"Meow-Meow: Backbreaker!"
Just as Senor Pink dove into the sand beneath Don's feet, a figure burst out from the ground behind him, arms outstretched to bind him in a crushing grip.
Bang!
Don sheathed his blade in a flash. Dark violet Armament Haki surged over the hilt, and he drove it straight into Pink's chest.
The burly figure was blasted backward.
Even though Pink had coated his chest with Armament Haki, the impact still left him writhing in pain.
My ribs… broken!
The thought struck him instantly as his body skidded across the ground. Ripples spread like water where he landed, waves of energy rippling outward across the sand.
After sliding a long distance, Pink sank once more beneath the ground.
Don's eyes tracked the blood trailing across the sand. His Observation Haki stretched wide, following the faint presence hiding below.
A Zoan mimicked beasts, and a Logia embodied the fury of nature's elements.
But a Paramecia… a Paramecia defied the rules themselves.
In their own way, Paramecias could bend the laws of the natural world.
Including this so-called "Swim-Swim Man" before him.
Not coming back up?
The thought flickered in Don's mind.
Pink seemed rattled by that last blow. He kept darting through the earth below, refusing to surface.
With a sigh, Don drove his blade point-first into the sand.
Flames trickled down from his hand, racing along the steel before plunging into the ground.
Crimson fire-veins spidered outward from the buried blade, scorching a vast web across the battlefield.
"Hell Inferno—Budget Edition."
Don's lips curled as he whispered the words.
At once, the buried fire roared to life.
The searing blaze erupted, scorching through the earth and hurling molten dirt skyward. The ground became a blazing hellscape.
And yet, the man at the center of it all—Don—stood untouched, the flames parting around him like loyal subjects.
With a burst, a figure shot out of the fiery ground.
"Diaper Bomb!"
Spinning midair, Pink twisted, presenting his padded backside toward Don.
But the move never landed.
A burning blade glimmered inches from his throat.
Pink froze. His body fell helplessly into the fire below.
The flames licked at him, searing flesh, but he dared not move.
One twitch of his neck and that fiery blade would slice his windpipe clean open.
The blaze around them swirled with a will of its own, converging onto Don's sword.
Orange-red ribbons of flame coiled around the steel, spinning, weaving—and then vanishing.
The flames dissipated, but the heat remained, heavy and suffocating.
Don stepped through the smoldering haze, sword still in hand.
"As I thought. You can't even withstand a single blow from me."
Pink gave a weary laugh, even as scorched skin blistered under the heat. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, but he didn't so much as flinch.
"Of course. I'm an officer of the Donquixote Family. And you've destroyed our family's property."
His voice was low, resolute, as if the agony meant nothing.
Don inclined his head in acknowledgment—then suddenly twisted aside.
A golden flash streaked past, slamming into the ground.
Boom!
The blast ripped open the earth. Pink was flung into the air, his body crashing down before he fell unconscious.
The shockwave tore through Don's form—yet his body burst apart into flames, scattering harmlessly before reforming again.
Don raised his gaze skyward.
From beyond the horizon, a radiant golden beam swept across the heavens, crossing miles in an instant.
And from within that beam, a tall figure emerged—clad in a yellow pinstripe suit, draped with a Marine admiral's cloak.
"Borsalino."
Don narrowed his eyes, his Observation Haki fully unleashed, locking onto the man in the sky.
The glowing form solidified into Admiral Kizaru. His lazy eyes studied Don with quiet interest.
He had seen it clearly—Don's body dissolving into flames.
A Logia. No mistake about it.
Like Akainu, but… different.
Suspended in the air, Borsalino stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"You came here to save him?"
Don's voice cut through the silence. He wasn't about to waste words.
The Admiral's sudden arrival was no surprise—he had suspected it the moment reports placed Kizaru in the North Blue.
But to strike without warning, from beyond the reach of his Observation Haki… or rather, to move so fast that even his Haki couldn't follow…
That was Kizaru's speed.
"Save him? No, no. Someone just wants you to leave the North Blue. You've gone too far."
Kizaru shook his head with his usual drawl.
"Too far? Don't tell me an Admiral of the Navy doesn't know whose arms factories these belong to. Or has becoming a Warlord of the Sea made Doflamingo one of your own?"
Don's voice was sharp, though inwardly he wondered where exactly Kizaru had received his orders.
"Well now, that's a tough one…"
As he spoke, Kizaru dissolved into light, reappearing only a short distance away, closer, his body rematerializing with lazy ease.
"My, my… how frightening."
He puckered his lips at the oppressive heat that still lingered in the air, then glanced at the unconscious Pink.
"But that's not my concern. I didn't get orders about any of that. My only instructions are to stop you from going any further."
"And if I refuse?"
Don tightened his grip on his sword.
He had expected a clash with Aokiji. But a clash with Kizaru—that hadn't been part of the plan.
Still, unplanned didn't mean impossible.
"The Fleet Admiral said—if you refuse, I'm to bring you in."
Kizaru stroked his chin again, peering at him with almost childlike curiosity.
"Then you'll just have to try."
Don's words cut the air like a blade. Armament Haki surged down his hand, while a tyrannical wave of Conqueror's Haki erupted outward.
The lazy expression on Kizaru's face froze. His pupils shrank sharply.
"Eh? Eh-eh-eh—no way!"
The Admiral swallowed, his throat dry.
That overwhelming Conqueror's Haki… and that sharpened Armament, so refined it could pierce even him.
Sengoku… what kind of nightmare have you sent me after?
END OF CHAPTER
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