Sanji had actually spent some time travelling with a group of Hunters before, only to eventually return to the Baratie.
At this point in his life, he simply hadn't made up his mind yet.
Zeff could tell as much from his answer. Still, the seas had been anything but peaceful lately.
Even East Blue had only recently settled down after a long period of chaos, and the wandering Baratie had passed more than one island that had been completely destroyed.
"All right. Think about it properly once the seas calm down."
Zeff had no desire to see Sanji become a pirate, but he had never changed his mind about one thing: a young man needed to go out and see the world eventually.
…
The brief stop at the Baratie was little more than a passing diversion for Cyrus.
After leaving the restaurant, he shot high into the sky and continued climbing until he was floating far above the clouds.
The freezing temperatures at that altitude had no effect on him.
Looking down through the cloud cover, he could make out the vast oceans divided by the Red Line far below.
"It's time to begin."
A wisp of white vapor escaped his mouth as he spoke, formed by the temperature difference.
Then Cyrus transformed completely into fire.
This was the final stage of mastery he had reached with the Flame-Flame Fruit—and the first time he had ever unleashed its power without holding back.
Flames slowly unfurled across the heavens like an enormous curtain, spreading farther and farther until the sky itself began turning red.
Yet even when the fiery veil touched the clouds, it did not burn them away.
Cyrus's control over temperature had reached an extraordinary level.
When restrained, his flames could spread across the sky without generating enough heat to evaporate the clouds beneath them.
Their expansion, however, continued to accelerate.
Before long, people on the seas below began noticing the sky changing color.
The blue overhead deepened into crimson, staining even the clouds blood-red, and the phenomenon spread so quickly that soon the entire visible horizon had been swallowed by it.
From an even greater altitude, it would have resembled a crimson stain expanding across the surface of the planet.
And if its growth could be seen so clearly from that distance, the actual speed at which the flames were spreading below was almost impossible to comprehend.
Eventually, people barely had time to notice that the sky was changing before they looked up again and found the entire heavens covered in red.
…
In West Blue, Hunters from the Guild were fighting alongside soldiers from several kingdoms and members of the Revolutionary Army to clear another island.
The operation was not going well.
"Fall back! Everyone retreat immediately!"
Some of the people transformed into demons had already been powerful fighters before their corruption.
After becoming monsters, their strength had risen even further, and their regenerative immortality made them almost impossible to put down through ordinary means.
Under orders, the combined force began withdrawing.
Then, as if a veil had fallen over the entire world, everything around them took on a bloody tint.
"The sky…"
"What the hell is happening up there?"
People began noticing the anomaly one after another and raised their heads.
The heavens had turned completely crimson.
Before anyone could process what they were seeing, a beam of red light descended from above.
The light became fire.
It struck the demon that had forced the entire allied force to retreat.
Only moments later, the monster they had been unable to defeat was gone, erased so thoroughly by the flames that nothing remained.
Someone audibly swallowed.
Then silence spread through the entire battlefield.
And as the crimson sky continued expanding across the world, the same scene began playing out in one place after another.
…
"Birdcage!"
After receiving Cyrus's promise, Doflamingo had thrown himself into completing the task Cyrus assigned him.
After several attempts, he had concluded that this was still the simplest method.
Of course, it only worked on islands that had already been completely overrun, but when that condition was met, it increased their efficiency enormously.
"Doffy."
Trebol sniffed loudly before continuing, "According to the Hunter Guild's reports, the Four Seas have almost been cleared. Only a handful of areas are still causing trouble. Are we really not going to Paradise?"
"What I've done is already enough to fulfill the agreement."
Doflamingo grinned as he controlled the Birdcage.
"But if I want more than what was promised, then naturally I'll have to keep going."
"Still, Young Master, that won't be easy."
Lao G sounded concerned.
"We haven't even received the reward we were already promised."
"That doesn't matter. We can wait."
Doflamingo did not dismiss the concern.
Then a girl wearing a small bear-shaped hat suddenly pointed toward the sky.
"Wait, what's—"
She never finished.
Crimson spread across the heavens before their eyes.
Boom!
Red fire poured down from above, passing straight through the Birdcage and igniting across the island below.
"Fire?"
Some of the others were confused, but Doflamingo immediately tensed the moment he saw it.
He snapped his head upward.
'Is this his ability?'
That was the first possibility that came to mind.
What confused him was why Cyrus would come here specifically.
If it truly was Cyrus, Doflamingo had no doubt that he could erase every demon on the island with ease.
So he waited, expecting the man himself to appear.
But the minutes passed.
The island grew completely silent, the flames vanished, and Cyrus never showed himself.
"Doffy?"
Trebol lowered his voice.
"Yes. That was almost certainly his power."
Doflamingo stared at the crimson sky as an absurd possibility formed in his mind.
"Contact the Hunters we've established communication with in other regions. I want to know whether the same thing is happening where they are."
His people moved immediately.
The answer came back quickly.
And when Doflamingo heard it, his heart tightened.
Terrifying.
That was his first thought.
His second was confusion.
If Cyrus had been capable of doing this all along, why hadn't he used it before?
Why act now?
Doflamingo judged other people by his own standards, and he refused to believe Cyrus had suddenly unleashed such an enormous ability on a whim.
There had to be a purpose behind it.
Something Doflamingo did not yet understand.
Dragon had reached the same conclusion.
The Revolutionary Army's attention remained focused primarily on the Four Seas and Paradise, so reports of the phenomenon reached him quickly.
It had begun in East Blue before spreading across the other seas at astonishing speed.
Once he learned that the red sky was connected to fire, he immediately suspected Cyrus.
The scale of the ability was almost beyond imagination, yet somehow, knowing Cyrus was responsible made it seem strangely believable.
The only question was why.
What exactly was Cyrus preparing to do?
…
In Paradise, Mihawk slid his sword back onto his back and frowned as he watched another monster rapidly vanish inside the descending flames.
"Cyrus finally made a move?"
He raised his eyes toward the crimson sky.
"What is that man planning?"
Beside him, Issho tilted his sightless gaze upward and spread his Observation Haki across the surrounding area.
A moment later, his brow furrowed.
"I can't sense him. He shouldn't be anywhere nearby."
"And yet his power has reached this place."
Mihawk turned toward him.
His expression gradually became serious.
"If he's acting on this scale now…"
A possibility occurred to him.
"Is he finally going after the one in Mary Geoise?"
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