"Wororoororoororooooro!"
Kaido's laughter rolled across the rooftop like thunder splitting mountains. His massive frame stood against the torn heavens, kanabo resting on his shoulder as his sharp eyes locked onto the young man floating calmly on a golden cloud.
"So it's the New King who has been making noise lately," Kaido laughed, lips stretching wide. "So, came to challenge me, brat?"
Ren tilted his head slightly, almost bored, almost amused. "Well, I like Wano, so I wanted to take it. How about you give it to me?"
For a brief second there was silence.
Then Kaido burst into roaring laughter. "Wororoororooroor! You really think you can take Wano from me?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
In his human form, muscles swelling beneath scarred skin, Kaido vanished from sight and reappeared in front of Ren in an instant. The kanabo swung downward with enough force to flatten a mountain.
Ren met him head-on.
The staff and club never touched.
Black lightning erupted between them as their Advanced Conqueror's Haki collided mid-air. The impact tore apart clouds above and shattered tiles beneath, shockwaves cascading down the skull dome and cracking the very stone foundation of Onigashima.
They locked there, invisible force against invisible force, each trying to overpower the other without a single weapon making contact.
For several long minutes, neither gave ground.
Then they separated.
Ren laughed, voice bright with genuine exhilaration. "Hahahhahahah! No wonder you are a battle maniac. Fighting with someone stronger really is fun."
Kaido's grin widened.
He already liked this boy. Strong. Fearless. A top-tier Mythical Zoan user at only nineteen. The sea had not produced many monsters like this in decades.
"Wororooro," Kaido rumbled. "Since you want Wano, why not join the Beast Pirates? I can give you Wano if you do."
Ren shrugged casually, Nimbus drifting lazily beneath his feet. "Nah. I don't follow a Defeated King."
Kaido knew the boy wouldn't join. He had only tested him out of instinct. But those words—Defeated King—dug into old scars that never healed.
His grin faded.
"You bastard," Kaido growled, veins rising along his temples. "Who are you calling a Defeated King? I'm Kaido, the Beast King. Who are you looking down on?"
Without warning, he launched forward again.
Ren met him once more, black lightning detonating between their weapons. The shockwaves blasted apart distant towers, fragments raining into the sea. Pirates below screamed as the island shook like a living thing in agony.
They exchanged multiple attacks in rapid succession, sky splitting again and again with each clash.
Ren's voice cut through the storm. "Well, what do you call a king who lost his faith in his own dream and became something he hated most?"
Kaido's eyes narrowed.
"Like a Dragon Slayer becoming a Dragon," Ren continued calmly. "Tell me, Kaido… who are you really?"
The next strike from Kaido was heavier, faster, angrier.
"What the hell do you know?" Kaido roared. "You—a brat who hasn't seen the world—dares to lecture me?!"
Their weapons hovered inches apart, Haki tearing the air between them. The pressure alone bent steel beams and shattered glass across the fortress.
Ren didn't stop.
"You are just like Yamato," he said, gaze sharp. "Chasing shadows. Forgetting who you were. Tell me, Kaido, who the fuck are you?"
Kaido's breath hitched.
"Are you a man defeated by the world while chasing the shadow of Joy Boy?" Ren pressed. "Or a man who lost to his own dream and now seeks a glorious death?"
Black lightning exploded outward.
"Who the hell are you?!" Kaido bellowed. "How do you know that name? And what do you know about me? Don't you dare act like you know everything. I'm Kaido. Kaido of the Beasts!"
He leapt back and transformed mid-air.
Azure scales erupted across his body as he became a colossal dragon, coiling through the split heavens. His jaws opened wide.
"Bolo Breath!"
A beam of compressed destruction tore forward, vaporizing the clouds in its path.
Ren lifted his staff calmly, flames igniting along its length—Samadhi Flames, golden and pure. He swung.
The two infernos collided.
Blue dragon fire and golden divine flame clashed violently, trying to burn each other out. The sky became a furnace of opposing wills before both attacks canceled in a massive explosion that rocked the seas around Wano.
Ren exhaled slowly.
Then he transformed.
For the first time since arriving in this world, he entered his full Beast Form. His body expanded, muscles bulging and fur erupting like molten gold cascading over his skin.
A thousand-meter-tall Golden Great Ape stood atop Nimbus.
His red eyes burned like twin suns.
On the shores of Wano, Denjiro, Ashura Doji, Hyogoro, and Kawamatsu arrived almost simultaneously. They looked up—and trembled.
A thousand-meter-long dragon coiled across the heavens.
A thousand-meter-tall Golden Great Ape floated upon a golden-orange cloud.
It was not a battle between men.
It was a clash between mythologies.
Even from that distance, the shockwaves struck them like physical blows, forcing seasoned samurai to brace their feet against the ground.
Above the battlefield, another presence hovered.
"Kuahahahaha!"
Big News Morgans flapped in mid-air aboard his small airborne craft, camera clicking relentlessly. "A Mythical Zoan versus Kaido himself! This is big News! Bigger than anything!"
He adjusted the lens frantically. "The New King versus the Strongest Creature alive! The world will explode when they see this!"
His gamble of personally coming to Wano had paid off beyond imagination.
Below, the samurai exchanged silent glances.
"This is our chance," Denjiro muttered.
Hyogoro nodded grimly. "If Kaido is tied down… Orochi can fall."
They turned toward the Flower Capital without another word.
This battle would not end quickly.
—
Inside Onigashima's prison, Yamato paced restlessly. The entire fortress shook with each collision above. Dust fell from the ceiling, chains rattling violently with every shockwave.
"I need to go," she muttered. "I have to fight!"
The clone stood calmly in front of her.
"Who are you?" it asked again.
"Stop asking that!" she snapped, fists clenched. "I'm Oden!"
The clone's gaze didn't waver.
"Are you?"
Her breath grew ragged.
She slapped both cheeks hard, the sting grounding her. She forced herself to breathe and began digging through memories long buried.
Before she fought Kaido.
Before the chains.
Before meeting the three samurai.
Before finding the diary.
Before witnessing Oden's execution.
Before all of it.
She remembered standing at the edge of the island as a child, staring at the sea with wide eyes. She remembered wanting to sail. To explore. To feel wind that wasn't trapped behind fortress walls.
She remembered wanting freedom.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
"I… I just wanted to go to sea," she whispered. "I wanted to see the world. I wanted to be free."
Not Oden.
Not a symbol.
Not a rebellion.
Just free.
She inhaled deeply and looked up at the clone, eyes clearer than ever before.
Her voice was firm now. Steady. Not borrowed.
"I wanna be free… and travel the world."
Her Conqueror's Haki erupted.
But it felt different.
It wasn't the Haki of someone imitating another's will. It was raw, honest, untamed—hers. The pressure surged outward, no longer restrained by confusion or borrowed identity.
The clone smiled.
"Welcome back."
The shackles shattered instantly.
The clone dissolved into particles of light.
Yamato stared at her wrists, now free for the first time in years. She picked up her kanabo, Takeru, and burst through the prison wall in a thunderous explosion.
Her Conqueror's Haki surged upward.
It collided with two monstrous forces in the sky.
On the rooftop, Ren's massive ape form turned slightly, sensing it. He grinned.
"Hahahahah! Took you long enough."
Kaido's dragon eyes shifted as well. For a moment, he forgot Ren entirely.
That Haki…
It was Yamato's.
But stronger.
Freer.
Untamed like Roger's.
"Wororororo," Kaido muttered. "Though I don't know what you did to her, her Haki really surprised me."
He snorted dismissively. "But it's still not enough to threaten me."
Ren didn't respond.
The Golden Great Ape lunged forward.
The dragon met him head-on.
Their colossal bodies collided in the sky, claws and fangs and kanabo and staff infused with black lightning. Shockwaves rolled outward in expanding rings, splitting clouds again and again.
This was no ordinary Yonko battle.
This was the beginning of something that would shake the era itself.
Far below, Yamato landed atop the skull dome, wind whipping her hair wildly. She looked at the two titans fighting above and smiled—not as Oden.
As Yamato.
"I'll catch up to you," she whispered.
And above her, the war of mythical beasts had only just begun.