Hollow-Hollow Fruit

"We found her—she’s right here!"

Violet casually pushed open a hidden door disguised as part of the wall, revealing the scene inside.

The Ghost Princess Perona was sprawled out on the bed, foam spilling from the corner of her mouth and her eyes spinning in spirals, looking as though she were having a seizure.

"Hahaha! Serves her right." Ulti could not help laughing at Perona’s miserable state, but Charlotte Pudding beside her cut in. "It wasn’t you who defeated her, so what are you so proud of?"

"Damn three-eyes, are you looking for a fight?"

"Bleh! I’m just afraid someone will lose and start making excuses again!"

Yota ignored the renewed argument between Ulti and Charlotte Pudding and walked straight over to Perona. First, he injected a stream of pure Yin Release Chakra into her.

Mental injuries of this sort had always been the hardest to heal. Even though Yota’s physical healing had now reached the pinnacle—so long as someone still had one breath left, he could restore them whether they had lost limbs or been chopped into pieces—he had no particularly good way of treating mental damage.

Fortunately, his Chakra system had already approached that of a pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki. Directly pouring in a powerful amount of Yin Release Chakra might not have been very effective, but sheer quantity still helped Perona recover somewhat.

Besides, Perona’s mental injury was not especially severe. Charlotte Pudding’s Sharingan genjutsu was ultimately more focused on bewilderment than harm, so Perona soon regained consciousness, though her head still felt as though it were splitting apart and she remained listless.

However, once Perona woke up and saw the circle of enemies surrounding her—especially Ulti, who looked eager to have a go—she truly wished she could pass out again immediately.

"Eeeek! Y-you, you, what are you trying to do?!"

"Hehehehe, hahahaha!" Ulti first let out an extremely villainous laugh, then assumed an arrogant posture and spoke to Perona. "What do you think we want? Little girl, you were the one fooling around with us just now, weren’t you?!"

"Correction: you were the only one who got fooled, you thickheaded fool," Charlotte Pudding interrupted.

"Shut up! Can’t you see I’m interrogating her?"

"Yet we don’t need any information from her. Besides, when it comes to interrogation, my Memory Fruit is far better than you."

"Enough, you two. Stop undermining each other," Yota said, rubbing his head helplessly. Only then did Ulti and Charlotte Pudding both snort and turn away from each other.

Yota then looked at Perona. Without waiting for her to speak, he casually released a large amount of black mist that directly swept her inside.

A moment later, Dark Space spat Perona back out, while a Hollow-Hollow Fruit appeared in Yota’s hand.

"Pudding, haven’t you been practicing the Spirit Transformation Technique lately to stimulate the growth of your spiritual power? This Hollow-Hollow Fruit should be quite effective."

"I’ll take out your Memory Fruit first and replace it with the Hollow-Hollow Fruit. Once you master the Spirit Transformation Technique, I’ll switch your Memory Fruit back."

Pudding’s eyes lit up at Yota’s words. "You can do that? I really never expected it."

Dazed and confused, Perona lifted her head and happened to see the Hollow-Hollow Fruit in Yota’s hand. Her expression changed drastically. "Huh? Isn’t that my Devil Fruit? What exactly did you do?"

As she spoke, Perona reached out as if trying to summon a ghost, but nothing happened. Her face immediately went completely pale.

"You extracted my Hollow-Hollow Fruit… Wait, you’re the Plunderer?!"

Not even News Coo would fly into the Florian Triangle, so information there was extremely outdated. Perona and the others had only heard the title "Plunderer" from unlucky people who had drifted into the Florian Triangle.

Only after Yota directly seized her Devil Fruit did Perona finally understand who Yota and the others were, and realize that things had gone terribly wrong.

Even though Perona had great confidence in Gecko Moria, she knew that the Plunderer had defeated Kaido, Moria’s archenemy.

How strong Kaido was could be seen from the fact that Gecko Moria hated him enough to gnash his teeth, yet had always hidden in the first half of the Grand Line making zombies to console himself, never daring to enter the New World. That alone showed the enormous gap between them.

And Yota was even stronger than Kaido. Wouldn’t dealing with Gecko Moria be effortless for him?

At that thought, terror appeared on Perona’s face. If they had been ordinary pirates, perhaps they would not have dared do anything to her because of Gecko Moria’s reputation. But if she had run into monsters even more powerful than him, her fate would be hard to say.

"Um, you’ve already taken my Hollow-Hollow Fruit. Can you let me go now?"

Although losing the Hollow-Hollow Fruit she had eaten as a child hurt Perona deeply, her life was still more important.

"You want to leave?" A malicious smile appeared on Ulti’s face as she transformed into her half-dinosaur form. "Sure. I’ll send you on your way right now!"

As she spoke, Ulti stretched out her sharp dinosaur claws and waved them in front of Perona’s face.

Perona immediately curled into a ball in fright, nearly bursting into tears. "Waaah! No, no! I’m not leaving, I’m not leaving!"

"That’s enough, Ulti." Yota shook his head. "Stop scaring the little girl."

Only then did Perona let out a sigh of relief and look at Yota with some gratitude.

"That’s true," Charlotte Pudding suddenly interjected. "Hurry up and kill this girl. We still have to find Moria."

"Ghk—" Perona had just begun to relax, but after hearing Charlotte Pudding’s words, her eyes rolled white. She let out a choked sound and fainted again.

Yota sighed and looked at Ulti and Charlotte Pudding. One was hot-tempered, the other devious—they really did have terrible personalities.

"Alright, Pudding. We still need to use her Hollow-Hollow Fruit for you, so stop scaring the little girl." Yota shook his head, then weighed the Hollow-Hollow Fruit in his hand. "Perfect. Go take a look at this girl’s memories first. You can gain some experience in using the Hollow-Hollow Fruit, and then I’ll switch your Fruit."

"When we fight Moria this time, unless you truly can’t handle him, I’ll only be there to keep watch and won’t make a move. So you’d better become stronger—like by mastering the Spirit Transformation Technique you’ve been practicing. With the Hollow-Hollow Fruit’s help, you’ll definitely be able to master it and increase your spiritual power."