Kael hadn't gone far.
He simply found a clean, flat boulder to sit on, pulled a newspaper from his coat, and started reading at his leisure, as if that overwhelming, one-sided slaughter earlier had been nothing more than post-meal entertainment.
He left the stage to the five men he'd beaten down until they were barely holding themselves together.
The deserted island was dead silent.
Doflamingo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and pushed himself up. He adjusted his broken sunglasses, hiding the storm of fury in his eyes.
"Fuffuffuffu… so… we were looked down on that badly, huh." His laughter was hoarse, packed with unwilling frustration.
"Hmph. And whose fault is that? You idiot got taken out first," Crocodile said coldly as he hopped down from the crater in the cliff, brushing dust off his coat.
"What did you say, you sand crocodile?" Doflamingo's face darkened. "If I hadn't drawn Kael-sama's first wave of attention, you'd have lost even faster."
"Kishishishi! Quit yapping!" Moria staggered upright too. He clutched his still-bleeding nose, voice thick and muffled. "We're all tied to the same rope now!"
He spat to the side.
"The boss was right. We're scattered sand."
Tesoro held his abdomen, still throbbing with pain. He took a long breath, forcing himself to calm down, then looked to the one man who'd said nothing.
"Mihawk. What do you think?"
Every gaze turned to the world's greatest swordsman.
Among the five, in pure individual strength, Mihawk was unquestionably the strongest.
Mihawk slowly opened his eyes. He didn't look at the others. He stared toward the direction Kael had walked off to.
That figure looked completely unguarded.
Yet somehow, it felt even more dangerous than Kael during the fight.
"He's right," Mihawk said evenly, with a certainty that allowed no argument.
"My eyes were only on him, so I lost."
"Your eyes were only on yourselves, so you lost too."
His words dropped like stones.
The other four fell silent.
They were all lone wolves. Kings who ruled their own corners. Since when had any of them ever truly understood the concept of "companions"?
Doflamingo's "family" was built on profit and control.
Crocodile's Baroque Works was nothing more than a tool for his ambition.
Tesoro's "golden city" was a fortress to protect what he cherished.
None of them truly trusted anyone. None of them had ever thought about fighting side by side.
"So what?" Crocodile snorted, breaking the silence. "What, you want us to hold hands and chant slogans like some naïve brats?"
"Fuffuffuffu. Just imagining it makes my skin crawl," Doflamingo echoed.
"But we don't have a choice," Tesoro said, his eyes sharpening. "Do you want to be useless trash in Kael-sama's eyes for the rest of your lives? Do you want to live under his shadow forever?"
That sentence stabbed straight into everyone's pride.
They could accept following a stronger man.
They could not accept becoming dead weight.
"I don't!" Moria roared first. "I'm Gecko Moria! I'm the man who'll rule the New World again! How the hell can I lose here!"
"Hmph. Easy to say," Crocodile said, but the flame in his eyes had rekindled.
"So what do we do?" Doflamingo looked around. "You've all seen Kael-sama's strength. He's not even in the same dimension as us. Even if we team up… do we really have a chance?"
"A chance is something you create," Crocodile said suddenly.
Cold calculation flickered in his shadowed gaze.
An expert in schemes and traps, he'd already stepped out of the defeat's darkness and started thinking like a strategist again.
"The five of us each have strengths and weaknesses."
He looked at Doflamingo. "Doflamingo, your strings are flexible. You can control the battlefield, restrict the boss's movement, or set traps."
Then Moria. "Moria, your shadows are best for harassment and ambush. You can swap our positions, disrupt the boss's tempo."
Then Tesoro. "Tesoro, your gold is the best defense and the strongest control. You can forge armor and weapons for us, even reshape terrain and build a battlefield that favors us."
Finally, his eyes moved to Mihawk.
"And you, Mihawk…" Crocodile's tone grew grave. "You're our only spear, and the sharpest one. We need to create an opening for you, a moment where you can deliver your strongest slash straight to Kael."
Crocodile's breakdown made everyone's eyes light up.
For the first time, they properly acknowledged the abilities of these "temporary teammates."
"Fuffuffuffu… interesting." Doflamingo smiled. "I weave the stage, and you lot perform?"
"Kishishishi! Moving through shadows is what I do best!" Moria grew excited.
"Using my gold to pave the way for the world's greatest swordsman?" Tesoro nodded. "That sounds good."
Mihawk stayed silent, but his grip on Yoru tightened.
He understood what Crocodile meant.
He was no longer just a challenger.
He was a blade that needed coordination to reach its maximum.
"Then it's settled," Crocodile concluded. "I'll handle tactics and command. Any objections?"
This time, no one objected.
After seeing Kael's crushing dominance, they all understood it clearly.
Solo play meant death.
If they wanted even a sliver of respect, they had to swallow their pride and twist themselves into one rope.
"Good," Crocodile said with satisfaction. "Then the first step…"
He lowered his voice and began outlining the plan.
In the distance, Kael turned a page of his newspaper, the corner of his mouth lifting faintly.
"Oh? Finally figured it out?"
He could hear their whispers perfectly.
He didn't stop them.
This was exactly what he wanted.
A pack of untamed lions was far better than a flock of docile sheep.
He didn't want obedient tools.
He wanted partners who could stand with him through life and death.
…
An hour later.
Tesoro stood at the front. The ground beneath him had fully transformed into gold, and heavy golden armor covered his entire body.
Crocodile and Moria took the left and right behind him, sand swirling around one, shadows crawling outward beneath the other.
Doflamingo stood at the rear, arms spread wide. Countless invisible strings linked each person, and linked to the environment around them.
Mihawk stood at the center of the formation, protected on all sides. His eyes were closed, as if gathering power.
A classic formation.
Tesoro as shield.
Mihawk as spear.
The other three as support.
"Oh?" Kael raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you came up with something. Alright then. Let me see your 'teamwork.'"
"Ikuzo," Crocodile growled.
The fight began again.
"Birdcage!"
Doflamingo struck first. Razor-thin strings fell from the sky, instantly forming a massive dome that covered everything within several kilometers.
This time, it wasn't to attack Kael.
It was to create an absolutely sealed stage that belonged to them.
"Golden Tide!"
Tesoro roared, slamming both hands into the ground. A golden ocean surged up, forming waves dozens of meters high that crashed toward Kael from every direction, sealing off every path of escape.
Kael watched the sky-filling gold with the same calm expression as before.
"Same old trick. Useless…"
He was about to shatter the gold with a soundwave again when something changed.
"Shadow Doppelganger!"
Moria's shadow erupted from beneath Kael's feet, turning into a black silhouette identical to Kael. It wrapped both arms around Kael's legs and held on tight.
A chill seeped in.
Kael's movement slowed for the briefest instant.
In that instant, the golden wave was already upon him.
Boom!
The golden ocean closed in, swallowing Kael completely.
"Did we get him?!" Moria shouted in delight.
"Don't get careless!" Crocodile barked, cool and sharp.
Sure enough, the next second, a thunderous crash came from inside the golden sphere.
Crack.
Cracks spread, and Kael burst out, uninjured. Only a dusting of gold powder clung to his clothes.
"Nice coordination," Kael said, brushing himself off. "But this kind of trick won't hold me."
"We're not done yet!" Crocodile's voice cut in.
"Desert Sunflower!"
The moment Kael broke free, the ground beneath him turned to sand, collapsing into a massive quicksand trap. A powerful suction yanked him downward.
"Too naïve."
Kael tapped his foot lightly. A shockwave blew the sand apart as he prepared to launch upward.
And then two figures appeared at his left and right like ghosts.
Crocodile and Moria.
"Shadow Box!"
"Ground Secco!"
Moria's shadow formed a black cage that enclosed Kael.
Crocodile's right arm became a huge sand blade, carrying the terrifying power to drain moisture as it slashed toward Kael's waist.
They had been suspended by Doflamingo's strings, swapped through Moria's shadow, and delivered directly to Kael's side for a perfectly timed ambush.
A flicker of surprise finally flashed in Kael's eyes.
He had to admit it.
This chain of coordination was beyond what he'd expected.
With one hand, he seized the shadow cage and crushed it, exploding it apart.
With the other, he clenched his fist and met Crocodile's sand blade head-on.
Bang!
A Haki-coated fist collided with sand blade.
Crocodile grunted and flew back, but a faint, satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Because their goal had already been reached.
In the one or two seconds Kael was tied up with them, a golden bridge rose under Tesoro's control, shooting up from beneath Mihawk's feet and delivering him to Kael at terrifying speed.
Mihawk opened his eyes.
His black blade Yoru was now wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, a power only kings possessed.
"Now!" Crocodile, Moria, Doflamingo, and Tesoro all screamed inside their heads.
They'd used everything they had to create this single, once-in-a-lifetime opening.
A direct shot at Kael.
Mihawk didn't waste it.
He poured all his power, all his will, all his pride into this one strike.
"Divine Departure!"
This slash was no longer a simple cutting wave.
It was the technique Kael himself had hammered into him: Conqueror's Haki coating, fully integrated.
Black-and-red lightning danced wildly along the blade.
Before the edge even arrived, the pressure of the sword was already making space itself wail under the strain.
Facing this point-blank, ultimate strike forged from the blood and effort of all five of them, Kael's expression finally shed its teasing amusement.
He bared his teeth in a grin, exhilarated to the bone.
"Now this is more like it!"
He didn't dodge.
He raised his fist instead, golden eyes blazing with battle intent that shot straight into the sky.