So... this may be the bloodiest and most controversial chapter yet, mostly because of what I've done. But this is the way things are because few characters have Plot Armor and I'm not a fan of Characters Never Die. I mean, it was a full-scale war and there were no named casualties even among the minor characters? I like Merry the butler, but the OPLA did the right thing in killing him when he should have died in Canon but didn't because Reasons. Not this time! This is war! Let me know how you feel about this and the ramifications that may come later.
Anyway, thank you to my wonderful Patrons who have stuck around this long: Alison Carrillo, Andrew Bohl, Animephilosopher1, Ankhseram123, Anna Khuu, anony, Ant Franklin, Cam Bliss, Claude Walker, Cordell Sanders, Cory Johnston, Darko129, David, Daemon Targaryen, David Bowling, David Reynolds, Emi Stafford, Eugene Malone Jr., EvilJelly, Fenrir ragnarok, Garvin Lee Nelson-Mathlin, Immagenius, Inucbus, Javier Andres Estrada, JEP1010, Jkat, John Mekjian, Jonathan Moh, Joseph Baty, Joseph Morrison, Joseph Vargas, Joshua Groves, Karen Carrillo, Kcx1, kevin Calderon, Lamont Hale, MAEGHT Maxime, Majin buu, Marielle Orff, Matt Walther, Matthew Burley, McBanjo, Mcgin28, Michael Enqvist, Milagros Peres Davila, Milla, Pez, Rafael Cardenas, ReactedLyric, Richard Barkley, Ryuu, Sasha, Shaun Guard, Siddiq Morris, TheWolfThatExist, Thomas Sanders, Tom Peissig, and ViewtifulSoul!
Chapter 75:
The Cost of Revenge
Coby broke free of the ground, transforming into his Armor Mode as Hoshokusha and Emono intercepted Helmeppo's attempted attack on the woman.
"You have no shame, do you?" the pirate growled.
"Sir Coby!" Kin'emon gasped. "Izou is retrieving his men now! We need only to protect the king and princess until they arrive, but we are being pursued!"
"This day just gets better and better," the roset growled.
"Captain Leo, I'm so glad to see you're—!"
The bee-woman's cheer was cut off by a scream, one echoed by a number of her own forces as each in the air —dwarf, beetle, and bee alike— was cut in twain. The whip-like blade was only stopped by Kyros' own, shoving him back nearly a foot in the direction of his daughter, his father-in-law, the Zoan pirate, and the samurai.
"I was hoping to get them all in one swoop," Diamante growled, carelessly stepping on several of the bisected insects and dwarves. Leo's grip on his needle tightened to the point his weapon shook and his knuckles whitened as the Doflamingo Officer crushed poor Bian's remains underfoot. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't be fun that way. Hey, marine. In the name of my Captain, the Warlord Doquixote Doflamingo, help me kill these pirates and traitors."
Helmeppo raised one of his kukri to his lips, licking the candy blade. "With pleasure."
Coby took his opponent's moment of dramatization to push against him, driving Helmeppo back several steps. The blond's eyes narrowed as spikes of candy rose from the edible-but-nasty floor, stopping his backward momentum. These were just some of a wave of spikes, forcing Coby to jump backward lest they puncture his feet. He swiped with Emono, a line carving itself into the floor to divide the candy before him from the candy behind, severing Helmeppo's control and stopping the wave of spikes.
"He may be powerful, but he is now alone!" Coby heard Kin'emon yell, the call followed by a clashing of steel. "Let us overpower him now!"
"Hey, Dwarf!" Coby called. "Leo, right? I'm sorry about all this."
"It is not your fault, Lizard," Leo replied, his words a little choked. Coby guessed the hornet woman must have been a good friend of his. "We knew we could die fighting Doflamingo."
"Listen, I need you to guard our perimeter." Coby did not take his eyes off Helmeppo. "I can feel more marines and grunts approaching us. If they overwhelm us, it doesn't matter if we can win here. Can you keep them at bay?"
"I will," the dwarf swore. "I only ask that you assist our rescue of our Princess Mansherry."
"Mansherry? She's—"
"Candy Cut!"
Coby ducked under the enlarged and extended kukri that tried to take his head off. He responded by bisecting the candy man, but his attack only passed through the other teen's torso with a purple ripple. Thinking quickly, Coby transformed into his Drill Mode and spun, using his wide, flat tail. It, unlike the swords, caused the Logia to splatter.
"Shave: Unseen Disaster!"
"Sucker Punch!"
Hybrid Mode Coby's swords clashed with the candy-encased fist of the Vice-Admiral, the Logia material hard enough that sparks would have come from it had it been another material or had Coby's swords been of lesser quality or less maintained. Helmeppo's other fist came around, similarly clad. Coby blocked it too, forcing the blond back. Helmeppo settled into a boxer's stance.
"I've learned a lot over the past two years, Tri-Horn," he said. "Swordplay, martial arts, tactics, and more. Where you have focused, I have absorbed everything. It won't be long before I find the chink in your armor."
"That's assuming you last that long," Coby replied, his grip on his swords tightening. "I don't want to kill you, Helmeppo."
"What a shame because I want to kill you!" He shot forward with Sugar Rush, Coby transforming into his Slasher Mode while spinning his swords into reverse grips. Helmeppo's punch landed with a ringing clang, the pirate hopping to let the force carry him backward.
He didn't take more than a moment before using that distance to his advantage.
"Pterodactyl Swarm!"
The ranged attack had barely left him before the swordsman was running, curving to the left. Still, Helmeppo didn't care for the roset's attempts, letting the flying slashes cut through his Logia constitution ineffectually. He raised his hands, the sucker-like gloves turning viscous before reforming into a giant battle ax. He launched toward the Zoan.
"Candy Cleaver!"
Coby grunted, raising his swords to catch the ax with a cross block that put the candy blade too close to his face for comfort. He narrowed his eyes and started pulling his hands apart.
Helmeppo's eyes, in response, widened. He couldn't believe what he saw. Coby's swords were slowly, ever so slowly, sheering through his crafted weapon. He abandoned the ax and jumped back, scowling as Coby finished cutting the purple blade in two.
"You're right," Coby admitted. "I did focus on my Devil Fruit and my swordplay over most everything else, but it seems you forgot why people do that." He grinned. "You're not the only one who spent the last two years training. When it comes to blades, I'm just better than you, and this fight may be just what I need to figure out Armament the hard way."
"Not before I present your head to Sakazuki-sensei myself."
As Coby clashed with Helmeppo, the former trying to remember everything Rayleigh had ever told him about Armament Haki, Kin'emon and Kanjuro found themselves getting thrown by the Executive Officer they were facing, the reedy man with a deep scowl.
"You peasants annoy me," he said. "You keep flinging yourselves at me like flies but refuse to die like cockroaches."
"You will not…" Kin'emon panted, using the wall he'd just stuck to raise himself, "harm these royals… as long as we stand…"
"And they don't stand alone!"
Diamante spun, letting Kyros' sword bounce off his steel cape. His own blade flashed out as he completed his spin but Kyros was not a legend within the Colosseum for no reason, previously forgotten or otherwise. His own sword came up to block, his one foot proving enough to absorb all of the Doflamingo pirate's force.
"Now this is more like it," Diamante grinned, pushing his sword against the former gladiator's. "I wish I'd gotten a crack at you before Doffy and Sugar that day."
"If you had, I would have slain you then," Kyros swore, his eyes hard.
"Perhaps. We'll never know."
"Behold, my magical beasts!" Diamante glanced in the direction of the voice, finding the red-haired samurai knelt, his hands pressed together as if in prayer. As he watched, a number of distorted creatures — possibly humans and what the executive guessed were supposed to be a boar, deer, large butterfly, and a dragon of some sort — rose from the cobblestone. Each was, however, horribly deformed and seemed in pain just by existing. At Kanjuro's gesture, the creatures charged forward.
Diamante sighed, jerking his sword up with a grunt to kick Kyros in the stomach. The one-legged man coughed as he was pushed back, but the red-dressed pirate didn't have time to care. He slashed with his weapon, turning the first three humanoids into splatters of ink.
The boar and deer tried to bear down on him from either side, but their crude tusks and cockeyed antlers did nothing to his steel cape, Diamante dispatching them quickly as the butterfly and dragon approached, the latter with wings that were too misshapen to fly as it was supposed to and, thus, was forced to crawl on its stomach. An upward cut sheered a wing from the insect and a good pair of stomps was all that was needed to destroy the dragon, even if it got ink all over his shoes.
"My magical beasts!" Kanjuro gasped. Diamante made to charge him only to be forced to block, grandfather and granddaughter crossing their swords through the air where his neck would have gone. He outclassed each individually, but they were much stronger together, even if Diamante managed to push them back several steps.
"This is going to be a fun day," he said, a sick sneer tugging at his lip. "This time I can kill three generations of the royal family at once."
"W-What?" Rebecca gasped, her grip faltering. Diamante took advantage of the opening he'd wanted, a twist of his blade causing the teen to drop hers. The pirate lunged only for the former king to take the full brunt of the attack, his arms shaking.
That was all the weakness Diamante needed. Before anyone — not Kyros, not the samurai, and certainly not the girl reliving the trauma of Thunder Soldier carrying her mother's lifeless corpse that rainy day — the pirate's thin blade shot forward, piercing the old man's neck.
"Ricky!" Rebecca screamed.
"King Riku!" Kyros and the samurai gasped. All motion in the crossroads froze as Diamante and the former king locked eyes.
"Down," the pirate ordered, pressure on his sword forcing the man to his knees. "Look at this, you're dying where you belong. Where you've always belonged. On your knees at our feet."
Former-king Riku could feel the blood filling his lungs, but his steel gaze never wavered. He spat a wad of bloody saliva, but it didn't have the force to reach Diamante's ink-stained shoes.
"Fine," the reedy man said. "Die in pain and misery, a slower death than your daughter's." He jerked his sword to the side, ripping out half of the king's neck in a spray of blood. The older man collapsed, the light of life leaving the eyes of Riku Doldo III.
"You bastard!" Coby roared, covering the sound of Helmeppo's grunt as he literally dug his heels into the candy below to combat the pink-haired pirate's strength. "Helmeppo, you ugly, ass-chinned, purple-gutted, moronic daddy's boy piece of diabetic fuckshit! Get the fuck out of my way!"
"How dare—!"
"And you! You'll pay for what you've done!"
"I think not," Diamante replied, looking down on the shellshocked Rebecca, spots of blood dotting her pale face. Her hands were visibly shaking, her eyes on the crimson pool growing under her grandfather's body. Diamante stepped on it. "I'm just taking out the trash. Out with the old, as it were. Dressrosa's got a new royal family."
Rebecca shook, barely registering the unrestrained scream of rage or the blur of Kyros' red cape as the man leapt at his father-in-law's killer. Diamante ducked and parried, his maniacal grin never leaving his face even as he was forced to back away from the fresh corpse.
"Death is too good for you!" Kyros swore, his sword bouncing off the pirate's steel cape only to return to block a strike in the same second. "You deserve far worse, but I refuse to leave you alive, murderer!"
"Would that you could," Diamante replied. He stomped, the ground rippling outward. Had he two legs, Kyros would have stumbled, but he did not. Rather, Kyros very nearly flailed, only his battle-honed instincts saving him from another stab that only sent him backward.
"…I'll kill you," Rebecca hissed, grabbing her sword and charging forward, tears streaming down her cheeks. She slashed wildly, without thought or reason, aiming for any piece of exposed skin she could see. Coby, even with only his fleeting glimpses as he balanced defense from the Vice-Admiral's attacks before him and his attempts to maneuver around said marine, could tell her style was learned to be almost entirely defensive. Even if that wasn't the case, she was in no state of mind for the kind of complicated swordplay necessary to defeat an opponent like Diamante. Kin'emon, Kanjuro, and Kyros all surged forward, but they were all too far away.
A single twist of the wrist was all Diamante needed, the princess screaming. She dropped to her knees, her left hand grasping at the stump that was now the end of her right arm just below the elbow. Blood flowed between her fingers, tears of rage and pain making her vision blurry only compounded now from blood loss.
Diamante kicked her in the face, sending Rebecca sprawling with a new bloody nose. He reached into his coat, pulling out a pistol he aimed at the squirming girl. The samurai and gladiator froze, scared that one wrong move would make the pirate pull the trigger early.
"Now this is a feeling to die for!" the man said. "Don't get me wrong, killing your mother was satisfying as hell, but it wasn't fun. Just a twitch of a finger and she fell over like a puppet. Bang." He mimed firing the gun, laughing. "No, this is fun. The rage, the terror, the pain, the blood! This is why I wanted to head the Colosseum; to run the tournaments where prisoners like you fight and die for our amusement! My amusement! This is the heart of human emotion! This—!"
"How are you—‽ Guh!"
Diamante was not prepared for the human-shaped projectile that crashed into him, he and Helmeppo going down in a tangle of sticky limbs and wavy steel. The pirate's gun fired into the air, but it was Coby's rumbling snarl that took precedence. He stomped forward, Armament Haki all but wafting from his pitch-black arms.
He did not, however, go after the pair, his newly-awakened Armament dissipating with his Zoan transformation as he ran to Rebecca's side. He didn't really know anything about the girl — her name was Rebecca, her grandfather had just died and was apparently the former king which made her a princess, and Diamante had killed her mother — but he knew she was good and that she needed help.
"It's going to be ok," Coby promised, cutting the lower half of her teal cape with Emono before using it as a makeshift bandage for her arm. She whimpered from the pain and he knew it was only a stopgap at best. "I should have something that—"
"Stupid bastard!" Diamante yelled, the words nearly lost in Helmeppo's simultaneous cry of "Tri-Horn!" The pirate of the pair whipped his pistol around.
Coby's eyes widened, his body moving on instinct, ready to cover the princess with his own form. Diamante unloaded the remaining five shots he had, but Coby felt none of them.
"Guh," Kyros coughed, blood dribbling down from the corners of his mouth. He had his sword stabbed in the ground, supporting the weight on the same side missing its leg. He was almost thankful for the toy transformation now; he'd been changed ten years ago in the prime of his youth and had returned with that same body. Had he a body in its late 30s or early 40s, those bullets would've probably killed him. "Rebecca… Are you hurt?"
"F-Father…" she whimpered.
"Fuck," Coby cursed as he assessed the girl's still-bleeding stump. "Damn it. There has to be something…" His eyes widened, his hand reaching to his pocket to pull something out, a seemingly-discolored apple. "No time to explain, but this Devil Fruit should be able to heal your arm. At least eventually, but it will also make your body more durable. Do you want it?"
"Give it to her," Kyros ordered. Coby could see Diamante stalking toward them over the soldier's shoulder.
"Are you—?"
"Do it," he hissed through the pain, getting to his foot and turning. "I shall hold off Diamante."
"But—"
"Now, pirate. Swordsmen, with me!" Kyros mustered his strength with a pained wince, leaping into battle as the samurai joined him on either side.
"Rebecca?" Coby asked, tapping her cheek to make the one-armed princess look at him. "Listen, this is going to taste nasty." He ripped the purple apple in half and shoved half of it into her mouth.
Rebecca tried to throw up. If anything in the world could make her forget her current location and situation, it was the sudden taste comparable to old socks that had never been taken off except to wash in urine until such time they could be coated in the hair of an unwashed goat and set on fire just to be grilled with rotten crabapples, but that was underselling it. Coby held her shoulder down with one hand, his other over her lips until she swallowed, only then letting her cough up what remained.
"Rebecca, listen to me," he ordered, grabbing her face to stare deep into her eyes. He could already see her skin starting to take on a pinker hue. "Remember that you're human. That was a Zoan Fruit and it's going to want you to transform now, but we can't afford that. Repeat after me. I'm a human."
"I-I'm a human?" Was it his imagination or what she shrinking?
"I will stay human."
"I will stay human." Haki coated his hands, the pirate doing what he could to try to hold back the change.
"More force. I will stay human!"
"I-I will stay human!"
The transformation stopped as far as Coby could tell, but it wasn't without evidence. The most notable were a pair a tri-pointed coral-like protrusions where Rebecca's ears had been, external gills if Coby remembered his brief research into axolotls correctly. Luckily, such creatures also had lungs, making the young man pretty sure they had evolved on the Grand Line. Where else would a creature evolve to also be able to breath air naturally? Still, decorative gills and pinkened skin was a fair bit better than having to carry around the princess as a tiny salamander in the heat of battle.
His eyes went to her major wound which, already, was clotting. It seemed the rumored Zoan constitution increase was true even for a seemingly-weak Fruit such as this.
"Rebecca, stay awake," Coby demanded. "It's still dangerous here and—"
His Haki flared, one pink-haired youth grabbing the other and diving to the side. Multiple candy spikes speared the ground where they'd been, the man of the pair sending a glare toward the marine being beset upon by the samurai and another three poorly-drawn creatures of Kanjuro's make: a dog-man, a cat-man, and a turtle creature of some kind. As Coby watched, Helmeppo spun, forming an executioner-style ax he used to cut the cat thing in twain.
"Watch out for stray attacks," the pirate summarized, now focused on the attackers. He reached up, drawing Hoshokusha.
"Sugar Shotgun!" A multitude of candy pullets shot from the marine's hands and arms, ripping holes through the remaining two drawings. Those same shots blasted both Kin'emon and Kanjuro away, neither's swords having the width to block them all at once. "Ah, sweet vic—"
Coby appeared as if from thin air, his face carefully blank and Haki swirling around his blade. Helmeppo gasped, layering his own over his arms and ax. Despite this, the pirate's blade cut more than halfway into the marine's created weapon, driving the blond backward.
"How the hell?" Helmeppo demanded. "You only just unlocked Armament!"
"Because I'm actually fighting for something." Coby spun, forcing the young Vice-Admiral away from a diagonal slash as he drew Emono with his offhand. "Unlike you, I have people to protect."
"How stupid," Helmeppo snarled. "If someone is so weak that they need protecting, then they aren't worth your time."
"You don't deserve that uniform."
Coby rolled, barely avoiding the spear that stabbed outward from Helmeppo's chest. Emono shot upward, severing the point from the haft and causing the marine to wince.
"Come on, Helmeppo. I'll show you real strength."
The ground started undulating, the fighters — as individuals who sailed regularly — barely acknowledged the unnatural waves as they charged each other. For Rebecca and Kyros, two individuals who had never been off the island, this was a new level of disorienting. The former rolled onto her stomach, crawling forward as she kept her eye on the fights.
"You've really pissed me off, soldier," Diamante muttered, eyeing the man. Kyros was covered in lacerations, blood still dripped down his legs from his torso, but the man refused to show even a hint of pain in his narrowed eyes. "Just die like your poor wife, forgotten all over again."
"I think not," Kyros growled, "but if I am to die, I intend to take you with me."
"Tch." Diamante blocked the former gladiator's swing but he could feel his arms shaking. It was clear the easy life in Dressrosa had had its own toll on him, though not in such a noticeable way as it had Señor Pink. Compared to his decade of leisure, Kyros was just as strong as he had been the day they arrived, only his missing leg offering the disadvantage that kept them even. Luckily, he could compound this with his Rolling Fields
He charged forward with a wave, their blades clashing nearly too fast to see. Kyros was on the defensive, having to back pedal, keep his balance on one foot, and block the attacks all at the same time, a feat that only showed he lived up to his reputation. Still, with such odds stacked against him, it was only a matter of time until he miscalculated. Diamante spun, knocking aside the warrior's blade with his steel cape before stepping into his guard.
Kyros coughed as he felt the sword slide between his ribs. The metal was cold, needles like ice prickling in his chest. Rebecca screamed something but it was lost in the blood roaring in his ears. He did what came naturally.
He leaned into the blade, wrapping his arms around Diamante. The pirate gasped, trying to yank the sword free, but Kyros had an iron grip. Flaring his powers on his cape only allowed the former toy to tighten his hold, pinning the executive against him.
"What do you think you've accomplished?" the pirate demanded. "You'll be dead in minutes."
"Perhaps," Kyros agreed with a bloody smile. "But you'll be dead before that."
"What do you—?"
"This is for my mother!"
Diamante only turned his head slightly to the voice, just enough to see a flash of pink hair and a glint of steel before the sword was buried in his throat. His eyes widened, looking down on the princess—dark-pink external gills, blood-splattered light-pink skin, holding her grandfather's sword in her remaining hand.
"Down," she ordered, pressure on the blade forcing Diamante to his knees. He tried to speak but his esophagus was already severed. Rebecca took a single moment, reflecting on their mirrored positions from the death of King Riku. A part of her wanted to speak, to monologue like Diamante had, but she knew she couldn't risk anything with the Doflamingo Familia. "Farewell, Diamante. You will be missed by no one."
Like the pirate had done to King Riku, Rebecca did to him, ripping the sword out through the side. He flailed and foundered like a fish out of water for several seconds, hands fruitlessly grasping at his half-neck. He slowed and stopped.
"He's… finally dead," Kyros wheezed, falling backward. Rebecca jumped at the squelch.
"Father!" she cried, running to him. He still had Diamante's borrowed sword sticking out of his chest, his breaths shuttering and shallow. "Father! Father, please! Don't die!"
"I don't think… I have a choice, Rebecca," he breathed. One of his hands rose, grabbing the one his daughter still possessed. "I'm sorry. I wish I could have been more to you."
"Don't say that," the princess whimpered, her tears rolling down her cheeks. "W-We'll just patch you up—"
"You know we can't," the man said with a shake of his head, his breathing labored. "I'm not a toy anymore, Rebecca, but Doflamingo will fall today with or without me. I know it. When that happens, Dressrosa will need a new leader."
"I don't know anything about leading. I need you, father!"
"You will learn. I only ask you this: don't hold the people's past actions against them."
"Father…"
"You look so much like your mother," he whispered, his voice growing faint, his eyes distant and unfocused. He gave a small, sad smile. "I know you'll be the queen… she could have been… I know it… Rebecca…"
His hand went slack.
"Shit," Helmeppo growled, holding the bleeding wound on his side. "No, I refuse. I refuse! You will not beat me again! I have been trained by the Fleet Admiral himself!"
"Oh?" Coby questioned, parrying another candy throwing knife with barely a thought. Helmeppo's rage made his plans obvious to the roset's Observation. At this point, he didn't even need his Fruit. "And how much time has the Mad Dog had to train you since he took over? I hear the Fleet Admiral job is mostly paperwork. Nothing like training every day with the retired right hand of the Pirate King."
"Don't mock me! I'll kill you, Tri-Horn! Candy Cataclysm: Syrup—!"
Coby grabbed Helmeppo by the face, his Haki-coated hand feeling the shock in the blond's expression. One foot came back, sweeping the marine's as the pirate drove him downward. The Logia's head hit the ground with a hard crack.
"That might not leave a mark," Coby muttered with a shake of his head, "but he's gonna have one hell of a headache." A part of him stopped, considering stabbing the man while he was down. Helmeppo was a disgrace to the Marines, probably a murderer at this point and with too much leeway because of Sakazuki's influence, but Coby just couldn't. Killing the blond when he was in such a defenseless state would only serve to make him a murderer, too. No better than Helmeppo.
"Lizard!" Leo called, scurrying toward him. There was a host of marines nearly on his tail. "I can't hold them off any longer!"
"Uhh," he heard Kin'emon groan, a glance showing him the taller samurai standing supported by the one he assumed must be Kanjuro, the former with an arm around the latter's shoulders. Gunshots split the air, the front row of the coming marines falling to the hail of bullets.
"The calvary—" 'Killer Crossdresser' Izou began from a nearby rooftop only for his voice to stutter. "We're too late."
Coby, too, was at a loss for words as he took in the aftermath of the other fight. He walked over, kneeling by the sobbing princess. Rebecca's tears fell freely, splashing one by one on her father's body.
"Rebecca?" he asked. She didn't look his way, no change in her posture showing she'd even heard him. The other fighters — Kin'emon, Kanjuro, and Leo the dwarf — joined them, silent. Slowly, carefully, the pirate laid a hand on her shoulder. She flinched. "Rebecca?"
"Why…?" she muttered, the pair now ignoring the c-c-crack of gunfire and the yelling of the marines. "Father, Grandfather… They both died protecting me."
"They saw the leader you could become," Coby told her. Frankly, he didn't have any actual reason to give, but he hoped he at least sounded wise with his logical guess. They didn't have anymore time for a panic attack or something similar. "They loved you and saw the future in you. They knew who you would be and chose to entrust the country to you."
"But I can't," she whispered with a hiss. "I… they did so many things to me. They said such terrible things in the Colosseum. How can I… I-I can't—"
"You can and you will," Coby promised. "Let's just get through this day, first."
She sniffled, nodding, but everything seemed too much for her. She started to shrink, her body morphing into that of a small salamander. Her coloration was mostly pink, but her torso had patches of gold and blue where her clothing had been affected by her new Devil Fruit powers, thankfully. Coby didn't want to have to explain to anyone why he may have been carrying around a naked princess in a warzone.
He scooped her up, cradling her with one arm. She was less than a foot long in her full axolotl form but he was glad to see her severed arm was no longer bleeding.
"Kin'emon, go break the block of candy to get the other dwarves out. We need to get out of here."
"But King Riku and Lord Kyros—"
"There's nothing we can do for them now. We need to deal with Doflamingo and the marines first."
"Very well," the samurai swallowed with a wince. "Our new priority is protecting Princess Rebecca."
"Thunder Soldier and the rest of us were on our way to save our own princess," Leo piped up as Kin'emon and Kanjuro went to the candy block. Izou's division kept the marines locked outside the plaza with their gunfire as the other Wano native joined his old friends.
"Princess Mansherry?" Coby clarified. Leo turned to him, shocked. "She's with Princess Viola, Rebecca's aunt. Viola rescued her during my captain's first assault on the castle. She should be meeting with most of the rest of my crew at the Colosseum as we speak."
"Then us remaining dwarves will go there," Leo decided with a frown. To think they'd lost half their force to one man and the element of surprise. Still, if Mansherry was safe, that was all that mattered. Their goal was complete.
"Be careful."
The streets to the Castle Plateau were empty, something that did not sit well with the pirates running through them. Luffy didn't think much of it, but both Law and Jinbei found it suspicious and Zoro had a bad feeling. That, however, might have been all the jerking Luffy's arms were doing to him. It wasn't his fault the city kept changing its layout!
Though suspicious, the lack of enemy combatants made the trip quick, the quartet hurrying up the now-pot-marked stairs toward the half-destroyed remains of the castle.
"He's not inside," Luffy declared as they approached.
"I thought he'd be on the roof," Law muttered. "That or the throne room."
"No, he's around the back," Zoro noted. "He's choosing the battlefield."
"But for what reason?" Jinbei questioned. They would solve nothing if they stood around and talked, only giving Doflamingo a chance to ambush them. Law pointed at Zoro and Jinbei before pointing to the right side of the building. He then grabbed Luffy and ran left.
They'd hoped to catch the man in a pincer, finish him before he could do any more damage to Dressrosa, but both pairs found a Doflamingo staring at them as they rounded the corner.
"So, Law found some more little friends," the Doflamingos said in tandem, standing back-to-back in the field where before Coby and Grace had fought Zekiel Jone. "Roronoa Zoro, this is our first time meeting. Jinbei, I'd wondered where you'd been. And Straw Hat, of course. And Law, I see you got a new leg."
"Oh, I've been here," Jinbei replied, falling into a battle-ready stance. "You have some crewmates with terrifying abilities, Doflamingo."
"Yes, so I've been told."
"Room!" Law roared, charging forward as transparent blue overtook the surroundings. Kikoku flashed forward, the Surgeon of Death intent on severing both Doflamingo and his clone, lethally or otherwise. The other three didn't let the opportunity pass, each joining the attack at a different angle.
"Second Gear: Jet Stamp!"
"One Sword Style: Death Lion Song!"
"10,000-Brick Fist!"
Both the Warlord and his clone grinned their twin maniacal grins, raising their arms. Kikoku and Wado Ichimonji stopped short, the same true for Luffy's foot and Jinbei's fist. A ripple of force washed over the identical pair, but it did little more than ruffle the feathers on his pink coat.
"I'm not surprised, Law," both Doflamingo and his simulacrum said. "Disappointed, yes, but not surprised."
"Give up," the captain of the Heart Pirates demanded. "Your entire crew is either dead or unconscious. You're the only one left. You lost."
"Yes, so it seems," the pair frowned. The other pirates guessed he was scanning the island with his Observation. His scowl deepened. "Gladius, Trebol, Machvise, Lao G, Pika, and Diamante dead, the rest unconscious or routed. I must say, they didn't perform to usual standards today."
"I expected a stronger reaction," Zoro admitted, his arms straining against whatever held his sword.
"Oh, I'm furious. I expected so much more from them after all our years together, but they grew lax and weak in our time here. It's no matter, though. Once I kill you, I'll have no shortage of Devil Fruits and volunteers to help me rebuild my family."
"Why would anyone join you?" Luffy questioned. "Can't you feel their hate? The country wants you gone for what you did."
"Perhaps, and that may scare a mortal like you, Straw Hat. I, however, exist in a higher status. I do what I want, when I want, and to whomever I want to. Do you think I care for the feelings of the petulant insects or this petty country? Dressrosa ends today. Within the next hour, in fact."
"What?" Luffy muttered.
"Oh yes. When I felt you all coming, I started shrinking the Birdcage. You have one hour before this country, the island itself, and all the lives on it are cut to ribbons by my string. Every building and fountain and statue, every man, woman, child, and animal, Devil Fruit user, enemy, and ally… Every one of them will be cut to nothing. Ah, it seems poor Dellinger is the first victim. Well, when I'm done here, I can simply start over and rebuild. A new family in a new place. I'll certainly have plenty of powerful Devil Fruits at my disposal."
"I can't say I'm surprised," Jinbei muttered. "You Dragons are all the same. It's just cold comfort knowing that humans see the same cruelty."
"If we aren't monsters, we die," the blond replied. "Ah, but I think this thing between me and Law is mostly a family matter and you three aren't family."
One of the Doflamingos moved, the strings connected to Luffy, Zoro, and Jinbei flinging them bodily off the cliff. Luffy yelled, reaching for the cliffside with his free hand, but the same image kicked his hand away, jumping off to follow the Straw Hats down into the city below.
"And then there were two," Doflamingo sneered. Law twisted his hand, replacing himself with a pebble on the Warlord's other side. Strings danced around Doflamingo's form, the Haki coating them deflecting each of Law's slashes as he batted the blade away. "Cora would be disappointed to see you so weak, Law."
"You have no right—!" Law bit out.
"Corazon was weak. He let his emotions control him. He let himself get attached to a tool and it got him killed. You got him killed."
"You killed him! Your own brother!"
"He was a traitor and a fool, just like our father. And just like you."
Doflamingo turned, his arm slashing forward. Law dodged the first string but failed to notice the second one, the one hidden in the shadow of the first. His eyes widened as his hand was severed at the wrist.
Law screamed, clutching his severed hand with his left, his sword hitting the ground beside him. His narrowed eyes rose as Doflamingo towered over him.
"It will take a while for your friends to deal with my String Clone and get back up here," he smirked, pulling a highly-decorated pistol from his coat. "Let's make them a surprise for when they return, why don't we?"
End of Chapter 75
So Diamante bites the big one, but at what cost? What will become of Law with Luffy and the others so occupied? Tell me what you think!
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-SwordOfTheGods