"Scared now?"
Kai's voice dripped mockery.
"That's not like you at all, Doffy."
Doflamingo didn't care about the taunt. Couldn't care. Panic had seized his chest in a vice grip, squeezing out rational thought.
"Where IS this?!" His voice cracked. "What did you DO TO ME?!"
Kai tilted his head, studying him like an interesting specimen.
"Didn't I already tell you? This is my world—Tsukuyomi." A pause. "As for what I did... that's the wrong question. You should ask what I'm about to do."
"What—" Doflamingo's throat worked. "What are you going to do?"
The words came out exactly as Kai wanted. Obedient. Desperate.
Because the unknown was always the worst part. The mind filled in blanks with horrors far worse than reality.
Kai didn't answer.
He just smiled.
His right hand rose slowly. Fingers aimed at Doflamingo's throat. A casual flick—
A throwing knife materialized from nothing.
Cold steel gleaming with impossible sharpness shot forward.
"AHHHHHHH!!!"
The scream tore from Doflamingo's throat as the blade punched through flesh and cartilage. Blood sprayed. His vision went white with agony. The knife had buried itself to the hilt in his windpipe.
This is it. I'm dead. I'm—
"Don't worry."
Kai's voice was perfectly calm.
"In my world, if I don't want you to die... then you absolutely cannot die."
The words sank in like ice water.
Doflamingo's eyes went wide with dawning horror.
"Now then..." Kai's smile widened. "Let's continue."
Time Lost Meaning
Screams echoed through the blood-red world.
Each one louder than the last. Each one more broken.
Doflamingo's throat was pierced. Healed. Pierced again.
His heart exploded in his chest. Reformed. Exploded again.
Tendons severed. Restored. Severed again.
Every torture Kai could imagine—and his imagination was extensive—was inflicted on Doflamingo's body in endless repetition.
The Tsukuyomi space allowed perfect restoration. Brought him back from the brink of death to full health in an instant.
Only to start over.
Doflamingo's face had gone deathly pale. Not from blood loss—that was always replenished. From the mental toll. The psychological erosion of experiencing death a thousand times over without the mercy of unconsciousness.
Kai raised his hand again, preparing another knife strike—
"Fufufufufu..."
The laugh was wrong. Broken. Manic.
Kai paused, eyebrow raised. "Hmm? What's so funny, Doffy?"
"Fufufu... I'm laughing at you, Marine Admiral White Dragon!"
"At me?" Genuine curiosity colored Kai's tone. The torture had gotten boring. This was at least interesting. "What's so funny about me?"
"The Birdcage I released..." Doflamingo's grin stretched too wide. "It contracts automatically after one hour. Even without me controlling it. So much time has passed now—tens of thousands of Marines must be dead! Fufufufu—"
The laugh died in his throat.
Kai's expression hadn't changed. Still perfectly calm. Still looking at him like he was the world's biggest idiot.
The silence stretched.
"Oh." Kai's tone was utterly flat. "You mean that? Yeah, I know."
"Then why—" Doflamingo's voice rose. "Why aren't you reacting?!"
"Why should I?"
"You're a Marine Admiral! Massive casualties! Aren't you FURIOUS?!"
"Who said there were casualties?"
The question hung in the air.
Before Doflamingo could respond, Kai continued.
"I think you've overlooked two things, Doffy."
"What... what two things?"
"First:" Kai held up one finger. "I told you—this is my world. Everything here is controlled by me. Space. Matter. And time. In this world, I've decreed that one second outside equals seventy-two hours here."
The implications crashed into Doflamingo like a tidal wave.
"Second:" A second finger rose. "Even if your Birdcage fully deployed... you think your combat power—which hasn't even reached Four Emperors level—could cause real trouble at Marine Headquarters?"
Doflamingo's face turned purple. Rage and humiliation warred with the lingering terror.
As a Warlord of the Sea. As a possessor of Conqueror's Haki. As a former Celestial Dragon—
He'd never been so thoroughly despised.
"Alright, enough wasting time." Kai's smile returned. "You still have seventy-one hours and fifty-nine minutes of punishment ahead."
A pause.
"Oh, right. I forgot to mention—every second in this world flows a hundred times slower than outside. So really, you've got quite a while left."
The screaming began again.
Outside - One Second Later
To every observer, Kai had simply looked at Doflamingo.
One glance.
Then Doflamingo collapsed.
His body hit the ground like a puppet with cut strings. When he looked up at Kai again, his eyes held nothing but raw, primal terror.
The arrogance was gone. The defiance was gone. The cocky grin was gone.
Only fear remained.
"What the hell just happened?!" A Marine lieutenant's voice cracked with confusion.
"Admiral White Dragon is just... too strong!" Another Marine breathed. "He just looked at Doflamingo and—"
"Idiot!" A sharp-eyed Colonel cut in. "Didn't you see the pattern in his eyes? Admiral White Dragon is a Devil Fruit user!"
The revelation rippled through the crowd.
Fleet Admiral's Office
"A Devil Fruit user?!" Akainu's voice was sharp with shock.
Sengoku stared at the screen, mind racing.
"Not the Flame-Flame Fruit..." He muttered to himself. "Then what? What kind of power can do that with just eye contact?"
No one had an answer.
On the screen, Kai stood calmly over Doflamingo's broken form.
The Birdcage above began to dissolve into nothing.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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