The onlookers from the Rocks Pirates wore identical looks of surprise. Wounds like that, healed in the blink of an eye.
"What Devil Fruit does that?" Shiki narrowed his eyes. "Doesn't look like a Logia."
A Logia's elementalization only lets you slip past physical attacks, like flowing water. Armament Haki still hurts you.
"I heard there's a Mythical Zoan called the Phoenix," Streusen said, rubbing his chin. "Sounds similar."
"Is that so?" Stussy folded one arm and propped her chin with the other, tilting her head. "His recovery looks more like he is rewinding to a state before the injury. Could be a Paramecia."
Opinions piled up as the fight in the crater reignited.
Kaido's kanabō was nowhere to be seen. He settled for his fists.
Whitebeard refused to bully him. He tossed his naginata aside and met fist with fist.
They traded punches, Armament Haki smashing together. Black lightning rippled outward from each collision point like a spiderweb blotting the sky.
"Gurararara. So what did you eat?" Whitebeard grinned. "No special tricks? If all you have is not fearing injury, that is not invincibility, brat."
"It is enough."
They crashed together again and again, a dozen blows in a breath.
Kaido's fists moved so fast they left afterimages, as if extra arms had appeared for a heartbeat. His barrage hammered Whitebeard's chest, but only shoved him half a step back.
"Urgh."
Whitebeard barked, Haki flaring. Conqueror's lightning wound along his right arm. He blew past Kaido's guard and drove an uppercut across the air into Kaido's jaw.
The crack was deafening. The force bulged Kaido's eyes and launched him like a shell into the sky.
"Too heavy," Gloriosa murmured, tracking the soaring figure. "He is only an apprentice. Using Conqueror's coating on him, what if you kill the boy."
Shiki laughed. "Jiehahaha. Did he not claim he cannot die? He will live."
"He cannot even coat his weapon with Conqueror's," Streusen said with a shrug. "Where did he find the nerve to provoke Newgate."
All eyes followed Kaido.
He climbed five or six hundred meters up before free fall took him, and after several long seconds he crashed back into the crater with a boom.
"He is out cold."
Whitebeard peered down. Kaido's wounds were mending before their eyes, though this time the process was a little slower.
A new figure appeared at the rim.
Broad shouldered and towering, he radiated pressure. His hair was half black and half white, flaring out in rough spikes. His face was all hard lines.
"Interesting. So he really is undying."
"Rocks." Whitebeard glanced over and spoke before the question came. "Do not ask me. I have no idea what is going on."
Rocks dropped lightly into the pit. The others joined him around Kaido.
Stussy crouched and checked his breath. "Normal vitals. Looks completely uninjured."
"Wake him," Rocks said.
Charlotte Linlin grabbed Kaido by the collar and hauled him up, then slapped him several times across the face.
"Hey. Wake up, Kaido. Start talking."
Kaido's eyelids twitched. He came to and found himself ringed by heavy hitters.
Rocks smiled. "It is too early for you to challenge Newgate, Kaido. Tell us what this is."
Kaido said nothing.
"Did the beating scramble your brains?" Stussy laughed behind her hand.
"Hmph. Scratches," Kaido snorted. He shot them a sidelong look. "I only drank a cup of liquor. After that I had an ageless, undying body."
They traded looks. So it was not a Devil Fruit.
Rocks' interest sharpened. "What liquor does that?"
The two women brightened at once.
"Ageless," Stussy breathed.
"Wine of youth," Gloriosa said.
Charlotte Linlin sniffed. "What are you two hearing. It is ageless and undying. The undying is the point."
"You who pop out babies like popcorn can spare me," Gloriosa shot back. "You know nothing about a woman's war with time."
Stussy ignored the bickering. "Where is the liquor, brat."
"It is called the Wine of Immortality. New bar, just opened." The mention alone made Kaido's craving flare, though the price still hurt.
"Take me," Rocks said, intrigued. "Anyone who can brew that, I want a look."
Kaido would have loved to refuse. He still owed Dimon a Devil Fruit and had no desire to face his creditor.
"One cup costs one Devil Fruit," he said with a grin as a thought struck him. "Even if we go, you will not get to drink. I can guide you, sure. Get me a Devil Fruit first."
"Brat," Stussy said, eyes cool.
"Apprentice," Gloriosa murmured, narrowing hers.
"Kaido." Charlotte Linlin drove a fist into him.
The beating crackled on. Shiki and the others joined the dogpile.
He would not die and would be whole again in seconds. They could cut loose.
Inside the Immortality Bar, Princess Arisa Ōseya was scrubbing down tables.
There were hardly any customers, but having nothing to do made her anxious.
Behind the counter, Dimon leafed through an old paper.
The roar outside was impossible to miss. He did not need to look to guess. Kaido, drunk on power, had gone to brawl someone.
"Ora ora. Boss, I am back."
The familiar laugh rolled in as Kaido shouldered through the swing doors.
"K-Kaido," Arisa squeaked and scuttled aside.
Dimon did not lift his head. "Here to settle up with a Devil Fruit. That was quick."
Kaido's grin froze. Devil Fruits were rare. Getting even one was not easy.
"Apologies, boss. We do not have one yet."
The voice was not Kaido's.
Dimon looked up. One glance was enough to pin the name.
Rocks D. Xebec, lord of Beehive Island.
He came in first. Six more filed in behind him.
Edward Newgate, Whitebeard.
Shiki, the Golden Lion.
Streusen, the Gourmet Knight.
Gloriosa, former Pirate Empress.
Charlotte Linlin, Big Mom.
Miss Buckingham Stussy.
"Plenty of familiar faces," Dimon said with a light smile. "Welcome to the Immortality Bar."
Rocks' gaze was sharp as a blade as he crossed to the counter and sat.
He did not bother with small talk.
"Boss," he said, "interested in joining the Rocks Pirates?"