-Broadcast-
The white thread-wave surged toward Admiral Gin like a tsunami of razor-sharp strings. He stood his ground, utterly fearless.
His concentration exceeded normal human limits—refined through years of life-or-death battles before his Marine service, honed further through Artoria's brutal training regimen. The Ame Ame no Mi (Rain-Rain Fruit) responded to his will, preparing the next phase of assault.
Every Logia user was beloved by nature itself—granted dominion over fundamental forces that shaped the world. While the Ame Ame no Mi couldn't control seawater directly, it could manipulate weather patterns on a massive scale. And Gin had mastered that ability completely.
The rain curtain's destruction hadn't cleared the sky. Quite the opposite.
Storm clouds continued gathering overhead—growing darker, denser, more ominous with each passing second. They kept pace with Eren's movement, following the Founding Titan like a localized apocalypse. Atmospheric moisture was being artificially compressed into concentrations that defied meteorological probability.
This was no natural storm. This was weaponized weather.
Ships sailing anywhere within visual range of this phenomenon were already turning toward shore, captains recognizing the warning signs of a catastrophic tempest. Yet the people directly beneath the gathering maelstrom felt only mild discomfort—pressure changes making ears pop, humidity thickening the air slightly.
The calm before annihilation.
Audiences watching through the Sky Screen swallowed nervously despite being safely distant. The immersive quality of the broadcast made even non-combatants break out in cold sweat, instinctively recognizing the scale of destruction being prepared.
The power to manipulate celestial phenomena on this magnitude rarely appeared anywhere in the world. Witnessing it firsthand was terrifying.
The white thread-wave reached Gin's position.
Sixteen Amenomurakumo materialized around him in perfect formation—water-blades arranged in a defensive sphere that surrounded his body completely. They rotated slowly, creating a barrier of pressurized liquid edges.
CRASH!
The awakened threads slammed into the rotating sword-formation. The collision generated sounds like metal grinding against metal—high-pitched screeching that made teeth ache. Doflamingo's Armament Haki-coated strings could break through a single water-blade's defense with sufficient force, destroying the construct entirely.
But the moment one Amenomurakumo shattered, another materialized in its place. Instant regeneration. Limitless ammunition.
The battle devolved into pure attrition warfare—who possessed more stamina, more willpower, more raw energy to continue fighting. A contest of endurance rather than technique.
And Gin held the overwhelming advantage.
"The wind is rising," Doflamingo muttered, his Observation Haki detecting the storm's intensification overhead. He'd noticed the gathering clouds from the beginning, but now their true purpose was becoming clear.
Whatever Gin is preparing, it's going to be catastrophic.
The storm began generating terrifying suction force—pulling outward like a massive vortex trying to devour everything within range. The atmospheric pressure differential affected the entire battlefield, creating wind currents that threatened to rip combatants off the Founding Titan's spine.
Doflamingo responded by extending threads from his feet directly into the exposed bone beneath him, literally tying himself down with the Ito Ito no Mi (String-String Fruit). A crude solution, but effective—he wouldn't be torn away and flung into the storm's maw.
Within seconds, the wind intensified to Category 5 hurricane levels—sustained speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour. In meteorological terms, this was a super-typhoon carrying unprecedented moisture content. The precipitation it would generate along any coastline would be absolutely devastating.
And this concentrated apocalypse was centered directly above Doflamingo's position.
Lightning flickered inside the storm clouds—hundreds of electrical discharges illuminating the churning darkness from within. The ionized air crackled with potential energy, preparing for the deluge that was moments away.
Gin maintained his defensive formation, the Amenomurakumo still blocking the white thread-waves while he simultaneously controlled this nation-destroying weather phenomenon.
"Doflamingo," the Admiral said, his voice carrying through the rising wind with supernatural clarity. "Welcome your judgment."
CRACK!
A horrifying thunderclap split the sky—the sound so loud it was felt as much as heard, vibrating through bone and organs. The lightning flash illuminated Gin's face, making his perpetually-tired features look almost corpse-like in the stark white illumination.
Then the storm opened.
Rain descended. Not gradually, not with warning sprinkles—but as an immediate torrential downpour that transformed the world into a wall of falling water. Visibility dropped to near-zero within heartbeats. The Founding Titan received a free power-washing, bone surface becoming slick with runoff.
Doflamingo stood exposed to the deluge, soaked head-to-toe within seconds. Water streamed through his silver hair like miniature waterfalls. His sunglasses fogged completely, the lenses rendered useless by humidity and direct water contact.
Facing an obstacle that actively impaired his vision, Doflamingo simply crushed the sunglasses—shattering them against his own face with deliberate force. Fragments fell away, leaving his eyes exposed.
Through layers of rain, he could barely make out Admiral Gin's silhouette standing perhaps twenty meters distant. The figure was blurred, indistinct, wavering behind curtains of falling water.
This level of precipitation was like the sky itself had developed a leak—heaven pouring its reserves onto the earth without restraint. Even with the sunglasses destroyed, Doflamingo's visibility extended less than one meter in any direction.
He was forced to rely entirely on Observation Haki to sense danger approaching.
And danger was everywhere.
Water constructs formed around him—creatures shaped from rain itself given temporary animation through Gin's Logia mastery. Tigers prowling. Sharks circling. Eagles diving. Each one different, each one attacking from unexpected angles that exploited momentary blind spots in his awareness.
Flying from above, charging from ground level, surging through accumulated puddles—
The assault came from every vector simultaneously.
"Is this all you can do?" Doflamingo snarled, his frustration bleeding through into audible anger.
"Goshikito Ōnami (Giant Wave Five-Color Strings)!"
The Ito Ito no Mi's Awakening intensified, converting more of the surrounding bone into malleable thread. Five massive colored torrents erupted around Doflamingo's position—creating a "moat" of constantly-flowing strings that encircled him protectively.
The threads moved like liquid currents, intercepting and shredding the water creatures before they could reach his body. Tigers dissolved mid-pounce. Sharks disintegrated upon contact. Eagles exploded into spray when thread-currents caught them.
But this defensive measure came at a cost.
His vision was already blocked by the rain. Now his own threads created a second barrier—the flowing moat obscuring everything beyond its perimeter. Even with Observation Haki active, Doflamingo could only perceive fragments of the full battlefield.
He was fighting blind. Pinned in place. Completely on the defensive.
Admiral Gin, meanwhile, had concealed himself somewhere within the storm—hidden by his own element, moving freely through the downpour while maintaining complete situational awareness. He held every advantage.
The dynamic was utterly frustrating for someone as dominant as the Heavenly Yaksha.
The rain continued falling without pause, providing infinite ammunition for Gin's water constructs. They reformed as quickly as Doflamingo destroyed them—an endless parade of liquid predators that gave no respite.
In a prolonged battle, I can't win, Doflamingo acknowledged with bitter certainty. This is a numerical crushing defeat. Orders of magnitude difference in sustainability.
Somewhere within the storm, Admiral Gin moved like a ghost—his body partially transformed into rain itself, immune to the deluge that blinded his opponent.
"Corazon," he whispered to the memory of a man he'd never met but whose death had motivated this entire operation. "I'll avenge you. Today is the day your brother dies."
He raised both hands, directing the accumulated rainfall with precise mental commands.
"Kōzui no Ame (Flood of Rain)!"
The water that had been pooling across the Founding Titan's surface—gallons upon gallons collecting in bone crevices and depressions—suddenly surged upward. Under the manipulation of a Logia user's Devil Fruit mastery, the collected precipitation rose into a ten-meter-high tsunami that dwarfed anything the ocean itself could generate naturally.
The wave swept toward Doflamingo with nature's implacable force behind it.
"Damn it! When will this rain stop?!" Doflamingo's Observation Haki detected the approaching tsunami—felt the enormous mass of water bearing down on his position. He understood immediately that if the rain continued, these ten-meter waves would come repeatedly, one after another, steadily draining his combat effectiveness until nothing remained.
"Kyodai na Nami Hakusen (Giant Wave White Line)!"
He met water with thread—raising his own tsunami of awakened strings to collide with Gin's liquid assault.
CRASH!
The two waves met in spectacular fashion. Water versus thread. Nature versus unnatural. The collision generated spray and scattered string fragments that filled the air like artificial snow, creating a visual spectacle that left audiences breathless.
Human power can achieve THIS? viewers thought in awe. Admiral Gin truly is a walking natural disaster.
But the tsunami attack wasn't singular.
Wave after wave of water surged toward Doflamingo—each one requiring full-strength counter-measures to neutralize. He couldn't dodge. Couldn't risk being caught in the flood without knowing what else might be hidden within the water. Couldn't afford to gamble on whether Gin had seeded the waves with additional traps.
He could only meet force with force, draining his stamina with each defensive maneuver.
Then worse news arrived.
A familiar voice shouted from behind him.
"GOMU GOMU NO... RHINO SCHNEIDER!"
Monkey D. Luffy?!
Doflamingo's eyes widened in genuine shock. The Straw Hat Boy who'd been trapped in the Birdcage—powerless, defeated, slowly suffocating—was free somehow. And his Gear Fourth form was active again, bringing all that enhanced strength back to bear.
Admiral Gin must have freed him! Doflamingo's mind raced. As a Marine Admiral, that bastard has absolutely no honor! What happened to the tacit agreement to fight one-on-one?!
In front: Admiral Gin's tsunami attacks, backed by infinite ammunition and environmental control.
Behind: Gear Fourth Luffy's massive Haki-coated fist, specialized for devastating close-range combat.
Doflamingo found himself caught between two threats—attacked from both sides simultaneously—and for the first time in this entire battle, he felt genuine pressure.
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