Devil Fruits, the mysterious treasures of the sea, remain nearly impossible to obtain. They exist in three primary categories, each branching into countless variants, creating a complexity that even veteran pirates struggle to understand. Kaido's ambition to gather powerful Animal-type Devil Fruits for the Five Calamities was no simple feat. The rare ancient types he sought would demand decades of searching.
Fukurokuju stepped forward with a snarl. "Talking won't change anything. Defeating you is the greatest tribute to Kaido sama!"
Before Issho could react, Fukurokuju vanished like a streak of light, reappearing directly before him. His sharpened tiger claws cleaved the air, aimed straight at Issho's head.
Black Maria and Sasaki attacked at the same instant. Sasaki's Triceratops form lowered its massive head, the plates turning pitch-black as three deadly horns gleamed under the sun. The ground trembled violently under the beast's charge, its momentum like an unstoppable locomotive crashing forward.
Maria's serpent-like transformation twisted and coiled, incredibly flexible, weaving through the battlefield. In a rapid blur, she reached Issho first and wrapped around him like a tightening rope.
In a single breath, the calm battlefield shifted. Three enemies converged from different angles, surrounding their target with no room to escape.
Ulti and Page One watched from the distance, battered but alert. The siblings exchanged a look, realization flashing through their eyes. Once Maria's group finished with Issho, they would reinforce Kaido's forces. For now, their only task was to keep Bullet occupied.
Understanding each other instantly, the siblings launched a coordinated assault against Bullet, doing everything they could to hold him in place.
Bullet merely smirked. He had long understood Issho's terrifying strength. During Kaito's absence, they had once sparred seriously—and Bullet had lost miserably without Issho even using a Devil Fruit. Being the physically weakest member of Kaito's crew had frustrated him for a long time, but he knew one thing with absolute certainty.
Issho would not lose here.
As the three Beasts Pirates pressed in, Issho finally opened his eyes slightly. Planting his bamboo blade against the ground, he exhaled slowly.
A deep hum rippled outward.
A surge of violet energy erupted from him in a wave, engulfing Maria, Sasaki, and Fukurokuju.
A trio of heavy crashes followed, the three attackers collapsing as if their bones had turned to liquid.
The pressure crushed them into the dirt. Their bodies, organs, and even blood felt dozens of times heavier, as though an entire mountain had been dropped on them.
"Impossible," Maria gasped, sweat pouring down her face.
"This is my gravity domain," Issho replied calmly. "Within its range, gravity multiplies twenty to fifty times. Considering the three of you, I increased it to thirty."
He lifted his bamboo sword slightly. "Let's finish this."
Issho's body blurred from sight. A heartbeat later, his blade struck their heads with precise force. Black Maria's eyes rolled back as she collapsed into unconsciousness.
Fukurokuju trembled but roared defiantly. "I won't fall here! Get up!"
Every vein on his transformed tiger form bulged as he forced his body upright, cracking the stone beneath him.
"Well now," Redfield commented from afar as he leisurely fought King and Queen. "To stand under Issho's gravity… that one has some spirit."
King and Queen were far less amused. Redfield's divided attention only deepened their frustration, but there was nothing they could do.
Their faces grew darker as they surveyed the battlefield. Page One was being overwhelmed by Bullet. Maria's group had fallen. It was only a matter of time before the rest followed.
As Kaido's most trusted commanders, they understood the tides of battle better than anyone. From how things looked, their forces were edging toward complete collapse.
All they could hope now was that Kaido would prevail.
…
High above Onigashima, Kaido's enormous azure dragon form coiled through the clouds, blotting out the sunlight and plunging Wano into an eerie darkness.
Ayanami Kaito stood in the sky opposite him. His Rinnegan flared open, and his full-body Susanoo manifested in an instant—an immense construct of dark blue energy. Two flame-wreathed blades burned at its sides, and spectral wings stretched behind it as towering as mountains.
Kaito hovered before the massive dragon, expression calm.
"Brat," Kaido growled. "Last time was luck. This time won't end the same."
His voice rumbled like a storm, echoing across the entirety of Wano.
"You talk too much," Kaito replied.
With a single flap of his Susanoo's wings, he vanished, reappearing directly before Kaido's snout.
Kaido roared. "Think I'm afraid of you?!"
Crimson energy surged in his throat before he unleashed a torrent of blazing fire. The inferno twisted the very air, burning so hot that clouds evaporated instantly.
From the ground, the sky itself seemed to ignite.
"You should be!" Kaito crossed his burning blue blades.
He swung once.
A pair of colossal cross-shaped sword slashes tore through the sky, colliding with Kaido's flames.
The explosion shook the heavens. Blue and red energies clashed, sparks cascading like meteors. Kaito's slashes tore through the flames and continued toward Kaido with unrelenting force.
"Tch! That damn technique again!" Kaido roared.
He raised his massive claws, coated in Armament Haki, and seized the slashes head-on.
The impact detonated in a thunderous blast, shredding the sword energy into fragments.
Kaido's aura surged violently. A tidal wave of murderous Conqueror's Haki burst from his body, spreading outward in every direction. The sky darkened. Space itself trembled.
In response, Kaito quietly released his own Conqueror's Haki.
A golden torrent exploded from him, even deeper and more forceful than Kaido's. The heavens split between two worlds—Kaido's crimson aura and Kaito's golden pressure clashing like colliding storms.
Crackling arcs of dark red lightning snapped through the air between them. The atmosphere distorted, the very sky bending under the pressure.
Their Haki tore the heavens apart.