Sardo Kingdom.
Inside a research lab of the Umbrella Corporation, marked by a red and white umbrella logo, the walls were clad in special alloy metal.
Sephiroth, Gilm, and Ayzac, all in white lab coats, stood beside a featureless Ayzac replica made of soul crystal. They debated the merging of soul crystal and robotics.
"Boss, we've realized this project isn't about building intelligent robots..."
"We're creating a new form of life!" Ayzac's face was alight, his voice thrumming with excitement.
"Oh? Explain."
Sephiroth's expression sharpened with interest.
"There was a scientist in West Blue who claimed a person loses 21 grams at the moment of death..."
"After extensive research, he concluded what that missing mass was... the soul!"
"Twenty-one grams. That's the soul's weight."
"Boss, listen..."
"When I recorded my own memories and personality into the soul crystal, I found its weight had increased by exactly 21 grams. When I erased that data, the crystal returned to its original weight—a decrease of 21 grams!"
"This technology touches the divine!"
"If we use the soul crystal as a brain and mechanical parts as a body, we are crafting a mechanical life form."
"I also theorize that Devil Fruits are a technological extension of this soul crystal principle..."
"When a Devil Fruit user dies, the power transfers and is reborn in another fruit. It's the same concept as placing a soul crystal into a mechanical body. Even if the body is destroyed, the crystal remains intact. We simply provide a new vessel."
Listening to Ayzac's analysis, Sephiroth's face grew contemplative.
After a long moment, he instructed:
"Delve deeper into this research."
"Also, draft a report on your theories regarding soul crystal and Devil Fruit ability transfer. Submit it to me as soon as possible."
Collecting the initial research data on soul crystal and robotics, Sephiroth left the Sardo Kingdom directly.
...
Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 39.
In the living room of a three-story villa, Rim, clad in a white silk nightgown, sat cradled in the arms of Sephiroth, who wore a black suit. His vampiric fangs were buried deep in the pale, slender curve of her neck.
Her slender arms were looped around his neck, her eyes glazed, her expression distant.
After several days of these transfusions, Rim could feel her internal injuries had mostly healed. The constant, dull ache was gone.
Yet, compared to the relief of healing, she'd discovered something far more vexing.
She seemed to have fallen for that scoundrel, Sephiroth.
Rim didn't understand it. Maybe it was the teasing from their first meeting, or the extreme, mind-numbing pleasure of the transfusion process itself. Somehow, she'd developed these inexplicable feelings. Sometimes, he even drifted into her thoughts during the day...
After a while, Sephiroth slowly withdrew his fangs from her neck. He gently ran his tongue over the puncture wounds, sealing them shut.
He looked down at the young woman still clinging to him.
"Now, after seven days of treatment, your major internal injuries are healed. The remaining minor damage is negligible..."
"Can't you heal those hidden injuries of mine too?"
Rim's eyes slowly cleared, though her voice still carried a soft, lazy weakness. Freed from the pleasure of being bitten, a faint thread of discontent settled in her chest.
"Those hidden injuries won't heal just because I want them to."
"Besides, they don't affect daily life. At worst, when I'm old, my body will ache."
"Oh~! I'm already over two hundred—it's only natural I worry about these things, right?" Rim muttered, a little sulky.
"..."
"So you'll need to continue this treatment for me regularly."
"Is it really just about treatment?"
Sephiroth's lips curved into a faint, wicked smile.
Over these seven days of treatment, he hadn't been purely healing her. While transfusing blood, he'd also been reading Rim's memories, focusing especially on what she knew of soul crystals and Vafflard's meteorology.
To his mild disappointment, the knowledge from eight hundred years ago—the creation of soul crystals, the Sky Gazing Tower on Vafflard—had been lost two centuries back.
As a native of Vafflard, Rim only knew how to use soul crystals and the tower, not how to make them.
He'd also discovered something else in her memories these past few days: the young woman thought of him often. Even dreamed of him.
"Of course. It's just treatment."
Rim, still lying in his arms, turned her head away, avoiding his gaze.
"Oh? Really?"
Sephiroth's tone grew more teasing. A meaningful smile touched his lips as he reached out and gently tipped her chin up.
The young woman flushed deeply. She sighed, as if giving up.
"Fine! Fine. I was… thinking about other things too."
She leaned in awkwardly, pressing her lips to his, then froze, unsure what to do next.
Sephiroth just smiled and began to guide her, slowly.
.....
Fish-Man Island, Port Town.
Outside a house marked with a sign that read "Sharley."
Sephiroth went through his daily routine: set a bouquet of red roses by the door, then turned to leave.
But—
Click.
The door opened from within. Sharley stood there, a pipe in her left hand, her beautiful face cold and expressionless. She said nothing.
A bubble ring encircled her lower body, lifting her so her fish tail didn't touch the ground. She wore a blue hooded top with a deep V-neck that revealed a sweep of fair skin and the curve of her breasts—a sight that was hard to look away from.
The two of them stood in silence, watching each other. The air felt heavy, strange.
"Hmph. Sending flowers to my door every single day."
"Anyone who didn't know better would think I'd died and you were paying your respects."
Sharley snorted coldly, turned, and floated back inside with a gentle sway of her tail.
She didn't close the door.
Sephiroth chuckled softly. He picked up the bouquet, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him.
Ever since she'd chased him out last time, he'd tried a few more attempts—using the vampire bats to slip in, hoping sheer persistence and shamelessness might win her back.
But—
Back then, Sharley had been so furious she simply killed the bats and tossed them into the sea.
In desperation, Sephiroth could only honestly beg for forgiveness, but Sharley remained unmoved.
After returning from the moon, he changed his tactics. No more pestering. Instead, he began sending flowers every day, mending their relationship with a distant, persistent patience.
More than half a year later, a turning point had finally arrived.
Naturally, Sephiroth prepared to seize it. He would win Sharley over in one decisive move.
"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman..."
"It's an expression of my love."
He murmured the sweet words, coaxing her as his right arm slid around her slender waist. His palm came to rest on the smooth, pale skin of her abdomen.
"Hmph! You probably use lines like that to deceive women everywhere," Sharley muttered, unsatisfied.
"Heh. How is that deception?"
"I only want all of you to have a happy future."
Hearing his shameless claim, Sharley shot back coldly.
"Heh. I feel perfectly happy without you..."
"But without you, I feel an emptiness in my heart."
Sharley opened her mouth, ready to erupt again. Sephiroth quickly covered her lips with his own. He couldn't let her stay rational. He would make her lose the ability to think.
After a period of half-resistance, half-compliance, and whimpering, Sephiroth finally got his wish and received Sharley's forgiveness.