Blind Men

Sanji walked the streets of Dressrosa kicking any Donquixote pirates that he saw, but was largely bored and disappointed that he couldn't find any officer level opponents to fight. He could have stayed in the colosseum, but that stubborn moss head should be there as well. It wasn't worth it to defeat an enemy by teaming up with the sword freak.

He lamented that he couldn't stay by Princess Rebecca's side as a result of this decision, but that was just his luck. Zoro was just as protective as he was towards women, even if he wouldn't admit it, so Rebecca wouldn't come to harm. If by some chance she did though, he'd have to kill Zoro.

"Psst!" came from an alley as he passed.

Sanji lazily turned his head to look and he was instantly infatuated.

"Follow m-" the cloaked, beautiful woman whispered, but her words were cut off.

"Yes, I shall follow you to the ends of the earth, and to hell and back if I must!" Sanji twirled over to her with hearts in his eyes.

The woman was caught off guard by this sudden proclamation, but instantly schooled her expression. She had a lot of practice doing that.

"You're Black Leg Sanji, are you not?" She asked him.

"Oh, Mademoiselle! You already know my name, but I do not know yours! Would you do me the honor of telling me the moniker you were blessed with when the angels brought you down from heaven?" Sanji laid it on thick.

'How can this man say such things with a straight face?!' the woman, Viola, wondered to herself.

"I don't know if I can trust you," Viola said. "Would you mind if I had a good look at you to set my worries aside?" 

"Your wish is my command!" Sanji began taking off his clothes.

"Stop! I SAID STOP!" Viola shouted at him, before nervously looking around to see if she had drawn unwanted attention to herself. Seeing that she hadn't, she sighed in relief and said "You don't need to strip. Just hold still."

Sanji looked mildly disappointed, but was happy to oblige her. He spread his arms out like an open book, his nose flaring in anticipation.

Viola circled her eyes with her fingers and peered into his mind with her insight devil fruit.

There she saw the alliance between the Straw Hat crew and Trafalgar Law. Looking deeper she found that his thoughts were filled with a multitude of beautiful women in compromised states of dress. If not for the chivalric nature within him as well, she would have been revolted. Well, she was a little revolted anyways, but she could see he would never harm a woman.

She was about to leave his mind when her attention was drawn to something else. A proverbial dark cloud hanging in the distance. Thinking that this might be a character flaw that she should take note of before trusting him, she delved a bit deeper.

"Eep!" Viola stumbled backward, putting her hands as far from her face as possible.

"Are you alright?! Are you hurt?!" Sanji asked hurriedly, clearly worried.

"I'm fine." Viola spoke curtly. She studied his face, searching for any sign of what she had just seen, but did not find it.

In any case, it wasn't something she needed to worry about. Rather, she wished she had never seen it at all and that she could forget all about it.

'I hope I don't have any nightmares about that…' Viola shook her head, trying to focus on the present. Even now she could hear the echoes of a whip cracking.

"As you can see, this country has been under the oppressive thumb of Doflamingo for far too long. I want you to help me bring down the regime…" Viola said seriously.

Sanji was thrilled to death that he could kill two birds with two stones, so he was naturally quite agreeable to helping her. It did occur to him that this might be a trap, but he didn't concern himself with such details.

…

Elsewhere in Dressrosa.

Akainu stomped along the road, still seething about his previous delay and also enraged by the suffering that Doflamingo had inflicted upon the people of Dressrosa.

At least it wasn't all bad news, though. The revelation that a Shichibukai could get away with such horrors under the World Government's nose would drive up recruitment for the Neo Marines.

It didn't matter at all to him that he was once one of those who turned a blind eye to it; he was no stranger to hypocrisy. Hypocrisy was far from the worst crime he was guilty of. All that mattered in the end was results, and any method that attained good results was righteous.

A man who wasn't dressed as a Neo Marine rushed over to him and saluted. "Admiral Akainu! Lieutenant Bartel reporting!"

This man wasn't one of his personal crew that he'd brought to Dressrosa. After thinking for a moment, he recalled that this man had been assigned here as a spy for the Neo Marines about a year ago.

"Speak." Akainu spoke domineeringly.

"Sir, I'm ashamed to say that I had been discovered and captured by the Donquixote pirates. One among their number, called Sugar, subsequently turned me into a toy. I was powerless to resist their commands during this time and I learned that all toys were forgotten by the world." The man reported hastily, knowing that Akainu wasn't a man who liked to have his time wasted.

Akainu immediately turned to his first officer. "Sugar is kill on sight, at any cost."

The first officer saluted and went to inform the men. The man who gave him the information fell in with the other Neo Marines without the need to be ordered to do so.

"If it isn't Sakazuki. What brings you to Dressrosa in your retirement?" Admiral Fujitora appeared in their path.

"Are you going to try and stop me? Your blindness might not be an issue for others, but you can't match me." Akainu spat.

"I am not the only blind man here. I will not stand by as the people of this country become 'collateral damage', if that is what you are asking me." Fujitora spoke confidently, hand on his sword's hilt.

"Tsk." Akainu clicked his tongue. He believed what he said, that he could defeat Fujitora, but it would be pointless to burn down the whole country in the process and potentially let Doflamingo escape. "I won't let Doflamingo get away. So you'd better work hard, Issho, or I'll do what I have to."

Fujitora didn't say anything more and simply walked away. Like Akainu said, he needed to make sure Doflamingo wouldn't get away whilst keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. Or in the worst case, he'd make certain that Doflamingo got away so that the volcanic maniac would chase him instead of burning Dressrosa to the ground.

Fujitora agreed with Akainu on one point; the results were what mattered most. They just disagreed on the definition of 'good' results.

Akainu watched him leave with a deeper scowl than normal etched onto his face. At that moment, an unlucky Donquixote pirate ran out of an alley and ran into him, stumbling to the ground. Akainu didn't butch in the slightest, firm like a mountain.

"You bastard, don't you know who I-" The pirate started.

Akainu didn't even glance at him. He just flicked his arm in his direction, coating the man in molten rock from head to toe. If he screamed in pain before he died, nobody could hear it through the dense lava.