Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven: ONE PIECE (V)

Qiu Bai merely turned around and set off a firework before leaving it at that. Fighting Pica served no purpose; the most important thing now was to leave the country as soon as possible.

Once they were out of the birdcage, the sea was already close at hand, and their navigator was waiting aboard the ship.

Besides, sailing through the New World was not like sailing out in a small boat as they had done before, whether in the North Blue or the first half of the Grand Line. Qiu Bai had already tested the consequences of that approach several times.

Though navigational skill was vitally important, proper equipment was indispensable as well. If they wanted to put to sea, Qiu Bai would need to borrow a ship—preferably one familiar to Bepo, one he could operate without difficulty.

That left them with an excellent choice: the Miss Love Duck.

Of course, “borrowing and returning” was out of the question. Qiu Bai’s behavior bore a distinctly pirate-like quality… When pirates said they were “borrowing” something, they usually meant stealing it.

There were still quite a few crewmen stationed here, but not a single officer. All their combat power had been deployed inside Dressrosa. In an operation to conquer an entire country, even the Donquixote Pirates had no strength to spare. They were the Donquixote Pirates, and only the Donquixote Pirates—they were not the Beasts Pirates.

So taking a ship from them was hardly difficult.

Before the “full assembly,” Bepo had remained quietly aboard the ship, behaving himself the entire time. He stayed there until Qiu Bai, Ain, Monet, and Law all arrived.

The Donquixote Pirates placed tremendous emphasis on obedience, and they also followed a principle of “officers above all.” Thus, although the men were suspicious when someone who should not have appeared at such a critical moment suddenly did so, they did not let their thoughts wander in too negative a direction. They merely assumed that some unexpected situation had arisen.

Next, Qiu Bai ordered everyone to gather.

“Everyone,” Qiu Bai said, standing on the foredeck and looking down at the crowd. “This is an emergency. I need all of you to enter Dressrosa immediately!”

“The resistance in this country has exceeded expectations. The family needs reinforcements.”

The excuse was absurd. Though the men aboard this ship were all below officer rank, they could still be considered the family’s elite in a certain sense. Qiu Bai was now ordering every one of them to disembark… No matter how one looked at it, the order was difficult to justify.

The family’s main fighting force was already in Dressrosa. If even they could not control the situation, what use would these underlings be if they went there too?

Doflamingo was also in the city. Tonight should have been entirely secure.

More importantly, their assignment was to guard the ship, not to serve as a reserve force for the battle. At least, Doflamingo had never implied anything of the sort in his previous arrangements.

If he truly wanted them to disembark, he ought to have come up with a more convincing explanation—something less crude than this. But Qiu Bai had not bothered.

There was no need. He was too lazy to think of a better excuse.

“Lord Qiu Bai, what exactly has happened in the city?” someone shouted from below.

For a moment, the only response he received was silence.

The atmosphere grew slightly strange.

Only when everyone’s patience was nearly exhausted did Qiu Bai speak again.

“The order I’m giving you now is very simple. It consists of only two words—‘disembark.’ Is that difficult to understand?”

“As for whether you proceed toward Dressrosa after getting off, or the reason I’m asking you to do so, I could explain that as well. But… hearing the truth might get you killed. Some things are being done for your own good. Do you understand?”

“So, get off the ship.”

Qiu Bai once again extended a hand in an inviting gesture.

Silence returned. Then someone began descending the gangplank…

The first person to do so might have been clever, or might simply have acted blindly. But once someone took the lead, everyone else only needed to follow.

Any situation in which everyone was completely bewildered was precisely when the instinct to follow the crowd worked best.

After disembarking, some of the underlings vaguely sensed that something was wrong, so they remained temporarily on the shore. As for whether they should proceed to Dressrosa, they hesitated.

Then, amid their hesitation, they watched the Miss Love Duck raise its sails with remarkable decisiveness. A moment later, it shot out of the harbor without the slightest pause…

Well, that was not good, was it? Not good in every possible sense.

Would it have been better if they had resisted, even just a little?

The burning island was reflected across the surface of the sea, while Qiu Bai sailed toward the outer waters of the New World—aboard Doflamingo’s ship.

………………

Roughly two hours later, Doflamingo finally made contact. The underlings who had followed Pica earlier had already reported the situation, so he had learned of it somewhat sooner. But, just as Qiu Bai had expected, Doflamingo had no way to spare a hand to deal with this sudden development.

Qiu Bai, meanwhile, had been waiting for Doflamingo’s reaction all along. Thus, when the transponder snail rang, he answered immediately.

“Qiu Bai, what exactly are you planning to do?” There was something suppressed in Doflamingo’s voice.

“Doflamingo? Have you managed to bring the situation in Dressrosa under control?” Qiu Bai asked first, expressing concern over the current state of affairs.

“Don’t evade the issue. Do you understand what you’ve done?”

“I’ve always understood exactly what I’m doing. The question is, what are you doing? A pirate trying to become king again… That’s utterly absurd. Though I suppose it has nothing to do with my actions.”

“To put it simply, I’m merely leaving the Donquixote family. I’ve given some thought to my relationship with the family lately, and there always seemed to be something uncomfortable about it. Then I quickly realized where the abnormality lay… Rather than being an officer, I would rather be a captain.”

Qiu Bai had not only just begun thinking that way. He had always felt the same. Still, provoking Doflamingo like this was probably not the wisest thing to do.

“The logic is simple, isn’t it? Anyone who goes out to sea has imagined themselves standing at the summit at least once, right? The difference is that some people merely fantasize about it, while others keep moving toward that goal.”

“The summit? Fuffuffuffu. Qiu Bai, don’t make me laugh. You want to become the world’s greatest pirate? How do you plan to do that?”

“Doflamingo, I didn’t realize you didn’t even know this.” Qiu Bai’s tone was exaggerated as he asked, “The method is very simple, isn’t it?”

His tone then turned serious. Yet at that moment, it sounded very much like he was explaining basic knowledge to a mentally deficient child.

“Why not simply obtain that thing?”

“The thing called One Piece.”