Little Navigator

After the Navy Training Camp announced that there would be a practical combat assessment, Doflamingo immediately began making preparations.

For one thing, every ship needed at least three essential professions: a doctor, a navigator, and a shipwright.

The importance of a navigator went without saying, and on the disease-prone seas, a doctor was absolutely indispensable as well.

Shipwrights might not seem very conspicuous, but they were actually vital members of any crew. After a battle, whether a ship sank or could barely keep sailing often depended on the shipwright's skills.

Besides the Elite Training Camp, the Navy also had schools specifically training navigators, shipwrights, and doctors. Although the specialists trained by those schools were not particularly strong in combat, they were indispensable throughout the Navy.

The students trained by those schools would be the crew members undergoing the test alongside them, and they also needed to earn results in this practical assessment.

Since they were students, there were naturally outstanding ones and useless ones. In that case, if they did not hurry up and pick the best ones first, were they supposed to wait until only the leftovers remained?

After hearing Doflamingo's analysis, Tokikake could no longer sit still and went with him to the Navy School to recruit people.

Then Doflamingo watched as Tokikake picked out two curvy little beauties to serve as his navigator and doctor.

Doflamingo had nothing to say about Tokikake's choices. He himself would definitely judge by ability, not looks.

Then...

"Hmm? You're the top student in the entire Navigator Academy?"

Doflamingo kept a straight face as he looked at the girl before him.

Calling her a girl was already a stretch. The little brat only came up to his thigh; she was clearly just an eleven- or twelve-year-old child!

"Hehehe! That's right, I'm the best navigator at the Navy School right now! Kikyo, at your service!"

The girl raised her little freckled face, looking incomparably proud.

Doflamingo rubbed his temples. "Kikyo? With a name like that, are you from Wano Country?"

Before he had transmigrated, he had watched an anime called Inuyasha. One of its shrine maidens had been named Kikyo, leaving a deep impression on him.

But the little girl in front of him, with her tail practically sticking up into the sky, had none of the elegant, calm demeanor of the Kikyo from that anime.

"No, no, no." Miss Kikyo shook her head. "I'm from Flower Country in the West Blue!"

"Flower Country, I see." Doflamingo thought about it. Kikyo seemed to be the name of a flower as well, so it made sense for people from Flower Country to use flower names.

However, his current thought was: Can I return this little brat?

Going out to sea was no joke. Bringing along such a young little girl left Doflamingo feeling uneasy.

Miss Kikyo seemed to see through Doflamingo's concerns and pouted. "Do you

think I'm dead weight?"

Doflamingo did not feel the slightest embarrassment as he nodded. "Yes. You're quite a burden."

Miss Kikyo immediately flew into a rage and stomped on Doflamingo's toe.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Doflamingo rolled his eyes as he watched little Kikyo hopping around while clutching her foot.

What a joke. Did she think his Armament Haki was for show?

"Damn it, you cheapskate! I'm so mad!" Little Kikyo puffed out her cheeks, looking like an angry frog. Two tears hung in her eyes, making her look like she was on the verge of crying. "I'm telling you, once you pick me, you can't return me. I'm following you no matter what."

Doflamingo sighed. He had not expected to choose such a little tyrant.

Still, he glanced again at the report card in his hand. Although little Kikyo was young, her grades truly stood head and shoulders above the rest, far surpassing the other navigators.

Thinking it over carefully, it was not such a big deal. After all, the Pirate World had never lacked child prodigies. This was a world where talent reigned supreme.

And seeing the little girl's pitiful expression, if she really got returned, it would definitely affect her future grades.

Fine. Doflamingo waved a hand. "All right, you pass."

The clouds on little Kikyo's face instantly cleared. "Hehehe, hmph. You made the right decision."

Honestly, little Kikyo had been nervous just now. If she really got sent back, would her classmates not laugh themselves to death at her expense?

What she feared most was that, after being returned once, others would refuse to let her board their ships the moment they saw her age. Then her score for this practical assessment would be nothing but a big fat zero.

Fortunately, Doflamingo accepted her in the end.

After selecting the most important navigator, Doflamingo went on to choose the best doctor and shipwright. Fortunately, there were no more complications this time.

The doctor was a refined young man wearing glasses, while the shipwright was a muscular brute.

The doctor knew a little gunplay and swordsmanship, while the shipwright had even awakened Armament Haki. For some reason, he had chosen to further his studies in shipbuilding.

Naturally, Doflamingo was quite pleased with that. For this assessment, he had not planned to use any large warship. A small vessel carrying only a dozen or so people was his best choice.

With fewer people, they naturally needed elites all the more. It would be best if they could handle multiple roles.

Bringing along little Kikyo, a burden, was troublesome enough. If even the doctor and shipwright held them back, then no matter how strong he was, he probably would not be able to achieve good results in the assessment.

After choosing the most important positions on the ship, Doflamingo was much more casual about the other sailors. In any case, he was not counting on these Navy grunts to fight.

Headquarters directly assigned him a Navy Petty Officer as his deputy, who brought along more than a dozen subordinate sailors. Doflamingo waved his hand, and everyone boarded the ship and set off!

Marineford, Navy Headquarters, was located at the end of the first half of the Grand Line. Ahead lay Paradise, while behind it was the New World.

According to the original timeline, Roger would reach the summit and become the Pirate King next year. The New World was currently a complete mess, and no matter how confident Doflamingo was in himself, he did not dare head there to get beaten up.

Never mind the three strongest Pirate Crews of the moment: the Roger Pirates, Golden Lion's pirate ship, and the Whitebeard Pirates. Never mind Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, the rising stars who would become future Four Emperors.

Even after the Rocks Pirates were defeated and disbanded, the remaining second-tier Great Pirates, such as Captain John and Ochoku, were enough to beat Doflamingo black and blue.

At this point in time, those pirates had not yet retired or died and were still active on the seas. Therefore, the New World was far more dangerous now than it would be later, when the Four Emperors stood side by side.