Kaido's mocking laughter instantly shattered the tense atmosphere that had frozen the sea. Shanks frowned, watching the other Emperor roar with amusement.
Benn Beckman glanced at his captain, then leveled a cold stare at Kaido. "Sorry, but I don't think it's ridiculous at all."
"Is that so?!" Kaido's laughter stopped abruptly, and his expression twisted into something dangerous. "In that case, Red Hair, let me show you the correct way to scare someone!"
In an instant, Kaido activated the power of his Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon. His body exploded in size, scales covering his skin as he transformed into a colossal eastern dragon, soaring into the sky. Amidst flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder, his serpentine body blotted out the sun, and he looked down with chilling eyes.
His gaze, however, wasn't fixed on Shanks. It was locked onto Kozuki Sukiyaki.
"Hey, Kozuki Sukiyaki," his enormous voice boomed, echoing across the ocean. "Do you know why bugs are so annoying?"
Hearing his name, Sukiyaki trembled, a deep sense of dread rising in his heart.
"It's not because people are afraid of them," Kaido continued, his voice dripping with contempt. "It's because they're always buzzing around, getting in your face. They're pathetic creatures, but they struggle so desperately to live that sometimes, I feel merciful and spare them. But that's the problem. These bugs mistake my mercy for weakness. So, I just made a decision…"
Kaido grinned, a cruel and cunning light in his eyes. "Out of pity, I let your daughter and Oden's samurai live. But it seems you didn't appreciate that gift. You just kept buzzing around, annoying me. So, I've decided I'm going to pay a visit to Zou. I'm going to kill your granddaughter and every last one of those samurai…"
Lightning flashed, illuminating the raw cruelty on Kaido's draconic face. The threat, delivered so plainly, caused Kozuki Sukiyaki to shake uncontrollably. His heart sank like a stone. Even some of the veteran Red Hair Pirates looked startled by the cold-blooded promise.
But Kaido wasn't finished.
"No… not just them," he added thoughtfully. "The entire island of Zou. It just so happens there's something I want there anyway, so I'll just destroy the whole country while I'm at it."
A massive bolt of blue lightning lit up Kaido's face. The chill in his tone was so profound it felt like it could freeze the very sea beneath them. Shanks's expression had turned completely grim.
Kaido finally turned his gaze back to the other Yonko. "So, Red Hair, have you learned anything? That is the proper way to threaten someone. You don't just boast. You find their weakness and crush it. I know your weakness now. But you… do you have any idea what mine is?"
Another clap of thunder echoed, and rain suddenly began to pour from the darkened sky, splashing onto everyone's faces. Water streamed down Shanks's grim face as he slowly lifted his head to look at the giant dragon above.
"Kaido, if you dare to do that," Shanks said, his voice low and dangerous, "then the Red Hair Pirates will have no choice but to fight you to the end."
"Worororo… It seems you still haven't learned, Red Hair," Kaido rumbled. "Then let me ask you a question. I heard you gambled your arm on the New Era."
In that single instant, everything changed. Shanks understood exactly what Kaido was implying. His eyes turned ice-cold as a storm of crimson Conqueror's Haki began to swirl around his sword, Gryphon. He looked up at Kaido, his voice filled with an unprecedented chill.
"Kaido… What are you trying to say?"
"Worororo! If you want to scare me, then let's see if you have what it takes!" Kaido roared, reverting from his dragon form back to his Human-Beast form in mid-air. He raised his spiked club, and it too became wreathed in the black-red lightning of Conqueror's Haki. "As you wish!"
The two Emperors of the New World finally made their move.
Kaido, in his strongest hybrid form, gripped his Hassaikai and plummeted from the sky.
"Thunder Bagua!"
Shanks met him head-on, unleashing his own signature technique.
"Divine Departure!"
The moment their weapons clashed, a blinding burst of energy erupted between them, as bright as the sun. The sheer force of their collision sent a shockwave tearing across the ocean, and the very sky above them split in two.
Meanwhile, in the South Blue, on the shores of the Sorbet Kingdom.
Under a bright, peaceful sun, Yamato sat by the seashore, having traveled all the way from the Grand Line. The gentle sea breeze caressed her cheeks and made her silver-white hair flutter. She was a stunning sight, but her face held none of the joy she'd felt when she first left Wano. Instead, it was filled with deep confusion.
Before leaving Wano, Oden's journal had been her entire world. The rules were simple: Kaido, who had enslaved Wano, was her enemy, and fighting for freedom was her purpose.
But after a month of adventure, she had discovered that the world was nothing like the one described in the journal. In that short time, she had fought World Nobles, formed her own pirate crew, escaped from government spies, and even liberated a country.
Just yesterday, Yamato, along with her new crewmates—Jewelry Bonney, Red, Diaz, and Perona—had overthrown King Beckley of the Sorbet Kingdom. It should have been a moment of triumph. But the experience had only plunged her deeper into confusion, shattering her worldview.
When she arrived in Bonney's hometown three days ago, she witnessed King Beckley's evil firsthand. It reminded her of what Kaido had done in Wano, and her immediate instinct was to rally the people and overthrow the tyrant. But when she proposed the idea, no one responded. Not a single citizen would join her. Even Bonney tried to stop her.
Yamato couldn't understand it. The citizens in the protected zone were burdened by impossibly high taxes, but they were still affiliated with the World Government and refused to rebel. More confusingly, the citizens in the lawless outer regions wouldn't join her either. She had the strength to defeat the king's guards on her own, but what was the point of liberating a country if its own people wouldn't fight for it?
Lost in her thoughts, she was found that night by four people. They were originally members of Bonney's crew, and when Bonney joined Yamato, they naturally followed. Their names were Totts, Yuuyu, Potato, and Pat. In truth, they were simple fishermen who had gone to sea to protect Bonney. But because of that, they had watched her grow up and had been friends with her father, Bartholomew Kuma, since childhood. They knew everything that had happened in the kingdom's past.
They were the ones who told Yamato the shocking truth about Bonney's adoptive father, Kuma, and her mother, Ginny.
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