"That's enough, Doflamingo!!"
Krieg roared as he touched down at the Barrels hideout. The scene was chaotic; members of the Red Seagull unit were stumbling around, swinging their rods at thin air or, worse, at each other.
"Fuffuffu... if you've found me, I suppose there's no helping it," Doflamingo's voice echoed. "But I'm taking my family back, Krieg!"
With a flick of his wrist, Doflamingo hurled a bruised and unconscious Gin toward Krieg. Before Krieg could react, Doflamingo's fingers danced like a puppeteer's. "Parasite!"
The Red Seagull Marines suddenly stiffened, their bodies jerking unnaturally. With hollow eyes and desperate shouts of "I'm sorry, Rear Admiral!" and "Get back, sir!", they charged at Krieg, forced by the invisible strings to strike their own commander.
Krieg caught the falling Gin with one arm, quickly verifying that his subordinate was only unconscious. Relief flickered in his eyes before turning into a cold, diamond-hard glare directed at the Heavenly Yaksha.
"Doflamingo... I won't waste words. This ends now. You are under arrest!"
"Fuffuffu!! Try it if you can! Let's see how much heart you have when you have to beat down your own men!!"
As the manipulated soldiers swarmed him, Krieg sighed. "Forgive me, men. This might sting a bit, but try to bear with it. Sayanouchi Kodachi: Ranbu (Sheathed Short-Blade: Wild Dance)!!"
Krieg moved with blurred precision. He didn't use the edge of his strikes; instead, he used his wrists and the flats of his hands to emit focused shockwaves.
He moved like a whirlwind through the crowd, precisely striking non-lethal pressure points. One by one, the "Parasite" victims slumped to the ground, unconscious but safe from further manipulation.
Having cleared the path, Krieg lunged straight for Doflamingo. His massive fist whistled through the air, but Doflamingo was ready.
"Fuffuffu! I knew you'd come head-on! Overheat (Excessive Whip String)!!"
A thick, glowing cord of concentrated string erupted from Doflamingo's palm. It was a move capable of cleaving buildings in two, and it slammed directly into Krieg's chest.
"Guh... not bad... but not enough!!"
The sheer kinetic energy forced Krieg back a few steps, his heels digging deep furrows into the frozen earth. Though his Vajra Body held, the impact was undeniable. Doflamingo didn't let up, pointing his fingers like pistols.
"Tamaito (Bullet String)!!"
A barrage of high-velocity string pellets peppered Krieg's frame. They were designed to puncture human flesh with ease, but against Krieg, they sounded like hail hitting a tin roof. Krieg didn't stop. He walked through the leaden rain until he stood towering over Doflamingo.
Cracking his knuckles with a sound like breaking timber, Krieg looked down. "Any last words? And don't bother asking for mercy. You're headed for Impel Down, no exceptions."
Doflamingo's shoulders slumped. The arrogance seemed to drain out of him as he knelt in the snow. "...Release them. My family. Let them go safely."
It was the plea of a man who knew his own game was over.
A day had passed since the arrest of Donquixote Doflamingo. Krieg sat in his temporary office, nursing a coffee while he and Gin compiled the final mission reports.
The fallout of the Minion Island incident was a mixed bag of success and frustration. Doflamingo had surrendered on the condition that his "Family" be spared. It was a bitter pill for Gin to swallow, but strategically, it aligned with the higher-ups' views.
"I still don't like it, Boss," Gin muttered, flipping through the files. "We caught the head, but letting the rest of those monsters go free? It feels wrong."
"I know," Krieg replied. "But aside from Doflamingo, none of them had active bounties at the time. Sengoku believes that without Doflamingo's charisma and vision, the group will fracture.
They started as a small gang in the North Blue led by Trebol, and it was only when they found Doflamingo that they became a global threat."
The investigation had revealed the truth: Trebol, Diamante, Pica, and Vergo had groomed Doflamingo, seeing him as a king who could realize their ambitions.
Without the "King," the officers—Senor Pink, Lao G, Machvise, and the others—were effectively just high-level thugs.
"We have kids like Baby 5 and Dellinger in the mix too," Krieg added. "Even Buffalo is only seventeen. I offered to take them in, but they looked at me like I was the devil himself. The rest of the family nearly rioted at the suggestion."
"Let's move on," Gin said, sighing. "What about Commander Rosinante?"
"Still unconscious. He took too many bullets. We've stabilized him, and he's being prepared for transport to Faus Island. If anyone can bring him back, it's the doctors there."
Rosinante's survival was a miracle, but the mission's biggest failure weighed heavily on Krieg. Trafalgar Law was gone.
"We lost the boy," Krieg said, rubbing his temples. "We thought we had him when the scouts reported a 'survivor,' but that turned out to be Diez Drake, the son of that pirate Barrels. Drake wants to join the Marines now, but Law... he vanished while we were distracted by the fight."
Law, the boy with Amber Lead Syndrome who had eaten the Op-Op Fruit, was the son of Dr. Trafalgar Luke on Faus Island.
Krieg had hoped to reunite them, but the boy had slipped away into the snowy wilderness. Krieg searched his "original knowledge" of the world, but the details of where Law went after parting with Corazon were a blank space.
The ledger was settled:
Captured: Donquixote Doflamingo and Diez Barrels (Both headed for Impel Down).
Released: The Donquixote Family (Fragmented and bounty-less).
Status: Rosinante (Critical/Comatose), Trafalgar Law (Missing).
It wasn't a perfect victory, but the North Blue was a little quieter tonight.
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