Late Night.
Marineford, Marine Headquarters Building, Fleet Admiral's Office.
Kong, draped in a magnificent white cloak of justice, stood tall with snow-white hair and powerful muscles. He crossed his arms near the window, gazing out at the dark sea, seemingly lost in a sea of thoughts.
Thump, thump, thump!
Outside the door, a sudden knocking sound broke the silence.
"Enter!"
As his voice faded, Zephyr pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"It's late, what is it, Zephyr?" Kong didn't turn around, he continued to stare out the window, his back to Zephyr, yet he knew who had arrived just by sensing their presence.
"I saw the lights in your office were still on, so I came to hand over the evaluation results for this group of Military School Students," Zephyr replied, his voice calm yet firm.
"Oh! Are there any promising young people worth cultivating?" Kong sounded interested.
"Based on my analysis of their files and performance during this period, three of them have excellent potential, the potential of an Admiral."
"Oh? Which three? Let me see the information." Kong raised an eyebrow, turned, and looked at Zephyr who was already prepared. Zephyr immediately walked a few steps to the window and handed over the top three files he held.
"Tokikake, Gion, Karl D. Sephiroth..."
Each file was only three pages long, containing personal data, past experiences, and background information. Sephiroth's file documented his past clearly and vividly. Sephiroth was born in Water 7, his father was a shipyard procurement manager and shareholder. More than a month ago, they faced an attack from the Beasts Pirates at sea. His father died saving him, and he himself survived the shipwreck and accidentally obtained a Zoan-type Bat Devil Fruit.
The specific species and form of this fruit were unknown, but it allowed full bat transformation and hybrid form transformation, temporarily identified as a Mythical Zoan. After extensive investigation and synthesis, it could be concluded that he likely encountered a slave hunting group, and after killing them, he fled back to Water 7 with three members of the Nine Snake Pirates. He was suspected of having a close relationship with the Nine Snake Pirates...
After enrolling in the Marines, Water 7 was attacked by the Watson Pirates. He single-handedly killed three executives of that Pirate group...
"The young man named Sephiroth..." Zephyr began, his tone full of doubt. "I initially had high hopes for him, but after sending people to investigate his information in detail, I felt somewhat hesitant..." He sighed. "I suspect he might be a spy sent by pirates to the Marines..." Zephyr said, choosing his words carefully.
"So, you're staying up late and came to discuss how to deal with him... Is that right?" Kong chuckled lightly, placed the document in his hand, and looked at his subordinate.
"Yes." Zephyr nodded honestly. His mission was to train talent for the Marines, and if he trained a spy, who knew how much damage they could inflict on the Marines.
"Zephyr, I understand your concerns, but... you must understand, we can't stop eating for fear of choking," Kong sighed. "You must have noticed, haven't you? Except for the first few batches of students you trained, the quality of subsequent Military School Students has been getting worse with each generation..." He looked out the window again. "Since Roger's death, more and more young people unwilling to be ordinary, as well as powerful individuals, have raised pirate flags and rushed towards the Grand Line. This has made the forces at Marine Headquarters increasingly strained, and the number of talented individuals the Marines can recruit is also decreasing. You can't simply dismiss promising recruits based on suspicion without conclusive evidence, that would be detrimental!"
Zephyr said hesitantly, "But what if..."
Seeing this, Kong could only sigh lightly and raise his hand to stop Zephyr's words, "Alright! Alright!... How about this! I will be responsible for investigating and monitoring this young man. If there's anything wrong with him, I will personally handle it."
"Alright!" Fleet Admiral Kong had said this, Zephyr, who was only an Admiral, had nothing more to demand.
After Zephyr closed the office door and left, Kong picked up Sephiroth's file and murmured to himself, "Karl D. Sephiroth... D... Is this fate? Or..."
Marineford Military Academy, at the training grounds.
Zephyr walked on the training ground with both hands behind his back, pondering how he should deal with Sephiroth, this uncertain factor. As for physical training, at his advanced age, it was no longer meaningful. His muscles and strength had stopped growing and were gradually declining, worsening each year. He estimated that in the next ten or twenty years, his strength would likely decline to the point where he might not be able to defeat his student, Borsalino, a person who relied too much on his Devil Fruit ability.
Suddenly!
In his Kenbunshoku Haki perception, a dark shadow suddenly fell from the sky. In the future, that shadow would land in the Marine Academy dormitory.
Soru!
In an instant, Zephyr's body immediately broke the sound barrier. Through several changes of direction and high-speed short-distance movements, he arrived at the entrance of the Marine Academy dormitory. He raised his head and looked at the figure shrouded in black mist that was descending. A layer of pitch-black Busoshoku Haki quickly covered his right wrist, ready.
Soon, the figure landed, and the black mist disappeared, revealing Sephiroth's form.
"Hehehe! Zefa-sensei, good evening!" Sephiroth forced a smile as he dispelled his vampire transformation, but in his heart, he was cursing loudly. You old geezer, why aren't you sleeping late at night and squatting near the dormitory entrance? Do you think you're Old Man Zephyr, the doorkeeper? And what was that Busoshoku Haki for just now? If I hadn't landed, you were definitely planning to swing your arm and hit someone, right?
Zephyr looked Sephiroth up and down, his face full of suspicion, "It's so late, why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Eh?! I went for a walk, bought some books, and two boxes of cigarettes." Sephiroth lifted the two paper bags in his hands and shook them in front of the purple-haired old man. As if remembering something, he smiled, quickly pulled out a tightly sealed, beautifully packaged box of cigars from the bag, and handed it over.
"Zefa-sensei, you've worked hard. This is a small token of respect from your student, please accept it."
"Stop your act. Even if you give me something, I won't agree to anything..." Zephyr said with disbelief.
"No! No! How could a student dare to make a request? This is purely to express my respect for you....." Sephiroth insisted, his smile unwavering.
After some back and forth, Zephyr reluctantly accepted the cigar and said, "Don't let this happen again."
After some brief pleasantries, Sephiroth said goodbye and immediately walked back to the dormitory, feeling a slight heartache in his mind. That was a 100,000 Berry cigar! Just gone, it was originally meant for Smoker. Now... Sorry! Smoker, your cigarettes are gone. If you want them, just go find that old man Zephyr!
As soon as Sephiroth returned to the dormitory, he pulled his suitcase from under the bed. After taking out all the clothes inside, he closed the suitcase, took all his wealth amounting to more than seventy million Berries, and quietly slipped out of the dormitory.
After transforming into a vampire, he wrapped his body in a layer of black mist to enhance concealment and prevent being discovered by patrolling Marine soldiers. Soon after, he flapped his wings again, flew into the air, and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
The black mist was a Devil Fruit ability he had just developed. This black mist, instead of being called a mist, was more like formless "black bats." It was a technique he developed by choosing to abandon shapeshifting and mimicry. The control over the black mist was much worse than over bats. Once he created the black mist, he could no longer shapeshift or mimic living creatures.
The range of the black mist could be large or small, the larger the range, the more stamina it consumed. Currently, he could release a black mist domain with a maximum radius of thirty meters. However, although the black mist could block the enemy's vision, it couldn't block Kenbunshoku Haki perception. Therefore, it was an ability that could quickly eliminate the weak, but when facing Kenbunshoku Haki experts, it was better than nothing. But Sephiroth was already very satisfied.
Developing Devil Fruit abilities doesn't necessarily mean it can be achieved just by having a big enough imagination, it also requires corresponding strength to support it. This is like Doflamingo's Ito Ito no Mi (String-String Fruit). Don't look at how he plays with his abilities, controlling objects, flying, and even developing a super wide-range AoE Birdcage! In the end, it's just because his strength is already high! If a weakling with less than five combat power obtained the Ito Ito Devil Fruit ability, Sephiroth estimated that besides not needing to buy thread for sewing clothes in the future, that person wouldn't gain much else!