Chapter 388: The Plot Veers Further Off Course
"Hey hey! Old man, what are you doing!?"
Sugar stared at the increasingly massive meteor in the sky, panic-stricken. "Do you want to destroy this island!?"
However, Fujitora remained unmoved, focusing his control as the meteor hurtled down toward the royal palace.
Everyone on the entire island of Dressrosa witnessed the blazing meteor crashing down, and people scattered in panic, fleeing in all directions.
Doflamingo, who had been fighting Ian within the Birdcage, was forced to pause. He looked up at the falling meteor and angrily shouted at Ian, "Damn it! Ian, that was your vice-captain Fujitora, wasn't it!? Tell him to stop!"
Ian gripped his sword and smiled lightly. "Sure! How about you open the Birdcage, and I'll go out and tell him to stop?"
"You...!" Doflamingo was furious, but seeing the meteor about to hit the ground, he had no choice but to brace himself for the shockwave.
Only Ian remained confident in Fujitora. Though he didn't know why Fujitora had summoned another meteor, he trusted that Fujitora knew what he was doing.
The entire island was in chaos now, with everyone believing disaster was imminent.
Sugar, held in place by Fujitora's weightlessness ability, felt the most fear, as she watched the meteor hurtling directly toward her position!
"Am... am I going to die?" Sugar stared in terror at the awe-inspiring meteor, already feeling the wave of heat rushing toward her.
The meteor grew closer, tearing through the palace dome, sending debris flying, and heading straight for Sugar.
At this moment, Sugar finally couldn't hold on. She closed her eyes, and just as the meteor was about to strike her, she was so frightened that she foamed at the mouth and fainted.
But in her unconscious state, she didn't know that the meteor suddenly stopped, hovering eerily just twenty or thirty centimeters above her head!
Since Fujitora could use super-gravity, he could naturally also use anti-gravity. He wasn't foolish—he was still standing inside the palace himself, so how could he let the meteor actually fall? It was all a bluff to scare Sugar. At the critical moment, he stopped the meteor, leaving the massive, blazing rock suspended in midair.
If Sugar had known that all this was deliberately staged to frighten her, she might have tearfully called Fujitora a bad uncle...
The moment Sugar fainted, Zeke and the others, who had been turned into toy bears inside the palace, suddenly reverted to their original forms with a loud *poof*.
At the same time, the memories of Zeke that Fujitora and the others had lost suddenly returned. This sudden recollection of a completely forgotten person felt quite unpleasant, especially knowing that the memory loss was caused by Sugar. Even Fujitora broke out in a cold sweat, finally realizing that others had indeed been turned into toys by Sugar.
"Is this enough?" Fujitora asked Kyros beside him.
Kyros had also reverted to his original form—a one-legged gladiator. He couldn't answer Fujitora's question, instead staring blankly at his own hands.
"I'm back! I'm really back!" Kyros's lips trembled, his expression one of disbelief. He had sought help from Fujitora and the others only as a desperate struggle, but he never imagined that Fujitora would actually scare Sugar unconscious.
"Thank you, Lord Fujitora!" Kyros bowed deeply, pressing his hand to his chest. "Thank you for saving Dressrosa!"
"Ah," Fujitora sighed, saying nothing. Through his Observation Haki, he had sensed the entire process of Kyros's transformation back. Only then did he truly understand what Ian had meant earlier about the hidden darkness in this country—turning living people into toys, using them as slaves, and simultaneously erasing their loved ones' memories of them. How cruel was that?
Fujitora's sense of justice and conscience told him that following Ian to Dressrosa Island this time had been the right choice.
"You have someone you want to see. Go," Fujitora said, sensing Kyros's hesitant feelings.
But Kyros shook his head. "Lord Fujitora, let me stay with you for now. I still want to take revenge on Doflamingo with my own hands!"
Fujitora said nothing more, turning to look at the unconscious Sugar floating in the air. "This little girl's ability is far too dangerous. Even if handed over to the Marines, I wouldn't feel at ease. Perhaps I should keep her with me... I wonder if Captain Ian has a way to restrict her..."
Inside the palace, things were manageable, but the moment Sugar fainted, chaos erupted across all of Dressrosa.
When the meteor fell, people thought disaster had struck. But strangely, not only did the meteor fail to hit the ground, but miraculous things began happening in the city. The toys that had become a common sight suddenly reverted to their original forms, and as people's memories of them instantly returned, they realized in horror that these toys, which had been protecting them all along, were actually their own loved ones—yet they had completely forgotten their existence.
People embraced their former toy relatives and burst into tears.
Besides the locals of Dressrosa who had been turned into toys, some pirates had also been transformed. When these pirates reverted to their original forms, they immediately grabbed their weapons and roared at the sky, "Where are the Donquixote Family members!? Come out and die!"
After being turned into toys by Sugar and forced to work as slaves for the Donquixote Family, their first thought upon gaining freedom was revenge.
In an instant, the Donquixote Family gained hundreds of new enemies.
At the same time, some World Government agents also reverted from toys to human form. These CP agents and high-ranking government officials immediately searched for Den Den Mushi, trying to contact the World Government and the Marines.
Judging by their gritted teeth, it was clear what they wanted to do—go after Doflamingo!
Despite being a Warlord of the Sea, Doflamingo dared to oppose the World Government. They would report this immediately, stripping him of his Warlord status! Pirates were pirates, after all—untrustworthy!
Now, the entire population of Dressrosa was in an uproar. When they learned from the former toys that all of this was Doflamingo's scheme, their anger boiled over!
Ignoring the ongoing battle on the island, people poured out of their homes and onto the streets, angrily denouncing the Donquixote Family. They hurled stones and rotten eggs at the Donquixote Pirates' underlings, then swarmed them, beating them to the ground.
Doflamingo, still fighting Ian, noticed the chaos in the streets and was shocked. He quickly realized that the meteor Fujitora had dropped earlier wasn't meant for attack, but for...
"Sugar!" Doflamingo ground his teeth in fury, glaring at Ian. "Your target was Sugar!? Damn it, how did you know the secret of Sugar's ability?"
Ian shrugged, indicating that even he hadn't expected it. In fact, he hadn't anticipated that Fujitora would encounter Sugar at all. He had assumed that Doflamingo would keep such an important executive like Sugar tightly protected, but...
"What if I said this was all a coincidence? Would you believe me?" Ian said helplessly to Doflamingo.
He really was at a loss. He had known about the arms smuggling, the capture of rare races, and the slave trading, but he had never thought he could use these to bring down Doflamingo. After all, Doflamingo's biggest customers for slave trading were the Celestial Dragons. With their protection, such matters might just be swept under the rug.
Ian had thought that to take down Doflamingo, he would need to target the Artificial Devil Fruits. But now, before finding the artificial fruits, Fujitora had already freed the toys.
What a mess... Ian didn't know what to say. Wasn't this supposed to be Luffy's business? How had he ended up solving it first?
It felt like the plot was veering further and further off course. He had no idea how things would develop from here...
(37 Chinese Net)