The Scent of Breath

Inside Barrels's hideout, Doflamingo, draped in a flamingo-feather coat, wore a gloomy expression as he looked down at the sprawled Barrels. Veins bulged on his forehead.

"Useless trash! You couldn't even keep watch over the Op-Op Fruit. Keeping you alive is just a waste of food!"

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and the bullet pierced Barrels's skull.

Doflamingo could not even be bothered to spare him a glance. He casually tossed the pistol to Pica behind him and asked with a frown,

"Where are Buffalo and Baby 5? Why haven't they found that bastard yet? And didn't I tell them to monitor the Marines' signals? Why hasn't there been any news?!"

The extraordinarily tall Pica hesitated for a moment before answering in his distinctive shrill voice,

"Buffalo and Baby 5 have disappeared. Diamante took Jora and Lao G to look for them, but there has been no sign of them yet."

Doflamingo frowned deeply and stared at Pica until sweat broke out all over his body.

After a moment, Doflamingo withdrew his gaze, his face filled with anger.

The Op-Op Fruit had been stolen...

Vergo had been abducted by someone of unknown identity...

Buffalo and Baby 5, who had gone to search for the enemy, had disappeared...

One unforeseen incident after another made him increasingly irritated. Ever since setting foot on Minion Island, it seemed as though an invisible enemy had been targeting him at every turn.

Pururururu...

The Den Den Mushi began ringing, and Doflamingo answered it irritably.

"Señor? What is it? You'd better have good news for me."

There was a moment of silence on the other end. Doflamingo could even hear Señor Pink swallowing, and a bad feeling immediately welled up inside him.

"What is it? Speak!"

"Diamante... is gone." Señor Pink spoke hesitantly. "Jora and Lao G disappeared with him.

"Bais and I found signs of a fight where they vanished, and also..."

Señor Pink paused again, and Doflamingo roared furiously,

"And what?! Explain yourself!"

Señor Pink drew a deep breath. His voice was low, but his words came quickly. "And two severed hands. They looked like they belonged to Diamante..."

Crack!

Doflamingo crushed the Den Den Mushi receiver in his hand, and Conqueror's Haki erupted from him like a volcanic explosion!

Pica's heart trembled as he dropped to one knee. Dense beads of sweat seeped from his forehead and pattered onto the ground, yet he did not dare raise a hand to wipe them away.

"Fuff... fuffuffuffu..."

Doflamingo's eerie laughter echoed through the room. Pica lowered his head even further as uncontrollable panic surged from the depths of his heart.

"Pica, can I still trust you?"

The icy question sounded above Pica's head, making his hair stand on end. He hurriedly replied,

"We will always be the family you can trust unconditionally, Young Master!"

"Is that so? Then why can't any of you get anything done?"

The cold smile on Doflamingo's face vanished completely, leaving his expression dark. His voice was low and frigid.

"Within half an hour, find the person causing trouble behind the scenes. Break all four of his limbs and bring him before me.

"If you can't do it, I'll find him myself. And while I'm at it, I'll clean out the trash that has infiltrated our family."

With that, Doflamingo left the house, leaped onto the roof, and sat on the ridge in silence, watching Minion Island beneath the snowy night.

As if granted a pardon, Pica rushed out and began searching Minion Island separately with Trebol and the others, who had been just as badly frightened.

Meanwhile, in the cellar where Vergo was being held, Hina looked at the three new prisoners, her heart pounding wildly.

In less than an hour, four prisoners had been added to the cellar. Including Vergo, nearly half of Doflamingo's key men were locked up here!

And the jailer...

Was Hina alone!

Even though they had all been beaten badly and restrained, and the Devil Fruit users wore Seastone shackles.

Hina still felt unbearably anxious. She wanted to step outside for some air, but she did not dare leave her post without permission. Every second felt agonizing.

But Hina did not know that someone else in the cellar was suffering even more.

That was Rosinante and Law, huddled in the corner.

Sharing a room with Vergo had already made them extremely uneasy, but then Buffalo had been thrown into the cellar.

Just when they had finally grown accustomed to Buffalo's presence, Kane came running in with Diamante and the other two slung over his shoulder.

Rosinante, who had been pretending to be unconscious, had nearly failed to keep up the act. Fortunately, Hina was not paying attention to him, allowing him to muddle through.

"Law..."

Rosinante enveloped himself and Law in Silent Room, then softly called out, rousing Law from his stunned daze.

"How well have you mastered the Op-Op Fruit's abilities? Can you switch the positions of people and objects yet?"

"Uh... not yet." Law gently shook his head, then scratched his head excitedly. "I think staying here is pretty safe too. Maybe that guy Kane can defeat Doflamingo!"

"No, that's impossible. You don't know how terrifying Doffy is."

Rosinante said urgently, "The more family officers Kane defeats, the angrier Doffy will become, and the more dangerous the situation will be.

"Besides, he's right. The Marines are watching us too, so we have to escape as soon as possible.

"If it comes down to it, you can escape by yourself..."

"No!" Law's gaze was incomparably firm. "I'm taking Mr. Cora with me!"

Outside the cellar, Kane and Cuckoo cleaned up the traces, then chose a direction and swiftly left.

"The Birdcage is shrinking faster."

Kane suddenly spoke. Through his bat clone, he could see the Birdcage visibly contracting.

"It seems Doflamingo has been driven to the edge and is doing everything he can to force me out."

"So the plan worked?"

"That's right, but it also means we'll be in greater danger before Vice Admiral Tsuru arrives."

Cuckoo followed closely behind Kane while activating her Observation Haki to stay alert.

Her Observation Haki was not as strong as her Armament Haki, but she could vaguely sense four people scattered within a hundred meters around Kane.

Could what Kane said be true?

Were there really pirate hunters from Sniper Island?

Cuckoo could not help doubting herself, but her footsteps did not slow in the slightest. Her eyes remained fixed on Kane, unwilling to look away even for a moment.

Black hair, mature wheat-colored skin, muscles whose contours could not be completely concealed even by his thick winter clothes, and those strong, warm arms.

She had never carried out a mission with Kane before, much less observed him from such a close distance when it was just the two of them.

She did not know when she had begun to like Kane, but the time that had left the deepest impression on her was a training session two years ago.

Back then, she had been instructing the training as an instructor. Again and again, she knocked Kane to the ground, yet again and again, he rose back to his feet just to land a single hit on her.

She remembered that Kane had eventually managed to punch her. It had been a weak, feeble blow, his fist covered in wounds, and even the arm supporting it had trembled without end.

Yet through that fist, which carried not the slightest bit of killing power, she could somehow feel its owner's will.

From then on, she began paying attention to the lists of Marines coming from the Four Seas branches to Marine Headquarters for training. Whenever she saw Kane's name, she would apply to be his instructor.

Because of that, she clearly remembered every time she had seen Kane afterward, and she had personally witnessed how crazily he had grown stronger.

The memories that suddenly surfaced left Cuckoo's thoughts strangely unsettled. She found that being able to gaze at Kane so openly was not bad at all, so her eyes lingered on him even more boldly.

Then she noticed the misty white breath Kane exhaled.

As Kane ran, that breath drifted from his shoulders behind him like smoke, passing right through a spot within her reach.

Cuckoo's gaze was drawn to it, and a trace of curiosity arose in her heart.

While keeping an eye on Kane, she pretended to brush back her hair. Her raised hand passed directly through the white mist he had exhaled.

In the snowy night, the warmth was especially distinct. She felt as though a warm breeze had brushed over her hand, leaving a damp sensation in her palm.

She subconsciously clenched her hand, and it seemed that the heart in her chest clenched with it.

Cuckoo watched the white mist repeatedly sweep past her, and her heart suddenly thumped hard twice.

The next moment, her steps shifted slightly as if guided by some unseen force. The mist brushed past her cheek and drifted away, leaving behind a warm dampness on her face.

Cuckoo's breathing abruptly became uneven. The breath from her delicate nose mixed with Kane's breath blowing toward her.

Her eyes suddenly lit up, as if she had found something amusing. She began adjusting her breathing, exhaling whenever Kane's breath drifted toward her.

Watching her breath and Kane's entwine and churn in the night wind until they became indistinguishable and floated away behind them, Cuckoo could not stop the delight rising in her heart.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her wrist. Startled, Cuckoo's breathing faltered, and she directly inhaled the breath drifting from Kane's shoulder!

In an instant, Cuckoo seemed to have been struck by a freezing spell. She felt caught between inhaling and exhaling, the breath lodged in her chest as her fair face flushed pink.

Kane had already pulled her beneath a thick tree. He pointed toward the sky and said in a low voice,

"Doflamingo's people are in the air again."

Cuckoo subconsciously looked up and saw a burly man holding a huge shield floating through the sky, his gaze constantly sweeping over the ground below.

"Hm? Why are you holding your breath? You don't need to be that cautious. Just keep your voice down."

"...Mm."

Under Kane's gaze, Cuckoo hesitated slightly. Then, as if she had made some sort of decision, she took a deep breath and swallowed it into her stomach, her lowered face flushed with a radiant red.

Kane's breath...

Smelled like pine...