LW: And here it comes, the island of Passion, Toys and Treachery, Dressrosa!
Rubber King & Mirror Master - New World Chaos: Dressora, The Cursed Country of Passion
"So, just to make sure I'm getting everything…" Ussop begins, laying the paper down on the table while Franky gets their Den Den Mushi "Doflamingo has resigned from the Shichibukai, making him just a pirate, and in turn means he had to abdicate the throne of Dressrosa, who now has no monarchy as he did this a few hours ago at most, and everyone high enough to be next in line, are probably also his crewmates. Add to that the Kid, Hawkins, and On-Air pirates are joining together for unknown reasons, and they somehow know you're in an alliance with us though not the motive of said alliance. How do they even know about us?" the sniper groans.
"Caesar, more specifically the fact he had Den Den Mushi stationed all over the island to record and broadcast his experiments so he could sell his weapons to the highest bidder. It honestly doesn't surprise me that Big News Morgans either has contacts in or direct ties to the Underworld and Black Markets, but that is how he knows about our team up because he saw us do so and discuss kidnapping Caesar all in real time" Law explains as best he could.
"Makes sense, though we are sidestepping the elephant in the room" Nami sighs heavily.
"She doesn't mean you Nellie" Artemis whispers, assuring the elephant sword they were safe, now they were back where they belonged, over Artemis' left shoulder.
"I don't mean the actual elephant, I mean Robin's growth spurt!" the navigator yells, getting a chuckle from the archaeologist in question, which was fair, she had shot up from 6'2'' to what they guessed was 10 feet even, quite literally overnight. And it wasn't like if Luffy tried to stretch himself to 10ft, everything grew proportionately, well Sanji was sure her breasts got EVEN bigger, not just comparatively, but it's Sanji we expected that at this point.
"Yes, it does put me in quite an awkward position as I'm sure Miss Artemis would gouge out my eyes for being at perfect cleavage gazing level if I had any eyes, that is, Yohohoho!" Brook laughs, though he was at least semi-serious about his statement, his afro probably tickled Robin's chin, meaning as she held Medusa to her ample bust, the skeleton was able to wink at the toddler, as well as shake hands with her.
"I'd say it has something to do with her Devil fruit, but she's never merged body parts to herself before, only the blooms themselves to make the larger body parts" Zoro muses, only to be interrupted.
"Actually she can merge them with herself, she used it on Bleed and called it Titan, because she looked like an actual Giant, somewhere between Dorry and Oars Jr I'd bet" Luffy corrects him, surprisingly most of the crew as that was news to them.
"It's the first time I've used it in combat, and while I'm not sure if that's why I ended up with this sudden growth spurt, it's clearly not going away, so we might as well just move on and try work around it" Robin suggests, most of the crew fine with leaving it as is, so long as it wasn't causing their archaeologist any trouble.
Pura pura pura ca-lick!
"It's me. I resigned, happy?" Doflamingo purrs as he answers the call.
"Hey Mingo, are you Caesar's Boss, 'cause that guy's a child-abusing piece of shit, you hear me?!" Luffy yells down the receiver he stole from Law, Val and Vic grinning while Vivi pinches the bridge of her nose, Alvida meanwhile joining Kaos in low cackles at the by now expected antics of their captain "We're going to give him back cause that's what we promised, but if he does this again… well I think Robin's all out of murder for the moment, but given how hard it was to stop her from killing him after what he did to Medusa, it wouldn't take much for her or Kaos to actually finish the job, then I'll come over and kick your ass for being unable to control your goons!"
"I have a question for you," Doflamingo says almost out of the blue "After you and your brother fled from Marineford, your crew weren't seen for 2 years besides a few rumours I never managed to confirm as being true or false. So what were you doing all that time?" he asks, curious with his voice holding that air of amusement.
"None of your business, training mostly" Luffy admits, being vague but still technically giving an answer, which Doflamingo's hum seemed to suggest he was satisfied by.
"I was actually hoping to finally meet you Straw Hat" the former Warlord admits, to the surprise of everyone "I happen to have something that will interest you, or at least some of your crewmates if the research and personality evaluations I commissioned are accurate"
"Oh, is it meat? Some kind of out-of-this-world dish made only in Dressrosa? The spiciest meat known to man?" Luffy asks with an eager grin already starting to drool until Law hits him.
"Idiot, he's toying with you, don't take the bait" he sneers, taking the receiver back "We're giving you Caesar, that was the agreement, no more, no less"
"That is for your own benefit as much as mine" Doflamingo argues, ever-present grin clear from the snail "We both know what would happen if you tried to run away with him, that wouldn't be a happy ending for anyone. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to converse with my business partner a moment, ensure he's actually still alive and in your care, that you're not yanking my chain or unable to control your women" the former Warlord cackles, as Law side eyes Robin just to be sure, before passing the receiver to the still chained Caesar Clown.
"Joker I'm so sorry, you resigned from the warlords because of my screw up" he whimpers before Law snatches it back.
"He's fine, see" Law grunts.
"Yeah, I do. Full of life and grovelling like a dog"
"We'll meet in 8 hrs, on the island of Greenbit, just north of Dressrosa, on the beach on the Southeastern side. We'll leave Caesar there waiting for you at 3pm Dressrosa time, feel free to pick him up at any time after that, and then our arrangement will be complete and settled" Law relays.
"Aw really, I hoped to sit and have a drink with you, find a way to salvage our old partnerships" Doflamingo coos, a false air of sadness that didn't even try to reach his face.
"Goodbye Joker" Law sighs, before ending the call, the Den Den slipping back to sleep.
"Hey, you never said how many crewmates he could bring" Sanji realises, facepalming.
"Hm?" Ussop, Chopper, and Shirahoshi look at him in confusion.
"If Doflamingo is as much a bigshot as Law says, he probably has a lot of men under his banner, as well as his own main crew. If he showed up to the meeting with an army, we could be easily overwhelmed."
"OH NO!" Chopper and Carue scream, but Law doesn't seem the least bit phased.
"It doesn't matter I hope he brings a lot of his men. The handover is just a distraction, the more men he brings the less of them are in Dressrosa and in turn, protecting the Smile production factory. Still need to find the place though, but at least it'll be less heavily guarded if this works out" Law explains "I have intel on everything about the island…. Except for the factory"
"Makes sense, it's Doffy's secret trump card, and the source of his greatest assets, he wouldn't want THAT getting out" Valentina nods.
"Wait a minute, you said we're going to Greenbit, not Dressrosa?" Kinemon asks.
"No, that's not what I said. The meeting and exchange is at Greenbit, the Factory is somewhere on Dressrosa, and you guys will need to locate it either before or while I'm dealing with Doflamingo" Law repeats with a sigh.
"So Traffy, you been to this Dressnana place before, what's it like?"
"Dressrosa! And no, I've never been. Doflamingo owns the place, he was their king until this morning" Law repeats through gritted teeth.
"Bets on Luffy punching Doflamingo in the face?" Usopp stage whispers, nobody taking the bet as they know by this point it's a foregone conclusion.
"Neat, I bet Mingo land is awesome and fun. We'll just come up with the plans on the fly like we always do. Once we're done here we can swing by Wano for our next adventure" Luffy chirps excitedly.
"Make things up? If we're going in blind we need to plan things out" Law argues.
"Except the fact going in blind means we can't plan things out because we don't know anything" Kaos counters "We're going to have to ditch your plan eventually when things go to shit, Luffy's just ahead of the game by dropping it before you even make it" he smirks, while Luffy ignores Law and starts bugging Sanji for food.
A little later - Kitchen
"While I cannot divulge the reason for our journey, I can state that the original destination we were heading to, was a place called Zou" Kinemon explains with a sandwich half stuffed in his mouth.
"That's unhelpful" Victor sighs "Anyone know of an island called Zou?"
"I do, it's the next destination on my list once we're finished dealing with Caesar and Doflamingo in Dressrosa" Law admits, munching on a rice ball.
"That's convenient" Robin chuckles, feeding herself and Medusa, her headwings fluttering happily as both munch through Sanji's cooking.
"You mean it?" Kinemon gasps.
"Yes, the rest of my crew are there, waiting for me to finish this part of our mission" Law admits, a ghost of a smile crosses his lips as he thinks of Bepo.
"In that case, would it trouble you if Momonosuke and I accompanied you as well? Since we are both going the same way it would just make sense, I hope" Kinemon asks.
"Sure" Law sighs, today was giving him a headache, but at least the food was good.
"Momonosuke and I along with 3 brave samurai were all heading for Zou when our vessel was destroyed. I, Momonosuke, and another managed to make it to Dressrosa"
"Once there, we were assaulted by Doflamingo and his villainous troop, panicking I took refuge on a ship, which was how I ended up on Punk Hazard," Momonosuke adds.
"I was able to acquire a vessel and chase after my boy, thanks in no small part to our companion Kanjuro, who is hopefully still on Dressrosa, even if his current fate is unclear"
"Then we'll help you" Luffy volunteers, completely ignoring Law's orders to 'stick to the plan' as he wasn't Luffy's captain, nobody was, so he didn't have to take orders unless he wanted to.
Marine Headquarters
"Doflamingo resigning and Law setting up this unsanctioned alliance with Straw Hat, this is looking really bad for us and potentially the stability of the 3 factions. The last thing we need is Hancock or Buggy causing a commotion, but at least Mihawk, Kuma and Morgan are in the clear and loyal to the cause" Brahnew relays to the assembled group.
"I know, and this is starting to get out of hand. Which is why I send in Fujitora and 2 Vice admirals to clear things up" Fleet Admiral Sakazuki announces gruffly, though the mood is dampened by amused tittering.
"Sending my daughter on a mission like this given her sense of Justice or rather similar to your own, you must not want Doffy OR Traffy back alive then" Nylock Robin couldn't help but muse aloud "Or maybe that's why you sent her to Fujitora" she purrs.
"Her and Aramaki would just feed into each other, we'd risk losing an entire island over 1 high-value target. As for Doll, she's a no-nonsense, hard-working marine, despite her background" he argues.
"You mean you're trying to avoid a murder when she kicks Greenbull's head off for saying her mentor deserved to die for birthing a pirate" the dragon fruit user deadpans, most of those assembled knowing she was right given the Vice and newer Admiral's personalities and history, they just hadn't planned to mention it out loud.
Back on the Sunny - Later
"I see an island up ahead!" Artemis shouts from the crow's nest "It must be Dressrosa!"
"Those rocks, it makes the whole island look like a giant bowl" Luffy laughs as they approach the shoreline "Dressrosa here we come!"
"Can you please tone it down a little?" Ussop pleads, but it was a lost cause, Luffy is hyped, and nothing is going to stop him now. A fact made even more apparent as he was the 1st one to disembark the moment the Sunny hit land he bounced off.
"DRESSROSA! LET'S PARTY!" he bellows, enthusiasm already at 11.
"He has no sense of self-preservation or even the concept of stealth, how is he still alive?" Law mutters to himself.
"Because he's just that strong" Kaos answers before hopping down himself, following Franky who was just as hyped as Luffy, already flexing and posing as he cries out how SUPER he is "Luffy let the kid go if he has no control over his powers that's ok" he sighs as Luffy tries to get Momo to fly him into town.
"What are you talking about, I said I can't fly!" the pink dragon whines.
"Of course you can't, you don't have any wings, they're kind of important" Robin nods, blooming a normal-sized clone to watch a sleepy Medusa while they explore, then sliding off the Sunny onto the ground.
"He can't fly normally, but he's a mythical Zoan, and at least the Qinglong of legend if not the Seiryu, can essentially walk on air by creating clouds beneath their feet" the researcher explains, several people were suspicious about how specific he was, but given he was their devil fruit expert, they chalked it up to Kaos being his usual self.
"No! There is no way Momonosuke can fly, it's bad enough that he's a dragon he can't be any more like that…. Never mind" Kinemon shouts, shivering before quieting down "Enough of this foolishness, let us locate Kanjuro, this factory of arcane mysteries and be on our way"
"While not how I'd phrase it, he is correct, we can't dilly dally, we need to deal with this phase of the plan or everything is dead in the water" Law reminds them, but most are getting used to tuning him out already, mostly the more chaotic members of the Straw Hats. Knowing he lost most of them, he walks over to Nami and passes her a scrap of paper "In case we get separated in the carnage, this Vivre card will lead you to Zou and is currently the most reliable way to even find the damn place" he explains, being as vague as usual.
"Just as a precaution right?" Usopp worries, while Nami and Vivi get the other's attention as Law unfurls a map.
"We landed here on the Western shore of Dressrosa" Law begins, pointing at a corner of the crudely drawn brown circle that was the island. "The white circle in the middle is the palace, and somewhere on the island is the factory. While most of you are doing that I'll be taking a team with Caesar to hand him off. We'll pass through Dressrosa, to the northern edge and then across the bridge to the island of Greenbit" he continues, sliding his finger through the brown shape to the small green one just above and to the left of it.
"If it's an island, why do we need to walk there? We have a ship, so we should use it!" Carue asks in confusion.
"My informant said that wasn't possible" Law states flatly.
"Oh, sounds adventurous, and fun" Robin grins.
"Please, can we just get this over with" Caesar whines, but nobody cares. The team consisted of Law, Ussop, Robin, Victor and Valentina.
"Another team will remain on the Sunny, keeping it safe from potential enemy attacks. Be on your guard, I have no idea how long you will remain undetected, but it's unliked to be as long as we'd like" Law warns getting a wince from Nami and Brook, an unreadable expression from Carue as she was in her normal duck form, a determined look from Momo and Shirahoshi, and Chopper looked like Law was pointing out the obvious, so didn't react per say. All was good…. Until they realised they were down a member as Sanji had wandered off.
"So, um, who is our main deterrent now, if Sanji is gone?" Brook asks, Chopper and Momo pointing at Nami, while the navigator and duck point to Shirahoshi, the princess also, reluctantly pointing at herself "Yeah, I figured"
"Luffy's team is also gone…. How did they all walk off while we were planning?" Ussop groans.
"Quite easily, in fact, Kaos at least remembered to wave as he threw Artemis onto his shoulders" Robin giggles, getting a blank stare from the sniper and Law.
"Idiots the lot of them, they're the backbone of this operation and they just wander off," he scowls.
"They didn't 'wander off' they followed Luffy to get a head start on locating the Factory, Kyahahaha!" Valentina cackles, though a part of her wishes Vivi had switched with her, as her job seemed more fun.
Dressrosa
"Well shit" Kaos hisses as they enter the town, Luffy (and the magically reappearing Sanji) entranced by the smell of food and the strong perfume of the local women respectively, while he was getting a headache from too many mismatched presciences pinging his Observation haki, also the walking, talking doll about to enter their field of view in 3, 2,...
"Get back here, you can't have my arm! Bad dog, what if the stuffing comes out, what will I do then?" the Straw Hats watch in shock as a doll runs past them chasing a dog holding its torn-off arm in its jaws.
"Was that a toy?" Luffy asks quietly, eyes wide and bulging.
"Yup. We've been here 2 minutes and Dressrosa is already weird" Artemis sighs, sliding off Kaos's shoulder to drop down onto the pavement where another doll was giving them weird looks "Hi" she greets, but it just tilts its head and wanders off "Rude"
"Hello there" a puppet soldier greets, wandering over to the group "Welcome to Dressrosa… hmm, I think I know that face of yours, but from where?" he hums, getting in Luffy's face, his eyes narrow slightly while the Rubber boy freezes, before the doll leaps away energetically "Oh I know, you were in today's paper!" he cheers, spinning and getting himself tangled in his strings.
"Should we help it?" Alvida asks, Vivi blue-screening at the moment so turns the answer to the rest of them.
"Why did nobody tell us Dressrosa was Toytown come to life?" Franky mutters a heads up would have been nice.
'Something's very wrong with this place' Kaos twitches, not just because nobody was treating this scene as odd, but because even his haki couldn't tell the difference without sight for confirmation.
"Someone's been stabbed in the Street!"
"Not again, that's the 3rd this week!"
"Wait, what? Does this place have some kind of maniac on the loose or something?" Zoro asks as the pirate's attention is drawn to the loud commission.
"No, just very passionate women. That is what this island is known for after all. And when their lover cheats on them…. Things get messy" the puppet soldier explains, not helping matters very much.
"This island is so strange, and thankfully Momonosuke isn't here, the last thing he needs is more women threatening him" Kinemon mutters to himself.
"I like the way they think, you gotta agree to an open or poly relationship before you start shopping around" Artemis nods, most of the Straw Hats wondering if this was something she picked up on Amazon Lily, watching her parents, or just Robin in general.
"Is Sanji going to need a handler to prevent him from getting shanked in the street?" Vivi wonders aloud, having been knocked out of her shock by the screaming.
"And…. I've stopped caring. I'm hungry" Luffy states, now perfectly fine with living toys running around as he loops his arms around the waists of his wives and starts wandering to what he assumes is a restaurant, only to get called back.
A little later
"This is a very bad idea" Vivi sighs, as she sees the disguises Kinemon has given the guys: the suits look nice, even Luffy's summer island shirt, but the clearly fake beards, most of which don't even match their hair colour not so much. Of course, Luffy could only be kept away from food for so long, and soon he was dragging everyone to the restaurant, at least according to his nose.
Click, click, click, click.
Zoro pauses, at the back of the group for unknown reasons, bad ones given his lack of direction, as he hears something behind him. Turning his head he sees a solidly built man dressed in purple slowly hobbling down the nearby steps, the clicks being from what appeared to be a cane striking each step in front of him. As he got closer Zoro noticed the man had scars on his head cutting across his eyes, not exactly like his own, but similar enough for him to realise the man was either visually impaired or completely blind, so why does he still feel the urge to draw his blade? Either way, he kept quiet and let the man pass, only for him to stop beside him.
"Excuse me?" the man calls "I heard there was a gambling hall nearby, do you know where that is young man?"
"I'm sorry Sir, this is my first day on the island as well" Zoro answers, polite but direct, as well as honest "But there is a restaurant straight ahead if that helps"
"Oh, thank you kindly, sir" the purple-clad man responds, turning toward Zoro and blowing slightly.
Inside, a little later
"Sir Luffy, we can't afford to sit around frolicking, I must locate Kanjiro post haste!" Kinemon declares, slamming his fist on the table.
"Maybe not screaming that fact for all to hear will make it easier" Kaos sighs.
"Plus we can't all go running around aimlessly, we need to gather intel and be a little more low-key. It's why we're in disguise after all" Franky adds, trying to calm the anxious and irritable samurai.
"For example, despite the king abdicating this morning, nobody seems to care, you'd there would be some level of panic or revolt, and it's not like they didn't get the memo, that puppet knew us from the paper, the same paper that proclaimed Doflamingo was no longer a Warlord, or a King" Sanji points out, taking a drag from his cigarette.
"Let's go ask them, hey pops!" Luffy yells, about to grab the shoulder of one of the other patrons, when Alvida grabs his cheek "Hey, let go"
"What did we just say about doing things without thinking, you of all people need to avoid talking to people, it was you and Law whose faces were on the newspaper" Vivi hisses quietly, getting a pout, but also a nod from Luffy, which didn't last long as another puppet style toy appears, this one also part cymbal monkey, with their food orders, as well as some local info on fairies and other legends.
"Fae in Dressrosa, why does that not seem strange?" Artemis hums as she chews.
"Because it's not just the Grand Line but the New World," Kaos asks.
"Normal can go fuck itself out here" Zoro adds, remembering the researcher saying something similar back in Paradice.
"Hm seems like a party over there" Franky notes, hearing cheering and the beginning of quite a commotion in the far corner, Zoro's eyebrow rises when he recognizes the blind man from earlier at the table.
"It's a roulette table, some blind guy's clearly on a winning streak" he explains.
"Interesting, probably one of the few games you don't need sight to play, just an honest dealer" Kaos smirks, knowing the blind man was about to win again due to his haki, and due to his win streak, the rest of the table was getting in on the action, to the dealer's annoyance "At least the others at the table are being nice to him" he notes, as most if not all the fellow betters were offering at least their original bets to the blind man as thanks for their big wins.
It wasn't all good though, as some very thuggish-looking men entered through the backdoors, and surrounded the table, their boss slamming his palm into said table, drawing all eyes on him.
"Well well, quite the skilled gambler aren't you? How about this one more round just you and me" he suggests in a slimy tone.
"Hm? I don't understand the point of the contest" the blind man states, his voice and even his face show clear confusion at the offer.
"If I beat you, then I know I'm the luckiest son of a gun in Dressrosa. Come on man, don't tell me you're just going to walk away after a win streak like that?"
"No, no, you see my friends here, were kind enough to share their chips for my 1st bet, I couldn't possibly disrespect their generosity"
"That's what I like to hear, what a guy. I knew I could count on you Gramps" the sleazy man laughs "As for the rest of you… go to the back of the room, cash your chips, and get out of here" he says in a mildly threatening tone.
"Place your bet!" the man shouts as he sits down and one of his men sends the ball spinning.
"White this time" the blind man responds.
"In that case, I'll bet black"
Click clack.
"Is something wrong, friend? Did I win or lose?" he asks, finding the silence a little unsettling.
"Oh, too bad, so sad my friend it's on black. Your winning streak has come to an end" the sleaze laughs, even though the ball actually landed on White 5.
"That's a shame" he sighs heavily "I'll try another round"
"White!"
"Oh, Black 20, you lose again" White 1
"White again please"
"Another Black" White 23
"White!"
"Black"
"White"
"Black"
"White"
"Should we do something Pops, it seems wrong to just let them harass a blind man like that" Artemis frowns.
"We're trying not to draw attention to ourselves, and nobody else seems to give a shit enough to do anything… but I get the feeling we'll have to eventually" Kaos sighs heavily.
"Had enough old timer?"
"Not just yet. I'm giving this one last shot. All in"
"Oh, well then I suppose I'm obliged to do the same. Set them rolling boys!"
"All in, on white" the blind man states with an air of finality, as the roulette continues to spin, the ball clacking around until finally, both stopped.
On White 7.
"So, where did it land?" the man asks, then smiles softly "Your silence is all I need, it's white isn't it?"
"Afraid not Gramps, another…"
"Damn, White 7, you really do have the Sight, Mister!" both adults turn to see a grinning Artemis, Kaos slowly following behind, standing at the table, her eyes shining like stars.
"Yep, that's definitely white" Luffy nods, now sitting between the blind man and the crooked dealer, still eating his noodles "The odd numbers are all white, right guys?" he asks, getting a nod from his brother and niece. While this was going on Vivi's head fell into her hands, awaiting several different levels of stupidity to occur.
"D's really are trouble" Zoro sighs heavily, just as aware as Vivi that things were going to get messy.
"Hey, who's the dealer here?" the crooked man shouts, glaring at the bearded punk and the kid who ruined his scam, just when it reached its peak "Get your eyes checked, that's clearly Black"
"Nope, it's white, good work Gramps, now you can get all that money they just swindled you for. Pretty shitty people stealing from a blind guy like that" Luffy chuckles as he keeps eating.
"Really?" the man whispers, his lips thin to a straight line.
"Get lost brats"
"Unless you're looking for an ass-beating" one of the thugs threatened, but as usual, Luffy don't give a shit, and the other 2 D's were actually eager to beat up some thugs, it's a little early but they don't mind a few more fights on their docket.
"Yep, I call it like I see it, and you did good. Plus I probably don't need to be here, you look like you can defend yourself well enough, but sometimes, I just feel the need to butt in" Luffy shrugs.
"Which is exactly the problem you're butting in where you don't belong" the scammer snarls "If I say it landed on Black it landed on black, and he can't see shit so what difference does it make?" he shouts as he and his thugs leap at the Straw Hats, only for the 1st one to be tripped by the blind man and crash into the wall.
"Oh dear, seems some hog got loose and tripped over my cane" the man hums with an almost sarcastic degree of innocence "Apologise to the swine on my behalf" he chuckles.
"You blind old coot, you have no idea the trouble you just walked into" the scammer sneers, as Kaos and Artemis joining Luffy just slightly out of the line of fire, interested to see what the old man could do, but also close enough to help if he actually needed it.
"It's a fight you want then. My good lad, please take your companions and take a couple more steps back, thank you" the blind man requests, Luffy nods and shuffles back a few feet, almost to the nearest table, alongside the other 2. "They've left me no choice, I'm going to have to send all of them to hell" he mutters, revealing that his walking stick was a sword.
"Cut him to pieces!" the scammer bellows, as his goons proceed to jump the old man, only for him to either dodge them effortlessly or slice them with pinpoint precision as he walks through the attack. Despite hitting every one of them at least once, none of them were bleeding… until he sheathed his cane sword. Then each of the thugs dropped to the ground as if the weight of a mountain had been dropped onto their backs, and it wasn't just in their heads as the floor itself gave way under their weight, forming a sinkhole in the restaurant.
Luffy's eyes widened, he'd seen at least the first part before, but there wasn't a hint of haki or magic in what the old man had done, looking over at the others, Artemis had a curious look in her eyes, while Kaos was grinning maniacally… meaning he probably knows what just happened.
"It's not a curse to be blind in this world of crime. Everywhere you turn the horrendous things being committed aren't worth gazing upon. Not seeing them, that's a true blessing" the blind man says as he relaxes his stance, then wanders off like nothing happened, even returning to using his sword as a walking stick once more "Sorry if I caused a disturbance" he calls back as he heads for the exit at a rather sedate but consistent pace.
"That was overpowered as hell, what even was that?" Sanji mutters.
"A devil fruit of some sort" Zoro shrugs.
"A variant of Valentina's fruit, granting him the ability to alter the weight of others, perhaps" Vivi suggests, as the damage to the floor proved there was a physical effect on those people, it wasn't like Conqueror's haki where the weight was metaphysical.
"You are the proprietor of this establishment, correct?" the blind man asks the man at the register.
"Um, yes Sir" he nods fearfully.
"Good, send the bill to this address, they'll deal with it in no time" he says, passing a slip of paper to the owner who gasps.
"No way, you're him?" he squeaks out.
"I knew you were stronger than you seemed old man, what's your name?" Luffy asks with a wide grin, causing the man to stop in the doorway.
"I guess you could call it second sight, but I think that not answering that question would be better for both of us" he says critically, then leaves, Luffy pouts as he sets his shades on his head.
"That's totally not suspicious at all, must be pretty infamous to say something like that" Sanji scoffs as he takes another smoke. However, they had other things to deal with, as everyone started yelling about missing items, including Zoro who had Shusui snagged right from under his nose.
"Looks like everyone had something stolen from their table, but that's what fairies do for fun" One of the toys says banging his drum as he goes.
"What, are the fairies some kind of gang of thieves?" Zoro asks irritably, Kinemon is not much better.
"And are they invisible for nobody to notice them?" Artemis asks more out of curiosity than anything else.
"Fairies are fairies that's all I know, all you can do is laugh and let it go" the doll rhymes, further pissing off the pirate and samurai.
"YOU WANT ME TO LAUGH AS THEY RUN OFF WITH MY SWORD!?" Zoro yells.
"Invisible fairies are the guardians of Dressrosa since ancient times and they're our allies. When they have their games and mischief all you can do is turn a blind eye" the marionette declares, contorting its body as it does, to the mild concern of the straw hats, though everyone else seems to just nod dumbly and decide 'if it's faires I guess there's no point looking' so give up and go about their business.
"Well, that explains why they're not panicking over Doflamingo's resignation" Vivi frowns.
"They're dumb as a sack of bricks, yup" Alvida snorts "Also, aren't fairies symbols of Sloth, not Greed?" she mutters to herself.
Click clack.
The pirates turn, seeing Shusui attached to a yellow sack, attempting to get shoved through the slightly open window of the restaurant.
"Got too greedy fairies, you finally bit off more than you could chew" Zoro mutters with a savage grin, before running for the sword, chased by Sanji and Kinemon to stop him from getting lost and to retrieve the sword for himself respectively.
Luffy attempted to join in, only to get grabbed out of the air by Kaos and set down beside Franky "Oh come on, I wanted to help chase the fairies" he whines.
"Yeah, but whoever they are, they know the city a lot better than we do, so how about you hold for a second and try to come up with a plan? At least hear me out before running off like a crazy crackhead" the cyborg argues.
"Fine" Luffy sighs, meanwhile the other 3 crash through the window chasing the sack and the sword.
Unfortunately for them, once it was able to get into the main streets of Dressrosa, the thieves seemed to vanish, Zoro just barely managed to catch a glimpse of the sack bouncing into a side street and charging straight for it, Sanji hot on his heels.
Kinemon on the other hand, managed to not only lose the thieves, but both Straw Hats too, now having no direction or idea where he was, the samurai was on the verge of panic, but was keeping himself calm through sheer bluffed stoicism.
Elsewhere
Dragging the masked scammer out of the hole in the ground was a lot easier given Franky had extending arms and the Hebi had a whip-like form. He was then dragged outside for interrogation.
"You're one of Doflamingo's thugs ain't yah?" Franky asks.
"Yeah, and? Practically everyone works for Doflamingo" the scammer retorts.
"Yeah, that tracks, this is his kingdom, his base of operations. He'd want his men in every level and facet of the island" Kaos sighs, this wasn't going to get them all that far.
"Wait a second, you think I'm going to let a couple of nobodies like you mess with the Young Master? You're crazier than that old man" the scammer yells.
"Well, if he's not going to talk, can we just kill him and get it over with?" the researcher asks.
"Is murder your first choice all the time?" Vivi groans.
"No, usually it's Plan E, but I'm not entirely sure any of the earlier plans would apply here, nor are they worth it on a low-level thug like this guy"
"Hey bud, I recommend you tell us what you know, my brother ain't in the best of moods today" Luffy stage whispers, apparently it was his turn to play 'good cop' for these interrogations.
"I already told you I don't know anything! I was ordered to chase around a couple of samurai a while back, but I don't know how they were caught, or where they are now" the scammer spills fearfully "Also, I have no idea what SMILE is"
"You sure, we can break some bones to jog your memory?" Alvida hums, reaching behind to grab her hammer.
"No, I know nothing about the Samurai, the SMILEs or where this Factory is. I swear! Who the Hell are you people?" the thug asks.
"Well, that's a pain in the ass. But I suppose street-level thugs won't know crap. Hey Mister, where do we find someone actually worth interrogating?" Luffy asks with a groan.
"You're not going to find them in some random alleyway, all the higher-ups were called in for the Colosseum fight. Just over there" the thug points up the road to the massive structure, which more than a few of them had been curious about, but it was a 'later' problem, until now. "As you can clearly see, the entire kingdom is heading that way, If you want to find anyone, you go in there" he finishes.
"Why though, and why are all the higher-ups at this event?" Vivi asks, something isn't adding up.
"There's a special event going on today, and all the Top officials are in attendance to watch the proceedings. For some reason, the Young Master has offered up an incredible prize for whoever wins today's battle royale event" the thug explains "First place gets…"
Corrida Colosseum
"Is everybody ready?" The announcer cries from the centre of the arena "Today we have a special prize like no other, entrusted to us by the Young Master himself, and would you like to know what it is? A legendary Devil fruit, previously held by the Young Master's own younger brother, Donquixote Rocinante, the Nagi Nagi no mi!"
TBC
LW: And so, Dressrosa begins with a bang. Also yeah, Ace not being dead means no Mera Mera up for grabs, luckily Doffy had another DF on hand to offer up, one that would have more of an effect on Law, than Luffy, that's for sure.