Trisamsara: Guide to Naraka—
Kaido unleashed one of his most devastating techniques, a strike named after the Four Great Wisdom Kings. Like the wrath of a furious deity, it was the kind of blow meant to crush anything that dared stand before it.
In that instant, Darren's instincts howled. A primal sense of danger surged through his nerves, every muscle drawing taut to the breaking point. Yet his eyes burned brighter than ever, blazing with manic excitement.
This is it.
This is the pressure I've been craving—pressure that even the Plague Queen and the Fire King can't generate together.
"Do you think this is some playground?!" Kaido roared, eyes blazing blood-red as his kanabo, wrapped in snarling black-red lightning, came crashing down like a thunderbolt.
Darren was caught slightly off guard and barely had time to raise his arm to meet it.
BOOM!!
A titanic shockwave exploded in the sky. Lightning lanced outward in a dense web, forcing King to retreat with wide, shaken eyes.
For a brief, brutal moment, the two figures were locked in stalemate—then Kaido's strike broke through. The black-haired youth was slammed into the ground like a meteor, carving out a crater over a hundred meters wide.
Boom!
The earth buckled and rolled like a raging sea, as if colossal dragons were thrashing beneath the crust.
A heartbeat later, Kaido's massive frame dropped from the sky like a cannonball, smashing into the shattered ground. His heavy landing sent fresh tremors racing through Onigashima.
He had already shifted into his Hybrid Form—dark-blue dragon scales armored his enormous frame, a thick, powerful tail lashed behind him, and his slit-pupiled crimson eyes never left the smoking crater where Darren had fallen.
"Boss Kaido, you're finally here!"
Queen's wail rang across the ruins, pitched somewhere between grief and relief.
"That bastard Darren was bragging about taking you down and stealing your title as 'Strongest Creature'!"
"As an Executive of the Beasts Pirates, you think I'd just sit back and let him insult you like that? No way!"
"So I bravely risked my life to stall him. I held him off for about twenty minutes… but in the end, I failed. He even destroyed all the laboratories on Onigashima!"
Queen's voice shook with manufactured righteousness, his face contorted with a fury that almost looked sincere.
"Is that so? Funny, because when I arrived, all I saw was a certain lump of deadweight being stomped into the ground like a dead pig."
King descended behind Kaido, sword in hand, a cool smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
He had finally recovered from their earlier clash, though a thin sheet of cold sweat still slicked his back.
"You—!" Queen's face flushed bright red, but he quickly forced a laugh, baring his teeth. "At least I last longer than ten seconds, unlike some people."
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTHS!"
Kaido's roar cracked the air like thunder. His face twisted into a feral scowl, instantly silencing their usual bickering.
King lowered his head and stepped back half a pace in deference.
Queen muttered something under his breath, but didn't dare say it aloud.
They had both seen it.
The look on Kaido's face.
It was the expression he reserved for facing a truly formidable opponent—wariness that ran bone-deep.
Ignoring their squabbling, Kaido's brows creased even more tightly.
He had felt it in the very first exchange.
The feedback that tremored through his kanabo, Hassaikai—
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
This Marine brat—no, this damned brat—his Haki had grown even stronger than during the battle at Felsek Island against the Gorosei.
What the hell happened to him?
Rogers Darren… what is that body of yours made of?
How can your strength grow this fast?!
If he hadn't felt it directly through his own weapon, Kaido would never have believed it.
As the "Strongest Creature" wrestled with that bitter realization, a mocking voice drifted up from the heart of the crater.
"Didn't have breakfast, Kaido-sensei?"
Through the swirling dust and smoke, Darren climbed out of a deep fissure in the shattered earth.
He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with a broken tooth, wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and looked up at the "Strongest Creature in the World" with a bloody grin.
"That strike… felt more like a tickle than a proper blow."
Kaido's pupils tightened.
He wasn't shocked that Darren was injured—he was stunned by just how light the injury was.
"I never would've thought…"
Darren laughed wildly, the hand holding his cigar trembling slightly—but it wasn't fear.
It was exhilaration.
The triumph of an underdog who'd finally forced open a door that had once seemed impossibly far away.
"Back when I first came to Onigashima," he said, eyes gleaming, "you practically beat me to death with that kanabo."
At those words, Kaido's expression twisted completely.
Veins bulged along his forehead as he surged forward with a roar.
"You're asking for death!"
Dragging his kanabo with one hand, he streaked forward in a blur of purple-black lightning. It was hard to tell if he was swinging the Hassaikai, or if the Hassaikai itself was dragging him along at that terrifying speed.
"Thunder Bagua!!"
BOOOM!!
Like a meteor slamming into the earth, the atmosphere itself seemed to shatter.
A hellish gale exploded from the impact, sweeping outward in a ring. The entire island of Onigashima shook, as if it were about to tear itself apart.
Fissures ripped across the earth one after another, jagged and deep, vomiting up dust and stone like geysers.
But when the dust began to settle—
King's face froze in disbelief.
Queen's jaw dropped so far it nearly hit the shattered ground.
"What?!"
A single military boot.
A boot armored in black and crimson Haki had stamped down atop Kaido's kanabo, locking it firmly in place.
Crimson-black lightning exploded from the point of contact, streaking into the sky and blasting open the clouds, leaving a jagged crack torn through the heavens.
Kaido's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He blocked it…
Thunder Bagua—his fastest and most devastating strike—had been stopped.
By this brat.
"Don't be so surprised," Darren said lightly. His boot remained planted arrogantly on the kanabo as he grinned down at Kaido. "I've taken that hit at least thirty times now. Maybe fifty."
"If I still couldn't block it, I might as well kill myself instead of talking about fighting the World Government."
Kaido narrowed his eyes, teeth grinding together.
"Young Darren… what's your real reason for coming to Onigashima?" he asked through clenched jaws, voice low and deadly. If killing intent were blades, Darren would have been sliced to pieces on the spot.
"Your biggest problem right now is the Government, not me!" Kaido snarled. "Coming alone into my territory is nothing but a waste of your strength—it does you no good at all!"
"Oh, but you're wrong…"
Darren shook his head and slowly lifted his gaze, a knowing smile curving his lips.
"You're mistaken about one thing. I didn't come to Wano to waste my strength—"
He winked at him, eyes gleaming like a predator who'd finally found the perfect hunting ground.
"I came here to increase it."
"What do you think, Kaido-sensei?"
To be continued...