Waiting Room

The streets of Dressrosa settle around the shocking explanation of the prize. Someone reasons aloud, "So it seems like two copies of the same Devil Fruit can never exist at the same time," and then the impossible question hangs there: "But... why's the Mera Mera no Mi here...?" The answer comes through the strange cycle of Devil Fruits. "They say that when an ability user dies, the fruit with his former power is reborn somewhere in this world." Ace's "Firefist" fruit was reincarnated after his death, and without anyone knowing, Young Master was able to obtain the Mera Mera no Mi. The prize is no casual bait: "When it came to putting up a Logia fruit as a prize for this event... even Young Master was hesitant...!!" For anyone who could seize it, "Getting one's hands on something like that... my life would be changed forever." A protest bursts from the group: "Ehh!? You think I'd ever let you eat it!!?"

The name of the fruit hits Luffy directly. His face stiffens under his disguise and he shouts, "That Mera Mera no Mi!! I want it!!" Kin'emon realizes the weight behind the reaction: "Ah, that's right, Ace was your..." Luffy will not let Ace's flame become someone else's power. "I don't like the idea of someone else in the world walking around with Ace's power!!" In memory, Ace smiles and calls it "This... my 'Mera Mera' ability..." Luffy admits the practical problem: "I can't eat it, because I've already got the Gomu Gomu, but..." He turns to Franky. "Hmm would you eat it, Franky?" Franky refuses with his usual bluntness: "I'd rather be able to swim." Still, Luffy decides there is no walking away: "As long as we've got this chance, let's take it!!" Kin'emon recognizes the danger: "What Doflamingo said is enough for us to assume that this is a trap, but I'll say this much..." To him, "...so it's like a memento."

Kin'emon finishes the thought with a grin: "Living life with regrets is no fun. And we've got business at the Colosseum anyway, so let's go!!" Luffy answers instantly: "Yeah!!" The mood hardens as the men in the alley think about what waits there. One warns, "No one would be putting their lives on the line if just wanting it were enough..." Another adds, "Don't underestimate the level of play in the Colosseum...!!" Watching Luffy's group run away, someone mutters, "Those idiots..." Meanwhile, Zoro keeps chasing the thief who took his sword. The narration frames it as "Chasing after the mysterious 'fairy'." Sanji yells after him, "I said wait up!!! Who cares about a sword or two!! Just give up!" Zoro snaps back, "As if, you moron!!" The thief vanishes into the city. "Where'd it disappear to?" Zoro demands, while Sanji spots the scene ahead: "Did you see the fairy!?" The answer comes in surprise: "Wha!! That's...!!" Beyond them, music and dancing spill from a hall with "Stomp stomp," "Ching ching," "Strum," and "Strum ching clack."

The chase leads Sanji and Zoro to the front of a dance hall, where Zoro's irritation collides with the island's strange nightlife. Sanji is still trying to stop him: "I said wait up!!! Who cares about a sword or two!! Just give up!" Zoro answers only with anger, "As if, you moron!!" The trail ends in confusion. "Where'd it disappear to?" he asks, scanning the street as if the fairy thief has simply dissolved into Dressrosa. A bystander reacts, "Did you see the fairy!?" Another gasps, "Wha!! That's...!!" Inside and around the hall, the rhythm swallows the search. Feet hammer the floor with "Stomp stomp," instruments answer with "Strum," "Ching ching," and "Strum ching clack," and at the center of the performance a dark-haired dancer moves with deliberate, magnetic grace. Zoro and Sanji are pulled from pursuit into a completely different kind of spectacle, the stolen sword momentarily overtaken by the sound and movement of the city.

The dancer commands the room. Men cheer "So passionate," "So sweet," and "Bravo" as she dances through the music, breathless but poised. Someone calls out, "You're the best dancer in the world," while the page names her: "Dancing Girl Violet." Sanji is already lost. Heart marks swirl around him as he stares and stammers, "P... pretty..." Zoro, unimpressed and practical, warns him, "Didn't you hear about how the women in this place stab men? Someone like you is just asking for it!!" But Sanji has already surrendered. In his mind, danger has become invitation, and when Violet glances his way, he melts further: "It's fine if she stabs me..." The performance is not background decoration; it pulls Sanji completely off the trail, turning the search for the fairy thief into the start of a new Dressrosa entanglement.

The man Violet escaped from howls in the street, "That perpetually lost Marimo child...!!" while Sanji watches the smoke where Zoro vanished and realizes, "I really lost him!!" A bystander shouts, "Crap!! He's gone!!" Sanji considers whether Nami and Robin would be jealous if they saw all the couples around him, then bitterness wins for a moment: "But I'm getting jealous, seeing all these couples around here." He clicks his tongue and decides, "Alrighty! This is my chance. Let's just leave him on this island!! I really did try to stick with him... I gave it an honest attempt." Then Violet appears before him. "Excuse me, are you the man who locked eyes with me before?" Sanji can only answer, "Hmm?" She closes in, sweating and desperate, and pleads, "Please, put your arms around me!!" Sanji's heart explodes into panic and delight: "Ehhh h!!?"

Violet pulls Sanji into a narrow escape as pursuers search nearby. One man asks, "Where'd that woman go!?" Another guesses, "Pretty sure she took the back exit into 'Lovers' Lane'." A third answers, "Right... so she couldn't have gotten far." The order is clear: "Don't let her out of this city." Hidden against the wall, Violet pants, "Haa haa," and whispers, "Thanks... looks like they're gone..." Sanji tries to recover himself. "I... think I'll be alright..." Violet says nothing for a beat, and then Sanji's fantasy overwhelms him. She has pulled him close, and he is not resisting. He laughs and gasps, "Kyah hh!!" while she tells him, "You're quite welcome." The sound effects "Swoosh" and the silent pauses make the hiding place feel charged and absurd, with danger nearby but Sanji already swept away by Violet's touch.

Violet apologizes softly: "I'm so sorry... did you bump your head or something?" Then she confesses why she was fleeing. "No... the only thing I've bumped into is that fateful impact that we call a chance encounter." When Sanji notices blood, she lowers her eyes: "But, with this much blood..." Sanji immediately insists, "Really... it's nothing." He is already beyond caution, crying, "Owahhh hhhhh," and declaring, "This is bad... I can't stop the love!!" Violet looks at him with pity and says, "You poor man..." Sanji, overwhelmed, misunderstands everything as romance. "Eh!? No, you mustn't look at me in that way!! I'm a woman who's given up on love...!!" Violet says. Sanji answers, "Right!! You made them all happy." She asks, "You were being chased?! Just who were those guys!?" and then, desperate but focused, says, "If I can lend my power in any way, just say the word."

Sanji gives her an immediate "OK," and asks, "Is it really ok?" He has heard enough about Dressrosa to believe the rumors: "Ehh!!? So it's true that the women of this country are so passionate that they'd even stab men!?" Violet reveals the truth with shame. "The ones chasing me were the police. I... I stabbed a man!! It was a romance gone wrong." Sanji accepts even that as part of her tragedy. Violet trembles and says, "Ouuu hhh...!! A devilish woman like me doesn't deserve forgiveness..." Sanji tells her, "I might just fall for you..." She finally gives him her name: "My name is Violet." Then the request turns the scene from flirtation into conspiracy. "...If possible, could you protect me as far as the next city over? And then, there..." She looks up at him and says the real sentence: "There's a man I'd like you to kill."

At Corrida Colosseum, the scale of the arena stops Luffy in place. "This Colosseum is huge!!" he says, standing with Franky and the others before the massive structure. Franky admits, "Hmm, I've even got half a mind to participate!!" Near the entrance, they notice the one-legged toy soldier. "There he is! It's that wanted toy soldier!!" someone says. Another explains, "He's like the guardian of the Colosseum! Every damn time..." Luffy, hearing the cheers inside, pauses. "Listen to those cheers," he says. The toy soldier tries to rush the gate, but the guards stop him. "Hold it!!" A moment later he is blasted back with a "Swoosh" and a "Jet walk!!" The toy lands with an "Ah," missing his chance again and shouting, "Missed me! Missed again!"

The toy soldier, formally identified as "One-legged Soldier (Toy), alias: The Mad Lightning Soldier," has already found a loophole. He tells the guards, "Look here, you slowpokes!!! I've already got one leg inside the Colosseum!!" The police and marines panic: "Uhh...!!" They remind him, "You know the law, don't you? Police and marines aren't allowed in the Colosseum!! Even if you spot a criminal inside, you've got no jurisdiction to act against them." The soldier understands perfectly. "The only law that applies here is the dogma of the Doflamingo Family! If you pull those triggers..." The guards are forced to back down, though they curse him: "You'll be the criminals!!" and "Now get outta here!!" The arena is framed as a place outside normal law, ruled by Doflamingo's family and its own violent customs.

Once inside the surrounding crowd, the one-legged toy soldier abruptly turns cheerful. "Yaya, elderly gentlemen!! May I help you with your baggage!?" His politeness surprises the group. Someone says, "He's so polite all of a sudden," while another laughs, "Ahahahaha what a funny soldier." The toy makes slapstick faces and asks, "I am funny, aren't I?" When he overdoes it, one man snaps, "Mister, could you just get out of the way?" Another laughs, "Ahahahaha hahahaha. How about this?? Or this??" The toy is offended: "I'm in your way? How rude of me!!" Then he turns serious at the insult to his pride. "So red in the face... you're really serious about this." Someone asks whether there is such a thing as a "serious toy," and the toy answers, "Not at all... I mean, I'm a toy who exists to make people smile!!"

Registration is closing. A voice announces, "We're about to close general registration!!" and another observes, "Looks like no one else is coming, yeah!? Too scared to commit, huh!! Ahahaha!!" Franky notices Luffy's turn has come. "Hey, Luffy. Looks like you've got to go in over there." Luffy answers, "Hmm? Okay." The crowd wonders about the roster: "Will he be okay? Does he even know who today's participants are??" and "That old man's gonna fight?" The toy soldier warns him carefully, "Hey, Luffy!! I think this might be some kind of battle show... Listening? This is important... Fight to your heart's content, but don't give away your identity!!" Luffy replies, "Got it!!" At the desk, asked, "Okay? May I have your name?" Luffy starts with "Luf..." before being hit and corrected with "Nuahhh you idiot!!"

The disguise is made official. Luffy enters the fighters' waiting room under the name "Fighter Number 556 Lucy," his shirt marked "No. 0556 Lucy." Around him, the underground room is packed with violent competitors, all shouting over the coming battle. One yells, "I'll be taking that Mera Mera no Mi!!" Another shouts, "It's gonna be me, you fool!!" A guide explains the setting: "This is the waiting room for fighters. Please relax until you're called to fight." Luffy, still disguised with a fake beard and sunglasses, looks around and says, "Wow." Someone notes, "Everyone's so enthusiastic!!" But his small body and odd appearance immediately draw attention. A brute asks, "Hey, who's that little punk?" Then a huge fighter swings, and the waiting room erupts before Luffy has even reached the arena.

The first attack comes fast, but Luffy's reaction is effortless. He murmurs, "Whoa," as a weapon sweeps near him, then lets the attack pass and the fighter crashes into the surroundings. The other gladiators stop and stare. Someone laughs, "Pfft," another wonders, "Hmm?" and Luffy only says, "Ah..." A murmur runs through the room: "Hey... who the hell's he?" Another notices the arsenal around them: "They've got all sorts of weapons, huh..." The fallen veteran is introduced as "Spartan, Corrida Colosseum Gladiator, 51 time winner of the monthly tournament." Humiliated, Spartan snarls, "This sort of mockery... is the type I hate the most...!!" Others explain the context: "He was the last guy to enter." "What does that twerp think he's doing here?" Luffy has not announced himself, but the room has already marked him.

Spartan stands over Luffy, enormous and furious, while the crowd mocks the newcomer. "Where's the fun in crushing weaklings!? The crowd's here to see true fighters clash!!" one gladiator shouts. Another says, "Calm down, Spartan," but someone else sneers at Luffy's disguise: "Hey brat with the fake beard!!! This is an arena, ain't it!? It's no place for you!! Go home!!" Spartan adds, "Get out of here, now!!" Luffy looks up with a quiet "Hmm?" as Spartan lunges. The next moments happen almost too quickly to follow: a "Whoosh," a "Swoosh," a shocked "Eh... Ahh!!" and the huge man is thrown off balance. Luffy barely seems to move, yet Spartan's power turns into his own downfall. The room sees that the strange old-looking entrant is not weak at all.

Spartan crashes into the floor with a massive impact, the room exploding in debris and giant sound effects. Fighters recoil in disbelief: "!!?" Luffy stands calmly in the aftermath, still wearing the ridiculous disguise. Someone begins to protest, "A declaration of war...!!" but Luffy only grins with all his usual confidence. "Shishi shishi," he laughs. "Nice to meet ya." Around him, hardened gladiators stare with open mouths, one crying "Buhu" as the scale of what just happened sinks in. The page closes the chapter on the punchline and the warning at once: the fighter registered as Lucy has introduced himself to the Corrida Colosseum waiting room by dropping Spartan, and no one there can still dismiss him as a harmless old man.

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