On the Millennium Falcon's deck, Magnus liked to fish whenever there was nothing pressing—partly to kill time, partly to add a bit of fresh catch to their increasingly strained stores.
"Old man, I'm leaving the White Wolf pirates."
"Oh? Why?"
Magnus wasn't surprised Rocks came straight to him.
Just as Rocks chose to say it to his face—
instead of sneaking off.
"Because I want to get stronger."
Rocks' gaze was steady and sharp. In a little over a month his injuries had mostly healed; even his damaged eardrums were slowly recovering as he grasped the Rokushiki secret—Life Return.
He might have lost to a member of the God Knights, but it hadn't been for nothing.
His Haoshoku had awakened.
He'd touched the essence of Life Return.
It all proved the fight hadn't been meaningless.
But Rocks wasn't satisfied.
A loss is a loss.
If not for Magnus—if he'd been alone—he'd never have survived long enough to "grow." The only thing waiting would have been death.
He had never forgotten his dream.
Reality, though, was making him lean on Magnus more and more, blunting the courage and recklessness he'd had at the start.
"If I keep staying by your side, I'll stagnate like Liplie."
"Kid, you've got a mouth on you."
Magnus bonked a bottle on Rocks' forehead, but didn't get angry.
"Liplie really has gotten too comfortable."
But what can you do? It's not as if Liplie hasn't grown—since the day they met, her strength had multiplied countless times.
Pirates with nine-figure bounties aren't exactly common on this sea.
Some people are content. Some aren't.
"Blind trust isn't always a good thing."
Magnus smiled, and let it lie.
Rocks finished the thought for him.
"Because Liplie's a woman."
He plopped down beside Magnus and curled his lip.
"You always say you don't treat crew differently, but you do treat men and women differently."
If Rocks knew the word, he'd call Magnus a textbook chauvinist: "respect for women" within limits, everything still centered on himself.
"It's arrogance."
"Of course."
Magnus didn't deny it.
"So for a long time I wondered why I couldn't awaken Haoshoku. Was it really just 'talent'?"
When it came to arrogance, Magnus might beat even the Dragons.
It was the pride of someone who "knew first."
Maybe part of it came from being a traveler from another world—an instinctive loftiness toward the "natives," a sense that he should be the world's protagonist.
He'd gotten smacked down plenty for that.
Even after the system arrived—
it took him a long time to adjust his mindset.
"Haoshoku is the power of the heart."
"Even after you've seen and attained enough strength, it's the will to believe in yourself and refuse to bow to anything."
"So when I saw yours awaken—"
Magnus glanced at Rocks, unsurprised.
"I knew you'd leave."
When a person yields to another, their Haoshoku halts. Even with sky-high talent, it stops growing.
The Marines have plenty of officers with Haoshoku.
Very few ever draw out their full potential.
Kong was like that.
Rona too.
If you don't break the cage, you'll never surpass it.
Kong's and Rona's cage was the Marines, the World Government.
Rocks' cage—
was Magnus.
So leaving the White Wolf crew was only the first step.
If Rocks wanted to surpass him, he'd have to rebel against him, by any means—and one day defeat him.
"I accept."
Magnus' tone was even, just as Rocks had expected.
"This is the first and last time."
Rocks looked at him, let go of the rod, and sank to his knees.
He bowed his head to the deck.
"I won't forget your lessons, or the years of grace you gave me."
He admitted it—he'd gained much with the White Wolf pirates. But it still wasn't what he wanted.
What he wanted was always more than what he had.
He was greedy.
More than people thought.
And he was afraid—because he knew Magnus was greedy, too.
The more he took from Magnus,
the more he'd owe him in the future.
"I'll give you twenty years. Twenty years to grow strong—stronger than me. If you can't, then come back quietly."
Magnus looked at Rocks.
It had been four years since they first met.
In those short four years,
Rocks had gone from barely above an ordinary man to a pirate worth close to a hundred million.
In truth, he'd already surpassed the average big-name pirate.
Twenty years—
when Rocks would be forty-five.
That would be his peak in body, Haki, and skill.
Magnus would allow him to challenge then.
"Don't need it."
Rocks' reply was like a dropped hammer.
"Give me five years—I'll be countless times stronger than now."
True enough: twenty years on, Rocks would hit his theoretical ceiling—and he'd even dare challenge the world.
But Rocks couldn't accept it.
He couldn't accept that kind of charity.
"Who knows if you'll be dead in twenty years, old man? I want to beat you at your prime, not when you're tottering to the grave!"
Magnus burst out laughing.
"Puhahahaha! Brat—who do you think I am?"
"Don't forget, I've got Pure Gold."
"And even without it—why do you think I'm getting younger?"
He snorted at Rocks.
"But since you've got the guts to brag, I'll give you a shot. Ten years. I'll give you ten."
It wasn't that he looked down on Rocks.
Given the sea's current climate, even finding worthy opponents would be tough. The era's ecosystem was worse than the future's.
Why were there so few monsters now?
Because everyone trained behind closed doors.
Under the Marines' heavy hand, few pirates in the New World had stable territories. Nine times out of ten, they drifted, always at sea.
Under those conditions, a captain like Magnus—willing to poke the Marines and hand his crew real battles—was rarer than rare.
A few years from now, it'd be a joke if Rocks came back having found no worthy fights—only to see everyone else had grown instead.
That outcome, though, might not come to pass.
June, Sea Circle Calendar 1463.
When the Millennium Falcon reached Sphinx with the freed people,
news shook the world again.
In the wake of the Sabaody upheaval and the assault on Mary Geoise, Government officials slammed the Marines' "inaction."
And so a new system was created—
the Shichibukai under the kings!
(End of Chapter)
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