Chapter 9

As the Castle was sinking, Tanzo noticed Reiju fly out with her father. She flew to Tanzo and didn't say anything. Tanzo then noticed that she was also carrying his research papers that he left in his home. From her face, he could tell that she cried. Although this shows that she regretted what she did, it only cooled down Tanzo. He still couldn't trust her.

Now, anyone who looks at him would curse him for treating Reiju like that after all that she has been through, but Tanzo also had a fair share of trouble with women in his past life. He was cheated by two women, who used him completely and cheated on him with someone else. With these incidents, Tanzo has had serious trust issues.

Reiju lied to him and kept him in the Germa Kingdom for three weeks, where he could have died any day. She almost got him killed, so it makes sense that he still can't trust her. She could at least tell Tanzo that she would protect him during his stay in the Germa Kingdom, but she didn't. Tanzo isn't some horny protagonist of some fan fiction who would forgive women just because they are beautiful and want to get between their legs.

Tanzo looked at Reiju and said "Maintain a little distance from me. I will deal with your brothers and join you."

Reiju did what he asked and Tanzo looked at the brothers, who didn't have any emotion on their faces. Tanzo looked at them and said "Will you just stand there the whole day?"

The three brothers didn't fall for the taunt, but they still attacked all at once. Tanzo didn't have much stamina left to fight, so he intended to finish the fight as soon as possible.

When the brothers came charging towards him, he immediately used both Geppo and soru in the sky to move at incredible speeds in the sky. He appeared before Ichiji first, because he was the long range one among the three.

Ichiji realised what was happening, but his body wasn't fast enough to react. Tanzo used all his strength in his punch and used Hasshoken, aiming right at his lungs and heart. The shockwaves from the punch were enough to force out all the air in his lungs and shake his heart.

Tanzo knew that one punch wasn't enough for him, so he aimed another punch at his face. This one managed to break the weird headphones they wear and shook his brain, knocking him out. He then fell into the sea.

Tanzo took his sweet time with Ichiji, because when he turned to go after the other three, Niji was already close to him with his electric sword. Yonji was also trying to attack him with his extended arm from his left.

He didn't have much time to dodge, because even if he tries, they would get him. So, he used Tekkai to harden his body and he just had to make sure that the electric sword didn't land a fatal wound. Just when he was prepared to take the blows, Reiju jumped in between Tanzo and Niji.

Niji's sword went through her stomach and the electricity from the sword shocked her unconscious. Tanzo was shocked to see the sight before him that his body completely ignored the attack from Yonji.

Niji looked at Reiju and said "This bitch really is mad. It's good that she died." electrocuting her again. Tanzo lost it and turned into a dragon. Unlike the usual times, he again morphed into a dragon. It didn't stop there. After he turned into a dragon, his body started shrinking back to his human size except, his body had pink scales, a tail and his horns. This is Tanzo's human-beast hybrid form.

He roared into the sky, summoning a storm where they were. Tanzo caught Reiju and glared at Niji. He made her float with his fire clouds. Tanzo then looked at Niji and appeared before him. This wasn't teleportation. His physical strength had increased a lot after he turned into his hybrid form.

Niji couldn't even follow him with his eyes. Tanzo immediately hits him with a barrage of punches and kicks all using Hasshoken, shaking all of Niji's internal organs. The exoskeleton that was genetically engineered, was useless against the shockwaves Tanzo was releasing.

It didn't take long for Niji to lose consciousness, fall into the sea, and Tanzo then turned to Yonji. Before Tanzo moved to Yonji, Judge shouted out to Tanzo "Tanzo, Reiju is still alive. I can still save her. All I ask in return is to leave my sons and leave the kingdom after she heals."

Tanzo looked at him and said "You are not in a position to negotiate here. Still, you have one chance to heal her. If you do anything to her while treating her, I will destroy everything you built your whole life. I think you are smarter than your sons."

Judge nodded and Tanzo took Reiju to one of the three remaining snails of the Germa Kingdom. Immediately when they landed, Tanzo turned back into his human form.

Judge took Reiju to the laboratory he had seen before and put her in a capsule with some blue liquid. He then went to some computer and started pressing some buttons. Tanzo asked "What are you doing?"

Judge replied "I don't know if you understand, but this blue liquid is something I invented which stimulates cell growth. We use it for healing and also to quickly grow our army."

Judge used it to make the soldiers mature fast, because he can't wait 20-30 years to build his army. Tanzo had already learnt about this from the research papers he took from this lab. He then walked to the capsule and looked at Reiju's wound healing rapidly.

Tanzo said "You have done a great job with this. If you had decreased the concentration of the chemicals a little, it would have been better."

Judge replied "Decreasing the concentration will make the process slow and you won't be able to heal big wounds."

Tanzo knew that. He said in his head 'In Reiju's case it is fine, but if the subject only has minor injuries, stimulating cell growth may cause unwanted growth, which is cancer. So, it is dangerous if not properly used.'

It only took a few minutes before Reiju's wound had healed completely. Judge took her out of the capsule and said "Her body is weak from all the cell division. She will need a week before she can move around."

Tanzo then took her to a room and this time, he didn't keep Judge with him. He knew that there was no threat to him now that almost everything that could kill him is eliminated. Actually, Tanzo also wasn't sure that he would get out of the war unharmed, but he didn't expect Reiju to literally throw herself in front of Tanzo.

He put Reiju on the bed and he took out the research papers Reiju saved. He went back to working on his theory. He was first studying how Vegapunk made an artificial devil fruit, because he wanted to perfect what he couldn't. Another thing he studied was how the Vinsmoke family had their genes modified.

Apart from all this devil fruit and modified humans, he was also curious about the way sea stones and devil fruits work. It is known that if only a small part of your body is in contact with water, the devil fruit power isn't lost. So, theoretically a sea prism stone should not completely drain the target of their energy.

Also, Big mom in wano arc was tied up by sea prism chains, but she still looked like she didn't lose any energy. So, it should be possible to train yourself to be able to move around and fight like usual using sea prism stone while constantly in contact with them.

Tanzo decides to test this out later, when Reiju wakes up and there is someone to look after him if he goes into a weakened state. Tanzo continued working on what he was doing and it became dark outside. Tanzo asked for food and he was served small portions of food, even though he usually eats a lot. When he asked about it, the chef replied "Sir, you destroyed almost all the food in the kingdom. We only have enough food for a week."

Tanzo didn't complain and sent the chef away. He ate his dinner and he then walked up to Reiju to wake her up. He shook her shoulder carefully and called her out. Reiju slowly opened her eyes after a few seconds and looked at Tanzo. From her face, it was clear that she was weak.

(It won't be good from here. As I said before, I can't write romance. Just tell me where I must improve.)

"Slowly get up. You need to eat food to heal." Tanzo said. Reiju slowly got up and looked at the plate of food Tanzo placed on her lap. There was complete silence in the room. Tanzo then noticed drops of water fall on the plate and then looked at Reiju, who was crying.

She then looked up at Tanzo and said "I am sorry....I am really sorry... I didn't have anyone to talk to in the whole kingdom. All the soldiers are almost brain dead and the only normal people in our kingdom are scared when they look at me. I was just happy to find someone who I could talk to...I.."

Tanzo stopped her and said "I shouldn't have said all that. It's just that I have been cheated by two women in my past. One woman stole all the money I had while the second one stole my entire research. After being cheated two times, I hate people who lie to me. So, when you told me that you lied, I got angry."

Reiju looked at Tanzo and he stared back at her. They both slowly got close and locked their lips. This time it wasn't like his treatment. Their tongues entering each other's mouths while their hands roamed their backs.

After kissing for a while, Tanzo moved back. As much as he wanted to continue what they were doing, Reiju is still healing and is very weak. So he asked her to eat her dinner and go back to sleep. Reiju did what Tanzo said, with a smile on her face. Seeing that smile, he could tell that he wasn't making a mistake trusting her. Reiju ate her dinner and went to sleep while Tanzo went back to his work.

As for Judge, he was healing his sons, who were knocked out and almost drowned in the sea. Judge looked at their health charts and wondered "How did he damage all your organs to this level? Even the hard exoskeleton was useless. I have to make them stronger."

Judge started working on making his sons stronger than they are now. He didn't want this day to repeat again. Judge remembered Tanzo's dragon form and said "That idiot Vegapunk managed to make an artificial devil fruit. If he can do it, I can do it too."

Judge now had another goal in mind other than enhancing his kids. He was dead set on making artificial devil fruit like Vegapunk. Previously, he just gave his kids the powers of devil fruits like, electricity, laser and extendable limbs, but after seeing Tanzo he realised that it wasn't enough.

*After 1 week*

Tanzo and Reiju were standing outside the new palace and Judge was standing before them. They were leaving and although Reiju was leaving with Tanzo, he was just happy that Tanzo was leaving his kingdom. Although Judge tried to hide it, Tanzo noticed the desire for revenge in Judge's eyes. Tanzo said "Just send me a letter when you are prepared and want to fight again. I will happily beat you up. Reiju really likes seeing you get beaten up."

Judge didn't say anything and just glared till Tanzo turned into a dragon and flew away with Reiju. After they left, he called Yonji and said "We first need to rebuild our kingdom and regain our military strength. I will work on our soldiers. You steer the ship to the habitat of these snails."

With Tanzo, they were flying towards the grand line, with Reiju holding an eternal pose to Shabondy Archipelago. Reiju asked Tanzo "Why are we going to Shabondy Archipelago?"

Tanzo replied "There is a broken ability in our world that can overpower any devil fruit or modified human, Haki. We are going to meet someone.who has mastered haki to a level that can scare many strong people in the world."