"Pirate King? That's a lie. A joke!"
Momonosuke, now utterly unhinged, convulsed in the air—his own urine splattering across his body.
His tremors resonated even through the Sakura tree in the Flower Capital. The ground heaved as entangled roots burst into view, covered in grotesque tumor-like flesh nodules.
The tree's branches withered instantly, retracting toward the roots, which morphed into a massive braided structure. The great Sakura canopy above the Shogun's mansion trembled and lifted—its blossoms raining down across Wano in a blinding shower of petals.
From this chaos, a 200-meter skeleton of the Sakura Dragon—woven of root and flesh—erupted skyward, then thundered toward Onigashima.
"You all will die!"
Momonosuke cursed madly as the dragon's body oscillated, synchronized with his frantic movement.
When the skeletal form hovered over Onigashima, matching his motion precisely, Roya quietly released his control over.
Momonosuke felt himself loosen and dove willingly into the dragon's head.
He vanished into the skeleton's skull, exploding into shimmering pink fog. That haze wove through the root skeleton, lighting the dragon's eyes and curling around its horns in pink mist.
From the dragon's head, the nodular growths surged forward—covering the root frame in fleshy layers. The lumps writhed and coalesced, shaping muscular detail over the structure. Then, from their vitality, cherry blossom–shaped pink scales sprouted across the flesh.
Eschewing moral considerations, the spectacle was an extraordinary union of plant and living flesh—a living miracle. Yet knowing each millimeter was born from human flesh made it disgusting and horrifying.
Within moments, the dragon's head was fully formed again under its flesh and scales.
Momonosuke's voice boomed through the skies over Onigashima:
"Submit to me, reptiles! Offer me your flesh! I will grant you Sakura bone—strength and immortality!"
Kaido's bursting laughter cut through:
"First—repair your own skin before commanding others, idiot! That puddle of flesh Roya spat out? It was only enough to cover your brainless dragon skull!"
"You demand flesh from us? We may lack your toxin, but I have all the fat you could want! Come on—take it! Moron!"
Momonosuke flailed his root-based form—now devoid of any flesh, useless for violence—exactly as Kaido predicted. All the tumor nodules had been consumed in rebuilding the skull. They were gone.
"Bastards! You all must die!"
Enraged, Momonosuke caused the root-skeleton body to disintegrate into countless dehydrated tendrils, firing downward like needles.
Curiously, every thread avoided striking Roya, Kaido, and Big Mom—instead targeting the Three Calamities and other powerful but lesser foes, intent on harvesting flesh to reforging himself.
Roya merely smiled, gathering Hiyori, the Red Scabbards, and allies under his protection.
The Calamities and Flying Six had to maneuver desperately—fighting the animated, root-like tendrils.
Meanwhile, the fallen pirates and samurai—still groggy from the earlier Conqueror's shock—were first seized by the Sakura Dragon.
Branches wrapped them up, extracting their flesh with Sakura Poison, draining bodies dry in seconds—leaving hollow husks hanging like prayer flags from the skeleton frame.
Kaido, who had been gathering energy, saw his moment. With perfect timing, he slid into position, placing himself directly in a tendril's path.
The tendril could not evade in time—Kaido's fat-drenched fist struck it like a high-pressure water jet.
Pure rendered fat flooded into the hollow tendril, filling every inch.
Then it solidified—freezing into yellow, lumpy fat globs as the tendrils ruptured.
Kaido's ballooned body deflated rapidly, leaving a gaunt, skeletal form in its wake.
But the monstrous, fat-accumulating curse had finally been jettisoned—thanks to Sakura Dragon's ravenous consumption.
Kaido regained focus. Hands on hips, head thrown back, he roared with vicious laughter:
"You insolent brat! Back when Oden couldn't beat me—what makes you think you can?"
"If Roya hadn't wounded me earlier, I'd have grilled you for dragon meat!"
Roya coughed lightly—Kaido flinched and backed away. He dared not speak again.
Even as a mere fat balloon, Kaido had suffered a trauma he'd never forget.
Across from him, Big Mom's eyes shone brightly as she turned toward the fat-drained, pushed-around Momonosuke in the tangled branches.
She shouted:
"Nobody touch him! That little dragon is mine!"
"With it, I can eat dessert with zero consequences every single day!"
"Bwahahaha!"