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"Thanks to this kid's talent. Otherwise, I'd still be drifting through the cracks of time."
He habitually rubbed his chin with his thumb-a gesture that looked especially unsettling on a seven-year-old's face.
"All right."
He turned toward the three people frozen in place, the faintest smile curling his lips. "I might as well give you a hand."
Even while controlling this seven-year-old shell, Rossi remained certain he could sweep through the entire East Blue.
Gunshots erupted, the hail of bullets weaving a net of death.
To ordinary people, this was undoubtedly a hopeless situation. But to the boy walking slowly toward them, it was riddled with openings.
"Something's wrong..."
Rossi, occupying Luffy's body, could even spare a moment to think: since he had already met Ace and Sabo earlier, Luffy should have eaten that fruit by now-the one called "Nika,"
that strange fruit.
Why was this body still empty, without the slightest trace of an ability?
Where exactly had things gone wrong?
"M-monster!"
With only a casual sway of his shoulders, as though strolling through grass stirred by a breeze, Rossi guided Luffy effortlessly through the Goa Kingdom soldiers' defensive line.
By the time he reached the Royal Palace, nothing remained before him but wreckage-the country's rulers had long since abandoned their people and vanished.
"Why run?"
Although Rossi had controlled Luffy all the way through the encirclement and into the Royal Palace, he had come neither to overthrow anyone nor to plunder.
He only wanted to find one thing.
"Hey, where's the Den Den Mushi?"
He casually lifted a limp palace guard from the ground and, under the man's terrified gaze, as though he had seen a ghost, asked the most important question of the moment.
About fifteen minutes later.
Ace and Sabo arrived before the ruined Palace.