Chapter 28

Lvneel, North Blue

Within the confines of a huge mansion controlled by one of the big shots of the Underworld in North Blue stood a majestic room where the young Doflamingo, who was currently 12 years old, was leisurely going through a children's storybook. Interest was evident in his eyes as he absorbed the tale. Standing next to him was Senor, clad in a perfectly tailored black suit, standing like an unwavering statue with no change in his expression.

The door adjoining the room opened, and a tall man dressed in a crisp blue suit, followed by two burly goons who towered close to 4 meters, entered. He took his seat on the main chair, opposite the table where Doffy was seated. An array of rifles were neatly arranged on the table.

Doflamingo was here to discuss some business and potentially buy a Devil Fruit from the underground big shot rumored to possess one in the underground market.

"Ah, the tales of Noland the Liar. It was quite an interesting book to read. Here in Lvneel, every child knows the story. Oh yes, I completely forgot that you are a child too," the Underground leader commented with a smirk as if mocking Doffy, while his two goons chuckled.

Doflamingo kept his composure, disregarding the man's comment, and addressed him, "I'm here as per your request. I understand that you want to discuss and sign a large-scale deal with us regarding the latest weapons that my Donquixote family produces, and you have also offered a certain Devil Fruit that you possess as part of the deal."

"Haha, child, you sure are impatient. But I must say, your family really did hit the jackpot when it came to these latest models of weapons. What are they called? Oh yeah, semi-automatic rifles. They sure are beautiful," the leader said, picking up one of the rifles arranged for display and demonstration from the table. He caressed the weapon as if he were caressing his lover, and one could see the greed in his eyes.

Senor wanted to retaliate for mocking Doflamingo, but Doflamingo simply placed the book back down and gestured for Senor to hold back.

"Originally, I did have an intention to make a deal with your Donquixote family. But then, after seeing you, I somewhat changed my decision. Why should I buy things from you when I can take everything that you own? Kid, you should know that in this world, strength is everything. How can you be so stupid to personally come into my turf without any precaution?" The underworld leader chuckled as he placed the weapon back and started laughing mischievously, failing to notice that Doflamingo and Senor's expressions didn't show any signs of panic.

"Don't worry, kid. This room is completely soundproof, so no one outside will hear your screams. I suggest that you hand over all the blueprints for these weapons and all your assets. I have heard that your family has made quite a fortune in recent days. So, I suggest that if you don't want to suffer, just hand everything over." The man pulled out a revolver from his desk and placed it on the table. The two goons behind him smirked at Doflamingo and Senor. Within a few seconds, more than a dozen intimidating-looking goons poured into the room and stood guard near all the doors, closing off all avenues of escape.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Senor, why is it that every time we come across such fools? I can't wait to grow strong enough to get to the New World. I offer them a fair trade, and they don't want to take it. The fat bastard even has the audacity to talk about strength!" Disregarding the atmosphere in the room, Doffy laughed loudly at the stupidity of the Underground big shot.

"Master Doffy, would you like me to dispose of them?" Senor questioned Doffy, as if the people surrounding them were irrelevant.

The leader stood up angrily, picking up the pistol and pointing it at Doffy. "Kid, you sure are audacious. I don't think you still understand the severity of the situation. Let me show you what you've gotten yourself into," he said, directing the pistol towards Senor and pulling the trigger.

"Bang! Bang!... Bang!" The leader fired a series of shots, but contrary to everyone's expectations, three goons within the room fell like broken puppets as none of the bullets connected with Senor.

Senor simply twitched his fingers, and the two large goons standing behind the man drew their weapons and started attacking the rest of the goons.

"Aaaaah! What are you doing? Why are you attacking us?" The other goons desperately tried to dodge and defend, but a few more gunshots were fired by their leader, effectively killing a few more goons.

"What the hell? What's happening to me?" The leader panicked; his body was moving even without his own control, shooting his own subordinates.

And when the two burly goons had killed all the remaining goons, Senor simply made a swiping gesture, and a thin string cut off the heads of both the goons. The leader was still holding onto his pistol, which was already empty, looking at the devils in front of him. He knew uttering a single wrong word would be his end, so he carefully moved his foot onto the panic button he had set on his side of the table and pressed it.

"You don't have to worry. No one is going to come to your rescue. Shall we start our meeting like I intended? Originally, I wanted to trade like a good businessman, but then you had to push your luck. Well, let's forget that. Tell me, where is the devil fruit that you promised me?" Doffy questioned. The leader still had terror written all over his face, but he still held a string of hope, thinking backup would come. But then he heard one of the doors click. He instinctively wanted to think it was his men, but then a tall man wearing a crimson-colored suit, holding a blade dripping with blood casually entered the room.

"Doffy, the entire mansion is clear. Sorry, I couldn't find the Devil Fruit anywhere, but I did find their vault. They seem to have quite the wealth accumulated," Diamante chuckled while he leisurely used the shirt of the now dead goon to wipe clean his blade.

"You! Don't you dare do anything to me! I am part of the Underworld Organization. The entire underground will come after your head if you harm me. Spare me, and I will let bygones be bygones." The leader knew that everything was lost. His mansion had more than two hundred goons, and if the tall man had come here, that means he must have passed through everyone, and he even had accessed their family vault.

Doffy made a gesture towards Senor, and with a simple flick, an ear of the underworld big shot flew into the air.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, my ear, my ear!" The man started rolling on the floor in pain.

"Sssssshhh! Did I give you permission to speak? Your voice is annoying. You'd better shut up before you lose your other ear," Doffy commented while smirking, and the man quickly covered his mouth and started sobbing.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. All I need is the devil fruit that you promised. Hand it over, and we will be on our way. You have a minute." Doffy, although a child, carried himself with majesty, and the recent years had toughened him up, so such things did not faze him as he knew how this world worked.

The man scrambled onto his feet with fear etched all over his face and quickly started fidgeting around the chair he was sitting on. He pushed away the chair with all his might and tore away the carpet in all haste, revealing a safe that was perfectly lined so that it aligned with the floor. Even Doffy was surprised by the man's ingenuity.

"Heh, no wonder I couldn't find the fruit despite searching the whole mansion. You have always been sitting on top of it like a chicken, weird fella," Diamante couldn't help but mock.

In the meantime, the man quickly opened the safe and retrieved a small chest, running towards where Doffy was seated and presenting the chest while on his knees.

"Master, please, please, spare my life..." After passing the chest and its key, the man started profusely begging while knocking his head on the floor. However, Doffy didn't care about the man's actions.

"Click." The little chest opened with a resounding click, and Doffy opened the box carefully. Within the chest lay a single fruit, a pear-shaped gray-colored fruit with spiral patterns and a blood-red stalk.

"It sure is a Logia fruit. I didn't believe the fool would really hold a Logia fruit and not use it." Doffy couldn't help but chuckle. Doffy now had decent knowledge regarding most devil fruits because of the information Ross had shared. The fruit in front of him was the Logia type Soot Soot fruit.

The man who had been begging Doffy was shocked when he heard the fruit was a legendary Logia type devil fruit. He had only come into possession of this fruit recently and had yet to discern the type of fruit it was. So when Doffy disclosed it was a Logia fruit, his face showed immense greed, despite his dire situation.

He quickly pounced forward to grab the fruit from Doffy's hand and consume it, but before he could reach Doffy, he was completely trapped by metal-like strings. Senor simply clenched his fist, and the man got sliced into multiple pieces right before everyone's eyes.

"Senor, your control over the string fruit is quite exquisite." Doffy couldn't help but comment. It had been only a year since Senor consumed the string fruit that was originally intended for Doffy, but Senor had been mastering his string powers at a very fast pace, which made Doffy praise him.

"Here," Doffy tossed the Logia fruit towards Diamante, who was waiting by the side. "I know my brother has promised you good devil fruit. I'm sure this fruit will be a good match for you." Despite having found quite a few devil fruits, Doffy has yet to consume one.

Diamante caught the Logia fruit deftly, his eyes gleaming with anticipation as he examined the mysterious fruit in his hand. The weight of its power felt tangible, almost intoxicating. However, he quickly collected himself.

"No, Doffy, why don't you keep this alongside the flame fruit? This way, you and Ross will have a Logia-type fruit. We don't know if we can really get the rumble fruit; we still haven't gotten any updates from Trebol in Skypeia, and he and his team have already been searching for more than a month." Diamante shared his thoughts regarding the soot fruit. Although Trebol had taken a team and reached Skypeia using the High West, they needed to be absolutely careful regarding the Devil Fruit because Doffy could only trust Trebol and not all the goons that worked under him, so the search has been going at a snail's pace. Their only comforting thought was that the lightning fruit had been lost for centuries, so no one would recognize it. But one cannot judge human greed, so they had left the rest to luck.

"Haha, Diamante, you underestimate my brother. Although he hasn't shared his opinion regarding devil fruits, I know he is not someone who would go after just any fruit. Not that this fruit is inferior or anything, but he has his pride. He will only go after the best, and if not for me, he would have coveted the lightning Logia. And I intend to do something about it." Doffy reminisced about his brother, who had given him so much information that it even shocked Doffy to his core.

But Doffy never once chose to question his brother since the day what happened at Mary Geoise. If there was one person Doffy would believe in this world wholeheartedly, then it would be Rosinante.