A few days later, rumors about the Ope Ope no mi being found in the North Blue started to spread out in the underworld of North Blue.
When the news about this arrived at the ears of Doflamingo, who is currently back at his home base at Spider Miles, he started to think about who might be the one who leaked the news.
"Fufufu, someone is targeting us, but it doesn't matter; everyone of them just knows about the value of the fruit, not about its power. The only rival here this time is that troublesome old lady," Doflamingo said as he looked at the map of the entire North Blue.
"Behehe, Doffy, should I send someone to look for the one who leaked the news?" Trebol said on his side.
"It doesn't matter; we just had to make this our advantage. Once they find it, then we will take it," Doflamingo said as he laughed.
On the side of the marines, Tsuru with her crew is currently at Rich Island, and she is currently on a marine base at Notice Town.
"Someone from the Marines? Or someone who saw the fruit? If they saw the fruit, then the appearance of that fruit here is basically confirmed, but now that a lot of forces are eyeing it, this operation is just getting more dangerous, and this is supposed to be a search mission. I'll let Sengoku think about this," she said as she wrote her report and told someone to send it to Sengoku.
"If those guys from the Underworld really move, then I'll just let them have a go with each other, but that brat Doflamingo, I'll make sure that fruit doesn't end up in his hands," Tsuru added.
October 12, 1510
East Blue
Sixis Island
Grove 10
While forces of the Underworld, marines, and the Donquixote Family are quietly scheming with each other, the one who planned for this leak to happen, Raeven, is right now busy cutting off branches on his cherry trees. As this is the first time he will cut some branches, he will do the undercut. This technique is used to cut off branches that might fall down and tear the trunk of the tree.
Together with his self-proclaimed guard, which is Tom, who is just sleeping beside the table, on the table is a big food basket, and Tom is guarding it from who knows whom; beside it is a bottle of cola and Raeven's den den mushi.
After a whole morning of cutting branches, Raeven was finally done with his job, so he headed back to the resting area, which is a small shed built by Tom. Surprisingly, this shed built by Tom is really useful; it even had an air conditioner and heater installed, but Raeven didn't know what or how it was running or what was powering it. In the end, he just let it go, thinking about those things will just wreck his head; solving the Void Century will be easier.
As Raeven sat down to eat, Tom gave a newspaper to him, which arrived this morning while he was busy cutting down branches.
"So the Revolutionary Army and the Cipher Pol are on the move too; even the Emperors in the New World are on the move too," Raeven said as he read about the news.
The agents of the Revolutionary Army have been spotted near the Lvneel kingdom. When this happened, the World Government was forced to deploy their CP agents too; CP 7 and CP 8 were deployed by the World Government.
The Emperors of the Underworld began to move too, as they had confirmed that the Ope Ope fruit is really in the North Blue after all. 5 billion belly is still a lot, and a fruit with that value must have special powers. The Emperors of the New World, Big Mom and Kaido, both sent out a ship towards North Blue.
While the Whitebeard pirates didn't move at all, the Marines, on the other hand, sent out a backup for Tsuru, which is one of the stars of the Marines, Vice Admiral Kuzan, codenamed Aokiji.
As all of this was happening, Stussy launched her newest product, which is the long-range Video Den Den Mushi. She released 300 pieces, which became sold out in two days. Now a lot of people want to buy it, and there are a lot who pre-ordered already. Luckily, Stussy already had a farm of Den Den Mushi, so she is ready to make more.
January 10, 1511
The search for the Ope Ope fruit in the North Blue is still hot, and a lot of small and large battles have already happened there, which made Morgans really happy; having a lot of supply of news, which he writes on his newspaper, is a happy thing for him.
Suddenly a man named Diez Barrels came out claiming that he had the Ope Ope fruit. After confirming it extensively, the Marines finally had a deal with him, and they will buy the devil fruit for 5 billion belis.
When this news was leaked out, the entire North Blue became really chaotic as everyone began to search for this man; when they found out who he really was, they became surprised.
Diez Barrels, a former Marine officer and a local from North Blue, is being looked for hard everywhere in the North Blue. Someone from the Underworld leaked that he is currently using Minions Island as his base.
When this news was leaked out, everyone who wants that fruit started to move towards that island.
January 13, 1511
Minions Island
North Blue
From one of the abandoned villages on the hills, a sci-fi-looking dome is currently in the center of the village. Outside of this medium-sized dome are two camping chairs, and in front of it is a fire pit currently burning despite the harsh snow.
"3 marine warships are currently heading towards the island; behind them is the flagship of the Donquixote Family, the Numancia Flamingo, the Revolutionaries, and the Cipher Pol are just behind those two." The door of the dome opened sideways, and Stussy walked out as he sat on one of the chairs.
"Are you done preparing the cameras?" Raeven said as he placed a piece of firewood on the flame.
"We already completed the necessary things; we only need to start live streaming while they start fighting. Morgans paid a lot for this to happen; that man is really crazy," Stussy said as she giggled.
Raeven looked around the island; luckily, the citizens here evacuated already, or else they will become trapped when the fight starts here.
"Also the kid that went to visit us before is here too, together with one of the Cadres of the Donquixote Pirates, Donquixote Rosinante, codename Corazon; currently the two of them are heading towards the Barrel Pirates' stronghold," Stussy said. Raeven skewered a marshmallow onto a stick and cooked it; when it turned perfectly light brown, he gave it to Stussy.
"We can just relax here; this portable house you made is really great. Are you planning to sell this to the public?" Raeven said as he heated up a marshmallow too.
"I won't sell this advanced version, but the lower versions I might sell. This marshmallow Monet and Robin made is really great," she said.
Suddenly they heard an explosion coming from the stronghold of the Barrel Pirates, then Stussy's den den mushi rang.
"Stussy-san, we're ready," Morgans said on the line, and Stussy took out a small remote from her pocket and clicked it. Then she placed a video den den mushi on the armchair; its eyes lit up, and it started to project a video that showed the entire minions island.
"Welcome to the first-ever live stream. I'm your host today, Morgans of the World Economic Journal. Today I'll report to you everything that will happen in this ongoing race for the Ope Ope fruit." Morgans' voice can be heard on the den den mushi.
Everyone in the entire North Blue can see this video without delays, while everyone else can watch this with a ten-second delay.
"Ohhh, it's starting, and the navy is already on the move," Raeven said as he saw the sea 1 kilometer from the island become frozen. Every party who is interested in this fruit quietly entered Minions Island.
And as expected, the clash between the Donquixote Pirates and the Marines ignited the moment they met.
"Looks like Vice Admiral Tsuru had a grudge on this guy Doflamingo," Stussy said as she prepared a tea.
"This is just the prelude; if the group from Big Mom and Kaido arrived here, then we will see a spectacle," Raeven said as he smiled.
The clash between the Marines and the Donquixote Pirates is still ongoing. Suddenly, Doflamingo started to retreat and fly towards where the Barrels pirates are currently staying.
Aokiji and Tsuru are chasing him while the other marines are fighting Trebol, Diamante, and Pica.
On the other side of the island, as the ship of CP 7 and CP 8 docked on the island, they were greeted by Ivankov and Lindbergh, which started a fight.
Explosions and screams destroyed the silence of the island, and the side currently winning this war is the marines, who had more personnel.
"The ship of Charlotte Perospero and the ship of King the Conflagration arrived on the island," Stussy said.
"Looks like the real party is about to start," Raeven said as he sipped his tea.