When Rorschach woke up, he found himself lying in a white hospital room.
The bed he was on seemed to have been specially made for someone with a physique that was different from the average person. It looked very wide and sturdy.
His body was wrapped in layers and layers of white bandages, making him look like a mummy.
A familiar sweet scent entered his nose. Rorschach lowered his head and saw a small girl curled up in his arms, sleeping soundly like a kitten.
The sunlight coming in from the window on the right side shone on the girl's face, making her delicate skin seem to glow in the faint light.
A gentle breeze from the distant sea playfully stirred the girl's black hair, spreading it over Rorschach's shoulder and neck, making him feel a little ticklish.
At such a close distance, Rorschach could clearly hear the faint breathing from the girl's nose.
The morning temperature was a little low, causing the sleeping girl to involuntarily curl up her small body.
Perhaps worried that she might touch Rorschach's wounds, she was curled up on the edge of the bed, which made Rorschach worried that she might fall off in her sleep.
"I wonder how many days I've been sleeping. Has the war ended? This little girl, Hibari, couldn't have been here with me the whole time, could she?"
Rorschach looked at Hibari with gentle eyes. He gently opened his arms and pulled the curled-up Hibari into his embrace. He pulled the blanket over her body.
With his movement, the sleeping Hibari's long eyelashes fluttered, and she groggily opened her eyes.
When she saw Rorschach's gentle smile, the daze in Hibari's eyes instantly cleared, and her face was full of surprise. "Big Brother Rorschach! You're awake?"
Seeing the genuine happiness on her face, Rorschach's heart warmed. He subconsciously raised his hand and placed it on Hibari's head, gently stroking her soft black hair.
"Yeah. Thank you, Hibari. You've worked hard."
"It's not hard at all!" Hibari looked up, her clear eyes slightly red. "As long as you're okay, Big Brother Rorschach, it's not hard at all."
"How long have I been sleeping? Has the war ended?" Rorschach asked softly as he stroked Hibari's hair.
He felt incredibly weak now. Every cell in his body was screaming for food.
There wasn't a single drop of the electrical power he had accumulated left in his body. It had all been completely drained in that difficult battle.
Shiki was indeed an extremely difficult opponent.
In some ways, he was the most threatening opponent Rorschach had ever faced.
While Kaido's individual strength was greater than the crippled Shiki's, Kaido had not intended to kill Rorschach during their last battle in Alabasta.
Shiki was different.
He really wanted to kill Rorschach.
Especially in the final stage, when he pulled out the two great swords that served as his legs and the ship's wheel that was stuck in his head, the legendary great pirate who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with Roger and Whitebeard had returned.
The powerful slashes, with every single one wrapped in a terrifying Conqueror's Haki, still made Rorschach feel a little lingering fear just thinking about them.
In order to kill Shiki, Rorschach had used Overload Mode once, and then activated it a second time.
That was a super-overload mode that would surpass his physical limits and further unleash his body's potential, causing irreversible damage to his body.
His body, mind, and will all surpassed their limits, and he finally managed to kill Shiki in the final moments.
When Hibari heard Rorschach's question, her eyes instantly turned red, and tears welled up, making Rorschach feel a little flustered.
"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"
Hibari pouted and shook her head. "No, it's just... Big Brother Rorschach, you were unconscious for five days."
"Five days?" Rorschach's eyes widened.
He had been unconscious for so long?
The last time in Alabasta, when that fat man Moria had put five thousand shadows into him, it had hurt his soul, but he had only slept for three days.
"Yeah, Big Brother Rorschach, you were unconscious for five whole days and nights. During this time, no matter what Law or the doctors from Headquarters did to treat you, you didn't wake up. Law said that your unconsciousness this time was different from the one in Alabasta. It was a double exhaustion of your body and mind, and it was very dangerous. If... if you hadn't gotten through it, you might have never woken up..."
Hibari pouted, and crystalline tears rolled down her eyes. She choked out, "I went to Bartholomew Kuma and asked him to help you clear away the injuries in your body again. But Kuma said that his ability isn't all-powerful. It's impossible to use it on the same person without limit. Although he had removed the pain from your body back then, the fundamental damage to your body hadn't completely disappeared."
"Your second injury after that further pushed your body's limits. With the double叠加, the hidden damage from the previous time also flared up, so you couldn't handle it. But he said that your body is in good shape and that you'll wake up on your own after a few days of sleep."
"So, I waited and waited here for five days until you finally woke up..."
Looking at the teary-eyed Hibari, Rorschach couldn't help but smile apologetically. He reached out to wipe the tears from her cheeks and hugged her soft, small body tightly, saying gently: "I'm sorry, Hibari. I made you worry."
Hibari felt the strength in Rorschach's arms. She felt as if her body was being kneaded into his.
Feeling the warmth coming from Rorschach's body, a blush suddenly appeared on her teary-eyed face.
The hospital room suddenly became quiet.
One boy looked down, and one girl looked up. Each of their eyes reflected the other's figure.
Thump, thump-thump.
Two hearts, close together, beat one after the other. The restless emotions seemed to raise the temperature in the room by a few degrees.
Hibari's face turned red from Rorschach's stare. Her eyes darted away, and she tried to lower her head, but a strong hand suddenly cupped her fair, soft cheek. Hibari's body trembled, and her eyes met the boy's fiery gaze once again.
The two faces gradually got closer, and they could feel each other's breath.
Hibari's delicate face, which looked as if it could be broken with a touch, was now burning red.
The hot blood caused a faint pink flush to appear on her long, slender neck.
"Big Brother Rorschach..." She parted her lips slightly. Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's. She didn't dare to look at Rorschach and closed her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering.
Looking at Hibari's shy expression, Rorschach felt a wave of heat rush to his head. His entire body became hot.
Even his extremely weak body felt as if it had been injected with a mysterious power, and all of his cells became active.
Just as the two restless hearts were getting closer, Rorschach's peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a sneaky head outside the hospital room window. It was peeking inside, which startled him.
"Holy crap! This is the sixth floor!"
A few minutes later.
Inside the hospital room, in front of Rorschach's bed, a tall woman in a white, form-fitting leather suit was staring at Rorschach, who was leaning against the headboard, with a pair of bright, sparkling eyes.
A hint of playfulness flickered in her watery eyes. Rorschach's face turned red from her stare.
As for Hibari, she was like an ostrich, hiding her head under the blanket, too shy to face anyone.
"Why don't you continue? Just ignore me. Pretend I'm not here. I've never seen with my own eyes the necessary work that humans need to do for procreation. Hmm, I believe this will be of great help to my lineage factor research experiments."
The woman raised her chin. Her eyes constantly scanned Rorschach's body.
Looking at the playful expression in the woman's eyes, Rorschach's lips twitched.
She was clearly the one who was in the wrong, so why was he the one who was embarrassed?
Also, what was she talking about when she said the necessary work for procreation?
He had no idea what she was talking about.
So, he coughed and pretended that nothing was wrong. "Old Vega..."
"Hmm? What did you call me?" A dangerous look appeared in the woman's eyes, which made Rorschach's heart skip a beat. He quickly changed his words.
"Ahem... Lilith, what are you doing here? Don't you have a lab to do research in?"
The slender woman in front of him, who was much taller than him, was Lilith the Evil, one of Vegapunk's six bodies.
Just now, she had been using her high-tech hover boots to float outside the window, sneakily peeking inside.
"Hmph, call me Big Sister Lilith. If I ever hear you call me that old geezer Vegapunk again, you can forget about getting any of my most advanced scientific research results." Lilith snorted coldly.
Rorschach rolled his eyes and mumbled: "But you're a part of Dr. Vegapunk..."
Lilith crossed her legs and placed one of her long, voluptuous legs on the headboard of Rorschach's bed. She crossed her arms and said: "Fundamentally, what you're thinking is right, but the current situation is not as simple as just being a clone."
"Oh? Why?" Rorschach became curious after hearing Lilith's words.
Even Hibari, who was hiding under the blanket, secretly perked up her ears.
Lilith chuckled. "Vegapunk is a user of the Paramecia-type Brain-Brain Fruit. Everything he has ever seen can be converted into the clearest memory capacity and stored in his brain. This has caused his head to grow bigger and bigger, to the point where it seriously hindered his scientific research, his daily life, and even his basic ability to walk. So, he had the idea of splitting all the knowledge he had mastered, and that's how the six of us were born."
"There's Shaka the Good, Edison the Thinker, Pythagoras the Wise, Atlas the Mad, York the Greed, and me, Lilith the Evil."
"The six of us were created by him using a part of his brain, combined with biological and mechanical research results. Each of us has inherited a part of his knowledge, but we have not inherited his past. In other words, we are all newborns without a past. You can simply think of us as clones or cyborgs."
"Each of us has our own thoughts. Although these thoughts are still influenced by his lineage factors, the six of us are complete and independent individuals, not machines controlled by him. Our freedom is far greater than the soul homies that Charlotte Linlin creates. If any one of us dies, it will not affect the other six. Even if Vegapunk himself dies, it will not affect the rest of us."
"So..." Lilith smiled at Rorschach. "I am me, Lilith, not that boring old man."
Rorschach nodded.
He understood.
So that's how it was.
No wonder York, one of Vegapunk's bodies in the manga, would think of betraying Vegapunk and secretly defecting to the Five Elders.
It turned out that Vegapunk himself had no real control over the six bodies he had created.
Even if he died, the six bodies like Lilith would not die.
Thinking of this, Rorschach couldn't help but shake his head.
The Brain-Brain Fruit was really lame.
It physically expanded the user's brain capacity based on the amount of knowledge the user absorbed, literally turning them into a big-headed baby.
Although it made them smarter.
But this intelligence was based on the books the user had read and the knowledge they had learned.
It wasn't like in the sci-fi movie Lucy, where it directly developed the brain, making the person incredibly smart and omnipotent.
In other words, as long as a person had enough knowledge and books, anyone with the Brain-Brain Fruit ability could become Vegapunk.
In other words, the Brain-Brain Fruit created Vegapunk, not that Vegapunk was inherently that powerful.
Also, what was the difference between this Brain-Brain Fruit and Pudding's Memory-Memory Fruit?
Relatively speaking, Pudding's Memory-Memory Fruit ability seemed to be even better.
After all, the Memory-Memory Fruit ability didn't have the side effect of turning the user into a big-headed baby. It could also extract past memories at any time, and even read and steal other people's memories.
"What are you thinking about?"
Seeing Rorschach in a daze, Lilith asked curiously.
Rorschach came back to his senses and smiled. "I was thinking, Miss Lilith, what brings you here? Did you come to see me specifically?"
He had already realized that he was in Marineford when he woke up.
This hospital was the same one he had visited when he went to see Teacher Zephyr.
"I did come to see you." Lilith gave him a charming smile. To Rorschach's astonishment, she pulled down the zipper of her form-fitting leather suit. She took a test tube out of the deep cleavage and threw it onto the blanket in front of Rorschach. It landed right on Hibari's forehead, who had just peeked her head out, making the little girl yelp in pain.
"What's this?"
Rorschach's lips twitched. He looked at the glass test tube, which still had a warm, sweet scent, and didn't know how to complain about why she would put that thing in that place.
It was glass, after all. What if it broke from a sudden, violent movement?
That area was very fragile...
"This is a lineage factor repair medicine made from your blood. It can repair the hidden injuries in your body."
Lilith's explanation made Rorschach's eyes widen.
He picked up the finger-thick glass test tube and carefully examined the blood-like red liquid inside. He found that the liquid was not blood. It was a red fluid that was clearly denser than blood and looked very viscous, similar to the concentrated nutrient paste that Sentomaru had given him that day.
"Do you have more of this stuff? Does that mean you can also repair the hidden injuries of Teacher Zephyr and the others..."
Rorschach's question was interrupted by Lilith.
She slowly pulled up the zipper on her chest, covering the breathtaking curves. She gave Rorschach a look. "It's not that easy. Your injuries are new, but theirs are old injuries that have accumulated from countless battles over the years. Even if it could repair them, with their current physical functions, the effect would be greatly reduced, and it might even have a negative effect. After all, they are just normal humans."
"What do you mean they're just normal humans? Aren't I?" Rorschach was a little confused.
"You?" Lilith stood up and leaned forward to Rorschach's face. She reached out and pinched his cheek, which made him freeze up completely.
Looking at Rorschach's awkward expression, Lilith chuckled:
"You are not a normal human. Do you know Charlotte Linlin? She was born with monstrous strength that rivals and even surpasses that of a giant, and her skin is tougher than steel.
But her race is not a non-human one. Her parents were normal humans. Your situation is very similar to hers.
People like you, who have special talents or are born with some strange traits, we usually call 'lineage factor mutation.'
The vast majority of these mutations are bad. For example, being born with a terminal illness or having extra arms.
But there is a very small chance that something like Charlotte Linlin or you will appear. I've examined your lineage factor and found that your bones are different from ordinary people. They have an extraordinary density, and your bone marrow's blood-producing function is incredibly strong, almost a hundred times that of a normal human. Do you know what that means?"
Lilith pinched Rorschach's face again, pulling on his skin.
"It means that your bones can be taken out and used to forge divine weapons. No wonder your Zoan Devil Fruit ability has been developed to such a powerful degree in such a short amount of time. Special physical talents like yours and Charlotte Linlin's are naturally suited for body-development abilities.
If Kaido had eaten the Azure Dragon Fruit and Charlotte Linlin had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu, the outcome of this war might have been different. Okay, after you drink this repair medicine, go to my place and get some concentrated nutrient paste. Compared to eating a large amount of food, that stuff is more convenient for big eaters like you to absorb."
She stood up, walked to the window, and jumped out. Her feet shot out flames, and she disappeared from Rorschach and Hibari's sight in a flash.
"Thank you, Miss Lilith!" Rorschach shouted loudly.
Then, he unscrewed the rubber stopper on the glass test tube and, to Hibari's curious gaze, poured it into his mouth.
Hibari looked up and asked curiously: "Big Brother Rorschach, what does that taste like?"
"You want to know what it tastes like?" Rorschach asked back.
"A... a little." Hibari nodded.
"You'll know if you try it yourself." Rorschach pursed his lips, held out his hands, cupped her small face, and leaned in.
Hibari's pupils suddenly widened. "Huh?"
End of Chapter)
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