When he heard Luo bluntly declare that the father he considered invincible had once lost to Gern,
Momonosuke's pitiful confidence in his bloodline drove him to blurt out a protest.
"N-no way!" Momonosuke's voice still trembled, but a trace of stubbornness had crept into it.
Still, he did not reveal his identity. After all, everyone currently believed he was Kin'emon's son.
"Kozuki Oden... he was 'invincible'!
He only lost to Kaido because he was distracted... how could he possibly have lost to this Marine?!"
"Why couldn't he?" Luo's tone was matter-of-fact as he mercilessly shattered Momonosuke's fantasies.
"To put it bluntly, if Whitebeard hadn't intervened in time, Gern might have killed Kozuki Oden right then and there!
His defeat was absolute, and..." Luo paused, seemingly recalling the accounts that had survived from those days.
"It was a truly pathetic defeat. It even left him with a mark of shame he could never erase."
Luo's words were not unfounded. Newspaper reports of Kozuki Oden's defeat back then, along with that deeply humiliating image-
the photograph of him pinned to a pillar of shame with two swords through his neck-could still be found in certain reports.
Meanwhile, on the coast of Green Bit.
Doflamingo watched the Thousand Sunny draw ever closer, carrying his "nightmare," and found it increasingly difficult to suppress his trembling.
Cold sweat had already soaked the lining of his pink feather coat.
Could he run?
In theory, yes.
In fact, he had had a chance to flee far away the moment he first sensed Gern's presence.
But... he did not dare!
Because he knew perfectly well that if he truly turned and ran, what awaited him the very next second would be a devastating blow with no hope of survival!
Gern had been lurking nearby from the start, yet