"??"
"??"
Charlotte Linlin and Edward Newgate froze for a moment—then turned to look at Kaido with odd expressions, as if staring at a complete fool.
"Hmph! I knew it. No matter the battle, it's never complete without you, you war-crazed maniac!"
Sengoku watched the Azure Dragon fly toward them. He wasn't surprised at all. With a loud buzz, his body once again radiated golden light and transformed into a massive golden Buddha.
He swung open his massive right palm and slammed it forward. In an instant, a tremendous shockwave burst forth, driving a powerful blast of air with overwhelming force.
On Kaido's side, he opened his dragon maw and unleashed massive wind blades straight into the incoming pale-golden shockwave.
[BOOM!!]
As the two forces collided, the former was completely overpowered and shattered one after another, crashing heavily into the Azure Dragon's body, sending him reeling backward while crying out in pain.
"What a pity. With that level of power, you're not qualified to act arrogant in front of me!"
Suddenly, the golden Buddha vanished from the warship—and in the blink of an eye, reappeared high in the sky, directly above the Azure Dragon.
[BOOM!]
This time, instead of slamming with his palm, the golden Buddha smashed a golden fist straight into the dragon's skull. With a thunderous crash, Kaido was nearly knocked unconscious and plunged violently into the ocean.
Kaido, in his Azure Dragon form, released Armament Haki across the surface of his body, pushing away the seawater around him. Then, twisting his long serpentine body, he began to spin rapidly in a circular motion like a top. Instantly, a massive and violent waterspout took shape, stirring up huge volumes of seawater. Using the eye of the storm, he shot upward and launched himself into the sky.
[BOOM!!]
But just as quickly as it had formed, the waterspout was blown apart by a single shockwave from the golden Buddha's casual palm strike.
"Linlin—Whitebeard—!"
Seeing that colossal golden Buddha charge at him once more like an unstoppable arhat, Kaido's heart sank. Instinctively, he glanced toward the other two 'allies'.
In his view, this great sea battle was supposed to be a three-pronged alliance—BIG MOM and Whitebeard as the main force, while he played a supporting role from the flanks.
Earlier, when he saw both of them take action, he had charged in eagerly in his drunken state, hoping to strike at the center while the other two launched a pincer attack from the outside.
But now he and Sengoku had been fighting for so long… Why hadn't there been any movement from their side?
"You! You two…"
As Kaido's eyes swept over the battlefield, he was stunned to find that the Queen Mama Chanter and the Moby Dick were both leaving. The sight nearly made his dragon eyeballs fall out of their sockets.
As for Whitebeard—he felt he had already gotten the answer he needed. There was no reason to risk a bloody war with the Marines. Besides, both Garp and Sengoku were present. If they hadn't been leading the charge, maybe then it would've been worth the risk to steal those two treasure ships.
As for Charlotte Linlin, she had absolutely no interest in treasure—'You can't eat the stuff, so what's the point of keeping it?' she thought.
She had come here purely to vent her anger.
So, the moment she realized the Whitebeard Pirates were withdrawing, she immediately chose to turn around and sail back the way she came.
"Mom, with both us and the Whitebeard Pirates pulling out, Kaido's got no way out now," her eldest son, Perospero, said with a teasing grin, tongue curling playfully.
Charlotte Linlin couldn't have been happier. She burst into laughter.
"Mamamama! It's not the first time he's been captured. He'll find a way out—eventually~~"
"But Mom, from what I understand, all his past arrests happened before his Devil Fruit awakened."
Katakuri stared solemnly at the distant battlefield, his voice deep and steady.
"And back then, the Marines didn't even send him to Impel Down. They just held him at a base here in the New World. Kaido usually escaped during transfer, by breaking the prison ship mid-route. But this time…"
"Hm?"
BIG MOM paused after hearing this, suddenly deep in thought. She wasn't one for overthinking, but she did care a little about that rotten younger brother.
"Right… if that brat gets caught this time, he'll be escorted by Sengoku and Garp, leading a fleet of ten warships. There's basically no chance of escape mid-transport. So they'll carry him all the way to Mary Geoise—no, wait… they'll probably return to Marineford with the fleet. And right next to Marineford is…"
After thinking it through, the big woman's face turned rather awkward—she realized she might've seriously screwed Kaido over this time.
"Get in touch with Whitebeard right now. Ask him if he's willing to team up with me to go rescue Kaido!" Charlotte Linlin said, rubbing her slightly chubby chin.
"Yes, Mom."
Opera walked off to make contact. He soon returned and timidly relayed the response from the other side.
"Whitebeard said… he's not that close with Kaido. If we want to rescue him, we'll have to do it ourselves…"
"Not that close?"
Charlotte Linlin's expression twisted with frustration, a visible storm brewing in her eyes. What kind of nonsense was that? They'd known each other for decades—how could he say they weren't close?
"So what now, Mom? If we head back now, we'll have to face Sengoku and Garp together, and those two admiral candidates too."
Perospero cautiously observed BIG MOM's darkened expression as he voiced the warning. He didn't want to risk his life for Kaido, but he also feared Mom would act on impulse.
"Ehhh—"
Thankfully, Charlotte Linlin wasn't that foolish. She wasn't having one of her food-hunger episodes either, so she still had enough sanity left. She let out a long sigh.
"Mamamama, forget it. Let him deal with it. He won't die—at worst, he'll be locked up for a few years and find a way to escape. He's not the kind of man who goes down that easily."
...
Kaido was momentarily dumbfounded, but quickly came to his senses. Now wasn't the time to dwell on it.
He saw Sengoku's golden Great Buddha form slamming its palms toward him.
Immediately, he shifted from his full beast form to his hybrid form. Using his now-smaller size and greatly enhanced speed, he narrowly evaded the shockwave's impact and fled in another direction without looking back.
He wasn't stupid. Given his current strength, there was no way he could take on Sengoku. He had to find a way out of this mess!
"Damn you, Linlin… and Whitebeard! You two just wait! Sooner or later, I'll settle this score with both of you!"
What the hell was this supposed to be? They were the ones who struck first—and when he joined in, they just up and left?
"Hey, Kaido! Since you're here, why don't you take a trip with this old man?"
But just as Kaido tried to escape, someone else wanted him to stay.
With a thunderous burst of wind and a booming sonic crack, Garp suddenly blocked his path—grinning, baring two rows of pristine white teeth.
"You old bastard! Get out of my way!"
Kaido roared in fury. Eyes bloodshot, he lashed out without hesitation, hurling his kanabō forward, the weapon crackling with streaks of violet lightning.
[BOOM!]
A jet-black fist clad in Armament Haki detonated the very air around it, sending out a ripple of white mist and violent black-red lightning.
That monstrous blow smashed into the kanabō, generating wave after wave of explosive shockwaves. The sea below boiled like an erupting volcano.
[CLAAANG—!]
The deafening clash of metal echoed across the battlefield.
Kaido's weapon was completely shattered.
And that black-red fist didn't stop—it crashed into Kaido's face, exploding with devastating force.
His neck stretched grotesquely from the impact, twisted by the sheer force of the punch.
A split-second later, he was spinning through the air like a top, flung backward at high speed.
[CRASH—!]
He smashed straight through a perfectly intact pirate ship, reducing it to rubble and vanishing beneath the wreckage.
...
At that moment, the most terrified ones weren't just the pirates already in battle—but those who had been about to join in.
They had all assumed that Sengoku and Garp would be held back by Whitebeard, BIG MOM, and the so-called Hundred Beasts Kaido.
But in just a few short minutes, Whitebeard and Linlin had both retreated, and the last one—Kaido—had been utterly thrashed right before their eyes.
So what now?
"Retreat!"
"Fall back!!"
"No more fighting—we can't win this!"
One pirate captain after another abandoned their dreams of the ONE PIECE, of becoming Pirate King. All that remained was the desperate urge to get back to their ships and escape the battlefield as fast as possible.
In mere moments, pirate ships began turning their bows.
Pirates who had already boarded Marine vessels for close-quarters combat either abandoned their comrades or jumped overboard without hesitation.
Every man for himself in the face of disaster.
What had moments ago been a brutal naval war had suddenly devolved into a chaotic, deadly game of survival.
"Trash like you… there's no escape!"
Sakazuki stood grim-faced, having already incinerated who knew how many pirates.
His arms, still in molten magma form, slowly lifted as he stared murderously at the fleeing pirate ships in the distance.
Droplets of lava dripped onto the deck, burning through it and leaving charred craters in their wake. The stench of sulfur thickened the air around him.