Doffy stopped laughing.
For a long beat he said nothing. The fingers that had been twitching in subtle arcs finally came to rest. Across the plaza the Marines who had turned their blades on their own comrades felt their limbs go light again, control snapping back into place like a breath they had been holding too long.
Not fun. I am done.
Under Sengoku's cool stare, Donquixote Doflamingo started toward the guest hall, pride be damned. Half a step later he reconsidered. If even the Marines were waiting to receive Ozz, and he sauntered off to lounge in a salon, every whispering hack on this island would make a headline out of it.
He stopped, adjusted the pink feathers at his shoulders, and then, after a moment's hesitation, moved to stand beside the Marine formations. He would wait with them.
Growth requires posture.
Do not shiver.
"Hee hee hee hee… Doflamingo, you have become the Navy's good dog."
Gecko Moria's ship bumped the pier. He disembarked with a lantern grin, fangs bared, voice pitched to carry. He had no idea what Sengoku had murmured into Doffy's ear, but ignorance did not blunt his appetite for mockery. He for one would not stand meekly with the Navy. He would not fold so easily.
"That is Moonlight Moria."
"Another Warlord is here."
"Hanafuda too. Did they coordinate their arrival."
Hanafuda did not strut. He watched, quiet and calculating, while Moria made noise. Dofflamingo's jaw ticked as the laughter rolled over him. He could forgive Ozz. He could tolerate the Marines for now. But Moria.
Who are you to bark at me.
His influence had swollen in recent years. Arrogance came easily. To be belittled by a man who had been routed by Kaido, whose crew had died on the shores of Wano, made his lip curl. He cast Moria a sidelong glance and drawled with pointed care.
"Sometimes you give a strong man his due. Failing to do so can leave you running away with your tail between your legs, face lost to the world."
"You bastard."
No one knew which sutures to cut in Moria's heart better than Doflamingo. The words landed exactly where the scar was deepest. Shadows boiled from Moria in a storm of bats, wings drumming, a black tide surging for the man in pink.
Dofflamingo did not flinch. His smile sharpened. A finger bent. Lines of hardened scarlet armament threaded into being between his hands.
One strike to erase a clown from the roster. A non Ozz-aligned asset dying here would not be a tragedy.
The clash never landed.
Clouds shouldered together above the harbor. The light went pewter. Thunder spoke in long, low phrases, and a weight like the edge of a storm rolled over the plaza.
"Ten Thousand Thunders."
The voice was calm, the force was not. The sky split in straight white pillars. Lightning fell in sheets. Bats vanished in instant fire, burned out of existence so completely that not even ash dared to drift. Even the three monster Vice Admirals turned their heads for a better look.
"How frightening. The power of lightning. We have a troublesome guest," Borsalino murmured, hat tilted.
"Logia of lightning," Sakazuki said without inflection, eyes narrowing at the clouds. The weight of that one strike did not fall short of their own.
Jaw tight, Moria glared up. Red edged the whites of his eyes.
"Damn it. That one."
The threads in Doflamingo's hands dissolved. He lifted his chin, reaching with his senses into the clouds, reading what crouched there.
A new face by Ozz's side.
He had been tasked by Ozz and reported to Sami. He had hunted supernovas and rebels across two seas. The World Government had stamped him with a title they usually saved for the Celestial Dragons and their precious idols. That alone told you how much they feared him.
If this man chose to cut in, Doflamingo would step back.
Among the crowd, only Sengoku and Tsuru remained unruffled. They had ridden out too many storms to flinch at thunder.
"One of the strongest of the Logia. The lightning man who ate the Rumble Rumble Fruit," a captain breathed. "Raijin Enel."
A spear of light tore the cloud's belly. A tall, long eared man drifted down to hover above the quay, drums of thunder strapped to his back.
"God would prefer that the venue for that man's meeting is not a bonfire," Enel said, gaze cool as he swept the square, lingering on Moria.
You are not one of us and you dare posture like that.
"Do not you dare get cocky in front of me," Moria snarled. He felt the math, two against one, and still his nature rebelled. "I have not even begun to fight."
Shadows condensed along his frame, black pressure etching the air. His teeth bared. For a heartbeat it looked as though he would try to split the sky in spite of the lightning.
Then a different voice cut through everything. It was not loud. It did not need to be.
"How lively, Marineford."
The square went cold. Everyone who mattered felt the same click inside their bones. Heads turned to the mouth of the harbor.
No one had noticed the ship arrive. One moment the water was empty, the next a great red hull shouldered the berth, its lines unmistakable. Figures stood at the prow.
"That is…"
"Oro Jackson. Gol D. Roger's ship."
"Hawk Eyes Dracule Mihawk."
"And the Sand Crocodile, Crocodile."
"Bartholomew Kuma is aboard as well."
The sudden arrival froze Doflamingo, Enel, Moria, and every Marine and civilian who had packed the plaza. Even Sengoku's vision blurred for half a blink. A sheet of cold hissed across the stone at his feet.
"Kuzan. Control yourself."
Sengoku's rebuke snapped the thin glaze of ice. He smoothed his own face, counted out a breath, counted out another, and stepped forward. He walked past Marines, past Warlords, past cameras, until he stood clear and alone with the great ship framed above him.
There was no tremor in his voice when he spoke. There was no softness either. The words were formal, and if there was a burr of discomfort on one edge, he filed it down with iron will.
"Admiral Sengoku, on behalf of Marine Headquarters and all present…"
"We welcome Saint Dotor Ozz to Marineford."
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