After the massive battle broke out in the underground factory, the other members of the Revolutionary Army also began searching for something there, but they didn't find what they were hoping for.
In the Corrida Colosseum, Rebecca, sitting in the audience stands, was already sobbing uncontrollably. With the end of Sugar's Devil Fruit ability, she had finally remembered who Kyros truly was.
She had never been fatherless; her father had always been by her side, protecting her in his own way.
"Toys turning back into humans… This country really is different. This might be a bit intrusive, but Rebecca, let me see exactly what it is you were missing."
As he watched the toys return to human form, Redfield once again read Rebecca's memories. The blank parts had now been filled in. Within a few minutes, he understood what had happened in Dressrosa's past and told it to Pato.
"Boss Red, if that's how it is, then Doflamingo's nothing but a b*stard, huh?"
"A b*stard? From the perspective of the average Dressrosa citizen, that's certainly true. But this is the reality of the seas. To achieve what he did, he must have considerable skills."
Pato's nature was more like that of a child, and Redfield essentially treated him as such. But Redfield himself was never a hero; he had always been a lone wanderer, doing whatever he pleased for decades.
Even he couldn't help but express a bit of awe at Doflamingo's methods here.
"Boss Red, are you really giving up just like that? You could still keep fighting, right?"
"I could, yes. But I already made a promise, so there's no point in continuing. If I really fought her, it wouldn't be over in just a day or two."
At that moment, Luffy suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right! I came here to defeat Doflamingo!"
Clapping his hands together, Luffy finally remembered what the purpose of his mission was.
"Ace, Sabo, I've got stuff to do, so I'm heading out first. Hercules! Let's go find Tra-guy! According to plan, they should already be at the palace, right?"
Luffy released his grip on Marco, then grabbed onto Hercules in midair and flew off into the distance. He had no intention of relying on his brothers' strength. In his view, this was entirely his own affair.
It wasn't until Luffy had flown away with Hercules that Ace and Sabo processed what he had just said.
"Did he just… say something about a plan?"
"I think… yeah, he did."
Having a plan was perfectly normal, but hearing the word "plan" come out of Luffy's mouth just felt totally off. No matter how you looked at it, he didn't seem like someone capable of remembering a plan.
"Ace, let's split up for now. I've got a few things I need to take care of."
Just then, Sabo received a call. It was Koala, who was in charge of investigating the underground factory.
The Revolutionary Army had previously sent a few personnel to Dressrosa. They believed that the weapons Doflamingo sold to the outside world were the root cause of escalating wars, so they wanted to destroy his weapon factory.
But without exception, all of those agents had been turned into toys by Sugar.
Now that Sugar had lost consciousness, her ability had been cancelled. Yet the Revolutionary Army still hadn't found any weapon factory, only ready-made weapons. There was no sign of the place where the weapons had been manufactured.
Sabo needed to continue investigating this issue, so he too left.
"Marco, what should we do now?"
"Let's go take a look outside first, then decide what to do next."
The Quake-Quake Fruit still hadn't been eaten. If it had fallen into someone else's hands, it would undoubtedly spark another wave of conflict. But the only person strong enough to do it, Redfield, had already abandoned the idea.
It was just a collectible. Sure, having it would be nice, but not worth risking his life for.
As for the others, either they knew just how strong Yamato truly was, or they had been frightened by her final attack, so they naturally lost the desire to go after it anymore.
At this point, there was no longer any reason to remain at the Corrida Colosseum. One after another, they headed off in different directions, beginning to plan other matters, including Yamato.
"So, Robin, how is it? Have you figured out what's going on?"
"No, it's just that those toys seem to have been transformed from people. Right now, they're focused on taking down Doflamingo. I haven't seen anything else for now."
Robin's ability was extremely useful for gathering intelligence. With the expanded range of her Flower-Flower Fruit, she quickly gathered the latest information through her extended eyes and ears.
"To really understand what's going on, we'll probably have to go ask Doflamingo directly."
Before Yamato and the others could take any action, countless strings suddenly rained down from the sky, covering all of Dressrosa. Doflamingo had finally deployed his Birdcage.
Even Doflamingo himself had been conflicted about whether to release the Birdcage. If he didn't use it to trap all of Dressrosa and too many people escaped, things would become very difficult for him.
But now, there were too many monsters inside Dressrosa. If he provoked them into attacking him together, his life would be over. There was already a whole group on this island that he couldn't defeat.
If he pushed all of them too far, he might as well just commit suicide.
So, he merely released the Birdcage without initiating its shrinking function, and began contacting forces he considered to be friendly.
The Birdcage blocked external signals, but communication within it was still possible. At this moment, Dressrosa was still under his control. Using the surveillance devices on the island, he could locate many people.
For instance, Katakuri and his group. Katakuri had just left the Corrida Colosseum when the ground in front of him began to ripple, and Pica emerged right in front of him.
"Sir Katakuri, this is something Young Master asked me to give you. He wants to discuss something with you."
After handing the Den Den Mushi to Katakuri, Pica sank back into the ground. According to Doflamingo's orders, he also had to deliver a Den Den Mushi to Yamato before moving on to his combat assignment.
But that part of the mission failed. Yamato wasn't waiting in place, nor did she go ask Doflamingo anything. Instead, she chose to explore the island herself to figure out what was going on.
During this time, Doflamingo completed his communication with Katakuri.
"Joker, what are you trying to do?"
"Don't be so cold, Katakuri. We've done business together before, haven't we? How about another deal now? Help me eliminate all the unnecessary people on this island, and I'll offer a price your pirate crew will find very satisfactory."
As long as all the witnesses were killed, the incident naturally wouldn't be exposed, but he couldn't do it alone.
Right now, there were simply too many enemies on this island who were hard to deal with: Redfield, the old monster from the former era; the top commanders of the Big Mom and Whitebeard Pirates; the successor of the Beasts Pirates; a Marine Admiral with ambiguous attitude; and the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army.
Even excluding the officers from other major forces, just dealing with these people was already beyond Doflamingo's abilities. And he couldn't afford to offend the forces behind them either.
TN: Hey guys, I've picked up a new One Piece novel. You can search it: One Piece: The Undying King.
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