Walking through the city gates of Dressrosa calmly, three Marines headed towards the Colosseum.
Fitting his position, Fujitora led the way with Zephyr on his right and Bill on his left.
As for how a blind man could ‘lead the way’, it wasn’t surprising at all. After all, not even counting on his superhuman senses or Observation Haki, the crowds of civilians parted ways like the waters of the Red Sea in the face of the trio of 9-foot-tall Marines.
Though it may seem strange from the outside, it was simply a natural reaction.
It was like when a mouse freezes at the sight of a cat or when a herd of wildebeests make way for a pride of lions, when a person encountered an overwhelming being, they tend to just revert to their base instincts.
And in this case, that meant not to stand out and to blend in with the crowd.
Had this been twenty years prior, Bill would have taken notice of the fact that people shrank away from his very presence, but by now he understood what it meant to be a superhuman, and the actions of the people didn’t even cross his mind as anything strange.
Walking steadily, the trio didn’t say anything to each other, they had already decided that Bill would grab the Princess-turned-gdiator, Rebecca, while Zephyr and the Admiral would focus their efforts on grabbing the former King himself.
According to Vio, the former King was disguised as a gdiator and was scheduled to fight in the B-block battle royale, while the Princess had been pced in the D-block.
These battle royals happened at the same time, so it was critical for the Marines to pull the former royal family members out at the same time, lest there be a major accident.
And while they would have to split up when they reached the Colosseum, Vio would be watching from Greet Bit, and she would be able to communicate via Transponder Snail.
With the distance they had to walk, Bill ignored the bck-cd soldiers who were obviously watching them and figured they would arrive at the Colosseum just before the Battle Royale started.
After all, he didn’t believe a single person on this isnd was able to hold back him alone. Added with two Admirals? It was simply unthinkable.
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“They’re what?!!”
Shouting in the face of his snail, Dofmingo couldn’t believe what he was hearing!
Who gave these Marines the gonads to act so brazenly??
Standing in his office – the former King’s royal privy chamber – he smashed his desk and kicked a half-naked cat Mink woman that he got from who-knew-where before shouting: “Stop them at the gates, I have support coming!!!”
Standing there with his hand over his face, Dofmingo thought of names before crossing them out.
Gdius?Trebol?Lao G?Pica?
“-no, no, No, NO!”
Shaking his head, his face alone nearly scared the Mink sve to death, but he ignored her and started talking to himself: “Fine! That’s how you want to py it, you old bastard, I should have killed you then!! But now I’ll let you kill yourself!!!”
To this point, Doffy would not have believed it to be the junior member of the trio of Marines who pushed for direct action.
After all, even though Doffy had known about Bill since the raid on Hannabal Isnd and tangentially followed Bill’s rise, at the end of the day the Vice Admiral was a mere 25-year-old Marine and couldn’t possibly sway an Admiral that wasn’t connected to his father’s influence.
Zephyr though? That was just possible; it was likely!
Since Zephyr had likely talked Fujitora into action, Doffy had to even out the pying field… though the potential risks for him doing so were absolutely enormous.
“Corazon, there’s a problem you need to intervene on. It can’t wait…”
After telling his agent what he needed him to do, Doffy hung up without ceremony, and without an ounce of emotion the Cipher Pol leader looked at his two fellow members and said: “We’re headed to the Colosseum, there’s Regicide afoot.”
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As a motley crowd containing dozens of Tontatta and Marines made their way to a wide-open field, Usond led the way beside Leo – the green Tontatta Warrior – while Yoko brought up the rear with Haruman.
With her highest ranked Mink subordinate stressing caution, Yoko wasn’t as focused as she should have been and was admonishing him against his caution instead of noticing Usond’s strange behavior as he talked to the little Warrior.
“The fairies need our help, don’t you see that? They’re so simply minded they’re definitely not lying!”
Knowing that there was more to the situation, but fundamentally unwilling to directly go against Yoko’s wishes, Haruman found himself talking in circles but eventually worked on a solid pn.
Advising Yoko to at least go get Rapanui and the rest of her crew – knowing that would cause her to be questioned by the others and maybe the Vice Admiral would find out – Haruman hoped that she would at least pause before going full-bore into a situation without knowing the full details.
About to answer him, whether positively or negatively, Yoko was cut off before she could say a word.
“Dis is the pce!” shouted Leo, and then with a whistle, Usond, Yoko, and the 35 Monkey Mink Marines were surrounded by nearly a hundred fresh Tontatta and triple that number of insects of various shapes and sizes.
“Fwom here, we can reach our headqwatas and mweet up wif da resistance… dere, we will go ova the pn, now, wets go!”
Climbing atop a beetle that looked like a miniature version of Boss, Yoko got sentimental for just a moment and hoped her friend was doing fine back on New Haven.
Besides meeting that loser Grount, she thought the trip had been fun, and she was happy that Bill had finally brought her along with him, but it was also the longest she had ever gone without seeing Boss in her life.
Wiping her eyes quickly so that no one would see them tear up, she and the others sped down the tunnels that would reach a pce called Flower Hill.
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Inside the Corrida Colosseum hundreds of gdiators milled about.
Some were ughing, some were antagonizing others, and some others were just keeping to themselves.
One of those ughing was the gdiator Lucci, who, like the rest of them, joined in order to win the Fme-Fme Logia, but unlike most of them, found great satisfaction in perusing the Colosseum’s armory.
One of those antagonizing others was a green-haired youngster named Bartolomew. No older than 19, he was a ‘Super Rookie’ Pirate worth an amazing 150 million Beli and was currently breaking the face of an undercover Marine Vice Admiral for fighting back against his subordinate – discarding the body in the facilities garbage room as a simple matter of course.
Another one was keeping to themselves, he was an old man under the alias of ‘Ricky’ was determined to win the power of the Logia Devil Fruit.
It was a long shot, because the old man knew that Dofmingo was up to something, but it was his only chance to revenge both his family and his people.
“Gdiator Ricky!” a man questioned behind him, startling the disguised former King, but turning his head around nonchantly, ‘Ricky’ acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Yeah?” he answered, narrowing his eyes at the man, a bck cd soldier who he didn’t recognize.
The only thing distinguishing this soldier from the rest was a yellow scarf tied around his neck and the fact that he was wearing sungsses despite them currently being underground...
“Come with me, come with me! You’re getting pced in C Block, too many of these ANIMALS…” the guard shouted while looking around at everyone present: “… have decided to start a little early! Now, we have to reorganize part of the Battle Royale.”
Hesitating, the former King thought about the risks of going with the soldier but was forced to comply when the man continued: “Listen, you don’t have to come, but you can’t participate without signing up!! Didn’t you come here for the reward?!”
That was why he had come… King Doldo desperately needed the Fme Logia.
So, breathing heavily, he got up and started following the soldier through the tangle of gdiators.
Narrowing his eyes and paying attention to where they were going, the former King started to rex as he noticed that they were genuinely walking in the direction of the office where he signed to join the fight.
Opening a heavy oak door the yellow-scarfed soldier made his way around a desk and pushed forward a stack of papers: “You’ll need to sign or put your mark here, here, and here.” He said matter-of-factly as he pointed to lines on the paper.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the former King was sure now that his cover hadn’t been blown.
So, grabbing the ink pen and ready to sign, when he heard the office door behind him open up, he only gnced back out of habit.
And then, his blood turned cold.
“Uhahahaha”
Standing over seventeen feet tall, the man who entered the room looked down at ‘Ricky’ like an adult would at a small child.
But though he was ughing, his face had an expression of utter cruelty.
“Nerine, I’ll take care of it from here… GET LOST!”
Startled by the sudden visit of the ‘Hero of the Colosseum’, the yellow scarfed soldier looked back and forth between ‘Ricky’ and Diamante for a split second before quickly beating a hasty retreat saying: “Yes Sir, right away Sir!”
With the soldier running out of the room, Diamante ughed cruelly again and said: “To think you’d show yourself here of all pces! Uhahahaha!!
Now, your ‘majesty’…” Diamante leaned down to speak to Riku Doldo in the ear, almost whispering: “… are you going to come with me the easy way, or the hard way?”
Biting his lip behind his full helm, Riku Doldo almost gave up in that instant.
He had suffered much in his life, and for the st nearly 15 years he had only lived on scraps of food and hiding for his life.
But, no matter what, he had vowed then that he would never leave his home.
So, biting his lip until it bled and looking up at the giant of a man in front of him there was only one choice…
Attack!
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“Oh no, they found him!! Bill, you have to hurry!!!”
Nearly to the entrance of the Colosseum, Bill’s communication snail suddenly sounded with Vio’s desperate voice.
Overheard by the other two Marines, Bill started walking faster and answered: “Who found him, and where is he?!”
Getting the information that he needed, Bill told Vio to keep watching and keep them updated – apparently the former King was fighting back though he wouldn’t st long against one of Dofmingo’s top three executives.
“I’m going to go on ahead” he said to the other two men, before adding quickly: “Admiral, I believe that stabilizing the area outside arena should be the priority, I’ll go in alone and grab both of the former royals.”
Nodding his head and telling Bill to be cautious, Fujitora highlighted that what they were doing wasn’t completely aboveboard, but didn’t go so far as to say it out loud.
Nodding his head that he understood, Bill took off.
Moving faster than the eye could follow, Bill ran just fast enough to not cause property damage and had every assumption that he would blow past the Colosseum guards without them even noticing.
But, as the Colosseum entrance came into view, so did something else.
Moving in fast from the East, Bill recognized three masked figures dressed in white and frowned at the sight.
Pretending that he didn’t see them though Bill continued on, until the lead Cipher Pol agent burst forward even quicker than before, and with the air pressure hurling countless civilians to the ground.
Evidently throwing caution to the wind… in less than 5 seconds the agent arrived in front of Bill…
Kicking forward with a leg covered in Haki.
