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Under the blanket of his Haki, the world—which had once been a sea of simple white dots—exploded into color. Without opening his eyes, he could see everything with a clarity that surpassed physical sight.
The blue sky, the endless ocean, the island below. The terrified, shell-shocked people on the docks. The waves, the ships... everything was rendered in perfect, vivid detail.
The moment he had truly calmed his mind, his Haki had painted him a masterpiece of the world.
"Clatter..."
Issho's dice tumbled to a stop.
Arthur, eyes still closed, smiled.
"My guess... triple sixes."
It was a perfect match.
Issho had no doubt that Arthur's eyes were truly closed. For a man so proud, so arrogant, to cheat in a contest like this would be an insult to his own code.
"Impressive, Thunder Emperor..." he said, his voice a low murmur of genuine respect.
They continued. One roll after another. Back and forth, the dice tumbled, yet a victor never emerged. For over an hour, every single roll ended in a draw.
Arthur was more than satisfied. He had finally achieved the breakthrough he had been chasing—Image Manifestation. Yet his satisfaction was tinged with something else. He knew, in his heart, that he had already lost this wager.
He had unlocked a new skill, yes, yet it was not the one that mattered. It was not Future Sight.
Without that, he was just matching the blind man's parlor trick. He had been a step behind from the very first roll.
The sky began to darken. Thick clouds rolled in, swallowing the sun. A storm was brewing. The weather of the Grand Line was, as always, fickle and violent.
At the edge of his new, color-filled senses, hundreds of miles away, he felt a surge of violent energy.
Redfield and Earl Vladimir. Their battle had begun. From the feel of it, Redfield was having a bit of trouble.
Arthur looked at the sky, felt the moisture gathering in the air, and lost his appetite for the game.
"This is pointless," he said, standing. "We could do this all day and never get a winner. It is a stalemate."
He paused. "Issho. Answer one question for me, and I will honor the bet. The Thunder God Pirates will not expand, will not pillage, for three years. How about it?"
"Agreed," Issho nodded without hesitation. He used his cane-sword to push himself to his feet. "Ask your question, Thunder Emperor."
"Future Sight... how does it work?"
Arthur asked, frowning as he tried to find the words. "How does it appear to you? Is it a calculation, a cold deduction of what is about to happen? Or do you literally see a snapshot of the future? Or is it just... a gut feeling, an unshakeable premonition that an event is about to unfold in a specific way?"
"Hmm..." Issho stroked his beard, his head tilted. "So that power you just displayed... that was not Future Sight?"
He tapped his cane thoughtfully, genuinely considering how to explain the unexplainable.
Arthur waited patiently. Half an hour passed in silence.
"Future Sight is... a difficult thing to define," Issho finally said, the cross-shaped scars on his face wrinkling as he frowned. "What you said... it is all of those things, and none of them. A calculation, a glimpse of a future image, a sudden, divine knowing of the answer... all of those are true, in a way. Yet none of them capture the whole of it. It is a feeling that can only be understood once you have truly experienced it."
'So that is it,' Arthur thought, nodding. He knew a man like Issho was not lying. He had missed his chance.
The frustration of almost grasping something, only to have it slip through his fingers, was infuriating. Yet he knew, one day, he would reach that level. It was only a matter of time.
He sensed a red streak approaching—Redfield, flying toward them, a body slung over his shoulder. Arthur gave the blind man a final nod.
"A promise is a promise. For the next three years, the Thunder God Pirates will stand down. We will cease expansion. The next time we meet... I hope it is not as enemies."
With that, he savored the new, vibrant world his Haki now showed him and launched himself into the sky to meet his new First Mate.
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On the route to Sabaody, aboard a commandeered merchant ship.
Arthur, having achieved his goals, had simply snatched the first convenient vessel he saw. Yet for the past ten days, he had been lost in thought, consumed by his near-breakthrough.
To be so close, to have one foot through the door, only to find yourself stuck... it was like being trapped in a burning building and seeing the exit just inches from your grasp, yet your body is too wide to fit through the frame.
The frustration was so all-consuming he had barely eaten in ten days.
"Heh... If you cannot force it, just let it be," Redfield drawled, lounging nearby, swirling a glass of stolen wine. "A cup that is overfilled will eventually spill."
He seemed to be enjoying the quiet, peaceful voyage.
Of course, the mood was slightly ruined by the constant, enraged screaming from the cage in the corner of the deck, where Earl Vladimir had been starving for the last ten days.
"You are right," Arthur said, finally snapping out of his thoughts. He grabbed a bottle of wine from the table and drained it.
"So that is him? The Vampire Fruit user?"
"The one and only," Redfield said, stretching. He walked over to the cage, his eyes gleaming with an obsessive, manic light as he stared at Vladimir's fangs. "I watched him in his castle. His abilities are a perfect match for the encyclopedia's description."
"There are other ways to stay young," Arthur said, joining him by the cage. "I could even grant you immortality. Why this?"
"You do not understand," Redfield said, his voice dismissive of the very idea of immortality. "I do not want to live forever. I want to be young. To be at my peak, always. To enjoy the rest of my life. That is what matters."
"Other fruits might restore my youth, yet they will not give me power. The Vampire Fruit will."
"Suit yourself," Arthur shrugged. They had the man. Extracting the fruit with Vegapunk's method would be simple, if a bit time-consuming.
He tore the bars of the cage from their hinges, grabbed the shrieking Vladimir by the throat, and, with a burst of electromagnetic force, leaped from the ship into the open ocean.
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