May 26, 1497, Age of the Sea Circle
Three ropes descended from the sky, attempting to grab Orion's limbs, but he effortlessly dodged them using Soru. He then launched two Tempest Kicks, which hit the pirate captain squarely, sending him flying through the air.
The pirate fell to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood. His organs had been damaged by Orion's attack, and he felt excruciating pain in his torso. He likely had several broken bones, and his fighting ability had drastically diminished.
The battle with Orion hadn't been going on for long, and the only reason it wasn't over yet was that the pirates were leveraging their numerical advantage.
Orion rushed toward the pirate captain, intending to cut off his head and end the fight, but the pirate's subordinates stood in his way.
Two of the pirates approached brandishing axes, but these shoddy weapons couldn't withstand a blow from his cutlass Ace, which, after destroying the axe blades, continued on its path and cut the pirates' bodies in half.
Another pirate, nearly four meters tall and very fat, approached with a large stone hammer; his appearance reminded Orion of the famous ogres from the works of fiction in his previous life.
Orion opened a small door in the floor, causing the pirate to accidentally step his leg into it and lose his balance. He then used Soru and decapitated him without any problem.
Inside the Pocket Dimension, Yukimura and the rest of the people Orion had rescued were watching in amazement the fight between him and the pirates. It was incredible to them that a single person could wipe out an entire pirate crew on his own. This was especially true for the people of this town, who had been in desperate straits at the hands of those pirates just a few minutes before.
Orion continued to dance across the battlefield, like a god of death, and the pirates could offer almost no resistance to his attacks.
The pirate captain, seeing the unfavorable situation, immediately attempted to flee using his ropes. However, Orion wouldn't allow him to escape so easily.
With two Tempest Kicks, he cut off his path. He then approached at high speed, launching himself at him like a predator descending on its prey.
"Thirty-six styles, Moonfall Sword!"
One of the pirate's arms was cleanly severed by Orion's attack and went flying through the air.
The pirate used his rope ability and stopped the bleeding in his arm, creating a makeshift tourniquet.
Orion approached him slowly. As soon as the pirate decided to escape, he had thrown away his only advantage in this battle: the presence of his subordinates.
Every step Orion took felt like a hammer blow to his head. His temples throbbed violently, and he had inadvertently peed himself.
Suddenly, the man seemed to lose his mind and shouted
"Rope Golem!"
Countless ropes began to emerge from his body and wrapped around him at high speed, first forming a kind of armor around his body and then increasing in size until they became a true rope golem.
The pirate, who had lost his mind from the pressure, forgot his intention to escape and launched a massive blow toward Orion, using all the power he had available.
The golem's large arm approached at a fairly rapid speed, but Orion had no intention of dodging it; there was no need.
He took a deep breath and tensed his muscles, then launched his most powerful attack.
"Kamusari!"
The golem's arm made contact with the sword and was destroyed without much delay. Orion's attack, despite not containing Haki like the original version used by his master, Roger, had great destructive power, a product of Orion's monstrous strength.
He continued moving forward, destroying the golem's body without a problem, and finally passed through all the layers of ropes and reached the defenseless body of the pirate.
There was only one outcome after being directly hit by this attack.
A shower of ropes and human remains rained down from the dark sky, forming a horrifying sight that made the remaining pirates lose any desire to continue fighting.
However, Orion wouldn't let them go just because they had surrendered. It wasn't that he was so ruthless that he wouldn't accept the pirates' surrender, but that he simply had no way to accept their surrender.
If he didn't eliminate them, he had no way to imprison them like the Marines could; and if he let them go, it wouldn't be long before they were back to committing all sorts of crimes.
Orion spent a long time fighting with the rest of the pirates, and finally managed to completely eliminate them after more than an hour.
When he opened the door to the Pocket Dimension and let Yukimura and the people he had rescued out, it was already past midnight.
Yukimura looked at him with great admiration and gratitude. By eliminating this group of pirates, Orion had at least managed to avenge his deceased family.
Although he hadn't done it with his own hands as he would have liked, there was nothing wrong with receiving help from the man he had decided to follow in the future!
On the other hand, the people of this town, in addition to gratitude… felt fear at the sight of Orion, which elicited a complex emotion in them.
Of course, they were grateful that he had saved them, but the brutality they had witnessed, with Orion unilaterally massacring the group of pirates, made their legs tremble involuntarily.
They knew the power of this mysterious man was beyond their comprehension, and they still didn't know if they could fully trust him.
It wasn't unusual for prisoners to simply change hands after two factions finished fighting, without changing their status.
Despite having eliminated the pirates without too much trouble, Orion was completely exhausted and couldn't keep his Age Change ability active, reverting to his natural child form.
It was the first time Yukimura had seen him in this form, and both he and the rest of the survivors present stared wide-eyed at the bizarre sight of the mysterious and powerful man suddenly transforming into a small, rather cute-looking boy. Although he would have looked cuter if he hadn't been covered in the blood of his enemies.
Orion didn't pay much attention to the strange looks of the people around him. In his natural form, he approached Yukimura and said,
"I hope you're happy with this result. I've eliminated the pirates and avenged your family, just as I promised."
The teenager reacted immediately and bowed, intending to kneel before Orion to thank him. He didn't know much about the ways of the world, having spent his entire life without leaving his small village, but he knew it was normal for a king's subjects to kneel before him, and he planned to follow that example.
However, Orion took his arm and prevented him from kneeling. He didn't need such a show of submission from his subordinates. His ego wasn't so fragile as to crave such social rituals.
"If you want to thank me, become strong in the future and help me change the world," Orion said seriously, although his childlike face made the words sound less solemn.
Regardless, these simple words resonated deeply with Yukimura, who at that moment felt he had made the right decision by following Orion as one of his subordinates.
If he could save people in the future just as Orion had done today, wouldn't he then become the person he wanted to be?
Yukimura was a young dreamer, thrilled by the thought of building a better world together with Orion in the future. His idealism resonated perfectly with Orion's vision, and a flame of motivation had ignited in his chest. He wanted to start training as soon as possible and increase his power so he would have the ability to change the world, like Orion.
Orion and Yukimura helped the villagers control the fire, and then Orion treated the wounded alongside the village doctor.
Witnessing Orion's versatility—one moment chopping off heads, the next tending to the wounded—Yukimura felt a surge of pride, almost as if he were performing the deeds himself, and his admiration for Orion grew again.
As the morning sun began to peek over the horizon, Orion finished his work in this village, and the people were no longer as afraid of interacting with him. After spending several hours together, they had come to the conclusion that Orion had no malicious intent. They relaxed, and their gratitude toward Orion flourished.
Fortunately, Orion had arrived just in time. The pirates had only just begun attacking the village when he arrived to eliminate them, so the destruction and tragic deaths had been relatively few.
The women who had been captured by the pirate captain and then rescued by Orion before the final fight came to thank him one by one. If it weren't for him, the fate they would have suffered would have been terrible.
Among these women was a girl with short blond hair, who looked at him with an indifferent expression.
He had noticed her presence — or rather, he had been keeping an eye on her the entire time, since this eleven-year-old girl was the Named Character Hototogisu!
Orion was thinking about how he could approach her to establish a connection without seeming too abrupt, but before he could try to talk to her, the little girl came to him.
Hototogisu approached slowly, stood in front of him, and said,
"You look terrifying covered in blood."
And before Orion could say anything, she added,
"Also, it's weird that you look like a child. Can't you return to your adult form? Your child form is a little creepy, and you don't look as handsome as you did when you were an adult."
The surroundings fell completely silent, and the townspeople seemed to hold their breath. They were afraid that Orion would be angered by Hototogisu's words and react badly or become aggressive.
They had witnessed the terrifying power displayed by Orion, and the last thing they wanted was to anger him.
Orion listened to the little girl's words with great interest. She had spoken completely calmly and in a neutral tone of voice, showing no emotion. Furthermore, her face had also remained almost completely expressionless, making her words sound a bit confrontational at first glance.
However, Orion had been a teacher in his past life, and he'd dealt with all kinds of people. He knew there were people who spoke directly but didn't intend to be negative or attacking. They were simply a little socially inept, and it was a personality trait that was pretty harmless most of the time.
Orion smiled amiably and replied
"You're right. With everything that's happened, I've forgotten about my appearance. I'll have to take a bath, haha."
Hototogisu tilted her head slightly, thoughtful, and said
"Can a bath make you change size? Do you change size in water like clothes?"
The atmosphere, which had returned to normal after Orion's reply, froze again. The people who hadn't had time to release the breath they were holding clenched their throats once more, fearing they would suffocate if the girl didn't shut up!
"Hahaha, no, my size change is due to an ability, but right now I can't return to my adult form, so you'll have to put up with me like this," said Orion, who wasn't offended by Hototogisu's strange words and even found them quite interesting.
The people around him finally released the breath they had been holding, avoiding the tragic fate of suffocating to death.
However, the girl's next words nearly sent them straight to the other world from fright.
"You're stupid," said Hototogisu, nodding her head slightly, as if she had finally arrived at the right answer.
Orion was surprised to hear the girl's words, since based on his understanding of her, she didn't seem like the kind of person to make such value judgments lightly.
Curious about what was going on inside the girl's mind, he asked:
"What do you mean I'm stupid? Can you explain?"
Hototogisu nodded again, showing no great emotion; her face seemed to perpetually contain a mixture of annoyance, boredom, and curiosity, making her seem difficult to deal with.
"My grandmother told me I'm stupid, and that only a stupid person could understand me. So you must be stupid, right?" She said as if she were speaking an absolute and completely logical truth.
Orion laughed again with joy at the girl's eccentric words, and he didn't question her logic, or the reason behind his grandmother's words. He simply raised his thumb and said, "Well, I must be stupid, then."
Hototogisu nodded her head repeatedly, as if to say, 'See? It makes perfect sense, doesn't it?'
Off to the side, the villagers watched the interaction between the two with some surprise, and they came to the conclusion that Orion was just as eccentric as Hototogisu!
Regarding this girl, who had lived her entire life in this village, it had to be said that the people in this place didn't like her very much. Or rather, they didn't like her at all!
Hototogisu was the daughter of two Marines who died on a mission when she was just a baby, and she had been raised by her grandmother ever since.
Her grandmother was a very kind and cordial woman, and everyone in the village respected her, so they couldn't understand how her granddaughter had developed such a different personality from hers.
Hototogisu was not only rude and abrupt in her speech, but she also unsettled them every time they saw her walking with the same expressionless face, as if she had no emotions at all.
It was normal for people to fear what they didn't know, and to some extent, the girl's eccentric behavior justified her rejection by the rest of the village.
Or at least that was the thought of the villagers, who couldn't stand the strange girl and stayed away from her whenever they could.
Usually, they didn't need to interact with her, since they had no relationship with her, but that changed a year ago, when Hototogisu's grandmother died.
From that day on, she had to fend for herself, no longer having her grandmother to interact with the village on her behalf. She had to get her own food, wash her own clothes, and maintain the condition of her house.
The little girl, left alone, had to do everything on her own, and inevitably had to interact with the villagers on a daily basis. This had led to their negative impression of Hototogisu becoming even worse.
They were even considering expelling her from the village, although they couldn't bring themselves to take such a step. After all, she was the only family of one of the village's most beloved residents. Her grandmother had helped many of the people who lived there, and they didn't have the nerve to exile her granddaughter.
On the other hand, Hototogisu knew what the other people in the village thought about her. She had difficulty expressing herself, but she wasn't stupid; in fact, she was much smarter than the average person.
Therefore, when, on her deathbed, her grandmother told her that she was stupid, and that only someone stupid could understand her, she immediately understood what her grandmother was trying to tell her.
Despite seeming unfeeling, this wasn't true. She just had difficulty expressing her feelings, and sometimes even understanding them, but she had never questioned their existence.
She was a rather kind girl by nature. When someone was going through a bad time, she tried to help them in her own way, although her good intentions were never very well received, as they were sometimes perceived as annoying or even malicious.
Like the time when old Pratt was sick, and she secretly gave him some medicine she had, which nearly caused his death and earned the resentment of the entire village, who began to believe she was a little psychopath.
Clearly, the medicine had worked when she'd used it to save one of the forest animals. Who would have thought it would be poisonous to humans?
Now, she'd finally found someone who understood her and wasn't disgusted by her presence—he was clearly a dork, as her grandmother had said—and she was very happy to have found him. So happy that her lips were 3% more smiley than usual.
Orion reached out and took Hototogisu's hand, attempting a friendly handshake, but she violently broke free from his grasp and placed her hands on her chest, as if she'd been shocked.
Orion looked thoughtful upon seeing the girl's strong reaction and took out a pair of gloves from his system inventory, offering them to her.
Hototogisu looked at him with her classic deadpan expression and tilted her head slightly, as she usually did when she questioned or didn't understand something.
"They're a gift, put them on and see how they feel," Orion said without explaining much.
She nodded and didn't question Orion's sudden instructions at all, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. She took the gloves and put them on, her eyes widening slightly.
For a normal person, that microexpression would have gone unnoticed. But for Orion, who was not only observant but also had senses enhanced by his passive abilities and the use of Observation Haki, that small change didn't escape his notice
He reached out again and took Hototogisu's hand, this time shaking it easily.
"Nice to meet you, I'm stupid Orion," he said with a smile.
Hototogisu looked at their hands, which were clasped firmly together, as if she couldn't believe it was truly her hand. Then she looked up and said, still with her classic deadpan expression:
"I'm stupid Hototogisu—Your wife."
Orion's smile froze, and again he felt he couldn't follow the girl's logic.
"Why are you my wife?" he asked directly. Knowing that this way he would get a straightforward answer from her.
"Are you really stupid? It's because you saved me. My grandmother said that if anyone were to save my life, that person would be my husband."
Hototogisu's tone of voice hadn't changed, but Orion could tell that she had answered him as if she were answering the obvious, and she truly thought he was acting stupid for asking about something so obvious.
Orion's mouth twitched involuntarily, and he said,
"What were the exact words your grandmother said to you?"
"I'm afraid of leaving you alone in this world, but I know you'll be able to make it. There's someone in this world who will definitely love you. You're stupid, so you should find someone just as stupid as you, who can understand you. If you find someone like that, who's willing to help you through difficult times, don't leave that person alone."
Hototogisu said the entire sentence without pausing or hesitating, and it was clear she had engraved her grandmother's words in her mind.
Orion could sense the old woman's concern when she spoke those words, as well as her longing and hope that her little granddaughter would have a good future.
He sighed, and looking at Hototogisu, he said with some uncertainty,
"And when exactly did she say you were supposed to be my wife?"
Orion couldn't follow the girl's strange logic, even though he did his best.
"Is there another way for a man and a woman to stay together forever? The book I read only mentioned marriage," the girl said, tilting her head in her classic puzzled/doubtful manner.
Orion felt it would be tiresome to have to reverse her logic and make her consider other possibilities, so he simply shrugged and said,
"You're right, my wife, I was being stupid."
Hototogisu nodded, seeming content with the answer that confirmed her initial logic.
Orion didn't think too much about it. Hototogisu didn't seem to know the details of what a marriage relationship entailed, so their bond likely wouldn't be that of a true couple in the future.
It would probably just be a label to help her organize herself mentally, but even if she did want to develop a true relationship, it was something that would happen in the future, and there was plenty of time to consider the situation.
Or so he thought, but if he had noticed at this moment that Hototogisu's favorability on the system screen had increased to 99, perhaps he would have thought more carefully about the current situation.