All the remaining chapters of this story are written. It's going to be 41 in total (42 by FFnet's count). I will upload chapter 40 sometime during July, and since I usually update on Fridays and this year Saki's birthday happens to fall on Friday, too, the last update will go up on August 7th.
After that, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'll probably write drabbles or one-shots every now and then while I work on other unfished projects. You can always find me on tumblr and see what I'm up to.
It feels weird to have reached this point of the story after so long. I hope it doesn't disappoint!
39. The eye of the storm
(If you wanna start a fight you better throw the first punch)
The days of sailing towards Dressrosa allowed Saki to get caught up to speed with Dressrosa's situation. Doflamingo had come into power ten years before, when the former king went mad and started killing his subjects. Doflamingo had been conveniently there to stop him, and the whole royal family was disgraced. There were no doubts within the Revolutionary Army that it had been a planned coup, but the citizens of Dressrosa didn't seem to be of the same mind. The country had become exponentially richer under Doflamingo's rule, and every agent the Revolutionary Army sent to investigate the island ended up disappearing, so they had decided to pull out the big guns. Namely, Sabo.
"Are you sure?" He asked Saki. Dressrosa's coastline, gargantuan jagged rocks with the odd beach in between, was in full view already, so the time for discussion was growing short. "We'll be happy to take you to your crew if you can wait until we're done with," he made an ambiguous hand gesture towards the open sea. "That."
"That oh-so mysterious-plan," she replied. "Nah, it's okay. I'll find a way to get there, whether Law ends up coming to this island or not. I'm resourceful."
"Fine, I won't ask again," he replied. "But as a heads-up, look forward to this year's Levely."
Saki grinned at him. "You people are insane," she replied, and while Sabo snickered, she saw something black out the corner of her eye, soaring through the sky. "Looks like it's here."
"Let's see if Luffy's up to something new," Sabo said, extending a hand to catch the newspaper the crow had just dropped in front of them, only to fly away immediately.
"It's been only a few days since Fishman Island, it'd be weird if…" She trailed off when she saw his lighthearted expression transform into pure shock. "Sabo?"
Quick footsteps approached them from behind, and Koala clapped a hand on their backs when she reached them. "Hack says it's fifteen minutes until we touch land! He'll go in first to the Colosseum, and then the rest of us…" She, too, stopped when she realized that Sabo wasn't paying any attention. "Sabo?"
"Saki," he said, offering her the newspaper, "I think you need to see this."
An excited 'oh!' escaped Koala when she read the front page, but Saki was incapable of voicing out what was going through her mind when she saw the headline and the pictures of the three pirates on it.
Pirate alliance. Doflamingo renouncing his Shichibukai title.
"An alliance?!" Was the first thing she got out. "That dumbass made an alliance?"
Not only was that the last thing she would have expected from Law, but he had done it after sending her and probably the rest of his friends away. Which meant that, whatever he wanted to do, he couldn't do it alone, and he knew had known it.
"Do you think they'll show up here?" Sabo asked.
Saki stared at him blankly. "Do you mind if I kill him before you can thank him?"
"Sure, it's your captain after all." Sabo laughed heartily. "By the way, there's something I have to ask of you. It's about the tournament—"
Saki tried to listen to Sabo, but it was mighty difficult to pay full attention when faced with the very real chance that she could be running into Law at the worst possible moment.
It was going to be a long day.
—
Confirmation that Doflamingo had stepped down from his position came with the newspaper of the day, and that was all that Law needed to put his plan in motion.
He reviewed the strategy with the Straw Hats one last time. They'd split into three groups: one that would go to Caesar Clown's exchange with Doflamingo, one that would infiltrate the island to destroy the SMILE factory, and one that would remain in the Sunny.
He couldn't say it was perfect, but it was better than what he'd had twenty-four hours ago. His chances of survival were slim, but as long as the Straw Hats did their part, he didn't care, and he was very confident in their ability to break things.
Then he lifted his head from the map of Dressrosa and Green Bit that Bepo had begrudgingly drawn for him – it showed, because the lines were even less straight than usual – and realized that Luffy and half of his crew had fucked off to gods knew where while he was talking.
He looked at Nico Robin for the briefest of seconds, internally grateful that he was at least stuck with one of the smart ones, but relief fizzled out like the bubbles of an old cola bottle when she chuckled and he couldn't tell if it was due to his general misfortune or that she was hiding something.
It was going to be a long day.
—
In the span of ten minutes, Saki tripped three times on the cobblestones and nearly stepped on a dog toy, but in her defense, it was a little difficult to look forward instead of at what was above her head.
Tsubaki tried to warn her before getting distracted herself. "Saki, pay atten—Woah, did you see that wooden horse?"
Dressrosa's rooftops ranged from wavy, colorful tiled surfaces to battlements stone battlements. An impressive arched stone bridge split the island in two down the middle and connected directly to a plateau, at the top of which stood the royal palace. Was Doflamingo still there along with his pirate crew? Was this how he had lived all these years, while so many islands of North Blue withered under his thumb and he sold people at Sabaody? Were they the price that Dressrosa had happily paid in order to flourish?
The Colosseum, to which they were headed, was a circular, arched building at the foot of the plateau in the same style as the bridge. Hack was supposed to infiltrate as a fighter to gather information and had already gone ahead of them, and Saki and Tsubaki were supposed to keep watch from the audience in case something big happened, since from what they had gathered so far, executives of the Donquixote Family would be participating. Hack had a mini Den Den Mushi on his end, and so did Tsubaki, in case there was a change of plans.
Meanwhile, Koala was going to be investigating where the cargo ships had been disappearing to. Sabo was supposed to go with her too, until at the last moment before disembarking he informed them that he'd be near the Colosseum because, first, he wanted to get his hands on the tournament's prize, and second, because he was sure his brother would turn up there.
There were already a lot of people around and inside the Colosseum when the sisters arrived, and the queue for tickets was long; a blessing in disguise, since it gave them the opportunity to stay in line and observe. And there were a lot of things to take in, aside from the rooftops.
For starters, the toys. Saki had never seen anything like it, and neither had any of her companions. They were sentient and treated like regular people by the citizens, and their behavior seemed too advanced to be machines, but what else could they be? Who was building them? Could it be the feat of some crazy technology too, like the artificial Devil Fruit affair Law had been investigating?
And not just that, it was clear that something was wrong. People were going about their day as normal, the ones queuing with them looking particularly excited by the matches they were going to see. Doflamingo had resigned his claim to the throne that morning, but nothing seemed to indicate that the country was in any type of disarray. Saki was tempted to ask the pair in front of them what was going on, but there was a chance of her saying too much. Maybe the newspapers hadn't arrived to the island, or they had been censored in some way? Better to keep an ear to the ground for now.
"I wonder what they are," Tsubaki said, looking at a one-legged soldier toy hopping along the wall of the Colosseum. "Do you think it could be someone's Devil Fruit?"
Someone behind them laughed, and they turned around to see a middle aged man with a messy beard. "Curious about the toys, are you? Are you tourists?"
"Yeah," Saki replied, jumping at the chance to get some info without having to pry. "We came for the tournament; it's our first time here. Who makes these toys?"
"Nobody knows!" He replied. "They've always been here, lending us a hand."
"So they live with you like regular humans?"
"No, they can't come into our homes, that's forbidden. They have their own Toy House, not too far from here. But they keep us company during the day!"
"Why is it forbidden?" Tsubaki asked.
The man shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. Everyone's happy with the arrangement, anyway."
"I see…"
"Thank you," Saki replied with a wide smile. "That was very informative."
"You're welcome! You aren't the first visitors surprised by—huh?"
To their left, the one-legged soldier had started shooting cork bullets with his rifle at a group of kids that were trying to get into the Colosseum and yelling that they were too young to go inside. The commotion didn't last long, but the kids did run away from the rogue toy, and he hopped onto one of the Colosseum's windows to evade the police patrolling the area.
"Wow!" Tsubaki exclaimed, and turning to the man behind in line, she asked, "Is that normal?"
"Toys have their own mind," he replied. "Sometimes they turn out defective. It's not important."
That comment didn't sit very well with Saki. The toy had a point. "It makes sense that he wouldn't want kids to be excited about bloodshed."
"It's just harmless fun. The gladiators know what they sign up for. I say we better cheer on them and don't let their efforts go unseen."
Saki didn't reply to that, because the line moved and they had to go to separate windows to buy the tickets, but the nonchalance the people of Dressrosa seemed to have towards human fights was riling her up, and made her wonder how many of its citizens were aware of Doflamingo's trafficking outside the island and chose to turn a blind eye to it. He was an infamous pirate, after all. Someone had to have an inkling of what he did, even if he had become a national hero in the span of a single night.
After buying their tickets, Saki and Tsubaki were directed inside, and they walked along the circular stone corridors, illuminated by arched windows, until they found the gate to their seats and squeezed their way through the people already sitting to take their spot.
It was very sunny, and there wasn't any ceiling or awnings to hide under. It was a good thing that neither of them burned easily, but after a few minutes of waiting, Saki was starting to sweat under the red shirt she was wearing like a jacket over an olive green top. She didn't want to remove it and uncover the tattoo on her back for everyone to see, since she didn't know where the enemies were and common sense suggested that flaunting a Heart Pirates Jolly Roger wasn't the best idea at the moment, so she settled with rolling up her sleeves and stretching her legs as far as she could so the wind cooled them. At least she'd had the good sense to wear shorts.
There were too many rows of concentric stands to count, and they happened to be in one of the upper ones, since the best seats were already taken by the time they had arrived, but at the same time, their position granted them a pretty good view of what was happening around the Colosseum, and they weren't there just to see the fights. In the middle of the structure and ready to receive the first batch of fighters, there was a stone ring surrounded by a moat filled with water.
From now on, they had to wait.
"Hack hasn't called, has he?"
"Nope." Tsubaki replied nonchalantly. "He should be inside just fine."
"I'm nervous," she complained aggressively. After the revelations that came with the new edition of the World Economic Journal, she needed to do something.
Tsubaki cackled. "We'll be done before you know it and you'll be free to go hug your captain as much as you want."
"I'm going to throttle him," she said, giving Tsubaki the stink-eye.
"Not if I get to him first. He made you sad."
Saki thought she deserved preferential treatment after what she'd been put through. "His ass is mine."
Tsubaki sighed. "Well yeah, that's what I've been telling you all along—"
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"—but since you get along so well with Sabo I thought you had moved on."
Saki snorted. "Oh, you think of Sabo a lot, don't you?"
"What, no?! Where did that come—"
The distinct sound of loudspeakers turning on reverberated through the stadium, and Saki had an excuse to shut her up. "Quiet, it's starting!"
—
It looked like getting to Green Bit to return Caesar wasn't going to be as easy as it seemed. After separating from the SMILE factory team, which was a delicate way to put getting ditched without any kind of notice, Law's group went out to scout in disguise, first near the bridge that connected the north of Dressrosa to the place of the exchange, then to a café. The bridge wasn't in perfect shape, but he would have thought it was sturdy enough to cross without problems if it hadn't been for the barricade and numerous warning signs blocking the way.
"Unless you're ready to risk your lives to get there, I think you should avoid it," the café's waiter told them.
The man was clearly underestimating them, and that was good, because it meant that their disguises were working. Law hadn't been too sure about the Straw Hat's sniper – that nose was a dead giveaway.
The waiter went on to explain that fighting fish lived around the bridge, but Law was paying more attention to their surroundings than to him. Something was wrong. A country whose ruler had just abdicated should have been in chaos, but people were acting as if the morning paper hadn't been carrying any noteworthy news.
As soon as the man left their table, the sniper started demanding they changed the terms of the meeting, but Law refused and switched the subject to what he had been thinking, only to be shushed by Nico-ya, who was pointedly looking away from someone.
Law's gaze travelled in that direction and his earlier suspicions began to take shape when he saw three figures clad in white and masks. CP-0. Something was afoot.
But for a second, he also felt vindicated in his decision to not bring his crew along. It was a relief that none of them were there, particularly Saki. Having to worry about Doflamingo alone was more than enough.
—
The last fights of Block A in the Colosseum were about to get decided when Tsubaki's Den Den Mushi rang and the sisters' attention was monopolized by it.
"Hi, it's me," they heard Sabo say, and at the same time the crowd roared. With a cursory glance, Saki realized that a victor had already been decided. "Sounds exciting in there. Everything okay?"
"So far," Tsubaki replied. "It hasn't been Hack's turn so far. There's four blocks of fighters."
"Okay, I want you to keep an eye on the stands while you wait. Is Saki listening?"
"I'm right here."
"Don't get alarmed," he said, a surefire way to trip up everyone's alarms, "but CP-0's in town."
"What?!" Saki exclaimed at the same time Tsubaki asked, "How the fuck?!"
"It's got nothing to do with us! I spoke to someone and they came here for an announcement. It hasn't been made public to the world yet, but Doflamingo hasn't resigned his position."
"It was all over the papers, that doesn't make any sense!" Tsubaki replied.
"It was a misprint."
"Missprint my ass!"
And if the news weren't worrying enough, the masked fighter that had won the round took off the paper bag covering his head while Tsubaki was busy shouting at the Den Den Mushi. But Saki saw, and there was no mistaking the ugly face that had been hiding under it.
"We've got more problems!" She huddled closer to Tsubaki around the Den Den Mushi so the crowd didn't completely drown her words. "Jesus Burgess just won the round."
Tsubaki had seemingly lost her ability to verbalize incredulity, because she mouthed out something, and when no sound came out, she just gaped at the ring while holding the phone.
Sabo whistled. "Now this is getting interesting. But girls, I really need you to take a look at the stands. Do you see anything suspicious from where you are?"
"We're looking for Cipher Pol or Marines, right?" Saki asked.
"Yeah. This whole tournament may be just a trap to catch the pirates competing. There are a lot of soldiers outside the Colosseum, by the way. One of you needs to be very careful going out."
"Point taken," Saki said, craning her neck forward to see past the people sitting near them. She really couldn't pick out anything in the stands other than there was a massive amount of people interested in blood sports in that country, but then movement near one of the entrance gates caught her eye. Someone wearing white. There were too many tall people in the way, though.
"Tsu, can you see who's down there?" She pointed in the gate's direction.
"Let me check." She passed the Den Den Mushi to Saki and stood up, shielding her eyes from the sun. She sat down immediately. "There's a Marine taking notes," she replied.
"Thought so," Sabo said. "Keep an eye on him if you can. I'll be hanging around, call if you need help."
"Got it! By the way, do you know how Koa—"
The call was cut off and Tsubaki was left staring at the phone with an incredulous frown.
"He always does the same?" Saki guessed.
"Yes!" She replied, exasperated.
"Hey, did that Marine move? I can't see him anymore."
"Oh shit." She got up again, but had to sit down again when someone shouted at her that she was blocking the view. Still, it must have been enough to see something, because when she turned to Saki, the blood had left her face. "Double shit. Fujitora."
"What?"
"He went to talk to Fujitora. He's sitting over there."
"An Admiral."
"Yeah."
"And CP-0, all here, at the same time."
"And don't forget the misprint."
Without thinking, Saki stood up too, undeterred by the complaints until someone tossed a can at her and she had to comply, but in the meantime, he saw both Marines leave the ends and go to the gate.
Tsubaki hadn't wasted a second, and the Den Den Mushi was in her hand again. "I'm calling Sabo," she said with a quick whisper.
"They're going out," Saki whispered back.
She looked at her sister, confused. "He isn't here for the fighters?"
"Maybe the pirate alliance?"
"But Law is a Shichibukai, can they touch him?"
"He sure hasn't come after Doflamingo."
"Well… if the press release was wrong but Marine Headquarters didn't know—"
"They do now!"
Tsubaki snapped. "Jeez, okay, I'll get that you're worried, but don't take it out on me!" Then she proceeded take out her bad mood on the phone. "And why isn't he picking up?!"
"He always does the same," Saki said. It wasn't a question anymore.
"Yes!"
And, as Saki decided that it was best to try to take it easy and contact again later, several rows of seats below her were left vacant when the audience got up and run. She didn't know what had happened, but one of the participants was yelling at them, and the crowd was booing in response.
"Patience," she reminded Tsubaki, but for whose benefit it was, she couldn't tell. "Wait, Hack's already fighting?!"
—
The bridge wasn't as bad as the waiter had made it out to be, though they had to do a sort of strange maneuver with Caesar's unwilling cooperation in order for Law to avoid using his powers. He needed to conserve as much energy as possible, since maintaining a Room constantly sapped him of stamina, and he wasn't stupid enough to think that after the exchange he'd be able to get away without fighting. He was almost wishing that the negotiations went south so he'd have an excuse to personally stab Doflamingo.
Almost being the keyword here, so, when he realized that he'd been duped after separating from the Straw Hats and going to the meeting point with Caesar, he wasn't as happy as his bravado would have made him believe five minutes ago.
He had counted on having to face Doflamingo. Having to fight him and an Admiral at the same time was not a possibility he had considered, but here there he was, watching a goddamn meteorite descend upon him while he tried to concentrate in the fight and not pay attention to his whole life flashing before his eyes.
Sure, he could have said that the Straw Hats were his subordinates and spare himself this suffering, and if anybody had asked him at that moment why he hadn't done it, his answer would have been pride, and most definitely not too much respect for them to pretend they were under his command. Respect was unhealthy, Law found as he cut the meteorite down the middle. Look where it had landed him. That was why he tried to have as little of it as possible.
The confrontation went as well as he could have expected. At this point, finding out that Doflamingo had been a Celestial Dragon was just the cherry on top. At least now he knew how he had pulled off the fake news that morning.
But first things first, he needed to get Caesar out of Green Bit. As long as Doflamingo didn't get his hands on him and the Straw Hats destroyed the factory, his job was done. What happened to him was the least of his concerns.
—
There was a curious mix of fighters in block B. Hack, a man from the Longleg tribe, a guy called Bartolomeo whose face Saki had seen a lot on the news during the last year, a king, and a subordinate of Doflamingo, among others. She was hoping for the latter to get his face smashed in, but instead it looked like Hack broke his hand against one of Bartolomeo's barriers. That… could become a problem.
The round was, in the end, decided when the king threw a punch so strong that it would have decimated the audience had Bartolomeo not been standing in front of him with a barrier, and Saki's dislike for the guy on behalf of Hack lessened when her little sister wasn't blown to bits thanks to him. Besides, he had a cool tattoo and a piercing.
The fighters left the ring, if they could, or were carried out if they couldn't manage that, and it was time for block C. The tournament was advancing pretty fast, so they'd be free to go as soon as they were given the signal.
"Hack should call pretty soon," Tsubaki said. "It's just a hand."
"Yeah, but they'll probably want to treat him in the infirmary, and there are a lot of people in line."
"Then he'll skip it. He knows we're on a schedule. Look," Tsubaki said, gesturing at the ring. "The new block's starting—" She stopped suddenly. "Aaand someone's calling." Taking out the Den Den Mushi once again, she said, "Hello?"
"Hey," came out Sabo's voice instead of Hack's, "Admiral Fujitora is on the island!"
"That's why I've been calling you all along!"
"Really?" He laughed. "Sorry, I didn't hear the ringtone."
Tsubaki was grinding her teeth so hard it could be heard and Saki removed the Den Den Mushi from her hands in case she felt the need to smash something. The fighters from block C were already on the ring and ready to start. "Hack's lost the round and he injured a hand, so if you want to…" She sensed something overhead, but didn't look up until Tsubaki tugged on her shirt. Pamphlets were falling from the sky. "Do you see that?"
"Yeah, they're throwing them here too. Let me pick up one—yup, it's the correction to this morning's World Economic Journal."
Just as he confirmed it, Tsubaki picked up one of the papers. Doflamingo's face smiled at them from the picture, and Tsubaki immediately tore it in half and crumpled the pieces into a ball, earning her a weird look from the couple sitting next to them.
"This can't have been a mistake," Saki replied. "He did it for a reason." One that escaped her so far, but she could guess who was responsible for it. Something in Law's plans had hinged on this, hadn't it? Which meant he had already fucked up, not that it surprised Saki, because that man was a constant danger to himself.
"But how?" Tsubaki asked. "Isn't the World Economic Journal independent?"
"Well, you know how the Donquixotes are the ancestral rulers of Dressrosa? With their family living in Mary Geoise and all."
Both sisters stayed silent. Saki didn't know what was going through Tsubaki's mind, but she had a feeling of dread take over her.
"You didn't know?" Sabo asked.
"Don't you think you could have mentioned it earlier?!" Tsubaki yelled at the poor snail.
At this point in time, there were too many things going on for Saki's mind to keep them straight. She took a deep breath and returned her attention to the ring, trying to put in order what she had learned so far and maybe figure out what Law had done to provoke this, because if there was something she didn't doubt for a moment is that all this was somehow his fault. He had a gift to get into deep shit and this was why he couldn't be left alone for any extended periods of time, Straw Hats or not.
Straw… Hat…?
Saki watched a suspiciously elastic fighter punch and kick several opponents, knocking them out cold, and when he jumped on top of a bull and started riding it across the ring, she had little doubt as to who was under that fake beard.
"Well, now we know what CP-0 and the Admiral are doing here," Tsubaki said, sounding calmer and readjusting in her seat.
"Sabo," Saki said, unable to tear her eyes away from the chaos below, "I'm pretty sure I'm watching your brother compete."
"He already hung up."
"What the hell?!" She yelled in frustration.
And Hack wasn't calling, not even to say that he was going to take a while. They knew enough to start moving, they were wasting time while the streets outside the Colosseum seemed to get more and more dangerous, and judging by Tsubaki's foot nervously tapping against the floor, she too was starting to get nervous.
"I need to see what's going on outside," Saki told her. "If Luffy's here, he's here too."
"Yeah. And I'm worried about Hack. You think I should try to get into the fighter's area?"
Saki considered it for a moment. "You think you could?"
"I'm pretty good at sneaking in, and I've got a big sword to blend in, so…"
She couldn't say she was enthusiastic about leaving her alone, but it seemed like the best course of action. "Okay then, we'll split up for now."
"Here, have this," she said, passing the mini Den Den Mushi to Saki. "Hack has one, so I don't need it."
Even though Saki, again, didn't like the idea of her sister being uncommunicated for a while, no matter how short a span of time it was, she couldn't argue with reason and put the Den Den Mushi inside her shirt's inner pocket. "Right. But very careful, okay?"
"Isn't that what Sabo told you? You are the one going out. Besides, you've got my vivre card, if you're that worried."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, patting the secret pocket inside her shirt where she kept it. Tsubaki had had it especially made for her, so Saki was nowadays carrying two everywhere: one for her sister, and one for Bepo.
Tsubaki giggled with satisfaction, eager to move. "I'll be going first. See you later!"
And with that, she left Saki alone, sitting with a mountain of problems she hadn't asked for and wondering where to start looking for the asshole at the center of them.
When she felt ready to go out, she was mindful to stomp as hard as she could on the crumpled newspaper that Tsubaki had tossed earlier.
—
Moments ago, being able to send Caesar back to the Sunny was all that Law could have asked for, but he was a greedy person, so he thought it was fitting to move the goalposts a little.
Keep Doflamingo busy. Kill him, if he found the opportunity. That sounded much better than letting Kaido finish the job after he was too dead to enjoy the results. With the Sunny gone and Caesar out of the way, he could act unobstructed again.
"The Pirate Alliance between the Straw Hats and me ends here!" He told Doflamingo.
"What?"
Some things hadn't changed. Doflamingo was still as imposing as he was when Law had met him, all those years ago in Spider Miles, but any respect or fear he had ever felt for him was gone, replaced with rage and disgust. There was nothing he wanted more than to rip out that man's heart out of his chest with his own hands.
"From the moment I teamed up with them, my only goal was to use them to stop the production of SMILE." He explained. "Even if I can't take you out in this fight, if you lose the SMILE, you'll be wiped out by Kaido."
Doflamingo cackled ominously. "I see… So you were prepared to go down!"
There was little more to be said. Everything he had done for the last thirteen years was meant to bring him to there. "I'd like to see that chaos that will unfold in the world after your death, but making you pay for thirteen years ago is more important, Joker!"
—
The hallways of the Colosseum were mostly empty when Saki began to make her way outside, the only exception being the people congregating in front of some screens with video feed of the ring. It looked like Luffy was doing well for himself.
The lack of people posed a problem, though. If the area was really teeming with Marines, she couldn't hide among the crowd to go out, and any hopes of not being recognized by soldiers who weren't specifically looking for her were dashed if they were aware that Law was in the island, despite them not having gone there together because the utter bastard had thought it was best to kick her out than bring her along. The irony wasn't lost on her, and if she was deriving the slightest bit of satisfaction from his plan going to hell, it was due to spite. He deserved every conceivable obstacle to be thrown in his way, and that conflicted with the annoying truth that she also didn't want him to get hurt, something that seemed less and less likely by the second.
She snuck glances through the barred windows of the Colosseum in an attempt to see the any soldiers, but she couldn't make them out, so she assumed they were hiding. That made things worse.
She approached the main gate as casually as she could, trying not to draw attention to herself, and she saw them then: several soldiers and at least one ranking officer watching the street where the one and only exit to the Colosseum was located.
They were on standby and nothing so far indicated that Sabo had done something unbelievably dumb, so it was likely they didn't know about the Revolutionary Army's presence. That meant that Tsubaki and Hack would be free to go, if they were after the criminals competing. The Marine from earlier had probably been gathering information about the warriors, so maybe they would be too focused on them to pay attention to Saki, but was she willing to risk it?
The last thing her friends needed was having to drop the mission to come to her rescue, so she started looking for another way. The bars on the windows were wide enough that she'd be able to fit between them if only they were the slightest bit farther apart, so, discreetly, she walked to a deserted part of the corridor, grabbed a bar of a window, and tried to bend it.
She had barely put some force into it when she realized that she was going nowhere. The bars weren't made of metal, but rather a rougher, porous material that she was well acquainted with. They were seastone, and that was virtually indestructible.
She kicked the wall in frustration, wondering if it would be less conspicuous to open a hole in the wall than walk out the main entrance like a rockstar, when she heard screams, and they didn't come from inside the Colosseum. Through the window, she saw people run away and heard something land close to the entrance. She ran there to see what was going on, hoping that this time the distraction was big enough for the Marines not to notice her.
Saki didn't register very well at first what she was seeing because the scene was, despite her worst fears, something she couldn't have come up with on her own. Standing there was Donquixote Doflamingo, towering – holy shit, he was absurdly tall – over a man that was lying on the ground, and that she had to look at three times to make sure she was really seeing Law and it wasn't just her brain playing very impolite tricks at her nerves' expense.
But it was real. Law was there, battered and bloody in front of a very pissed off Shichibukai and where the hell were the Straw Hats when they were needed?! Was Luffy really participating in a stupid tournament while Law got beaten within an inch of his life?!
The situation was just starting to sink in when Doflamingo shot Law several times while he was down, and Saki instinctually covered her mouth, involuntarily wincing with each explosion. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening, not when she finally was able to see him again—
"Sorry for disturbing you, citizens!" Doflamingo said to the people watching, grinning maniacally. "The Shichibukai Trafalgar Law was the one responsible for the hoax this morning that I abandoned the throne! But nobody has to worry about it anymore, all problems have been solved!"
She wasn't really listening to him, since her attention was on Law. Was he dead, or just unconscious? There had to be a way to get closer without getting killed.
"Hey, Mingo!" She heard a man shout, and looking towards the source of the sound, she saw a man behind one of the Colosseum's windows. Could it be? Was that Straw Hat Luffy? And was that guy right below the window Roronoa Zoro? "What have you done to Law?!"
With a quick glance towards one of the screens, she realized that Block C was over and Luffy wasn't fighting anymore, but the freaking seastone bars were stopping him from jumping out.
And then Roronoa told the man next to him to grab Law and run, before sprinting himself towards Doflamingo.
There wasn't any time left to think. Saki unsheathed her sword and lunged at Doflamingo from behind at the same time as Roronoa did from the front, and she thought they had him when somehow the situation managed to become even worse. Admiral Fujitora stood in front of Doflamingo to block Roronoa's attack, and as he did that, Doflamingo was free to turn around and parry Saki's own attack with a handful of strings that came out from his fingers and not only pushed her back, but also cut into her forearms when she guarded.
"Oh?" He said, the same unhinged grin from moments before directed at her. Though he didn't know, she had heard his voice many times through the Den Den Mushi in the smugglers' hideout, and though years had passed, it was as chilling as she remembered. "I wasn't aware that Law's rats were here too."
That comment had to mean that he knew the crew enough to recognize them by face. Had Doflamingo had been paying as much attention to Law as Law had to him all these years?
Doflamingo's attack had left several ugly gashes in her arms that stung like crazy, but they didn't feel deep, and she trusted that the bleeding would soon stop. They were, above all, not a concern to hold up her weapon properly. She couldn't afford any mistakes while his attention was on her if she wanted to live to tell the tale.
"There's a lot you don't know," she replied. The plans of the Revolutionary Army, the years of suffering the people of Asteria had had to endure, the sacrifices Law and everybody around him had made just so he was able to reach him.
He laughed, a slow, deep rumble that did nothing to reassure Saki. Law was still lying unconscious between them, but if she dropped her guard to move him or tried to get closer to Doflamingo, she had no doubts she'd be done for. This wasn't a fight she could win alone, and her unwitting ally was being held up by none other than an Admiral, who sent him flying with a blast of some sort of energy at the same time that his friend tried to reach Law. This fatal distraction gave Doflamingo the opportunity slash at the man's chest and drive Saki further back with more strings, all while Luffy yelled his lungs out from his prison.
With this opening, Doflamingo picked up Law and went up in the air – was that due to his fruit, too? – as Fujitora stood on a piece of rubble and did the same. Gravity, she remembered. That man had the power to control gravity. Their improvised swordsman team could hardly be more outgunned.
"We should chat when we're back at palace, Fujitora! If you help me, they're all yours."
Saki had no time to think how to get to them, because now that the Shichibukai and the Admiral were out of the way, the rest of Marines present had no compunction about attacking, the cowards.
"Who are you?!" Roronoa shot at her as the circle around them got smaller.
"I'm a Heart Pirate!" She replied.
"You're a friend of Law?" The other man asked. His wound wasn't as bad as it looked, because he was up again.
"Oh yeah, I remember!" Roronoa said. "You were at the auction! Is the rest of the crew here?"
"Afraid not, I'm with other people!"
"Oh well, time to run! We'll try to get him back!"
"I'll do what I can too!"
The two men split from Saki to run back towards Luffy, and Saki went in the opposite direction so the Marines had to separate into smaller groups. Where was Sabo when she needed him?!
—
Tsubaki had absolutely no idea where to go to find Hack, so she just started roaming the hallways in the opposite direction all the signs for the audience indicated. She'd find the fighters in no time. It was a stroke of genius that she was particularly proud of for two minutes, which was all it took to realize that it wasn't working.
The insides of the Colosseum were deceptively big, so by the time she started to hear a bunch of noise at the end of a corridor, she had wasted about twenty minutes going back and forth from the main hall and where she had started. As it turned out, opposite to the place where audience had to go and sit was the exit. Whoops.
The hallway led to a room reminiscent of a prison, the smooth walls and floor from the public parts of the building giving way to rough stone. Inside, there were mostly burly men carrying weapons and different degrees of armor. Tsubaki snuck inside while nobody was looking and kept to the shadows as she walked around, trying to find Hack.
The room connected to another one, and another, and more hallways. There was an entire underbelly to the Colosseum, so she was forced to accept that, to have any hopes of finding her friend, she couldn't do it blindly.
There were windows with a view of the ring where she was, and she noticed a blond man with a funny hat looking down. He had a sword too, so he was either a participant or a member of the Revolutionary Army that had infiltrated the place, and as far as she knew, there were only two of them so far.
"Excuse me!" She called out, and the man turned around with an expression of disinterest. That was, until he laid his eyes on Tsubaki, and it changed into a self-satisfied smile as he pulled out a rose and posed like he was going to be the center spread of a magazine.
"Yes? Do you want an autograph?"
She thought he was a little weird. "Uh, no, I was wondering if you had seen a fishman. He's a friend and I need to find him."
"Oh," his smile dropped, and Tsubaki thought he sounded mighty disappointed. "Is he the karateka fighting earlier? He should be down in the infirmary."
"Can you point me out to where it is?"
"Of course! Take the stairs down one floor and turn right. Keep an eye out, there's a sign."
"Great! Th—"
The man was suddenly not looking at Tsubaki, but at someone past her, and she followed his gaze to see barrier man with the green hair from the previous round had made an appearance.
"Huh?" He said, looking at Tsubaki with hostility. "You a fighter too?"
"Uh, I'll take my leave, thanks!" She said quickly, and scurried away before she could get in trouble, because that guy sure smelled like it.
Keeping blondie's indications in mind, she skipped down the stairs and made her way to where the infirmary was supposed to be, and arrived to an empty waiting room. Weird. With the amount of fighters there was, she would have expected to see a lot of them waiting for their turn, but maybe the infirmary was just that big.
She crossed the room and went directly to the unlocked door labeled with a cross to peek in. If it wasn't shut, it meant that people come and go freely, right? Maybe Hack had already been there and left through another exit.
Before she could focus on what was beyond the door, she heard a man scream and a metallic clash, so she pushed the door open just another fraction to peer in better.
There were only doctors and nurses in the room. No patients, no apparent source of the screams. What had happened and where were all the warriors she hadn't seen?
She would have turned back the way she came and gone out to find her sister if, right then, a pair of gloved hands hadn't grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Look what we have here," a man said. "How much have you seen?"
Tsubaki tried to turn around to get rid of his grip, but he kicked the door open, drawing the attention of everybody inside the infirmary, and he caught her in a headlock and lifted her from her feet.
She kicked and attempted to remove the arm from her neck. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Let's throw her down," a doctor hidden behind a surgical mask said. "One more won't make a difference."
"Let me GO!" She screamed, releasing her grip on the arm to drive an elbow so hard into her captor's stomach that he let her go and doubled over, and then she kicked him in the face for good measure, reaching for the sword on her back to take care of the rest of them.
But, as much of a winning chance she had against a bunch of untrained people, it didn't help at all when all she needed was a small push from one of the doctors to fall into the trapdoor that had just opened behind her.
It closed with the same metallic sound she'd heard before, she realized as she fell into a deep, dark pit.
She landed on her back with a crash. Hard, smaller objects had cracked under her weight, and the pain from the fall knocked the air out of her lungs momentarily.
As soon as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw she was surrounded by many figures.
"Tsubaki? What are you doing here?"
She couldn't describe the relief she felt when she heard Hack's voice. She turned in the direction of the sound. "Thank fuck it's you!"
"You know each other?" Asked another man. Tsubaki was having trouble determining his shape in the dark until she realized that she had to look way, way up to find his face. The giant Hajrudin, if she recalled correctly from the matches.
"We came here together. I got worried when he didn't show up after the fight, so I went to find out what was going on…"
"Tough luck, little girl," said a big man off to the side. Even though she couldn't make out his features, the long white beard and conical head gave him away as Don Chinjao. He was fighting when she had left the stands. She really had wasted a lot of time getting lost, hadn't she? "It seems like we can only wait to see what Doflamingo does with us."
She sighed and shuffled to sit right next to Hack.
"I just contacted the others," he whispered to her. "He knows we're here."
"Good," she replied, feeling much better. If Sabo was on the case, they'd be out of that ditch in no time.
She and Hack listened to the fighters talk among them for a bit, since talking too much wasn't a good idea when one was on a mission, but all conversation got interrupted when some kind of black, viscous tendril extended towards them and, more specifically… her.
"What the—?!" She yelled as it wrapped around her and struggled to get rid of it. Hack tried to tear the substance away too, but he couldn't do anything when it pulled her towards the ceiling. She thought she was going to get splattered against the stone, but the impact didn't come, and she realized there was a very long tunnel above them. "Don't worry about me, I'll manage!"
Deep darkness transformed into blinding light when she was pulled out of yet another trapdoor, and she had to blink a few times before she could see with tear-filled eyes where she was. Ow, that stung.
In front of her was the source of the sticky goo that had caught her, the ugliest man she had ever laid eyes on, and boy, she had run into some aesthetically questionable people in the last two years. In contrast, next to him was a cute kid wearing an eyepatch and a cape with a fluffy hood.
The man's voice was as slimy as his power. "I don't remember seeing you in the competition."
"It doesn't matter," the girl said. "Having extras can't hurt."
Tsubaki recognized one them from the mission briefings. The man was Trebol, one of the higher executives of the Doflamingo Family. But she had never seen the girl before, and she was the one approaching her with a hand extended towards her face.
"Stop struggling. It's useless."
And the moment she came in contact with her skin, Tsubaki sensed her body grow slack and lifeless.
"From now on, you'll serve the Doflamingo Family," she said. Tsubaki tried to talk back, but was physically incapable. "You won't disobey your orders, and you won't talk to any humans about what happened here. Understood? Now be a dear and go work at the port."
Trebol deposited her on the floor with a strange clack that didn't match the sound a pair of shoes would make, and her body, much, much smaller than it was before, began to walk towards the door against her will.
In her panic and unable to disobey, she could only muster up the strength to lift her arms, and Tsubaki saw that they had been replaced with fabric and stitches.
Had she… had she become one of the toys of Dressrosa?
—
Saki ran away from the Colosseum and fled into a narrow alley so the Marines couldn't come at her all at once and they couldn't shoot without putting their colleagues in danger. She stood her ground when she found a suitable spot, and holy crap, those were a lot of soldiers going after just one lonely girl, but with no officers in sight, she was confident she could win and fought with the first guys who approached. And the next ones. And the next. They didn't appear to have haki, and so she was able to defeat about a dozen soldiers without breaking a sweat. Had the tough ones had gone after Luffy's friends, or had they not arrived yet where she was? Should she be offended if it happened to be the former? There was no way to know but to keep fighting, and though it wasn't very dangerous, she didn't have a lot of time to waste with all that was happening. Finding a way out of the alley and away from the soldiers was essential.
In all honesty, after the first surge of panic, she had totally forgotten about Sabo, who then jumped on top of a soldier from a rooftop, pipe in hand and ready to strike the guy coming right after the fallen one. "Save some of the fun for me, will you?"
"You can have all of it if you want!"
"No can do! Some of them are going around the block to flank you."
"Aah, a classic," she said, and knowing that, with Sabo there, she could turn around to see the incoming soldiers. They hadn't arrived yet, but she could hear them running. "Split them in half?" She said, looking back at Sabo and getting in position.
"You know it." He sent her a quick glance over his shoulder. "There's too much to do to waste our time here!"
They stood no chance.
After a few minutes, the endless wave of soldiers stopped, and both of them ran out of the alley and into one of the streets closer to the Colosseum. There weren't any soldiers in the area anymore; the only sign that a battle had just gone on there was the mess Doflamingo and Fujitora they had left on the ground.
"I saw you attack Doflamingo," Sabo said happily. "Good going!"
"You were there?!"
"I was keeping an eye on the Admiral, but I didn't want to show myself yet. It looked like you had it covered, anyway!"
"We did not!" She said, bewildered.
"Don't be so hard on yourself!" He said, sounding more reassuring than he had any right to, but when the right hand of the most wanted guy in the world told you something encouraging, it was hard to dismiss as empty talk. "Nobody died. That's a lot when dealing with these people." And he looked at the Colosseum. "I'm going in, subbing out Luffy if I can. You?"
She huffed, wondering what the hell she was doing with her life. "I need to find Law."
Sabo grinned at her. "I thought you'd say that. Best of luck!" He held a fist towards her, and she bumped it.
"You too!"
"The next time you see this fist, it'll be in flames!"
She smirked. "Yeah, yeah, keep us posted."
"Will do!"
Saki had no doubts that he wouldn't.
She waited a reasonable amount of time after Sabo left before tentatively walking closer to the main street. The King's Plateau stood tall and impregnable. There had to be a way up from her level, but no doubt it would be guarded, and going straight in was a surefire way to get killed in an instant. She had gotten out of the situation with Doflamingo and Fujitora without any broken bones, and she didn't want to test her luck unless it was necessary. She had a feeling she'd have to put it to use a lot that day.
She removed her shirt momentarily to assess the damage and, most importantly, peel off the sleeves stuck to her with dry blood. As it had been the case with Roronoa's friend, the wounds looked nastier than they actually were. She could move her arms well, so satisfied, she put it on again, rolling up the sleeves. The two biggest threats on the island already knew she was there, but they were busy with someone else and there was no need to run around showing her allegiances to everybody, even if she wanted nothing more then toss the shirt away and stop sweating. She tied it on the front just so that she could feel the air a little on the small gap between her shorts and top.
Where to next? She could give Koala a call and ask where she was, or she could try to find more of the Straw Hats. She had little doubt that they would be pretty easy to locate, given their inclination to mass destruction. But maybe calling Koala first was the best thing to do, in case she had run into any of them. She assumed that she had a little time to find a roundabout way to get into the castle, because the fact that Doflamingo and Fujitora had taken Law with them meant that he was still breathing, and they probably wanted to keep him that way to interrogate him.
She reached into the shirt's pocket, and she accidentally took out two pieces of paper along with the mini Den Den Mushi.
That was weird. She only had Bepo's vivre card. What was that second piece?
And it was another vivre card, no mistake about that. But who else would have given her something so precious? No one else in the Heart Pirates had any, as far as she could tell, and nobody in the Revolutionary Army had given her one. Robin's, maybe? Impossible, she wouldn't have forgotten something like that. And Take had never had one made to begin with, something that, now that she thought about it, was a big mistake. How else were they supposed to reunite in the future and why didn't she think about it sooner?
But it had been safely tucked in her pocket with the other card, so she was sure she had put it there on purpose. And she had no memory of it.
That stupid piece of paper was making her very uncomfortable, and not just because she couldn't for the life of her recall where it had come from. In contrast to Bepo's, lying flat against her palm and steadily pointing in one direction, the other one looked a little dirty and shifted continuously.
The owner had to be very close if it was moving like that, possibly close enough to be within range, but try as she might, nobody around her seemed to match the movements of the card, and nobody seemed to recognize her, either.
She looked once more at the plateau, anxious. She needed to get up there, but she had no clue how, and she wasn't self-centered enough to think that Law needed her, but it was pretty obvious that he could use a hand or two. The Straw Hats were already on the case, but could she leave it up to them?
And yet, despite her reluctance to not prioritize Law... something told her not to ignore the mystery vivre card. She had the feeling that she had forgotten something important.
So, after one last moment of hesitation, she decided to place her trust in the Straw Hats for the time being, and let the card guide her, wherever it may take her.