Concerns

Late at night.

Marineford, Marine Headquarters building, Fleet Admiral's office.

Steel Bone Kong stood by the window, draped in a white coat of justice. Tall and broad, with snow-white hair and explosive muscles, he folded his arms and gazed out at the sea beyond the glass, seemingly lost in thought.

Knock, knock, knock!

There was a sudden knock at the door.

"Come in!"

As soon as he spoke, Zephyr pushed open the door and walked in.

"It's so late. What is it, Zephyr?"

Steel Bone Kong did not turn around. He continued to stare out the window with his back to Zephyr, yet he had identified the visitor solely by sensing his presence.

"I saw that your office lights were still on, so I came to submit the evaluations for this year's Military Academy students."

"Oh? Are there any youngsters worth cultivating?"

"Based on my analysis of their files and their performance over this period, three of them have excellent potential. They have the makings of admirals."

"Oh? Which three? Let me see their files."

Steel Bone Kong raised an eyebrow and turned to Zephyr. The latter had come prepared. He quickly stepped to the window and handed over the top three files in his hands.

"Tokikake, Gion, Karl D. Sephiroth..."

Each file contained only three pages, filled with data, past experiences, and personal background information.

Sephiroth's file clearly recorded his past.

Sephiroth was born in Water 7. His father had been a purchasing manager and shareholder at a shipyard.

Over a month ago, they had encountered an attack by the Beast Pirates at sea. His father had died saving him, while he himself had suffered a shipwreck and accidentally obtained a Zoan Bat Fruit.

The fruit's specific type and form were unknown, but it could transform his entire body into a bat and allow a Zoan Transformation. Preliminary judgment classified it as a Mythical Zoan.

After investigations from multiple sources were compiled, it could be inferred that he had once been captured by a Slave Trader Group. After killing those people, he had escaped back to Water 7 alongside three members of the Kuja Pirates. He was suspected of having some close connection to the Kuja Pirates...

After he enlisted in the Marines, Water 7 came under attack by the Watson Pirates. Relying on his own strength, he killed three officers of that pirate crew...

"This kid named Sephiroth...

I originally had very high hopes for him, but after sending people to investigate his background in detail, I found myself unable to make up my mind...

I suspect he might be a spy sent into the Marines by pirates..." Zephyr said carefully.

"So that's why you came to discuss how to deal with him in the middle of the night... right?"

Steel Bone Kong chuckled, set down the document in his hand, and looked at his subordinate.

"Yes."

Zephyr nodded frankly. His task was to cultivate talent for the Marines. If he ended up training a spy, who knew how much damage that person might cause the Marines?

"Zephyr, I understand your concerns, but... you need to understand that we cannot throw away the whole meal for fear of choking.

Surely you've noticed it too?

Other than the first few classes of students you trained, the quality of later Military Academy students has simply worsened with every generation...

Ever since that fellow Roger died, more and more young people unwilling to live ordinary lives, along with powerful individuals, have raised Pirate Flags and rushed toward the Grand Line.

This has left Marine Headquarters increasingly short on manpower, while the number of talented people we can recruit has also continued to decline.

You can't dispose of a promising recruit based on mere suspicion without solid evidence. The consequences would be bad!"

Zephyr hesitated.

"But what if..."

Seeing this, Steel Bone Kong could only sigh and raise a hand to stop him.

"Alright, alright!... How about this!

I'll be responsible for investigating and monitoring this kid. If there's anything suspicious about him, I'll deal with him myself."

"Alright!"

Since Steel Bone Kong, the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, had already said that much, Zephyr, who was only an admiral, had nothing more to insist on.

Only after Zephyr closed the office door and walked away did Steel Bone Kong pick up Sephiroth's file and mutter to himself.

"Karl D. Sephiroth... D... Is it fate? Or..."

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching the author instead. It may have simply been renamed!

Marineford Military Academy, training grounds.

Zephyr walked around the training grounds with his hands behind his back, considering how he should treat Sephiroth, this uncertain factor.

As for training his physique, it had already lost its meaning at his age. His muscles and strength had stopped growing and were gradually declining, worsening with each passing year.

He estimated that in another ten or twenty years, his strength would likely decline to the point where he might not even be able to defeat his student Borsalino, that fellow who relied far too heavily on his Devil Fruit ability.

Suddenly!

Within the perception of his Observation Haki, a black shadow plummeted from the sky. In the future he foresaw, that shadow would land at the Military Academy dormitory.

In an instant, Zephyr broke the sound barrier. Through repeated short-distance, high-speed movements and rapid changes in direction, he arrived at the entrance to the dormitory.

He raised his head and stared at the figure wrapped in Black Mist as it plunged toward the ground. A layer of jet-black Armament Haki swiftly covered his right wrist.

Soon, the figure landed. The Black Mist dispersed, revealing Sephiroth.

"Hehehe! Teacher Zephyr, good evening!"

Sephiroth forced a smile as he dispelled his Vampire Transformation, but inside, he was cursing furiously.

Why the hell was this rotten old man squatting outside the dormitory instead of sleeping in the middle of the night?

Did he think he was some old gatekeeper named Zephyr?

And what was with that Armament Haki just now?

If I hadn't landed, were you planning to start swinging your fists at me?

Zephyr looked Sephiroth up and down, his face full of suspicion.

"It's so late. Why aren't you asleep?"

"Uh!? I went out for a walk and bought a book, along with two boxes of cigarettes."

Sephiroth raised the two paper bags in his hand and waved them in front of the purple-haired old man.

As if recalling something, he smiled and hurriedly took out an unopened, exquisitely packaged box of cigars from one of the bags, handing it over.

"Teacher Zephyr, you've worked hard. Please accept this small token of respect from your student."

"Cut it out. Even if you give me something, I won't agree to any request of yours..."

"No, no! How could I dare make any requests? This is purely to express my respect for you..."

After some back-and-forth, Zephyr reluctantly accepted the cigars and said, "Don't let it happen again."

Only after exchanging a few more pleasantries did Sephiroth take his leave and quickly return to the dormitory, silently aching inside.

Those were cigars worth a hundred thousand Belly!

And just like that, they were gone. He had originally planned to give them to Smoker.

Now... sorry, Smoker, your cigarettes are gone. If you want them, go ask that rotten old man Zephyr!

As soon as Sephiroth returned to the dormitory, he pulled his suitcase out from beneath the bed.

After taking all the clothes out of it, he closed the suitcase and sneaked out of the dormitory carrying his entire fortune of over seventy million Belly.

After shifting into Vampire Form, he wrapped his body in a layer of Black Mist to make himself less conspicuous and avoid being discovered by patrolling Marine soldiers.

Then, he flapped his wings again, flew into the sky, and vanished into the night.

Black Mist was a Devil Fruit ability he had developed recently...

Rather than mist, those clouds of Black Mist were better described as unfinished "Black Bats." It was a technique he had developed by giving up form transformation and biological imitation.

Black Mist was far inferior to bats in terms of control. Once he created it, he could no longer alter its shape or imitate living creatures with it.

The range of the Black Mist could be large or small. The larger the range, the more stamina it consumed. At present, the largest Black Mist domain he could release had a radius of thirty meters.

However, aside from blocking an enemy's vision, Black Mist could not obstruct Observation Haki perception.

Therefore, it was an ability that could quickly clear out fodder enemies, but was barely useful against Observation Haki experts. Still, Sephiroth was already quite satisfied with it.

Developing a Devil Fruit did not mean that anything could be achieved just by having a sufficiently wild imagination. It also required the corresponding strength to support it.

Take Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, for example. He had turned that ability into something extraordinary—controlling people, flying, and even developing the Birdcage, a massive AOE attack!

At the end of the day, that was only because he was strong to begin with!

If some weak, worthless nobody obtained the String-String Fruit ability...

Sephiroth figured that aside from never needing to buy thread to mend clothes again, that person would not accomplish much of anything!