What a coincidence.
Even Roa couldn't help sighing as he looked at the two brothers before him.
He had gotten lost, only to run into them by such a coincidence.
It really was just as Rayleigh had said. Perhaps there were no coincidences in this world. Every chance encounter was simply fate bringing people together?
Was fate telling a sunny, cheerful young man like himself to save this brat who was destined to stray down the wrong path?
Sigh, sure enough, the greater the ability, the greater the power—no, the greater the responsibility.
Bullet, following behind Roa, carefully sized up the two brothers. He couldn't figure out why Lord Roa treated these two guys differently.
Still, although he didn't understand, Lord Roa naturally had his reasons.
While Bullet was sizing up the brothers, they were also studying Roa and Bullet, who had deliberately kept their distance from the garbage heap.
However, they were nowhere near as thorough as Bullet. After taking one panicked glance at Roa and Bullet, the two brothers turned and ran without the slightest hesitation.
Bullet immediately furrowed his brows.
The local brats were really rude!
Lord Roa had gone out of his way to greet them, and they had actually turned around and run!
They were practically begging to die!
"Are you going to keep running forever?"
The brothers' speed was laughably slow in Roa's eyes, so much so that he could still speak in a long, drawn-out tone like Kizaru. "Until when?"
Doflamingo's running pace visibly slowed.
His younger brother, Rosinante, who was running just behind him because of his age, cried out anxiously, "Big brother!!"
Doflamingo snapped out of it and gritted his teeth as he sped up.
What a sorry sight.
Roa watched the brothers' backs.
This was what the weak looked like.
Fortunately, he had been born strong.
"The crossroads of fate are right before you, Donquixote Doflamingo,"
Roa said leisurely. "Would you rather keep living as a stray dog begging for scraps in a garbage heap, or turn back and gain the power to change your fate from me? Which do you think is better?"
Doflamingo stopped.
Without the slightest hesitation, he abruptly turned around and stared fixedly at Roa in the distance.
"Big brother?"
Rosinante looked confused as he anxiously tugged at his brother's hand. "Hurry, run!"
Over the past year, he had suffered far too much. He had been hunted countless times and nearly lost his life several times. The innocent child he had once been was long gone, leaving behind only a pitiful bird frightened by every little thing.
But Doflamingo didn't want to run anymore.
Just as this inexplicable man had said, how long could he keep running?
How long would it be before he could vent all the anger and resentment filling his chest?
Doflamingo bit his lip until it bled, then forcefully shook off his brother's hand and strode toward Roa.
"Now that's more like it."
Roa nodded in satisfaction.
Without the courage to stake everything on one final gamble, what was there to say about changing one's fate?
Was Doflamingo afraid? Of course he was. The guy wasn't especially brave.
But deep down, he was even more of a gambler.
He wanted to take a chance.
"You said you were going to give me power?"
Doflamingo stopped in front of Roa. He didn't ask who Roa was or how he knew his identity. Instead, he directly asked the question he cared about most.
"If you want it."
Roa smiled.
Doflamingo suddenly clenched his fists. The veins on his forehead bulged, and his voice seemed to be forcibly squeezed out through gritted teeth. "Give it to me! Give me the power!"
"Big brother!"
Rosinante, who stood some distance behind him and didn't dare approach, was already streaming with tears.
The seven-year-old boy still didn't understand many things, but in that moment, in that place, he suddenly felt something terrifying.
His brother was leaving!
He was going somewhere Rosinante could never reach, no matter what!
"Big brother!! Let's go home!!"
The boy instinctively screamed himself hoarse. "Father is still waiting for us! Let's go home!"
But Doflamingo acted as though he hadn't heard him.
Go home?
The place he wanted to return to wasn't that dilapidated shack by the shore!
"Then,"
The nine-year-old child stared fixedly at Roa and asked, "what's the price?"
Huh?
There was only one possible answer to that question.
Roa said meaningfully, "Everything."
Doflamingo froze slightly, then viciously gritted his teeth. "I don't care!!"
What a pity, Doffy.
At a time like this, you should have answered, A Donquixote will never be a slave.
Roa sighed inwardly, but said aloud, "Wait a few minutes. What you desire is already on its way."
Bullet understood what Roa meant and looked at Doflamingo once again.
Just like what had happened with him back then, was Lord Roa going to give this brat a Devil Fruit?
Although he still couldn't see anything of value in this brat, since this was Lord Roa's judgment, there was no problem.
Doflamingo stopped looking at Roa. He lowered his head and clenched his fists, his chest heaving violently. Clearly, his emotions were far from calm.
Behind him, Rosinante's eyes were blurred with tears. After taking one last look at his brother, he turned and ran.
Something was wrong with his brother! He had to find Father.
Father would definitely have a way!
Doflamingo was also somewhat uneasy at that moment.
A complete stranger he had never seen before had said he would give him power.
There was a very high chance he was a liar.
But at this point, could things really get any worse?
He had already fallen into hell. Could he sink any lower?
His unease lasted for several minutes. Then, on the roof along one side of the street, a shadow shot over and landed lightly.
A beastlike man respectfully knelt before Roa and presented the small box in his hands.
"Thanks for the hard work, Vice Admiral Jensen."
Roa accepted the box. "When it comes to delivering things, Geppo and Soru really are the way to go."
Controlling a wraith remotely was certainly possible.
However, the prerequisite was that Roa had to understand the environment where the wraith was located well enough. Otherwise, even while controlling it, he could only make it wander around like a headless fly.
It worked best when paired with Observation Haki over an extremely long distance, but Roa's newly learned Observation Haki was still nowhere near that level.
"If you've already made up your mind,"
Roa handed the box in his hand to Doflamingo. "Then eat it."
Without the slightest hesitation, Doflamingo snatched the box, opened it, and saw the fruit inside. Even his tense face couldn't help showing delight.
It was a Devil Fruit!
As someone who had still been a Celestial Dragon before the age of eight, he naturally knew about these miraculous fruits!
They really were symbols of power!
The price was everything he had?
Doflamingo picked up the fruit and wolfed down the entire thing.
Partly because he was hungry, and partly because he truly couldn't wait.
Soon—only a few seconds after the fruit reached his stomach, while he was still baring his teeth in disgust at its taste—
"Fufufufu, power! This is power!!"
Doflamingo suddenly burst into wild laughter.
Purple fluid spread down over both his hands as the power of the Paramecia Combination Fruit began to awaken.
This kid, like Bullet, was the type who adapted to Devil Fruits with ease.
However, even Roa hadn't expected what happened next.
"Fufufufu!"
Doflamingo's laughter grew more and more unrestrained. It had come! The moment he had dreamed of! At last, at last, this day had arrived!!
Boom!!
An invisible force of spirit surged out of him.
"Oh?"
Roa pushed up the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. "Something like this too?"
He had actually awakened at this moment?
That made sense. At the critical moment of changing his fate, his emotions had reached an extreme, releasing the hidden force within him.
Behind Roa, Bullet's expression changed dramatically.
What the hell!
This guy had it too?
Before you continue