...
In the light screen, Luffy just stood there like that, watching Kaido pour one mouthful of sake after another into his mouth.
It wasn't that he didn't want to interrupt. Luffy was also afraid that Kaido would say afterward, "You didn't win fair and square."
"Hey…"
Luffy finally spoke, frowning as he shouted at Kaido: "Even if you get drunk, I won't hold back!"
Kaido put down the sake jug. A trace of a smile flashed through his pupils—not mockery, but the kind of carefree feeling after three rounds of drinking.
"Don't worry."
He wiped the sake stains from the corner of his mouth. His voice was a few degrees louder than before: "Even if this old man gets drunk, I won't get weaker."
What he said was actually true. Other people drinking causes trouble, but Kaido drinking unseals his power!
After that jug of sake went down, the complex emotions in his eyes receded like a tide.
Anger, suffocation, unwillingness, regret… all of them were washed clean by the sake, leaving only the most primal, purest fighting spirit, killing intent, and a little bit of… drunkenness.
"Burp!"
Kaido let out a sake burp. His entire body swayed as he walked toward Luffy.
His steps were so unsteady that he looked just like a real drunkard. Every step seemed like he could fall at any moment, but those dragon eyes were terrifyingly clear.
"Hey, Straw Hat kid…"
Kaido suddenly stopped. He raised the sake jug and shook it toward Luffy: "Want some too?"
Luffy froze for a moment. He looked at that sake jug, then at Kaido's slightly flushed face. The corner of his mouth twitched.
"I don't drink…"
Even someone with Luffy's personality was truly speechless. They had just been fighting to the death, and now he was inviting him to drink?
Was there something wrong with Kaido's brain…
"Tch, no appreciation."
Kaido withdrew the sake jug and tilted his head back to take another gulp: "Today is actually a good day…"
He raised his head and looked toward the sky, toward that moon that was sometimes hidden by dark clouds and sometimes revealed.
"The annual Fire Festival in the Flower Capital… Onigashima is also holding a banquet… It should have been a day for drinking and eating meat, a day of celebration…"
His voice grew lower and lower, heavier and heavier.
"But in the end, you bastards… completely ruined it all."
The next second, Kaido actually started crying?
He really cried…
Tears welled up from the corners of his eyes and flowed down his cheeks, mixing with the sake beside his mouth as they dripped down.
"This old man's castle… this old man's banquet… this old man's sake…"
As Kaido spoke, he started laughing again.
"Wahahaha! But it doesn't matter! After I kill all of you anyway, this old man can just rebuild!"
Crying.
Laughing.
Crying again.
Laughing again.
In just a few short seconds, Kaido's expression switched four or five times.
Luffy was stunned. Some people outside the light screen were also stunned.
"This… this is Kaido?"
A young pirate rubbed his eyes in disbelief: "Why is he throwing a drunken tantrum now?!"
The person next to him didn't answer, because they didn't know how to answer either.
Roger slightly narrowed his eyes. He could see the aura slowly rising from Kaido…
"Using sake to switch states… Interesting."
Big Mom rarely didn't laugh. She just watched that crying-and-laughing brat in the light screen. Her gaze was actually complex…
Luffy finally couldn't take it anymore.
"This is so annoying!!"
He suddenly leaped up. His right arm suddenly swelled. The giant fist of Gear Third, wrapped in Armament Haki, smashed heavily toward that crying-and-laughing drunkard.
"Gomu Gomu no Giant Pistol!!"
Kaido's reaction was shockingly fast. His previously swaying figure instantly stabilized. His feet slid as if oiled, dodging the punch with an extremely strange, bent arc.
"Missed~ Missed~"
He shook his head, provocatively, like a real drunkard.
Luffy gritted his teeth and swung again.
One punch, two punches, three punches.
Every punch was powerful and heavy. Every punch was enough to shatter rocks and stones. But every punch was dodged by Kaido in that inconceivable way.
The drunk Kaido was more agile than before.
No, not agile. It was "unpredictable."
His movements had no pattern whatsoever. One second he was tilting left, the next second he was drifting right.
One second he was laughing wildly, the next second he was crying his eyes out.
One second he was still dodging, the next second his kanabo was already there.
"Raimei Hakke!"
The kanabo wrapped in Conqueror's Haki solidly smashed into Luffy.
"Boom!!!"
The violent force instantly tore apart the ground. Rubble scattered and splashed like cannonballs.
Luffy's body smashed into the ground like a meteor, creating a deep pit dozens of meters in diameter.
But it wasn't over yet. Kaido didn't stop.
He swung his kanabo and began madly wrecking the place.
One strike.
A deep crack split open in the skull on the dome.
Two strikes.
That crack spread outward, covering the entire dome like a spiderweb.
Three strikes.
"Rumble!!!"
A large section of the dome collapsed.
Huge rubble fell like rain, crashing toward the banquet hall, toward the samurai and pirates still fighting, toward this Onigashima that was about to collapse.
Everyone stopped fighting.
Whether they were samurai or pirates of the Beast Pirates, at this moment they all looked up, staring at the collapsing dome. Their eyes were filled with shock.
"The dome collapsed…"
"Onigashima is going to break apart…"
"Run! Run away!!"
Panic spread like a plague. And the instigator of all this, Kaido, after landing this strike, stood unsteadily in place.
His eyes began to lose focus. His figure began to sway.
He seemed to already be so drunk that he was unconscious. In the rubble, a hand stretched out.
Luffy was covered in blood. His face was full of dust. He looked extremely disheveled.
But this time he actually hadn't been knocked unconscious by Kaido. He climbed to his feet.
"Damn it…"
He held his head. The aftershock of that strike was still booming inside his skull. The pain made it almost impossible for him to stand steady.
"So I was the one who let my guard down…"
Luffy gritted his teeth, staring at that swaying drunkard. His eyes were full of frustration.
He had thought that a drunk Kaido would become weaker and that he could easily deal with him. But clearly Luffy had misjudged…
A drunk Kaido didn't become weaker. He had completely transformed into another form.
An unpredictable form that was even more dangerous than usual.
"Again!"
Luffy charged forward once more. Kaido swayed as he met the attack. The two of them clashed again.
All directions, no blind spots. Every punch, every strike of the club, was tearing apart this already crumbling Onigashima.
Just as this battle reached its most intense point, Kaido seemed to sense something. His attacks suddenly stopped…
"That old hag's presence has disappeared!!!"
Luffy's movements paused for a moment. Kaido's movements also paused.
Kaido abruptly turned his head, looking toward the direction of the banquet hall.
His drunkenness faded by more than half at this moment. A light of disbelief flashed through his dragon pupils.
Charlotte Linlin. That woman he had known for decades. That comrade who had fought side by side with him back in the Rocks Pirates…
That monster who, together with him, was called one of the Four Emperors and ruled the New World together!
She had been defeated?!
By those two brats, what were their names—Kid and Law?
Kaido muttered those two names. His tone actually carried a trace of regret.
It wasn't regret over an ally's failure. It was regret over the end of an era.
Kaido and Big Mom had truly known each other for too long.
Long enough that he had forgotten when they first met. Long enough that those memories had all blurred into fragments.
But there was one thing he remembered. Back in the Rocks Pirates, everyone had looked down on him as a "newcomer." Only Big Mom had taken very good care of him…
"Mam-ma-ma-ma~ Has that mouth of yours grown yet? Hey hey hey, you're only 15 years old. Rocks isn't a good person, you know. My name is Linlin. Please take care of me!"
That scene—he had remembered it for decades.
"Tch…"
Kaido lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.
Outside the light screen, Big Mom was rarely silent. She looked at that bowing Kaido in the light screen. Looking at this guy who was like a little brother to her, a complex emotion flashed through her eyes.
"Mam…"
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
Luffy didn't have time to sigh. In his eyes there was only Kaido.
In his view, the two people below should both be exhausted. They should both have fought to their limits.
They had taken care of Big Mom. Then he had to take care of Kaido. Otherwise, if he lost and Kaido went down there, it would be completely over!
The two of them clashed again. Both sides were also beginning to breathe heavily. It looked like they were both quite tired…
"Let's decide this with one move!"
Kaido raised his kanabo. Conqueror's Haki was wrapped around it to the extreme. Purple-black arcs of electricity hissed along the club's body.
Raimei Hakke was ready to be unleashed. Luffy took a deep breath. His fist was similarly wrapped in Conqueror's Haki. All of his power was compressed into this one punch.
Bajrang Gun—his final strike.
Victory or defeat would be decided in this one exchange!
Just as the two of them charged forward, about to clash head-on, a figure suddenly shot out from the rubble!
The timing of his appearance was too precise—precise as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.
He grabbed Luffy's arm. Luffy's movements froze in that instant.
Luffy's fist stopped in midair. And Kaido's kanabo solidly smashed into Luffy.
"Boom!!!"
Luffy's body flew out like a withered leaf.
"No!!!"
Kaido's roar rang out almost at the same time.
He wanted to stop. He really wanted to stop.
He wanted to defeat Luffy fair and square, like a true warrior, using strength to decide victory or defeat. Not like this.
Not by having someone else interfere. Not like how it had been twenty years ago when he defeated Oden.
In that instant, time seemed to rewind.
Twenty years ago, it had been the same. At the final moment of his decisive battle with Oden, someone had interfered.
Interfered by that despicable guy. Back then he hadn't said anything. He had simply killed the one who interfered.
Although victory was victory, no matter how it came about, but at this moment, when the same thing happened again, he remembered the feeling from back then.
It didn't seem to be anger. It didn't seem to be unwillingness.
It was…
What the hell kind of victory was this?!
"AAAAAAAH——!!!"
Kaido threw his head back and roared toward the sky. His voice was filled with grief and disbelief. For the first time, he showed unrestrained sorrow.
He had really wanted to defeat Luffy fair and square. Although he had wanted to kill him before. Although he had wanted to crush him countless times…
Although they were enemies, after these few battles, after this long slaughter, after this life-and-death confrontation…
He thought Luffy was pretty good.
Pretty good!
He was the kind of opponent he hadn't encountered in a very, very long time—one worth fighting. The kind of person who made him rediscover the joy of battle.
But now everything was too late.
Luffy's body lay in the rubble, motionless. Moonlight shone on him.
That straw hat had flown off at some point and fallen to the ground not far away, trembling slightly in the wind!
Kaido stood in place. The hand gripping his kanabo was trembling. He looked at that fallen boy. He looked at that straw hat…
Looking at this victory that had been interfered with and at the CP0 in front of him, Kaido raised his Hassaikai high. His eyes were filled with rage!
"You know the consequences of doing this, right…"
...…