Cafeteria No. 1.
It was mealtime. Hundreds of burly Marines holding their meal trays stared in shock at a corner table as if they had seen a ghost.
Crunch crunch crunch…
Like a whirlwind sweeping away scattered clouds, three little girls were devouring the mountainous pile of grilled meat before them.
Especially the exquisitely beautiful black-haired girl sitting in the middle.
Her fair, slender hands each gripped a bone-in steak thicker than her own thigh. She opened her small mouth and tore into the meat with wild abandon, not even bothering to wipe the sauce smeared all over her cheeks.
The Marines nearby gulped.
"Th-that's the little girl from Amazon Lily who was kicked around like a ball by Admiral Kane on the training ground this afternoon?"
"Terrifying! After taking such a beating, she still has such a monstrous appetite!"
"A monster! No wonder the boss personally trained her. Definitely a little monster!"
Hancock paid no attention to the surrounding whispers.
As she chewed the juicy grilled meat, her mind involuntarily replayed the gentle whirlwind that had caught her when she fell from the wooden stake that afternoon… and the tall man's cold, perfect profile silhouetted against the setting sun.
That man… has actually been secretly watching over me all along, hasn't he?
Hancock chewed a piece of meat, her eyes growing distant.
If he didn't care about me, how could he have reacted so quickly, using his Devil Fruit power to catch me the moment I fell?
He… he didn't even use heavy Haki on me, just flicked my forehead!
Hmph! Putting on such a fierce, unapproachable act must be to hide his… his…
Thinking of a certain possibility, Hancock's face flushed bright red in an instant, and even a faint wisp of white steam seemed to rise from the top of her head.
Thump!
Hancock suddenly slammed the clean-picked bone onto the table, startling her two younger sisters.
Elder Nyon said, the stronger the man, the harder he is to conquer! I am the future Star of Amazon Lily! When we check the accounts tomorrow, I'll definitely make him see me in a new light!
The ten-year-old future Empress clenched her fist in her heart, completing a perfectly circular self-delusion.
What she didn't know was:
If Kane knew her current inner monologue, he would only expressionlessly pull out a medical fee price list, slap it on her face, and coldly tell her: Sorry, it's just because your medical treatment is too expensive, not cost-effective.
…
The next morning.
G-5 Base, Supreme Commander's Office.
"Fufufufufu… Admiral Kane, here is the quarterly transaction report for the first batch of arms distribution in the North Blue."
Doflamingo strode in with an extremely arrogant swagger, wearing his signature pink feather coat. He casually pulled out a chair and sat opposite Kane.
He took out a thick ledger from his coat, along with several bearer checks, and slid them forward.
"This is the thirty percent 'Annual Tribute' due to G-5 for this quarter. Please review it."
Although half a month ago, he had been thoroughly beaten by Mihawk and Kane here.
But after returning, leveraging the prestige of the "Seven Warlords of the Sea," the Donquixote Family's arms business in the North Blue exploded, earning them a fortune!
This restored his confidence as the king of the Underworld.
Moreover, he had his professional accountants tamper with the books!
Using extremely discreet categories like maritime losses and greasing fees, they artificially lowered the actual profits by nearly twenty percent!
He firmly believed that this Navy brute in front of him, who only knew how to throw punches and extort money, would never understand the complex, convoluted accounts of the Underworld.
"Hand over the books?"
Behind the wide mahogany desk, Kane didn't take the account book Doflamingo offered. Instead, he picked up the cup of black tea on the table and took a sip.
"No need for me to look. Hancock, read yesterday afternoon's verification results to our 'legal pirate.'"
"Yes! Admiral!"
A crisp, youthful voice responded from the side.
Doflamingo was slightly taken aback and turned his head.
Only then did he notice a little girl, around ten years old, standing behind a side table to the right of the desk. She wore a modified Navy sailor uniform, with black hair and large sapphire-blue eyes that held a shrewdness and arrogance that made Doflamingo uncomfortable.
Hancock cleared her throat, raised her chin slightly, and read aloud in a clear voice:
"According to the 'North Blue Arms Distribution Details' submitted by the Donquixote Family, item seven, 'Moisture Damage Due to Ocean Current Fluctuations During Transport,' accounts for as much as 15%!"
"However, based on the meteorological records of the North Blue over the past three months and the price index of waterproof tarps on the black market, normal moisture damage should never exceed 3%!"
"Item fourteen, 'Greasing Fees for Maintaining Underworld Channels,' contains an extremely obvious discrepancy in the double-entry accounting!"
"A sum as high as 320 million Berry was transferred and eventually deposited into an account under the name 'Trebol'!"
"In summary!"
Hancock slammed the report in her hand heavily onto the table.
She pointed a slender finger directly at the stunned Doflamingo, her tone sharp:
"This flamboyant man draped in pink feathers has falsified the profit records! He has concealed at least 1.8 billion Berry in actual earnings from G-5!"
The arrogant smile on Doflamingo's face instantly froze into an utterly ridiculous expression.
Veins on his forehead bulged and throbbed one by one along his temples.
Through his sunglasses, he stared intently at the little girl before him, his shock like a tsunami of the highest magnitude.
What the hell?!
The accounts meticulously crafted by the top-tier underworld actuaries I hired at great expense were seen through by a little girl?! Even Trebol's hidden account was exposed?!
"Fufu... fufufu..."
Doflamingo forced out a dry laugh, suppressing the panic in his heart, and turned to Kane. "Admiral Kane, bringing in some random little girl to slander me... that's not proper procedure, is it..."
Hum—!
Before Doflamingo could finish speaking, an overwhelmingly terrifying pressure descended abruptly in the office!
Creak!
The chair Doflamingo was sitting on groaned under the unbearable weight.
Doflamingo felt as if two mountains were crushing his shoulders, his breath halting in that moment. The shirt on his back was instantly soaked through with cold sweat!
"Rules?"
Kane stood up, his hands planted on the desk, his shadow completely enveloping Doflamingo. His eyes held undisguised mockery and coldness.
"In my territory, my word is the rule."
"Doflamingo, when we signed the contract, I warned you. I despise people touching my money the most."
"Playing dirty and stealing right under my nose?" The corner of Kane's mouth lifted into a cruel curve. "Your guts are indeed much bigger than your stature."
"A-Admiral!" Doflamingo gritted his teeth, desperately resisting the Haki that threatened to crush him, his voice strained. "Th-there must be some misunderstanding here, I can expl—"
"I don't want explanations."
Kane raised two fingers, cutting him off.
"According to Supplementary Clause 103 of the Seven Warlords of the Sea contract, attempting to conceal profits from the supervising party incurs a double penalty."
"Aside from immediately making up for the concealed 1.8 billion, you also need to pay an additional 3.6 billion Berry in breach of contract fees."
At this point, Kane pointed to Hancock beside him, who was proudly tilting her little face up, seeking praise.
"Simultaneously, due to your extremely poor and error-ridden accounts, which have severely wasted the precious growth and working time of our G-5 Branch's 'Senior Financial Accounting Specialist'..."
"You also need to pay 30 million Berry in 'emotional distress and overtime compensation fees'."
Kane withdrew his Conqueror's Haki and sat back down in the large leather chair, like a tyrant deciding life and death.
"You have twenty-four hours to transfer this sum, not a single Berry less, into the G-5 account."
"If it's even one Berry short, I'll personally lead a team to sink your entire Donquixote Family to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish! Understood?"
The pressure vanished abruptly.
Doflamingo gasped for air in large gulps, the muscles in his cheeks twitching violently from extreme humiliation.
This was practically scraping clean all the profits he had earned during this period, principal and interest included!
Yet, recalling that suffocating sense of despair from earlier, Doflamingo forcibly swallowed all his anger.
He couldn't win.
He didn't even have the right to resist!
"...I understand."
He shot a venomous glance at the little black-haired girl standing on the ammunition crate, imprinting her face deeply in his memory, then fled the office without looking back, like a stray dog.
"Admiral!"
Seeing Doflamingo flee in panic, Hancock immediately jumped down from the wooden crate and trotted over to Kane with quick, small steps.
Her hands clasped behind her back, she rose slightly on her tiptoes, lifting her exquisitely beautiful little face.
Those deep blue eyes were clearly written with three big words: Praise! Me! Now!
Seeing her waiting-for-praise expression, Kane reached out a large hand and placed it on her smooth black hair, casually ruffling it a couple of times.
"Hmm, you did an okay job. At least you didn't eat all that expensive Sea King meat in the cafeteria for nothing."
Kane gave his assessment in a flat tone.
However!
Just this perfunctory head-patting action, coupled with that utterly lukewarm praise...
In the eyes of Hancock, who was currently in a state of "deification," it triggered an intense chemical reaction!
'He... he patted my head!'
"Elder Nyon said that truly superior men never praise others lightly! Even if he says it's just passable, in his heart he must be extremely satisfied with me!"
Hancock's fair, delicate face visibly flushed bright red.
Lost in her imagination, the young girl even took two uncontrollable steps backward from overwhelming joy and shyness, covering her cheeks that felt like they were on fire.
"Th-this is what I should do!"
Hancock stammered out a sentence, then turned and dashed out of the office, leaving only a flurry of panicked footsteps behind.
Bang.
The office door slammed shut.
Kane kept his hand raised in a head-patting gesture, frozen mid-air, then withdrew it and looked at his palm.
"What's wrong with that little girl?"
"Whatever, as long as she helps me make money, I can tolerate a little psychological issue."
Kane opened the schedule book on his desk, pulled out a fountain pen, and mercilessly added a line after Hancock's name.
"Since she's so energetic, this afternoon's Haki sparring training will be super doubled. That way, her frail body won't suddenly drop dead at her desk someday while counting money for me."
The black-hearted capitalist Admiral Kane silently made the most "prudent" plan for the future of his cheap child laborer.