In a cozy three-story villa on Island 41 of the Sabaody Archipelago.
Sephiroth, wearing a black leather jacket, walked into the kitchen, holding large and small bags piled high with ingredients like a small mountain. After setting down the ingredients, he pulled out his silver pocket watch and checked the time. It was half past eleven.
There were still thirty minutes until mealtime. It would clearly be difficult for Sephiroth to prepare enough food to feed the three Boa sisters in such a short time. So, he drew the long blade from his waist, and with a single slash in the air, he opened a small Spatial Door connected to the basement. With a gentle peek, he released the vampire bats in the iron cage on the other side of the door.
When the vampire bats flew into the kitchen, Sephiroth separated a large group of black bats from his body. These bats intertwined with the vampire bats, and then merged to form a man who was exactly like himself in terms of clothing and appearance: a Bat Doppelganger!
As his mastery of Rokushiki: Life Return grew, he found himself at a high level in micro-manipulating the bats created with his abilities. Since the bats created with his Devil Fruit ability could form any part of his body, he wondered, could he use these bats to create another version of himself?
The answer was: Yes!
However.
A doppelganger created purely by his ability was terribly uncoordinated in its control. Sometimes even he couldn't distinguish which was the ontology (his true body) and which was the doppelganger, and his consciousness felt as if it were split into two.
To solve this problem, he deliberately tried using his own blood to feed the vampire bats, in an attempt to strengthen the connection between the two parties, and to use it to stop commands and improve the doppelganger's control and coordination.
Perhaps because the vampire bats absorbed too much of Sephiroth's blood, their color changed from black to blood-red, and their size was much larger than ordinary vampire bats in terms of size, speed, strength, intelligence, etc.
However, he got his wish and improved his control over the vampire bats, making the bat clone a relatively independent individual with a certain sense of self, which greatly reduced the difficulty of its control.
In terms of physical fitness, the Bat Doppelganger was as strong as his original body, but in terms of swordsmanship and fighting skills, it was somewhat unsatisfactory. It couldn't achieve some very exquisite fighting skills and was only suitable for simple and crude attacks.
Furthermore, once the vampire bat was killed, the bat doppelganger would fall into a relatively difficult state to control. In actual combat, not only would it be unable to help, but it would even be a distraction.
And, if the bat clone had existed for more than one day, or if it had consumed too much energy, it needed to maintain its physical state by sucking blood, otherwise the bat clone would become weaker and weaker until it completely disappeared.
Sephiroth quickly became busy in the kitchen with the help of the Bat Doppelganger. He arranged the cooking order according to the length of cooking time, and first prepared the main ingredients and put them into the pot to boil. The quick-fried dishes were left until the finishing stage by him.
After more than forty minutes of bustling, Sephiroth finally served twelve dishes and one soup to the table.
"It's truly not easy in every way to feed these three sisters!" With a sighing expression on his face, Sephiroth wiped the sweat from his brow.
Immediately after, he swung his Butcher's Blade, opened a door to space, stepped to the other side of the door, and shouted, "Let's start dinner!"
On Island 13 of the Sabaody Archipelago.
A thin red line flashed in the air, spatial ripples folding apart on both sides. Sephiroth, located in the villa's dining room, shouted from there, "Let's start dinner!"
In an instant, Boa Sandersonia was still receiving guidance from Silvers Rayleigh on how to use advanced skills to directly condense Armament Haki into a single point and release it directly through the air, aided by the ability of her Sube Sube no Mi Devil Fruit.
However.
When she heard it was time to eat, she immediately cheered, "Oh! Food! Food!" With that, the green-haired girl slipped through the Spatial Door.
Seeing this scene, Silvers Rayleigh couldn't help but smile a little helplessly, picked up the silver metal wine jug in his hand, and took a sip of wine with his head raised.
On the other side, with white cloth strips tied over their eyes, Boa Hancock and Boa Marigold, who were undergoing Observation Haki training from Shakky, also removed the cloth strips with smiles and walked quickly to the Spatial Door.
"Mr. Rayleigh, Ms. Shakky, why don't you drop by for lunch?" Sephiroth extended an invitation to the two.
"Okay! I'm also curious about your cooking, kid! Shakky, how about you?" Silvers Rayleigh agreed with a smile and turned to look at Shakky.
"Okay! Then I don't have to work today," Shakky casually tossed aside the wooden stick she used to hit Boa Hancock and Boa Marigold, and she took a cigarette from her mouth and slowly exhaled a mouthful of white smoke.
After the two of them broke through the Spatial Door and came to the villa's dining room to take their seats, Sephiroth closed the folding spatial door and opened another door. He entered the villa's basement, took out the Goro Goro no Mi (rumble-rumble fruit), and holding it in his hand, approached Boa Marigold.
The orange-haired girl with a pair of chopsticks in her hand tilted her head. She said with a confused look on her face, "That's..."
"Right. That's the Goro Goro no Mi, a Logia type! This fruit transforms the eater's physique into electricity, and can make physical attacks, most energy attacks, and non-Haki attacks ineffective against oneself. And, it can also release high-voltage blue currents at will to attack, as well as use radio waves to enhance the range of Observation Haki." When Sephiroth was about to tell the orange-haired girl what he knew about the Goro Goro no Mi's abilities, he concisely explained it.
"Hee hee! Thank you! Sephiroth~!" As she spoke, Boa Marigold's face showed a joyful expression, and she puckered her lips, as if wanting to kiss him.
This kiss, the taste of braised beef! Sephiroth mumbled in his heart, amused.
"Ah~!" Boa Marigold peeled the epidermis of the Goro Goro no Mi and opened her mouth to take a bite. The fruit tasted so bad that she almost threw up all the braised beef she had just eaten.
However.
She finally forced the fruit down!
Silvers Rayleigh raised his wine jug, raised his head and gulped down some wine, before he pointed, "Hiccup! I must remind you that Devil Fruit powers are indeed a shortcut to rapidly increase your strength, but... If you rely too much on the fruit, you won't be able to become a top powerhouse in this sea. Conversely, strong Haki can break most Devil Fruit abilities."
Hearing this, Sephiroth smiled and nodded, "Hmm! Mr. Rayleigh, I know this very well, so I usually admonish them, and while developing the fruit, I can't stop cultivating Rokushiki and Haki. However, not everyone has enough physical talent to polish their Haki to the extreme, right?"
Gol D. Roger, Monkey D. Garp, Silvers Rayleigh, these top masters with Haki and physical skills, are indeed admirable and extraordinary, but you must know that their physical skills are inherently a one-in-ten-thousand, or even one-in-a-million existence.
In this world, it's true that monsters and geniuses run rampant.
However.
More than them are just ordinary people, who are limited by their qualifications and talents and cannot rely on their Haki and physical skills to reach the pinnacle throughout their lives.
Therefore, Devil Fruits have become the most effective means to make up for the shortcomings of physical qualifications. Especially with powerful abilities like the Goro Goro no Mi, as long as you develop it well, you can achieve Admiral-level combat power with just the Devil Fruit Ability!