At the port of Dressrosa, sunlight bathed the colorful buildings. The sea breeze carried the scent of flowers through the streets.
A golden ship glided slowly across the sea's surface, shimmering brilliantly under the sun.
This iconic vessel had long been famous throughout the Grand Line via newspapers. Pirate ships anchored in the port hurriedly made way, fearing to offend the important figure on board.
A week ago, there might still have been some thick-headed pirates wanting to test this Warlord's strength.
But now, Kaido's defeat had firmly established Setsuna's position in the New World.
Setsuna and his crew stepped onto the island. Cavendish, who had been waiting, immediately approached, his eyes filled with indignation. "Captain! All of you made the front-page headlines! All of you! Except for me!"
Ace whistled. "Look on the bright side. At least your portrait rights weren't infringed upon, right? If you really want, you can just draw yourself in."
Cavendish suddenly smacked his palm. "Right! Why didn't I think of that?"
Ace, who had only been teasing, was now left speechless by his reaction. "Hey hey, I was joking. You're not taking it seriously, are you?"
"Of course, I'm not an idiot like you. But your words did remind me," Cavendish's eyes gleamed with cunning. "If I just capture [Big News] Morgans, I can have him write an exclusive report just for me, can't I?"
Setsuna interrupted his delusions. "Enough. Down to business. Donquixote Family's people have been wanting to see us these past few days, right?"
Cavendish put away his playful expression. "Yeah. Their attitude was quite polite."
Setsuna gave a brief order. "Let's go. Take me to him."
At the same time, within Dressrosa's royal palace.
Doflamingo received the news of Setsuna's arrival, his fingers unconsciously twitching.
'Should I have Sugar make her move?' This thought circled repeatedly in his mind.
Last time he was 'bullied', he had fantasized about waiting until Setsuna came to the New World, then having Sugar turn him into a toy when she presented the money, taking his revenge.
But now that Setsuna was really here, he hesitated.
It wasn't that he feared Setsuna's crew. Anyone turned into a toy by Sugar would be completely erased from everyone's memories.
Even if Sugar turned Setsuna into a toy right in front of Hancock and the others, they wouldn't remember what happened the second before.
What he truly feared was Setsuna himself.
'Someone who could defeat a monster like Kaido... would Sugar's ability really work on him?'
'Better not. I'll let him off this time.' After much deliberation, Doflamingo finally convinced himself to be 'magnanimous', to give Setsuna a chance to 'turn over a new leaf'.
When Doflamingo led his family executives out of the palace, they happened to run into Setsuna's group head-on at the central square.
"Fufufu." Doflamingo spread his arms theatrically, his trademark laugh echoing across the square. "Welcome to Dressrosa, my friend."
"Haha, you're still dressed so flashy, so comical," Setsuna laughed, stepping forward and patting Doflamingo's shoulder without any ceremony.
This slightly disrespectful gesture instantly put the Donquixote Family's executives on edge, worried their young master would erupt in fury.
Yet, to their surprise, Doflamingo only twitched at the corner of his mouth before bursting into even more exaggerated laughter. "What can I say? I'm Joker! Fufufufu."
His reaction made his family members give him sidelong glances.
'Since when did Young Master become so tolerant?'
The group entered the Donquixote Family's reception hall. Doflamingo personally poured Setsuna a glass of red wine.
"That batch of gold you entrusted me to handle sold for 43 trillion Berries on the black market. It's all here," Doflamingo said, gesturing with a wave.
A dozen strong men, straining under the weight, carried in dozens of metal strongboxes one after another.
When opened, the Berry bills neatly stored inside emitted the alluring scent of fresh ink.
"Hm, good," Setsuna gave only a cursory glance, not inspecting them closely.
He knew Doflamingo must have taken a hefty commission, but as long as the final amount was roughly as expected, he didn't mind such details.
"And this, the esoteric principles of Life Return," Doflamingo presented a manual.
"Good. You've been thoughtful," Setsuna accepted the Life Return manual.
Seeing Setsuna didn't intend to pick a fight, Doflamingo inwardly sighed in relief and began steering the conversation himself.
"Fufufu... You defeated Gecko Moria and then... persuaded the Pirate Empress to join you. Two vacant seats among the Warlords opened up at once. The World Government was quite frantic."
Doflamingo shot a meaningful glance at Hancock, only to find the haughty Empress didn't even spare him a look. Her beautiful eyes remained fixed intently on Setsuna.
Seeing this, Doflamingo felt somewhat vexed, 'Could it be the Empress was truly won over by this guy's charm?'
'If I'd known the Empress liked that type, I'd have changed my own style of dress.'
For the sake of the family's strength, he might have reluctantly accepted the Empress himself.
Doflamingo sighed inwardly and continued, "To fill the vacancies, the World Government urgently recruited two new members. One is [Gold Emperor] Gild Tesoro. That guy controls unimaginable wealth. Even the World Government doesn't dare offend him lightly."
When mentioning Tesoro, Doflamingo's smile stiffened slightly.
Back then, when he held the auction for the Goru Goru no Mi, he never actually intended to sell it. He just wanted to use the fruit to attract customers. But then the fruit ended up being stolen by Tesoro.
By the time he heard news of Tesoro again, Tesoro had already grown powerful, his strength and influence even seeming to surpass his own.
"And the other one?" Setsuna asked with interest.
"The second one..." Doflamingo showed an amused smile. "Is a guy claiming to be Whitebeard's biological son… Edward Weevil."
"Whitebeard has a biological son?" Ace was curious. He still paid considerable attention to the Whitebeard Pirates.
If he hadn't been recruited by Setsuna right after setting sail, his original goal had been to defeat Whitebeard.
"Fufufufu, who knows?" Doflamingo laughed. "But that guy's strength is supposedly quite terrifying. It's said he once split a small island in two with his naginata."
Setsuna was also curious, 'This Edward Weevil… was he a failed clone Miss Buckin cooked up using Whitebeard's cells? Or did she somehow obtain Whitebeard's... genetic material through other means?'
As the conversation neared its end, Setsuna expressed a wish to tour Dressrosa for a few days.
Doflamingo naturally agreed wholeheartedly, immediately ordering his subordinates to prepare the most luxurious guest rooms in the palace for his honored guests.
Setsuna indicated for everyone to enjoy their time freely on the island. He alone remained in the spacious guest room, carefully studying the Life Return's training manual.
After in-depth discussions with Dr. Vegapunk regarding [S-Cells], he suddenly realized Life Return might have other special applications.
The core of Life Return was infusing consciousness into one's body, freely controlling muscles, internal organs, hair, even blood flow.
If one mastered Life Return to its utmost limits, it might even become possible to consciously control every single cell in the body through willpower.
'If I can perfectly master this ability...' A glint flashed in Setsuna's eyes. 'Perhaps I can use Life Return to stimulate the S-Cells into actively triggering transformation.'
The principle of Super Saiyan transformation was stimulating an explosive proliferation of S-Cells within the body through extreme rage. But his own emotions were too stable.
Setsuna found it hard to imagine what could make him lose control to that extent.
If he could use Life Return to precisely stimulate the S-Cells in his body, perhaps he could transform without needing extreme anger.