"Achoo. Achoo!"
Arakaki Jin was gliding smoothly through the clouds when he suddenly broke into a fit of sneezes.
"Is Stella thinking about me… or Ain?" he muttered. "Eh. Whatever."
He adjusted his heading and shot toward his destination.
Didn't take long before he saw it.
Not far ahead of the route past Fishman Island lay one of the New World's special zones—
Thunder God Island.
Lightning hammered down on it nonstop.
Rumble, rumble…
Staring at the constant storm, Jin's eyes burned with excitement.
"I'm coming."
He let out a dragon's roar and surged forward.
"Rooooar—!"
—
"Did you hear that?!"
On the island, people holding umbrellas stepped out of their houses, looking around in confusion.
They'd learned to tell certain sounds apart. That roar? Usually meant some suicidal pirate crew was trying to make landfall again.
Which, frankly, was good news.
If pirates died, whatever was left on their ship belonged to the locals.
And the heads could be hauled to the nearest Marine base for bounty money.
A cluster of villagers hurried down toward the cliffs and docks to peek at the sea.
"Huh? Nothing there…"
They scanned the waterline—nothing but waves and mist.
"But there was definitely a roar just now!" someone insisted.
As they were still bickering, a shout went up:
"Look up! What is that?!"
Everyone raised their heads.
A massive golden dragon, several hundred meters long, was streaking toward the island at terrifying speed.
"D-Dragon?!"
Some people panicked on the spot.
Others just sneered.
"Whatever it is, if it wants to force its way onto Thunder God Island," one man said, "that thing's not afraid of dying?"
Then they saw something stranger.
The moment Jin's colossal dragon body crossed into the island's "sky," scattered bolts of lightning broke from the clouds and slammed straight into him.
"Roooar— that feels good… wonder if the lightning higher up feels even better."
The golden dragon flapped his wings and rocketed upward into the thunderclouds above the island.
"Rooooar—!"
"Damn, he's crazy…"
The villagers watched, speechless, as the giant dragon flew straight up into the roiling heart of the storm.
Lightning poured down on him in a constant barrage.
"Roar! Feels great! Come on! Harder! More lightning!"
Listening to the dragon screaming like he was in agony, yet yelling about how good it felt, the villagers' mouths all twitched.
Jin, meanwhile, was having the time of his life.
Thunder cracked again and again, blasting scales apart, shredding flesh, leaving his body a mess of blood and charred tissue—
Then golden flames surged out of his wounds every time, rapidly knitting him back together.
"Something's off—look at that dragon!" someone said, stunned. "His injuries… they're healing!"
"Is he a Devil Fruit user? That's one hell of an ability…"
From a distance, the islanders could see it clearly now.
Almost all the lightning in the sky was focusing on the dragon. And the dragon kept swinging his massive body through the air, enduring the raging storm as if trying to wrestle it.
At first, with his defensive scales intact, it did feel amazing.
Once his defenses were broken, though, it was pure, white-hot pain.
"Rooooar!"
Jin howled, gritting his teeth as he resisted the lightning's wrath.
He could feel it clearly—
His body was being pushed forward, bit by bit.
He'd hit a physical bottleneck before coming here. No matter how he trained, his body refused to move to the next tier.
He was jealous of Big Mom's absurd, iron-balloon body. Of Kaido's near-indestructible flesh.
Both of them had been born with that nonsense.
He'd tested Garp's body strength once.
He couldn't break it.
As for that future wound from Shiryu's blade… tch. If it hadn't been for a certain "King of Running Away" getting in the way, plus Garp's old age, there was no way he would've been scarred like that.
He didn't buy it.
He had no intention of being weaker than any of them.
He just needed… a different path.
He lost track of time in the lightning hell.
His body was constantly destroyed and rebuilt.
Destroyed and rebuilt.
At some point—
"Roooar…"
He couldn't hold it anymore.
"Damn… that monster's tough," someone under an umbrella muttered down below. "He's been getting fried this long and still isn't dead."
"Does that guy have a screw loose? Coming here just to get struck by lightning?"
"The time's almost up," an older voice chimed in. "It'll stop soon."
"Booooom!"
A final, vicious bolt speared down, blasting through Jin's body.
Then, at last, the thunder faded away, leaving only a thick, oppressive night hanging over Thunder God Island.
"…Ugh…"
With the force gone, Jin shrank rapidly, reverting to human form midair.
He plummeted toward the island like a stone.
"Go see if he's dead!" someone yelled. "If he is, toss him into the sea for the fish and check what valuables he's got on him!"
A crowd rushed across the slick ground.
"Boom!"
Jin hit the earth like a meteor, punching a deep crater into the ground.
His body was a mess of bloody flesh and torn scales, faint golden flames still licking at his wounds as they struggled to mend him.
"Haa… haa… almost died…"
He lay there gasping.
He hadn't just felt like he'd nearly died.
He really had.
"Got too hyped and dove right in like an idiot," he thought. "This dragon form is messing with my head… made me act arrogant as hell… yeah. Gotta be that."
Voices drifted in from the rim of the pit.
"Dead yet?"
Silhouettes loomed around the edge, peering down at him.
Jin took out a cigarette, stuck it between his lips, and lit it with a tiny spark of golden flame from his thumb.
He exhaled a long plume of smoke.
"…He's alive."
"Look at that! The guy's still breathing. Damn, what a tough bastard."
Jin let his Observation Haki wash lazily over them.
Even in his current state, he could easily crush every single one of them.
So he ignored them.
Better to spend every sliver of strength on healing.
For all he knew, the lightning would start up again any minute.
"Young man, come on up," an old voice called. "The next wave won't come for about half an hour."
Jin looked up.
The speaker was an old man—really old—but still solidly built. His frame carried the kind of density that didn't come from just age.
Probably from being struck by lightning since childhood.
"Don't worry," the old man said. "I'm the village chief here. Seeing you train your body like that… we're all impressed."
"Besides, with wounds like those, if you don't rest properly, you'll be dead when the next lightning wave hits."
The faces around the rim were full of open respect.
Jin thought for a moment, then jumped lightly from the bottom of the pit.
He landed beside the old man without staggering.
"Everyone, back to work," the elder ordered. "You, come with me, young man. I'm sure you've got plenty of questions."
The crowd dispersed without complaint.
The old man walked ahead; Jin followed without fuss.
"Let me introduce myself properly," the elder said as they walked. "Name's Bui Lee. I'm the village chief of Thunder God Island."
"There are a few dozen families living here. From our grandparents' generation to ours, some moved away because they couldn't stand the lightning anymore."
"Some were struck and killed."
"That's why there are so few of us now."
Before long, they reached the mouth of a wide cave.
Yeah.
A cave.
"This is my home," Bui Lee said. "Down here is where the lightning almost never hits. We call it the safe zone."
Jin took a quick glance, then stepped inside without commentary.
"Tea?" the elder offered, already pouring from an old pot.
"Thanks," Jin said, accepting the cup.
"Heh. Not afraid I poisoned it?" Bui Lee chuckled.
"You didn't," Jin replied, deadpan.
Even if he had, Jin's Observation would've caught the intent—and if something did slip in, his golden flames could burn it out.
"Good," the elder nodded. "You're strong. Even injured, I couldn't beat you. Best I can do is talk."
"I used my Observation earlier. The result I got if we fought was… 'fatal.' For me, of course. So here we are."
Jin smiled faintly and said nothing.
That was just how this world worked.
"Ask what you want," Bui Lee said. "I'll answer what I can."
"This lightning," Jin said. "Pattern. Duration. Interval between waves."
"…Interval?" the elder echoed.
"The gap between bursts," Jin translated, expression flat.
"Ah."
Bui Lee cleared his throat.
"The thunder usually lasts three to five hours when it's active," he said. "The 'interval,' as you call it, is very regular. Always thirty minutes."
"You're lucky today," the elder added with a grin. "You only got hit for about an hour."
"If you'd flown in when the last cycle just started…"
Jin's spine went cold.
Yeah.
He'd gotten lucky.
If he'd arrived right at the start of a storm phase, he really might've been fried down to ash.
Seeing his expression shift, Bui Lee chuckled.
"Now you know how terrifying Thunder God Island really is."
"Honestly? You're the first one I've seen with a head this hard. First time here and you fly straight into natural lightning."
"Good thing you've got that ridiculous healing. Otherwise, you'd just be soot and rumours."
Jin snorted.
"From the looks of it," he said, "you're not exactly cut off from the world, are you?"
Bui Lee's face darkened.
"Of course not," he snapped. "What, do we look like cavemen to you?"
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios