In the first half of the Grand Line, over a certain stretch of sea.
The weather was fair, and the sea breeze was gentle.
Upon the azure sea, a speedboat with a metal hull drifted along with the waves.
After finishing his inspection of the Marines' Luluka Island branch, Sephiroth, clad in a white Justice coat and blue suit, lay on the deck of his personal speedboat with his eyes closed, leisurely sunbathing. He was in no hurry to head to Aito Island, his next inspection destination...
He was the commander of the G-4 base, after all. Slacking off on the job was only natural, wasn't it?
Now, he had thrown all the paperwork to Kuro, while he himself left the G-4 base every day under the pretense of conducting inspections, driving his speedboat around the nearby waters and wandering about...
Although the officers beneath him had plenty of complaints about their base commander, who was often nowhere to be seen, it was not entirely unacceptable...
After all, there was already the precedent of Marine Vice Admiral candidate Aokiji riding a bicycle around the sea all day. Compared to that, their G-4 base commander sailing around aimlessly did not seem all that outrageous...!?
Just as Sephiroth closed his eyes and focused on controlling his Bat Clone thousands of miles away, conducting technical research related to Soul Crystals...
A mass of rainbow-colored mist suddenly appeared before the speedboat. It abruptly released a powerful suction force, swallowing the entire boat along with Sephiroth, who lay upon it.
The instant he entered the mist, Sephiroth immediately lost contact with his Bat Clone.
Not only that, but all the Vampire Bats he used for positioning also severed their connection with him, preventing him from carrying out ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation.
Startled, Sephiroth immediately opened his