"Giving you a chance?"
With his hands in his pockets, Austin led Mihawk, Crocodile, Kuma, Enel, and Doflamingo forward.
After hesitating for a moment, Hanafuda and Moria gritted their teeth and followed.
It was not that they wanted to follow; there was only one path to the reception hall.
Austin held out his hand. Doflamingo froze for a moment before realizing that Austin wanted a cigar from his suit pocket.
But Crocodile was faster. She casually pulled one from her coat and handed it to Austin.
Then she shot Doflamingo a glance, as though openly provoking and dismissing him.
Doflamingo gritted his teeth.
That Crocodile bastard...
But then he remembered the lighter in his other pocket and was just about to take it out.
Before he could, however, a spark crackled in midair.
With a snap of his fingers, Enel discharged just a few hundred volts, lighting the cigar.
Doflamingo: ...
"Phew..."
Slowly exhaling a puff of smoke, Austin turned to look at Doflamingo, whose expression was wary and grim.
"Say, Doffy, as the first Shichibukai I placed high hopes on, I think I've treated you fairly well, haven't I?"
Austin could not exactly say he was disappointed. Doflamingo had been psychologically twisted since childhood and was often dishonest in the way he handled matters.
Although his use of the Hobby-Hobby Fruit had gone a little too far, and he did not like reporting his actions upward, he had never truly crossed any lines.
The underground world bosses who had disappeared were all people who had once clashed with Doflamingo in business. Austin did not oppose business competition between them.
But this underworld method of making people vanish completely without leaving a trace was something this big boss truly disliked.
He simply hated the feeling of being kept in the