Perona's spirit drifted out of her body, and Reiju, standing to the side, quickly supported Perona's physical form.
Perona drifted to the little girl's side, looked at her curiously, and said, "This is a spiritual body, and it seems to be connected to the argo."
Nami also flew down from the argo at this time, looking at the little girl curiously.
Seeing Nami, the little girl suddenly became happy, reached out to hug Nami's leg, and shouted, "Electric Mama, hungry!"
Everyone's gaze immediately shifted from Hera to Nami. Nami hurriedly waved her hands in panic: "It's not me, I don't know anything."
Just then, Hera looked at the little girl with her City of Devouring Time enhanced by Observation Haki.
In Hera's eyes, the little girl's spiritual body was tightly connected to the argo, and her composition also included a part of the City of Devouring Time and the spiritual power from Hera's body.
Hera said, "Are you the argo?"
The little girl nodded, approached everyone, twitched her nose, and said, "You all have the aura of the Spirit Mama on you."
Then she pointed at Kuina: "You have the most on you."
She then looked at Perona and Reiju nearby: "They all have Mama's aura, why don't you have it?"
Perona and Reiju looked at the little girl's curious eyes and then at Hera.
Hera's face turned red with embarrassment; she already knew what was going on with this little girl.
Hera explained, "She should be the ship spirit of the argo. It's said that if you care for your ship enough, a spirit will be born. She must have been born from the argo."
Perona lifted the little girl: "She definitely feels like a ghost."
Then she continued, "But why does she call you Mama? I can understand her calling Nami that, after all, the argo is charged using Nami's Rumble-Rumble Fruit."
Hera thought for a moment and said, "A normal ship spirit shouldn't manifest like this. It must be because the argo was in the City of Devouring Time and was influenced by spiritual power that she became like this."
Hearing 'City of Devouring Time', the little girl pouted: "Spirit Mama is bad, always locking me in the little black room."
Reiju asked with a chuckle, "Then, what's the deal with us not having your aura on us?"
Hera turned her head away guiltily, not daring to look Reiju and Perona in the eye.
Seeing Hera's expression, Perona seemed to understand something. Her face also turned red, and she said through gritted teeth:
"You idiot, am I really that uncharming? And you actually, actually, actually went to everyone else but didn't come to me or Reiju!"
Hera stood awkwardly on the beach, and finally muttered in an extremely low voice, "I'm being framed, they were the ones who forced me."
Reiju heard this and giggled while covering her mouth: "Oh, it seems our Captain doesn't like to take the initiative."
Then she licked her lips and said, "Don't worry, Captain, since you're not good at taking the initiative, I'll come find you. Besides, I just recently discovered a poison that increases sensitivity."
Hearing this, Hera got goosebumps all over. Aside from being a bit scared, there was also a hint of anticipation.
Kuina looked at Hera and shook her head: "Sigh, how did it end up like this?"
Hera realized something was wrong, her face flushed red and she lowered her head, muttering softly, "Isn't it because of you?"
Then she quickly changed the subject; they were still talking about the ship spirit.
Hera asked the little girl, "Then why did the argo's weight change? I've never heard of a ship spirit affecting a ship's weight."
The little girl thought for a bit and said, "When I was in the City of Devouring Time, I felt an attraction. I drifted toward it and found a strange-looking fruit and ate it."
Then, as if recalling the taste of the fruit, her whole face twisted: "As it turns out, that fruit tasted really bad."
Hera quickly checked the warehouse in the City of Devouring Time where the devil fruits were kept and found that one was indeed missing. It was the Paramecia-type Kilo-Kilo Fruit.
Realizing her ship had eaten a Devil Fruit, she immediately looked at the argo nervously. After seeing it floating on the water without any problems, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The little girl said, "However, I can now control the weight of the argo."
Then, without Ain using the Float-Float Fruit, the argo was blown into the air by a gust of wind, then smashed heavily back onto the sea surface, kicking up a wave.
Hera's eyes lit up. In that case, the argo's performance had improved a lot, and it was now possible to communicate through this little girl.
Seeing the little girl still wanting to call her Mama, Hera quickly said, "No, no, no, I'm only almost 17. Don't call me Mama anymore, call me Captain."
The little girl nodded. Her figure gradually grew from a loli's stature until she became a mature woman before stopping. She said to Hera, "Captain."
Perona was curious and asked, "Why change into this?"
The ship spirit, who was no longer a little girl, said, "Based on my observations, the Captain prefers this look. Furthermore, since the Captain is keen on being attacked by crew members, I must be prepared."
Hera said in an embarrassed rage, "It's not that I like people taller than me! And what do you mean by 'keen on being attacked by crew members'? That's slander!"
The ship spirit said expressionlessly, "Based on my observations, as the strongest person on this ship, the Captain has never shown any resistance when facing attacks from crew members."
"Even if there is resistance, it's just for show, using less than one-ten-thousandth of your original strength."
"Additionally, this behavior is recorded in the knowledge base as being a seductive submissive."
Hera's face turned completely red, feeling as if her little secrets had been exposed in public. Her whole person turned gray and white.
Hera knelt and pounded the ground. Black resentment materialized and spread out, a crimson light appeared in her eyes, and her expression became distorted:
"This world has no reason to exist anymore. Let it be destroyed."
Kuina and Hancock quickly comforted Hera, and the other crew members also chimed in, "Don't worry, Captain, we didn't hear anything just now."
Curled up in Kuina's arms, Hera poked her head out and looked at everyone with expectant eyes: "Really?" Everyone who was looked at nodded repeatedly.
Perona covered the ship spirit's mouth just as she was about to speak; her Observation Haki had been frantically sounding the alarm.
Hera smiled with relief: "I see. So nothing happened just now. I thought I was going to destroy the world."
The resentment vanished under Hera's bright smile. No one knew that on Amazon Lily, a group of people had just averted a world-ending crisis.
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