Louis Cajo stared at Chris, then gave a soft laugh. "I can't catch up to you anymore."
"Thank you!"
"You helped me understand things I never understood before."
"I think I know why I ended up like this."
With that, Louis Cajo turned and left without a backward glance.
The moment Chris said he would spare him, Louis Cajo had felt a rush of emotions.
He had seen exactly how Big Bug Rodman and the others had died.
He knew how ruthless and cold-blooded Chris could be toward his enemies.
In that respect, Chris was much like the man Louis Cajo had once been.
But back then, Louis Cajo would never have spared anyone who stood against him.
Not even if they had never meant to oppose him.
Perhaps that was the flaw of those who found fame young: arrogance born of talent.
Yet Chris had shown none of it.
Louis Cajo had stood against the Chris Pirates, and Chris had let him go.
The young Louis Cajo had never possessed that kind of mercy.
Only now did he understand what set him apart from Chris and Red-Haired Shanks.
He truly fell short of them.
Chris watched Louis Cajo walk away and could not help feeling a little regret.
The once-brilliant prodigy seemed to have laid down all his pride.
He had placed all that pride in Chris instead.
As though it were an inevitable passing of the torch.
Bartholomew Kuma looked on calmly and murmured, "Another era has turned."
"And in the end, it all came down to Chris."
Louis Cajo's lonely departure marked the final curtain for a prodigy.
Like so many other prodigies, his promise had been cut short long ago.
That only made the fickleness of fate all the more striking.
The former darling of destiny