'Inside the Birdcage, at the City Castle atop the high hill...'
"Doffy!"
A strange, high-pitched voice echoed through the room, despite belonging to an enormous, heavily built man.
"I don't know why, but all the Den Den Mushi signals have been cut off... Hm?!"
Before he could finish, someone in the room let out an involuntary snort.
The giant with the squeaky voice was none other than Pica, one of the Donquixote Family's top officers.
He turned an icy glare toward the pirate sitting at Doflamingo's feet. The poor man had laughed without thinking, then instantly clamped both hands over his mouth, turning deathly pale as cold sweat poured down his face.
"You dare laugh at my 'family'? Do you have a death wish?!"
Doflamingo's terrifying Conqueror's Haki burst across the room.
Every local pirate present rolled their eyes back, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed unconscious.
Standing up, Doflamingo frowned. "Still no sign of Corazon?"
Pica shook his head. "Señor, Jora, Gladius, and Lao G haven't found him. Buffalo and Baby 5 are still searching from the air, and Vergo hasn't sent any more reports."
"That's normal," Doflamingo said. "Vergo's a Marine now. He shouldn't be contacting us carelessly. He's probably already returned to his post... How's the inventory of our spoils?"
"Trebol's still counting everything with Diamante and Machvise. They should be finishing soon."
"Fufufufufu..." Doflamingo laughed. "So all that's left... is finding 'Corazon'."
"Little brother... inside my Birdcage, no matter how hard you run, there's nowhere to hide."
---
'Elsewhere inside the Birdcage, near the abandoned city...'
"Hm?"
Swimming effortlessly through piles of rubble he'd liquefied with the Swim-Swim Fruit, Señor suddenly looked up.
Lao G, sitting on a roadside rock nearby, caught a falling snowflake in his hand. "What is it, Señor?"
"I thought I heard something..." Señor exhaled a puff of smoke. "It sounded like... a real man shouting with every ounce of strength he had."
"Then let's go take a look." Gladius, wearing goggles and a white mask with both hands tucked into his leather coat pockets, spoke impatiently. "We've been searching forever. I'm about ready to explode...!!"
As he spoke, his spiky, hedgehog-like hair stood straight on end.
Jora quickly backed away. "Hey! Don't 'actually' explode! I'm an artist. I hate explosions!"
"Let's move." Señor dove headfirst into the ground like a swimmer diving into water, stretching out his arms as he swam underground toward the source of the sound.
---
As the group hurried along the road, Lao G suddenly looked up at the sky.
"...Could that be?!"
Gladius and Jora both looked up. "What? Did something fly past?"
Lao G frowned deeply. "Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me... There's no way that was Vergo's mangled body... right?"
Ahead of them, Señor surfaced, swimming up through the trunk of a roadside tree to look into the distance. Two figures were approaching across the snowy field, their reflections mirrored in his sunglasses.
"...Why are 'they' here?"
---
Gladius, user of the Pop-Pop Fruit; Jora, user of the Art-Art Fruit; and the martial arts master Lao G blocked the road ahead.
Behind Liam and Robin stood Señor, who had not yet adopted his future baby outfit. With a pacifier in his mouth and a cigarette between his fingers, he took a drag before asking calmly, "Where do you think you're going?"
Liam and Robin stopped, casually sizing up the four officers surrounding them.
"To kill Doflamingo," Liam answered.
The four officers stared blankly for a moment, wondering if they'd misheard.
The veins on Gladius's forehead bulged, and his spiky hair shot upright.
Then...
'BOOM!'
His entire body exploded.
Lao G grabbed Jora and leaped clear of the blast.
As the smoke cleared, Gladius slowly walked out, seething with rage. "You bastard... what did you just say?!"
To insult the Young Master like that... he couldn't tolerate it.
Just as he was about to charge over and blow Giorno to pieces, his vision blurred.
In an instant, Liam was standing right in front of him, one hand raised toward his face.
"I said... I'm going to beat that flamingo to death."
"You actually dare get this close? You're asking to die!" Gladius slapped Liam's clothes several times.
Immediately, the fabric began to swell. It expanded larger and larger until it reached its limit...
'BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!'
A violent chain of explosions engulfed Liam in flames.
The firelight flickered across Robin's face. She turned to the suited man behind her. "You're not going to attack me?"
Señor flicked away some ash. "I don't strike women. You can attack me if you want. Otherwise, once they're done with Giorno... they'll come after you."
"What a gentleman." Robin smiled faintly before looking back toward the inferno. "But an explosion on this level... won't hurt him."
"Overconfidence..." Gladius said coldly, standing before the flames, "...will be the death of you. I'm the Pop-Pop Fruit user, explosions can't hurt me. But you? You..."
From within the fire, a tall figure slowly emerged, casually brushing flames from his body.
"You know..." He dusted off the last sparks clinging to his clothes. "...people who go around blowing up other people's clothes are really annoying."
Fortunately, after his previous experience fighting Hina, Liam had upgraded the quality of his pants. At least this time, he wasn't about to end up fighting naked again.
"What?!" Gladius's eyes widened in shock.
A large hand reached through the flames and clamped around his throat.
Liam's body was coated in jet-black Armament Haki. The flames still clung to his skin, but they couldn't burn him in the slightest.
Keeping one hand around Gladius's neck, Liam pressed his other palm against the man's chest. "Immune to explosions? Then try 'this' explosion."
'Rokuogan.'
'BOOM...!!'
The back of Gladius's coat exploded into tatters.
With his neck trapped in Liam's grip, the white mask covering his face quickly turned crimson as blood seeped through, dripping steadily onto the snow.
"Huh?" Liam looked down at the hand he'd just used. It was still coated in Armament Haki. 'I forgot to cancel my Haki... So why did Rokuogan still work?'
He glanced back at the Stand armor beside Robin. Normally, combining Haki with techniques that relied on Life Return required his physical body and the Stand to split the work.
He barely cared that one palm strike had nearly killed Gladius. What surprised him far more was that he'd managed to execute the technique himself.
Meanwhile, Lao G and Jora stood completely stunned.
'What just happened? That was only one exchange! Gladius was practically beaten to death already! Was Gladius that weak... or was Giorno simply that terrifying?'
'Crack.'
Liam casually tightened his grip and snapped Gladius's neck, tossing the body aside into the snow.
This time... there was no "half-dead."
Gladius was dead.
Lao G's expression darkened. Giorno was far more dangerous, and far more determined to kill them, than they'd ever imagined.
He drew a deep breath. 'We absolutely cannot let someone like this reach the Young Master!'
The old man's muscles instantly bulged, swelling until they nearly burst through his skintight outfit. "Señor! Jora! Together!"
With a roar, the rabbit-eared martial artist charged first, his fist flying toward Liam.
Señor immediately leaped over Robin, who showed no intention of interfering, and kicked straight at Liam's back.
"This guy is way too scary!" Jora clutched her face as colorful puffs of smoke rose from her head. "He's frightening so much inspiration out of me!!"
Every one of their movements... every attack... every trajectory... all of it was laid bare before Liam's Observation Haki.
---
'Boom... Boom...'
Explosions echoed faintly from below.
Buffalo, spinning through the sky in his propeller form, looked down. "Baby 5... was that...?"
The black-haired girl sitting on his back glanced downward. "Oh! That looked like Gladius's explosions..."
Her Arms-Arms Fruit overlapped slightly with the Pop-Pop Fruit's abilities, so she could easily recognize the unique nature of those blasts.
"Should we go check?" Buffalo asked.
"Let's." Baby 5 smiled. "We've been flying around for so long. I'm getting cold."
Buffalo descended. "...Still, what we saw earlier really wasn't somebody's body, right?"
"No way." Baby 5 shook her head. "Even little kids know that if a person gets blown apart, there'd be blood everywhere. That thing didn't spray any blood."
Buffalo laughed. "You've got sharp eyes if you could even tell that."
"Huh?" Baby 5's face lit up. She immediately transformed one hand into a knife and pressed it against her other arm. "Do you need me to bleed for you?"
"Put the knife away! That's not what I meant!"
---
Back on the ground...
In the area where the explosions had melted away a wide stretch of snow lay Gladius's corpse. Nearby was a battered Señor, and Jora was covered in blood with her head split open.
Standing before Liam, only Lao G remained.
The bald old man was soaked in blood himself, his clothes torn to shreds as he struggled to breathe. Yet he was still standing.
'His strength... is actually this overwhelming...' Lao G's heart slowly sank. Now he finally understood: a man capable of trading blows with the legendary Whitebeard was truly this terrifying.
"I know I can't defeat you..." Thin streams of white steam slowly rose from Lao G's body. "But even if I have to burn through every ounce of strength I've stored over all these years... I'll make you waste as much stamina as possible... so the Young Master can kill you himself!"
He roared. "Ultimate Secret Technique of Jio-Ken...'Battle Preservation Fist!!'"
Before their eyes, his aging body seemed to regain its youth. His muscles swelled, his skin regained its vitality, and his presence climbed higher and higher. His blazing body heat melted the surrounding snow, wrapping him in a haze of steaming mist. His eyes held nothing but unwavering determination.
"Old man..." Liam remarked, "...that's actually a pretty intimidating aura."
He reached one hand back without looking. Robin took Vane out of her bag and placed it into his waiting hand.
"Come!"
Lao G charged like a raging beast. "'G Mark!!'"
Without even turning around, Liam pulled the golden iron staff from inside the castle stored within the Den Den Mushi, weighing it once in his hand. A flowing layer of Haki instantly wrapped around the staff.
No fancy technique. No unnecessary words.
He simply swung it.
'BANG!!!'
Black-and-red lightning erupted from the golden staff.
The instant it struck Lao G, a tremendous shockwave exploded outward.
'PUUUFF...!!!!'
Blood burst from Lao G's body in countless sprays. The old man who had charged so fiercely only a moment before was smashed away by a single swing, flipping helplessly through the air.
Watching from far away...
Buffalo's chubby face turned deathly pale as cold sweat streamed down his cheeks.
(End of Chapter)
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