Lulucca Island.
On the bow of the ship, a Red Hair Pirates man with long red hair, bare-chested, gripped a long-handled great axe. He shouted to the dozens of pirate subordinates standing on the deck:
"Brothers! Soon, after we hit the town, burn it all down, kill everyone, plunder, and enjoy yourselves!"
"Oh! This is great…"
"Long live Captain Weaton!"
"Long live Captain Weaton!"
"Long live Captain Weaton!"
The pirates on the deck roared their captain's name wildly. They cheered, jumped, and anticipated the wonderful moment of burning, killing, and plundering after they landed.
"Ah!? Captain, looks like someone's flying in the sky over there."
Among the crowd, a pirate suddenly exclaimed, disrupting the morale Weaton had just stoked. He pointed a finger at a figure that suddenly appeared above the sea in the distance, his face full of surprise.
"Hmm!?"
Hearing this, Weaton frowned and turned his head to look in the direction his subordinate was pointing.
Immediately, he saw a crimson fire dragon, letting out a high-pitched roar, charging towards the red bull's head figurehead.
"This is…?"
Weaton's pupils suddenly contracted, and a look of horror flashed across his face.
The next moment.
Boom—!
The entire large three-masted sailing ship with the bull's head figurehead was blasted to pieces. None of the pirates on the ship were spared; their lives were swallowed by the raging flames.
"The fireworks I set off before leaving were really good!"
Sephiroth murmured softly and plunged directly into the Rainbow Mist not far away.
On the coast of Lulucca Island, on a cliff, six people sat together, five men and one woman, chatting and laughing.
Among them, a boy with pink hair and a mushroom cut, named Hanzo, asked a boy with brown hair and dark skin named Laba Nei:
"Laba Nei, when we grow up, do we really have to become pirates?"
"Of course! Haven't we already become the Pumpkin Pirates? We set sail when we turn eighteen! Galloping on the sea, adventuring freely… By the way, Hanzo, are you scared?"
Laba Nei said with a laugh.
"No… no!" Hanzo stammered, refuting.
"Then it's a deal!"
Laba Nei extended his clenched right fist towards the five people.
Seeing this, the other five also extended their right fists, and the six people's fists touched, saying in unison:
"It's a deal!" ×6
... sea era 1503. Above the sky of Lulucca Island in the first half of the Grand Line. A rainbow-colored mist vortex suddenly appeared. Sephiroth, wearing a white coat with black wings spread on his back, flapped his wings and flew directly into the town below. Sephiroth first glanced in the direction from which a strange sensation came, then he casually found a passerby on the street and struck up a conversation:
"What year, month, and day is it now?"
"sea era 1503, May 13th."
Under Sephiroth's hypnotic suggestion, the passerby reported the current time and date very directly.
"..."
Hearing the other party's abrupt answer, Sephiroth couldn't help but fall silent.
Now, he seemed to understand what that special sensation was…
So, he immediately flapped his wings and soared into the air, flying toward the distance at top speed.
......
The first half of the Grand Line.
On the vast blue sea, a small island, about a dozen square kilometers in size, appeared.
On the coast of the island, seagulls landed from the sky, flapping their wings on the beach and making clear, pleasant calls.
A silver-haired young man, about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a blue suit, had a slightly immature but very handsome face.
His eyes were tightly closed as he lay on his back on the beach, letting the tide constantly wash over his body.
Because he'd been immersed in the seawater for so long, his life force was very weak, making one wonder if he might die in the next second!
Above the sky, Sephiroth flapped the black wings on his back. As he looked at the silver-haired young man lying on the beach, he felt inexplicably melancholic.
Is it really like this? All of this, is it just a historical trajectory that was already destined? Sephiroth muttered to himself.
Since he'd appeared at this point in time, he'd sensed an existence very similar to a vampire bat.
So, he followed that feeling and found his way to this island, where he saw his younger self.
After a moment of reflection, Sephiroth slowly descended from the air and stood beside the silver-haired youth.
He extended his right index finger and brought it close to the other party's brow.
A drop of crimson blood seeped from his fingertip, dripped onto the silver-haired youth's brow, and quickly burrowed in.
The blood, containing powerful vitality, began to quickly nourish the youth's weak body, causing his already very faint heartbeat to start beating strongly again.
Because both their blood types and DNA were exactly the same, Sephiroth's blood wasn't rejected by the silver-haired youth's immune system and perfectly integrated into the other party's blood.
His blood possessed extremely strong vitality...
If nothing unexpected happened, by the time his other self ate the Vampire Fruit, the blood would likely survive for about three years inside his other self's body.
Under Sephiroth's control, he injected the memories of his past life seen on the Three Lives Stone and the memories of his youth in this life into the silver-haired youth's mind through deep conscious hypnosis.
After injecting the "cheat" of past life memories into his younger self, Sephiroth flapped his wings and flew into the distant forest, placing the Vampire Fruit he obtained from sea era 1322 under a tree.
Having done all that, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he found a hidden spot, unleashed his Observation Haki, and began sensing the life forms on the entire island.
When he sensed that his younger self had woken up on the beach, he used the blood he left in the other party's body to influence his thoughts and consciousness, guiding the other party to the tree where he'd placed the Vampire Fruit.
Sephiroth watched as the silver-haired youth swallowed the purplish-red skinned Vampire Fruit in large gulps, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Huh?! Oh no, after eating the Vampire Fruit, the user will develop a special sensitivity to their own blood!
Although he couldn't sense his own blood thousands of miles away like he could now, sensing it one or two hundred kilometers away was still possible...
In that case, wouldn't I be exposed!?
Thinking of this, Sephiroth quickly controlled his own blood to perform strong conscious hypnosis on the silver-haired youth, making him feel a strong sense of nausea towards the taste of the Devil Fruit.
Immediately after, under his control, the silver-haired youth instantly started retching, and he took the opportunity to make the other party directly fall unconscious.
"Hmm?! As expected of me!... Everything is perfectly arranged!"
Sephiroth looked at the silver-haired youth who had fallen unconscious on the ground, nodded with satisfaction, flapped the black wings on his back, flew high into the sky, and began searching for something on the island...
Soon, he found the three human traffickers who were replenishing freshwater on the island.
Under Sephiroth's guidance using deep conscious hypnosis, the three human traffickers did not realize that they had deviated from their usual freshwater resupply route and "accidentally" encountered the unconscious silver-haired youth, taking him back to the slave ship.
Only then did Sephiroth flap his wings with satisfaction and fly towards the Sabaody Archipelago.
.........
The setting sun gradually sank into the sea, the sea breeze howled, stirring up white clouds, and the red glow in the sky seemed to want to dye the entire sky, making the firmament a fiery red.
High in the sky, Sephiroth, who had been flying at high speed for several hours, suddenly slowed down the frequency of flapping his wings, keeping his body suspended in the air.
He slowly closed his eyes, carefully sensing his other self who was thousands of miles away.
Due to the huge disparity in strength between the two, the silver-haired youth could not sense him from thousands of miles away, while he, relying on his powerful strength, could clearly sense the other party's every move.
"Do you want to elementalize to break free from the shackles on your hands?
I'll help you!"
Sephiroth, with his eyes closed, chuckled slightly and interfered with the silver-haired youth's subconscious through his own blood, causing his body to subconsciously undergo bat-like splitting...
After a long moment, Sephiroth, still with his eyes closed, murmured to himself.
"Ten years ago, I was so weak it was embarrassing!
Even dealing with these small fry was a struggle..."
Through the sensing of his own blood, Sephiroth clearly saw the scene: Hancock was knocked to the ground by Captain Peter and about to be impaled through the chest by Captain Peter's raised longsword.
Without the slightest hesitation, without the slightest delay!
Sephiroth immediately controlled his own blood, frantically stimulating the blood in the silver-haired youth's brain thousands of miles away. Using the extremely high compatibility from the same source, he performed deep spiritual induction on him, causing the spiritual energy that had been sleeping in his mind, innate, and named "Conqueror's Haki", to suddenly erupt!
...........
Inside a sailing ship with a wolf's head figurehead, on the surging sea.
Boom!
A vast and powerful aura surged out from Sephiroth, and faint dark red lightning flashed and disappeared within the ship's cabin.
Thump! Thump! Thump!...
Except for Sephiroth and Hancock, everyone on the sailing ship, without exception, rolled their eyes, lost consciousness, and fainted on the deck.
"Con... Conqueror's Haki...? One in a million, the qualification of a king..."
Hancock slowly stood up, reached out to wipe the blood flowing from her forehead, and her eyes, looking at Sephiroth, were filled with surprise.
"This is Conqueror's Haki...?"
The silver-haired youth blankly clenched his hands, his eyes slightly bewildered.
Under the strong emotional fluctuations just now, he only felt as if something had been unleashed, completely beyond his control!
.........
High in the sky over a certain sea area in the first half of the Grand Line.
"Conqueror's Haki... One in a million, the qualification of a king...
It is only by awakening Conqueror's Haki that one gains the qualification to become a king, not by having some so-called qualification of a king that one can awaken Conqueror's Haki!"
Sephiroth opened his eyes, the corners of his mouth curving upwards slightly, and he chuckled inexplicably.
Then, he vigorously flapped the black wings on his back again, creating a loud sonic boom, and sped towards the Sabaody Archipelago...
Sephiroth had not conducted research into spacetime theory, so he wasn't entirely clear whether his current actions were "past history" or "present continuous."
Perhaps, from the moment he entered the Rainbow Mist, the world's timeline formed a closed loop connection, and his current actions were both past history and present continuous.
Or perhaps...
This world was actually just one of countless world lines, parallel to the world line Sephiroth originally belonged to. He had merely jumped from one line to another through the Rainbow Mist, a special singularity.
After all, he had obtained the Nue Fruit in Wano Country...
This fruit wasn't a Devil Fruit from the original story. Instead, it came from a different, independent One Piece world, one that had never appeared in the original plot.
In other words, the world he was in could be just one of many parallel One Piece worlds!
Sephiroth did not know whether he had traveled through time or crossed into a parallel world, so he had always been trying to return to his original point in time, just in case he had truly only crossed into a parallel world...