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The Ice Queen had awakened her Conqueror's Haki not long ago—a violent surge of willpower born from desperation and fury. But the other two forms of Haki, Armament and Observation, still eluded her grasp. Those required deliberate training, patient cultivation of skills she hadn't yet acquired. Without them, Elsa remained blind to the subtle shifts in the atmosphere, unable to sense the powerful presence now approaching the King's Plateau.
Her elemental creatures, however, possessed no such limitation.
The Ice Pegasus was the first to react, spreading its crystalline wings wide as it turned its head skyward, muscles tensing beneath its frozen form. The creature's entire body radiated alertness, every line of its translucent frame screaming warning. Beside it, the Ice General's hand moved to the hilt of its sword, fingers tightening around the frozen blade with a grip that promised violence. The weapon sang softly as ice particles danced along its edge, ready for battle at a moment's notice.
Both loyal servants would fight to the death for their queen—that much was certain.
Feeling the sudden shift in her companions' emotions, Elsa turned her attention to them, her silver hair shifting across her shoulders. The connection between creator and creation was absolute; she could sense their alarm as clearly as if they'd spoken. "You're so nervous," she murmured, her blue eyes scanning the ruins around them. "Is someone strong coming?"
The sky above the King's Plateau darkened in answer. A mass of heavy clouds rolled overhead, blotting out what remained of the afternoon light. Then the rain began to fall—thick, heavy droplets that didn't scatter across the broken stone as rain should. Instead, the water seemed to possess a will of its own, gathering and coalescing in mid-air.
The droplets twisted together, forming streams that spiraled and merged until they took on a distinctly human shape. An adult male's physique materialized before Elsa's eyes, broad-shouldered and imposing. The way the figure held itself spoke volumes
This visitor had come with purpose, and that purpose seemed far from friendly.
Admiral Gin had tracked Doflamingo's lingering scent through the devastated streets of Dressrosa, following the trail of the Heavenly Demon's passage like a hunter on the blood trail of wounded prey. The path had led him here, to the King's Plateau, to the last place the Shichibukai had drawn breath. It was only natural that he would encounter whoever had been present at the end.
The Admiral's dark-circled eyes took in the scene with professional assessment. A girl—silver-haired, wearing a blue dress—stood amid the rubble and ruin. That she had survived in such conditions spoke of considerable ability. The two elemental creatures flanking her confirmed it; creating and maintaining such constructs required both power and control far beyond ordinary Devil Fruit users.
But what truly caught Gin's attention was the girl's face. That frost-touched expression, the sharp angles of her features—she bore an unmistakable resemblance to Doflamingo. Three parts similar, perhaps more. And there, at her feet, lay the severed head that was the object of his mission.
The Admiral's voice was level, almost conversational, when he finally spoke. "I have only one purpose here—to bring Doflamingo's head back to Marine Headquarters." His gaze remained steady on the girl. "I don't care what relationship you have with him. Just give me the head."
So the man with the perpetually exhausted eyes was a Marine. Elsa studied him carefully, noting the absence of bloodlust in his stance despite the threatening nature of his words. This wasn't a predator circling prey; this was a soldier completing a mission. He wanted to do his job impartially, nothing more. The fact that she was the devil's daughter seemed to hold no interest for him whatsoever.
Good. That made things simpler.
Elsa's gaze dropped to the severed head at her feet. Doflamingo's face was frozen in death, lips slightly parted, eyes staring at nothing. She felt... nothing. No surge of grief, no twist of regret. He was her biological father, yes, but he had wronged her mother first and by extension wronged her through his cruelty and abandonment. Why should she mourn him? Why should she protect even his remains?
She had already shed her tears. She had no more to give him.
Without ceremony or hesitation, the girl drew back her leg and kicked. The head tumbled across the broken stone like a grotesque ball, rolling and bouncing with casual brutality until it came to rest at Admiral Gin's feet. The gesture spoke volumes—pure hatred, delivered with all the care one might show a piece of trash.
Admiral Gin's eyebrows rose fractionally as he watched the head roll to a stop. She has a grudge against Doflamingo too. The realization didn't surprise him, given what he knew of the Heavenly Demon's character, but seeing it displayed so blatantly still registered as noteworthy.
The Admiral bent and retrieved his trophy, summoning his Devil Fruit power with practiced ease. Water rose from the moisture-laden air, coalescing around the severed head until it was completely encased in a perfectly spherical prison. The Ame Ame no Mi (Rain-Rain Fruit) made such tasks simple—the water ball would keep the head preserved and contained, making it far more convenient to carry during his flight back to Marine Headquarters. More importantly, he wouldn't have to endure the smell of rotting flesh during the journey.
Before turning to leave, Gin paused. Against his better judgment, he offered the girl a piece of advice. "Doflamingo is dead. His affairs have nothing to do with you anymore." His dark-circled eyes softened almost imperceptibly. "You're not an adult yet. Just look forward."
The Admiral had already deduced the truth—this girl was likely Doflamingo's daughter, born outside of wedlock and never publicly acknowledged. She didn't appear in any Marine intelligence databases, had never been claimed by the Heavenly Demon, which made her an illegitimate child in the eyes of the world. And right now, that status was her salvation. Gin could let her go. His fellow Marines didn't know about her existence, and he had no desire to punish a child for the sins of her father. He wasn't that kind of man.
The tense atmosphere that had filled the space between them evaporated in an instant. Elsa watched the Admiral prepare to depart, making no move to stop him. She found herself turning his words over in her mind, examining them from different angles. Look forward. The advice resonated with thoughts she'd been having herself—ideas about finding somewhere on the vast ocean where she could relax, where she could forget the nightmare her life in Dressrosa had become. Maybe she could find happiness again if she stopped dwelling on the past. She had no interest in claiming her identity as a Celestial Dragon's granddaughter. That legacy could rot along with Doflamingo's corpse.
But as the old saying went: if nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected would definitely happen.
A roar split the air—not of wind or beast, but of flame.
A fire tornado erupted between them without warning, nearly ten meters tall and blazing with apocalyptic fury. The heat was instantaneous and overwhelming, a wall of scorching air that made breathing feel like swallowing molten metal. The temperature spiked so dramatically that the very stones beneath the inferno began to crack and glow.
The Ice Pegasus shrieked in distress as its crystalline body began to soften, edges melting under the onslaught of heat. The Ice General staggered, raising its blade defensively even as its frozen form started losing cohesion, dripping like a candle in summer sun. Both elemental creatures were being consumed by the fire, their icy bodies no match for such overwhelming heat.
Admiral Gin grimaced, feeling the Ame Ame no Mi within him recoil instinctively from the inferno. Users of the Rain-Rain Fruit thrived in humidity and cool temperatures—this blazing hellscape was anathema to his very nature, making his skin prickle with discomfort and his Devil Fruit power sluggish to respond.
"No!" Elsa's hands shot out, summoning every ounce of power she possessed. Ice crystals burst from her palms in a glittering cascade, surrounding her companions in a protective cocoon of cold. Frost spread rapidly across their melting forms, flash-freezing the damaged areas and stabilizing their structures. The elemental creatures shuddered but held together, their bodies solidifying once more even as steam rose in thick clouds where ice battled flame.
With her companions momentarily safe, Elsa turned toward the source of the endless flames, her expression shifting to one of defensive wariness. This couldn't be the Marine's doing—the man was clearly as affected by the heat as her ice creatures were. Which meant another uninvited guest had arrived at the King's Plateau.
A voice emerged from within the fire tornado, rich and sultry, carrying an edge of genuine regret. "I'm still a step too late, Doflamingo." The speaker's tone held real disappointment, as though mourning the loss of something precious. "What a pity! I didn't expect you to be killed so easily."
The flames parted like crimson curtains, and a figure stepped through.
The woman who emerged was nothing short of breathtaking—a vision that seemed pulled from fantasy and fever dream in equal measure. She wore armor of sorts, though calling it protective gear would be generous. The fiery red plates covered only the absolute minimum, leaving vast expanses of skin exposed to the eye. Black lines traced intricate patterns across that exposed flesh, reminiscent of ancient tattoos or ritual scarification. The armor displayed everything that needed to be shown to maximize her sensual appeal: the generous swell of her chest barely contained, the curve of her hips, the length of her legs that seemed to go on forever, the narrow waist that seemed almost impossibly slender.
Every part of her body appeared to have been meticulously crafted by divine hands, each curve and line revealing perfection and overwhelming charm.
But it was her face that truly captivated. Absolutely, impossibly beautiful—the kind of beauty that could launch a thousand ships or topple empires. High cheekbones, full lips curved in a knowing smile, eyes that smoldered with banked fire and promised both pleasure and destruction.
The moment Admiral Gin's eyes fell upon that face, his body reacted without conscious thought. Heat surged through his veins—heat that had nothing to do with the flames surrounding them. His pulse quickened. His breath caught. A primal, overwhelming urge seized his mind: possess her, claim her, make her yours, take what you desire—
No.
Reason crashed back like a bucket of ice water. Gin's hand shot to his thigh and he stabbed, channeling Armament Haki through his fingers to pierce his own flesh deep enough to matter. Pain lanced up his leg, sharp and clarifying, burning away the fog of lust that had clouded his thoughts. The agony was a lifeline, something real to anchor himself to while his mind cleared.
The mysterious woman's laugh rolled through the air like honey and smoke, rich with amusement. "Using self-harm to stay sane?" Her voice carried genuine delight at his desperate measure. "It seems I still have a certain appeal to Marine Admirals after all." She tilted her head in a deliberately provocative gesture, causing her long hair to cascade over one shoulder in a wave of dark silk. "Tell me—who do you think is prettier, me or Boa Hancock?"
The question hung in the air for precisely one heartbeat.
Then Admiral Gin's body erupted in flames from the inside out.
It was like being set ablaze from within. Fire consumed his blood, turned his veins into rivers of lava, filled his lungs with smoke and ash. His vision went white-hot as the inferno raged through his internal organs, cooking him from the inside. A Vice Admiral would have been reduced to charred meat in seconds, their body unable to withstand such overwhelming heat.
But Gin was an Admiral, one of the strongest fighters the Marines could field.
Armament Haki flooded through his system in a desperate wave, coating his internal organs in protective black. Simultaneously, he pulled every drop of moisture from the surrounding air, summoning rain from the clouds above to combat the flames eating him alive from within. Water and Haki together, fighting a frantic battle against the firestorm raging inside his body.
Steam burst from his pores. His clothes began to smolder. But he remained standing, jaw clenched against the agony.
The attack triggered when I looked at her after she asked the question. Visual component confirmed. Auditory trigger as well—the question itself was the setup. This isn't just Devil Fruit power. She's weaponized every aspect of her presence, turned seduction itself into a lethal ability.
After a brief but intense struggle, Admiral Gin arrived at his conclusion. He knew what he had to do.
The man's hands rose to his head. Without hesitation or ceremony, he drove his fingers into his ears, using controlled Haki to pierce straight through his eardrums. The world went silent—not the muffled quiet of covering one's ears, but the absolute absence of sound that came from destroying the organs of hearing themselves. Then he closed his eyes and focused inward, letting his Observation Haki expand outward to paint a picture of his surroundings through pure perception.
Blind and deaf by choice. It was the only way to suppress the power of her charm, the only defense against an enemy whose very existence was an attack.
Admiral Gin's decisive action saved his life. The flames consuming him from within began to weaken almost immediately, their fuel cut off by the removal of their trigger. Soon they guttered out entirely, leaving him trembling but alive. He had lost his vision and hearing, but he could still perceive the woman through his Observation Haki—a blazing presence of heat and power that dominated his sensory landscape.
"As far as I know," Gin said, his words slightly distorted without the ability to hear himself speak, "there was no cadre like you in Doflamingo's forces." His tone remained level despite the pain wracking his body. "Do you want to be an enemy of the Marines for a dead man?"
The mysterious woman watched the Admiral's struggle with undisguised amusement. Seeing the man drenched in sweat, his body trembling from the aftereffects of her attack, she couldn't help but laugh again. The sound rolled through the ruins like music, rich and intoxicating. Her chest bounced with the movement, the two generous peaks barely contained by her minimal armor shifting in a display that would have destroyed the composure of lesser men.
Admiral Gin, having learned his lesson, kept his eyes firmly shut. He was terrified of being attacked by the fire charm again, unwilling to risk even a glimpse of the woman who had nearly killed him with nothing more than her appearance.
Even Elsa, who had been watching this entire exchange with growing alarm and fascination, found herself momentarily transfixed. She had to admit, however reluctantly, that this mysterious woman who had appeared so suddenly was the most beautiful, most charming, and most undeniably sexy woman she had ever laid eyes upon. In her heart, Elsa thought that this woman could genuinely compete with Boa Hancock herself for the title of most beautiful woman in the world. The competition would be fierce, but this stranger had the weapons to win.
"Are you so afraid of seeing me?" The woman's voice carried a teasing lilt, playful and dangerous in equal measure. "Open your eyes and look at me carefully." Her smile sharpened into something that promised both revelation and threat. "Maybe I'll tell you a lot of things."
Character Note: Daughter of former Pirate King Gol D. Roger, Flame Empress Ann, User of the Logia-type Mera Mera no Mi (Flame-Flame Fruit)
A single woman bringing such overwhelming pressure to a Marine Admiral—this was a dilemma that Gin had never encountered in his entire career. He had faced countless powerful enemies, fought Devil Fruit users of every variety, clashed with pirates whose bounties ran into the hundreds of millions. But he had never before been rendered so helpless by someone he couldn't even look at without risking death.
Moreover, he had no idea what this witch's specific purpose might be. Her motivations remained opaque, her intentions unclear. And he was trapped in a passive situation where he could neither see nor hear, forced to rely solely on Observation Haki to track her movements and track her mouth to hear what she was saying while she held every advantage.
Gin's mind raced, trying to puzzle out the mystery. He used his "clever little brain," as he thought of it with grim humor, to guess at the possibilities. Could this mysterious woman standing before him be Doflamingo's lover? Had she come to avenge her fallen partner, to punish those responsible for his death?