January 11, 1517, 5:30 p.m.
-Babylon Temple, the High God's residence.
Rather than turning into lightning, Sephiroth flew back to Babylon from the East Blue.
After all, he had to carry the Flame-Flame Fruit with him, so teleportation was out of the question.
Had anything unexpected happened along the way? There had, more or less. Any pirate crews he spotted along his flight path, he dealt with in passing.
To avoid leaving unnecessary traces, Sephiroth hadn't used beams or lightning strikes.
It might have meant making certain people take the blame, which was a little underhanded, but Sephiroth would sometimes find enormous chunks of iron ore with no smelting value... and lift them into low orbit.
When he needed them, he dropped them, playing at Shattered Heaven and the like.
-Though occasionally, some of his stockpile got stolen... Huh? How strange. He hadn't the faintest idea...
To keep anyone from surviving by a lucky break, he also used Conqueror's Haki to knock them unconscious before they sank into the sea.
While doing this, though, he hadn't expected one of those crews to be the Black Cat Pirates.
Their captain was the man from Usopp's hometown who disguised himself as a butler in Kaya's household: Kuro of a Hundred Plans.
According to his original fate, he spent three years earning Kaya's trust and building a good reputation among the locals.
His actual goal, however, was to seize her family's fortune.
Judging by the timing, he probably hadn't been far from faking his death and slipping away.
Considering that he might have secretly murdered Kaya's parents...
Even though Sephiroth had no particular designs on Kaya, he still dealt with him ahead of time-primitive life-form incoming!
Even so, this hadn't delayed him much, and he still made it back to Sky Island before