Raijin Island lived up to its reputation. It wasn't just an island; it was a geographical temper tantrum.
The sky was a bruised purple, choked by clouds so thick they blocked out the sun entirely. From those clouds, pillars of lightning—thick as tree trunks—hammered the ground relentlessly. It was a constant, deafening barrage. Boom. Crack. Boom.
"We're going to die," Ren said, gripping the railing of the Marine battleship.
"Not die," Kaido corrected, standing on the figurehead, his arms crossed. "Grow."
"No, I mean the ship!" Ren yelled over the thunder. "The ship is going to die!"
As if on cue, a bolt of blue-white lightning arced down from the heavens. It bypassed the lightning rods and struck the main mast.
CRACK.
The mast exploded. Splinters the size of spears rained down on the deck. Fire—instant and white-hot—began to consume the sails.
"Abandon ship!" Kaido laughed, sounding far too happy about the destruction.
He leaped. A massive, inhuman leap that carried him hundreds of meters through the air, landing on the rocky shore with a crater-forming impact.
Ren looked at the burning ship, then at the churning black water.
"Kakuzu!" Ren shouted. "Grab Hidan!"
Kakuzu was already moving. The miserly ninja had sealed his bounty posters and money inside a waterproof scroll. He grabbed Hidan—who was currently trying to fight the fire with his cloak—by the back of the neck.
"Let go, stitch-face! I can fight the lightning!"
"You are heavy and useless," Kakuzu grunted.
Kakuzu's back exploded with black threads. They shot out, piercing the wooden railing of the ship and then launching toward the shore like grappling hooks. With a heave, he swung himself and Hidan off the dying vessel.
Ren was left alone. The fire was spreading to the gunpowder stores.
I have to jump.
He channeled chakra to his feet—a basic ninja technique he had instinctively unlocked with his Genin-level chakra. He sprinted to the edge and jumped.
He didn't make the shore.
He hit the water. It was freezing, the current violent. He tumbled under the waves, gasping, salt water filling his mouth.
I'm going to drown. I'm going to—
A hand grabbed his collar.
He was hauled out of the water and thrown onto the sharp, wet rocks of the beach. Ren coughed up water, his chest heaving.
He looked up to see Kaido staring down at him. The giant was drenched, his black hair plastered to his face, but he looked completely unbothered by the rain that fell like pellets of lead.
"You swim well for a weakling," Kaido grunted. "Good. No Devil Fruit means you don't sink."
BOOM.
Behind them, the Marine battleship exploded as the fire reached the powder magazine. The shockwave ruffled Kaido's feather coat but didn't make him flinch.
"Welcome to your classroom," Kaido gestured to the island.
It was a wasteland. The ground was scorched glass and black rock. There were no trees, only strange, twisted metal pillars that seemed to conduct the lightning away from certain paths.
"Where are the others?" Ren asked, wiping slime from his face.
" The zombie and the money-man went that way," Kaido pointed a thumb toward a jagged ridge. "They said something about finding shelter. I told them not to interfere."
Kaido stepped closer, his shadow engulfing Ren.
"One month, Ren. That was the deal."
Ren scrambled to his feet. "Right. Haki. How do I start? Do I meditate? Do I—"
"Meditate?" Kaido scoffed. He raised his iron club, the Kanabo. "Haki is Will. It is the power to impose your reality on the world. You don't find it in silence. You find it when you are terrified."
Kaido swung.
It wasn't a full-power swing—that would have vaporized Ren—but it was fast. Ren threw himself to the left, his cheek scraping against the rock. The wind pressure alone sent him tumbling.
"Observation Haki," Kaido lectured, walking slowly toward him. "The ability to sense intent. To hear the voice of the attack before it happens."
Crack.
A bolt of natural lightning struck the ground five feet from Ren. The air smelled of ozone.
"You have two enemies here, Ren," Kaido grinned. "Me. And the sky. Dodge both, or die."
Three Days Later.
Ren lay face down in the mud. He couldn't feel his left arm. He was pretty sure three of his ribs were cracked.
"Get up," Kaido's voice drifted from a nearby rock where the Oni was drinking a gourd of sake he'd saved from the ship.
"I... can't..." Ren wheezed.
"Then stay there and let the lightning finish you."
Ren gritted his teeth. Healing factor. I need a healing factor.
He opened his System interface with a thought.
[Chakra: 15/120]
[Summons Status: Active]
[Ren Status: Critical Condition.]
He couldn't rely on the System to heal him fast enough. He forced his body to move, pushing himself up with his good arm.
Sizzle.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Ren threw himself forward, face-planting into the mud just as a bolt of lightning struck the exact spot he had been lying in.
"Hoh?" Kaido lowered his drink. "You felt that one."
Ren panted, mud coating his teeth. "I felt... the static. The air changed."
"That's not Haki," Kaido dismissed. "That's just basic senses. You're reading the environment, not the intent."
Kaido stood up, the ground shaking with his weight. He walked over to Ren.
"You rely on that 'Chakra' of yours," Kaido observed. "I can feel it. It's a physical energy. You use it to boost your legs, to strengthen your skin. It's a crutch."
Kaido grabbed Ren's head in one massive hand, lifting him into the air.
"Haki is not physical energy," Kaido growled, staring into Ren's eyes. "It is spiritual. It is arrogance. You have to believe, deep in your soul, that you cannot be hit. That you are superior to the lightning."
He threw Ren.
Ren crashed into a metallic pillar. He slumped to the ground, vision blurring.
Arrogance? Ren thought. How can I be arrogant? I'm a normal guy. You're a dragon. Hidan is immortal. I'm just... the summoner.
That was the mental block. He saw himself as the 'Support' character. The guy who stands in the back and casts spells.
In One Piece, support characters died.
"I need to kill something," Ren whispered. "I need to win."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ridge.
Kakuzu stood in a cave, counting a pile of wet berries.
"10,000... 12,000..." Kakuzu sighed. "Pocket change. That Marine ship was poverty-stricken."
"I'm bored!" Hidan yelled. He was currently strapped to a rock with Kakuzu's black threads because he wouldn't stop pacing. "Kakuzu! Let me go! There's lightning everywhere! If I stand on the peak with my scythe, maybe Jashin will send me a message via electrocution!"
"If you get struck by lightning, your regeneration consumes calories," Kakuzu muttered, not looking up. "We have no food. If you get hungry, you get slow. If you get slow, you are useless to me."
"You're the worst partner ever!" Hidan spat. "I miss Ren! At least the kid listens to me!"
Kakuzu paused. He tilted his head.
"Did you hear that?" Kakuzu asked.
"Hear what? The thunder? It's been thundering for three days!"
"No," Kakuzu stood up, his green eyes narrowing. "Footsteps. Human. Not the giant."
Kakuzu walked to the cave entrance. He looked down into the valley below.
Through the rain, a group of figures was moving. They wore heavy raincoats and carried strange, insulated weaponry. They weren't Marines. They were pirates.
"Scavengers," Kakuzu surmised. "Here to loot the wreck of the Marine ship."
He looked back at his small pile of money. Then he looked at the group of twenty armed men below.
"Hidan," Kakuzu said, walking back to the rock and cutting the threads.
"Finally!" Hidan stretched.
"There are twenty wallets walking in the valley," Kakuzu said, his voice cold. "Go and collect them."
Hidan grinned, grabbing his scythe. "Do I have to bring the bodies back?"
"Just the hearts," Kakuzu said, stroking his chest where a stitch scar pulsed. "And the cash."
Back at the training ground.
Ren was barely standing. He held a rusted sword he had found in the wreckage—a standard Marine cutlass.
Kaido stood unarmed.
"Come," Kaido said.
Ren charged. He channeled chakra into his feet for speed, closing the gap in a second. He slashed at Kaido's chest.
Clang.
The sword bounced off Kaido's bare skin as if he had struck a steel wall. The vibration numbed Ren's arm.
Kaido didn't even use Haki. His natural durability was just that absurd.
Kaido backhanded Ren.
Ren saw it coming. He saw it. But his body couldn't move fast enough. The blow struck his ribs.
Ren flew backward, coughing blood.
[System Alert: Health below 10%.]
[Warning: Host is dying.]
"Stop holding back!" Kaido roared. "Use your summons! If you can't fight me alone, use everything you have! Kill me if you can!"
Ren looked up, blood dripping from his nose. Use the summons?
No. If he summoned Hidan now, Kaido would just smash Hidan again. It wouldn't teach Ren anything.
Ren needed to see. He needed to feel where the danger was.
He closed his eyes.
He ignored the pain. He ignored the System warnings. He reached out with his senses. Not for Chakra signatures, but for... intent.
The rain. He felt the rain hitting his skin.
The wind. He felt the shift in air pressure.
The Beast. He felt a massive, burning sun of violence standing in front of him.
Kaido moved.
Ren didn't wait for the visual cue. He felt the 'sun' shift. A spike of malice aimed at his head.
Ren ducked.
WHOOSH.
Kaido's fist passed inches above Ren's hair. The wind pressure sliced a few strands of black hair, but the fist didn't connect.
Time seemed to freeze.
Ren opened his eyes. He was crouching beneath Kaido's outstretched arm.
Kaido froze. He looked down at the boy.
A slow, terrifying grin spread across the future Emperor's face.
"There it is," Kaido whispered. " The flower of Haki begins to bloom."
Ren didn't have time to celebrate. His legs gave out, and he collapsed into the mud, unconscious.
Kaido looked at the unconscious boy, then at the sky where the lightning raged.
"He's soft," Kaido grunted to himself, picking up his gourd of sake. "But he's not broken."
From the distance, a scream echoed through the valley—followed by Hidan's manic laughter and the sound of lightning striking flesh.
Kaido took a drink.
"This crew might actually be fun."