After another round of brainstorming, Celo pulled out a bundle of rope and swiftly tied up Jack like a zongzi (rice dumpling), bound tightly to spec.
Then, just like with Katakuri, he took out a larger version of the same burlap sack and stuffed Jack inside it.
Of course, Celo didn't forget to stuff Jack's mouth with his smelly socks either.
"Celo, what are you doing?"
Seeing this all-too-familiar process, Sabo was a bit confused.
Mainly confused as to why Celo was so proficient at bagging people up like that.
Did Celo… used to be a human trafficker or something?!
"One more person means one more helping hand. I think your idea from before is solid. I'm bringing Jack to Marineford to help rescue Ace."
"Wait, what…?"
Sabo had just casually mentioned that before, not meaning for it to be taken seriously.
He hadn't expected Celo to not only take it to heart but also act on it.
He could only hope that Celo didn't plan on making him carry that burlap sack with Jack in it to Marineford.
"Celo! There's a pirate ship approaching from behind us!"
Suddenly, Hancock pointed to the rear and warned loudly.
Tension instantly filled the air.
In Wano's waters, pirate ships generally meant one thing: they belonged to the Beasts Pirates.
And yet, the pirate ship behind them wasn't flying the Beasts Pirates' flag.
"That flag… It's the Don Quixote Family's pirate flag!"
As the ship drew closer, Hancock finally recognized the sigil.
It was the pirate crew of Donquixote Doflamingo, another of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, like her.
"Doflamingo? What's he doing here in Wano?!"
"I heard he's secretly involved in shady trades with Kaido…"
The Revolutionary Army had heard some rumors about Doflamingo's under-the-table dealings.
They even considered investigating.
But given that Doflamingo held the title of Warlord, unless the Revolutionaries were fully prepared, they wouldn't touch him.
And now, here he was, unexpectedly running into them in Wano.
"Don't panic. We'll just say we're underlings of Drought Jack. If that doesn't work, we'll play it by ear."
Celo motioned for everyone to stay calm.
Then he calmly steered Jack's large Mammoth Pirate Ship in the direction Jack had previously pointed, toward Onigashima.
However, the Don Quixote ship quickly caught up, sailing alongside them in parallel.
The Don Quixote crew came into full view.
And then, Doflamingo himself boldly leapt over onto their deck.
"Fufufufufufufu! So where's the great and mighty Lord Jack?!"
Taking in the strange state of the Mammoth ship, Doflamingo burst into his signature creepy laughter.
It was unclear whether he was mocking or amused.
To be fair, the ship did look rather odd.
There were stone statues scattered across the deck…
Two large, oddly shaped burlap sacks…
But no sign of the infamous Drought Jack.
Instead, they saw Boa Hancock, the legendary Seven Warlords.
"Doflamingo! Shouldn't you be at Marineford preparing to face the Whitebeard Pirates? What are you doing here in Wano?!"
Noticing Doflamingo's gaze on her, Hancock snapped coldly.
She'd never seen Doflamingo in person before.
Now that she had, he was exactly as described.
Thoroughly disgusting.
"Fufufufu! And what about you, Boa Hancock? What's a Warlord like you doing here? Could it be the Kuja Pirates are secretly trading with the Beasts Pirates?"
Doflamingo casually fired back, then scanned the others, Celo, Koala, and finally Sabo.
His gaze paused meaningfully on Sabo.
He seemed to recognize him and smirked with a knowing gleam in his eye.
"Fufufu... how interesting. I won't disturb you. I wish you all the best of luck getting out of Wano alive."
It seemed Doflamingo had seen through everything in mere moments.
With another creepy chuckle, he casually jumped back to his ship.
Moments later, it veered off in a completely different direction.
Once Doflamingo's ship was out of sight, Celo's mind suddenly dinged:
Ding! New Mission: Defeat Doflamingo. Reward: Have Peak-Form Golden Lion Shiki as your 100% loyal underling for 1 day!
"What the hell?! System, why didn't you give me this task when he was right here?!"
Celo rolled his eyes at the mission system, completely speechless.
If that task had popped up just a moment earlier, while Doflamingo was arrogantly jumping on their deck,
Celo absolutely would've drawn his sword on the spot and taken him out.
But now?
Doflamingo was nowhere to be seen.
"What's wrong, Celo?"
Noticing his irritated outburst, Hancock walked over with concern.
Celo quickly waved it off, saying he was fine.
In any case, defeating Doflamingo could always be done later.
At the very latest, fifteen days from now, at Marineford.
Celo would run into him again then.
"Given his ties to Kaido, do you think Doflamingo will report our intrusion to him?"
Sabo asked worriedly.
From the way Doflamingo had looked at him, Sabo was sure he'd been recognized, not just as a Revolutionary Army member, but as their Chief of Staff.
And with Doflamingo's deep connections in the underworld, it made perfect sense.
What puzzled him was that Doflamingo had simply laughed and walked away.
Was he looking forward to the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army clashing with an Emperor of the Sea?
"Who knows what that scheming bastard's thinking? Forget him. Let's head to Onigashima, find Yamato, and get out fast."
The plan had already gone off course. To minimize risk, they needed to speed things up.
Fed up with how slow Jack's Mammoth ship was, Celo jumped to the stern and began releasing Rasengan after Rasengan for propulsion.
As a result, the ship started moving like a farting boat
Bursting forward for a second, then pausing, then bursting again.
Sabo, unfortunately, experienced his first bout of seasickness aboard Drought Jack's Mammoth ship.
"My first time…!!!"
When they were still over 100 meters from Onigashima, a pale Sabo transformed into fire and flew straight to the shore.
He didn't even notice the man and woman already standing there.
At the same time, Celo fired off one last boosted Rasengan before bouncing back to the bow of the ship.
At that moment, Celo felt like he'd discovered a business goldmine.
Once this was over, he could start a super-speed boat service on the Grand Line, and who could beat him?
He looked proudly at Hancock beside him.
"Hancock, what do you think? Was I awesome or what?!"
"…Mm. Celo is the most awesome…"
Blushing, Hancock bashfully answered his sudden question.
Her reply filled Celo with pride.
Hands on hips, he stood heroically at the ship's bow.
Meanwhile, Koala, seeing Sabo being attacked by the man and woman on shore, immediately leapt over to help.
"Sabo! I'm coming to help you!"
Her loud shout drew the attention of both Celo and Hancock.
Seeing Koala leap in and take half the beating for Sabo…
Now that was true friendship, maybe even true love.
Even though Sabo had given his first seasickness to Celo,
Koala still stood by himself, asking for nothing in return.
"Sabo! You don't want Koala to get beaten to death, do you?!"
With the ship now crashing onto shore, Celo leapt off. One hand holding the sack with Katakuri, the other with Jack.
And for some reason, he shouted this very Wano-style line to Sabo.
"Of course I don't!"
"Then take Koala and run into the forest, now!"
It wasn't that the man and woman attacking them were especially powerful.
It was that Celo could visibly see numerous Beast Pirates approaching from afar.
They'd made it to Onigashima; now wasn't the time to mess up.
So he yelled for Sabo to grab Koala and scram.
"Hancock, I'll leave this to you!"
For them to successfully escape, they had to shake off the pursuers.
And right now, Hancock was the best person for that job.
So Celo asked her to cover the retreat.
"You idiot brother! Stop them! Don't let them get away!