Kaido once made a rather memorable observation: “Haki transcends all.” Doflamingo could find no fault with that claim.
Haki was an extraordinarily powerful force.
Gol D.
Roger had conquered the Grand Line and become the Pirate King through Haki alone, while Monkey D.
Garp had relied on his fists and Haki to earn his title as the Hero of the Marines.
A person did not need a Devil Fruit to stand at the summit of the world.
That was not a theory.
It was an undeniable fact.
As someone born with Conqueror’s Haki—the disposition of a king said to appear in only one among millions—Doflamingo naturally placed great importance on mastering Haki.
Seven years had passed since he entered this world in Doflamingo’s ten-year-old body.
Although he had rejected the String-String Fruit, there had not been a single day during those seven years when he neglected his Haki training.
Under ordinary circumstances, very few people in the Four Blues or the first half of the Grand Line knew much about Haki, let alone understood how to use it.
Knowledge of Haki was most widespread in the New World, that savage sea inhabited by monsters.
The North Blue was no exception.
Most people there had never even heard the word.
However, the world’s seas were connected rather than completely isolated.
Some people who had reached the New World and later returned to the other seas brought fragments of rare knowledge back with them.
Haki was one such secret.
Trebol and his companions could be considered failures who had been driven out of the New World.
They had once sailed there and witnessed its monsters firsthand.
During that time, they had also obtained basic knowledge of how to train Haki.
Perhaps it was precisely because they had personally experienced the terrifying power of Conqueror’s Haki that they revered it so deeply.
After returning to the North Blue, they happened upon Doflamingo while he and his family were being tortured and strung up against a wall.
The moment the young boy unleashed a wave of Conqueror’s Haki filled with hatred and destructive intent, Trebol and the others were instantly overwhelmed by his potential.
From that day forward, they placed their futures in Doflamingo’s hands.
They were betting that he would one day become a king who ruled over the seas.
The transmigrated Doflamingo had considered the String-String Fruit too underwhelming for his ambitions and rejected it without hesitation.
However, he had eagerly taken the Haki training methods Trebol and the others possessed.
From that point onward, he never stopped training.
Unfortunately, there was one rather embarrassing problem.
Trebol and his companions were losers who had failed to survive in the New World.
The knowledge they possessed was hardly advanced.
Their training methods were little more than the most commonly circulated basics of the New World.
They were sufficient for learning Haki, but that was about all they offered.
Doflamingo had trained for seven years, yet he still had not advanced his Haki to a higher level.
He could not make his Armament Haki flow outward from his body, much less achieve the advanced application known in Wano as Ryuo.
Trebol and the others did not even know that Haki possessed more advanced stages.
That left Doflamingo thoroughly frustrated.
Over the years, he had searched extensively through the North Blue’s underworld for better training methods, but his efforts had produced nothing.
His experience led him to one clear conclusion.
It was possible to find basic knowledge about Haki outside the New World, but anyone seeking its more advanced applications would ultimately have to look toward the New World itself.
Over the past several years, Doflamingo had considered every possible method of obtaining that knowledge.
In the end, he narrowed his choices down to three paths.
The first was to train relentlessly on his own.
Everyone knew that Haki became stronger through continuous use and hardship.
Perhaps, if he possessed exceptional talent, he could continue building upon the basics until he eventually broke through on his own.
However, after thinking it over carefully, Doflamingo abandoned that idea.
The original Doflamingo’s Haki had never been especially remarkable compared to the true monsters of the sea.
Perhaps he had wasted too much time during his youth.
Perhaps he had later become too dependent on schemes, influence, and his Devil Fruit, neglecting the kind of brutal training required to reach the highest level.
Whatever the reason, his weakness in Haki had undoubtedly contributed to his eventual defeat in Dressrosa.
After considering both the original timeline and his own progress over the past seven years, Doflamingo had to admit that he probably was not some peerless Haki prodigy.
Relying on a miraculous breakthrough through blind training was far too uncertain.
The second path was to find a master.
He could seek out a powerful expert, formally become their disciple, and learn advanced Haki under proper guidance.
The problem was that Doflamingo could not think of anyone willing to teach him.
The powerful monsters of the New World were hardly known for their generosity.
In truth, the safest route to systematic training would be the Marines.
The Marines possessed an organization that had been refined over centuries, complete with established training systems, experienced instructors, and the resources needed to develop recruits in every aspect of combat.
They could provide Doflamingo with structured guidance from the fundamentals all the way to advanced techniques.
Unfortunately, someone with his background was among the least likely people in the world to join the Marines.
More importantly, he instinctively detested both the World Government and the Marines who served it.
Becoming Whitebeard’s son was another possible option.
Edward Newgate was exceptionally protective of his family.
If Doflamingo swallowed his pride, joined the Whitebeard Pirates, and genuinely became one of Whitebeard’s sons, he would undoubtedly gain access to excellent guidance.
Doflamingo, however, had no intention of bowing his head and calling another man his father.
For the moment, finding a master was not a realistic path either.
That left only the third option.
He would have to enter the New World and search for advanced Haki techniques himself.
That raised another important question.
How strong was Donquixote Doflamingo—the so-called young tyrant of the North Blue, who had already mastered the basic forms of Haki—when measured against the fighters of the New World?
The answer was painfully simple.
He was still a small fry.
Any reasonably capable criminal or second-rate New World fighter could probably beat some humility into him.
As for the weaker thugs beneath that level, they were useless to him.
If Doflamingo could already defeat them, how could he expect them to possess advanced Haki knowledge?
After considering the matter from every angle, Doflamingo reached another conclusion.
Kaido’s teaching was certainly correct.
Haki was essential.
However, Devil Fruit abilities could not be underestimated either.
If Doflamingo obtained an exceptionally powerful Devil Fruit, he could raise his combat strength to an entirely new level within a relatively short period.
With that additional strength, entering the New World and searching for advanced Haki training would become far more feasible.
Haki and Devil Fruit abilities were not mutually exclusive.
Used together, they could complement and strengthen each other.
Once Doflamingo had organized his thoughts, he began considering what kind of Devil Fruit he should seek.
This choice would shape the rest of his life.
There could be no carelessness.
The first fruit he eliminated was the String-String Fruit that Trebol had acquired from some unknown source.
It was not a weak ability by any means.
In the right hands, it offered impressive versatility and several powerful applications.
However, when compared to the truly exceptional Devil Fruits of the world, it still fell short.
There was a popular saying on the seas: There were no useless Devil Fruits, only useless users.
The idea was that the strength of a Devil Fruit ability depended on its user rather than the fruit itself.
That statement was not entirely wrong.
But as far as Doflamingo was concerned, anyone who claimed that some common Dog-Dog Fruit could genuinely rival Kaido’s Azure Dragon had lost their mind.
Talent and effort mattered, but the quality of the ability mattered just as much.
He therefore had to choose with extreme care.
Thanks to his knowledge of the original timeline, Doflamingo knew several secrets concerning powerful Devil Fruits.
For example, there was a strong possibility that the supposedly invincible Rumble-Rumble Fruit was currently hidden somewhere on Birka, a Sky Island.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was a Logia with outstanding speed, destructive power, attack range, and versatility.
It had virtually no obvious shortcomings.
Among the countless Devil Fruits in existence, it was one of the very few abilities to have been openly praised as invincible.
Its power was beyond question.
Doflamingo was extremely interested in obtaining it.
Unfortunately, he currently had no reliable way to reach a Sky Island.
There were two conventional routes.
The first was to travel to Jaya and ride the Knock Up Stream into the sky.
However, the violent current appeared only at specific intervals, and attempting to ride it without extraordinary luck and an exceptional navigator was practically suicide.
Doflamingo had no intention of gambling his life on such a reckless method.
The second option was to reach the Sky Islands through the High West route.
Unfortunately, the route and the resources needed to use it were tied to channels controlled by powerful organizations, including the Marines and the World Government.
Doflamingo’s network had not yet expanded far enough to secure access, and he lacked the strength to force his way through.
Neither organization had any reason to assist him.
There was also a less conventional solution.
He could somehow persuade Golden Lion Shiki to treat him like a favored son.
With Shiki’s Float-Float Fruit, reaching a Sky Island would be effortless.
Regrettably, Doflamingo had no way to make that happen either.
For that reason, he did not place all his hopes on the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
While ordering his subordinates to search for information about routes to the Sky Islands, he had also begun searching for the legendary Sleeping Ancient Town.
A top-tier Mythical Zoan was supposedly hidden there: The Bat-Bat Fruit, Model: Vampire.
Based on Doflamingo’s knowledge of the future, Logia abilities were undoubtedly powerful, but Mythical Zoans appeared to be even more absurd.
After all, even the protagonist of the original story had somehow gone from possessing an ordinary Paramecia to being revealed as the user of a Mythical Zoan.
If Doflamingo could obtain a Mythical Zoan powerful enough to attract the attention of the Red Count himself, he would have no objection to becoming a Zoan user.