-Broadcast-
The magnificent sight of Pica's defeat at the hands of the red giant reached even the most hopelessly lost corners of Dressrosa. Zoro squinted up at the dissipating light show, a hint of relief crossing his scarred features. Whatever crisis had threatened his crewmate seemed to have passed.
"Well, that's one less thing to worry about," the swordsman muttered, resuming his aimless wandering through the labyrinthine streets. Now he just needed to find Usopp, regroup, and check on their captain's situation. How hard could it be?
"There's a light coming this way," Zoro announced, stopping mid-stride as a brilliant radiance approached from above.
Princess Mansherry poked her head out from beneath his coat, her healing hands clutched anxiously to her chest. The tiny royal had been beside herself with worry ever since learning of Leo's capture and torture. "Is it...?"
A gentle white light descended before them like a falling star, revealing the palm-sized form of the dwarf captain himself. Despite everything he'd endured, Leo managed a weary smile. "Princess Mansherry... it's so good to see you again."
Zoro's eye narrowed as he noticed the alarming changes in Leo's body—the way his skin seemed to shimmer and fragment at the edges. He opened his mouth to voice a warning, but Princess Mansherry had already leaped from her perch atop his shoulder.
"Leo!" The princess's voice cracked with five years of suppressed longing as she ran toward him on unsteady legs, tears streaming down her face. "I missed you so much..."
But as she drew closer, the devastating truth became impossible to ignore. Leo's body was slowly disintegrating before her eyes, pieces of his form peeling away like fragments of a puzzle and dissolving into motes of starlight. Princess Mansherry had witnessed countless injuries in her role as a healer, but nothing had prepared her for this.
"I can heal you!" she cried out desperately, her voice breaking. "My Chiyu Chiyu no Mi (Heal-Heal Fruit) can fix anything! Please, Leo, just wait—don't leave me, not yet!"
So many words remained trapped in her throat, years of feelings she'd never had the courage to express. The princess stumbled forward, her healing tears already beginning to flow.
Leo raised his dissolving hands, watching with serene acceptance as more of himself scattered to the wind. He knew his borrowed time was nearly spent, but there was one final wish burning in his heart. "Princess Mansherry... would you let me hold you? Just once, before I go? You've been the only light in my darkness all these years."
Understanding flooded the princess's eyes. When they were close enough, she launched herself into his arms without hesitation. The two dwarfs embraced with all the tenderness and desperation of lovers separated by war, her tears falling like rain onto his fragmenting form.
"Please don't leave me," Mansherry sobbed against his chest. "I don't know how to live in a world without you. Please..."
Her tears, imbued with the miraculous power of her Devil Fruit, should have mended any wound, healed any affliction. But they passed through Leo's dissolving form like ordinary water, powerless against the cosmic forces claiming him.
"Your Highness..." Leo whispered, his voice growing fainter as more of his essence drifted away. "I hope you'll always find reasons to smile..."
Those were his final words in the mortal realm. His body crumbled completely in Princess Mansherry's arms, leaving behind only scattered points of light that danced briefly in the air before fading into nothingness.
The princess knelt in the empty street, her arms still curved as if holding her beloved, staring with lifeless eyes at the space where Leo had been. The light motes were all that remained—the final proof that he had ever existed in this cruel world.
"Leo... Leo..." she whispered his name like a prayer, but the universe offered no response.
A small object clinked against the cobblestones beside her—a golden ring carved with the fierce visage of a lion. Though she'd never seen it before, Princess Mansherry understood instinctively that this was Leo's final gift to her. With trembling fingers, she picked up the ring and clutched it to her heart.
The princess tried to compose herself, to summon the royal dignity that had sustained her through five years of captivity. But the whiplash from overwhelming joy to crushing despair shattered her carefully maintained control. Her wails of grief echoed across the King's Plateau, a sound of such raw anguish that even the stones seemed to weep.
Zoro stood silently beside her, one hand resting on his sword hilts—not in preparation for battle, but as an anchor in the face of such profound loss. Years of sailing the Grand Line had taught him that death was the constant companion of the weak and unlucky. This was simply the way of things, as inevitable as the tide.
Around the world, those watching through the Sky Screen held their loved ones a little tighter. The dwarfs wept openly for their fallen captain, cursing the terrible price demanded by Ultraman Leo's power. Not even a body remained to honor with proper burial rites.
The defeat of Pica and the other senior executives marked the beginning of the end for Donquixote Doflamingo's iron grip on Dressrosa. In another part of the city, Soul King Brook navigated the chaotic streets with surprising grace, his skeletal frame allowing him to slip past the massive titans that prowled the ruins.
Under the guidance of spirits only he could perceive—souls torn from the underworld by his Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive-Revive Fruit)—the musician finally arrived at the imposing gates of the SMILE factory. Interestingly, this area seemed untouched by Eren's rampage, as if the titan shifter had deliberately avoided damaging this particular facility.
"What a pity about Leo," Brook murmured, his empty eye sockets somehow conveying genuine sadness. As a soul returned from the afterlife, he possessed an acute sensitivity to the spiritual realm. He'd felt the exact moment when the dwarf captain's essence had departed this world, drawn into whatever lay beyond by forces even death itself couldn't resist.
The musician had also sensed the mass exodus of souls when the Rumbling began—thousands upon thousands of spirits crying out as they were torn from their bodies and dragged into the underworld. The knowledge weighed heavily on his skeletal shoulders, but Brook understood the fundamental truth: when people died, they went where they were meant to go. To forcibly reverse the natural order would be an affront to the very concept of mortality.
The factory's main gate loomed before him—a massive steel barrier designed to withstand siege engines and explosions. Brook had come here for one purpose: to cause as much chaos as possible. Stealth was for people who had time to waste.
Drawing his cane sword with a flourish, the Soul King assumed a classical fencing stance.
"Aubade: Coup Droit!"
The blade sang through the air with supernatural speed and precision. Steel shrieked as the supposedly impregnable gate split cleanly in half, both sections crashing to the ground with thunderous impacts. What could withstand a ton of explosives proved no match for a master swordsman empowered by the mysteries of death itself.
Brook sheathed his weapon and strolled through the ruined entrance, humming a jaunty tune that echoed off the factory walls. Before he could proceed further, however, a figure emerged from the shadows—a heavyset middle-aged woman wielding what appeared to be an oversized vacuum cleaner.
The factory supervisor's face twisted with indignation as she took in the sight of the intruder. "What kind of freak are you supposed to be? This is Young Master Doflamingo's most important facility! Turn around and crawl back to whatever hole you came from, or I'll—"
"Excuse me, madam," Brook interrupted with perfect politeness, tilting his top hat. "But might I trouble you for a glimpse of your panties?"
The woman's brain short-circuited for several seconds, unable to process such an audacious request. When comprehension finally dawned, her face turned an alarming shade of purple. "YOU PERVERTED SKELETON FREAK! DIE!"
She cranked her weapon to maximum power, unleashing a vortex of suction that dragged Brook's lightweight frame toward the whirring blades. The factory supervisor might not have been blessed with conventional beauty, but years of working for the Donquixote Family had taught her to deal with troublemakers swiftly and permanently.
As he slid inexorably toward the mechanical maw, Brook found himself filled with an oddly specific regret. He hadn't seen a single pair of panties all day, and now he might never learn whether Robin favored practical cotton or perhaps something more... adventurous.
Since diplomacy had clearly failed, the Soul King drew his blade once more. His opponent worked for Doflamingo, making her a legitimate target for the Straw Hat Pirates.
"Prelude: Aubade Coup Droit!"
In a single elegant motion, Brook's sword destroyed the vacuum weapon and struck the factory supervisor with the pommel, rendering her unconscious without causing permanent harm. As one of only two swordsmen in the crew, he prided himself on showing restraint when dealing with women—even enemy women.
The unconscious supervisor lay sprawled on the factory floor, her weapon reduced to scrap metal. Brook knelt beside her with the enthusiasm of a man who'd been denied his simple pleasures for far too long. Surely a quick peek wouldn't hurt anyone...
"Even I think you're a pervert," a disapproving voice echoed from the factory's depths. "Not only do you beat up women, but then you try to look at their underwear. You're a disgrace to men everywhere."
Brook looked up to see a most unusual sight: a middle-aged man dressed in a pink baby outfit, complete with a pacifier dangling from his mouth. Despite the ridiculous appearance, something in the newcomer's stance suggested he was far more dangerous than the factory supervisor.
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