Chương 58: Peace Walker
AN: New Webnovel update feels jank as fuck, looks kinda goofy too but it came with some features. I'll be testing the new italics in this chapter since it helps convey thoughts, here's hoping it works properly. Let me know if italics actually show up when reading, sometimes there's dissonance between how things look when reading and writing since I write chapters on my phone, and I'd prefer that doesn't happen.
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As Dante was walking further towards Ace, he took a glance around the battlefield and saw that the Whitebeard Pirates were losing momentum, at the same rate that the Marines were losing numbers. The fight was inevitably going to become ~10 people having big battles against one another after all the fodder were dealt with.
He then looked over at the Marine High Command, catching the hateful glare of Sengoku who was staring him down while his co-commanders bickered and fought. Dante settled on waving at him.
Man, he looks pissed. Wonder what's got him so worked up?
Even in his own thoughts, Dante was a sarcastic little shit. He knew exactly why Sengoku was having a hernia, his entire plan was falling apart and the Marines were losing steam rapidly. Had they not wanted to make a show of it and drag Whitebeard down with Ace they could've had the execution over and done with last week.
Dante could only imagine how frustrating it was. Then again, he could also imagine just how much more frustrating he could make it for them. In the short seconds he spent walking across the battlefield, his mind had come up with a plan.
The Marineford War would end in a pirate victory, his presence guaranteed that. But what would that mean for the Marines? Would they simply all die out here, replaced by a new batch, a new branch of World Government control? Or would they retreat, live to die another day? In either outcome, Marineford is left unoccupied.
So why not take the free real estate? After all, nobody would care if he took the castle, it would simply be the spoils of his conquest. He could have a permanent base of operations and a cool ass castle too. Dante smiled and looked back up at the base, only for that smile to shift into a grimace.
Gonna cost a lot for the repairs though.
While usually anything financial would be a problem for Dante, he could no doubt just use the immense funds within the base itself to pay off the repairs. Thankfully there was no IRS to question his income in this world, he could just pay people with shady money and they'd take it hand in pocket. At least, he thought there was no IRS, because they were doing a terrible job if there was.
Dante stopped suddenly, feeling a presence close by. A second later, he dashed backwards, dodging a wide, heavy swing from a Haki coated sword followed by several smaller swipes in his direction.
With each swing, Dante dodged back one step at a time, deliberately placing himself just a few centimeters out of reach of the blade. Eventually, after dodging long enough, Dante summoned the Rebellion and blocked against his attacker, pushing the opposing sword against Rebellion's blade up to the handguard, leaving him face to face with his foe, their two swords locked against eachother.
Dante's current enemy was a woman wearing a Vice-Admiral jacket wielding a katana, with long black hair, red lipstick and a small mole on her cheek. In his entire time in this world, he'd never seen nor heard of her, but apparently she had a high status.
"Well hello there beautiful, to what pleasure do I owe your visit on this fine day?"
Her expression shifted into disgust from its previous state of indifference, her own sword pushing harder against the Rebellion as she spoke, hands straining against the handle of her katana.
"Spare me the honeyed words you barbarian. By my authority as the Vice Admiral Momousagi, you are sentenced here to death for the innumerable crimes you have committed against Peace!"
Am I really that bad with women? Maybe I'm just trying my luck with the wrong ones?
Dante's thoughts were interrupted by Momousagi lifting her blade from the lock, allowing her to once more swing her sword at him as much as she liked. Unluckily for her though, every attack she made was lazily blocked by Dante with a single arm as he continued pondering his luck with the ladies. She increased her speed, arms burning in exertion yet still no matter how hard she swung or how many times she did so, the Rebellion was always there to stop her mid swing.
Surely it's not just a me thing? I mean, Hancock loves me... no, on second thought that doesn't count.
After a few minutes spent hopelessly trying to break Dante's guard and cut him down to size, Momousagi was coming to the horrifying realisation that he wasn't even looking at her. Instead, Dante was rubbing his chin and looking up at the sky, still instinctually blocking every swing from her, parrying every stab. Her composure broke piece by piece with every block made.
The swings became much more aggressive, far less refined and skilled. Har katana was slowly becoming dulled against the superior sharpness of the Rebellion, and her slamming the blade against Dante's guard repeatedly didn't help that fact. She grunted with each swing, hefting the blade less like a samurai and more like an angered caveman. Years of training was thrown out the window in the blink of an eye in the face of Dante's taunting, which he was entirely unaware of.
Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough. I mean, what isn't there to love about me?
Dante's thoughts were once more interrupted by Momousagi's frenzied blade, teeth grit and her voice hoarse.
"Die, you piece of shit!"
Dante looked over to her for the first time in a few minutes and saw the sharp end of a katana travelling towards his face, settling for slapping the sword away with the back of his hand after dismissing the Rebellion, sending it tumbling across the floor.
"Sorry, did you say something?"
Rage boiled over, and the once composed Vice Admiral rushed in fist first, her hands coated in copious amounts of Armament Haki in the absence of her weapon.
Dante laughed briefly, shocked at the intense change in demeanour from his perspective, before responding in kind, ducking under her sloppy jab and unleashing a haymaker on her face.
"Just couldn't keep your hands off of me, could you?"
Momousagi blinked away the tears and looked up to see Dante's smug grin staring back at her, the half-devil bouncing slightly on his toes, fists clenched in front of him, no guard to be seen. Maybe it was the pain and delirium from his punch talking, but in that moment she couldn't deny Dante looked stunning.
Didn't stop her from hating his guts though. To disrespect her in such a blatant fashion, pay her no mind and bully her as if her attempts on his life were a joke? Heinous. Momousagi stood back up and wiped the blood from her lip, shifting into her own unarmed stance.
"You really wanna go for round two?"
"I will lay down my life for Justice if it means bringing down scum like you!"
Dante grimaced, giving Momousagi a look of intense pity, one she loathed.
If there's one thing I gotta applaud the World Government for, they're great when it comes to indoctrination.
Dante had betrayed himself with his own thoughts, now feeling pity and sympathy for beating down a young woman who thought she was fighting for the good guys. He made a critical mistake, he humanised his enemy.
"Well shit, now I just feel bad. Hey, Momousagi was it? To quote a certain someone... Wake up to reality."
Before the Vice-Admiral could question just what Dante had meant, the half-devil Tricked over to her and knocked her out flat with a single punch to the temple. He was never a fan of killing women anyway.
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After a few minutes of walking, Dante had noticed something from the corner of his eye. He turned back around, and sure as day, Doflamingo's strings were scattered on debris around here. The slimy bastard was here, he was just hiding somewhere.
Dante could deal with that. Obviously Doflamingo had seen him arrive and chose to be nowhere near him, but the problem is that hiding is very difficult for someone who stands out as much as Doflamingo.
Dante figured the best way to see where he is was from the sky, so he bent his knees and jumped into the air above Marineford, shattering the stone beneath him as he did.
He could see many things from here. The slow advance of Whitebeard and his men, claiming more and more territory with every passing second. The Marine Admirals finally showing up to the front lines. Yamato, currently battling two Vice-Admirals herself, a rather plain man with low cut hair and another in what looked to be a Knight helmet. Dante respected the fashion choice.
Finally, his eyes zeroed in on his target. Doffy was currently knee deep in the Whitebeard Pirates with Crocodile, the two of them tag-teaming on Marco, Whitebeard's own second in command, slaughtering countless unfortunate grunts around them who tried to help.
With no pretense or plan Dante dive bombed to the ground, flipping himself around midair so his feet connected to the floor first, landing with the force of a bomb as he shattered the area around him causing copious amounts of dust to cloud the air, obscuring vision somewhat.
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Several people looked at the cloud of dust and smoke in confusion, watching diligently for an explanation of just what the hell caused it, only to immediately turn back around when they saw the silhouette of Dante rise from the ground. Doflamingo in particular felt a primal fear rise within him, an intense urge to run away and not look back. He wouldn't make it far anyway.
"Shit, shit! Why the hell is he here!?"
Before the King of the Criminal Underworld could even blink, Dante had dashed out of the dust cloud and was face to face with him, having grabbed him by the head and dragged him down so they were eye to eye. With one hand holding Doflamingo's squirming head, Dante used the other hand to wipe his coat of any dirt and dust.
Doflamingo tried to look Dante in the eyes unblinking, tried to maintain some facade of confidence in the moment. He failed immediately, finding himself uniquely terrified by the red glow of Dante's eyes, instead looking anywhere but ahead.
His fear caused him to act rashly, choosing to try and mince Dante with his strings, sending several cords on the ground around them and using the ones in his free hands to do so. Just as he was about to move, he heard a click and felt the cold steel of Ebony placed against his chin.
"I have a unique... disdain for rats, Doflamingo. Everything about them disgusts me."
The glow in Dante's eyes was growing brighter and more oppressive with every second, an invisible pressure blanketing the area around him alongside it.
Dante pushed the barrel of Ebony further up into Doflamingo's chin after seeing a twitch in the Shichibukai's finger, a reminder of the position he was in.
"Do you know what people usually do when they have a rat problem, Doffy?"
Dante leaned in close, his finger coiled tightly around the trigger of Ebony and the invisible pressure growing continuously with each second passing. Sweat rolled down Doflamingo's face in the suspense left by Dante's words, several seconds going by before he followed up on himself.
"They exterminate them."
"Wait! Please, just hold on! What do you want? Money, weapons, women!?"
Doflamingo started pleading, babbling about how anything Dante wanted in the World, Doflamingo could supply him, until suddenly he stopped.
"Hehe... hehehehehe. Is that what you expected? For me to beg?"
Doflamingo, with great effort, raised his head and met Dante's eyes. He pushed past the overbearing terror in his heart, and smiled his signature, greasy smile.
"I refuse to beg."
For someone who was Kaido's foot rest until recently, he's got one big mouth.
In truth, Doflamingo would be more than willing to beg if it meant he could continue living. He was prideful, sure, but his time spent under Kaido's thumb made him aware of the food chain. He just made the gamble that Dante would respect a man who didn't beg for his life a lot more.
Unfortunately for him, Dante had made up his mind the second he laid eyes on Doffy. Unfortunately for Doffy, Dante did plan to let him live. He also planned to make him suffer.
The half-devil lowered Ebony from Doflamingo's chin, something which brought immense glee to Doffy, only for that glee to fade into confusion when he felt it placed against his stomach now instead.
Before Doffy could react any further, Dante unleashed a charged shot right into his abdomen, tearing his spinal cord in two as it sailed through his body.
Doflamingo fell to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut, clutching his hand to his stomach and hopelessly trying to lift himself onto his legs. He screamed, in shock, fury, and horror. His screams grew with every second as he slowly but surely realised he couldn't feel his legs.
Dante knelt down, face to face with Doffy once more. He holstered Ebony before patting Doflamingo's useless leg.
"Now you'll have to crawl on the floor just like the rat you are."
Dante stood up, and walked away.
"You son of a bitch, I'll kill you! You hear me Dante!? Don't you dare walk away from me!"
Dante didn't care much for Doffy's screaming, instead choosting to dig the nail a few inches deeper before leaving. He turned back, and spoke to Doffy's downed form.
"Quit crying, it's only a bullet wound. Just walk it off."
With his final piece spoken, Dante's faint snickering could be heard as he turned back around and made his way over to Yamato's position, giving a two fingered salute in lieu of saying goodbye, never once turning back around to look Doffy in the eyes as he did so.
Got 'em.
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emonoc
emonoc I ran out of title ideas a long, long time ago and I was never a fan of just describing the chapter with the title. Anyways, if there's one thing I want to do with Marineford it's close off the Dante/Vergil gimmick at the end. Kept Mihawk alive cause I still wanna have a sword fight with him. Felt old Doffy got a fitting punishment.
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