high-grade herbs, and combined with the spring equinox, it would be a particularly special date for the Kingdom of Dressrosa.
Orion had promised the beautiful princess that he would be there for the occasion, and in the meantime, he continued coordinating the distribution of medicines with the help of the Central Revolutionary Army, under Ivankov's command.
Although the highest-grade herbs would take a year to cultivate, there were others that could be produced more quickly, from which powerful medicines could be made—so exports were expected to begin gradually in the coming months.
The entire process of creating a pharmaceutical industry in Dressrosa from scratch was quite extensive and would probably take several years to fully consolidate, but the changes would come gradually, and even within the first months, the impoverished kingdom would begin to reap some benefits.
Finally, after waiting an entire month for Ginny's return, Orion decided to go find her himself, wherever she was carrying out her current mission with the Southern Revolutionary Army. A few days earlier, he had set sail alone, intending to reach her in a couple of weeks.
However, a sudden alert from the system drastically changed all his plans.
*Ding*
*New emergency special mission available*
*Special Mission – Save Ginny
Description: Ginny has been captured by a Celestial Dragon who intends to take her as his wife by force. If no action is taken soon, she will suffer the tragic fate of becoming the Celestial Dragon's plaything.
Objective: Rescue Ginny before she suffers irreversible harm.
Reward: SP, Main Wife registration slot in the system (1), Character Improvement Card (1)*
Orion read the system notification and began trembling with fury. Those damned Celestial Dragons were always a problem! However, he knew he couldn't lose his composure—he had to act immediately to rescue Ginny.
Looking at the next notification, he sighed with relief, thinking it was a good thing he hadn't spent all his SP a month earlier.
*It is possible to teleport to Ginny's current location. Cost: 48,222 SP. Do you wish to be transported? Yes/No*
Without a moment's hesitation, Orion selected "Yes", and his body vanished from the small sailboat he had been traveling on—without leaving a single trace behind.
…
Meanwhile, on an island not far from the South Blue, the Southern Revolutionary Army under Ginny's command was in total panic. Moments earlier, they had been suddenly ambushed by a group of Marines and Cipher Pol agents, and after being swiftly defeated, their commander had been kidnapped before they could do anything to stop it.
Only Ginny's rifle had been left behind, proof that her presence had not been an illusion.
"What do we do? They've taken the commander!" shouted one of the senior soldiers of the southern branch, clearly having lost his composure.
"Calm down! Worrying won't help now, what we need to do is act!" said the deputy commander of the Southern Army, a middle-aged man with a rather nasty scar on his cheek.
"But… what can we do? There's no way we can take on those people! It's a miracle we're even alive right now!" said one of the female soldiers, panicking over the abduction of her beloved commander.
"For now, we'll report this to Orion. He's the only one we can count on right now," said the deputy, trying to appear as calm as possible, though he too was deeply worried about Ginny.
The man pulled out his Den Den Mushi, ready to make the call, but before he could, a voice echoed behind him.
"There's no need to call me. I'm already here."
The soldiers froze at the sudden voice, and when they turned to look in the direction it came from, they were shocked to see Orion standing there with a grim expression.
Orion, on the other hand, had no time to waste. He knew that leaving Ginny even one more minute in the hands of the depraved Celestial Dragons could end in tragedy. For that reason, after checking the system map and seeing Ginny's current marker location, he looked at the soldiers around him and said seriously:
"For now, retreat from this place. Don't return to the main base yet. Head to the nearest secondary base and wait there. Once I've rescued Ginny, I'll contact you."
Then, without waiting for any response from the soldiers of the Southern Army, Orion used Soru and dashed away at full speed in Ginny's direction.
Fortunately for him, she had been abducted only moments ago and wasn't far away, so he could reach her in less than five minutes. Even so, Orion wasn't the least bit relaxed, because the presence of a Celestial Dragon also meant the presence of high-ranking warriors assigned to protect him.
If it was a vice admiral or even a CP0 agent, the situation would be difficult but not impossible. But if a Marine admiral was guarding this Celestial Dragon… Orion would have to put his life on the line.
Crossing his fingers that he wouldn't run into an admiral or something worse, Orion sprinted at full speed, soon spotting the massive ship bearing the World Government's insignia in the distance. A fierce battle for Ginny's safety was about to begin.
...
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