"I'm saying, mister... how did you end up on my ship?"
Luffy tilted his head back, staring up at the strange middle-aged man with the facial tattoo.
For some reason, the torrential rain falling across the Going Merry seemed noticeably lighter than the storm raging outside the harbor.
"I—"
Dragon barely opened his mouth before a hurried shout interrupted him.
"LUFFY! QUIT STANDING AROUND! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS HARBOR NOW!"
Sanji leaped up the mast, deftly lowering the sails.
Zoro drew his sword and slashed the thick mooring rope securing the ship to the dock. Usopp gripped the helm to steady the vessel, while Nami kept her eyes glued to the shifting weather.
No one had a single second to spare to notice the extra person standing on their deck.
"You—"
Dragon tried to speak again, but Cain leaped aboard the ship right past him.
Tossing out a casual, "Uncle Dragon, make way," Cain sprinted straight past the Revolutionary leader and ducked into the Going Merry's cabin.
At last, with no one left to interrupt him, Dragon spoke.
He did not reveal his identity or offer any pleasantries. He simply looked down at the rubber boy and asked in a calm, commanding tone.
"You have already made up your mind to keep walking this path to the very end, haven't you?"
Luffy looked confused, but answered with his usual, blunt sincerity. "I have no idea what you're talking about. But I'm definitely going to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King! That is my dream, and nobody can change it!"
"I see... then go. Just keep moving forward. That is enough!"
"Huh?" Luffy blinked.
The towering man before him vanished into thin air.
In the very next second, a violent hurricane swept in from the center of Loguetown's plaza.
The gale wrapped itself around the Going Merry, blasting the ship swiftly out of the harbor. The wind was so violent that Buggy and his crew—who were in the middle of being arrested by Captain Smoker—were swept right up into the storm.
Smoker braced himself against the hurricane, driving his Seastone jitte deep into the cobblestones to shield Tashigi from the debris.
Watching two major pirates slip right through his fingers, his expression grew colder by the second, silently swearing to hunt them down.
Back on the shore, Dragon's figure reappeared in the shadows.
He watched the Going Merry speed further out to sea and shouted into the gale.
"Heh... go, Luffy! If that is the way you choose to live! After all, what reason could there possibly be to stop a man from setting sail?!"
...
Meanwhile, deep inside the ship's cabin, Cain frantically dialed a special Den Den Mushi.
The call connected instantly.
"Yeah? Who is it?" The snail immediately took on Garp's trademark scowl.
"It's me. Cain."
"Oh, Cain. Why are you calling me right now? You are a pirate now! If you keep calling Marine channels and Sengoku finds out, I'm going to get punished!"
"CUT THE CRAP! TELL ME RIGHT NOW—WHAT IS WITH THAT EPITHET?!"
"What epithet? I don't know what you are talking about." The Den Den Mushi's expression looked perfectly innocent, but Cain was already grinding his teeth.
"Stop playing dumb, old man! You handled my wanted poster personally, so how could you not know?! WHAT IS WITH THAT HUMILIATING NICKNAME, 'PINK'?!"
"You brat, not even calling me Grandpa anymore? But... Pink... PFFT—BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Garp's unrestrained laughter roared through the receiver as Cain felt his scalp go numb.
...
By the time Cain trudged back out to the dining room to rejoin the crew, he looked like a dead man walking.
His entire body seemed drained of color, his skin a sickly grayish-white as he muttered endlessly to himself.
"It's over... my life is over..."
"What's wrong, Cain? We only lost sight of you for a few minutes. How did you end up like this?" Nami stepped forward, looking genuinely concerned.
"N-Nothing," Cain forced himself to stand straight.
That shameful epithet absolutely could not be allowed to reach his crewmates!
According to Garp, the nickname was the result of a serious discussion between him and Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
Meaning, the conversation lasted less than a minute.
To keep Cain's profile low—and because Garp was eating sakura mochi at the time—they officially registered him as 'Pink Cain'.
Unless Cain did something monumental enough to shake the pillars of the world, he would be stuck with that title forever!
Cain let out a quiet sigh.
If he managed to stop Ace's capture and prevent the Marineford War, he would have to wait years to change the epithet.
By then, the entire world would know it.
But if the Marineford War happened anyway, there was no way the title would stay hidden during a clash of that scale.
It was a dead end no matter how he looked at it.
To make matters worse, Garp confessed he had been brainstorming Marine codenames for Cain for a long time.
The current Admirals all followed an 'Animal + Color' naming scheme.
Akainu was the Red Dog. Aokiji was the Blue Pheasant.
If Cain stayed, what would his Admiral title be?
The Pink Dragon? The Cherry Fish?
He didn't dare imagine the mortification of hearing thousands of Marines chant that across a battlefield!
Seeing Cain recover a little color on his face, Nami finally rolled out the sea chart and began plotting their route.
She pointed to a specific location on the map. "The entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain."
"HUH?! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO CRASH THE SHIP INTO A MOUNTAIN?!" Luffy yelled.
"Wait, isn't there a canal drawn here?" Zoro and the others gathered around the map, frowning in confusion.
Cain chose that moment to speak up.
"Let me explain."
"Exactly! Cain used to be in the Marines, so he definitely knows this stuff better than I do!" Nami said brightly.
"SHHH! stop telling people i used to be a marine! that has to stay a secret!" Cain raised a finger to his lips, making sure the coast was clear before he explained.
"This place is called Reverse Mountain. At the towering mountain range on the Red Line, there are five waterways in total. Four are connected to the currents from the four seas, and the final one leads directly down into the Grand Line. Because the currents from all four seas converge there with such tremendous force, they actually overcome gravity and flow upward. That is why it serves as the entrance. But the canal is extremely narrow. If your navigator is careless, your ship will smash straight into the Red Line."
Everyone nodded in understanding.
Luffy was practically vibrating with anticipation at the idea of a ship climbing a mountain.
Zoro, on the other hand, thought charging up a raging rapid sounded too dangerous.
He suggested sailing further south to find a safer route.
Just then, Usopp shouted from the deck.
"THE WEATHER CLEARED UP!"
"It's not that the weather cleared. We drifted into the Calm Belt." Nami stepped out of the cabin, her expression turning grave.
She immediately ordered everyone to grab the oars and row the ship back into the Loguetown storm.
Cain picked up his heavy staff and walked outside. Clearly, aside from him and Nami, no one else understood how dangerous these waters truly were.
"Why are you panicking? This is a sailing ship! Why are we rowing?" Luffy asked.
"Yeah, why are we heading back into a storm?" Usopp chimed in.
"STOP ASKING QUESTIONS AND DO WHAT I SAY!" Nami roared sharply.
"Nice weather for once, and she's still yelling..." Zoro muttered under his breath.
"FINE! I'LL EXPLAIN IT!" Driven half mad by the crew of idiots, Nami pointed angrily at Zoro. "Just like you said a minute ago, the ship is drifting south..."
Before she could finish, Zoro nodded in understanding. "Ah. So we already entered the Grand Line."
"LET ME FINISH! If getting into the Grand Line was that easy, anyone could do it! The Grand Line is sandwiched between two massive stretches of sea! This is the windless ocean! The Calm Belt!"
"Oh, the Calm Belt! So, just like the name says, there is no wind and its really calm. I get it. So what?" Zoro crossed his arms dismissively.
"The truly dangerous thing about this sea is—"
Before Nami could finish, the Going Merry shook violently.
Out of the tranquil ocean rose countless, bizarrely mutated Sea Kings. The ship had somehow drifted directly on top of the snout of a colossal sea monster.
Everyone panicked instantly.
Usopp was so terrified he fainted on the spot, foaming at the mouth. Nami clung to the mast, her legs trembling.
"This is a nest of Sea Kings... and they are giants..."
Cain walked over and patted Nami's shoulder to steady her.
Moving to the bow, he looked down at the enormous monster beneath them, then glanced back at Luffy.
"Luffy, I told you back at Arlong Park. Your current strength is not enough for the challenges ahead. Today, I'll show you what real power looks like."
"You're going to fight?!" Nami instinctively let go of the mast.
Even Usopp jolted awake. Luffy leaned forward in awe, while Zoro and Sanji focused intently on Cain's stance.
"Watch carefully."
Cain stopped holding back.
The full, crushing force of his Conqueror's Haki—far beyond the tiny fraction he showed in the loguetown—burst out all at once.
"This is Haki."
The invisible shockwave instantly covered the entire stretch of sea, suppressing everything through sheer force of will.
Because Cain directed his aura downward, the crew remained unaffected.
Luffy and the rest stared in stunned silence.
Cain merely fixed his eyes on the monsters, and the entire herd of Sea Kings began to flee in absolute terror. Some of the weaker beasts foamed at the mouth and sank below the waves, knocked unconscious instantly.
But Cain quickly realized the colossal Sea King right beneath the Going Merry was no ordinary beast.
Faced with a blast of Conqueror's Haki, it showed no fear as it only glared back at him.
Thinking about it, that made sense.
The power to command the true Sea Kings belonged to Poseidon, one of the Three Ancient Weapons.
If the true lords of the sea could be driven off so easily by standard Conqueror's Haki, the title of Ancient Weapon wouldn't mean much.
"CAIN! THERE'S STILL ONE LEFT!" Nami shouted urgently.
"I know."
Cain raised the hand holding his long staff.
His entire arm, along with the bandage-wrapped weapon, instantly turned pitch-black. Without another word, he leaped off the deck.
"HEY! THAT'S THE SEA DOWN THERE!" Zoro shouted.
But Cain stepped calmly against the air.
Using the Marine Rokushiki technique, Geppo, he advanced steadily across empty space.
Sanji, who fought exclusively with his legs, watched the footwork with intense focus.
With one crushing blow wrapped in Armament Haki, Cain slammed his staff directly into the giant Sea King's skull.
The beast collapsed instantly, slowly sinking into the dark depths.
The Going Merry fell with it. The crew was tossed into the air—but fortunately, clusters of solid orange flame clouds rose from the sea in time, catching the ship and lowering everyone safely back onto the water.
"SO COOL! CAN WE LEARN THOSE MOVES TOO?!" Luffy shouted up at his brother.
"These clouds are...?" Nami, always highly sensitive to anything involving weather phenomena, touched the flame clouds curiously.
"Of course you can learn some of it. But some techniques depend on raw aptitude. Whether you can master them comes down to talent." Cain landed steadily on the deck, turning to Nami. "As for these clouds, they are part of my Devil Fruit ability. That isn't something you can learn. If you want powers like this, you're better off hunting down a fruit."
The mention of Devil Fruits instantly sparked Luffy's curiosity.
"OH, RIGHT! CAIN! WE STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR FRUIT IS!"
Now that they were comrades, Cain was naturally willing to share the information about his fruit.
Before this, no one had asked, and he hadn't brought it up. Zoro and the others assumed it was his private business, respecting his boundaries.
Only someone as straightforward as Luffy could break the silence.
"Luffy, think carefully. My fruit is highly classified information. If this spreads before the world situation changes, do you understand what kind of enemies it will bring down on us?" Cain's expression turned dead-serious.
"In the second half of the Grand Line, you have the top pirates: the Four Emperors. You have the World Government, who rules the world. You have the Marines constantly hunting us. The conflicts between all those global powers could end up revolving around me. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
Those words instantly terrified Usopp and Nami.
They shook their heads frantically.
"DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"
Even if they didn't know exactly who the Four Emperors were, titles like the 'Pinnacle of Piracy' were enough to tell them those were horrifying monsters.
Add the World Government and the Marines into the mix, and it was a death sentence to them.
"I want to hear it! No matter how many enemies come, I'll just punch them all flying!" Luffy grinned, unbothered by the threat.
Cain let out a helpless sigh and looked at the group. "You should all know there is only one of each Devil Fruit in existence. After the user dies, it reincarnates somewhere on the sea. But my existence breaks that rule. Right now, somewhere in the New World, there are two identical Devil Fruits in use..."
"Wait! You mean someone else has the exact same power as you?!" Sanji, who had memorized the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia as a child, caught the impossibility immediately.
"The exact same. But mine is a copy of the ability. If that information leaks, the World Government, the Marines, and the Emperors will all realize Devil Fruit powers can be artificially mass-produced. The entire world will descend into absolute chaos, fighting madly to seize the technology."
Cain paused, letting the weight of the secret settle over them. "More importantly, my Devil Fruit ability was copied from one of the Four Emperors: Kaido of the Beasts. It is the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon."
He deliberately left out Vegapunk and Punk Hazard, sharing only what was strictly necessary.
"I ABSOLUTELY WON'T TELL ANYONE!" Nami and Usopp shook their heads so hard it looked like they were trying to snap their own necks.
As his crewmates, Zoro and the others silently swore to take the secret to their graves.
Sanji fell deep into thought.
Searching through his encyclopedic memory, he couldn't recall the exact details of the fruit. But just the classification 'Mythical Zoan' was enough to confirm its overwhelming rarity and power—let alone the fact it belonged to a reigning Emperor.
In truth, Cain had exaggerated the danger on purpose to keep them cautious.
The secret wouldn't matter much after they reached the Sabaody Archipelago. He only needed to hide his full Azure Dragon form.
As long as he used his hybrid shape, no one would look at a towering, pink reptilian monster and connect it to Kaido's blue dragon.
Mythical Zoans were rare, and hybrid forms blended human traits so heavily that unless someone had intimate knowledge of the fruit, they would never guess its origin.
Even if the Marineford War broke out and Ace survived, Whitebeard would still die at Marineford.
Once the old man fell, the New World would plunge into chaos. During the ensuing two-year timeskip, Cain planned to travel straight to Wano Country.
Under the guise of joining the Beasts Pirates, he would 'seek instruction' from Kaido himself to master Advanced Haki.
There would be no need to worry about exposure in a closed-off fortress.
Once the two years passed and he mastered his powers, the secret leaking wouldn't matter.
The World Government would be too obsessed with Vegapunk's Seraphim project and the Mother Flame weapon to hunt Cain down.
And once the Egghead Incident erupted, the chaotic state of the world would leave the Five Elders with no resources left to care about one copied fruit.
"Ahem. No need to get so tense! Let's get back to what just happened," Cain said, breaking the heavy silence to calm everyone down.
"The power I showed you earlier... out in the New World, it's called Haki."
------
The mc will act like a kid ..... when he was a kid so don't be surprised cause there will be a flash back chapter with uta introduction later. starting tomorrow i might upload 2/3 chapter a day.