One Piece is an anime that cares a lot about bloodlines.
Or rather—most Japanese battle series worship bloodlines.
During the Onigashima incident, Kaido claimed that only Haki is the power that stands above everything… and then he got beaten by Luffy using the Nika fruit.
Sure, that's not the point.
The point is: if Kaido truly believed Haki was everything, why did he eat the Azure Dragon fruit in the first place?
The answer is simple. Back when he was on Rocks' ship, Kaido watched Whitebeard create a tsunami with the Tremor-Tremor fruit—and that was when Kaido started craving a truly powerful Devil Fruit.
Because it's not that "Haki stands above all."
More precisely:
Only Conqueror's Haki stands above all.
And the part that really screws you is that Conqueror's Haki can't be strengthened through training.
Look at the people who have it.
Garp, Dragon, and Luffy—three generations of Conqueror's users. That's obviously a Monkey family bloodline issue.
Garling, Shanks, Shamrock—Figarland family. The Celestial Dragons' combat backbone.
Kozuki Oden—a daimyo lineage passed down through Wano's generations.
Loki—the prince of the giants.
Rocks, Teach, Roger… all of them are from the D. clan.
If you're born without that kind of "lineage," no matter how hard you grind, you're capped.
Even with Kaido's background, if he didn't rely on a Devil Fruit, his ceiling would've been something like Rayleigh, Gaban, Benn Beckman—top-tier "silver medalists."
So that raises a question.
Which excavator brand is the best?
…Yeah. Bad meme. Scratch that.
The real question is:
What makes Blake think he can profit off the chaos when the Sun God clashes with Imu—like some vulture picking clean what's left?
The answer is simple.
He has a cheat.
As Blake's thought settled, his consciousness slid into a vast, sapphire-blue space.
In front of him floated a futuristic screen.
There were ten slots on it—each slot embedded with a card.
Each card displayed a portrait and a name:
Borsalino (Young), Monkey D. Garp (Young), Shiki (Adult), Charlotte Linlin (Child)…
Beneath the cards sat a gold-glowing box.
"Same routine as always," Blake muttered. "Draw first."
He pressed his hand against the box.
It trembled—then a card burst out.
The portrait on it was a woman.
A rose-colored suit. A Marine "Justice" cape draped over her shoulders. Deep purple gloves. Long pink hair styled in a way that screamed she could probably dominate a basketball court, and purple sunglasses perched on her head.
Tina (Adult)
"Hm… Tina," Blake said, stroking his chin. "Yeah. This one's doable."
He took a breath.
"Enter challenge."
The moment the words left his mouth, Blake vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he stood on a lonely island.
"Island terrain, huh? That's favorable for her. Means I need to be more careful."
He headed toward the center of the island, while pushing his Observation Haki to its limit—guarding against an enemy that could appear from anywhere.
Then—within his senses—someone emerged from the dense forest ahead.
A sharp, heroic-looking woman.
But the Tina in front of him had eyes devoid of spirit—empty, indifferent.
Blake's gaze tightened.
He surged forward, shockingly fast.
His right fist drew back like a bow—then became coated in pitch-black Armament Haki.
Even so, without "Observation-killing," Blake couldn't completely deny her reaction.
Tina crossed her arms in front of her, Armament Haki wrapping them too.
Boom.
Blake's punch smashed into her guard and sent her flying backward.
Blake didn't let up. He chased immediately, pressing the advantage.
Tina hung in midair, hands spreading toward him.
"Black Spear Formation!"
In an instant, iron bars materialized out of nowhere—stabbing in from every direction.
Relying on the razor sensitivity of Observation Haki, Blake dodged them all, but his speed dropped.
Tina landed and snapped into a spinning kick aimed straight at his head—her long leg flashing under the sunlight.
Blake had no mood to appreciate it.
To avoid her Devil Fruit, his balance had shifted. He couldn't evade now—so he swung a fist and took it head-on.
Crash.
Kick and punch collided.
Normally a kick carries more force than a fist, but Blake's physical strength was higher than Tina's. This clash came out even.
In the split-second of that stalemate, Blake lifted his right leg and kicked for Tina's waist.
Tina stepped back to dodge. Blake slid forward with the motion, forcing close-range entanglement.
That was exactly what Blake wanted.
From Tina's few appearances in the story, her fruit seemed better suited for ranged pressure, wide-area control, and binding.
When two fighters' Haki is similar, the one with a Devil Fruit usually holds the advantage.
Blake's advantages were different:
his raw durability and strength—
and the fact that his Observation could detect the other person's Observation first.
After several exchanges, Blake had a clear read.
"Her Armament is slightly stronger than mine," he judged, "but not by much. If I drag this into a long fight and lean on physique… I win."
Confidence surged through him.
His attacks got faster.
A night passed in a blink—
and Blake reappeared in the sapphire-blue space, holding a card.
Armament Haki (Adult Tina)
As he spoke, the card dissolved.
Power flooded out from inside him—his Armament Haki's quality and quantity multiplying several times over.
That was Blake's system.
A dead-silent, rigid cheat that never spoke.
Rules were simple:
Once per month, Blake could draw one card.
The drawn character was random—sometimes a named powerhouse from the original story, sometimes an unknown nobody.
Named characters appeared far more often than "random NPCs."
The same character could appear from different eras—and their strength would vary accordingly.
Blake could challenge the drawn character.
If he won, he gained one Ability Card from them.
That Ability Card could be one of their three types of Haki, a Devil Fruit ability, or a special physique.
If he lost—or didn't want to fight yet—he could store the card in a card pool above.
The pool had ten slots.
Only ten cards could be stored.
Wait until he was confident—then decide.
Over sixteen years, Blake had filled all ten slots with cards he'd selected carefully:
strong abilities, but comparatively lower-risk targets.
Aside from Golden Lion Shiki and Red Count Barorick Ledfield—cards he'd only ever drawn once—the others were mostly "easier eras."
Take Garp, for example: Young Garp was obviously easier than Prime or Old Garp.
But among the ten cards, the most precious one was Charlotte Linlin (Child).
Out of all ten, child Linlin was the weakest—and as a child, she had no Haki and no Devil Fruit.
She only had a single terrifying innate talent—
Iron Balloon.
If Blake could beat her, he would definitely obtain the Iron Balloon Ability Card.
The tragedy was…
Even at sixteen, Blake still couldn't defeat child Charlotte Linlin.