The Former Most Beautiful Woman in the World
"Hm? What's that..."
Suddenly, Caesar spotted a News Coo flying overhead.
Seeing someone below, the News Coo promptly dropped its last stack of wanted posters and happily headed home after finishing its work.
"Phew... Even News Coos slack off at work, huh?"
Caesar grumbled inwardly and reached out to grab the posters dropped toward him.
By the light of the bright moon, he unfolded a poster and glanced at it. The sight made him open his mouth and let out a bizarre, inhuman cry.
"Gah!"
"I... I'm wanted!"
"F-five... five hundred million!!!"
Inside the royal palace, in the dining room.
The main members of the Donquixote Family were enjoying dinner.
Doflamingo didn't like talking while he ate, so everyone was quiet. The only sound was the crisp clink of cutlery against porcelain.
Suddenly, a man in a suit knocked and entered. He hurried to Doflamingo's side and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"What? Information on the Seven Deadly Sins..."
Doflamingo looked startled. He immediately snatched the wanted posters from his subordinate and flipped through them one by one.
[Big Eye] [Member of the Seven Deadly Sins] [Bounty: 300,000,000 Beli] [Dead or alive]
["Wrath" Samael] [Officer of the Seven Deadly Sins] [Bounty: 1,000,000,000 Beli] [Dead or alive]
["Lust" Sigma] [Officer of the Seven Deadly Sins] [Bounty: 1,000,000,000 Beli] [Dead or alive]
The more Doflamingo read, the more alarmed he became.
Aside from Caesar's poster, the other three were all for members of the Seven Deadly Sins, and each bounty was more astonishing than the last.
Big Eye, who had only been wanted for a few days, had suddenly seen his bounty soar to 300 million.
And the two newly appeared officers had been given terrifying first bounties of one billion Beli each!
"Hiss..."
Even the well-traveled Doflamingo couldn't help drawing a sharp breath.
He discerned three things from the wanted posters.
First, the Seven Deadly Sins must have done something not long ago that prompted the World Government to issue such unusual bounties.
Second, the officers of the Seven Deadly Sins had special code names representing the seven deadly sins, which meant there would be seven such officers.
Third...
"Damn it, they chose my territory as the place for their deal. Nothing good could come of it after all!"
Doflamingo's face darkened.
He was one of the Shichibukai, one of seven great pirates recognized by the World Government and granted the right to plunder legally.
On the surface, he had to obey the World Government's orders.
Now...
More precisely, in the near future, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Big Mom Pirates would conduct some kind of private transaction on his territory.
Should he pretend he knew nothing, or report them to the World Government?
Even if he said he didn't know, the World Government wouldn't believe him. But if he tried to report them, that would amount to offending two major powers at once.
"What's wrong, young master?"
A man with a scruffy face giggled. "Beh-hehehe, you don't look so good."
The other members also turned to look at Doflamingo.
Doflamingo took a deep breath and silently bent his head in thought.
Reporting them was out of the question. He didn't want the Seven Deadly Sins and Big Mom's people teaming up to beat him down.
But if he did nothing, the World Government would hold him accountable afterward.
He wasn't too worried about that. He held a great secret of the Celestial Dragons, so the Five Elders wouldn't move against him lightly.
Perhaps he could just run away. As long as he wasn't in Dressrosa, he would have an excuse for whatever happened.
But that would be too humiliating!
Doflamingo suddenly laughed.
"Fufufufu... Officers with first bounties as high as one billion, and there are seven of them!"
"The Seven Deadly Sins are an even more terrifying organization than I imagined, yet there was no information about them before this."
"That doesn't make sense!"
An organization like that couldn't have appeared out of nowhere.
A mysterious organization hidden deep in history?
Doflamingo gave up on worrying about it. He decided to do nothing and see for himself what the so-called Seven Deadly Sins were all about when the time came.
Just then, the Den Den Mushi beside him suddenly rang, interrupting his thoughts.
Doflamingo came to his senses and picked up the receiver.
"Young master, a strange man has come to the palace. He says he's Dr. Caesar."
"Caesar?"
Doflamingo raised an eyebrow. He didn't know Caesar very well, but they had worked together before.
Caesar had once proposed a research project on artificial Zoan Devil Fruits to him, hoping to gain his support.
"What's he here for? Has his research produced results?"
"He said... he needs protection!"
That night, the Grand Line was far from peaceful. A great many forces received the Seven Deadly Sins' wanted posters.
Dimon saw the wanted posters the next morning.
As usual, he went downstairs to eat at the inn's restaurant, where a staff member happened to be putting wanted posters up on the wall.
When he saw the bounty figures, Dimon was a little speechless.
Big Eye's initial bounty of 100 million had already been excessive, and this time they had simply added another digit.
Sure enough, there was inflation!
"If the bounties were really based on strength, how would one billion be enough? At least two billion, maybe even three."
Dimon looked unconcerned. Once his debts were big enough, he stopped worrying about them.
Besides, what did the Seven Deadly Sins being wanted have to do with him?
He was a good citizen of the Sabaody Archipelago, nothing more than an ordinary traveler.
After eating breakfast at the restaurant, Dimon went straight out of the inn.
He was going to try training his Haki. Some time ago, he had already learned the details of how to train it through Mammon.
The famous mentor Teacher Kaido had once said that Haki alone transcended all else!
Never mind that after saying this, the guy had immediately used a powerful move from the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon to clash head-on with the sun god Nika, only to be beaten in the end.
There was no doubt about the importance of Haki.
Of course, Devil Fruit powers were equally important!
Haki and Devil Fruits were both important components of strength. He had to develop both and make both strong.
Dimon wasn't worried about Devil Fruit powers.
When he needed to, he could be the user of any Devil Fruit. When he didn't, he was an ordinary person, without a Devil Fruit user's weakness to seawater.
Haki, however, was giving him a bit of a headache.
"If only I could animate Haki... and have it train itself."
Chapter 59: The Former Most Beautiful Woman in the World
The prerequisite for animating Haki was that he had to possess it himself first.
Dimon's talent couldn't animate something that didn't exist.
"I'll see if I can awaken it on my own first. Mammon mastered it after taking one kick, and Ace learned Armament Haki in a single day after a fight with the marines. Leaving talent aside, there must be a trick to it."
Thinking it over, Dimon found a secluded spot with no one around.
Grove 14.
The area near the coast had suffered extensive damage in Cracker and Samael's earlier battle, and no one had dared come near it lately.
Upon reaching the No. 14 Yarukiman Mangrove, Dimon took the two Famous Swords from his waist and set them aside, then sat down cross-legged.
According to Zephyr's instruction, Haki was essentially a power born from the combination of a person's mental will and life energy.
Thus, Haki was idealistic to a certain extent: the stronger one's mental will, the greater the power one's Haki could display.
Dimon didn't lack vitality. He drank Longevity Wine from time to time, and the life force within him was extremely abundant, far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Therefore, what he needed to do was similar to what Mammon had done: fuse his own spirit with his life force.
"Sounds a bit like meditation."
Dimon closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.
He sat there for half an hour without feeling anything. As time passed, his mind gradually emptied, and he thought of nothing, simply sitting and meditating in silence.
He didn't know how much time had passed before a gunshot shattered the silence and a bullet hurtled toward him from the side.
Shusui, which lay beside him, drew itself and deflected the incoming bullet with its blade with a clang.
At the same time, Ain's warning sounded in Dimon's mind.
[Master, there's a group of pirates about two kilometers away at four o'clock!]
Dimon slowly opened his eyes and looked displeasedly in the direction the bullet had come from.
As his gaze locked on, an image appeared in his mind at the same time.
It was a group of pirates wearing blue headscarves. Their leader had one eye shut, while the other was fixed on Dimon through the scope of a sniper rifle.
The pirate Supernova, Bururuku.