Chapter 148: The Sunny Takes Flight – Garp's Pursuit & Kaido's Unexpected Appearance
"Luffy! Sol! Can you hear me? It's Chicken Sauce! It's Chicken Sauce! I'm here to capture you now!" Garp's voice suddenly rang out from behind, startling both Sol and Luffy. When they turned around, they saw Garp standing at the bow of a warship, shouting through a megaphone.
"Chicken Sauce! Why are you trying to catch us? Didn't you say you'd pretend we don't exist?!" Luffy shouted back at the top of his lungs.
"Shut up! I don't need a brat like you telling me what to do!" Garp, who had originally wanted to explain that he had no choice, was instantly provoked by Luffy's words. He casually picked up a cannonball from the ammunition box and hurled it toward Luffy with a whoosh.
Luffy reacted extremely fast, swatting the cannonball away into the distance where it exploded. "It's useless! I've gotten much stronger! And we're about to escape—see you later!"
"I'm so angry! My beloved grandson dares to talk to me like that! Bring me more cannonballs!" Garp roared while still holding the megaphone. Sol's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. He immediately shouted to Franky: "Prepare 'Wind Come Blast'! The old man is getting serious!"
Franky immediately told Sanji and the others to furl the sails and rushed into the cabin to prepare for emergency escape.
"Fist Bone Meteorite!"
Black-red Armament Haki erupted from Garp's hands. A specially made iron ball the size of a warship was thrown by him with tremendous force.
Feeling the powerful Haki wrapped around the iron ball, Sol immediately gathered his energy and unleashed "Heavenly Dragon's Roar," colliding head-on with the iron ball! The two forces clashed, instantly pushing the surrounding seawater aside and creating a vacuum zone.
After a brief stalemate, a massive splash of water shot into the sky. Garp frowned as he looked at the scene before him: "Hm? What's going on with their ship… it can fly?"
"See you later, Grandpa Garp!" Sol's voice came from afar. The Sunny had already drawn an arc in the air and was rapidly flying away.
Clack! Franky pushed open the door and explained loudly: "It consumes three barrels of cola, but it can fly a full kilometer in one go! This is my proudest dream ship—the Sunny!"
"Um… sorry to interrupt, but is there any Sea King that can swim in the sky?" Usopp pointed at a huge cyan figure moving through the clouds not far away and asked in a trembling voice.
"How could there be a Sea King flying in the sky? Maybe it fell from the sky islands? Like that sunken ship we saw falling from the sky before," Sanji was the first to express disbelief, already pulling out his lighter to light a cigarette.
"Dragon…!?"
Hearing the exclamation, Sanji looked up and saw a massive dragon head passing right by the Sunny. He was so shocked that he didn't even notice the cigarette falling from his hand.
Meanwhile, the drunken Kaido, in his hazy state, felt something resembling a large ship-shaped object flying past him. Thinking it was some kind of giant bird, he casually swung his tail at it.
Sol immediately recognized it as one of the Four Emperors—"Beast" Kaido. Before he could even wonder why Kaido was appearing in the first half of the Grand Line, he saw a massive dragon tail sweeping toward the Sunny!
"What the… if we take that tail in midair, won't the ship fall apart on the spot?!" Sol's mind raced. His body moved first—he shot forward instantly and punched the incoming dragon tail, forcefully deflecting it!
As the Sunny fell back to the sea surface, everyone finally realized they had almost been wiped out in one hit. Luffy angrily spun his arm and glared at the giant dragon above, shouting: "You bastard! I'm gonna catch you and grill you for dinner!" With that, he entered Second Gear, used Moon Step to leap in front of Kaido, coated his arm in Armament Haki, stretched it out, and spun it rapidly—
"Rubber Jet Spin Bullet!"
The powerful punch landed squarely on Kaido's face. However, it didn't even break through his defense, let alone sober him up. Luffy continued attacking several more times, but Kaido only felt like there was a mosquito buzzing around his ear. Annoyed, he opened his mouth and gathered scorching flames:
"Heat Breath!"
As the flames rushed toward them, at the critical moment Sol flew in, kicked Luffy out of the way, and then swallowed Kaido's Heat Breath at point-blank range, converting it into his own magic power.
"Burp… interesting!" A trace of clarity flashed in Kaido's eyes. He hadn't expected anyone in Paradise to be able to take his Heat Breath without injury. He immediately dove down, extended his dragon claws, grabbed both Sol and Luffy, and slammed them hard into the sea!
"Pwah…" Sol spent some effort to fish the unconscious Luffy out of the sea and surfaced. Under the worried gazes of Nami and the others, he flew back to the deck and handed Luffy over to Chopper for care.
"Kaido, why did you suddenly appear in the first half of the Grand Line?" Sol asked in a deep voice as Kaido approached.
Kaido didn't answer. Instead, he stared intently at Nami and suddenly laughed: "Hahaha! Today's my lucky day! You're the woman who ate that Mythical Zoan fruit, right? Come and become my subordinate!"
"Huh?" Nami pointed at herself, completely confused. Who was this guy? Why was he saying such random things the moment he showed up?
"Sol, you said this is Kaido?! Why is one of the Four Emperors of the New World appearing here?!" Robin's face turned pale with shock as she quickly confirmed with Sol.
Kaido paid no attention to the commotion on the ship below. In his view, almost no rookie pirate who had heard the name "Beast" would refuse his invitation—especially when he came in person.
His thoughts went back a few days earlier: he had been drinking gloomily on Onigashima when Queen suddenly rushed over noisily with a stack of bounty posters:
"Kaido bro, look at this—'Thunder Empress' Nami! These features match the same type as Marco's Devil Fruit!"
"Mythical Zoan?" Kaido glanced at the bounty poster and immediately confirmed it.
"That's right! Bird-Bird Fruit – Mythical Model – Thunderbird Form! It hasn't appeared in the seas for nearly a hundred years. I only recognized it after checking the Devil Fruit encyclopedia!" Queen rubbed his hands together with a look of seeking credit.
"This is… making me happy!" Kaido laughed, then suddenly burst into tears, his mood shifting extremely naturally. "Damn it! If not for that bastard Fire Fist Ace, Flower Sword wouldn't have died on the way back! My Zoan army has been developing so slowly all these years…"
"Kaido bro, don't be sad! Don't we still have the artificial Zoan Devil Fruits provided by Doflamingo? We already have a considerable force now!" Queen quickly comforted him.
"Burp~!" Kaido took a big swig of alcohol. "Idiot! No matter how many ordinary Zoans we have, they can't compare to one Mythical Zoan! Especially artificial fruits! No… they're in Paradise now, right? This old man will personally go invite this rookie to join!" Without waiting for Queen to reply, he transformed into his Azure Dragon form, smashed through the roof, and flew off.
"Kaido bro! The Den Den Mushi! At least take a Den Den Mushi with you!" Queen stared at Kaido, who had left with nothing, completely numb. He had originally hoped to mooch some activity funds to go see Purple…
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