"Doflamingo, Rosinante, I'm sorry..."
"No! Brother..."
"Ugh, so noisy... Who's yelling this early in the morning?"
Doflamingo clenched his fist, irritated by the voice that had pulled him from his dream.
"Boom!"
"Ahh~ Father~ Brother~"
The sorrowful cries and scattered memories in his mind made his head pound. He pressed his hand against his forehead, trying to ease the pain.
As his vision cleared, he realized something was wrong. This scene—he had never seen it before.
The lifeless body of Donquixote Homing, the former Celestial Dragon, lay on the ground. Rosinante was crying over him as if his whole world had collapsed.
Doflamingo looked down at his own small hands and the smoking pistol he held. He didn't know what to say.
'Wait, did I just kill my father? What kind of start is this?'
He glanced around, taking in the surroundings. The place was dark and damp, filled with trash. A few rays of light slipped through cracks above his father's corpse, illuminating the filth around them. The stench of rot, blood, and rust filled the air.
He gagged.
"Ugh."
'Great. What a wonderful start to my new life. This place is disgusting, and I've already eaten the String-String(Ito Ito no Mi) Fruit. How am I supposed to survive in this world now?'
As his memories slowly pieced together, the reality of his past life as a cruel Celestial Dragon came into focus.
'Wait a second... how did I die before?'
'I signed some contract, had a big meal, drank some wine, then set off for work...'
'And then— a truck?'
'Did I really get hit by a truck and reincarnated?'
For a moment, his thoughts were a mess, but he quickly gave up trying to figure it out.
'Well, whatever. I'm here now.'
'At least in this world, I have a chance to be a king instead of a nobody.'
'And this time, I won't let Rosinante be taken away.'
Determined, Doflamingo put the pistol away. A gun tainted with patricide should be kept safe.
He turned to Rosinante, who was still sobbing over their father's body, and spoke gently.
"Ross, what hurts more? The wounds on your body, or the ones in your heart?"
Rosinante trembled but didn't answer. Everything had changed too fast—his mother had died, and now his father was gone too. Worse, his own brother had killed him.
Fear, sadness, and confusion swirled inside him.
Doflamingo watched him cry and thought, 'I need to change his mindset.'
He pulled Rosinante up, stopping his grieving.
"Ross, look at him. Our father's so-called 'kindness' destroyed our family."
"He made our mother suffer. He left us to starve and wander like stray dogs."
"Kindness is a luxury for the strong. But we? We are no longer Celestial Dragons. Right now, we are weak, and weak people get trampled."
"We need to survive, Ross."
Doflamingo saw their father as an idealist—someone who wanted equality but lacked the strength to protect his beliefs. Worse, he had given up his power willingly. What a fool.
If he wanted to live among ordinary people, why not keep his influence and use it wisely? At the very least, he should have waited until he was strong enough to defend his ideals.
Instead, he threw his family into the fire, trusting that people would accept them.
That gamble had cost them everything.
His wife had died. His family had been hunted. And now he was dead.
If Doflamingo had been in his place, he would have held onto power and used it properly.
Doflamingo's tone grew harsher. His emotions stirred, and thin strings formed at his fingertips as he grabbed Rosinante's shoulder.
"Do you remember being chased, burned, and hung on the city walls? Did we ever do anything to deserve that?"
"Do you remember the Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise? They forced our mother to her death! They caused this!"
"Ross, look at me! Look at our scars! Look at this filthy place we're living in!"
"Who did this to us? The people here? The Celestial Dragons? Or our own father, who threw everything away?!"
"And me? I'm the one who kept you alive. Ross, you are my only family now."
Doflamingo knew no one could go through all this without feeling at least a little resentment. No child was born a saint. Even thinking about it now filled him with anger.
Rosinante thought back to how his brother had always looked after him, scavenging for food, trying to keep them both alive.
And their father...?
'Damn, convincing people with words really is just something that works for main characters.'
But Rosinante still wouldn't answer.
Doflamingo sighed. 'No more holding back.'
Black and red sparks flickered through the air.
"Smack!"
Rosinante's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto Homing's body, unconscious.