Chapter 165: Schemes
[ Third Person POV ]
Numancia Flamingo
It had been a week since the Donquixote Family had managed to escape from the grasp of the Marines.
They hadn't encountered any more marines on the way back to North Blue, but it didn't stop the Pirate crew from double checking their surroundings to make sure that they were in the clear. They had suffered numerous losses during the battle. Most of those loses mainly being in manpower, and the rest of it being the amount of resources that had been spent on repairing the Numancia Flamingo at an island nearby.
Doflamingo's first reaction upon hearing the price that they were charged with fixing the ship was to kill everyone and stiff-arm the ship wrights to do it for free. However, they slowly came to realize that no amount of coercion was going to change their minds over the price. So instead, he paid the fees and quickly left the island before he made too much noise.
Another reason he didn't bother picking a fight with them was probably because of a young man that happened to have been watching them from afar. Doflamingo had noticed him through the use of Observation haki, and looking at the young man's stature, it was obvious that he was an affiliate of the World Government. An entity even he is weary of starting a fight with.
Overall, Donquixote Doflamingo was not having a good time so far. However, all of those losses were miniscule compared to the loss that he had encountered when he fought off the Marines.
"Doffy!" Trebol asked curiously, "are we really about to let him have that fruit?! It's our property to begin with!"
"Don't worry, Trebol..." Doflamingo replied while reading a newspaper, "we'll make him pay the price of messing with us soon enough. What's important is that we made it out of there alive, that's all that matters."
"I still think that we could've killed him, young master," Diamante replied, "though his killing intent was strong, it's not enough for us not to gang up and kill him together."
"You need to choose your enemies more wisely, Diamante," Doflamingo argued, "it's clear that you guys haven't been reading more about what has been happening out in the world recently. You guys should know about him more than I do, aren't you guys older than me?"
"We're so occupied with our own affairs, how could we pay attention to the affairs of others?" Pica's high pitched voice rang out through the cabin.
"Paying attention to other people's affairs can prove to be useful in the long run, especially paying attention to a monster's affairs. Even if we ganged up on him, we'd still lose and die all the same," Doflamingo remarked bitterly.
"There's no way the Storm Dragon is that powerful, if he was, wouldn't we have already heard news of him storming some place like Marineford?" Trebol asked casually.
Doflamingo ripped the newspaper to shreds and kicked the table in front of him away. The young man was no older than a teenager in his late 15's. However, his height gave him the appearance of a young man in his 20's.
"That's the thing," Doflamingo growled, "he already did something."
Diamante, Trebol, Pica and the ever quiet Vergo looked up at their standing young master. Something was clearly troubling him, but they failed to understand exactly what it was.
"I heard a story from a very credible source," Doflamingo started seriously,"that credible source stated that the Whitebeard Pirates had actually invaded Mariejois."
The temperature in the cabin dropped a few degrees upon hearing the news. Even the crewmembers who had happened to be helping with the clean up stopped what they were doing and looked up to Doflamingo.
"D-Doffy don't joke around like that! If they had actually done so, the World Economic News would have already put it on the front page!" Trebol stuttered.
"You don't understand, the credible source is an editor for the World Economic News," Doflamingo argued, "do you remember when the press had released a bunch of stories claiming that the Whitebeard Pirates had attacked distinct islands that were affiliated to the World Government?"
Everyone within the cabin nodded as they recalled the shocking news. It wasn't shocking that the Whitebeard Pirates would pull off something like this. They were always butting heads with the World Government, so the whole world was simply holding their breaths and waiting for the inevitable war that would transpire between the two.
"Have you ever wondered why we never heard any news about Whitebeard and his Vice-Captain?" Doflamingo asked rhetorically, "because I sure did; and I used my connection within the World Economic News to find an answer to that question."
Doflamingo sighed before sitting down on the couch that he had stood up from.
"Those bastards used the initial invasion as a distraction to offset the Marine's endless forces. Then they climbed up the Red line and proceeded to go on a rampage on Mariejois."
"There's even a rumor spreading that he had almost killed the Five Elders, and countless World Nobles died during the invasion."
The words coming out of Doflamingo's mouth sounded almost like a fairytail to the rest of the crew. Invading the Holy land was an act of Blasphemy in itself, but killing its occupants to boot? It was totally unheard of.
"If that's the case, then why hasn't the World Government retaliated?" Diamante asked.
"Beats me, but judging from the way those Marine bastards were acting, they don't seem to want problems with them;" Doflamingo answered,"but what's important is the fact that they are still alive after allegedly doing all of that."
"I see," Vergo stated coldly, "they are an enemy that we can't possibly hope to beat in direct combat."
It was then that Doflamingo smiled as he looked at Vergo.
"Exactly, even if it's Whitebeard. I won't tolerate anyone taking away from me what's rightfully mine," Doflamingo announced, "it's just that we're going to have to take a carefull approach when we mess with someone like that."
The rest of the Donquixote family nodded firmly as they agreed with Doflamingo's words. The Donquixote family was already notorious for their vicous methods of 'paying back' their dues. However, nobody knew how far they were willing to go in order to exact revenge.
"There's always going to be an oppurtunity to put those monsters down, so the question should be who is the most likely to do so?" Doflamingo asked curiously.
"Wouldn't that be the World Government?" Pica asked.
"It is the World Government, the new plan is going to be how we're going to put ourselves in a position to help put them down.....while not getting screwed over in the process."
"That's going to be a problem that we'll address soon enough, right now I believe that we should focus on recovery," Diamante stated calmly.
"You're right! We should stick with that, Doffy!" Trebol agreed.
Doflamingo promptly agreed with what his officers had to say. It would probably take a long time to have their revenge against the Whitebeard Pirates, and he would probably need to hurl through countless hoops and hurdles for it to work.
However, two things were almost certain to happen were: Doflamingo would have his revenge, and he was going to get back the Rumble-Rumble fruit, no matter the cost.
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