"Want to kill me? That's very simple."
Rosse let out a speechless laugh, "You gather Whitebeard, Kozuki Oden, Kaido, Dragon and the others, then activate your ability to make them travel to a specific time. After that, lure me in and trick me into going there."
"As long as they happen to show up, maybe they really could kill me."
"Heh, is that possible? Never mind how you'd make them believe in my Devil Fruit ability, even if you've suggested this plan, how could I possibly be tricked by you?"
Amatsuki Toki was no longer the silly self she had been a month ago. She instantly spotted the flaw in Rosse's words.
"Maybe it won't work on me, but on other people it's especially effective," Rosse's lips curved upward.
This was the plan he had once come up with for Amatsuki Toki.
If Toki really convinced Oden to do this, he would genuinely cooperate with her, giving Oden a chance to ambush him.
But he hadn't expected Toki to actually flip the table.
Though flipping the table was more straightforward and crude, at least it forced him into direct confrontation. That too could be considered a decent way of breaking the deadlock.
As for turning the tables. Forget Rosse, even Toki herself didn't dare think about that possibility.
Wano was right here, there was no running away, and Oden would never abandon Wano to escape on his own.
The World Government feared least of all enemies who had such a stable base of operations.
It was ones like Whitebeard and Shiki the Golden Lion, who didn't care about anything, just drifting across the sea, who were the real dangerous elements.
In Wano's current situation, even if Rosse were killed, it would just be waiting for death.
"You're saying all that, then how about I send you forward two days, and you ambush Kaido once?", Toki rolled her eyes, completely ignoring Rosse's words.
That trick might work on others, but her enemy was not "others."
"If the opportunity comes, I wouldn't mind trying out your Devil Fruit ability," Rosse smiled as he spoke.
He was indeed curious about Toki's time-traveling powers.
But only curious.
For him to try it, unless the endgame was already determined, he had no desire to stir up unnecessary trouble.
If he time-traveled now, who knew, maybe the moment he reappeared, Nika Luffy's fist would already be smashing into his face.
"Duplicity," Toki sneered coldly. This was one of the few consolations she had.
At the very least, even Rosse didn't dare let her use her Devil Fruit powers.
"Your wife is about to lose. Aren't you going to help her?", Toki lifted her head toward the battlefield in the sky and suddenly spoke out.
Her conversation with Rosse hadn't been long, but judging by the difference in strength between Gion and Oden, the outcome in the sky was already obvious, even she could see it.
"She doesn't need my help. Losing to Oden is normal, after all, she's still young," Rosse didn't care about the outcome of the fight. He had never expected Gion to win against Oden in the first place.
Although Oden had countless flaws and wasn't very bright, his combat power at this stage was unquestionably at its peak.
Even Kaido had deeply feared Oden at this time, and not even Roger or Whitebeard would take him lightly.
Moreover, Gion's strong points were swordsmanship, speed, and recovery ability.
Yet, speed and swordsmanship were also Oden's strong points.
And Oden's physique and Haki surpassed Gion's. The result was basically already decided.
It only remained to be seen how far Gion could go with the recovery ability of her Vampire Fruit.
"How can you be so cold-blooded at a time like this?", Toki frowned slightly. Based on her understanding of Rosse these past days, this shouldn't have been his reaction.
At least regarding women, she felt Rosse shouldn't be like this.
Even toward her, he had been tolerant and protective. How could he not favor the woman he liked even more, Gion?
"Just like you chose to flip the table, this is also the path Gion chose. If she can't stand shoulder to shoulder with me, she'd only be even more unwilling," Rosse said softly.
Indeed, he didn't care about the battle's outcome, but he was still constantly watching that direction.
Gion could lose, but nothing would ever happen to her.
"You really are special," Toki suddenly said, but she didn't explain further. She only looked toward Gion with eyes that carried a trace of envy.
'To stand shoulder to shoulder…'
She had once said something similar herself.
But back then, Oden's answer had been completely different from Rosse's.
Oden had said he would always protect her and never let her be harmed.
Toki recalled the journey she had taken so far.
The suffering she had endured hadn't been only at Rosse's hands.
In fact, this time was perhaps only a mental blow, Rosse had never actually hurt her.
The closest she had come to death was when Oden had left her behind in Wano alone, while he ran off to Laugh Tale.
Back then, even with the retainers protecting her, she had almost died at the hands of Kurozumi Orochi.
Even now, a permanent scar remained on her thigh.
But at that time, she had never blamed Oden. She had only longed for the day he would return to protect her.
Yet sadly, even when Oden returned, he couldn't do anything to Orochi. He even had to abandon Wano, which should have belonged to him, under Orochi's coercion.
If Oden didn't do the "fruit dance," then Orochi and Kaido would kill one hundred people every week.
A pitiful bargain.
The shogun of Wano, Orochi, used the people of Wano to threaten Oden, who had failed to claim the shogunate.
Normally, it should have been the other way around.
At that time, Toki had only faintly sensed something was wrong, but she hadn't known how to describe it.
But now, after her dealings with Rosse, she understood how to explain it.
In this world that devoured people, when one couldn't rely on strength to win, the side that abided by rules ended up paying the greater price.
Even without Rosse's arrival, the Kozuki clan was doomed to be destroyed by Kaido and Orochi.
It seemed from the very beginning, the prophecy had already been wrong.
If the entire Kozuki clan was exterminated, then where would there even be a chance to welcome the child of destiny twenty years later?
"Lord Rosse," Toki suddenly addressed Rosse with honorifics.
"Mm?"
"Is the prophecy real?"
Even though she had heard Rosse describe the detailed scenes of the prophecy before, she had never wavered this much until now.
"The prophecy?", Rosse chuckled lightly, "Is it so important whether it's real or not? I can only tell you this, the result described in the prophecy is favorable to me."
"Yes… whether it's true or not doesn't matter," Toki gave a bitter smile.
The faith they had treated as absolute truth, in the eyes of ambitious men like Rosse, was nothing but a tool for fulfilling their own goals.
She didn't know in what way the prophecy was favorable to Rosse. But since he said so, then whether it was Rosse or certain people in the World Government, they would surely push to make the prophecy come true.
So in the end, the reason the prophecy would be fulfilled was not that the world was destined to welcome a new savior, but because some of the old rulers wanted to realize their own ambitions.
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