Journey to One Piece

311. Why is Shanks on the table?

"You really do know every nook and corner. Hehehehe." Dofalmingo said. 

"Oh c'mon Doffy, there was no blood when I beheaded your puppet." Ken said. 

"You don't have any right to call me Doffy." Doflamingo sent out more threads around Ken and Law but Ken was able to deflect all attacks like it was nothing. The more he did so the more irritated he was. He wanted to kill this man. The moment he had shown up in the seas, everything he had done since then had been nothing but a huge pain in the ass. 

In the beginning it was with Bellamy. Doflamingo didn't much care at that point since Bellamy was just one of the lesser pawns. But then the Paramount War happened, plunging his life into misery. The things which Ken said had hurt his businesses, more than he could remember. Before the SMILE factories he had other businesses too. 

Including weapons and all other kinds of illegal trade but they went downhill. Only because Ken had said that one day his position as Shichibukai would be wiped out. Many countries lost faith in him. 

The only silver lining was his connections with the Beast Pirates and he did everything possible to hang to that thigh. It did alleviate some of his problems but the hurt remained. And now he was here. 

And for this he wanted nothing to but kill Ken in the worst way possible. He had already heard the news of how Luffy had won in the arena and took away the fruit which was supposed to be Hail Mary for him. Then he heard the news of the SMILE factory getting destroyed. 

That almost sent him off the roof and was ready to implement the bird cage but Sugar convinced him to take a step back and he could handle him. He liked the idea and followed it. 

But doing that had proved more fatal as Law had kept her inside his Room and he couldn't just go and save him. More so when he couldn't just get past Ken so easily. He wanted revenge. Revenge for all the trauma Kenny had caused him and made his life more miserable for every passing minute. 

He was already in a deep shit for losing the devil fruit, what more could he lose. 

"You think I care about what others call you. Calling you a shit and the greatest mistake of your mother and father would be actually be quite generous." Ken said. He knew exactly where to hurt and he did.

"You have pissed me off in the worst way possible." Doflamingo said. 

"Don't worry your smile won't last long." Ken said. 

Doflamingo unleashed his razor-sharp strings, dancing through the air with deadly precision. Ken parried each and everyone of them. As he did so he got closer and closer to Doflamingo. 

"Law, make her unconscious. Only in this way, the country will know the truth." Ken shouted as he parried Doflamingo. 

"You dare!!" Doflamingo shouted as he proceeded to awaken the fruit's powers and attack Law from underneath but before the strings underground could attack Law, Ken made his move. He took both of them inside his kamui dimension. Law didn't even have the time to protest. 

"Oh my dear child, I dare and I will." Ken said with a smile. 

"If anything happens to Sugar, I will kill all your crew mates and your families." Doflamingo said with a smile. Ken looked at him and then laughed. 

"Kizaru said the same thing in Sabody. And we are still happy and content. You know why? It's because we have already every measure to ensure everybody connected to us are fine. And the bigger question is do you really think you can escape me or more so defeat me?" Ken said and as he did so his skin slowly started to transform and soon he was covered with pinks scales with two horns on his head. 

"You.. You ate the artificial devil fruit?" Doflamingo was dumfounded seeing Ken with the same look as he had once seen Kaido. "How many devil fruits can you eat?"

"Why are you so surprised? It's not like I am the only one? Blackbeard can do it too." Ken replied as his tail struck the ground with such intensity that it created a crater and an earthquake. 

"Fuck." 

As the clash commenced, Doflamingo unleashed his razor-sharp strings, dancing through the air with deadly precision. Ken maneuvered gracefully through the attacks. Streams of azure flames followed his every movement, creating an aura of intense heat that distorted the air around him.

He manipulated the surroundings and did every kind of ambush possible but it was of no use. Then he noticed one thing. He couldn't expect his attacks or his moves at all. Twice Ken came close to him and twice he had slashed him. 

He used Armament Haki to stop the attack and though he was successful, he did feel a bit of pain in the attack. There was some blood too. But the thing that ticked off was the fact that his Observation Haki wasn't working. 

He stepped back and couldn't help but ask. 

"What the fuck are you?" 

"Huh? I am a normal human being. Don't worry I ain't some kind of Lunarian. The fire you see around is because of my Zanpakuto." Ken said casually as if he was some kind of friend of his. This attitude irriated him more. "Oh you are confused about the Observation Haki. You have heard of Shanks right and his use of his Haki." 

Doflamingo couldn't understand why Ken was bringing Shanks here in the fight. Everybody knew of Shanks being a great pirate and swordsman. One of the names Shanks was known around in the New World was 'Killer of Observation Haki'. He was like a silent killer and it was also the reason why the Red haired pirates were able to sneak in Marineford without any of the big wigs noticing. 

So why was Ken bringing his name up and also mentioning about the haki. It took a few seconds for this flamingo man to realize what Ken was hinting at.