"Even so, I'm still pissed! That damn old bastard… I'm definitely not letting him off!"
Ace continued glaring at the heavily bearded older man from earlier, his eyes practically spitting fire as completely fabricated memories began multiplying inside his head.
In those nonexistent memories, a tiny En-chan tugged timidly on his sleeve and looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Big Brother…"
Then came their imaginary first meeting, where she ran up carrying an absurdly heavy, beautifully crafted robot that had clearly taken tremendous effort to prepare.
"Big Brother, do you like the robot I made for you?"
Another scene followed: a bitterly cold winter day, with En-chan hugging tightly around his arm and smiling in contentment.
"Big Brother, your flames are so warm."
Then the Summit War appeared in his mind. En-chan charged through the Marines, fought her way onto the execution platform, and shouted desperately toward him.
"Big Brother, I'm here to save you! Tell me you want to live!"
"Big Brother!"
"Big Brother!!"
…
'En-chan is my little sister!'
The more Ace imagined, the more nonexistent memories accumulated, and the more heartbroken he became. By the end of it, he was staring at the old man with enough hatred to burn a hole through him.
Unexpectedly, the bearded man looked back.
Then he smiled.
A perfectly friendly smile.
That only made Ace angrier.
His teeth clenched, his entire body tensing as though he might throw caution to the wind and attack on the spot.
The old man, completely oblivious to Ace's interpretation, continued smiling and even waved pleasantly.
'As expected of Ace. He saw through my disguise immediately. There are too many people around to go over and acknowledge each other properly, though, so I'll just greet him from here.'
With that thought, the old man raised both hands and smoothly performed a fairly competent sequence of hand signs.
The meaning was roughly:
Good to see you again! See you in the arena!
Ace had absolutely no idea what the man was trying to communicate.
Unfortunately, that easygoing attitude only poured more fuel onto his anger.
He immediately started waving his own arms in a furious approximation of sign language.
You bastard! You'd better pray I don't meet you in the tournament, because if I do, you're dead!
'I can't understand what he's saying, but that really is Ace for you.'
The bearded man smiled to himself.
'Still, I have to thank Luffy for insisting I come here. I never expected that guy to be hiding in Totto Land.'
The heavily bearded old man was, of course, Sabo.
And the name Cain had previously noticed on the registration list—
Lucy—
was the alias Sabo was using for this trip.
As Sabo had thought, Luffy's relentless insistence was only one reason he had come.
The other reason appeared on the raised platform above.
One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea—
Donquixote Doflamingo.
The weapons factories tied to Doflamingo and his dealings with Kaido had apparently been thrown into chaos by someone's interference. The entire operation was now a tangled mess, and every clue Sabo had followed eventually pointed toward Totto Land.
Even the World Government and the Marines had been drawn into the situation.
The island might currently be packed with tens of thousands of people, but that was only because the Marines had already intercepted far more.
At that very moment, Marine warships were surrounding the waters of Totto Land in multiple layers, blocking countless civilians and pirates who were trying to force their way in just to watch the spectacle.
Plenty of pirates had already broken through the blockade, while plenty of others had been arrested, yet neither possibility seemed enough to stop people driven by ambition.
Using his Devil Fruit ability, Sabo had already uncovered several pieces of information.
He quietly contacted Koala, then slipped away from the area.
Ace, meanwhile, saw the old man turn around and ignore him completely.
That made him even angrier.
He had just started forward when a hand suddenly landed heavily on his shoulder.
Ace turned.
Smoker.
Although Smoker still hated pirates as much as ever, Ace was technically a Warlord now, and the two of them had gone through Garp's brutal training together. Somewhere along the way, a certain amount of mutual respect had developed between them.
Seeing Ace about to do something impulsive—and having just received confirmation that Marine forces were already deployed around Totto Land—Smoker spoke in a low voice.
"Don't forget why we came here. Our job is to investigate what's happening on this island."
Unfortunately, Ace was already too worked up to listen.
He rounded on Smoker instead.
"Wait a second. Don't tell me you're trying to make a move on my little sister too?!"
Smoker gave him a look of pure disgust.
"Is there something wrong with your head? Who the hell would fall for that bastard?"
That was the wrong thing to say.
Several pirates nearby, already excited and spoiling for a fight, immediately turned on him.
Nobody even knew who threw the first insult.
Within seconds, the entire section erupted into chaos, fists and weapons colliding as another brawl broke out.
…
And what about Cain?
He was miserable.
Utterly miserable.
Because sitting right beside him was—
"Fuffuffuffuffu! A pleasure to meet you, Miss En-chan!"
Doflamingo lounged comfortably in his seat with that same arrogant grin plastered across his face.
"You really are something else. With charm like yours, even I'm starting to feel tempted to go down there and compete."
The tournament itself was ultimately only a pretext for something more important to come later.
That was why Big Mom had chosen not to appear personally at this stage.
Otherwise, even if Doflamingo had been given ten extra lives, he wouldn't have dared act this casually in the middle of Totto Land.
Cain's expression stiffened.
'Why the hell is this guy here?!'
He badly wanted to punch him flat.
Before he could decide whether to do it, Katakuri's Mogura was already stretched across Doflamingo's path.
"If you harbor any disgusting intentions toward my sister, don't blame me for what happens next."
Katakuri's voice was cold.
"You weren't invited here."
"Fuffuffuffuffu!"
Doflamingo remained perfectly relaxed.
"I only came here looking for someone."
"What, your family steals a person and suddenly I'm not allowed to come see what's going on?"
He casually pulled out an identification badge and waved it.
"Besides, I entered through completely legitimate channels."
"I'm technically a registered participant too."
He leaned back.
"Not that I'm particularly interested in going down there and fighting with those people. But if you really want me to, I wouldn't mind joining them for a little—"
BOOM!
A fist slammed into Doflamingo's head before he could finish.
His entire body spun a full circle through the air before flying straight off the elevated platform.
Black-red lightning from Conqueror's Haki ripped across the sky.
One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea—
the underground world's infamous Joker—
was hurled onto the arena below like a discarded rag.
The venue went dead silent.
Every eye turned toward the figure still standing on the platform.
Cain's fist was steaming.
He glared viciously down at Doflamingo, who had landed in the middle of the arena.
For a moment, the atmosphere became painfully awkward.
Even Perospero, who was serving as the tournament host, froze in place and clearly had no idea how he was supposed to handle this.
Cain solved the problem for him.
He simply pushed Perospero aside, stepped forward, and raised his voice so the entire venue could hear.
"In this tournament, I'm only interested in someone strong enough to beat me."
He pointed toward the arena below.
"So weaklings like that—people who can't even take one punch from me—should stop wasting my time."
The crowd instinctively looked down.
Then they finally recognized the man struggling back to his feet in the middle of the arena.
Seven Warlord of the Sea—
Donquixote Doflamingo.
Silence fell again.
Someone finally whispered,
"Holy crap… just how strong is En-chan-sama?"
Elsewhere—
"Don't even think about competing with me, Ichi—Ichiji."
"Cain… En-chan got even stronger!"
"Don't worry, En-chan. Your big brother isn't going to let anyone marry you."
The silence lasted only a few moments before the entire venue exploded with noise ten times louder than before.
For the genuine monsters among the participants, Cain's punch didn't frighten them in the slightest.
If anything, it had the opposite effect.
Seeing just how terrifyingly strong En-chan was only made them more determined to win her.
A woman with beauty, fame, and overwhelming strength?
To them, that only made the prize more desirable.
The weaker challengers, however, exchanged uneasy looks.
One by one, those who had never been particularly confident in their strength clenched their teeth and withdrew.
Whatever Cain's actual intention had been, he had inadvertently done Uta a favor.
With one punch, he had cleared a large portion of the useless cannon fodder out of her way.