Admittedly, Enel and the others' plan held enormous appeal for Doflamingo.
This guy wanted to stand at the pinnacle of the world more than anyone. He wanted to see those lofty, high-and-mighty figures fall from their pedestals. Big Mom was a pirate, sure, but a pirate at her level was more king than any king—she was practically an emperor!
For someone like that to tumble from her pedestal would be absolutely delicious.
And if he, Doflamingo, had a hand in pushing her along, the thrill would be even sweeter.
Just imagining the scene, this pink flamingo who thrived on chaos nearly ascended on the spot, itching to flap the sleeves of his feathered coat and take flight.
But a man like Doflamingo never planned only for success. He had to consider failure too.
—With just the Buggy Pirates plus the Red Hair Pirates, could they really drag Big Mom down from her throne?
Success was far from guaranteed.
At that thought, the boiling blood in Doflamingo's veins cooled. Honestly, he wasn't very optimistic about this plan.
Plenty of legendary pirates like Big Mom had met their end over the years. Or rather, that legendary era had been drawing to a close all along.
Rocks, Roger, John, Silver Axe, Wang Zhi, Shiki the Golden Lion, Redfield...
Every one of those legends eventually met their end. Doflamingo believed Big Mom and Whitebeard would one day meet theirs too. But think carefully—among all those legends now consigned to history, how many great pirates were truly replaced by newcomers?
Not a single one!
Even Rocks—if the Marines hadn't joined forces with Roger at God Valley, would Roger really have won that battle?
Doflamingo admitted that Buggy's crew and Shanks's crew were both highly promising pirates. But could an alliance of just these two factions really bring down one of the old legends?
Whether these people truly had the strength, or were just like every other pirate fresh into the New World—cocky and blind to their own weight—remained an open question.
He hadn't even counted Crocodile and Mihawk as true combat assets. The two had potential, yes. But unlike Buggy and Shanks, who had grown up around Haki, these two still needed time to mature before they could stand on their own.
So even amid his excitement, Doflamingo was already weighing whether this venture was worth the risk. If it failed, how likely was it that Big Mom would discover his involvement and come for revenge?
If this operation had been orchestrated by Inazuma and they were calling on him to contribute, Doflamingo would naturally have felt duty-bound to give it his all. But this scheme was mainly Buggy acting on his own initiative. Doflamingo had to think of himself and his family first.
Enel, seeing Doflamingo's hesitation, spoke up at once. "You won't need to do much. Just help us get an invitation to the tea party, or sneak us in directly."
"There should be room to maneuver, and you can keep yourself at arm's length from the whole affair."
"And you can have a little more faith in us. After all, the six of us were personally trained by Lord Ren."
"That red-haired kid's background isn't simple either. Barring surprises, he was probably an apprentice on the Pirate King's ship."
Enel hadn't witnessed that era himself, but they could still gather some intelligence from out on the seas.
"Doffy, this should be doable," Trebol said from the side.
"This tea party, Big Mom has invited a lot of forces from the underworld. That crowd will be a mixed bag."
"Slipping them in among those guests shouldn't be a problem. As long as we don't act and just observe when the time comes, Big Mom shouldn't suspect a thing."
Hearing this, Inuarashi nodded, agreeing with Trebol's reasoning.
They hoped for Doflamingo's help, but they didn't want him running into trouble either. After all, they were also sleeper agents of Inazuma. Who knew when they might prove useful again?
"Fuffuffu, no, Trebol..."
Doflamingo weighed the pros and cons, calculating the odds. Since Buggy and the others had been trained by that lord, their strength went without saying. And if that red-haired kid had been chosen as an alliance partner, he naturally had skills of his own.
Besides, Doflamingo's intelligence network was far superior to Buggy's. He had long since dug up everything there was to know about Shanks's special status. Add in two more supernovas, and in terms of manpower, they really weren't so outmatched by Big Mom.
With that, Doflamingo made up his mind. He hadn't yet suffered Kaido's beatdown, so he still had a few ounces of fire in his blood.
With fifty percent profit, he would brave the risks. For one hundred percent profit, he would trample every human law. For three hundred percent profit, he would commit any crime, even face the gallows!
"Since we're chasing thrills, let's see it through to the end!"
"We'll help! And when the time comes, we'll act too. If we're going to do this at all, we might as well take Big Mom down in one shot and finish her off for good!"
Doflamingo's expression was ice-cold, startling even Inuarashi.
No one had expected him to show this kind of resolve. He was, after all, a man who possessed Conqueror's Haki.
For a moment, Inuarashi felt a flicker of admiration for the guy. He opened his mouth, meaning to offer a few words of praise. But after thousands of words rose to his tongue, it all condensed into a single sentence:
"You're so shameless~ (with a Shi Xian face)"
Doflamingo: ???
"Ahem. In that case, it's settled. We'll be counting on you to sneak us into the tea party."
"Leave it to me. When the time comes, you'll pretend to be members of the Donquixote Family and go in with me. I'll work out the rest of the plan with you later." Doflamingo never fought unprepared battles.
Big Mom had numbers on her side. So naturally, he had to recruit his own forces. He couldn't just charge in with this handful of people.
"It just so happens I was worrying about what gift to send that old hag. Since that's the case, I'll send her a batch of Inazuma's new weapons. Fuffuffu..."
Doflamingo smiled craftily and picked up the Den Den Mushi to contact Inazuma.
He wasn't about to demand them outright, of course. He planned to purchase a batch of Ruin Dragons and Ruin Hunters.
Both were new weapons Inazuma had only released last year. Big Mom would surely be very interested.
When the time came, they would activate them at the tea party and launch the war right there!
"Fuffuffu, this is going to be something to look forward to!"
"I can hardly wait!"
[
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