30
Of course, he would never know that in one particular Family's daily life, Rossi had always played the role of a guide.
"Lord Rossi... are you leaving?"
When the explanation paused, Hancock suddenly spoke.
The girl had sensed a certain urgency in his words-as though he wanted to hurriedly push everything into their hands, and then-
"Yes."
Rossi nodded.
Light filtered through the leaves, casting alternating patches of light and shadow across his shoulders.
"My Family is still waiting in the New World.
There are things I have to go back and handle."
The afternoon sun had heated the wooden steps outside the bar. Rossi braced his hands on his knees and rose, his clothes rustling softly.
He narrowed his eyes toward the street corner, where a gray pigeon was pecking at something, its wings casting wavering shadows on the paving stones.
The events of that evening a few days earlier still lingered in his memory.
The girl had sat opposite him, unconsciously twirling the ends of her hair, though her eyes looked as if she were seriously pondering some difficult problem.
He had indeed gone over all those essentials of Haki then, pronouncing every word clearly.
Thinking back now, perhaps the way her eyelashes fluttered as she nodded should have alerted him that something was wrong.
The click of high-heeled boots sounded behind him.
The woman in the spiderweb-patterned top walked to the doorway and casually rested an arm against the frame. "That child..."
There was a knowing note in her voice. "Yesterday, she asked me whether I could repeat what you said."
She paused. "She even imitated the inflections of your pauses perfectly."
Rossi raised a hand and pressed his temple.
Wind blew in from the other end of the alley, carrying the harbor's distinctive salty, fishy