Chapter 497: Common Enemy
Things go smoothly in Dressrosa, especially the negotiation for an alliance to defeat the Donquixote Family. However, there are still some problems caused by the Straw Hat Pirates that can't stay still even for a minute. They cause some commotion around the Kingdom, but nothing is too big luckily.
At night, all involved parties finally meet to have a small discussion. Straw Hat Pirates, Heart Pirates, Dressrosa Kingdom, Prodence Kingdom, and surprisingly Tontatta Kingdom too. The dwarves decide to join after hearing about the war against the Donquixote Family.
Their reason is Donquixote Family kept trying to capture their people. They are very easy to fool because they believe people too easily. If not for Clown Pirates doing things in the back, they would've gotten a lot of their people kidnapped by the Donquixote Family.
"When will we attack?"
"As quick as possible. The longer we wait, the smaller our winning chance is. Doflamingo has many eyes and ears, so he will find out about our alliance soon. We can't give him too much time to prepare, so we need to be quick."
"I think so too, glad we are on the same page here. Our Kingdoms have made preparations, so we are ready to move as soon as tomorrow."
"Eeh~, we're leaving so soon? I haven't seen all the good places here."
Luffy complains when he hears they'll leave tomorrow. His crew sighs while the Kings are laughing because they think he is joking. They just don't know that he is very serious right now. Only his crew knows, so Nami is trying to persuade him.
"We will come back here after the war to celebrate our victory. You want a big feast for that, right? They will prepare it here. But you need to defeat Doflamingo for that."
"Ooh, then that's fine. I will beat Mingo, so you better prepare a lot of meat for the feast."
They laugh seeing Luffy's antiques, but none of them are looking down on him. They know that he is one of the few here who have the ability to defeat Doflamingo. His power is among the best in this group, so they'll never look down on him.
Anyway, they do things quickly and go to Punk Hazard the next day. Tens of ships are leaving Dressrosa with tens of thousands of men on them, ready for war. This number looks big, but the Donquixote Family has more men than them.
The enemy has around 3 times their number, but they aren't afraid. These soldiers from Dressrosa and Prodence Kingdoms are chosen based on their power. Not all of them are elites, but they are powerful enough to defeat some opponents at once.
Well, power isn't the only reason they only take this many soldiers. They have a lot more soldiers, but they surely can't take them all. Their Kingdoms still need the soldiers' protection, so they can't take every soldier to war.
As they've predicted, the Donquixote Family has found out about their plan to attack Punk Hazard. Doflamingo gives his men some instructions to prepare for the war. He might be smiling widely as if this doesn't bother him. But he knows that this won't be an easy war.
Even so, he is very confident his force will not lose this war. They just need to do some preparations so their men & weapons will be ready for the war. They believe they won't lose because they have some advantages, like they'll fight on their ground.
But even Doffy can't predict everything and he can't know everything. He doesn't know that it isn't just the Straw Hat's alliance that comes. There are more forces that come to Punk Hazard to attack his group.
Buggy pulled some strings behind the scenes and made these forces move to attack Punk Hazard. He decided that it was time to end the Donquixote Family after years of competition in the underworld. The Straw Hat's alliance plan is a good chance for him to end the Donquixote Family without lifting a finger.
As Law feared, the Donquixote Family was ready for the war. They have ships ready for battle around Punk Hazard. Many men are also ready with their weapons on the island. They have been waiting for the alliance to come.
"Tsk, we're not fast enough."
"It doesn't matter now. We have thought of this possibility and will continue even if this happens. It will just be harder than we thought."
Right when they think they'll have a very tough war, they see some ships are coming from different directions. Those ships are moving to Punk Hazard and they thought those are Donquixote Family's ships too.
However, the flags on those ships aren't from Donquixote Family's group. Those ships get closer and now they can clearly see the flags. They are surprised to see different forces suddenly come here.
Doffy is also surprised and his wide smile disappears for a moment. He knows that these forces don't come here to help him because he doesn't have any relationship with them. But it also doesn't look like they are the alliance's group, so he is quite confused.
"Why do all these bastards suddenly come here at the same time?"
"The New Giant Warrior Pirates, Barto Club, and Beautiful Pirates? What are their agendas? They don't seem to be people with the same interest."
"ANOTHER GROUP IS COMING!"
They look at the incoming group of ships and Doffy's expression turns really ugly now. After all, this group is different and he knows that they come here for his head.
"Happo Navy, they come at a very bad timing."
"I thought they've agreed with our terms and won't attack again. Don't they care about their men's safety?"
Donquixote Family and Happo Navy had a war once because of a territory dispute in West Blue. With Grandline's underworld business being dominated by The Carribean from Clown Pirates, the Donquixote Family was forced to do business in Blue Seas.
But there are forces that rule Blue Seas' business too, so they have to fight with those forces. Happo Navy from Kano Country is one of the biggest forces in West Blue, so a clash against them was inevitable.
They got into a big war some months ago and Donquixote Family won it. Some people with high ranks from Kano Country were caught as hostages to make sure they wouldn't disturb the Donquixote Family. Happo Navy could only agree because the ones caught were nobles of their Kano Country.
They never gave up on saving those hostages though and keep planning a rescue mission. Then they get news about a big attack on Punk Hazard. They can't miss this chance, so they move immediately. Of course, it was Buggy who made this news reach their ears.
"Young Master, it seems we need to use those guys. They may not be as strong as our men, but they are still useful. Besides, we don't need them as rab lats for SMILE anymore."
"Prepare them, but don't release them to fight too soon. We'll use them after a while. Make sure they all have explosive collars to make them behave."
"Understood."
The incoming forces are getting closer to each other as they also get closer to the island. They finally see each other clearly now and they all are staring at each other. Everyone is silent as they look warily at each other before King Riku starts speaking.
"Excuse my rudeness, but what is your intention of coming here?"
"To destroy Doflamingo."
Don Chinjao doesn't hide anything and just tells what his group wants to do clearly. He stares daggers at Luffy for a moment, but then he stops looking and focuses on business again.
"We also come to defeat Doflamingo. I heard he is a former Warlord of The Sea, a strong pirate with a strong crew. We, the New Giant Warrior Pirates want to challenge strong people and they are suitable opponents."
"Hahaha, sorry to say this, but the one who will defeat Doflamingo is me. I will defeat him and gain the fame that your generation has taken. Straw Hat Luffy, Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law, Fire Blade Leo, and Pirate Hunter Zoro. I will show you that I, Cavendish is the one who deserves all those fames."
Cavendish says all those things flashily, but everyone ignores him quickly and looks at Barto Club. They are confused because the people of Barto Club are crying and hiding behind things while looking at the Straw Hat Pirates instead of saying their purpose for coming here.
"Then, is it safe for me to assume that everyone is here to defeat the Donquixote Family?"
"Yeah, but so what? Do you want us to work together? Hah, just us are enough to defeat them. Don't underestimate Happo Navy."
"No, no, no, it seems you misunderstood. I'm not proposing us to work together. I just want us to not fight each other because it will just help them instead. We never met before, so working together will be very difficult too. But at least we shouldn't fight each other while fighting a common enemy. If there are some disputes that I don't know between us, then we should only talk about it after this war finished."
They look at each other for a moment and nod because this is the best they can do now. Their current priority is defeating the Donquixote Family, so what King Riku said was right. They agree to not fight each other in this war despite not working together to defeat the Donquixote Family.
"Alright, let's wreck them."
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I've uploaded Chapter 535. Unexpected Twist
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