Chapter 185: The Ambition of Doflamingo
"According to the intel, Vice Admiral Tsuru is currently in the North Blue, hunting Donquixote Doflamingo of the Donquixote Family."
Inside the captain's cabin of the warship, Gion and Roy sat side by side, fingers tracing the North Blue routes on the nautical chart spread across the table.
Roy was still in disguise.
They were both the type to overthink, and this time, the overthinking was justified. Between Roy's identity and Gion's position, one careless move could snowball into a nightmare.
So they drafted a peaceful coexistence plan.
Roy, being as slippery as ever, renamed himself Harold and disguised himself as a mysterious black haired man. That way, while Gion tried to accept being with him, neither of them would be walking around with a target painted on their backs.
Gion would remain in the Navy for now. Roy would never join the Navy, and he would never touch Cipher Pol either.
He would simply be her mysterious boyfriend.
It was not that the two of them disliked each other. It was the opposite. But even together, they were still fragile in front of a behemoth like the World Government.
Safety first.
Roy's most distinctive feature was his red hair.
After all, outside of Gion, he had never truly shown himself to the world.
Even on the day reporters secretly took photos, Gion had cautiously covered his face with her cloak. In the end, those vultures only managed to capture a messy tuft of red hair.
Her name was not exposed either.
Even if she was not an admiral yet, and not the "successor of justice" people loved to gossip about, vigilance never left her. Not anywhere.
Well, except when Roy was being shameless.
The moment he pushed her past the limit, she would explode so hard she stopped caring about anything else.
"So you're taking me to the North Blue," Roy said, looking at her, "and then we secretly go see your sister?"
Gion nodded. "Yes. We'll cross the Calm Belt, head through the New World, then change ships. After that, we cross the Calm Belt between the New World and the North Blue, and we can find Tsuru neechan."
She tapped the report on the table. "She's still chasing Doflamingo, so she doesn't have much free time."
"This is a hassle." Roy shook his head, rejecting the idea of taking the Navy route the whole way.
It was not because he was spoiled from riding Horus and thought traveling the proper way was annoying.
The hassle was Mary Geoise.
"You don't want to go that way?" Gion frowned at him. "That's the simplest route, and it's what the Navy uses most often."
Her first thought was the Celestial Dragons.
According to what she had, there was no record of Roy ever appearing at sea. Logically, the World Government still would not even know what he looked like now.
If Roy posed as one of her people, he could slip into the New World with an authorized unit.
"No." Roy refused without hesitation. "I hate the Celestial Dragons. That's it."
He was not going through Mary Geoise a second time.
Last time, when he saved Hancock, he set fires, killed several Celestial Dragons, and freed countless slaves.
The only reason guards had rushed around searching later was because Roy had sensed a powerful presence in Mary Geoise noticing him.
Maybe that person, like Imu, did not even consider those useless "nobles" worth protecting. Maybe it was just a lazy glance, nothing more.
But just because they did not bother to act last time did not mean they would ignore him again.
If that hidden monster realized the brat who caused trouble had returned, Roy might get swatted on a whim, like crushing an insect.
And if Roy got hit, Gion would not walk away clean either.
"Fine." Gion did not press him. She understood immediately, even without him explaining. "Then we'll go through Fishman Island. It'll take time, but it's safer."
"But that might mean we miss Tsuru neechan's window," she added, brows knitting. "The Donquixote Family is troublesome."
She placed the Donquixote intel on the table. Most of it was not even a secret. She had been sent on this mission by Vice Admiral Tsuru herself, as support for capturing Doflamingo.
Roy glanced at the photo of Doflamingo, that arrogant grin like a blade. He chuckled.
"No. She'll have plenty of free time."
"Why?" Gion studied him.
When Roy had a choice, he was sharp. Talented. The kind of man the Navy would normally try to pull in.
But now that his adopted sister was the female Pirate King, Roy's path into the Navy was completely blocked.
If his identity ever got exposed, the World Government would not recruit him. They would erase him.
"That's easy." Roy tapped the photo lightly. "Because a guy like Doflamingo isn't as simple as he looks."
"When everyone else has to fight tooth and nail for something, but one person is handed everything from childhood, they only have two outcomes."
"Either they rot into a useless trash heap."
"Or they become a monster, with ambition so hungry it never stops."
Gion nodded slowly. It made sense. Listening to Roy, it almost sounded like he was describing an aspiring king.
"Then what?"
Over the past few days, Gion had also been looking into Charlotte Linlin's history, and she had found something… interesting.
A vague feeling kept tugging at her.
Her boyfriend might be that kind of person too.
But he was too lazy, or he acted too well.
Otherwise, who could have influenced Linlin?
Roy noticed her stare and immediately smiled. "Don't look at me like that. I just want to die in a peaceful, loving home. No big ambitions."
Gion spat lightly. "You're being indecent again."
Roy coughed and continued, expression sharpening.
"In the end, someone like Doflamingo either marches toward a future like Shiki, trying to dominate the world…"
"Or he tries to tear the world apart."
Who could say Doflamingo had never thought about revenge?
Revenge on the Celestial Dragons, on the people who ruined his family, on the entire world that looked down on him.
The more chaos, the better.
Either he became king and sat on the throne, or he ripped the throne down and sat on the ruins.
Roy's eyes narrowed slightly.
For a moment, he could almost see a future where Doflamingo was captured, locked in iron, still laughing like a lunatic.
But that was only Roy's guess about the future Joker.
He looked out the window at the endless sea of the first half of the Grand Line and clenched his fist.
They were finally going to meet Doflamingo
He could hardly wait.
But he also needed to focus.
Training. Mastering his strength. Strengthening his bond with Gion.
And sharpening every skill he had.
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