"White Dragon"—Nao.
A name that, merely upon mention, could make countless pirates' legs tremble and shake.
Everyone present was an elite of the Donquixote Family, no stranger to danger. Naturally, they knew this man who often appeared in newspaper headlines.
…But why would someone of his stature suddenly appear in the North Blue?!
"How rude, fufufufufu…"
Cold sweat dripped from his subordinates all around him. Doflamingo, however, after his momentary shock, curled his lips into a faint smile. He turned his head, looking down at Rosinante pinned beneath his knee, and slowly raised his right hand again.
At his fingertips, a pale glow flickered beneath the surface of his skin.
"When I'm dealing with family matters, I don't like being interrupted. So—"
Before his words finished—
Swoosh!
His free left hand snapped back with a sudden motion. Without even looking, he slashed behind him. Five razor-thin threads, hardened with Armament Haki, shot straight for Nao's chest!
Got him!
The moment he struck, sensing the figure behind him hadn't had time to move or dodge, Doflamingo's lips twisted into a grin, a flash of delight passing through his eyes behind the sunglasses.
The movement of his right hand was merely a feint.
His true intention was to seize the opportunity, create a diversion, and launch a sneak attack on this high-ranking Marine Headquarters figure!
At such close range, even a Logia user couldn't completely elementalize in time. The blow would land, crippling him, giving Doflamingo the upper hand!
Yet—
His grin froze solid.
The expected spray of blood never came. Instead, what rang out was a rapid series of sharp snapping sounds—
—the sound of threads breaking.
Doflamingo stiffly turned his head.
There, in the sea breeze, ten nearly invisible strands of thread drifted in pieces, severed clean through.
Nao only glanced down curiously at his chest. There, faint white lines had appeared—barely scratches—before vanishing without a trace.
Impossible…!
A bead of cold sweat slid down Doflamingo's temple. His pupils violently contracted as a chilling sensation shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Even Armament-hardened threads… couldn't cut through? This man's body was harder than his own strings?!
Was this the level of monsters who stood at the peak of the world?
"It seems my Logia abilities have stolen the spotlight for too long." Nao glanced at his own chest, then returned his gaze to Doflamingo's face, speaking softly:
"Hmm, it's been so long, have people already started to forget where my greatest strength lies..."
He raised a fingertip, and brilliant azure lightning began to surge. Doflamingo's face paled slightly.
Run!
I must run!
Since the sneak attack failed, he had basically lost all possibility of victory. Staying here to clash head-on with this guy was something only a fool would do. Only by escaping was there a sliver of hope!
As the lightning roared toward him, Doflamingo clenched his teeth and flicked his hand.
Three or four nearby executives screamed in horror as his threads yanked them forward, dragging them against their will to stand in front of their Young Master as human shields
"No—"
Before they could finish speaking, they were swallowed by the lightning. Several men screamed as they were sent flying backwards.
Doflamingo seized this opening, used his threads to hook onto the fiery clouds directly above, and his entire body swung up gracefully like a startled swan, heading straight for the horizon.
No way… Young Master?
The surrounding pirates and underworld members were dumbfounded.
Many of them had followed Doflamingo for years and knew his temperament well. Using underlings as human shields didn't surprise them much.
But when had he ever… no, "tactically retreated" this decisively?
After a brief moment of shock, everyone's eyes instinctively turned toward Vergo at the front.
"Corazon-san, the Young Master's gone!"
"What should we do? Run, or fight this guy to the death—ouch, who hit me?!"
"Idiot! What's wrong with your head? That man is White Dragon Nao! With just us, how could we possibly be his match?"
Amidst the noisy chatter, Vergo gave no reply. He silently withdrew his gaze back from the horizon and turned it toward Nao—
—who at that moment didn't even bother to chase Doflamingo, crouching instead to check Rosinante's injuries.
That was strange.
If the man had come all the way to the North Blue, there was no reason he'd just let Doflamingo slip away so easily, unless—
"Brother Nao, don't worry about me. I won't die, I'll be fine…"
Lying weakly on the ground, Rosinante, unable even to sit up, anxiously pushed away the hand Nao extended. Struggling, he said, "Go after Doflamingo first. Don't let him get away…"
"Relax. None of them are leaving today."
Nao cut him off. After checking his wounds, he casually tossed him a small red pill. "Swallow it. Otherwise, with how much blood you've lost, you'll faint soon."
It was just a hemostatic pill he'd bought back in his recruit days for two hundred points—stopped bleeding, healed wounds, restored a bit of stamina.
Back then, he thought he'd scored something useful for the future. But now, it was basically worthless to him; his own healing surpassed the medicine entirely.
Not leaving?
Rosinante had always trusted Nao unconditionally. Since he said it, Rosinante felt a bit of relief, took the pill, and swallowed it.
Soon—
A warm current spread through his body. To his surprise, his wounds stopped bleeding and began to slowly scab over.
"What an incredible medicine."
Rosinante clicked his tongue in wonder. Feeling strength return, he managed to sit up and couldn't help but ask:
"Brother Nao, how did you even get here?"
The intel he'd passed on earlier was for Cartier Island. The incident on Patton Island was sudden. How had Nao arrived at the very moment between life and death?
"Remember I told you—keep the Vivre Card with you at all times?"
Eh?
Rosinante froze. He instinctively reached into his chest pocket, but all he pulled out was a bit of half-burned ash.
"A precious, special type of Vivre Card. I'll explain the principle to you later," Nao said with a smile, flicking him another slip of paper before finally lifting his head to the figure already reduced to a black dot at the horizon.
"Wait here for me. I'll be right back."
Bzzzt!
In the next instant—amid the panicked scrambling of nearby pirates—thunderbolts spilled across the ground. Nao's body turned into a streak of dazzling blue lightning, surging toward the horizon.
The speed was suffocatingly terrifying.
Vergo's expression changed. He ripped off his sunglasses, staring wide-eyed at the azure lightning. Within just a few breaths, it had already closed the gap, chasing down the fleeing Doflamingo…
...
Amidst the blazing clouds, Doflamingo didn't dare look back. His ten fingers twitched constantly, spitting out threads as he desperately swung through the skies, fleeing with all his might.
His face was so dark it looked like it could drip water, his eyes carrying not only lingering fear but also a clear trace of rage.
Damn it, damn it!
When did this monster even arrive in the North Blue?!
My intelligence network is a bunch of useless bums! They didn't even notice a sound, allowing this guy to sneak right onto Cartier Island, and humiliating me in front of so many people!
This won't do…
Doflamingo gritted his teeth. Once this storm passed, he absolutely had to handpick agents and plant them in Marine Headquarters.
And not just agents—ones who could climb quickly into high ranks. Only then would he avoid being blind to Marineford's movements, completely in the dark…
"With that speed, you should just rest. Don't waste your energy."
Just then, a faintly familiar voice suddenly came from above his head.
Huh?
Doflamingo's pupils shrank. He instinctively looked up, only to see Nao floating high above, one leg slightly raised, staring at him with cold eyes.
"Tell me… have you ever been kicked by lightning?"
This is bad!
Doflamingo's face changed drastically. He reacted almost instantaneously, frantically shooting a thread much further away, preparing to swing and dodge.
But it was too late. In the next moment, his pupils reflected a dazzling burst of lightning. And in the center of the lightning, he could vaguely see a foot rapidly growing larger…
BOOM!
Thunder exploded in the sky, countless arcs of azure lightning sweeping out in all directions!
Doflamingo had no power to resist. His body was like a puppet with its strings cut, hurled back toward Cartier Island—
At the shore, by the harbor.
A group of pirates and underworld bosses craned their necks, standing on tiptoe, anxiously peering at the sky over the horizon.
Because the sunset lay in that direction, and the distance was so great, all they could make out in the hazy dusk was a small black dot flying their way—no details at all…
BOOM!
The next moment, that black dot plummeted straight down from the sky, slamming into the harbor. Stones flew, web-like cracks spread rapidly across the ground.
At the center of impact, a giant crater several meters deep appeared.
Inside lay a figure cloaked in a pink feathered coat, curled up and trembling, coughing out mouthfuls of blood, looking utterly pitiful and broken—
"Young Master!!"
"Lord Doflamingo!"
The pirates' faces went pale. Many cried out, rushing forward to support him—only to be shoved violently away by Doflamingo himself.
A few of the most loyal Donquixote executives, however, raised their blades in fury, charging at the figure who had followed right behind and landed at the dock.
"You bastard! I'll fight you to the death today!"
Crack! Crack!
They hadn't even taken a few steps before thunderbolts rained down from above, reducing them to smoking husks, their bodies stiff as they toppled backward to the ground.
Killed in an instant.
Seeing this, the will to fight drained from nearly all the others. Many pirates, scared out of their wits, scrambled backward on hands and feet, terrified of being caught in the lightning's sweep.
Some among them, long before Nao had chased after Doflamingo, had already begun harboring thoughts of retreat, quietly edging toward the perimeter.
Now, seeing the scene before them, their faces turned deathly pale. Forget dignity, forget the family's future retribution—every last one of them bolted from the harbor without looking back, wishing their parents had given them a few more legs to run faster.
"Trying to run?"
Nao descended from the sky and landed on the harbor. The wings of lightning at his back faded away into nothing. He watched the fleeing pirates, shook his head slightly, and sighed:
"I clearly told you all that not a single one of you is leaving today…"
He extended his palm. A glimmer of lightning bloomed from his palm like a flower.
Buzz!
From the center of that flower, the brightest filament suddenly shot into the sky, then split and scattered, transforming into countless fine arcs of electricity that rained down toward the ground…
In an instant—
The dense blue arcs formed a tightly woven net of lightning all around, enclosing the entire harbor and the nearby sea.
Like a cage.
"Damn it! Out of my way!"
Some pirates who had already reached the edge, seeing their escape cut off, drew their sword with bloodshot eyes and hacked at the barrier. But the result was inevitable: the instant sword touched lightning, the others saw their comrade and his sword lit up like a flickering skeleton…
Then, with a boom, both man and sword turned into charred husk and collapsed to the ground.
"This move… it's just like the Young Master's Birdcage…"
The ones still along the shore swallowed hard, grimacing as they averted their eyes.
They had watched countless times as their Young Master unleashed the Birdcage upon towns that dared defy the Donquixote Family—how they had laughed beside Doflamingo, watching foolish commoners try to break free of the strings, only to be sliced cleanly into neat pieces. Over and over again, like the creation of exquisite works of art…
But never had they imagined—
That one day, they and their Young Master too would be trapped inside a cage like this, unable to escape, laid out like fish on the chopping block, awaiting the blade of despair…
Doflamingo had by now staggered to his feet, clutching his wounds. He raised his head to glare at the cage of thunder above, and recalled how, moments ago before all eyes, he had been booted back like a sandbag…
A sense of humiliation, greater than he had ever known, surged through his chest.
"You bastard…"
His teeth ground audibly as he watched Nao walking toward him step by steady step. Suddenly his face twisted, his right hand snapped open, palm turning into claw, and he raised it high before pulling sharply down!
"If that's how it is, then today—we settle this, one of us dies here!"
From each of his five fingers, a razor-sharp, transparent string erupted, stretching wildly outward. Everything they touched—piles of cargo, dock timbers, even buildings—was sliced cleanly into pieces.
Like death's scythe falling unseen from the void, the aura of destruction filled the space in an instant.
"Falling Ruthless Strings!!"