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Weiwei assessed the three flight abilities she had gained. She concluded that "Floating" had the potential to be the fastest if developed further, "Atomization" provided the best concealment, and "Bat Swarm" held the strongest life-saving utility. Each mode of flight served a distinct purpose and could be flexibly applied depending on the situation, giving her a significant survival advantage.
Transforming into a swarm of bats offered classic airborne mobility, but the experience was deeply disorienting. Having her consciousness split across dozens of separate points of view was overwhelming. Some bats wanted to perch under trees, others to hide behind rocksâevery bat was her, yet not fully her. The simultaneous operation of so many avatars made her dizzy.
Dang! One of the bats fluttered too close to Karoo the duck. Karoo instinctively swung a pot and smacked it. Weiwei, sharing the bat's senses, felt as if her skull had been clobbered. Her mind buzzed with pain as she quickly retracted all the bats and stared at the duck in silence.
"Quack!" Karoo trembled behind a rock, clearly shaken.
Weiwei reverted to her human form, shrinking back to her usual height of 1.8 meters. The bloodlust intrinsic to her vampire beast form faded.
Understanding her companion's fear, she gently patted Karoo on the head. "A little confused? That's okay. I'll get the hang of it in two days. I'm still me. Nothing's changed⊠Let's go back."
"Quack!"
Torrance Town remained peaceful. The recent swarm of bats was reduced to a mere after-dinner curiosity for the townspeople. No one gave it much thought.
Weiwei, now a nocturnal creature by nature, spent her days sleeping and her nights testing her powers. Karoo, assured that his owner was back to normal, returned to his retired duck lifestyle: hopping rubber bands, playing cards, and chasing chickens.
Nicole Robin had called twice to follow up on Weiwei's inquiries about historical knowledge. But with Weiwei resting at the hotel, only Karoo had been available to answer. The duck quacked at the Den Den Mushi, leaving Robin puzzled and defeated by the language barrier.
Before departing Torrance, Weiwei decided a small celebration was in order.
"What do you want to eat? I can fly now, I'll go buy it for you!"
Karoo sprang into action, pulling a book from his satchel. Flipping through the pages, he pointed to illustrations of the dishes he craved.
Weiwei smiled. "Dressrosa's shrimp risotto, goblin pumpkin soup... Got it. I'll get them all."
The Kingdom of Prodence neighbored Dressrosa, and many of the latter's delicacies were popular locally. Weiwei remembered that several nearby islands carried the food Karoo liked.
She jotted the list down in her notebook, also planning to add a large cake and two bottles of red wine to the menu. Though not addicted to sugar like Big Mom, she believed sweets helped stabilize her mood and suppress the bloodlust from her vampire transformation.
"A little sugar's fine... just not every day like Auntie Charlotte."
She turned to Karoo. "I'm going to buy orangesâno, food. Stay right here and don't move until I'm back!"
Weiwei acknowledged her poor sense of directionâthough in her mind, it was only slightly off.
Eager to enjoy her new powers, she resisted the urge to fly off recklessly. Instead, she observed the wind and cloud patterns, then consulted Karoo about the direction.
"Okay, like a riddle gameâso is the island with cake that way?" She pointed left.
"Quack!" Karoo shook his head vigorously.
Weiwei laughed, trying to cover her mistake. "Of course not. I was joking! I meant to say... it's this way, right?" She pointed right.
She turned into mist, latched onto a roadside breeze, and drifted toward a nearby island.
---
Condensing her entire life essence into a mist form felt surreal. At first, Weiwei could only drift passively. She recalled Smoker's smoke-based formâhow he used wind resistance to fly. She visualized the battle against Golden Lion Shiki and remembered how Smoker shaped his smoke like sails to manipulate airflow.
Though she could change her shape freely, the mist wasn't dense enough to ride the wind effectively. Air currents passed through her easily, generating little resistance. Controlling the wind for flight, she realized, was far more complex than it sounded.
Weiwei flew in short bursts, resting frequently, double-checking her orientation before continuing.
Thanks to her planning, nothing unexpected happened. Before long, she touched down on a populated island she recognized.
"Hahaha!" She stood with hands on her hips, laughing with pride.
She hadn't gotten lost this timeâthanks to the wind! She convinced herself she had finally overcome her navigational shortcomings.
"Going against the wind... now that's style. Let's see if they dare tease me again."
But just as she reveled in her triumph, her senses alerted herâsomething was off.
Even from afar, her heightened vampire perception picked up the pungent scent of blood drifting through the air.
She had visited this island recently. It was a peaceful tourist spot, full of kind people and excellent chefs.
Had pirates arrived?
If she didn't know, she could do nothing. But now that she knew, she couldn't turn a blind eye.
Tapping the ground with her toes, she merged into a shadow and raced toward town.
---
To the west, in the cake house, two men lay in pools of blood. Their bones had been shattered by blunt force, blood oozing from their noses and mouths. Their twisted expressions told of brutal deaths.
Weiwei remembered meeting a senior CP9 agent on Enies Lobbyâa green-haired man called "Otome no Owl." He was interrogating a Revolutionary Army captive at the time.
Owl gestured to the broken corpses. "Tell me where your Eastern Army commander is! If not, you'll end up like them, babble!"
To ease the man's fears, he even offered, "I'm the most tight-lipped guy in CP9. Tell me quietly, and I'll swear no one will know the info came from you. Sound good?"
The Revolutionary Army member, wearing a chef's hat, spat blood and saliva in Owl's face. "Kill me if you want! I'll never betray my comrades!"
Owl grinned wickedly and drove a punch into the man's abdomen using "Rokushiki: Shigan" modified into a fist. This was his special technique: Beast Lockdown.
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