"Oh my, how lively. Is this a convention for criminals?"
The yellow figure of light looking down from above revealed his true form.
Short black curly hair. A pair of sunglasses. A ring of stubble on his face.
Tall and lean, with features that made him look a little like a skinny monkey.
He wore a yellow-and-white striped suit, a purple tie, a dark green shirt, and white leather shoes.
"...Borsalino?"
Kaido raised his head and coldly spat out the newcomer's name.
"A Marine Admiral..."
Issho's rolled-back white eyes remained open as he silently withdrew his ability.
The surrounding abnormalities instantly vanished without a trace, causing a flicker of surprise to appear in Kizaru's gaze.
The strength of that ability...
"..."
Ren said nothing, though surprise rose in his heart.
In his expectations, the one who should have come was Kuzan.
Naturally, he had gathered intelligence on the Marines before this operation.
At present, the one stationed in the New World should have been Admiral Kuzan... while Kizaru ought to have been at Marine Headquarters, supposedly on vacation.
But considering Dressrosa's special status... it did not seem entirely unreasonable.
Still, if that was the case, then he had to think about the chain reaction this would trigger.
"Oh my. Mister Blind Swordsman, you seem to be outside old man's expectations."
Borsalino suddenly spoke. "Has the Demon Pirates recruited a new member?
He looks quite formidable. You pirates are getting scarier and scarier."
So I'm getting dragged into this too...
Issho's expression shifted slightly, and he subconsciously tightened his grip on the hilt of his cane sword.
Unexpectedly, Ren denied it cleanly and decisively.
"No. He's not my subordinate. More importantly, the so-called Demon Pirates never existed to begin with."
He was not merely denying Issho's affiliation—he was denying the existence of the Demon Pirates altogether.
In other words...
Just like the rumors said, this man truly did not consider himself a pirate at all?
The corner of Borsalino's eye twitched.
At that moment, Issho's voice rang out, carrying unmistakable resolve.
"I'm nothing more than a passerby. The only reason I stepped forward is because I hope this battle won't continue any longer.
This country has already suffered enough. If things keep escalating, they won't even be able to keep their homes."
As he said that, Issho could not help but look toward the former magma zone, now turned into a field of hardened stone.
The impact of the battle just now had been far too horrifying.
In less than an hour, Dressrosa had already lost more than a tenth of its land.
If he had not intervened, there might not even have been any room left to salvage things!
"Worororo... now this is interesting. But I'm still not satisfied."
Kaido's booming laugh interrupted the conversation, making no attempt to hide his malice.
"You, Kizaru, and that blind man—you all have your own goals, don't you?
But if you want to accomplish them, then speak with your fists first!"
"Oh my, so that's how it is? But Headquarters wants you to get lost as soon as possible, Kaido."
Borsalino tilted his head. "You're making this very difficult for me."
"Then don't bother with it! Come have a satisfying fight with me!"
Kaido raised Hassaikai, and a terrifying pressure erupted from his entire body.
The black-and-red Conqueror's Haki was vast beyond measure, surging into the sky like an Olympic torch.
Issho's expression changed as he gripped his cane sword tight, gravity at the ready.
If they truly had to fight, then he had to find a way to move the battlefield!
Ren narrowed his eyes. In the hourglass clasped in his hand, the fine sand had already begun to stir.
"Oh my, how scary. Still as impossible as ever to talk sense into. The Yonko are such a nuisance... Yata Jewel!"
Kizaru reacted as well, yellow light gathering in his hand.
Countless yellow points of light formed from converging lasers filled the sky, announcing the start of the Admiral's attack.
This strike was a large-scale laser barrage, and each beam possessed the terrifying power to snap the giant trees of the Sabaody Archipelago.
Ren recognized the origin of this technique almost at a glance.
A clustered laser bombardment?
No—wrong!
It was one of Kizaru's other techniques!
"An old trick! Thunder Bagua!"
Kaido seemed to recognize it too and unleashed a Conqueror's Haki Infusion attack without hesitation.
The soaring pillar of force swallowed up a third of the glowing region.
The violent power obliterated the densely packed Kizarus that had emerged from the gathering motes of light.
But Kaido showed no joy. Instead, he snorted angrily, his gaze piercing through the smoke to look around.
Dressrosa's land was rapidly moving away.
They were flying!
At the instant of that attack,
Issho had suddenly activated his ability, turning gravity into a blade to slice through the ground beneath them—then removing gravity's influence altogether!
In an instant, the entire region where they stood directly lifted into the air!
And it was at that very moment
that Ren, transformed into a Six-Winged Angel, moved without warning.
Or rather, even he himself had not reacted in time.
In an unconscious state, he suddenly drew his blade—and slashed down!
Bullet Flash!
Blade light carved through Kizaru's body one after another, cutting down several of the light-clone bodies!
At the same time, an Ame-no-Murakumo Sword pierced through Ren's body from the side, leaving a transparent blood hole straight through him!
"Hm? Such fast reactions. The youngsters these days are getting scarier and scarier."
Kizaru tilted his head, light sword in hand. Just as he was about to follow up, his body suddenly turned into a laser and vanished.
Hassaikai swept away the smoke, and a Conqueror's Haki Infused Thunder Bagua came rampaging in!
Tch.
Ren's eyes turned cold.
The hourglass clasped in his hand—activated!
Boom—!!
A pillar of light swallowed that entire region, stirring up a violent shockwave that spread for several kilometers.
Kaido appeared where Ren had just been standing, then suddenly frowned and clutched his head.
His mind felt muddled, as though something had interfered with it.
That familiar feeling... a mind-control-type Devil Fruit user?
But both Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki were wrapped around his body. Even a Devil Fruit ability should have been negated by Haki that strong.
Come to think of it, did Kizaru have such an ability?
Was there some other Devil Fruit user nearby?
It seemed not. There were only the three of them... no, but that did seem to be the case.
As long as there was a fight to be had, that was enough, right?
Thinking about it, it had been a long time since he'd crossed hands with Kizaru.
Who knew how much that bastard had improved?
No, wait. There was already a wound on his body... and it was permanent.
Had Kizaru gotten stronger?
Maybe it was worth testing!
Kaido's eyes shifted as though he had reached his own conclusion.
Kaido was not the only one confused for an instant.
So were the reassembled Kizaru and the sword-bearing Issho.
The scene abruptly sank into silence, as though the gears of a machine had fallen into sand.
Something feels off...
Kizaru floated in the air with the Ame-no-Murakumo Sword in hand, sizing Kaido up.
Then his eyes fell upon the blood dripping from the blade.
Just now... had he injured Kaido?
But the feeling left in his hand seemed different.
Kaido's body was unbelievably tough and sturdy.
Stabbing him felt like driving a small knife into a steel plate.
The sensation just now had been more like piercing through tofu...
Which was exactly why, in most situations, he was unwilling to fight Kaido.
Too troublesome.
Ever since that man became a Yonko, opportunities to clash with Kaido had been rare.
This time, the reason they were fighting... right, it was because of Doflamingo.
The actions of a Yonko attacking the affiliated nation of Dressrosa meant Kaido had to be driven away to prevent the country's destruction.
But it felt like there was another mission missing... what was it?
And come to think of it, what was with that blind man?
Kizaru's attention suddenly drifted because the environment around him was no longer the same.
The ground rising at high speed—
No, it was a chunk of earth split away by some ability, several square kilometers in size.
Had it been separated from Dressrosa?
That blind man's ability.
His purpose was to stop the battle between them from destroying Dressrosa?
How could that be?
He was an Admiral. He would never attack an affiliated nation.
And Kaido normally would not destroy an island either—most of the time, he concentrated his power on his opponent.
Which meant... it should be him, right?
There was no one here now who was Kaido's match.
Still, that blind man was rather interesting. His level of strength seemed quite high.
And with his intervention, the mission objective should be achievable this time... probably?
What a pain.
Why did he have to work overtime?!
Thoughts flickered through Kizaru's mind as he tightened his grip on the Ame-no-Murakumo Sword.
He glanced at the blind man, whose expression seemed vaguely unsettled.
I was just... right, I was trying to stop the battle between the Admiral and a Yonko, to prevent their fight from destroying the nation of Dressrosa.
That bastard Doflamingo brought calamity upon Dressrosa and committed such terrible crimes.
If not for... the Marines—no, it was... no... it was the Marines... and then the Admiral discovered it.
Kizaru is going to fight Kaido. I have to stop them.
Issho's eyes instantly became clear again as he remembered his purpose.
Yet a powerful sense of dissonance filled his heart, as though the logic did not quite connect, as though something had been forcibly cut away.
But what exactly was missing...
Before Issho could figure out what had been lost, Kaido suddenly erupted with killing intent.
"Worororo! It's been a long time since I've had this much fun. Continue!"
The savage blue-purple dragon man laughed wildly, then swung Hassaikai and launched his attack.
His targets were Borsalino and the blind man trying to stop him.
But to be honest, what he truly liked was fighting the strong.
Destroying a country—especially an affiliated nation—was somewhat foolish.
At the end of the day, why would he do something so laborious and unrewarding?
"Now this is what I call a good fight!"
Kaido roared, and the terrifying might of Thunder Bagua swept across the battlefield.
And beneath that chunk of battling earth,
the gray-white Six-Winged Angel slowly descended, the hourglass in his hand having been turned upside down at some point.
Sand of strange colors slowly trickled into the lower half of the hourglass.
Ren, along with the others connected to it, all turned gray-white as they entered an extremely peculiar state.
Forgotten!
Kizaru's target was me? The Kizaru clones formed from the lasers gathered by Yata Jewel—that was a technique from the Egghead Island arc.
They possess simple intelligence and nearly the same attack power as the original body, but their weakness is that they have no defensive ability.
Under normal circumstances, though, his Yata Jewel is merely a wide-area laser attack.
What he used just now should have been an advanced version, something that was almost like an instant-kill move on first sight.
At its core, it was meant to delay Kaido... mislead me... and create the opening for that strike that pierced through me... no, he was probably trying to slice me to pieces.
Ren thought back over the scene just now as the healing power of the Blood Demon Art repaired his pierced body.
There was still one more chapter being written.
(End of Chapter)