Marine Base, Sabaody Archipelago, Island 60.
The sun set in the west, painting the entire sky orange-red. Inside the Marine base's gymnasium, the setting sun shone on the floor, which was paved with thick steel plates.
Sephiroth, bare-chested with his long silver hair draped over his shoulders, wore a high-purity Sea Stone shackle on his left wrist. In his right hand, he was raising and lowering a gigantic barbell, training his arm muscles. On both sides of the bar, six heavy steel barbells, one and a half meters in diameter and twenty centimeters wide, each weighing thirty tons, were hanging.
In Sephiroth's rhythmic breath and exhale, sweat came out and trickled down his defined muscle lines. Because his Devil Fruit ability and strength were restrained by the Sea Stone shackles, his physical strength began to decline rapidly during this high-intensity training, and his body gradually entered a state of exhaustion.
After years of training, under these conditions, Sephiroth had basically exploited his physical potential to its limit. Everyone's body has its own limit, and after reaching this value, it basically can no longer be improved. This had nothing to do with hard work; the limit value was already there, unable to be broken by sweat and effort.
Now, he understood why giants were known as the strongest race. Their naturally strong bodies allowed them to defeat ninety-nine percent of the humans in the world, even if they did not practice Haki. Therefore, to continue to become stronger, people like Sephiroth, who had forged their bodies to a peak condition, could only begin to concentrate on cultivating their Haki, increasing its strength and storage. Only then could the body burst with greater power in battle.
At this moment, if he wore low-purity Sea Stone shackles, he could barely overcome the fatigue and weakness originating from the cells, and use a small amount of Armament Haki. Of course, the intensity of his Haki would be significantly reduced. If the purity of the Sea Stone was very high, the fatigue and weakness from his body would directly limit his control over Haki, making him still unable to use Armament Haki.
However, with his strong physical fitness, he still had excellent combat power. Sephiroth estimated that he should have a strength almost equal to Yamato in the original storyline during the Wano Country War. That opponent also wore Sea Stone shackles, and could also use thunder and Raimei Hakke to instantly kill six Tobi Roppo with one club.
Da! step... tadat. Da! step...
With the sound of high-heeled footsteps, Gion, wearing a white justice coat, black shorts, a blue T-shirt, and carrying her famous sword, Kinpira, at her waist, appeared at the door of the gymnasium. She looked at Sephiroth, who was only wearing black sports pants, from top to bottom. Then she put her hands on her hips and said with a slightly sarcastic and mocking tone, "Yo! Little Brother Sephiroth, I didn't expect you to not be locked up in Impel Down yet!"
"..."
Hearing this, the corner of Sephiroth's eye twitched slightly. After putting the huge barbell on the ground, he said, "Let's talk somewhere else! It's not convenient to talk here."
As he spoke, he casually took the black T-shirt that was placed on a chair and his two long swords. After putting them on, he swung his Butcher's Knife and opened a Spatial Door. Seeing the silver-haired youth go in directly, Gion had no choice but to follow.
When she came out of the Spatial Door, she realized that she had arrived at the door of a luxurious hotel.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"Anyway, every time you come to see me, we end up in a hotel. I'm just eliminating the middle process now and doing it directly in one step. It just so happens that I'm sweating now and want to take a shower."
Gion: "..."
Seeing Sephiroth go in directly, she quickly paid at the front desk, took the room card, and went straight upstairs. She, too, had no choice but to follow, and came to the third floor, to a luxuriously decorated room.
After entering the room, Sephiroth went straight to the bathroom, put away his clothes, and quickly washed his body. Finally, while humming a little tune, he got into the big bathtub full of hot water and soaked.
"I've recently heard some bad rumors about you..." Gion found a seat and sat down.
"What rumors?"
"Stop pretending to be stupid! Why did you conflict with Akainu if you were fine? Why did the investigation team lock you up for three days?... Uh huh!"
Hearing this, Sephiroth immediately straightened his body, and with an innocent look on his face, he continued to say, "Isn't this what happens in the workplace? Factionalism, suppressing people you don't like."
Gion held the edge of the bathtub with both hands and stood up. She snorted coldly, her tone a little colder, and pressed, "Huh! If you're really innocent, you'll be fine! Tell me! What exactly did you do?"
"It's not a big deal, really. Just being greedy for a hundred million."
"With your strength, are you short of money? You're in the Sabaody Archipelago, and you can get a huge bounty by killing any pirate."
Sephiroth also stood up. He sighed helplessly, held his hands tightly, and said in a sad tone, "Yeah! I'm not short of money, but other people are short of money. The waters of the Sabaody Archipelago are very deep, and the relationships within them are complicated, even involving the World Nobles. At that time, what could I do? I'm just a tiny principal. It's like I'm a Celestial Dragon, I kill people and burn things, and I want you to help hand over a knife and add fuel to the fire, would you do it or not? I did something, I went through the back door, and it wouldn't work if you didn't agree!"
Gion couldn't help but frown slightly and purse her lips at this lie, which Sephiroth told with his own brand of embellishment and truth, and she fell into a long silence. Through her perception of Observation Haki, she found that the other party was all inspired by feelings and showed no signs of lying.
"Is your business serious?... Do you need me to ask Tsuru for help? With her friendship with Sengoku, I should be able to help you and reduce the punishment."
PLAK!
"You don't need to worry about this kind of thing!" Sephiroth chuckled and directly rejected Gion's offer.