Ten years.
Ten full years.
Do you have any idea how those ten years felt?
More than three thousand days and nights, alone on an empty island, living like a savage among monsters and beasts. What kept Rosha going was a single belief.
Fairy Tail.
Over those ten years, he planned his future again and again. First, he would become an S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail. Then after that…
Now, all of those plans were nothing more than discarded drafts.
Because the foundation itself had been wrong from the very beginning.
This was not the world of Fairy Tail.
This was the world of pirates.
Rosha once heard a story about a genie.
If someone had freed him a hundred years ago, he would have granted three wishes.
If someone had freed him fifty years ago, he would have granted one.
If someone freed him now, he would kill them on the spot.
Rosha felt that he understood that genie a little too well.
Damn it. Why did that azure dragon have to show up so late?
Of course, Rosha knew his shattered expectations were not Kaido's fault. Just like the man who freed the genie after a hundred years was not wrong.
But frustration had been building for ten years, and it needed release.
Before his mind could even finish forming the thought, his body moved.
Whoosh.
A fist wrapped in roaring flames descended from the sky and smashed mercilessly into the drunken dragon's head.
Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!
The massive dragon's head was forced downward by the overwhelming impact, slamming into the island's surface and kicking up a sky-filling cloud of dust.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
Rosha puffed out his cheeks, cupped his hands around his mouth, and unleashed a torrent of blazing flames that engulfed the azure dragon.
"So hot… damn, that burns."
The drunken dragon sobered slightly as pain set in. Its enormous body thrashed violently, flattening everything within several hundred meters.
Flames churned and trees vanished.
At last, the dragon stepped onto clouds of fire and rose into the sky, disappearing into the thick storm clouds above.
Rosha landed lightly on the ground and stared upward without blinking.
He knew Kaido had not fled.
After all, this was one of the apex beings of the pirate world, the man known as the strongest creature on land, sea, and sky.
As expected, the clouds churned violently.
A massive, ferocious dragon head emerged from the darkness.
"Wororororo. I was wondering who had the nerve to attack me first. Turns out it's just a native brat."
Kaido laughed, his voice echoing across the island as he spoke human words.
"This is interesting. I never thought I'd find someone with real strength on this island. Hic. Too bad you're not a Zoan. Still, that punch earlier actually hurt a little."
Rosha raised an eyebrow.
Strangely enough, he understood every word. And he knew Kaido could understand him as well.
Some kind of world-correction, he guessed.
That was fine. It saved him the trouble of learning a new language.
"Hey. You're a Logia user, right? The Flame Flame Fruit?"
Kaido's booming voice shook the island, terrifying the beasts hiding in the forest.
"I'm not 'hey.'"
Rosha grinned wildly.
"I am Rosha, a Fire Dragon Slayer Mage."
As for the Flame Flame Fruit, he had no interest. He would not touch that thing even if it were free.
"Dragon Slayer?"
Kaido's expression froze.
He did not know what a mage was.
But he understood the words dragon slayer perfectly.
Someone actually dared to stand in front of him and claim to slay dragons?
That was bold to the point of absurdity.
For a moment, Kaido stared. Then he burst out laughing.
"Wororororo! I like you more and more. You call yourself a dragon slayer, and I'm a dragon who can't even die no matter how hard I try. So tell me, dragon slayer. Can you kill me?"
Without waiting for an answer, Kaido attacked first.
"Demolition Gust!"
Slash. Slash. Slash.
Invisible blades of wind tore through the air, bombarding Rosha's position indiscriminately.
Towering trees over two meters thick were sliced apart instantly. Deep, crisscrossing scars carved themselves into the earth.
Dust rolled like a storm.
When the wind finally cleared the haze, the forest was gone. The land was riddled with devastation.
Rosha still stood there, unmoved.
He casually crushed the last wind blade in his hand. The condensed air shattered and dispersed into nothing.
"Wororororo. Not bad at all. Just as I thought. Native brat, how about this one?"
Kaido laughed with genuine excitement.
His jaws opened to their widest limit. A point of light appeared before his mouth, swelling rapidly into a brilliant cross-shaped star hanging in the sky.
Kaido bit down on it and spat it out.
Heat Breath!
A catastrophic torrent of dragon fire tore through the sky, carrying the power to shatter mountains and pierce islands.
This was Kaido's strongest attack in dragon form.
Rosha narrowed his eyes.
He did not dodge.
The destructive force was terrifying, but at its core, it was still fire.
And fire, to a Fire Dragon Slayer, was nothing more than fuel.
The instant the Heat Breath reached him, Rosha opened his mouth and inhaled deeply.
What happened next defied reason.
The raging dragon fire stalled midair, then collapsed under an unseen force, breaking down into pure flame energy that surged straight into Rosha.
Gulp.
Gulp, gulp.
Rosha swallowed Kaido's Heat Breath as easily as drinking water.
Power flooded through him, coursing through his limbs and veins.
The quality of the dragon's flames was astonishingly high. Rosha felt stronger than ever, as if he had reached a new threshold.
Up in the clouds, Kaido froze.
His massive dragon face went blank.
What?
Did that brat just… eat it?
Kaido had never expected Heat Breath alone to defeat a Flame Logia user. He thought Rosha might dodge, or maybe disperse into flames.
But this?
He had seen his Heat Breath sliced apart by swordsmen, deflected by Haki masters, and blocked by bizarre abilities.
Never once had someone eaten it.
Rosha had just filled that gap.
As Kaido stood there in disbelief, a thunderous shout rang in his ears.
"Hey, dragon. Where are you looking?"
Rosha shot into the sky, flames roaring behind him as they formed enormous wings shaped like a dragon's.
"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"
…