[I'm going to take the 1st and 2nd off, have to spend it with the family]
[Happy New Year To Everyone!!]
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Sometimes, it doesn't take long at all to see whether a person is truly capable.
In just ten days, Yulian had completely sorted out the intelligence network of the North Blue, expanded the number of agents, and even managed to plant spies in practically every Marine base in the entire sea.
Trebol hadn't expected it at all. Turned out he'd picked up a hidden gem by sheer accident.
Yulian's personal combat strength wasn't particularly high, but when it came to handling problems, he was unquestionably an expert.
If they paired him with Scylla, Trebol was confident the North Blue would become an iron fortress. Even when the Vinsmoke family kept provoking them, they wouldn't need Doflamingo to personally step in.
Give it a bit more time and there would only be one voice in the North Blue: the voice of the Donquixote Family.
With a talent like Yulian appearing, Trebol naturally wanted to report to Doflamingo. Unfortunately, Doflamingo was in the middle of a battle, and part of the decision-making authority had temporarily been handed over to Barrett and Stussy.
So after a brief summary, Barrett and Stussy made the call to raise Yulian's rank within the Family, treating him as a fringe executive, and then sent him to Hachinosu (Hive Island) to give his report.
Considering that Yulian had mentioned his son had been rescued by Doflamingo and taken to Skypiea, Barrett specifically ordered Sofron to bring Jabel down to the Blue Sea so father and son could reunite on Hachinosu (Hive Island).
That was how Yulian and Jabel ended up meeting here, facing the decision in front of them.
"Old man, Barrett-nii says I've got huge potential and wants me to join the Donquixote Pirates. Why won't you let me sign on?!" Jabel was getting a bit anxious and impatient.
"Hey, son, I joined the Donquixote Family in the first place because of you.
After staying on Skypiea for a few days, I saw with my own eyes that it really is a place where people can live safely. I don't object to you joining the Divine Guard and protecting Skypiea.
But becoming a pirate… I've only got one son. If something happens to you, what am I supposed to do?"
Looking at Jabel with nothing but tenderness in his eyes, Yulian didn't want his boy to suffer even the slightest unexpected misfortune.
"Old man, you're underestimating me too much!
Barrett-nii said my talent for battle is incredible, stronger than Enel's even. As long as I train seriously, he said I'll definitely become one of the top executives of the Donquixote Family in the future.
I want to do what I can for Doflamingo-sama too. Weren't you the one who taught me to have dreams and to dare to chase them?
Before, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Now I do.
I want to become stronger and stronger, and then stand beside Enel at Doflamingo-sama's side, working for Doflamingo-sama!" Jabel stared at Yulian with earnest eyes as he spoke.
"..."
Yulian fell silent. He'd met Barrett himself. As the man now widely acknowledged as the number two of the Donquixote Family, if Barrett recognized his son's potential, then Jabel really must have some talent.
He had protected his boy too well before, to the point that Jabel had become his weakness while he worked for the Flying Pirates. Was he really going to let his son become a pirate and face the unknown dangers of the world?
Seeing Yulian hesitate, Jabel simply slammed his fist down onto the hard stone table beside him.
Boom!
The stone table disintegrated in an instant under Jabel's punch, yanking Yulian out of his thoughts. When he saw Jabel's fist sheathed in pitch-black aura, Yulian couldn't help the disbelief in his voice.
"Son, y–you've learned Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki)?"
"Yes, old man!" Jabel answered firmly.
Yulian wasn't the type of fishman to cower and flinch. If he were, he'd never have left Fishman Island with his son to roam the world. Seeing how firm Jabel's attitude was, he confirmed one last time,
"Jabel, I'm going to ask you one more time. Do you really want to join the Donquixote Pirates?"
"Old man, you can ask me ten more times and the answer will be the same. Yes!!" Jabel replied without a second of hesitation.
Seeing how determined his son was, Yulian realized that whatever came in the future, whether it was light or darkness, he could only choose to walk that road together with him.
"Fine, I agree. But since you're joining the Donquixote Pirates, then as your old man I've got to pave the way for you.
At first, I was planning to show a bit of my ability and just muddle along inside the Donquixote Family's North Blue branch.
But for your sake, I'm going to make sure that when you become an executive, you'll also have a strong voice among the officers."
Neither of them realized just how right their words today would turn out to be.
On a day in the far future, after Yulian had already retired, he would look at his son standing at the peak of glory and think back on this decision, feeling that perhaps the best decision of his entire life had been made on this very day.
Of course, Doflamingo knew nothing about what was happening between Yulian and Jabel. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't have cared much.
They were just two fishmen, and ones he'd never even heard of in the original story at that. What was there to pay attention to? At most he'd think of them as a few more useful small fry.
What would surprise Doflamingo in the future, however, was that even "small fry" had their day to rise. The two of them would actually become indispensable talent and top-tier combat power within the Donquixote Family.
After a few more days together, Yulian reluctantly returned to the North Blue, while Jabel, after several days of training under Barrett's brief supervision, headed back to Skypiea once more.
For now, the Donquixote Pirates had no real need for fresh recruits on the front line.
The viewpoint returns to Doflamingo and Kaido.
After drinking, Kaido's strength had surged, but Doflamingo still didn't take it to heart. He continued to use Kaido as a whetstone to polish his own combat experience.
During the battle, Doflamingo began methodically testing the ideas he'd had in mind.
Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) and lightning could fuse very well. Doflamingo had experimented with that long ago and had already been using it in practice.
But when it came to Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) and lightning, all he could do so far was wrap one around the other, essentially using it like a Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki)–style coating. That wasn't what Doflamingo wanted.
What he wanted was for Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) to truly fuse with lightning, so that every punch and every technique he threw out carried the full might of Haoshoku Haki coating (Conqueror's Haki coating). Put simply, he wanted his ultimate techniques to become his basic attacks.
During the fight, after a series of attempts, Doflamingo realized that the insights he'd gained into Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) back on Beast Island were surfacing in his mind all on their own.
His Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) faintly felt like it was about to make use of those insights to break through to a highest-level state: Haoshoku Ryōiki (Conqueror's Domain).
Instead of Haoshoku Haki coating supporting his lightning, it would become lightning that supported Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki).
Within this Haoshoku Ryōiki (Conqueror's Domain), not only could he suppress ability-users, he could also unleash his lightning powers at full strength. As long as he used lightning within the range of his Haoshoku Ryōiki (Conqueror's Domain), every move he made would automatically become a Haoshoku Haki coating (Conqueror's Haki coating) attack.
The more clearly he envisioned it, the more his practice refined it, until, at a certain moment…
A trace of black lightning flickered across Doflamingo's eyes, and within a hundred-meter radius around him, space turned into a complete vacuum. Within those hundred meters, Kaido, who had been in hybrid man-beast form, suddenly and uncontrollably reverted to his human form.
Startled and confused, the drunken Kaido thought for a moment that he was dreaming. When a casual bolt of lightning from Doflamingo struck his body and made him howl in pain, Kaido sobered up a little.
"Damn… what weird ability did Doffy just use? Why does it feel like he's a completely different person from the one I was just fighting? How did his strength jump so fast?!"
Kaido couldn't understand it. They'd been trading blows just a second earlier. Why had he suddenly lost access to his powers?
Doflamingo had no intention of explaining. He continued testing the effects.
It was hell for Kaido though. Within Doflamingo's Haoshoku Ryōiki (Conqueror's Domain), Kaido was suppressed on all fronts and could only take the beating passively.
Because Kaido had such ridiculously tough skin and flesh, and would one day be known as the "strongest creature alive," a man who could fall from ten thousand meters in the sky without injury, Doflamingo didn't hold back in the slightest.
What Doflamingo hadn't expected was that "strongest creature" was something from the future. Right now, Kaido still didn't have that level of strength.
(End of Chapter)
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