Neptune had not been calm at all after receiving the report. Part of that stolen treasure was this year's protection tribute meant for the Hive Pirates. If that was gone, things would become very troublesome.
To confirm how much had been stolen, Neptune went to the treasury vault in person. When he saw the vault almost emptied out, even the jade coffer containing the national treasure gone, his vision went black and he nearly passed out on the spot.
Fortunately, he learned from his ministers that someone had witnessed the thief's trail and soldiers had already been dispatched in pursuit. With that, Neptune could only grit his teeth and go face the envoy of the Hive Pirates.
Time shifted back to the present.
Ryugu Kingdom, Coral Hill,
Mermaid Cove.
Doflamingo's group had just arrived here and were already feeling a bit restrained by the enthusiasm of the mermaid girls. A whole group of mermaids in bikinis, their great figures fully on display.
Aside from the mermaid tails being a little out of place, they were almost outrageously perfect.
It really confirmed that saying: there isn't a single mermaid who isn't beautiful. At least among the mermaids Doflamingo had seen so far, every one of them easily scored above eighty out of a hundred in looks.
And each mermaid had her own unique charm: sillago-mermaid, kissing-gourami mermaid, whitefish mermaid, triggerfish mermaid, flatfish mermaid, flounder mermaid… every type had its own indescribable allure. No wonder Sanji in the original story nosebled himself into anemia.
Seeing them up close, Doflamingo thought that if he weren't still so young right now, he would really be tempted to gather up one of every mermaid "race" and build a huge private cove to keep them all to himself.
Of course, he couldn't do that yet, which didn't mean he would never do it. Doflamingo was already planning to come back to Fish-Man Island again in the future. When that time came, he definitely wanted to experience the unique taste of mermaids for himself.
The mermaids at Mermaid Cove were soaking in the water, and they didn't seem afraid of Doflamingo's group at all. After a few simple words of small talk, they cheerfully invited Doflamingo and the others over to the Mermaid Café to sample Fish-Man Island cuisine.
Doflamingo did not even hesitate and accepted directly. An invitation from beauties had to be taken seriously, and besides, he also wanted to try the food of Fish-Man Island.
From what he remembered, the desserts on Fish-Man Island were absolutely delicious. If they weren't, would Linlin, with her picky, demanding palate, have agreed to accept desserts as protection tribute and plant her flag here?
However, before Doflamingo's group could reach the Mermaid Café, they unexpectedly crossed paths with the Captain John Pirates at Gyoncorde Plaza.
As for why they happened to bump into each other, it all started with John failing to keep his promise of sharing the treasure with his crew. His subordinates were simmering with resentment and wanted to kill him. Unfortunately for them, John's intimidation factor was not low. After he personally killed a few crewmen, the rest became obedient again.
Even so, the internal strife still delayed them long enough for the Neptune Army soldiers to catch up in pursuit.
John existed for treasure. Once the treasure was in hand, he had no intention of fighting the Neptune Army. He immediately led his crew in a full-on retreat.
By sheer bad luck, as they barreled straight through Gyoncorde Plaza, they crashed head-on into the path of the Donquixote Pirates.
"Brat, get out of the way!"
John was no decent man. Seeing Doflamingo's group completely blocking the route ahead, his pride as a great pirate made him unwilling to detour. He barked impatiently at Doflamingo, the one clearly at the head of the group.
"And why should I make way?" Doflamingo replied mildly, not salty, not sweet, and clearly not putting John in his eyes at all.
"Oh? You've got some attitude, brat!"
John was a bit puzzled. Did these people really not recognize who he was?
Whether they recognized him or not, John didn't plan to waste time. He took a swig from the bottle at his hip, then drew the rapier hanging at his left waist and slashed diagonally toward Doflamingo, treating him as some easy nobody.
What he didn't expect was that his rapier actually passed straight through Doflamingo's body, the slash hitting nothing at all.
That was when John realized Doflamingo was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user. The moment the tip of his blade touched the ground, he instantly coated his sword with Armament Haki and spun around, slashing back toward Doflamingo.
Only, there was no sign of Doflamingo at the spot anymore. Leaving behind only a casual, "Barrett, he's yours," Doflamingo's figure appeared high above, seated upon a throne of lightning.
"Heh heh, since BOSS said so, it's been a long time since I had a good fight. You'd better be durable, or I'll end up taking your life, you purple-haired pirate."
From that single exchange just now, Barrett could already tell a bit. John was a powerful swordsman, and that made Barrett's fighting instincts flare. The thrill of battle immediately took over.
"Cocky little punk. Another one full of himself! Tyrannical Slash!"
John swung his blade, sending out a flying slash of sword aura. Having learned a lesson from dealing with Doflamingo, this time he used Armament Haki from the start.
But Barrett was not that easy to handle. He slipped past the slash, then immediately unleashed the power of the Combine-Combine Fruit at full blast. His arm, turned into a huge armored fist by the combined form, came crashing down on John in a brutal flurry of blows.
Vergo, Pica, and the Divine Guard Unit weren't idle either. Pica squared off against War Hound, the Dog-Dog Fruit, Hound form user. Vergo and the members of the Divine Guard Unit, on the other hand, tore through the rest of the Captain John Pirates with overwhelming force.
The battle ended quickly. By the time Vergo was done on his side, Pica was just about finished with War Hound, the number two man of the Captain John Pirates.
Barrett's progress was slightly slower, since John was still one of the few great pirates out there. His strength as a swordsman was not weak. But in front of the Combine-Combine Fruit, a swordsman's attacks seemed somewhat lacking.
As a result, Barrett was basically beating John down the whole time.
Seated upon the throne of lightning, watching the fight from above, Doflamingo couldn't help analyzing Barrett's current level of strength.
Judging from Barrett's fight with John, Barrett was definitely a solid head above John in overall power. At the same time, however, his issues were also obvious: in battle, he relied far too heavily on the Combine-Combine Fruit.
Because of Doflamingo's influence, Barrett had indeed started consciously training his physical strength, but he still leaned more on his natural physical talents. His dedicated training in hand-to-hand combat simply wasn't enough yet.
Doflamingo felt that during their future voyages, he would have to personally guide Barrett in developing his body further. After all, Barrett was only two years older than him; both of them were still in a period of rapid growth.
Doflamingo's expectations for Barrett were not small. With Barrett's talent, he absolutely had what it took to become Doflamingo's future right-hand man. And his right hand could not stop at just "admiral level." In the end, if you wanted to push your strength into the higher realms, it still came down to Haki and physical conditioning.
Of course, if there was a right hand, there also needed to be a left hand. Doflamingo intended to reserve that third-seat position for Pica. No matter how you looked at it, Pica was fully qualified.
From the recent fight with that dog-headed guy, you could see it clearly. Pica could take him on easily and finish the fight in a very short time. His potential and talent were both impressive. It wouldn't be surprising if, in the future, his strength managed to catch up with Barrett's.
As for Vergo, Doflamingo had actually noticed long ago that Vergo was better suited for intelligence work. His combat strength would end up serving as a complement to that role instead.
Therefore, even if Vergo's training volume wasn't as high during their voyage drills, Doflamingo didn't force him. He allowed Vergo to spend his spare time learning and practicing the intelligence work he liked.
(End of Chapter)
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