"I am Monkey D. Luffy," he said quietly. "And I am the man who will become the Pirate King."
Water rushed into the deep fissure. The ocean poured over the cracked bedrock. Dust settled over the ruined landscape.
Luffy watched the dark water churn.
A sound broke the silence.
It started low. A vibrating, wet chuckle. It echoed against the rock walls of the crater. The chuckle escalated. It grew louder. It turned into a deranged, hysterical laugh.
Fuffuffuffu. Fuffuffuffu!
The water at the bottom of the pit displaced. A figure dragged himself out of the ocean.
Doflamingo stood up. His chest cavity was visibly crushed. Blood poured from his forehead, blinding his left eye. His arms hung at unnatural angles. He snapped his own shoulders back into place with a sickening crunch. Inside his body, millions of microscopic strings pulled his ruptured organs together. They acted as artificial muscles, keeping a dead man walking.
He tilted his head back. He laughed at the sky.
Luffy frowned. He cracked his knuckles. He did not step back.
"You are strong," Doflamingo wheezed. Blood sprayed from his lips with every word. "You possess the Haki of the Supreme King. You possess a body forged in hell. I acknowledge your strength, Straw Hat."
Doflamingo took a step forward. He dragged his right foot.
"But you are still a novice in this world," Doflamingo hissed. He raised his right hand. He placed his palm flat against the solid limestone wall of the crater. "Tell me, Monkey D. Luffy. Do you know what Awakening is?"
Luffy tilted his head. He blinked.
"Nope," Luffy said sincerely.
Doflamingo grinned. His teeth were stained entirely red.
"You will see it now."
Doflamingo tapped the stone.
A white ripple expanded from his palm. It moved instantaneously. It covered the crater wall. It hit the ground beneath Luffy's feet. It spread to the remaining trees on the cliff edges. It rushed into the ocean water filling the fissure.
The physical matter of the island destabilized.
The limestone rock unraveled. The dirt dissolved. The tree trunks shredded.
Everything turned into string.
Millions. Billions. Trillions of white, razor-sharp threads replaced the solid earth. The crater ceased to exist. A sea of shifting, writhing strings took its place.
Luffy dropped. The ground beneath his sandals had turned into a web. He fell into the mass of threads.
He kicked the air. Geppo. Luffy launched himself upward, escaping the shifting ground. He hovered ten feet in the air, looking down. The entire center of Green Bit had transformed into Doflamingo's weapon.
"The Devil Fruit power does not just affect the user's body," Doflamingo's voice echoed from everywhere at once. "It affects the environment. It alters the world. This is the pinnacle of the Paramecia."
Luffy analyzed the terrain. His Observation Haki flared. The strings were not just terrain. They were alive. They moved with Doflamingo's will.
"The ground turned to string," Luffy muttered.
"Break White!" Doflamingo commanded.
The sea of strings beneath Luffy erupted. Two massive, thick braids of compressed thread shot upward like giant serpents. They spiraled around each other, aiming to crush Luffy between them.
Luffy's eyes glowed red. Future Sight activated.
He saw the braids closing in. He didn't retreat. He dropped toward them.
He coated his right fist in Armament Haki. He utilized friction, pumping his blood faster. Fire ignited around his knuckles.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
Luffy thrust his fist downward, meeting the converging braids.
"...Red Hawk!"
The burning fist struck the intersection of the strings. The fire exploded outward. The heat incinerated the white threads. But there were too many. The braids pushed through the fire, wrapping around Luffy's waist and arms.
The strings tightened. They cut into his shirt. They ground against his Haki-coated skin.
Doflamingo stood on a pillar of strings in the distance. He clenched his fist. "Crush him."
The pressure intensified. The strings aimed to slice Luffy into pieces.
Luffy gritted his teeth. He stopped fighting the strings with strength. He closed his eyes. He reached into his core. He pulled the Conqueror's Haki forward.
Black lightning erupted from his body.
He didn't strike with his fist. He released an omnidirectional shockwave of pure King's Haki.
The blast hit the strings binding him. The Haki severed the connections between the fibers.
The massive braids disintegrated into ash and harmless lint.
Luffy fell out of the destroyed braids. He landed on a floating patch of solid rock that had survived the transmutation.
Doflamingo did not pause. He waved both hands.
"Off White!"
Two massive walls of string erupted from the ground on either side of Luffy. They slammed together like a vice.
Luffy used Soru. He vanished an instant before the walls collided.
He reappeared fifty yards away, sprinting across the surface of the string sea. He used his rubber elasticity to bounce off the shifting threads, maintaining his momentum. He aimed directly for Doflamingo.
"Billow White!" Doflamingo shouted.
The string sea directly in front of Luffy rose into a massive tidal wave. Thousands of tons of sharpened thread crashed downward, covering the sky.
Luffy didn't stop running. He charged his left fist.
"Gomu Gomu no Bullet!"
He didn't hit the wave. He stopped his fist one inch short of the strings. The Advanced Armament Haki shot forward as a compressed shockwave.
The invisible blast hit the tidal wave of strings. It blew a perfect, circular tunnel straight through the mass of threads.
Luffy leaped through the tunnel. He cleared the wave.
He was within striking distance.
Doflamingo stood on his pillar. He extended his fingers. He coated the tips of the strings surrounding him in dense Armament Haki. The white strings turned black.
Doflamingo lashed out. He manipulated ten Haki-coated string tentacles like whips. They moved with blinding speed, striking from multiple angles simultaneously.
Luffy shifted into a martial arts stance. He planted his feet on the unstable string ground. He brought his hands up.
He deflected the first tentacle with his forearm. He parried the second with the back of his hand. He dodged the third by tilting his torso.
The combat turned into a close-quarters blur.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Luffy blocked the Haki-coated strings with his bare hands. Sparks showered the battlefield. Doflamingo attacked relentlessly. The tentacles stabbed, slashed, and swept.
Luffy's Future Sight mapped every strike. He moved with impossible precision. He swayed like a leaf in a hurricane. He used Kami-e to loosen his joints, allowing the strings to pass millimeters from his skin.
He stepped inside Doflamingo's guard.
Luffy chambered his right fist at his hip. He delivered a rapid sequence of chain punches directly into Doflamingo's chest.
Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam.
Doflamingo coughed blood. He retreated, manipulating the string pillar beneath his feet to slide backward.
Luffy pursued. He kicked the ground. He stayed glued to Doflamingo's space.
Doflamingo swung two tentacles in a horizontal pincer movement.
Luffy ducked. He spun on his heel. He threw a heavy backhand strike.
"Iron Palm!"
The backhand struck the side of Doflamingo's knee. The joint shattered. Doflamingo stumbled, losing his balance on the pillar.
Luffy capitalized. He jumped. He raised his right leg high above his head. He coated it in Armament Haki.
"Axe!"
Luffy brought his heel down.
Doflamingo reacted desperately. He crossed his arms and generated an Off White shield directly above his head.
The heel struck the shield. The shockwave shattered the string construct. The force traveled down, hitting Doflamingo's crossed arms. The Warlord plummeted from his pillar, crashing into the sea of strings below.
Luffy landed on the pillar. He looked down.
The sea of strings writhed.
Doflamingo erupted from the threads a hundred yards away. He was covered in his own blood. His artificial string muscles worked overtime to keep his shattered knee functioning. He panted heavily.
"You... insolent... brat." Doflamingo's voice shook.
He raised both hands high into the air. He poured every remaining drop of his Devil Fruit stamina into the island.
"Ever White!"
The entire sea of strings turned instantly rigid. The soft, shifting threads became solid steel wires.
The strings beneath Luffy's pillar shot upward. They wrapped around Luffy's ankles, his calves, his knees. They bound his legs entirely. They coated themselves in Armament Haki, locking him in place.
Luffy tried to pull his legs free. The strings did not snap. They tightened, biting into his skin.
"You cannot escape this," Doflamingo declared. He lowered his hands, pointing them at Luffy.
"Flap Thread!"
Two massive wings formed from the string sea behind Doflamingo. They spanned hundreds of feet. The wings consisted of tens of thousands of individual strings, all coated in black Armament Haki.
Doflamingo swept his arms forward.
The wings fired.
Thousands of Haki-coated string arrows rained across the battlefield, converging directly on the immobilized Luffy. The barrage darkened the sky.
Luffy looked at the incoming arrows. He looked at his bound legs.
He breathed in. He activated Gear Second.
Steam rolled off his body. His skin flushed pink.
He bit his left thumb. He blew air into his bones.
He didn't inflate his arm. He routed the air into his bound legs.
Gear Third.
His legs expanded instantly. They grew to the size of a giant's pillars. The sudden, massive expansion of bone and muscle shattered the Haki-coated strings binding him. The threads snapped loudly, freeing him.
Luffy deactivated Gear Third immediately. His legs shrank back to normal size.
He stood free on the collapsing pillar.
The Flap Thread barrage arrived. Thousands of lethal arrows struck.
Luffy did not block. He evaded.
He pushed his Future Sight to its limit. Time slowed to a crawl in his perception. He saw the path of every single arrow.
He moved.
He twisted his torso. An arrow passed his chest. He bent his knees. Three arrows sailed over his head. He arched his back. A dozen arrows missed his face. He moved his arms in fluid, circular motions, deflecting the arrows he couldn't dodge with precise taps of his Haki-coated knuckles.
He flowed through the lethal rain like water.
The arrows struck the ground behind him, obliterating the remaining bedrock and churning the ocean below. The sound was deafening. The destruction was absolute.
But Luffy remained untouched.
He stood in the center of the storm, steam rising from his pink skin. His eyes glowed red.
Doflamingo watched in horror. The Warlord's ultimate barrage missed. The rubber boy danced through a rain of death.
The Flap Thread ceased. Doflamingo dropped to one knee. He grasped his chest. His heart fluttered erratically. His internal strings were failing. He had seconds left before his body shut down entirely.
Doflamingo looked at Luffy. He felt fear. True, primal fear.
"I will not lose to a D," Doflamingo whispered.
He stood up. He summoned every ounce of his remaining willpower. He gathered the surrounding awakened strings. He pulled them into the air above him.
The strings compressed. They twisted. They hardened.
They formed sixteen massive, braided columns of pure white thread. Doflamingo coated all sixteen columns in the densest, darkest Armament Haki he possessed. The tips sharpened into lethal points.
"Sixteen Holy Bullets..." Doflamingo roared. Blood poured from his eyes. "...God Thread!"
He thrust both hands forward.
The sixteen massive Haki lances shot across the battlefield. They tore the air apart. They generated sonic booms. They aimed to completely annihilate Luffy and the space he occupied.
Luffy stood his ground. He did not dodge.
He maintained Gear Second. He bit his right thumb. He blew air into his bones.
He activated Gear Third in his right arm. The arm expanded into a giant's limb.
Luffy did not stop there. He coated the giant arm in Armament Haki. The skin turned black and metallic.
Then, he reached deeper. He pulled the Supreme King's Haki from the depths of his soul. He poured it all into the giant fist.
Black and red lightning erupted from his arm. The lightning was so thick it looked like liquid energy. It coiled around the giant limb, tearing the clouds above them.
Luffy pulled the giant arm back. He compressed the muscles in his shoulder. He anchored his feet deep into the string sea.
He focused his eyes on Doflamingo. He saw the sixteen lances approaching.
Luffy inhaled.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
He thrust the giant fist forward. He threw his entire body weight behind the punch. He unleashed every drop of his Haki provided.
"...Supreme Roc Impact!"
The giant fist met the sixteen God Threads in the center of the battlefield.
The collision defied physics.
For a moment, there was no sound. All light in the area inverted. The black lightning swallowed the sun. The air pressure dropped to zero.
Then, the shockwave released.
The sound shattered eardrums miles away. The blast eradicated the awakened strings. Millions of threads vaporized instantly into fine dust.
The sixteen Haki lances bent against the giant fist. They cracked.
Doflamingo screamed. He pushed with everything he had.
Luffy roared. He pushed harder.
The Advanced Conqueror's Haki flared. The internal destruction bypassed the physical clash. The invisible shockwave traveled up the sixteen lances and struck Doflamingo directly.
The God Threads shattered. The sixteen lances exploded into shrapnel.
Luffy's giant fist continued forward.
It struck Doflamingo.
The impact crushed the Warlord's chest cavity completely. The internal strings snapped. His ribs pulverized.
Doflamingo flew backward. He broke the sound barrier instantly. He shot across the sky like a fired cannonball. He cleared the entire island of Green Bit. He flew over the ocean.
He crashed into the side of the massive steel bridge connecting Green Bit to Dressrosa.
The impact buckled the bridge. The steel girders twisted. Doflamingo's body buried itself deep into the metal structure.
He hung there, pinned inside the crater of twisted steel.
His eyes were entirely white. His jaw hung open. Blood dripped from his fingertips.
He did not move. He did not heal. He did not breathe.
Donquixote Doflamingo was defeated.
Luffy stood amidst the settling dust.
The white strings covering the island lost their form. They dissolved back into dirt, shattered limestone, and broken trees. The Awakening ended. The natural world returned.
Luffy deactivated Gear Second and Gear Third simultaneously.
Steam poured from his shrinking body. He fell to his knees, panting violently. His right arm was bruised purple. His chest heaved. Sweat poured down his face.
He looked across the ocean toward the ruined bridge. He saw the broken figure of the Warlord.
Luffy reached up with a trembling hand. He adjusted his straw hat.
He closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and finally allowed himself to rest.