Sabaody Archipelago, Island 41.
In the bedroom of a three-story villa, on a snow-white large bed.
The morning sun hit Domino's face, and she subconsciously turned over in her deep sleep.
In her daze, she wanted to hug something, reached out, and immediately touched a firm chest.
Before she could react, she groped downwards again...
Finally realizing something, Domino abruptly opened her groggy eyes, widened them, and looked at Sephiroth beside her, who was watching her with a half-smile.
"I... I... Ugh~!"
In an instant, Domino's fair and pretty face immediately flushed red. She pulled the white bedding over her body, covering her head, and curled herself up.
Recalling what she had done yesterday, she now genuinely felt like she wanted to die...
Yesterday, she had originally planned to drink spiked red wine with Sephiroth, letting things naturally develop into the outcome she wanted to see.
But...
She had completely underestimated the potency of Aphrodite!
After drinking the potion, Domino felt as if she had become a different person, immediately losing her sanity and control...
No! Or perhaps, she had simply unleashed the long-suppressed desires in her heart, which was why she had directly pounced on Sephiroth!
From the living room, to the bathroom, then to the stairs and the bedroom...
The more she recalled what she had done yesterday, the stronger the sense of shame became in Domino's heart!
A warm and broad hand suddenly reached into the white blanket, gently stroking the top of Domino's head.
Through Observation Haki perception, Sephiroth very keenly sensed the emotional changes of Domino, who was hiding under the covers.
Therefore, he immediately put away his intention to tease her and instead said with a very gentle tone and a smile:
"Whether it was you yesterday, or you in this state now, you are somehow very cute!
I really like it..."
"Ah!? I... I... Really?"
Domino, her pretty face flushed, poked her head out from under the covers and looked at him with slightly evasive eyes.
"Yes! It's true..."
Sephiroth slightly lowered his head and lightly kissed her forehead.
This action immediately made Domino feel a sense of sweetness slowly flowing through her heart.
"Uh... I... I'm sorry...!
Yesterday... yesterday..."
Domino spoke hesitantly, unsure how to explain yesterday's events to Sephiroth.
Seeing the young woman in front of him so conflicted and hesitant, Sephiroth immediately chuckled lightly. He opened his arms and pulled her directly into his embrace.
Before Domino could continue speaking, he was the first to make a definitive statement about yesterday's events:
"Yes! It's all my fault... It's my bad! It was me who took advantage of you being unable to hold your liquor and did something very excessive to you."
Hearing this, Domino couldn't help but be stunned. She dazedly lifted her head and looked at the young man holding her in his arms.
For a moment, she was at a loss for words.
After a while, Domino opened her arms, hugged him tightly, and buried her face in his chest.
"Sephiroth... You're so outstanding. There must be many women who like you, right? A woman like me, who's useless in every way except being a little pretty... Normally, you definitely wouldn't fall for me... So! I don't dare ask you to take responsibility or anything... It's just... if I can be with you occasionally, I'll be very satisfied..."
Hearing this, Sephiroth immediately frowned and looked down at Domino in his arms. His tone brooked no argument.
"Woman, what nonsense are you saying!? You will never escape from my grasp in this lifetime!"
Instead of feeling repulsed by Sephiroth's domineering attitude, Domino's heart felt so sweet it was almost melting, filled with happiness.
She didn't know what words to use to express her feelings!
So, she could only lift her head and kiss Sephiroth's cheek with her sexy, soft lips.
.........
Marineford Military Academy, Military School Students Dormitory Building.
Recalling the information on the student roster, Sephiroth walked to the end of the first-floor corridor, to the door of a dormitory, and raised his hand to knock.
Knock knock knock—!
Footsteps sounded inside, and then Ain, wearing a Marine uniform, opened the door.
Sephiroth smiled, raised his hand, and greeted her.
"Good morning!"
"Good morning, Instructor Sephiroth! Please come in!"
Ain smiled and greeted him back, then stepped aside to let him pass.
Sephiroth looked around the dormitory and saw the upper bunk was empty, with only a bed board and no signs of occupancy. Only the lower bunk had bedding.
In other words, although Ain lived in a double room, she lived alone.
Females were already few among the Military School Students, and Ain was the only girl in First Class. It was normal for her to occupy a dormitory room alone.
"As agreed yesterday, I'd like to ask for your help in restoring some ancient books, so I took the liberty of coming today..."
Hearing this, Ain looked Sephiroth up and down, and she said with a puzzled expression.
"Uh!? How come I don't see you carrying any books..."
"Oh! They're here!"
As he spoke, Sephiroth pulled the butcher knife from his waist, opened his spatial inventory, and moved out a rusty metal cabinet. He opened it, revealing stacks of yellowed documents and files, numbering around one or two hundred.
Besides that, there were also seven or eight books.
After a thousand years of erosion, every piece of paper inside the metal cabinet had become incredibly fragile. Just a slight touch would cause it to crumble into dust!
So much so that despite the Umbrella Corporation possessing all of the moon's technology, it was unable to conduct research and study...
Ain looked at the contents of the metal cabinet, surprised. "Huh!? Weren't there just books? Now there are even documents..."
"Well! Books and documents are both carriers of knowledge, it's not much different, really!... I'll trouble you with this!" Sephiroth chuckled. Ain didn't say anything more. She raised her right hand and pointed at the metal cabinet. Immediately, she activated her Reversal Fruit ability, causing a cluster of peach-colored flames to ignite on her right arm. When her palm touched the metal cabinet, the flames quickly spread to the documents and books inside. The peach-colored flames had no temperature and wouldn't burn anything, but everything they touched, organic, inorganic, or living, would be reversed to a certain age. With Ain's current ability, she could only reverse time by about five years at a time. In other words, if she wanted to completely restore these thousand-year-old documents, she would need to use her ability around two hundred times...
Again and again, she mechanically used her ability, reducing the age of the documents inside the cabinet.
After a long while.
"Okay! These documents should be readable now."
Ain looked at the documents and files that were no longer yellowed, and she couldn't help but wipe the sweat from her forehead, relief on her face.
Devil Fruit users needed to expend stamina to use their abilities.
She had used her reversal ability nearly two hundred times consecutively, and she was truly exhausted, her stamina almost completely depleted!
Now, she wished she could just collapse onto the bed and sleep, covered up, to quickly recover her stamina.
Hearing this, Sephiroth immediately took out one of the documents and flipped through it.
He couldn't understand the ancient moon script on it at all.
However, he could take photos of these documents for his records and study them slowly later.
The Umbrella Corporation had long since obtained the method for deciphering the moon script through those ancient moon robots and organized it into a systematic language discipline.
Learning a language was simply too easy for Sephiroth, who possessed the Blood Recall skill!
"Ain, I really can't thank you enough! With you here, all the documents and files should be restorable."
Hearing this, Ain was slightly stunned, and she asked, surprise in her voice, "Aren't these all of them?"
"Of course not."
"How much more needs to be restored?"
"Just a tiny bit more."
"Just a tiny bit more...? How much exactly?"
A very bad premonition suddenly arose in Ain's heart.
Sephiroth thought for a moment before speaking: "Not much, just over a hundred thousand copies!"
"..."
"Cough! How about this! I'll give you half the payment first, so you don't think I'm trying to defraud you..."
As Sephiroth spoke, he retrieved the Supreme Grade Sword, 'Kill Intent,' from his spatial inventory and handed it to the young woman.
Although Ain had only spent about an hour restoring one or two hundred documents, over a hundred thousand remained. It would be a long-term project.
To prevent Ain from overthinking, he decided it was better to give her some payment first to appease her emotions, so she wouldn't freak out and quit halfway.
Swish!
Ain grasped the hilt of the saber and pulled the blood-colored blade from the black scabbard.
The sharp blade gleamed with a chilling, cold light. Just by holding the Kill Intent saber, she could feel the biting kill intent emanating from the blade.
This was a cursed blade!
"How is it? Are you satisfied with this saber?"
"Mm!"
Ain studied the saber in her hand, then nodded and returned it to its scabbard.
This was the first time she had received such an excellent Saber, and even though she knew it was a cursed blade, she didn't want to give it up...