"...You're listening, aren't you, Doffy?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru's voice was soft, but it carried the piercing chill of an icicle dipped in poison. Through the Den Den Mushi, her words cut cleanly into a hidden corner of the New World.
"No listening is better than watching," she corrected herself, her tone as sharp as a blade. "You're listening, aren't you, Doffy? Listen carefully to the sound your most loyal and trusted subordinate is making right now."
Boom!
A heavy, muffled impact echoed.
Vergo's body slammed into the parade ground of G–5 Base, sinking into the earth and leaving behind a human–shaped crater.
"Ugh... ah..."
The sound of his strained, ragged breathing traveled cleanly through the Den Den Mushi to Dressrosa.
"This is only the beginning," Tsuru said calmly. Her voice held no emotion, only the detached precision of a surgeon's scalpel. "The grief Sengoku feels over the loss of his adopted son will be repaid a hundredfold upon you and your executives."
"And you... you can do nothing but listen."
On the other end of the line, silence reigned.
Dressrosa, King's Plateau.
Donquixote Doflamingo sat sprawled on a velvet sofa in his usual posture of arrogance. But this time, his smile had frozen. His brain raced furiously.
What just happened?
All he had done was answer a call.
Then came the voice of Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
Then came the sounds of one of his most trusted top executives Vergo being ruthlessly beaten, his groans of agony betraying weakness Doflamingo had never heard before.
Just two days ago, Doflamingo had sent Vergo to investigate that troublesome marine who dared to cross him.
And now?
Now Vergo's cover was blown.
His carefully placed piece on the Navy's chessboard a pawn cultivated over more than a decade at the highest level was exposed, crushed, and humiliated.
Why?!
Why now?!
"Doffy..."
Tsuru's voice floated out once again, quiet but venomous. "Pray you can hold on to your title as a Warlord of the Sea. Otherwise... I'll happily visit Dressrosa myself and have a proper chat with you."
Click.
The line went dead.
Inside the palace, silence fell heavier than stone.
Doflamingo lowered his head, veins bulging across his temple like coiled serpents.
A heartbeat later
Crash!
He hurled the Den Den Mushi to the marble floor, smashing it into a dozen shards. The pieces scattered across the polished tiles like shrapnel.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
His chest heaved violently. His breathing was no longer human it was the snarling rasp of a cornered beast.
Tsuru.
That cursed old woman.
Once again, she had reached across the sea and left him caged like a rat.
Vergo was finished.
His most reliable executive, gone.
Every scheme he had lined up for the future... shattered.
Even worse, the stability of his Warlord status was now in jeopardy. Without that protection, the Navy would brand him a pirate once more and renew their hunt.
True, he still possessed his hidden trump card his lineage as a fallen Celestial Dragon. That offered some shield, but not enough to calm his fury.
What infuriated him the most was the humiliation.
Being toyed with.
Being crushed in someone else's palm without even knowing who had made the first move.
Who...
Who in the world had I provoked?!
G–5 Base.
"Ghh..."
Vergo lay sprawled in the ruins like a broken puppet, more breath leaving his lungs than entering.
Sengoku's towering form loomed above him, the golden light of the Buddha fading from his massive hand as it drew back, preparing to strike again.
"Enough, Sengoku. Don't forget what we agreed on."
Tsuru's voice fell over him like cold water, extinguishing the blaze of fury.
Sengoku froze, his hand halting mid–air. The divine glow receded, leaving only a man trembling with barely contained rage.
For a long moment, he shut his eyes, chest heaving. At last, he exhaled a heavy breath.
Before arriving at G–5, he and Tsuru had made a pact.
He could vent his anger.
But Vergo could not die at least, not yet.
The Donquixote Family's executive still carried too many secrets in his head. Secrets that, once revealed, could unravel Doflamingo himself.
If Sengoku wanted to bury Vergo, he would bury Doflamingo right alongside him.
"Vergo."
Tsuru stepped forward, her heels striking the cracked ground with steady rhythm. She looked down upon him, her gaze cool and unyielding.
"Talk. Confess everything, and we'll grant you the mercy of a clean death."
"..."
Vergo's lips twisted into a grim smile, coughing blood between broken teeth.
"Pft—"
He spat red at her boots.
His silence screamed his defiance.
Loyalty to Doflamingo, even in ruin.
Tsuru's expression did not shift. She had expected nothing less.
But Sengoku... Sengoku began to laugh.
"Ha... ha ha ha!" His laughter shook the ruins, a deep roar like thunder.
"Not talking? Excellent. Wonderful!"
He knelt before Vergo, eyes burning with terrible light. "Your loyalty to Doflamingo puts my heart at ease."
Vergo's pupils contracted. A sense of doom seized him.
Then Sengoku's voice dropped to a deadly calm.
"Killing you? That would be the lightest punishment."
"I'll lock you away in Impel Down. You'll live. And while you live, you'll watch."
"You'll watch as the Donquixote Family crumbles, piece by piece."
"You'll watch Doflamingo run for his life like a rat."
"And when the end comes, I'll bring him to you personally... so you can see, with your own eyes, everything you've devoted your soul to shattered into dust."
"That... is the truest punishment."
Vergo's body convulsed uncontrollably. Terror, raw and suffocating, seized his heart like a vice.
Death? He could face death without flinching.
But to watch his god fall, to watch his family destroyed...
No.
No! That was a fate far crueler than death.
As his world collapsed around him, his face turned pale, drained of all color, his eyes wide with despair.
Sengoku threw his head back and laughed. "Take him away! Tell Magellan to keep him alive!"
"Yes, sir!"
Marines rushed forward, dragging Vergo's broken body away.
Sengoku turned to Tsuru, his voice sharp with conviction. "Tsuru... Hawk intercepted intelligence that exposed Vergo's infiltration. Tell me how should I reward that boy?"
Tsuru's lips quirked faintly. "That's your headache, not mine."
Meanwhile, on Sky Island.
The massive warship broke through the cloud sea, anchoring smoothly at the harbor of Angel Island.
Renn Hawk stood at the prow, cigar between his teeth, smoke curling in the sunlight.
As the ship docked, the people of Sky Island surged forward like a rising tide.
"He's back! The hero's back!"
"Rear Admiral Hawk, look at the cloud–pumpkin my family grew!"
"Rear Admiral Hawk, try this cloud–cotton cloth it's so soft and airy! Perfect for a cape!"
"Rear Admiral Hawk—"
Among the crowd, a woman screamed with all her heart, her voice breaking with devotion.
"Rear Admiral Hawk, I love you!!!"
Renn Hawk froze, the cigar tilting slightly from his lips.
"...What?"
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