One Piece: Saving Hancock with the Batto Batto no Mi

Above the dark sky, lightning and thunder struck incessantly, and heavy rain poured down, as if intent on destroying everything in this world.

In the East Blue, lay a hidden, uninhabited island, Rusukaina Island. In the seas surrounding this island, a special, convoluted current existed, which would push all passing ships towards the island's shore, making it impossible for them to escape. They would be imprisoned here forever by this natural cage! Therefore, Rusukaina Island was also known as the [Ant Nest Hell of the Sea].

Amidst the raging downpour, Sephiroth flapped the black wings on his back and shot towards Rusukaina Island. Soon after, he landed calmly on the island's white sands. Not far away, palm branches and leaves swayed violently in the howling wind.

On the beach, what immediately caught Sephiroth's attention were the scattered skeletons and shipwrecks. It was clear that those who had perished, after being swept by the currents to the island, had also tried repeatedly to escape this Rusukaina Island. Unfortunately, they both failed and left their lives here forever.

Squeak-squeak.

Thousands of extraordinary black bats, separating from Sephiroth's body, spread out in all directions across the island. He slowly closed his eyes, connecting his sight and hearing with the swarm of bats, so that the entire island was enveloped by his perception.

After waiting for a moment, the corner of Sephiroth's mouth lifted slightly, forming a faint smile. He whispered softly, "Found it!"

Immediately after, he reopened his eyes and looked towards the central part of the island, towards the towering mountain, where he spotted a cave deep within its interior.

Sephiroth drew the Butcher's Blade from his waist and swung it in the air. The next moment, an "Air Door" quietly opened, leading directly to the interior of the mountain in the center of the island, into a large chasm within the canyon.

The rain continued to fall and drench Sephiroth, soaking his black leather coat and long silver hair.

Boom-boom!

In the sky, lightning flashed, illuminating the dark valley, and at the same time reflecting the silhouette of a gigantic strange bird standing upside down on the cliff.

Ga-!

Upon seeing the foreign creature trespass into its territory, the gigantic strange bird, which was more than twenty meters tall, immediately opened its bloody mouth, flapped its strong wings, and pounced on the silver-haired youth.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes slightly, sheathed his sword, stomped his feet on the ground dozens of times in an instant, performing Soru, and appeared in the distance.

Boom!

The strange bird's huge beak struck the ground, shattering large rocks and burying them deep into the mud.

Ga-!

The strange bird flapped its wings and quickly pulled its beak out of the ground, wanting to attack the silver-haired youth again.

However.

Sephiroth's figure shot up from the ground and hovered in the air, and before the strange bird could react, he delivered a fierce kick to the opponent's neck, sending it tumbling backward and flying away. "Boom!" With a loud sound, it crashed into the mountain rock wall, and gravel tumbled down.

Ga-!

The strange bird chirped, shook its somewhat dizzy head, and wanted to stand up again.

Boom!

Sephiroth, who gave the strange bird no chance at all, punched its head hard again, causing it to be dizzy and fall to the ground.

"Damn it! I was finally able to knock it out. I was afraid that if I couldn't control my strength, I would punch you to death."

Sephiroth, muttering to himself, took out the Butcher's Blade from his waist and stabbed it into the strange bird's abdomen, opening a spatial door without harming its body.

The scene inside the strange bird's belly that appeared in his eyes could be called a pile of rocks, iron swords, shipwrecks, and skeletons. It was a mess, all of it!

"You really aren't picky about food!"

Sephiroth threw the items from the strange bird's stomach outside its body one by one to help it clean out its insides.

After searching for a while, he finally found a small wooden box among the rocks in the strange bird's stomach and opened it. Inside the box, lay quietly an orange-red fruit enveloped in flames, with distinctive spiral patterns... The Mera Mera no Mi (Flame-Flame Fruit), a Logia type!

"Finally found it!"

With a sighing expression on his face, Sephiroth walked out of the strange bird's stomach with the fruit in his hand. He held the box in his left hand and poked the comatose strange bird with the back of his right hand.

When Sephiroth decided to come to East Blue to find Shimotsuki Kozaburō, he also deliberately found a detailed map of East Blue to pinpoint the exact location of Shimotsuki Village. It was on that map that he incidentally discovered Rusukaina Island, also known as the [Ant Nest Hell of the Sea].

Sephiroth vaguely remembered that Ace's Mera Mera no Mi, which was once swept to this island, fell from the mouth of a strange bird! For this reason, he also deliberately asked Gild Tesoro to search for information about the Mera Mera no Mi, and learned that the fruit had not been seen for several decades!

Therefore, Sephiroth came to this Rusukaina Island with the idea of giving it a try, to try to find the Mera Mera no Mi from the strange bird's body. If he couldn't find it, then he would wait more than ten years until Ace was about to set sail, and then come again to try to retrieve the Mera Mera no Mi from the strange bird's body. Therefore, at first Sephiroth showed mercy and did not directly kill the strange bird.

After he obtained the Mera Mera no Mi, there was naturally no longer any need to keep the strange bird alive. After all, letting this man-eating monster that didn't spit out its bones live was also a scourge to others. This could even be said to be clearing obstacles for other victims!

Sephiroth, looking at the Mera Mera no Mi resting on his chest, couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Although in his previous life, everyone teased, "A Mera Mera no Mi user doesn't eat it!" In the "New World", people who could be considered masters would play with fire. In this way, the Mera Mera no Mi ability would be slightly inferior! Of course, the main reason why the Mera Mera no Mi was ridiculed was because Ace acted a little carelessly. After all, one of the professional fire-players got burned alive when he got punched through the back by Akainu Sakazuki?

There was a saying that Sephiroth was a little puzzled when he saw this scene in his previous life! Not to mention the tens of millions of degrees of high temperature of sun fire, Ace probably didn't have that much physical strength to ignite fire of this level, while the temperature range of artificial fire is 20~3000 degrees, and the temperature of magma is 900~1400 degrees.

No matter how you look at it, the potential of flame is greater than magma, so it is no exaggeration to say that the Mera Mera no Mi is the superior fruit of the Magu Magu no Mi! Calmly analyzed, thought a little, and suddenly realized!

"Good guy, when Akainu fought Ace, he actually used Armament Haki!"