Starting as a Roger Pirates Apprentice-Chapter 457: Float-Float Fruit, the Two Brothers Arrive
Caesar was finally taken away by the furious Straw Hat crew, and the Seagull King simply watched.
As the Seagull King flew away, Nami, Usopp and the others noticed it and memories surged up at once.
"It’s that big bird!!!"
"In Loguetown, the one we ran into before!!!"
Unfortunately, the Seagull King ignored them and instead flew off into the distance.
...
So at this very moment, just like Crocodile, the Seagull King actually didn’t think much of Doflamingo either. Spending all day doing messy, pointless things, yet not caring about strength or ambition, he could be said to be wasting the binding power of the double entries "Celestial Dragon bloodline + Conqueror’s Haki."
Even though, with Orin’s help, he had successfully learned the advanced armament technique of Ryuo, his life-and-death battle experience was far too little. Even Kuina, who had just eaten the Powder Dragon Fruit, could at least exchange a few blows with Doflamingo at this stage without immediately losing.
But Doflamingo himself seemed not to care, pouring far more energy into painstakingly running businesses and being a king.
"Fufufufufu... speaking of which, Orin-san really is generous~"
He looked toward Kuina at the back, swinging her long blade at the raging wind, then toward the Seagull King soaring with beating wings in the storm.
"To so casually bring out the most precious Mythical Beast type among Zoans~"
Sometimes Doflamingo would secretly waver: maybe he shouldn’t have listened to Trebol’s slander back then and casually eaten the String-String Fruit. Now that he was the greatest broker in the underworld with businesses all across the seas, he had naturally handled many powerful Devil Fruits.
Orin, of course, knew this. If Doflamingo had eaten that Pink Dragon Fruit, even if he didn’t step right into the Emperor tier, at least first-rate Admiral-level subordinates would be no problem, and with his unique talent for developing fruit abilities, being the strongest under the Emperors wasn’t impossible to fight for.
But the reason Orin didn’t help him was very clear: the man’s spirit was simply too disappointing. There was truly no room left to cultivate.
So just obediently be a high-ranking soldier...
Orin shook his head, then took a sip of orange juice and looked at Doflamingo.
"By the way, Vergo didn’t die. I sent him to do something for me."
Hearing this, Doflamingo was a bit surprised, but still smiled and spoke.
"Is that so~ Vergo isn’t dead, that’s great."
He understood the implication, so he didn’t ask further. From now on Vergo would be working for Orin, meaning their monarch-subject relationship was dissolved.
Orin didn’t bother to hide anything; saying it wasn’t out of guilt, it just happened to come to mind. He’d sent Vergo to be a bodyguard for the old man, and to further his Haki training.
"There’s one more thing. Speaking of which, those Devil Fruits I asked you to focus on recently, how are they?"
Hearing this, Doflamingo’s smile faded a little, then his interest returned. He came to Orin’s side, licking the corner of his lips, a bit of pride in his grin.
"Among the Devil Fruits you mentioned earlier for me to track, many have sunk somewhere deep in the sea, hard for ordinary people to find, like the Thing-Thing Fruit and so on (fruit from the movie). However..."
After a short pause, Doflamingo brought Orin a surprise.
"We’ve already found the Paramecia-type Float-Float Fruit!!!"
"Oh?!"
Orin, who had been lying back with his eyes closed, instantly opened them and looked at Doflamingo. As expected of a Devil Fruit wholesaler, he could always surprise him.
"Interesting~"
Orin interlaced his fingers, propping his chin up with both hands, slowly lifting his face.
"I’ve also heard that Dressrosa has a tradition of hosting arenas, right?"
"You mean..."
Doflamingo froze for a second, then seemed to realize something, the corners of his mouth curling up.
"Of course it means fighting—an arena~"
Orin looked as if it were obvious, his eyes growing more and more excited, as if they were sparkling.
"And arena combat and such will definitely be very interesting, right?"
Doflamingo was also someone who loved chaos; hearing this, he, too, laughed fufufufu. Their laughter even made Kuina look over, cold sweat on her face.
"But to hold an exciting enough gladiatorial event, you definitely need prizes that are attractive enough, right?"
Doflamingo hinted that the Float-Float Fruit was a great gimmick. It could be faked as the prize, then taken in the end by his own people, or intercepted later...
The scheming Doflamingo had planned well, but Orin clearly found that too boring. The Float-Float Fruit was good, but only just that.
"This won’t cause a sensation. If you ask me, you should bring out something even more explosive."
"Even... more explosive?"
"Yeah~"
Orin nodded, as if far from satisfied, and continued.
"If you want to attract a grand melee of strong people, one Devil Fruit is too small a stake. Something even crazier... how about a favor from me? Or a hundred billion Belly, or the throne of a small country..."
If not for the pointer to the One Piece treasure and his promise to Captain Roger not to really give it to others, he would have taken it out as a prize too.
"This..." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Hearing each prize grow more outrageous—Orin’s personal favor even being included—Doflamingo’s previously excited smile vanished instantly, replaced by cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"Hey, hey... if we really do that, Dressrosa will absolutely be destroyed, right?"
He didn’t dare imagine it. If the strong people from the Summit War learned that the prize was a favor from Black Gun, would they beat each other’s brains out? But he knew Dressrosa would certainly be destroyed—reference: Marineford of the Summit War.
"Oh... boring."
Orin suddenly felt uninterested, and he also indeed thought it was too early now to do that sort of thing; many key actors weren’t ready yet.
"But I believe that even with only the Float-Float Fruit, the tournament will definitely be very interesting. You are sincerely invited to come watch~"
Doflamingo laughed fufufufu, already making plans for how to take out Law and the others in Dressrosa.
...
On the other side, in another sea of the New World, a small boat slowly approached Dressrosa. Two young men stood facing the sea breeze, gazing at the island ahead. No flag was hung on the boat.
"Luffy should be arriving soon too, right, Sabo?"
"Yeah, that’s right~"
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