After that clash, Kaido and Shimotsuki Ryuma were both sent flying.
One shot back into the sky, hovering high above the ground and looking down from above.
The other crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, landing right on top of the shogun's palace. His powerful body tore through floor after floor like a cannonball before smashing heavily into the earth below.
With another deafening crash, the shogun's palace—already split in two—collapsed completely.
Dust billowed up in every direction, sweeping outward as if it meant to swallow Rowan and the others whole.
At that moment, Hashirama clapped his hands together.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
A violent gale blasted from his mouth, instantly blowing away the fast-approaching smoke and dust.
Kaido gave Hashirama an expressionless glance, then turned his eyes back to the ruins of the shogun's palace.
A few faint footsteps sounded.
Shimotsuki Ryuma emerged from the ruins without a scratch, lifting his head to look at Kaido hovering in the sky.
Kaido's eyes flickered, finally acknowledging the other man's strength.
"You've earned the right to state your name, samurai."
"Shimotsuki… Ryuma."
"A member of the Shimotsuki clan?" Kaido narrowed his eyes and asked curiously, "What's your relation to Shimotsuki Ushimaru?"
Shimotsuki Ushimaru? Never heard of him. Judging by the name, he was probably one of his descendants.
But there was no reason to tell an enemy something like that.
At the same time, Kaido also felt that the name Shimotsuki Ryuma sounded strangely familiar, as if he'd heard it somewhere before.
But he didn't connect it to Wano's sword god. After all, that was some relic who'd died hundreds of years ago.
Seeing that Ryuma had no intention of answering and clearly couldn't be bothered with him, Kaido's expression darkened further.
"You won't answer? Then don't!"
The instant the words left his mouth, Kaido vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already above Ryuma's head, kanabo raised high.
A technique like Soru might be an advanced martial skill to ordinary people.
But to a top-tier monster like Kaido, it was nothing special.
"Three Realms: Ragnaraku!"
Kaido's kanabo came down with overwhelming force, aimed straight at Ryuma's head. The descending blow carried thunder with it, compressing the air into a tangible shockwave. The sonic boom erupted before the sound itself could even spread.
That strike was enough to smash an entire mountain to pieces and trigger a massive quake on the ground.
Ryuma's pupils contracted sharply.
But he didn't retreat.
Instead, he tightened his grip on Shusui.
Clang!
The instant Ryuma drew his blade, its path traced a perfectly straight line—from low to high, meeting the kanabo's downward trajectory head-on.
Blade and club collided.
The ground beneath Ryuma exploded and collapsed layer after layer, forming a massive stepped crater.
But he blocked the blow.
He was not completely overwhelmed.
As for Kaido, a long gash suddenly split open across his chest, and blood sprayed out in huge amounts.
Kaido couldn't believe it.
His Oni physique and the Azure Dragon fruit had given him a body that was nearly indestructible. He had once been captured by the Marines and subjected to execution forty times.
But whether it was blades, axes, lightning, fire, poison, or being drowned in liquor, none of it could truly harm him. In fact, the execution tools themselves would break in the process, which was why the world called him an immortal monster.
It had been a long time since anyone had broken through his defenses.
The last one to wound him had been Kozuki Oden.
And now, more than ten years later, he had once again been cut by a samurai from Wano.
Judging by the depth of the wound, it was even slightly deeper than the slash Oden had left behind.
Fortunately, he was no longer the man he had been back then.
His strength and Haki had both surpassed what they once were. A deeper wound didn't matter.
He could take it.
Kaido let out a cold snort and forced his muscles to clamp the wound shut, stopping the bleeding by brute force. His powerful recovery immediately kicked in and began mending the injury across his chest.
Bang!
At that exact moment, Ryuma threw a punch. His right fist, wrapped in Armament Haki, shot upward and slammed into Kaido's jaw.
Kaido was launched into the sky like a cannonball.
Ryuma had to admit he had miscalculated.
Originally, he wanted to defeat Kaido right here in the Flower Capital and let everyone see that Wano had been liberated.
But he had underestimated Kaido's strength.
This was not an opponent he could dispatch easily. He had to go all out.
That meant the battlefield had to change. The Flower Capital was no longer suitable for this fight. Otherwise, it would very likely be destroyed in the collision between them.
After blasting Kaido into the sky with one punch, Ryuma leapt up after him.
"Arrogant fool."
Kaido adjusted his posture midair, transformed into his massive azure dragon form, and spat downward.
"Heat Breath!!!"
This wasn't the first time Kaido had used this move, but before, it hadn't achieved much.
This time, though, he was serious.
Compared to that earlier "greeting" attack, this Boro Breath was far hotter and far more terrifying.
It was enough to melt mountains and vaporize seas—a force capable of burning an entire nation to ruin.
Even the air itself ignited, turning into a sea of fire that consumed everything.
But within that fire, a cold gleam of steel flashed.
Ryuma swung his blade once, and the dragon breath that could burn the heavens was split apart by force!
The flames rolled to either side, as if they feared the sharpness of that sword, parting on their own three feet in front of Ryuma.
He passed straight through the fire, and not even the hem of his clothing was singed.
Kaido's pupils shrank violently.
"Dragon-Slaying Flash—"
Ryuma's voice shattered in the wind, but the sword in his hand did not.
A moonlike arc of light reflected off Shusui's blade. That slash tore through the heat, tore through the thunder, tore through the Haki surrounding the giant dragon, and went straight for its head.
For the first time in a long while, Kaido felt something he hadn't felt in ages—
danger.
His Observation Haki screamed warnings in his mind.
In dragon form, he twisted his massive body violently, sweeping out his enormous tail with enough force to smash mountains, trying to intercept the incoming slash.
The moment the dragon's tail and Shusui collided, a visible shockwave exploded between them!
Buildings within several miles were hurled into the air, and trees were ripped out by the roots.
Kaido's gigantic body was blown away, crashing from above the Flower Capital into a distant mountain, slamming hard into the cliff face with a tremendous roar.
Ryuma was also blasted away in the exchange, but his goal had already been achieved.
He had driven Kaido out of the Flower Capital and forced the battle onto a different field.
By the time Ryuma arrived at the distant mountain at high speed, Kaido had already changed form again.