Reinforcements Have Arrived

Seeing Doflamingo suspiciously survey his surroundings, Kane secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

His Haki was inferior to Doflamingo's. If they fought head-on, he would die horribly. He could only rely on his Devil Fruit ability to stall for time.

After a brief thought, he dismissed his sniper clone. Arms appeared throughout the dark corners of the forest behind him, their palms transforming into guns of varying sizes.

Pistols, rifles, grenade launchers, shotguns...

Since even Bullet with armor-piercing rounds could not injure Doflamingo, he might as well switch to a massive number of ordinary firearms. At the very least, they would be better at harassing him.

Two minutes left...

With a thought from Kane, the guns behind him unleashed a concentrated barrage!

In an instant, gunfire erupted like a raging storm. Muzzle flashes lit up the forest as all kinds of bullets surged toward Doflamingo like a tidal wave!

The enormous commotion startled Doflamingo. With nowhere to evade, he hurriedly reinforced his defenses with all his Armament Haki.

The next second, he realized that the bullets bounced away the instant they touched him, unable to harm him in the slightest.

That gave me a scare!

You shameless bastard!

Doflamingo's fury intensified. Locking his gaze on Kane, who stood far away, he was about to strike when he saw several strangely shaped iron lumps tossed at his feet.

Suddenly, one of the iron lumps exploded with a bang, and blinding white light instantly filled his entire field of vision!

Then, explosions erupted one after another beneath his feet. Flames, poison gas, and powerful shockwaves burst forth at once, swallowing Doflamingo's figure!

Kane did not dare pause for even a moment. He continuously created flash grenades, incendiary grenades, gas grenades, stun grenades, and more, hurling them endlessly toward Doflamingo.

The explosions of all kinds of grenades rang out in rapid succession, even drowning out the dense gunfire for a time.

Just as Kane thought he could successfully stall for two minutes, Doflamingo, engulfed by poison gas and firelight, suddenly let out a furious roar.

"Despicable insect! Die!"

Countless threads shot out like sharp arrows, racing straight toward Kane.

Kane was about to dodge when the ground beneath his feet suddenly softened. Looking down in horror, he saw that the once-solid earth had turned into soft, tangled threads.

In his haste, Kane coated his entire body in Haki and leapt with all his strength using Geppo, trying to evade Doflamingo's razor-sharp threads.

But the threads seemed to have locked onto him. They continued chasing after him, as though they would not stop until they had pierced through him!

Knowing he could not evade them, Kane gritted his teeth and raised both arms to shield his chest and abdomen.

The next moment, the threads descended like a rain of arrows. Empowered by Doflamingo's Haki, they slammed viciously into Kane's arms!

Their Haki collided, producing a rapid barrage of metallic clanging!

Kane's Haki nearly collapsed under the impact of the stronger Haki. The tremendous force sent him flying, and he fell into the distance like a meteor.

Doflamingo pressed his advantage. In the blink of an eye, he reached the spot where Kane was falling, and before he had even landed, his foot came crashing down!

Bang!

At the critical moment, Kane rolled aside and narrowly avoided it, fleeing awkwardly into the distance beneath the moonlight.

Hm?

Moonlight?

Where had moonlight come from when it was snowing?

Kane froze for a moment. Snowflakes drifted before him, yet moonlight, like silvery frost, poured down from the sky.

Looking up, he saw a silver moon hanging high overhead. Not even a single cloud remained above Minion Island.

"Clean, isn't it? I washed it."

A gentle, kindly voice came from above, and a lean figure descended from the sky.

[Tsuru's favorability has reached 41. First ability replication may begin.]

Seeing that slender face and the words of light that had suddenly appeared, Kane finally relaxed and dropped heavily onto the ground.

"You finally came. If you'd been any later, I would've been beaten to death."

"Judging by how lively you are, you should be able to live for quite a while yet."

Tsuru nodded with a smile, seemingly extremely satisfied with Kane's performance.

"I'll take that as a good sign." Kane waved a hand and excitedly opened the light screen.

[Tsuru's favorability has reached 41. First ability replication may begin.]

[Please select one of the following abilities to replicate:]

[1. Paramecia Devil Fruit · Wash-Wash Fruit (development level: 97%)]

[2. Six Powers (perfect)]

[3. Observation Haki (perfect)]

[4. Armament Haki (proficient)]

[5. Tea ceremony (proficient)]

[6. Flower arrangement (proficient)]

[7...]

The Devil Fruit's astonishing 97% development level left Kane dumbfounded. The perfect-grade Observation Haki and proficient-grade Armament Haki also made him covet them greatly.

However, compared to Haki, which he could acquire from others, the Wash-Wash Fruit was clearly the higher priority, even if Kane definitely could not reach Tsuru's level of development for now.

While Kane began replicating Tsuru's Devil Fruit ability, Doflamingo felt as sick as if he had swallowed a fly.

Ever since setting foot on Minion Island, nothing had gone his way.

And now Tsuru, who had been relentlessly pursuing and attacking him, had caught him red-handed. He was beginning to wonder whether fate itself had abandoned him.

"Long time no see, Doflamingo."

The coat bearing the word Justice fluttered behind Tsuru, forming a stark contrast to Doflamingo's flamingo-feathered coat.

"It's truly regrettable to see that you're still alive."

Doflamingo tilted his head at Tsuru, his tone icy. "So this was your trap?"

"Are you satisfied?" Tsuru neither confirmed nor denied it, merely looking at Doflamingo gently.

"I'd be more satisfied if you were dead!"

As soon as he spoke, the ground beneath Doflamingo's feet rapidly transformed into an ocean of threads. Countless threads gathered into surging waves and crashed toward Tsuru!

With a casual wave of her hand, Tsuru pushed Kane a hundred meters away before swinging both arms toward the massive wave of threads.

In an instant, vast ripples glowing with starlight spread out. Wherever they passed, the towering wave of threads became like tame kittens, docilely lying flat on the ground as though they had been washed clean.

Yet while the thread waves on the ground were subdued, the Birdcage in the sky transformed into sharp arrows and shot downward, like ten thousand arrows unleashed at once, straight toward the motionless Tsuru.

Tsuru raised her hand and stirred the air. Vortex-like ripples appeared from nowhere, pulling countless threads into them as if they had fallen into a washing machine.

Watching from afar, Kane was stunned by the sight. Doflamingo was practically being completely countered by Tsuru. After all, how could loose threads possibly fight a washing machine?

As Kane clicked his tongue in admiration, footsteps suddenly sounded behind him. Turning around, he saw two female Marine officers supporting the disheveled Cuckoo as they approached him.

[Cuckoo, favorability: 78]

[Grey Pigeon's favorability has reached 35. First ability replication may begin.]

[Swift's favorability has reached 39. First ability replication may begin.]

Grey Pigeon was tall, wore an afro, and carried an enormous gun. She was a sniper who also trained in martial arts.

Swift was petite, with black hair. She was a rare expert who had mastered the Six Powers to the perfect level.

With abilities delivered right before him, Kane immediately began replicating them without hesitation.

He replicated Grey Pigeon's proficient-grade Observation Haki, then replicated Swift's perfect-grade Six Powers.

"Kane, not bad!"

Grey Pigeon stepped forward and slapped Kane's shoulder with her large hand, producing booming thuds.

"Not bad... cough, cough!"

Kane coughed from her slaps, then asked curiously, "How did you get in while the Birdcage was still up?"

"Captain Tsuru washed it a little thinner, and we slipped through."

Grey Pigeon shrugged indifferently, clearly implying that similar things had happened more than once.

After a moment of silence, Cuckoo slowly walked over to Kane's side and said casually:

"Grey Pigeon and Swift helped me subdue Trebol. We've already had Hina keep watch over him."

Swift, who had remained silent, watched Cuckoo casually move closer to Kane. Her brows rose, and an amused, knowing smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

Pretending to be careless, she stepped forward and seemed to accidentally bump Cuckoo with her shoulder, sending her straight toward Kane.

"Ah!"

Cuckoo cried out. Her intense battle with Trebol had left her exhausted in both body and mind, and Swift's bump carried a subtle force that made her body tilt as she fell toward Kane.

Kane was sitting cross-legged and catching his breath. Cuckoo suddenly landed on him, and he instinctively reached out to catch her, pulling her directly into his arms.

"Q-quick, let me go!"

Cuckoo struggled to stand, her entire face already flushed bright red.

Especially when those familiar, sturdy arms held her, her thoughts became completely muddled.

But this time was different from last time. Because Kane was sitting cross-legged, Cuckoo could clearly feel that something beneath her did not seem quite right!

And as she struggled, something seemed to have been awakened and was slowly raising its head.

Realizing what she might be sitting on, Cuckoo's face turned so red it looked ready to bleed.

Swift watched the scene before her with shining eyes. Only when a misty sheen appeared in Cuckoo's eyes did she finally reach out and pull her up, all while repeatedly apologizing.

Cuckoo looked at Swift resentfully, seeming as though she wanted to speak but could not. It was impossible to tell whether she blamed Swift for bumping her or for pulling her up too soon.

"Doflamingo is trying to escape."

Grey Pigeon, who had been watching the battle all along, suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention.

Sure enough, the battlefield between Doflamingo and Tsuru had begun shifting toward the shore.

Kane could not help but worry. In the original story, Doflamingo had successfully escaped.

"Is... is this going to be okay?"

"Don't worry. He can't escape."

Grey Pigeon said with certainty, "Thanks to your intelligence, Captain Tsuru washed away the clouds over the nearby sea. Doflamingo can no longer escape by using his threads to latch onto the clouds.

"And we've already sunk his ship. As a Devil Fruit user, he can't swim through the sea.

"So from now on, he can only live in Impel Down."