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Koza turned toward the crowd gathered behind him, his voice sinking into the scorching desert air.
Vivi's mind froze into a blank.
She opened her mouth but could not make a sound.
The left side of Luffy's face abruptly tightened, seriousness replacing his earlier casual expression. "There are two pieces of news,"
he began, his voice flat. "One will give you a little breathing room, and the other will only make things worse.
Which do you want to hear first?"
"You're making us choose at a time like this?!"
Sanji practically forced the words through his teeth. He glanced at Vivi's deathly pale face, then turned toward the presence controlling Luffy's body. "Rossi, this isn't the time for games!"
The presence called Rossi made something like a shrug with Luffy's shoulders. "Fine."
The voice came through Luffy's throat with an inhuman calm. "First, the one that'll give you some breathing room-I know who's behind all this, and I have a way to clear up the misunderstanding between you."
A brief silence.
"As for the worse news..."
Rossi paused. "The person behind all this is already here."
The instant those words fell, the light in the western sky abruptly dimmed.
The sun had been blazing high overhead with the fiercest light of the afternoon, illuminating everything with a blinding glare.
But now, a boundless expanse of gold swept in from the western horizon like an enormous curtain, brutally blocking out the daylight.
The sky instantly took on a murky yellow hue. The sun shrank to a blurred, dim halo, flickering amid the sand filling the air.
"Is that..."
Nami drew a breath of scorching air, her throat dry. "A sandstorm?"
"Not a natural one."
Rossi's quiet denial carried clearly through the wind as it began to howl.
The western skyline