【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 540 Morning News

"Yo ho ho ho, it's morning, everyone! The newspapers are here!"

As the music and Brook's unique voice rang out in the early morning, the Straw Hat crew woke up from their sleep.

Lucci groggily opened his eyes, immediately covering his dizzy head. He noticed that the wound on his head was bandaged. Recalling what had happened last night, he couldn't help but sigh. After a moment of silence, he moved the rubber head off his chest, tugging at the rubber cheek as he removed his fingers. "Get up, Luffy."

Luffy rubbed his face against Lucci's chest again before opening his eyes, but not very wide, just a crack, and then mumbled sleepily, "Good morning, Lucci."

"I'm not feeling well at all..." Lu Qi murmured with his eyes closed. The heavy, powerless feeling in his body and the throbbing pain in his head were sure to make his day anything but easy.

Luffy instantly snapped out of it, sat up from Lucci in confusion, and innocently asked, tugging at his brother's pale cheek, "Lucci, your face is so pale."

"It's not that..." Upon hearing Luffy's words, Lucci instantly opened his eyes, wanting to teach this little rascal a lesson. If it weren't for this kid's misbehavior, would his body be in this state? But looking at Luffy sitting on him with an innocent and adorable expression, he sighed silently. Oh well, he couldn't bring himself to be angry at all...

"The newspaper has arrived!"

"Oh!" Luffy jumped up excitedly from Lucci's body and successfully kicked Ace on the other side, pulling him out of his sleep.

Ace sat up sleepily, rubbed his eyes, glanced at the Straw Hat crew gathered on the deck, then looked at Lucci lying next to him, noticing his pale face, and asked with some concern, "How are you feeling?"

"Tired." Lucci yawned and sat up on the deck.

"Go back to bed and continue sleeping?" Ace asked, reaching out his hand.

“No, aren’t we almost at Dressrosa? I’d like to go ashore and take a look,” Lucci replied, accepting Ace’s outstretched hand and standing up from the deck.

Ace frowned, but didn't say anything more.

Lucci rubbed his temples and walked side by side with Ace toward where the Straw Hat crew was gathered. They were all looking at the newspaper that was placed on the deck.

"Donquixote Doflamingo resigns from his position as a Shichibukai and simultaneously relinquishes the throne of Dressrosa!"

"He actually dismissed the Seven Warlords of the Sea!" Usopp exclaimed in shock as he looked at the newspaper.

"Would he really give up so easily?" Lucci frowned, picked up the newspaper, and checked the headline and date. "The newspaper is real."

"Doflamingo is the one with the most powerful dark forces among the Seven Warlords of the Sea." Ace raised an eyebrow, looking at the newspaper in Lucci's hand. "He's no ordinary person."

"The throne?" Brook noticed something else and asked, somewhat puzzled, "He's actually a king? Can pirates rule a country?"

"The King?" Luffy looked at the man in the feathered coat on the newspaper and asked seriously, "The King of the Bird Kingdom?"

"Things are progressing so smoothly, it's really worrying," Franky said. He didn't think Doflamingo would really give up the business he had built up over the years; pirates would never give up their treasures.

"That's good, now that guy only has this one path left to take," Luo grinned, his plan now fully underway.

"The Joker actually made such a huge sacrifice for me!" Caesar stood beside him, moved to tears, and shed two crocodile tears.

"Speaking of which, how come our faces are in the newspaper too?" Luffy grinned as he looked at another picture in the newspaper.

"Shichibukai Trafalgar Law has formed an alliance with the Straw Hat Pirates! The World Government's ruling on Law is currently unclear."

"Straw Hat Luffy goes to war with one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard!!"

"What... what is this headline?!" Usopp exclaimed in horror, looking at another headline on the newspaper on the deck. "Are we not only going to fight Kaido this time, but also one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard?!"

"Huh!? This isn't right!" Nami looked at Ace in shock. "Even though we haven't officially formed an alliance yet, it shouldn't be like this..."

Thinking of something, everyone turned their gaze to Lucci and hesitated, as if it really might be true...

"Do you know what it means to grab attention?" Lucci shrugged.

"False advertising?" Ace raised an eyebrow, looking at the headline in the newspaper.

"We'll fight them sooner or later," Luffy grinned, completely unconcerned about the shocked expressions on everyone's faces. "I'll defeat all four Yonko!"

"Straw Hat Luffy stole Whitebeard's son..." Law read the newspaper, his gaze silently shifting to Lucci. Lucci was actually stolen by the Straw Hat crew... Could he possibly...?

Luo silently dismissed the strange thought he had just had. Judging from their connection, the information was clearly wrong. "In short, they thought that Lucci's leader was someone the Straw Hat leader had stolen from Whitebeard, so they believed that the Straw Hat Pirates were going to war with the Whitebeard Pirates."

"It seems to be true..." Nami laughed awkwardly. She had contributed to this, but Luffy certainly wouldn't give it back.

"These guys have formed an alliance too, huh? Is it the same thing we were thinking?" Luffy looked at the newspaper article about Kid and the other three Supernovas.

“They are who they are, we will continue with our plan.” Law handed the newspaper to Luffy, having already seen the news he wanted, he was no longer interested in the paper. “Let’s focus on dealing with Doflamingo.”

"Now you know how important this guy is to Doflamingo, right?" Law grabbed Caesar by the hair and pulled him in front of everyone. "We just kidnapped him, and Doflamingo gave up his power and Shichibukai privileges that he had built up over ten years overnight. This is the answer to how much he was willing to pay to get Caesar back."

“I still have doubts about whether Doflamingo would really give up all these things for Caesar. He couldn’t possibly do it so easily…” Lucci said with a frown, “but he did publish the notice as you requested.”

“So all we have to do now is return this guy to him, and the deal will be done…” Luo said, leaving Caesar behind, before dialing a phone.

Lucci sat quietly to the side watching Law dial Doflamingo's number. The Den Den Mushi rang for a while before someone answered. While waiting, he asked Lucci to come out as well... Lucci closed his eyes and pressed his temples. This side effect had lasted a bit too long; several hours had already passed.

"Hey, hey, I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who will become the Pirate King!"

Upon hearing this, Lucci instantly opened his eyes, looked at Luffy shouting into the Den Den Mushi, and helplessly covered his face. "Oh well, it's not a big deal anymore..."

"Hey, Doflamingo! You're the mastermind behind that idiot Caesar who made Tea Beard and the kids suffer so much! We'll return Caesar to you as promised this time, but if you dare let him do such heinous things again, I'll knock you out too, you hear me?" Luffy grabbed Law's hand and threatened Doflamingo into the Den Den Mushi receiver.