With his formidable Observation Haki and his long familiarity with the man, Enel confirmed it in an instant. The one who had come was Rosinante, no question. He was still as young as ever, yet there was no room for doubt: members of the Oathblood Guard visited Rosinante often, and they all knew that after all these years his face hadn't changed in the slightest.
"He really came back. I have to admit, it's nothing short of a miracle," Dark Thorn said, stunned.
As a wielder of the Death-Soul Devil Fruit, Dark Thorn had concluded ten years ago that Rosinante had no chance of returning to life. Even though Katakuri had often claimed over the past decade that he glimpsed Rosinante's figure somewhere in the future, Dark Thorn had known that a resurrection was all but impossible. There was no soul inside Rosinante's body.
Still, back then the Grey Kingdom had been on the brink of collapse, and the Oathblood Guard had needed something to hold their spirit together, so she had kept what she foresaw to herself. No one understood Rosinante's true condition better than she did, which was exactly why she was the most shaken of all to see him here now.
At first she had assumed Raijin Kisuke's plea for help had failed, that he'd found someone to pose as Rosinante and frighten off the Big Mom Pirates. But the moment she sensed the soul within him, the shock struck her to the core. There was no mistaking it. Body and soul alike, this was truly Rosinante.
"Rosinante? How is this possible? How can you be here?" Even Charlotte Linlin spoke in disbelief.
At first she too had suspected this Rosinante was a fake, for he was far too young, and his youth made her doubt her own eyes. But the pressure rolling off him told her plainly that all of it was real.
"Charlotte Linlin. Didn't you just say their fates were sealed long ago? Then what exactly is this fate they were destined for?" Rosinante's face had gone dark as iron, and a faint blood-red vapor began to drift up from his body.
"Rosinante, I never imagined you could still be drawing breath. Mamamama. Since you've come, I'll grant you the courtesy. I'll let them off for today." Charlotte Linlin glanced his way, the corner of her mouth curling into a smile.
"I want to know exactly what fate they were destined for." Rosinante didn't answer her at all. He only pressed the question again, and in the same motion drove a savage punch straight toward Charlotte Linlin.
"Dusk Elephant!" In an instant a colossal pillar of air burst out from his fist. It moved with terrifying speed, slamming into Charlotte Linlin before she could blink, its raw force bearing down on her in waves.
"Rosinante, don't go thinking I'm afraid of you. I'm only sparing you for old times' sake. But if you insist, then this old woman will see it through to the end." Charlotte Linlin gathered a dense coat of Armament Haki over her fist and smashed it, hard, into the air pillar of Dusk Elephant.
Charlotte Linlin had cut a path across the New World her whole life. She possessed a monstrous constitution and monstrous strength, and over the years that body and power had let her forge an utterly terrifying mastery of Armament Haki. With that strength and that Haki, in the original telling she had once shattered Luffy's Gear Fourth with a single punch, knocking him clean out of the form and beating him until there wasn't an ounce of strength left in his body.
But the moment her confident strike collided with the great pillar of air, the color drained from her face. The force of Dusk Elephant was far greater than she'd guessed. For all her power, the pillar drove her fist back and bent her over at the waist.
"You bastard. How is this possible? How can you have power like this?" Charlotte Linlin said, refusing to believe it.
"Mama!" the members of the Charlotte Family cried out, heavy worry in their voices.
To the Charlotte Family, Charlotte Linlin was their queen bee. Violent and cruel as she was, and as much as she held their fates in her hands, she was absolutely indispensable to them. If anything happened to her, the entire Charlotte Family, the whole Big Mom Pirates, would fall apart at the seams. When it came to it, they would lay down their own lives to protect her. Whether it was the influence of her Soul-Soul Fruit or the pull of their own interests, no matter how tyrannical she was, none of them had ever betrayed her. The thought had never so much as crossed their minds.
Charlotte Linlin truly earned her name as the monster among monsters, the monster who could level a village of giants at five years old. By sheer force she had taken that one strike of Dusk Elephant and held her ground.
"That was a shockwave from a fist striking the very air. A so-called air cannon," she said, surprise threading through her voice.
"Rosinante, don't push your luck too far." Charlotte Linlin glared up at him, her expression turning grim.
"Tell me. What is this fate of theirs you claim was already sealed?" Rosinante paid her none of it, looking down at her with cold and utter contempt.
"Zeus. Prometheus. Napoleon." Hearing his tone and seeing his face, Charlotte Linlin knew well enough that this fight could no longer be avoided.
"Yes, Mama!" In an instant Zeus the thundercloud, Prometheus the fireball, and Napoleon the hat snapped into their battle forms, their expressions twisting savage. Lightning flickered within the thundercloud, flames roared up high from the fireball, and Napoleon shifted into the shape of a long sword.
Charlotte Linlin stepped onto the thundercloud, seized Prometheus in one hand and the Napoleon blade in the other, and hurtled up toward Rosinante in the sky.
Watching her come, Rosinante wore a cold smile, and in the same breath threw out another fierce punch. A column of air shot out at once, straight at Charlotte Linlin. Charging in at full speed, she ran headlong into the path of that massive air cannon.
"Don't think the same trick works twice!" Charlotte Linlin barked, powering through the air cannon to bear down on Rosinante.
But of course Rosinante's attack didn't end there.
"This is the true way to use Dusk Elephant. Two Feet!" In a flash he dissolved into light and reappeared at a different point in the sky, striking at Charlotte Linlin from a new angle.
"Three Feet!"
"Four Feet!"
"Five Feet!"
Rosinante kept flickering from place to place, his body moving so fast it was impossible to track. With each shift in position, another huge air cannon roared out from a different direction. Five great air cannons crashed together, and at the center where they met, the very heart of the assault, was Charlotte Linlin.
"Six Feet!" And in that instant Rosinante's body flickered once more to yet another spot, and another punch came hammering down.