Chapter 44: He Really Dares
The Vinsmoke Family once dominated the North Sea through military force, and even though they have declined now, they remain a force not to be underestimated.
As for why Doflamingo’s deal with Big Mom would involve the Vinsmoke Family, it was entirely Doflamingo deliberately setting them up.
Doflamingo was willing to hand over the method for manufacturing artificial Devil Fruits, but this was worthless to Big Mom. Even if she had the manufacturing method, she couldn’t produce artificial Devil Fruits unless she kidnapped Caesar Clown.
Once Big Mom kidnapped Caesar Clown, it would undoubtedly spark another war. By then, the main force in the war wouldn’t be the Don Quixote Family but Kaido.
Thus, obtaining the artificial Devil Fruit manufacturing method was useless to Big Mom. In this situation, Doflamingo showed Big Mom a turning point.
The document Doflamingo had presented earlier contained a secret piece of intelligence: the head of the Vinsmoke Family, Vinsmoke Judge, had once worked alongside Vegapunk in an illegal research team. During their research, they discovered "Lineage Factor," which was the result of an in-depth analysis of Devil Fruits.
It was precisely through the "Lineage Factor" that Vegapunk developed artificial Devil Fruits, with Caesar Clown merely being a later follower.
Vinsmoke Judge, who had researched the "Lineage Factor" alongside Vegapunk, was no ordinary figure. He had delved even deeper into the Lineage Factor, even creating artificial humans and offspring who were born with partial Devil Fruit abilities.
If a half-baked scientist like Caesar Clown could create artificial Devil Fruits, couldn’t Vinsmoke Judge, who mastered the Lineage Factor, develop artificial fruits?
No, Vinsmoke Judge was already developing "innate artificial Devil Fruit ability users"—namely, his own children.
The second son of the Vinsmoke Family, Vinsmoke Ichiji, could attack enemies with electric shocks, even without wearing a battle suit.
Moreover, the eldest daughter of the Vinsmoke Family was nearly immune to toxins and could absorb various poisons into her body. This wasn’t something achievable with the Vinsmoke Family’s battle suits; it clearly resembled Devil Fruit abilities.
Although their abilities weren’t as obvious as typical fruit powers, combined with Vinsmoke Judge’s research on the Lineage Factor, everything hinted at something unusual.
At the very least, based on the evidence Doflamingo provided, Big Mom found this information credible. Even if it wasn’t reliable, she could settle the score later. Once she dealt with that unknown force, she could focus entirely on the Don Quixote Family.
Doflamingo couldn’t care less about the Vinsmoke Family’s fate, and the Vinsmoke Family had no idea disaster was about to strike. They were about to be targeted by the Big Mom Pirates.
A direct assault on the Vinsmokes would be unwise. Big Mom needed the knowledge in Vinsmoke Judge’s head. As for his children, killing one or two to serve as a warning to the others would be a good choice.
Given Big Mom’s style, she would likely send people to "coincidentally" befriend the Vinsmoke Family. After a period of cooperation, she would propose something like a marriage alliance.
Leaving aside how Big Mom would deal with the Vinsmoke Family, the negotiations between the Don Quixote Family and the Big Mom Pirates were clearly mostly settled.
Doflamingo had handed over the artificial Devil Fruit manufacturing method. As for Kaido’s stance, Doflamingo didn’t care at all.
Kaido’s absence from today’s negotiations already said everything, but since Kaido had sent reinforcements to the Don Quixote Family, Doflamingo couldn’t outright fall out with him.
What he was doing now was offending neither side. Among pirates, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. As for Big Mom’s two dead children, that was irrelevant. As long as the subsequent benefits were sufficient, Big Mom would selectively forget about it.
Big Mom didn’t actually care about the lives of most of her children; she had even killed some herself. Dying on the battlefield was just considered a sacrifice for the pirate crew.
If this had happened on Whitebeard’s ship, things would have gotten lively. With Whitebeard’s emphasis on family, he wouldn’t rest until he wiped out all the core members of the Don Quixote Family.
With Big Mom, losing one or two children wasn’t an irreconcilable conflict. Big Mom had a total of 85 children. To this day, fewer than 40 of them were still alive. Where had the rest gone?
"Doflamingo, I’ll temporarily trust the intelligence you’ve provided, but you still need to compensate me with weapons and ammunition worth five billion Berries."
"Agreed."
Doflamingo agreed almost without hesitation, because he knew that this five billion Berries’ worth of weapons didn’t actually need to be paid to Big Mom. It was just her way of saving face. He only needed to send a dozen ships loaded with empty wooden crates to Big Mom’s territory. As long as Big Mom’s subordinates had a shred of common sense, they wouldn’t open those crates.
The negotiations were finalized. From the results, both sides were satisfied. If Big Mom played her cards right, she had a certain chance of obtaining artificial Devil Fruits, while Doflamingo suffered no substantial losses.
Su Xiao didn’t want this war to end, but given how things had progressed, this was the best outcome. If the Don Quixote faction he was in were wiped out, his promotion/main mission would fail, which would be an even greater loss, rendering most of his previous efforts futile.
With the negotiations concluded, neither side would hold a banquet to celebrate. Even now, both sides still wanted to kill each other; it was only the circumstances that forced them to reconcile.
"Charlotte Linlin."
Su Xiao suddenly spoke. Big Mom, who had already stood up, showed displeasure. She had originally planned to use this negotiation to eliminate Su Xiao, but he hadn’t given her the chance.
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, Doflamingo stomped the ground and leaped onto his own ship, clearly indicating that whatever happened next had nothing to do with him. This guy… had actually slipped away.
Seeing Doflamingo’s "hasty retreat," Red-Haired also sensed something was off.
"Since both sides have reached an agreement, let’s conclude the negotiation here—"
Before Red-Haired could finish, Su Xiao pulled out a Devil Fruit.
"This is…"
Katakuri was stunned for a moment, then his face twisted with rage. He had seen the Devil Fruit in Su Xiao’s hand before. He had personally witnessed a loved one eat that fruit, and later, many family members held a tea party to celebrate. At the tea party, that little brat who had eaten the fruit demonstrated its ability and handed Katakuri a cookie.
"Katakuri-nii, here, have some."
Katakuri still remembered that the cookie was very hard and not very tasty, as well as that little brat who cried and threatened to run away from home when getting a shot.
"You… bastard!"
A red gleam flickered in Katakuri’s eyes. Not even outsiders, let alone Charlotte Linlin herself, had ever seen Katakuri this enraged.
"Charlotte Linlin, how about we make a deal?"
Su Xiao held the Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit in one hand and an Apollo in the other—a highly unstable Apollo. This Apollo had been activated and stopped repeatedly, no less than ten times. In the end, it could only be preserved using a cooling device, with a maximum storage time of no more than ten hours.
In this state, the Apollo could no longer be remotely activated. As soon as Su Xiao crushed it, it would explode immediately.
Although using Red-Haired’s deterrence to restrain Charlotte Linlin during the negotiations was a good choice, he and Red-Haired were not allies.
Su Xiao couldn’t be sure that Red-Haired would definitely help him. Some things needed to be accomplished through one’s own abilities, like now.
Red-Haired looked at the Apollo in Su Xiao’s hand and sensed its terrifying fluctuations. He judged one thing: if that thing exploded, his beloved Red Force would be gone.
"Hmph?"
Big Mom coldly stared at Su Xiao and stepped toward him. She didn’t believe Su Xiao would dare to detonate a bomb on Red-Haired’s ship.
A hand grabbed Big Mom’s arm. It was Katakuri, sweat trickling down his cheeks. He had foreseen it—Su Xiao really dared.