Inside the Shipyard.
Sephiroth crouched down, casually opening the two wooden boxes and glancing inside. One box was filled with Berry banknotes, amounting to over twenty million, while the other contained gold coins and jewelry, whose value was difficult to estimate. For convenience, he emptied a large sack from the Pirates' belongings and poured all the banknotes and treasures into it.
After doing all this, he turned, walked towards the black cloth bag, and began rummaging through the pile of fruits.
Suddenly!
In the midst of his search, his hand brushed against a Devil Fruit with gray skin covered in spiral patterns—an Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Wolf Zoan type! Sephiroth glanced inside the black cloth bag and pinpointed which fruit had transformed into this Devil Fruit. It was a red apple.
He had prepared a series of common fruits in the black cloth bag, such as bananas, red apples, green apples, oranges, tangerines, but the fruit that eventually transformed into a Devil Fruit was a red apple. To be honest, Sephiroth initially only had the idea to try it out. Among the many Pirates he monitored using his bats, he chose this Zoan-type ability user to conduct the Devil Fruit rebirth experiment.
In the world of One Piece, after a Devil Fruit ability user dies, the Devil Fruit will be randomly reborn in a ripe fruit. The reborn Devil Fruit, regardless of its appearance or abilities, will be exactly the same as the original, without the slightest difference!
Sephiroth felt that the rebirth of Devil Fruits should be controllable. Whether it was the Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Jackal and the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Falcon, two Devil Fruits inherited by the Alabasta Kingdom for 3000 years, or Caesar Clown on Punk Hazard Island killing the gas slime that ate the Gasu Gasu no Mi, causing the fruit to be reborn in a nearby red apple, these events suggested that Devil Fruit rebirth could be controlled. The premise was, as long as the correct type of fruit needed for the Devil Fruit's rebirth was found.
Of course, Sephiroth had only conducted one experiment, which didn't necessarily mean this was the truth. The rebirth of this Zoan-type Wolf form Devil Fruit might just be because he was incredibly lucky, like a blind cat finding a dead mouse.
Furthermore, he found something very interesting: when he was in his vampire form, the ultrasonic waves he emitted could interfere with objects, causing their trajectories to change. This reminded him of a technique used by an artificial Zoan Devil Fruit user in One Piece, jokingly referred to as the "Sixth Emperor." This bat-human used sound waves to alter the direction of arrows. The opponent must have mixed Busoshoku Haki into the ultrasonic waves to achieve this effect.
As a Mythical Zoan Bat Devil Fruit user in his vampire form, Sephiroth was considered a superior fruit compared to the artificial bat fruit. If his opponent could do it, he certainly could too. At that time, when he learned Busoshoku Haki and mastered the technique of making projectiles curve, which made bullets fired from a pistol arc, imagining it alone was incredible!
The brown-haired shipbuilder, seeing Sephiroth using a rope to tie up the bodies of the three bounty criminals, kindly asked, "Uh, Mr. Bounty Hunter, do you need us to get you a bubble trolley?"
Hearing this, Sephiroth was surprised for a moment, then he nodded and said, "Thank you! I happen to need one."
After thinking for a moment, he took out another hundred thousand Berries and gave it to the brown-haired shipbuilder, but the shipbuilder quickly refused it, saying that it was all in gratitude for saving their lives. However, Sephiroth insisted, stating that it was money for buying the bubble trolley and payment for their hard work in helping deal with the pirate corpses.
Seeing they couldn't refuse, the shipbuilders could only accept the money. The young man then moved the corpses to the bubble trolley, covered them with a white cloth, and only then, carrying the Devil Fruit and treasures, left the shipyard.
After walking quite a distance, Sephiroth found a hidden patch of grass and parked the bubble trolley there. He separated a black bat from his body and left it on the bubble trolley to act as a guard. Then, he underwent his vampire transformation, unfurling his wings, and, carrying the Devil Fruit and treasures, ascended into the sky, flying towards Island 71, the hotel where he was staying.
After quickly concealing these valuable items in the room, he returned to Island 52, pushed the bubble trolley, and headed towards Island 60, the Marine Base. The Marines stationed here, being relatively close to Marineford, were not established as independent G-branches and were still uniformly deployed and commanded by Marine Headquarters.
As soon as Sephiroth arrived at the entrance of the Marine Base, the two guards on duty immediately raised their rifles, aiming them at him, and would pull the trigger and fire if he made even a small movement. One of the Marine soldiers was the first to issue a warning, "Stop! What do you want at the Marine Base?"
At this moment, Sephiroth was still wearing his hooded black cloak and the eerie smiling mask on his face, concealing himself from head to toe, appearing extremely suspicious.
"Gentlemen Marines, don't be agitated! I'm just here to collect a bounty," As he spoke, Sephiroth gently pulled back the white cloth covering the trolley, revealing the bodies of the three bounty criminals.
Seeing this sight, the two Marine soldiers immediately relaxed slightly, but the Marine soldier still said cautiously, "Sir, please remove your mask. We need to confirm that you are not a criminal before allowing you into the Marine Base."
Hearing that, Sephiroth said nothing, but gently removed the mask covering his face, revealing a handsome face that was slightly pale and somber. He also pulled back his hood, revealing his short, spiky green hair.
If you want to make a living, you always need a little green on your head... This is just for making money! No need to be ashamed!
The two Marine soldiers, after observing Sephiroth up and down and confirming that he was not a criminal, then opened the tightly closed base gate, allowing him and the trolley to enter.
"The place to confirm the bounty criminals' identities is on the first floor of the office building, in the rightmost room."
"Alright, thanks for the reminder!" Sephiroth nodded. To avoid further trouble, he didn't put his eerie smile mask back on. He simply pushed the bubble trolley across the large training ground, passing a group of Marine soldiers who were training.
The ground of the Marine Base was different from the ground on other islands in the Sabaody Archipelago. There were traces of land reclamation, creating a whole piece of land, which was clearly intentionally done by the Marines to strengthen the foundation, making it seem somewhat out of place compared to the other Sabaody islands.
Soon after, he walked into the cold morgue and saw a plump Lieutenant wearing a white cloak of justice and black-framed glasses on his face. Sephiroth, with a husky voice, greeted the Lieutenant before him. "Hello, I'm here to collect a bounty..."
"What's your name, young man?"
"Eh!?... Roronoa Zoro!"
"Alright, wait a moment while I verify the identities of the bounty criminals..."
The corpulent Lieutenant Luther first reached out and pushed up the glasses slipping on his face before taking a thick stack of bounty posters from the table and looking at them while facing the three corpses.
"Gray Wolf Bello 76 million Berries, Double-Gun Post 23 million Berries, Iron Claw Harka 26 million Berries... A total of 125 million Berries. Hmm!? The total bounty amount exceeds 100 million Berries. You'll need to get Vice Admiral Kizaru's signature..."
While speaking, Luther took an instant camera from the table, took three photos, immediately wrote a standard document, signed his own name, stamped it, and affixed the three bounty posters. "Sign your name here on this document, then go to the fifth floor, the second office on the left, and get Vice Admiral Kizaru's signature. With his signature, you can go directly to the third floor, the first room on the left, the finance department, to collect the bounty."
Sephiroth casually wrote the name "Roronoa Zoro" on the document, while unconsciously muttering, "Ah! How troublesome..." In his heart, he actually didn't want to see Kizaru. At that time, what would Kizaru think if he found out that a Military School student like himself was going to earn extra money during the holidays? Would he report it to Zephyr?
"There's no other way. Amounts exceeding 100 million require Vice Admiral Kizaru's signature before the finance department can disburse them..." Luther first explained with a smile, then he picked up the three corpses one by one and put them into a special freezer for storing cadavers. Occasionally, Marineford would uniformly count and collect all bounty criminal corpses from the bases and transport them back to their birthplaces for public display as a warning to those preparing to set sail as Pirates.
Sephiroth, holding the three photos and the document, went up to the fifth floor and stood at the door of the second room. He knocked gently on the closed door.
"Ha~! Come in!" A somewhat lazy voice, accompanied by a yawn, came from inside the room.
As soon as Sephiroth opened the door, he saw a tall man wearing a white cloak of justice over a yellow suit, with a very lewd face and a sleepy expression. His back was leaning against the office chair, and his legs were propped up on the table. This man was the Supreme Commander of the Sabaody Archipelago Marine Base, Vice Admiral Kizaru, one of the future Three Marine Admirals! On the wall of the room, behind Kizaru, hung a plaque with the words [Ambiguous Justice] written on it.
"Hello! Vice Admiral Kizaru, I'm here to collect the bounty..." Sephiroth's expression showed neither humility nor arrogance. He walked to the table and handed the document to the other party for review.
"Ha~! 125 million Berries, and one of them is a Pirate with a 76 million Berry bounty, truly terrifying!" Kizaru scratched his ear with his left hand, while with his right hand he picked up the signature pen on the table, quickly signed his name twice, and stamped the pen.
"Alright, take the document and go to the finance department to collect the bounty!" While saying this, Kizaru yawned again with a sleepy expression and resumed his nap in his office chair.
"....."
It's really you! The Marine's Lazy King... Sephiroth silently grumbled in his heart, then turned and left, closing the office door behind him, and went to the finance department to collect the bounty.
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