Otherwise, the outcome would already have been decided: defeat, utter defeat.
On the seas of this era, every title was forged in blood and fire.
So even though that red-haired gentleman did nothing each day but stroll along the coast and admire the sunset, the entire island remained on edge.
Even the rhythm of Doflamingo's knuckles tapping the chair back betrayed his impatience for the man to leave.
"A year?"
Rossi took his fingers from his temples. "Discussing Devil Fruit Awakening would be more practical."
As the conversation turned to this, the man at the other end of the corridor fell silent.
He had already crossed that threshold, yet he could not describe what it looked like.
Whenever Rossi mastered a new technique-the flow of Advanced Armament Haki, the knack of Conqueror's Haki Coating, glimpses of Future Sight-he would teach everyone in detail.
But when it was his own turn, words were like fish slipping through a net, too slippery to grasp anything substantial.
It felt as though he were deliberately hiding something.
Footsteps sounded just then.
Jinbe moved forward, his body blocking some of the light.
The merman behind him came fully into view: thick eyebrows above deep-set eyes, hair tied into a skyward-pointing ponytail, and dark stubble along his jaw.
Yet his supposedly fierce face held a scholar's composure.
His mottled fish tail dragged a wet trail across the ground.
Rossi recognized that face.
A name surfaced in his memory-Aladdin.
The future second captain of a certain pirate crew.
Of course, everything that name represented had yet to happen.
Fisher Tiger, the first leader of the Sun Pirates, might at that moment have been trapped in some cage, witnessing the darkest depths of humanity.
And so the group named after the sun had not yet been born upon