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454 Roger Pirates Apprentice
🕑 Added 2026-01-13 06:11:00 +0000 UTC"Nani?!!!"
In the sky, the clash was underway as five colored threads wrapped in Armament Haki swept rapidly from the fingertips, instantly tracing through the air and blocking the distant slash head-on. The smile on Doflamingo's face vanished; instead he frowned, looking toward the distant clouds, faintly feeling that something was off. A dragon tail emerged from the cloud layer, making his pupils shrink for an instant, but he soon returned to normal.
"Kaido… no, that's not right."
"Who could it be?"
Borrowing the force of that slash, Doflamingo retreated dozens of meters away, threads anchored into the clouds as he stood firmly in the sky. The figure stepping upon auspicious clouds turned out to be a long-haired woman. Holding a black blade dyed in Armament Haki, her vertical pupils were locked tightly on Doflamingo; the lines of her face shifted as pink draconic traits appeared across her body.
"This is Orin-sensei's battle. No interference allowed."
"Fufufufufu, Orin-sensei? There's actually a female disciple I've never seen before?"
Having mingled in the underworld for many years, Doflamingo's eye for things was unquestionable—especially for rare Devil Fruits, which he knew like the back of his hand. The posture of the person before him, aside from the color being different, was almost indistinguishable from Kaido's draconic form, merely slimmer and smaller—yet still enough to astonish anyone.
"After a seagull, now even a female disciple possesses the legendary Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit ability… fufufufu!!!"
"Should I say that's just like Orin-san? Truly grand gestures whenever he acts."
Behind Kuina, the massive pink dragon tail swayed as she walked forward with the black blade in hand, staring straight at Doflamingo's figure.
"Whether in swordsmanship or on the path of life, Orin-sensei will forever be the mentor I respect most!!!"
"So I will do everything I can to carry out my master's will!!!"
Kuina was resolute. After going out to sea, she had also experienced many things—pirates, Marines, battles that made the heart race… And the sea is cruel; for those not favored by heaven, climbing to the peak of strength is harder than ascending to the sky. Yet Orin was willing to give her a hand, even solving the fundamental problem of her physique being vastly different from Zoro's.
Therefore she would do all she could to do something for him—such as not letting anyone disturb this battle that Orin cared about.
"Fufufufufuhahaha!!!"
"Don't tell me you think you're the one who truly belongs to Orin-san?"
Perhaps feeling provocation from someone who was far from a junior, veins bulged on Doflamingo's forehead.
"Don't get carried away!!! When we Shichibukai were dominating the seas, you were still playing house!!!"
"Overheat!!!"
Kuina showed no wavering at Doflamingo's words; instead, she raised the black blade horizontally and forcibly shouldered the attack. Having just eaten the Pink Dragon Fruit, she might not yet be a match for Doflamingo, but after battles between life and death and clashing with the strong to temper her Haki, perhaps she could begin that growth from this very fight with Doflamingo.
The two were evenly matched; after all, Mythical Zoans are famed for their toughness. When the difference in strength isn't overwhelming, it's normal for powerful fighters to battle for days and nights.
"Is that… Captain Tashigi?"
"She's actually facing Doflamingo…!!!"
Some Marines unfamiliar with the opponent recognized the familiar facial features and cried out in shock. Smoker looked complicatedly in Doflamingo's direction, then his pupils shifted toward the mighty glacier. Compared with Doflamingo, the battle over there was surely far more perilous.
No matter how you looked at it, Kuzan's chances of victory seemed slim…
...
Within the glacier, the battle was a completely one-sided overwhelming disadvantage. Standing amid the cold winds, Kuzan spread countless ice crystals, but the instant they touched Orin, they all turned to drifting ash in midair. He simply turned his entire body into ice, merging into the immense glacier itself.
Orin stood at the center of a crater within the glacier, long black hair streaming as pitch-black energy that warped space coiled around him. Casually shattering the ceaselessly sprouting ice crystals inside and outside his body, Orin used Observation Haki to search for Kuzan within the glacier. He bore no killing intent toward Kuzan and naturally wasn't using full power, but since the other party had seriously issued a duel challenge, Orin had to give a proper answer…
How about a memory carved into the bones?
Standing at the center of the glacier, Orin's Observation Haki could constantly see Kuzan moving within it, like Pica moving through stone statues. Unlike Zoro, who had to slash to narrow the range, Orin's Observation Haki clearly perceived the slightest changes within the glacier.
Standing in place, Orin's pupils glowed scarlet, spinning rapidly within their sockets like kaleidoscopes, locked unerringly onto Kuzan's direction.
"Found you."
"Bang—!!!"
Shattering the surrounding ice crystals in an instant, Orin fixed his gaze upon a high point of the distant glacier, bent his body slightly, and in the next heartbeat his figure appeared at the highest point. Countless ice spheres rushed toward him, striking his shoulder, but a flash of black-red lightning on Orin's shoulder reduced the ice to fragments.
Kuzan's body separated from the ice, his expression solemn as he instinctively sensed a terrifying Conqueror's Haki approaching, leaping into the air. He fought with everything he had, gathering an extremely cold ice sphere in his hand that also carried Haki, but that figure shattered every defense and obstacle. A large hand covered in Armament and Conqueror's Haki stretched straight out of the frigid mist; with monstrous strength added, the black-red hand clamped his entire face at once.
"Hey, Kuzan, do you really want me to kill you that badly?"
The figure wreathed in black-red lightning grabbed Kuzan's face in midair, looking into eyes that held not a trace of panic. Orin spoke calmly.
"If you want to stop me, then stop thinking about dying a hero—fight to pursue what you can only accomplish by staying alive!!!"
For no clear reason, Orin was irritated. Hearing this, Kuzan grit his teeth and seized the hand clutching his face; ice kept freezing Orin's arm, and he even tried to launch a Haki-infused low blow. But before absolute Haki, all attempts stalled in utter powerlessness.
"The Kuzan I know wouldn't give up his life so easily just because he couldn't beat me!!!"
Orin laughed loudly, black-red lightning crackling against the air as he made a throwing motion toward the ground.
