Tokikake

"Finally, I won." Opening his eyes, Doflamingo casually rubbed his chest, as if he could still feel the phantom pain of Goriki's final punch.

Fortunately, he could barely feel any bottlenecks in developing his Illusion Fruit ability. By now, his intangibility had improved again, and he could even make Chidori, the Grade Sword he had used for years, enter an intangible state as well.

Of course, Doflamingo had now discovered another flaw in intangibility: there was no way to remain completely intangible. Even if he succeeded in becoming fully intangible, he had to revert immediately after an instant, or he would completely lose himself in a void-like dream, just like smoke.

This meant that intangibility could only be used as an emergency evasive maneuver or an armor-piercing move during an attack. It could not be used like Uchiha Obito's in Naruto, allowing him to pass through walls and the ground while letting others hit him for several minutes first.

Moreover, intangibility consumed far too much stamina. Even after another year had passed and Doflamingo had grown considerably stronger, he still could not afford too much expenditure in battle.

After gathering his things and leaving his officer's quarters, Doflamingo headed out. Thanks to the military achievements he had earned a year ago, he was now a lieutenant commander, effectively second only to Captain Alexander.

The passing Marines hurriedly saluted upon seeing him. Before long, he arrived at the naval branch office, where Rear Admiral Gulmi was already seated. He had been dispatched from G2 Base as the escort officer responsible for transporting outstanding Marine talents from this sea to the Navy Headquarters' Elite Training Camp.

He glanced over the other trainees headed for the Navy Training Camp and found no one Doflamingo knew. "Lieutenant Commander Steve, reporting!"

In Sea Calendar Era 1495, two years before Roger became the Pirate King, fourteen-year-old Doflamingo left the Water 7 naval branch and boarded a warship bound for Navy Headquarters.

Marineford, Navy Headquarters, was a place every ambitious Marine yearned for.

Nothing else needed to be said—just the ranks at Navy Headquarters alone showed its status. The same rank there stood three grades above its equivalent in the branches.

And the only way for branch officers to enter Headquarters was through the Navy Elite Training Camp.

After arriving at Navy Headquarters, Doflamingo joined the fifth class of the Navy Elite Training Camp and began his training journey at Headquarters.

After nearly two years of growth, Doflamingo removed his glasses, put on a little makeup, and slightly altered the shape of his face with an optical illusion. Thus, "Steve," a Marine officer completely different from who he had been two years ago, was born.

Powerful people with sufficiently advanced Observation Haki could sense mental illusions, but optical illusions merely fooled the naked eye. As long as the changes were not too drastic, others truly could not identify him.

The senses derived from Observation Haki differed somewhat from normal eyesight. If the discrepancy between how a person looked to the naked eye and how they appeared through Observation Haki was too great, it was naturally easy to tell they were disguised. But if the difference was slight, it would simply be overlooked.

On his first day in the training camp, Doflamingo had been somewhat afraid that others would see through him. But when even Zephyr, the camp's Chief Instructor, turned a blind eye to his illusion, he finally relaxed.

After two days of acclimation training, they were gathered by Chief Instructor Zephyr on the third day to begin formal training.

On the elevated platform stood Zephyr, purple-haired and heavily muscled. Once he saw that all the trainees had arrived, he waved a hand.

"All of you are the pride of your respective branches, but even so-called geniuses come in different grades."

"Now is the time to determine your grades and strength. Start fighting. Let me see what you can do."

After saying those two sentences, Zephyr did not waste any more words. He immediately divided all the training camp members into groups and began a combat elimination tournament.

"That's certainly decisive." Doflamingo quietly grumbled. Comparing him to those leaders who loved holding long, tiresome meetings every day, he gained some understanding of this Navy Admiral's personality.

As for the competition? Doflamingo was not boasting—he believed that even among every training camp class in history, his strength was in a league of its own.

Only the Three Admirals and Garp's son, Dragon, could be stronger than him! And that was with age factors taken into account.

"Urgh!" After once again extending Chidori's scabbard and knocking a trainee from the East Blue flying, Doflamingo could not help yawning.

These trainees could not be called weak, but they were not particularly strong either. Roughly speaking, they were about on par with Andrew of the Three-Headed Hydra Pirates, whom he had encountered at the very beginning. Naturally, they were no match for him now.

Seated on the elevated platform, Zephyr watched the battles below. As he looked at Doflamingo, a flash of delight passed through his eyes. "This trainee named Steve is only sixteen this year, if I remember correctly?"

"Yes, Admiral Zephyr." The officer standing beside him checked the roster in his hand and nodded.

"At that age, he already has this level of strength. If he acquires a sufficiently powerful Devil Fruit, he might truly have some hope of becoming an Admiral."

Of course, it was only a little hope. He was still far inferior to those three monsters who had already secured Admiral positions, Zephyr thought to himself.

Still, a smile appeared on his face. "The quality of this class is quite good, second only to the first three classes. There are actually two talents at the Admiral Candidate level."

Yes, two talents at the Admiral Candidate level. On the arena, Doflamingo was looking at the "acquaintance" who had jumped in front of him.

He had a round face and wore a bowler hat. Combined with his unfashionable clothes, he gave off a comical impression.

Thanks to Oda, all the major characters he drew were highly distinctive. So despite having transmigrated here many years ago, Doflamingo still recognized this fellow who looked like a comedy performer when he saw that outfit. He was the Navy's Admiral Candidate, Chaton Tokikake.

"Sure enough, people shouldn't casually raise flags. I had just started thinking I was pretty impressive, and now a powerful character has popped up to slap me in the face."

Though he muttered this under his breath, a smile appeared at the corner of Doflamingo's mouth.

After so many years of hard training, Doflamingo was no longer the ordinary young man he had once been in a law-governed society. He no longer feared battle in the slightest, and had even developed the heart of a strong man who yearned for worthy opponents.

Perhaps Doflamingo had long noticed this change in his mentality, but he welcomed it. Only with such a mindset could he truly reach the summit in the future and completely overthrow the Celestial Dragons.

On the platform, the referee glanced at the two of them. "Steve versus Tokikake. Begin!"