A confident smile curled on Doflamingo's face.
He asked the question with seventy percent certainty.
Issho would accept.
After all, he was Doflamingo.
A man who had killed, trafficked arms, and conducted human experiments...
Yet, without a doubt—
A man who "rescued" orphans, stopped racial wars, and saved entire nations. A true hero in his own eyes.
Some sacrifices, after all, were simply necessary steps on the road to justice.
And Issho was not someone who could be judged by conventional moral standards.
He cared for the lives of innocent civilians, sure.
But at the same time, he could sit leisurely in the Holy Land sipping coffee with Aramaki while the cries of slaves echoed all around them.
Clearly, his moral compass was... flexible.
If he could persuade him, Doflamingo would gain a future Admiral-level ally straight away.
If not?
Well, he didn't have another candidate lined up to train in gravity powers anytime soon.
And there was still something that left him completely puzzled.
Why would Issho smile when Luffy recognized his supposed "good deeds" and said he didn't dislike him?
Seriously?
What are you, a Gravity Fruit-type Chopper?
Maybe this is the mysterious "Will of D" at work. Brainwashing people across time and space?
Anyway.
Issho had his own agenda.
"Will you help me?"
Faced with Doflamingo's invitation and reasoning, Issho remained skeptical.
Maybe the new order would be better—but Doflamingo's version of it? Not necessarily.
The people of the Great Pirate Era had suffered enough chaos.
"Regarding your offer..." Issho said, gripping his cane-sword, the power of gravity wrapping around it, "I must decline."
With that, a heavy, warped slash of gravitational force tore forward.
The surging seawater was crushed flat, like the return of the Calm Belt.
It roared toward Doflamingo.
He refused.
He actually refused!
"You arrogant bastard! Wasting my damn time like this—you're already dead!!!"
The Numancia Flamingo 2.0 beneath him spread its wings and took off. No way was he letting this brand-new ship get wrecked in the crossfire.
From his back, feathered wings slowly began to emerge, divine and majestic like a god's ascension.
The violet-glowing feathers folded in front of him like a shield.
The next instant, the gravity-infused blade came crashing in.
BOOM!
Smoke and pressure blasted outward as the attack landed.
As the smoke began to clear, Doflamingo stood suspended in the air.
The smugness was gone from his face.
Replaced now... with a cold, vicious smile.
Feathers behind him launched forward, glowing with violent purple light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sea below erupted like a minefield of torpedoes, explosions rattling the surface.
Flecks of blood occasionally surfaced through the chaos.
But the small boat Issho stood on remained untouched, enveloped in a reverse pressure field.
The feathers that tried to pierce it froze mid-air, like fish swimming against a waterfall.
"Perhaps, even after you, the world will still see new sources of chaos," Issho said calmly, "But right now, I've decided to stop you."
He drew his cane-sword fully from its scabbard, the blade wrapped in a deep violet aura—the power of the Gravity Fruit radiating from it.
"Fufufufufu... then come try me."
Doflamingo's laugh sent a chill down the spine.
"You'll be humiliated. I'll make you crawl just like I did to the Golden Lion. I'll grind you into the dirt!!!"
His twin wings flapped once.
Doflamingo shot forward like a rocket, trailing a chain of sonic booms behind him.
...
"I'm prepared," Issho said, his stance firm. "Even if it costs me my life—I will stop you."
"Gravity Blade!"
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