"Welcome back, Gion."
Rosse hugged Gion, who had rushed toward him, and laughed softly into her ear.
When it came to Gion, he always showed her a little more favoritism.
Out of all his women, every time he played with Gion, it gave him the most enjoyment.
"Glad I didn't fail you, mission accomplished."
Nestled in Rosse's arms, Gion answered with a sweet smile.
The mission she spoke of wasn't just killing Tokikake, she had also carried out the infiltration mission flawlessly.
"I'll make sure to reward you properly later."
Rosse laughed heartily, holding Gion close, and with her charming giggles echoing, the two disappeared from the spot.
———
[Three Days Later]
Rosse finally brought Gion, her face still glowing with satisfaction, along with Kaido, who was starting to get impatient, to the place where the Road Poneglyph was kept.
"This should be beneath Wano, huh? That old thing really knew how to hide stuff deep. Surprised you managed to find it,".Kaido swaggered ahead, peering into the shadowy underground.
This place was beneath the Flower Capital. But the Flower Capital had long since become ruins, the Kozuki clan completely wiped out. Finding this place was anything but easy.
"Do you know which fruit Sukiyaki ate back then?", Rosse asked with a smile, suddenly bringing up something completely unrelated.
"Which one?", Kaido looked at him in surprise. He had always thought the World Government was just rich. He hadn't expected there to be more to it than just eating some fruit.
"The Answer-Answer Fruit, a Paramecia. Whoever eats it, as well as anyone affected by its power, will try their best to answer other people's questions," Rosse explained casually.
Paramecia fruits were all kinds of strange. Some weren't meant for fighting at all, and plenty of them harmed both the user and others.
And within this category, side effects were notoriously common.
"Tch, your World Government sure loves wasting treasures," Kaido sneered.
A fruit that good, just used for one-time interrogations? Pure waste.
"Perhaps," Rosse smiled. To him, it was just a slightly valuable fruit. He hadn't even thought it worth retrieving.
Fruits like that, he had ten or so sitting in the vault.
And besides, that fruit wasn't even his. It was part of Vanessa's stash.
The three moved quickly, making their way through the underground passage until they reached a spacious chamber.
BOOM!
A surge of force erupted from Kaido's body. In an instant, a few flames shot out, illuminating the entire underground.
The place was at least a thousand square meters, filled with scattered stone tablets of Poneglyphs. At the very center stood one carved from red stone, the Road Poneglyph.
"That's the Road Poneglyph?", Kaido narrowed his eyes at the massive red stone covered in ancient script.
Unfortunately, he couldn't read a single word.
"It is. With four Road Poneglyphs, you can determine Laugh Tale's exact location."
Rosse explained casually, and the Sea God Trident suddenly appeared in his hand.
"What are you doing?", Seeing Rosse's action, Kaido's previously careless expression froze.
He had thought Rosse might try something, even imagined Rosse might force him to go to Laugh Tale.
But pulling out a weapon the moment they got here, that, he hadn't expected.
'This bastard, could it be he is planning to tamper with the Poneglyph?'
It wasn't that he doubted Rosse's ability.
If there were words carved onto the stone, it meant the stone could be damaged. And if someone could damage it, then Rosse, with his power, definitely could too.
But if he really destroyed it, then everyone else would forever be chasing the wrong destination.
Crack!
Right before Kaido's eyes, Rosse swung the Sea God Trident and effortlessly scraped the ancient writing from the red stone tablet.
In terms of toughness, the red Poneglyph was harder to damage than a normal one.
Rosse could even feel a faint layer of Conqueror's Haki lingering on its surface.
Most likely left behind by Joy Boy himself.
Even after 800 years, only Haki at least on Whitebeard's level could hold up like that. To forcefully destroy it would require full power.
Every strike against the red stone meant clashing with that layer of Conqueror's Haki.
Unfortunately for the stone, it was Rosse standing here.
In terms of both quality and quantity of Conqueror's Haki, Rosse and Joy Boy were already on the same level. The only difference was that Rosse wasn't as skilled at using it.
But this little trick left Rosse with a great takeaway.
'So Conqueror's Haki could be attached to objects like this, to prevent them from being destroyed?'
Not bad. He'd be taking that trick for himself.
Under Kaido's numb gaze, the writing on the red stone tablet was completely rewritten.
Though he couldn't read the language, the shapes had changed drastically.
He didn't know what it said now, but he was sure the new destination this stone pointed to was nothing but a trap Rosse had carefully set up.
"Who is Joy Boy's reincarnation?", Kaido asked in a low voice.
He knew a bit of the story. Seeing Rosse's actions, he immediately thought of the key point.
After completely erasing Joy Boy's Haki and replacing it with his own, Rosse finally turned to Kaido with satisfaction:
"Joy Boy isn't you. He hasn't been born yet. But twenty years from now, you'll lose to him."
"Impossible!", Kaido sneered.
'What a joke.'
'Twenty years from now, I will be at the peak of my life.'
'Even if Joy Boy is strong, a kid barely twenty years old can never be stronger than me.'
"I can give you a chance. The chosen one's growth always requires countless trials. You just happen to be one of them," Rosse looked at Kaido with amusement, not minding playing this little game with him.
Among the pirates, Kaido was the one he admired the most.
Whether it was strength, brains, or charisma, Kaido was top-tier.
Someone like him, it'd be a waste not to pull him into the game.
"Why let Joy Boy grow at all?", Kaido's brows furrowed, his gaze locked firmly on Rosse.
Even knowing Rosse loved to stir things up, this kind of behavior, raising an enemy, was something he couldn't wrap his head around.
"Do you know why Rocks couldn't take that final step forward?"
Rosse didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked about Rocks.
Rocks was a legend of the previous era, the only man in 800 years who had posed a true threat to the Celestial Dragons.
But in the end, he had still failed.
Kaido's brows furrowed even tighter, but he didn't question Rosse. Instead, he fell into thought.
He had lived through those events. He knew more than most.
"At that time, he was in a hurry."
Kaido suddenly said, as if finding a blind spot after recalling for so long.
"With his strength and his brains, he shouldn't have been in such a rush. He shouldn't have rushed to God Valley to die. There should have been a better way."
"Why? Why was he in a hurry? And what does that have to do with taking that final step you spoke of?"
[T/N: I mistranslated Tokikake for Juste. So they killed Tokikake not Juste.]
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