If You Can't Get Away, Behave Yourself

Dust from the shattered stone still hung over the estate, and rubble continued to fall from the half-collapsed wall.

Ron and Rosinante walked back one behind the other, their footsteps crunching over the rubble.

Doflamingo looked not at Ron first, but at Rosinante.

"Corazon."

His gaze swept over his younger brother's shoulders and back.

"That brat didn't hurt you again, did he?"

Rosinante shook his head, indicating that he was fine.

Doflamingo stared at him for a few more seconds, and only after confirming that his brother had no new injuries did his tense shoulders relax slightly.

Then he turned and gave Ron a dark look. "Done looking around?"

"Nothing special."

Ron glanced around the wrecked hall.

"The decor's pretty ugly."

"What did you say?!" Diamante, who had just crawled out of the wall, glared and put his hand on his sword hilt again.

"Shut up."

Doflamingo barked the order at him.

Rosinante lowered his head, pressing his lips together to keep from laughing, though he felt a little bitter inside.

His brother's concern just now had been genuine.

But he also remembered all too clearly how their father had died.

Both things were true.

Looking at his brother's back as he still instinctively stood in front of him, Rosinante suddenly recalled Ron's earlier warning.

If the day came when his identity was exposed, would this man still ask first whether he was hurt?

He didn't dare think any further.

Just then.

Boom!!

A tremendous blast erupted, shaking the entire estate.

Outside the window, a thick plume of black smoke rose from the direction of the harbor, shooting into the sky.

"Young master! Bad news!"

A blood-covered Family member came scrambling inside.

"The Black Whale Pirates are attacking! Twelve warships in all, and they've already started bombarding the harbor!"

Trebol's expression changed.

"Damn it! Those bastards must have been watching us from nearby all along!"

"Black Whale Horn?"

Doflamingo's face darkened.

"He seized three of our arms ships last time, and he still dares to come here?"

Trebol gritted his teeth. "That guy has a bounty of 310 million, and over a thousand men under him!"

"They're clearly here to fight us to the death!"

If they fought head-on, even if the Family won, they would pay dearly for it.

"And it had to happen now..."

Trebol sniffed back his snot, his expression grim.

Diamante clutched his chest and stepped forward. "Young master, I'll go gather our men!"

"No rush."

Ron had already walked over to the window and was looking out at the sea.

Dark sails crowded the water outside the harbor. Cannonballs trailed fire as they slammed into the warehouse district, while merchants on shore screamed and scattered.

Another cannonball landed on the edge of the residential district. A wooden house burst into flames, and a woman holding a child stumbled and fell by the roadside. The pirates aboard the ships laughed as they adjusted their cannons.

Ron looked on, and the casual smile on his face vanished completely.

"I didn't expect a pirate crew this big to be hiding in the North Blue."

Doflamingo shot him an irritated glance. "What did you expect?"

"This is the North Blue. Did you think it was some other sea?"

"They've committed plenty of crimes, haven't they?"

"They're a lot worse than me."

Doflamingo sneered. "What, is the esteemed Marine going to meddle now?"

Ron didn't answer. He casually opened a spatial door, took out Zhenyuan, and strapped it to his back.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to work."

"..."

For a moment, Doflamingo was too choked up to speak.

A little later, the group caught up with Ron at the harbor.

Ron stood alone at the very front of the dock, his white Marine coat snapping in the sea breeze.

At the center of the fleet opposite them, Black Whale Horn stood at the bow with a massive boarding axe in hand, laughing loudly.

"Hahahaha! Doflamingo! I hear the Marines have their eye on you!"

"Perfect! Tonight, I'll take your warehouses and territory too!"

"Fire!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dozens of cannonballs came whistling toward them, trailing flames. The people on shore instinctively dropped to the ground.

Ron raised a hand.

Click.

A gigantic Air Door appeared out of nowhere across the front of the harbor. The cannonballs plunged into it one after another without so much as a sound.

The next second, several spatial doors opened at once among the twelve warships!

Rumble!!

The cannonballs came back the way they had come, exploding squarely on the decks of the ships that had fired them.

Two warships burst into flames on the spot, their masts snapping with a crack. The entire fleet descended into chaos.

"Where did those cannonballs come from?!"

"Captain! Someone sent the cannonballs back!"

Black Whale Horn roared, "Hold steady, damn it! What are you panicking for?!"

The next moment.

Ron's gaze turned cold.

Boom!

Invisible Conqueror's Haki swept across the sea like a scythe.

On several pirate ships near the shore, ordinary pirates rolled their eyes back and fell in droves, unable even to scream.

Doflamingo's expression shifted.

This Conqueror's Haki was even more terrifying than what had pressed down on him earlier!

Clang!

Zhenyuan left its sheath.

Ron didn't even enter the water. Standing on the dock, he swung his sword horizontally toward the sea.

Crack!

A main warship at the head of the fleet split neatly in two from bow to stern!

With another casual swing of Zhenyuan, black lines appeared simultaneously across the hulls of two warships sailing side by side. Amid the crews' screams, the hulls slowly slid apart.

The fleet's orderly formation had been forcibly cut into three or four sections!

Trebol forgot to sniff back his snot.

"That was a fucking slash?!"

Diamante gripped his sword hilt tightly.

He had clearly seen Ron swing his sword, but he hadn't seen how the slash reached those warships at all.

"Doflamingo! Did you fucking join the Marines?!"

Black Whale Horn roared in fury, "Kill him!"

Three officers charged out of the wrecked ships at once.

The fastest stepped on a mast and leaped forward, moving so quickly he became a blur.

Click.

A door suddenly opened in the air before him.

Ron stepped through, his blade sweeping lightly past.

The man fell straight into the sea without even a grunt.

The second man was covered in Armament Haki and charged forward with an iron shield as tall as he was. "My defense is—"

Zhenyuan came down on his head, shattering the shield and its Armament Haki alike. The man was cleaved straight in two.

The third man stood at a distance, firing explosive rounds in rapid succession, but when an Air Door opened, his attacks flew straight out behind him.

Boom!

"Useless!"

Horn stood at the bow of the flagship and let out a roar.

He thrust hard with his legs and leaped high into the air, soaring straight over the sea!

His massive boarding axe, coated in Armament Haki, came crashing down toward Ron on the dock!

Ron raised his sword horizontally to block.

Clang!

The tremendous clash of metal made everyone's ears ache, and the shockwave overturned several rows of cargo crates on shore.

Doflamingo's gaze sharpened slightly.

With that man's strength, facing him head-on would be anything but easy.

But Ron didn't even frown.

"Not bad strength."

Before he had finished speaking, Zhenyuan shoved back with sudden force!

Crack!

The skin between Horn's thumb and forefinger split open, blood streaming out, and his boarding axe nearly flew from his grip.

He roared and lunged again. Ron stepped aside from the axe blade and drove a heavy kick into his lower abdomen.

Bang!

Horn screamed as he was sent flying back toward the flagship!

Boom! Boom!

He smashed through two decks in succession before finally crashing into the stern.

He pushed himself up from the floor, blood pouring from his mouth.

"Monster..."

If he kept fighting, he would really die!

He turned and rushed into the wheelhouse, grabbing the helmsman by the collar.

"Get the ship moving! Head for the open sea, now!"

The battered flagship turned sharply and sped away as fast as it could.

Horn leaned against the doorframe and looked back.

Ron was still standing where he had been at the harbor.

He didn't follow?

Horn had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Click.

"Dimensional Slash: Chaos."

More than a dozen black spatial rifts appeared directly across the flagship's hull.

Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, they covered the entire ship in an instant.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!

The bow shifted out of place, the deck broke apart, and the mainmast slid down in two.

The relief had yet to fade from Horn's face when several black lines appeared across his body. He was cut into more than a dozen pieces along with the entire ship.

Rumble!!

The enormous wreckage crashed into the sea, sending huge waves surging skyward.

The Black Whale Pirates' core fighters sank completely into the North Blue along with their flagship.

Silence fell over the harbor.

The members of the Donquixote Family stood where they were, looking at one another. No one dared speak.

Doflamingo stared fixedly at the sea.

Twelve warships, over a thousand pirates.

Even Horn hadn't lasted more than a few moves.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

What if those sword strikes had been aimed at my estate?

Ron sheathed his sword and walked back at a leisurely pace.

There was hardly a speck of blood on his white coat.

As he passed Doflamingo, he suddenly stopped.

"Where were we?"

Doflamingo pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Ron thought for a moment, then said, "Oh."

He reached out and gently patted Doflamingo on the shoulder.

"If you can't get away, behave yourself."