Egghead Island, Research Level.
A crimson flash split the air as a spatial door materialized. Sephiroth stepped through, dragging the massive form of Tyrant Kuma behind him.
"Dad!" Bonney's voice cracked across the lab. She dropped her half-eaten meal mid-bite and launched herself at Kuma, wrapping her arms around him with enough force to stagger the cyborg. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs.
Vegapunk ambled forward, hands tucked behind his back. His chuckle carried the smug satisfaction of a man who'd outdone himself.
"Your requested machine is already assembled."
"That fast?"
"Of course!" A new voice cut in—bright, feminine, dripping with pride. The speaker flipped her golden hair, one eye hidden behind the glossy strands. Earphones dangled from her left ear, her curves accentuated by a skintight pink jumpsuit and slouchy purple jacket.
Lilith. Vegapunk's first satellite.
Sephiroth's gaze lingered as she thumped her chest, the motion sending ripples through her silhouette. For half a second, something warmer than admiration flickered in his mind—until reality crashed down. This body housed Vegapunk's consciousness. An old man's soul nestled behind those coy lashes.
His stomach turned. The fantasy evaporated.
Across the room, Stussy set her teacup down with deliberate calm. She rose from the sofa, silk stockings whispering as she approached.
"How went your negotiations with the Gorosei?"
"They escaped."
Her manicured fingers pressed to her forehead. "Disastrous. With them loose, Egghead remains a target. The Doctor's safety—"
"Ah, bothersome." Vegapunk scratched his balding head. "Relocating my labs would mean rebuilding from scratch. The thought alone exhausts me." His shoulders slumped. Decades of research embedded in these walls—abandoning them felt like carving out a piece of his mind.
Sephiroth shrugged. "Stay put. I'll move the entire island."
"The entire—?" Vegapunk's jaw unhinged. "You can't mean—"
"Egghead will nest beside Marine G1 Branch." Strategic calculus guided the decision. The New World needed a fortified hub, and what better shield than proximity to Marine might? Let the Gorosei scheme—they'd find steel waiting.
Within hours, the island shuddered. Sephiroth's power flared, the Float-Float Fruit humming through bedrock and brine. Egghead tore free from the sea, a colossal slab of earth and machinery wreathed in salt spray, ascending toward the clouds.
———
Marineford, Military Port Bay.
Ain's boots clicked against the warship deck, her Rear Admiral cape snapping in the harbor wind. She saluted, sharp and precise, but confusion pinched her brow.
"Vice Admiral Sephiroth, all forces report ready. One complication—Mary Geoise has vanished. Without it, how do we transport twenty thousand Marines across the Red Line?" A hundred ships sat docked, their sails limp, going nowhere.
Sephiroth smirked. "Simple. We fly."
Her breath caught as he snapped his fingers.
The fleet lurched. Wood groaned, ropes straining as gravity released its claim. Ain watched, wide-eyed, as a hundred battleships lifted into the sky, their hulls dripping seawater onto the stunned Marines below. The armada banked as one, cutting through the clouds toward Red Port.
"Well...? It's simple, just fly there." Under Ain's astonished gaze, the impossible became routine.
Since the news of the Red Line being severed had become widely known, it caused unprecedented turmoil in the New World within just a few days. Many World Government affiliated countries were arbitrarily plundered by powerful Pirate Crews, and even worse, their royal families were massacred, their thrones taken by Pirates, and the entire country became a lawless land.
Originally, Sengoku had wanted Sephiroth to lead troops to support the New World on the same day he reached a secret agreement with him. However, Sephiroth directly refused and deliberately delayed for several days, making the situation in the New World even more chaotic. Besides having many matters of his own to handle, another reason was that he wanted to seize more territory in the New World...
Yes, seize territory! Although after Kaido of the Beasts and Whitebeard Newgate died, Sephiroth led the Kuja Pirates and the Umbrella Corporation personnel to seize the territories held by these two Four Emperors. But... Due to insufficient troops, he only occupied the resource-rich islands, abandoning the resource-poor ones, maximizing profits as much as possible.
Even so, he now occupied eighteen territories. In fact, in the New World, the Four Emperors occupied far more islands than the World Government. If you wanted territory, the most direct way was to seize it from the Four Emperors. However... Due to Sephiroth's overly complex relationships, having connections with Red-Haired Shanks and Big Mom Linlin, it was not convenient to directly attack them.
Therefore, after seizing as many of Kaido's and Whitebeard's rich territories as possible, he turned his attention to the World Government affiliated countries...
Some royal families of affiliated countries, during the Pirate turmoil, had clearly escaped their nations and prepared to temporarily avoid the disaster, waiting for Marine support, but they still couldn't escape the fate of being killed... Don't ask, it must have been the work of Pirates!
Next, Sephiroth only needed to lead the Marine soldiers, acting as heroes, to rescue the countries that had been plundered by Pirates. Then... What? Your country's royal family is gone...? It doesn't matter, how about letting our Marine directly govern it! From now on, this country will no longer have a kingdom, and the residents can pay one less tax to the royal family.
Why wouldn't everyone be happy about that? Of course, there were certain nobles in the countries who were dissatisfied, but these people could hardly cause any major trouble, and Sephiroth was confident he could easily handle them. Soon, one hundred flying warships arrived near the Red Line.
Many Marine soldiers looked down from the side of the warships and saw the half-disappeared Red Port in Paradise, as well as the bottomless pit created by the massive energy sphere. The Red Port on the New World side was even worse; apart from a dozen or so buildings remaining on the sea surface, nothing else was left, making it hard to believe that a port town once existed there.
After passing through the canyon of the Red Line from high altitude, the warships sailed for another twenty kilometers or so and finally reached the G1 Branch in the New World. However, what surprised many Marines was that an island was floating above the G1 Branch...? Some knowledgeable individuals, by observing the buildings on the island, recognized it... Egghead Island!
For reasons of secrecy, Sephiroth did not directly move Egghead Island to the sea to connect with the G1 Branch, but instead suspended it in mid-air. In the future, only after building a few bubble elevators and setting up security checkpoints to effectively prevent spies and outsiders from invading, can Egghead Island be connected to the G1 Branch.
The Marine fleet docked at G1 Branch's military port, where Sephiroth analyzed recent Pirate raids across multiple nations. With precise strategy, he divided his forces into specialized units, deploying them where they'd strike hardest. By morning, the World Economic News blazed headlines about the aerial fleet's arrival in the New World—sending shockwaves through Pirate ranks.
None had anticipated the Marines bypassing sea routes entirely. Dozens of raiding crews abandoned their occupied territories in panic, scrambling for escape routes. But Sephiroth had accounted for their cowardice.
He hunted them personally. One by one, he dragged the fleeing Pirates back to the very villages they'd pillaged, where justice awaited at the gallows. The operation lasted days, quelling the New World's unrest while folding twelve nations under Marine protection.
Meanwhile, Drake executed Sephiroth's plan flawlessly. With a dozen Beast Pirates' Headliners in tow, he broke free from Wano's prison and rendezvoused overseas with Doflamingo's faction. Over drinks, he recounted recent events—including the Kuja Pirates' airborne fleet.
Doflamingo's grin faltered. The Kuja's aerial mobility, paired with the Marines' sudden skyborne assault… Pieces clicked into place. Years-old intel resurfaced: Sephiroth's rumored ties to Hancock. Wano's shadow ruler wasn't Kaido—it had always been the Marine.
A cold sweat traced Doflamingo's spine as memories of Marineford flashed behind his sunglasses. Sephiroth carving through armies like wheat. After a long silence, he slammed his glass down. "We're abandoning Wano. Hachinosu becomes our new base." The Beast Pirates? A relic. "From today," he declared, "this crew sails under the Donquixote name!"
Chaos reigned across the Grand Line's first half. Blackbeard's mass prison break during the war had unleashed a tide of fugitives. Zephyr and Aokiji barely slept, chasing down escapees across storm-tossed seas.
Sengoku's war table bore grim reports. The Blackbeard Pirates, having devoured Whitebeard's remnants, now commanded a armada rivaling an Emperor's fleet. Their threat level skyrocketed. Without hesitation, he mobilized Akainu and Kizaru—not to eradicate, but to cripple.
He did not expect the fleets led by the two Admirals to annihilate the Blackbeard Pirates outright. But breaking their spine? Scattering their ships like driftwood? That much, at least, was within reach.