They're After Your Principal

-Dressrosa.

It was a tropical island nation in the New World with a holiday atmosphere, known as the "Land of Love, Passion, and Toys."

Most of the nation's population lived in a vast valley. Though called a valley, geographically it was more accurately a basin among hills. The difference in elevation was not enough to create a local microclimate.

A massive arched bridge running along the central axis of the circular basin divided it in two. One side held the densely populated town, with its residential districts, commercial districts, and famous colosseum. The other held a few villages and farmland.

The royal castle stood on a gigantic cylindrical platform at the center of the basin, also at the midpoint of the massive arched bridge.

...Things were rather unusual outside Dressrosa's royal castle that day. The soldiers...or rather, the Donquixote Family's lackeys stood much straighter than usual. So straight, in fact, that a little cold sweat trickled down their necks.

Dressed in a black suit and a pink feathered coat, Doflamingo had actually come outside the castle walls to welcome his guests in person. He had been lounging in the sitting room, but after hearing Gladius receive a call saying the guests were almost there, he had walked out with a grin to wait at the gates ahead of time.

Gladius and Baby 5 stood on either side of him.

"Young master, is it appropriate for you to welcome them personally?"

Gladius could not tolerate any disrespect toward the young master. Of course, facing the young master himself, he suppressed his agitation and asked softly. But body language never lied, and his exaggerated movements made his black trench coat flap noisily.

"Have a little patience, Gladius. Our guest is quite an important figure. Fufufufufu..."

"If only he needed me."

The girl with long, naturally curly black hair gazed at the horizon beyond the bridge and could not help saying that.

"Baby 5! Shut up!"

Gladius snapped at the lovestruck-looking maid. Baby 5 behaved that way toward everyone, really, but he simply could not accept how she kept causing trouble for the young master.

Baby 5 was nineteen that year. From what Gladius knew alone, she had been scammed or pressured into buying things over a thousand times. In recent years, men with ulterior motives had even proposed to her, and she had accepted every time... If the young master had not killed them beforehand each time, who knew what would have become of that foolish woman?

Though called a maid, Baby 5 did not wear a maid uniform, but a short red dress trimmed with white lace. It had little maid-style accessories, such as a maid's headdress and a small, lace-trimmed white apron tied at an angle around her waist. She wore incongruous goggles on her face and carried an oversized sword in a pink scabbard at her hip.

"Gladius, my business is none of your concern."

With her marriages repeatedly "ruined," she had even threatened to kill Doflamingo on multiple occasions. So although she and Gladius were colleagues in the special operations unit, their relationship, while not exactly terrible, was hardly good.

"Baby 5, Gladius is only worried about you. Fufufu, we're family. I don't mind a little bickering now and then, but don't take it too far..."

As long as they were not traitors, Doflamingo did not particularly mind his family's strange personal quirks. At that point, however, he broke off and adjusted his sunglasses.

"Look, our guests are here."

Several figures approached the gates from the other side of the bridge.

Diamante, one of the top executives, led the way. He wore a fur-trimmed hat and a red cape, with two markings on his face, dressed rather like some sort of tribesman.

Honestly, his fashion sense aside, his looks were fairly average, but by Donquixote Family standards, he fell within the range of normal people. Yet...beside the radiant beauty accompanying him, the contrast had become downright brutal.

"So...so handsome! No, so beautiful-"

This time, Gladius did not argue with Baby 5. He felt that the word "king" hardly suited their guest. He looked more like an angel from a fairy tale.

Broad, pure-white wings, a bright white angelic halo glowing faintly blue, golden hair, and red eyes all seemed to radiate divine light, while his handsome face was unforgettable.

His clothes were unlike anything they had ever seen, combining technological and religious elements in a style unheard of on the Blue Sea.

"Doffy, this is His Majesty Lucifer Sephiroth, and his attendants."

Diamante stepped aside and introduced them to his young master.

When a guest was important but not important enough for the young master to welcome personally at the harbor, that duty usually fell to him as one of the top executives.

Yes, Sephiroth had once again come out to conduct diplomacy as the "Human-Human Fruit, mythical Zoan, Model: Angel Form user—King of Babylon on Sky Island."

Whenever he appeared in that capacity, he usually wore Executor the Ex Foedere's outfit. Mainly to look cool-looking cool was part of diplomacy, too.

Not joining the World Government did not mean diplomacy was impossible. Some powerful non-affiliated nations continued to exist in this world for various reasons.

Weak non-affiliated nations, of course, had a much harder time.

Currently, thanks to its "air force" and "Great Angel," Babylon was widely considered a nation not to be trifled with. Moreover, any power familiar with Sky Island knew that such an environment had little in the way of mineral resources. Never mind whether an invasion was feasible; in most cases, it simply was not worth it.

As a result, Babylon's current international standing was curiously similar to that of a certain Blue Star nation with a deeply ingrained culture of gratitude.

"Fufu, welcome to Dressrosa, Lord Great Angel."

A hint of sly amusement colored Doflamingo's voice. Though he had never met this "partner" before, he had long felt acquainted with him.

In any case, in the year since making his debut, this "Great Angel" had not only frequently visited nations with good reputations, but also offered free medical treatment and disaster relief wherever he went, dealing with any pirates he encountered along the way. That was why he had been dubbed the "Great Angel."

He also frequently ventured into the New World to capture pirates with bounties exceeding a hundred million, almost as though demonstrating his strength. However, he had not touched pirates under the Four Emperors, so their crews merely kept a close eye on him. Most major powers had learned various details of his battles and judged him likely to be at Shichibukai level.

Rumor had it that both Kaido of the Beasts and Charlotte Linlin wanted to contact the Great Angel, but there was no solid evidence yet.

"A pleasure to meet you, Lord Heavenly Yaksha."

Sephiroth flashed a professional smile. In person, he did not seem nearly as aloof as his appearance and attire suggested.

The two men, each harboring ulterior motives, walked amicably down the castle corridors. As a top executive, Diamante had other work to do, so after exchanging a few pleasantries, he did not accompany them.

Along the way, Doflamingo briefly introduced the country and discussed topics such as how their joint business was doing in the New World.

Their attendants followed several paces behind, sizing one another up as well.

Baby 5's attention was entirely on the Great Angel. She did not even look at his two attendants.

Gladius, on the other hand, took his duties seriously and remained somewhat wary of the two Skypieans. Even with the young master's strength, what if they were plotting something?

The two attendants wore ornate white knight armor with religious motifs. Judging by their presence alone, he felt they were roughly on his level.

The group arrived at a luxurious reception room. Once Doflamingo and Sephiroth sat down, Baby 5 hurried off to prepare tea without waiting for instructions.

The corner of Gladius's mouth twitched. Seeing the two Sky Island knights stand to either side behind Sephiroth, making their leader look good, he took up position behind the young master's right shoulder with his head raised, as though competing with them.

Doflamingo appeared enthusiastic on the surface, but all sorts of thoughts ran through his mind, even though he had been the one to initiate this diplomatic visit.

In truth, while disguised as Babbage, Sephiroth had felt rather strange hearing Doflamingo say over the phone that he hoped Babbage could introduce him to the Great Angel.

After thinking it over carefully, he decided that since he had already saved Nami, he was already involved. There was no point agonizing over every move and leaving himself frustrated. So he had brought along two Holy Knight subordinates to keep up appearances.

They were Shura, who wielded a Flame Dial spear, and Ohm, who wielded an Iron Cloud sword.

This was another matter of personal preference. Babylon's current Holy Knight equipment was modeled after the Lateran Pontiff's knights in Arknights.

Although these two had only been at the level of Sky Island's priests in the original story, Sephiroth had strengthened them with memory crystals.

Ever since discovering that the blank Logic Modules from lunar technology could be used that way, he had thoroughly mined his memories of his previous life. Beyond music and books, there had also been plenty of dubious martial arts material. Drawing on all of it had brought a certain improvement to Sky Island's combat strength.

Even so, these two currently seemed to be around the fifty- or sixty-million level, and they still did not know Armament Haki. But taking their various specialized pieces of equipment into account, they could just about hold their own against Doflamingo's ordinary executives.

Hence, keeping up appearances.

After all, he was their only high-end fighter. If Babylon truly went to war, it would mainly rely on airships and its air force to deliver saturation strikes, followed by an endless flood of drones and robots using human-wave tactics.

"We have a mutual friend, Babbage. Thanks to his goodwill, our business together has been going very well. If you don't mind, you can call me Doffy."

Everyone talked about how "kind" the Great Angel was, but Doflamingo did not buy it. What kind of good person dealt in arms? His instincts told him there was some interesting secret about Sephiroth.

"No problem, Doffy. You can call me Sephi, too."

Both wore smiles that said, "While you're eyeing their interest payments, they're after your principal."

Sephiroth was a cautious man, but as construction of the base stations and satellites progressed smoothly, he really had grown bolder in areas with satellite coverage.

In an emergency, he could transform into his element and "launch" himself to any node at the speed of lightning. Whether fleeing or providing support, it would take only an instant.

While the two were talking, Baby 5 approached with little skipping steps, carrying a tray and sending her already short skirt fluttering.

"P-please...please...enjoy...yala~"

Her tongue apparently slipped at the end, producing an odd sound, and she immediately hid off to one side in embarrassment.

"...Sorry about that."

Doflamingo pressed his temples.

"Not at all. Your maid is very cute. Thank you for the tea."

"Do you need me?! You need me, right?! My name is Baby 5! Call me any time you need me!!"

Even knowing roughly what she was like, Sephiroth found himself a little overwhelmed by that enthusiasm thrust right into his face... Mm, this tea is so white. No, this teacup is so big...

After that little bit of chaos, Baby 5 finally calmed down.

Doflamingo and Sephiroth continued chatting about everything under the sun as they ate the snacks served with the tea. Their understanding of the "world" was relatively profound by this world's standards. As conversational partners, they could be considered quite compatible.

"Speaking of which, aside from business, Kaido was also part of the reason I invited you here."

Behind his sunglasses, Doflamingo's gaze shifted slightly.

"Is that so?"

In short, Kaido did indeed want to invite the Great Angel to join the Beasts Pirates and had promised him a position among the All-Stars. For now, it was merely an invitation. To put the consequences of refusing in familiar terms, his reputation would simply drop to unfriendly or hostile.

Although Kaido was domineering, at present he was unlikely to come out personally over the Great Angel... Going right up to him would be another matter.

"I'm the king of Sky Island, after all. I can't join him. Sorry for the trouble, but please turn him down tactfully for me."

Even a mythical Zoan user, if otherwise unremarkable, was not worth Kaido making a move himself. For example, he had not tried to snatch up the nine-tailed fox Catarina when she first got out of prison. If that could be explained by her belonging to the Blackbeard Pirates, Kaido had not forcibly recruited Wano Country's own Onyudo, Onimaru, either.

"Of course. Aside from our official business, there's also a small personal matter."

Seeing Sephiroth turn down Kaido's invitation, Doflamingo curled his lips and clapped his hands.

A little girl peeked timidly through the doorway, then ran over to the table in small steps and looked at Sephiroth with an innocent expression.

She wore a spotted dress and a monocle over her left eye, with her green hair cut in a bob.

"..."

Well, well. That's just like you. You really are a bastard, bringing her out like this.

Baby 5 took half a step forward, but Gladius clamped a hand around her wrist.

"This is the youngest member of my family, Sugar. She greatly admires your reputation as the Great Angel and hopes to get your autograph."

"Yes, Doffy. Seeing her reminds me that we have an outstanding young member back home, too."

"Oh? What sort of member?"

Doflamingo noticed a faint, strange shift in Sephiroth's presence.

"The child's name is Aisa, and she's about the same age as this girl. On Sky Island, we call Observation Haki 'Mantra.' Her detection range can cover an entire island."

"That's truly impressive."

Doflamingo signaled with his eyes for Sugar to sit on a sofa farther away.

"Yes. She can also read other people's intentions to a certain extent. Even I can only manage 'emotion absorption.' Ever since meeting her, I've never underestimated children."

"Fufufufu, that really is an eye-opener. You certainly are an interesting man, Sephi."

As though sharing an unspoken understanding, the two let the matter drop. Sephiroth casually took a notebook and pen from his jacket pocket, wrote an autograph, tore out the page, and placed it on the table.

To the clever and adorable Miss Sugar-Lucifer Sephiroth.

"Since we've finished our discussions, we'll take our leave. I look forward to our next meeting, Doffy."

Sephiroth's expression did not change at all. Still wearing that warm, pleasant professional smile, he rose and walked away at an unhurried pace.

"Fufufufu..."

Watching Sephiroth's party disappear through the doorway, Doflamingo's expression darkened. He strode toward the attic.

A beautiful woman with long, dark brown hair, wearing a flamenco dress, stood by the attic window.

"Viola...did you notice anything unusual?"

"...I'm sorry, Doffy. I could only confirm that he wasn't lying, but..."

They both understood the unspoken remainder.

-But she could not confirm whether the Great Angel knew the truth about Sugar's ability.

"Fufufufu...this just keeps getting more interesting."