But before the white-haired boy could finish showing off, someone cut him off.
"Hina is dying of speechlessness! Just now realized Smoker is such a chatterbox!"
"Hina has already gathered all the intel and confirmed it—get moving!"
"If you don't act fast enough, Michael will hang you from the ceiling fan wrapped in Seastone and spin you on high for a whole day!"
"Or hang you from a lamppost outside Marine Headquarters as a full-day exhibition!"
The moment Smoker heard Hina's voice, he felt like his head grew a size larger.
"Alright, alright! Enough, Hina! Why the hell do you keep bringing up that damned lamppost, dammit!"
"Does Michael have some weird fetish for thick, black, hard cylindrical objects or what!?"
The white-haired boy was seventeen-year-old Smoker, and as for the others, their identities were self-evident.
The pink-haired girl berating Smoker was Hina. In just two years, aside from her slightly youthful face, her figure was already indistinguishable from the cool beauty in the original series.
The duo researching ship-slicing techniques and trading barbs were T Bone and Shu.
And the ever-smiling yet inexplicably intimidating blonde beauty was, of course, Stella.
"So you're the Marine's secret unit!?"
"You guessed right. As a reward, I'll now send you off to reunite with your crew."
Smoker nodded solemnly, and the smoke billowing from his body suddenly surged into the mouths and noses of all the pirates before him.
Carbon monoxide poisoning—an agonizing way to die.
Scum like this, confirmed of their crimes, didn't deserve an easy death.
Before long, under the dual torment of suffocation and carbon monoxide poisoning, the pirates started violently thrashing and convulsing. But their movements gradually slowed until they finally fell silent.
These wicked lives met their end upon the sea.
"Search the lower decks. See what exactly they smuggled out from the Calm Belt."
At this point, Stella spoke up.
"Yes."
Everyone sprang into action immediately.
Over the past two years, Stella had handled most of the command duties during missions.
Michael only issued tasks and gave general directions, while Issho never joined the operations, always tagging along with Michael across the seas.
Thus, Stella was now the de facto commander of this secret special unit.
After the assignments were handed out, the team entered the ship's interior.
With a bounty of 76 million Belly, this pirate ship was nothing small.
After a while, they received feedback.
"Stella, we found a large stash of gold and silver treasure in the bottom-level storage, and... three little girls! Judging by their clothing, they're from Amazon Lily."
"Everything else is just food used for cover!"
"Take everything!"
"Yes!"
Hina looked at the three girls before her—beautiful, just starting to mature, and clearly a few years younger than her.
She frowned slightly.
Rarely did she feel such empathy.
"Back when Rear Admiral Michael carried out that massive purge on the Sabaody Archipelago, Hina wasn't there... She regrets it so much!"
"Thankfully, Hina chose to join the SWORD Secret Special Force, giving her more chances to rid the seas of this kind of scum!"
Smoker sighed, then lifted a chest filled with treasure and walked toward the deck.
"Let's go, Hina. Take them away from here."
Hina nodded, reached out, and formed a barrier, gently lifting the three girls.
For her now, their weight was no more than feathers.
They were clearly drugged with heavy doses of sleeping agents—otherwise, with all the chaos earlier, how could they still be sleeping so soundly?
Thankfully, they were from Amazon Lily. Ordinary people would probably be dead from that dosage.
After returning to their own warship, the team began wrapping things up.
The ones taking action were the golden duo, T Bone and Shu.
Over the past two years, these two had used the same tactics to sink countless smuggling and pirate ships.
They were masters of the art of erasing all evidence.
They still remembered when Michael first taught them these techniques—they had felt reluctant.
Now? They were enjoying it.
This was also one of the key reasons the Celestial Dragons and the World Government had no intel on this secret special unit.
Slice the ship apart, rust it to dust.
Then scatter it into the endless ocean...
Even the mighty World Government couldn't trace ashes scattered to the sea.
Even if you brought in that certain pint-sized death god detective barely taller than a grown man's calf, you wouldn't find a damn clue!
"By my command, move out!"
Stella glanced at the three girls that Hina had properly secured, then nodded at Shu.
"Sigh... Another wonderful mission over. Now we have to regroup with that pervert Michael again."
"...Hina still needs to remind you—remember what happened the last time you called him that? You were bedridden for three whole days."
"Damn it! That was your doing, wasn't it!?"
"Hina only reported it to help you correct your behavior..."
...
Grand Line, Dadanio Island.
"Beh-hee-hee~ Hey, Doffy, that pirate named Baruka really had the guts to ask us to help him sell slaves to the Celestial Dragons at a time like this!"
"How many times do I have to tell you, Trebol!? Stop sneaking up on me like that!" At this time, Doflamingo was still young, and his aesthetic hadn't yet been completely corrupted by malice. He wasn't wearing that absurd flamingo outfit yet.
Instead, he had on a pure black dress shirt, loosely tied with a red necktie...
Still not exactly a great look.
"Rosinante, this isn't some big business deal. Mainly, I want you to see how the Donquixote Family operates."
Doflamingo turned his head toward the younger brother he had finally reunited with after years of separation.
Rosinante only nodded in response and didn't say a word.
He wore a hood painted with a red heart. His outfit resembled a twisted version of a clown costume, topped with a coat made of black feathers.
He was already wondering how Michael and Shu would mock him if they saw this getup.
As for why he was here...
One year ago, he had still been working with the Secret Special Force.
But one day, Michael called him alone to the deck and assigned him a deep-cover mission.
So Rosinante infiltrated the Donquixote Family several years earlier than in the original storyline.
At this point, Doflamingo was still young and more willing to trust people.
And because his humanity wasn't yet completely extinguished, he placed a great deal of trust in his long-lost brother.
Rosinante hadn't forgotten Michael's words:
"Rosinante, whether your big brother lives or dies... depends on whether you can arrest him before it's too late."
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