As if remembering something, Rosinante once again took out a Den Den Mushi and began contacting someone right in front of King Riku and the others.
“Cookies, this is Crackers. Please respond if you copy, please respond if you copy.”
Cookies was Sengoku’s codename, one he only used when communicating with Rosinante.
And on Sengoku’s side, Rosinante was practically an adopted son, so not long after the call went out, a response quickly came back.
“Copy, Crackers.”
“Cookies, the situation is urgent! Doflamingo has already begun making his move! There are Doflamingo’s men in the G-5 Branch. The people you arranged may have been intercepted.
Dressrosa needs help. We need people from Headquarters—”
Rosinante had great faith in the Marines. He had always believed that as long as his information got through, the Marines definitely would not stand by and ignore what was happening here.
It had to be because Vergo had interfered on G-5’s end, preventing reinforcements from being dispatched.
“Crackers.”
While Rosinante was asking for reinforcements, Sengoku interrupted him.
“Doflamingo is already a Shichibukai. For the Marines to take action against a Shichibukai, we need orders from the World Government. The moment I received your intelligence, I reported it to the World Government.
But the World Government still hasn’t given a clear response, so… there are no reinforcements.”
The Heavenly Tribute had merely been an excuse Doflamingo used to negotiate with the World Government. After all, without causing a major disturbance, even getting an audience with the Five Elders was difficult.
Doflamingo’s true bargaining chip in his negotiations with the Five Elders was the “secret” he had happened to learn.
During the course of those negotiations, Dressrosa had already been used as a bargaining chip. The Five Elders would turn a blind eye to whatever Doflamingo did here. Rosinante simply did not know that.
“No reinforcements?! But Cookies, what about Dressrosa?!”
“Take care of yourself, Crackers. Don’t expose yourself.”
“…”
Rosinante hung up without telling him that his identity had already been exposed. Perhaps if he had said so, Sengoku would have come here out of personal concern to protect Rosinante himself.
But if he could only protect Rosinante and not this country, then that kind of rescue… Rosinante chose to give up on it.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty Riku. Looks like… there’s nothing I can do…”
Compared to Rosinante’s distress, King Riku and the others actually felt somewhat relieved, though at the same time, they also felt a sense of resentment.
“So, the World Government has abandoned us? That Doflamingo… does he have some sort of leverage over them?”
“I don’t know, but once this is over… it seems I ought to pay someone a personal visit to express my thanks.”
King Riku sighed, walked over to the breach, and looked toward Doflamingo and Alber, who were fighting in the sky in the distance. At the same time, some sort of change also seemed to be taking place at the distant harbor.
Just as Rosinante had said, after the other members of the Donquixote Family noticed the changes occurring around the Royal Palace, they understood what was happening.
They also realized that Doflamingo was probably about to activate the backup plan of forceful assault, and they immediately split up to carry it out.
“Looks like something changed on Doffy’s side. Dressrosa actually has someone that troublesome to deal with?”
A very peculiar voice rang out among the group. Such a shrill voice came from a burly man.
He wore a strange assortment of broken armor and a helmet engraved with a cross-shaped star. His appearance was like some dark, armored brute, but his voice was practically eunuch-like, enough to make people want to laugh.
“Trust Doffy. He’ll definitely be able to handle it. We just need to act according to the original plan. First, use fear to make Dressrosa give up resisting.”
Trebol waved his cane, and as his body swayed, some mucus dripped off him.
“Alright, then I’ll begin.”
Pica’s body merged into the ground. At that moment, all the underground rock across Dressrosa seemed to begin writhing, converging toward Pica’s body.
“W-What’s going on?! My house!”
“Forget the house! Run!”
The buildings near Pica were likewise affected by his Devil Fruit ability. A stone giant comparable in size to King’s Plateau rose over the land of Dressrosa.
Every step it took forward produced a sound like mountains roaring, making the ground tremble with its movement.
“From this moment on! The rule of Riku Doldo is over! All who resist will die!”
As his body grew gigantic, Pica’s voice became much louder as well. Accompanied by his shout, nearly all the nearby residents heard his declaration.
But although his body had grown larger, his voice had not changed. That distinctive voice instead sharply reduced Pica’s intimidating presence, and the severe mismatch even made it somewhat comical.
“Don’t laugh!!”
A few faint chuckles reached his ears, sounding unbearably grating to Pica. What he hated most was other people mocking his voice.
He did not even care who had laughed. He simply raised his foot and stomped toward the general direction of the sound, as though he intended to destroy everything there.
“Hey, hey, hey! You b*stard, stop right there! The insurance promised to cover the damages! If a big lump like you causes widespread destruction, how much money am I supposed to pay out afterward?!”
Before Pica’s raised foot could come down, a tiny figure appeared in front of him, looking exceptionally furious.
“Are you… mocking my voice too?!”
Boom!
Pica’s answer was Nanamo’s fist. It looked like nothing more than an ordinary straight punch, yet it directly shattered more than half of Pica’s body.
Countless cracks spread across Pica’s body. Apparently unwilling to cause destruction on too large a scale, Nanamo had pulverized the shattered rocks into extremely fine fragments.
“What are you rambling about? Who mocked your voice? I just simply hate oversized guys like you who wreck everything without a care.”
Nanamo truly would not mock someone because of their voice. Even if Pica’s voice did not match the stereotypical impression given by his physique, that was no big deal. But forcing her to bear extra financial losses was another matter entirely.
Most of Pica’s upper body had been blasted apart. Judging by ordinary anatomy, only the skin along the outside of his left ribs still connected his upper half to his lower body. Yet even in this state, Pica’s body did not collapse completely.
Nanamo’s punch had destroyed almost all of the stone giant’s head, leaving only part of its left cheek. But the seemingly dull gray eye suddenly regained its vitality.
Pica’s remaining left arm reached out to grab Nanamo, while his shattered body began reconstructing itself.
This was the unique nature of Pica’s Stone-Stone Fruit. The body made of rocks looked incomparably huge, but Pica’s actual body had not changed at all.
Although he could control the entire stone giant, his real body was merely hidden somewhere inside it, and he could even move freely within it. As long as his true body was not injured, it did not matter how badly the stone giant itself was damaged.
So long as there were rocks nearby for him to use, Pica could reconstruct his body over and over again.
“Interesting. Looks like I underestimated you.”
Using Observation Haki to sense Pica again, Nanamo quickly formed a rough understanding of how his ability worked.
Pica had been lucky. The threat of an enormous financial loss had made Nanamo somewhat impatient, and she had attacked without carefully observing first. As a result, that previous strike had failed to hit Pica’s real body.
In that case…
“Spear of Elbaf • Roar of the Sea!”
The reason Pica had managed to evade her earlier attack ultimately came down to one thing: the attack’s range had not been large enough.
If so, then she would simply smash the whole thing apart.
The Giants’ techniques were always so useful at times like this. A move like the Spear of Elbaf, specifically effective against enormous targets, was practically tailor-made for an opponent like Pica.
A chain of ripples spread through the air. The moisture in the atmosphere began fluctuating with the movement of Nanamo’s fist. Looking closely, even the waves near the harbor were being pushed backward.
As Nanamo thrust her fist straight forward, the enormous stone hand Pica had extended upward suddenly froze in place.
Crack… crack…
At first, a few tiny fragments drifted downward. Then several fissures began spreading across Pica’s body. In the next instant, the enormous stone giant disintegrated directly into a cloud of dust filling the sky.
Pica’s true body, hidden inside, was fully exposed as well. His eyes had rolled back, and with no strength left to resist, he fell from the sky.
The air pressure generated by Nanamo’s punch drove Pica straight into the ground. Aside from the stone dust filling the air, all that remained was the enormous crater blasted into the earth by the force of the punch.
“H-How is that possible?! Lord Pica… couldn’t even last two moves against her?! He has a bounty of ninety-nine million Berry…”
Buffalo covered his mouth in fear. He had once failed to control himself and laughed aloud because of Pica’s voice, only to be brutally beaten afterward. He knew just how terrifying Pica could be.
Yet against Nanamo, Pica had been as fragile as a thin, crisp cracker.
“Ninety-nine million? Is that supposed to be a high bounty?”
“That’s only because Young Master became a Shichibukai! Otherwise, Lord Pica’s bounty definitely would’ve gone past one hundred million!”
“Is that so? Doesn’t make much difference. My bounty back then… was it seven hundred million or eight hundred million…?”
Nanamo’s bounty back then had been heavily influenced by Nereus, making it significantly inflated, but no matter how one looked at it, it was still an absurd figure.
“So then… who’s next?”
Ignoring Buffalo, Nanamo continued walking toward the members of the Donquixote Family. After seeing her defeat Pica with such ease, the others naturally understood that Nanamo was not someone to be taken lightly, and they all watched her warily.
Trebol was the first to step forward.
He looked slovenly, his beard and hair seemingly having gone untended for a long time, hanging wetly across his face.
At this moment, Trebol raised both hands slightly, assuming a posture that was quite in line with French etiquette, as though he intended to surrender.
“Ne, ne, wait! There’s no conflict between us, right? Whatever the issue is, we can talk it over, can’t we?”
“There’s nothing to discuss. Dressrosa is under my protection.”
“I see. Then can we surrender? You’re far too strong. We’re no match for you…”
Before he had even finished speaking, Trebol suddenly made a motion as though blowing his nose, and a stream of unidentified blue liquid surged toward Nanamo, causing her expression to turn ashen.
It was not because the attack was difficult to deal with. It was simply so disgusting that Nanamo could barely stand it.
Letting an attack like that touch her would be harder to accept than getting beaten up.
“Disgusting! Disgusting! Don’t you think you’re disgusting?!”
“Behehehe, who cares about that sort of thing? Ne, ne, what are all of you waiting for?! She’s alone! Attack together!”
Seeing that his mucus had forced Nanamo back, Trebol instead looked quite pleased with himself, even calling for the other family members to attack at the same time.
“Sticky Launcher!”
Trebol did not stop. Instead, he continuously fired mucus from his nostrils, making goosebumps rise all over Nanamo’s body. She hated disgusting opponents like this the most.
As a user of the Sticky-Sticky Fruit, Trebol’s entire body was covered in mucus. Although there were many ways he could launch it, Trebol always seemed to have a particular fondness for snot.
“Catapult Pop!”
“Arms-morphosis: Revolver Girl!”
Gladius, the user of the Pop-Pop Fruit, also launched numerous explosive rocks at Nanamo, while Baby-5 transformed her upper body into a massive pistol and fired bullets at her.
Nanamo did not care about those exploding rocks or bullets. Even if they struck her directly, they would not have much effect. But Trebol’s mucus…
“Arabesque Brick Fist!”
She punched through the air, and the shockwave blasted all of those disgusting things away.
At the same time, above Nanamo’s head, a fat man wearing a red skintight bodysuit, with long yellow hair and a large beard, assumed a diving posture.
“Hellish 10,000-Ton Vise!”
He was also a member of the Donquixote Family—Machvise, a Super Weight Human who had eaten the Paramecia-type Ton-Ton Fruit and could freely adjust his own weight.
After making himself light as a feather, he could float through the air, then restore his weight at a suitable position and smash down again.
“Do you b*stards think my beloved Princess Nanamo is fighting all alone?! Iron Cloud: Express Delivery!”
In the sky, Hermes suddenly opened his mouth and spewed out a white wave. It was a slide rail made of Iron Clouds.
If it had been Nanamo or Chloe, Hermes would have directly made Sea Clouds, but for Yamato, Iron Clouds were the better foothold.
Yamato immediately slid down along the Iron Cloud, gripping her kanabo tightly and taking aim at the descending Machvise.
“Thunder… Bagua!”
The roar of Haki manifested around the kanabo in a form resembling lightning. Yamato swung as though hitting a baseball and struck Machvise’s body with perfect accuracy.
Although the Ton-Ton Fruit could alter Machvise’s weight, his physical durability did not change along with it.
Faced with Yamato’s full-power strike, Machvise was sent flying backward with perfect precision, then fell directly into the enormous crater Nanamo had just blasted into the ground, reducing the Donquixote Family’s numbers once again.
“Why did you guys come over too?”
“Viola saw everything. Basically everyone is here. The one who split off is being handled by Chloe, so we came straight over.”
“Perfect. I’ll deal with the others. That disgusting guy is yours. I don’t want to fight him. Be careful, he should be the strongest one here.”
“Oh! Leave him to me!”
Hearing that he was the strongest, Yamato instead looked full of fighting spirit. After all, only a powerful opponent could prove that her studies had paid off.
But when she saw what Trebol looked like, she suddenly began to regret it…
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