More than a year later, deep within a forest, several figures were engaged in fierce battle, their silhouettes flashing as they attacked one another with practiced coordination.
Among them were Rosinante, Winter, and Shaxia. Ryan was in his half-beast form, and he and Winter each wielded laser shells as they launched a coordinated assault on Rosinante Their teamwork was smooth and well-honed—clearly not the result of just a few days' practice.
Nearby, Shaxia—dressed in a maid outfit—used her Devil Fruit powers to both harass and support the attack on Rosinante
Rosinante with both hands coated in Armament Haki, expertly weaved through the onslaught, fending off all three without once resorting to his Devil Fruit abilities.
Over the past year, Rosinante's strength had grown immensely. Even without using his fruit powers, he handled their seamless coordination with ease.
"Alright, that's enough for today!" Rosinante called out after a long bout.
"Huff... Captain, you're getting stronger and stronger. Just with your Haki and physical skills, you're already able to withstand our full-force combo attacks. And we spent months perfecting that strategy," Ryan said, reverting from his half-beast form to his human appearance.
Not long after appointing Ryan as Vice Commander of the Bloodsworn Guard a year ago, Rosinante had given him the Lynx Fruit he'd acquired from the royal family of the Kingdom of Joromia. With the lynx's agility and strength added to his existing power, Ryan had grown into a terrifying combatant—easily on par with an average rear admiral.
"You three have improved a lot as well. Your coordination's sharp now. With Bins' wormhole support, taking down a rear admiral shouldn't be a problem," Rosinante said with a satisfied smile.
Over the course of the year, the Bloodsworn Guard had undergone intense military training, drastically improving their team coordination. Ryan and Winter were the main offensive force, specializing in tandem assaults, while Shaxia focused on control and disruption. With this formation, even a standard Marine rear admiral would have a hard time surviving.
Shaxia often challenged Rosinante to duels in her spare time, though she lost every single one. Frustrated, she roped Ryan and Winter into ambushing Rosinante together.
At first, the two men were hesitant to participate in what they saw as Shaxia's antics. But Rosinante found sparring more effective than solo training, and so he agreed to let all three attack him—while holding back his fruit abilities.
In the beginning, their calculated ambushes forced Rosinante to fight hard to keep up. But over time, he adapted.
And with his relentless yearlong training, his strength had leapt to a whole new level.
In fact, his mastery over all three types of Haki and his physical body had advanced by an entire tier.
Without his Devil Fruit, Rosinante's power a year ago could only be considered the weakest among rear admirals. But now, he had fully stepped into the realm of a proper rear admiral, physically and in combat power.
And with that physical growth, his Devil Fruit abilities had grown far more potent. His overall power now touched the threshold of a top-tier rear admiral—perhaps even a quasi-admiral.
Just then, a black portal shimmered open. Two figures—one large, one small—stepped through and saluted.
Rosinante turned. "Bins? Enel? What's going on?"
Of the two, one was naturally Bins, and the other was none other than Enel—the future self-proclaimed god of Skypiea. But at this moment, Enel looked barely ten years old.
After Rosinante stationed himself on Birka, he ordered Bins to begin recruiting talented children from the region to train as future Bloodsworn soldiers. He'd also instructed Jack and the others to keep an eye out for gifted children or youths during their campaigns—bringing them back to Bins whenever they found one. Enel had been one such discovery on Birka.
"Your Majesty," Bins said, "I've discovered that Enel has become a Devil Fruit user. What's more—his ability is the one you specifically asked me to monitor: the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, said to be the most offensively powerful among all Logia-type fruits."
At that, Enel glanced nervously at Rosinante
"Not bad, Enel. You got pretty lucky—eating the very fruit I've been looking for all this time!" Rosinante grinned.
After arriving in Birka, Rosinante had never forgotten about the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. He'd once had Bins scour the entire island for it with no luck. Who would've thought it would end up with Enel?
"I... Your Majesty, I..." Enel stammered, overwhelmed.
At this point, Enel was far from the twisted figure he'd become later in life.
Born an orphan and looked down upon for lacking wings, Enel had long suffered abuse at the hands of Birka's winged population—who considered themselves superior.
After Rosinante's forces conquered Birka, Enel became one of their most devoted admirers. Seeing that Rosinante and his crew were also wingless gave him a sense of belonging.
He'd been the very first to volunteer when Bins began recruiting for the reserve forces.
And now, learning that he'd eaten the fruit Rosinante had been seeking all along left him flustered and unsure of what to do.
"Enel," Rosinante said, "Yes, I was looking for that fruit. But it doesn't matter who ate it. What matters is your strength. And right now, you're too weak. Bins, I'm putting him in your hands. Train him well. That fruit—if fully mastered—guarantees admiral-level power. In fact, I always envisioned the Rumble-Rumble Fruit as the perfect core for our dimensional strike force."
This "dimensional strike force" was Rosinante's long-conceived strategy—an ultra-long-range offensive unit built around Bins's Worm-Worm Fruit.
"Yes, Your Majesty! I'll train him thoroughly!" Bins replied solemnly.
Rosinante nodded, about to speak further when suddenly, a brrr-brrr-brrr sound came from Bins's coat.
His face—and the others'—immediately changed.
Bins pulled out a Den Den Mushi.
It was the emergency line—used only when a division was requesting immediate backup.
Over the past year, the five divisions had each gone out in separate directions, fighting for control of the Sky Islands. Rosinante had instructed the Bloodsworn Guard to remain on standby at all times, ready to reinforce any division that called for aid.
But with captains like Jack leading them—fierce, proud, and reckless—none had ever requested backup. Not once.
This was the first time the line had ever rung.
"This is the Bloodsworn Guard," Bins answered.
"Bins, it's Sol!" came the urgent voice of Sol, Vice-Captain of the First Division.
Hearing that the call came from the First Division, even Rosinante's expression darkened.
He knew how crazed Jack could be. If Sol was making this call, then the First Division must've encountered an enemy beyond anything they could handle. Jack would never have allowed such a call otherwise.
"Sol, what happened?" Rosinante took the Den Den Mushi himself.
"Your Majesty... we were ambushed..." On the other side, Sol was bloodied, his voice weak, his face pale with panic.
"The First Division... we've been almost completely wiped out..." Sol's voice trembled as he looked around at the dismembered bodies and ruins of what used to be their unit.
"Our attacker was... Kaido of the Beasts."
As he uttered that name, Sol's eyes filled with terror.