Truly it was an epic battle for the ages. At least that was how it looked in the eyes of the toys who watched Usopp fling his entire arsenal at Monet and Sugar. Perhaps they were biased, though, since the result of this battle decided whether they were freed from their torment, or forced to slave away for eternity against their wills.
An small army of tiny black bears assaulted him, but in one move he bound them to the floor with a mass of grasping vines.
The snow woman was the biggest thorn in his side. Being a Logia type fruit user, most of his attacks could not directly harm her. Still, he was not totally defenseless, as he possessed his classic Flaming Stars to ward her off with her elemental weakness. He also had giant venus fly trap pop greens that could ensnare her entire body, but they were quickly frozen to death and could only stall her.
Fortunately, he didn't need to defeat Monet. His target was Sugar.
All three of the combatants paused in surprise when they remembered that Robin existed. That could only mean she had been turned into a toy and somehow turned back. No one was more shocked than Sugar, though, as she had a fairly arrogant view of her own power and thought she was almost invincible with it.
However, now she was faced with the terrifying reality that her enemies didn't even need to fight her to undo her years of hard work. The red eyed woman chattered away with the tall, busty woman like it was no big deal what had just happened.
"Sugar?!" Money shouted, drawing Sugar's attention to her sister.
Sadly, this was the wrong direction to look. She felt the world become dizzy for the briefest moment before her vision faded to black.
Usopp stood over the fallen Sugar holding the two by four wooden board he had bonked her on the head with. Even knowing that she was older than he was, he felt absolutely monstrous for having swung his makeshift club at the semblance of a little girl's head with all his might.
His feelings of guilt were a fatal distraction for him. He didn't notice the enraged snow harpy bearing down on him until it was too late to dodge! Her razor sharp teeth threatened to rip through the delicate flesh of his neck in a single, brutal chomp!
*BWOOSH*
Usopp slid back from a massive gust of wind. Monet did not get off so lucky.
The sole giant that participated in the tournament, Hajrudin, had crossed the distance between his workplace as a toy and the fight with a haste that was unbefitting his hulking size. His fist was driven into Monet with the speed and might of a sea train.
"Thank you, little friend! I will repay this debt by any means necessary!" Hajrudin spoke seriously. It was unclear if he was bowing his head in respect or merely craning his neck downwards to look at Usopp.
"""Uso-land! Our hero~!""" Leo and the tontatta warriors cheered.
"""Uso-land! Our savior~!""" cheered the former toys.
"""Uso-land~! Uso-land~! Uso-land~!""" the cheers chanted in unison.
'I kind of regret not using my real name now…' Usopp thought to himself.
…
In the colosseum.
"Come on, Rebecca! Come on, Riku! Can't you do any better than this?! I'm not even trying here!" Diamante taunted the pair of royal grandfather and granddaughter.
Both of them were breathing heavily. Riku wouldn't be a match against Diamante even in his youth, let alone as the old man he was now. The boost he had gotten from Cherry had worn off as well. Rebecca mostly fought with tricks to disqualify other fighters, and such tricks would not work on such a powerful and experienced foe like Diamante.
It certainly didn't help that the other two finalists, namely Lucy and Nightmare, had up and disappeared. It was just the two of them against Diamante, which effectively turned the finals into a public execution of the last remnants of the former royal family.
And the audience loved every second of it. Diamante was intentionally toying with the two of them to drag it out, to humiliate them more.
The jeering crowd was suddenly silenced, as if by some unknown force.
The reason this happened was not lost on anyone. Everyone here knew exactly why. The toys in the audience were transforming into humans! No, they were turning BACK into humans!
Everyone remembered people they had forgotten and it didn't take a genius to imagine why this coincided with the toys' transformation. In fact many people were having reunions with loved ones they hadn't known they had right here in the stands!
"Well this ain't good…" Diamante thought aloud.
Hidden within the colosseum, Sabo disagreed with Diamante's opinion. He just remembered that he was part of a trio of sworn brothers instead of a duo, and he wasn't very happy that Doflamingo had laid his hands on one of them.
…
Ace clenched his fists as they flared up, savoring the return of his strength and not missing the loss of his frail sock monkey form at all.
Machvise and Señor Pink looked concerned at the transformation, suddenly realizing how much shit they were in now.
Why? Because even if they managed to win, Whitebeard's entire fleet would be knocking on their front door soon. The whole reason they turned Ace's group into toys in the first place was to avoid that very scenario.
Not that winning was looking very good for them. They were facing off against Iron Man Franky and Fire First Ace by themselves. Franky alone had been giving them some trouble with the help of a certain grenade tossing sock monkey. Now they had to deal with one of Whitebeard's best men too.
"Where did all your confidence go? Didn't you want to squish me like a bug, big guy?" Ace mocked Machvise.
"SUPER~! Now we can duke it out man to man!" Franky pointed at Señor Pink challengingly.
Machvise was on the verge of quaking in his boots in fear, but Señor Pink felt relieved in a way. This way, at least he didn't have to set aside his honor for his loyalty to Doflamingo. He could fight Franky with all he's got without a shred of guilt.
…
Doflamingo was furious. He had created the birdcage to ensure that his enemies could not escape, but now it seemed he needed it for another purpose. To destroy all the evidence. So long as no one on the outside learned the truth about sugar's abilities, it would be a mystery why so many people were forgotten by their various organizations and loved ones for a time.
What about Whitebeard, you might ask? Wouldn't that old man hunt him down with or without evidence? The answer to that question is 'yes', but Doflamingo can still use Kaido as a shield so long as he gets Caesar back.
"Doflamingo!" a great shout resounded.
A sword was swung at Doflamingo's head at the same time. Doflamingo raked his fingers through the air and stopped the sword in its tracks. The enraged one-legged man glared into his sunglasses. If looks could kill, then Doflamingo would be dead ten times over.
(A certain old man, whose looks COULD kill, sneezed somewhere far away.)
"I don't have time to toy~ with you. Get lost." Doflamingo kicked the enraged man, Kyros, in the chest, sending him flying through the window out of the palace.
Kyros wasn't a weak man by any means, but he had yet to get used to his old body and the way it had to be balanced on one leg. This meant that he wasn't able to properly defend against the shichibukai's attack. Kyros plunged the sword into the palace's wall and allowed it to slow his fall.
When he reached the bottom, he prepared himself to charge back up when he was stopped by a voice.
"Oh, you're that gladiator guy from the statue in the colosseum, right? That was a really cool statue, I hope I can have a statue like that someday." Luffy said.
Law gave Luffy a look that said "What the fuck are you on about?"