The pirates around them were quick on the uptake, shuffling back to clear an open ring.
"Caw-caw-caw… I'm an eighty-million-berry man. Today I'll show you just how tough I am!" The towering black rooster beat his wings and sprang aloft, taloned feet gouging the ground.
"Black Plume Arrow Rain!"
With each thunderous flap he whipped up gale-force wind. Then shnk, shnk, shnk a sleet of jet-black feathers dropped from the sky like bolts from a hundred bows, their speed no less than bullets, all screaming down at Kaido.
Zhiyin Kun cackled, full of himself. "Caw, caw… get ready to be turned into a sieve!"
Feathers keened past with a razor hiss. Kaido curled his lip. "What a trash-tier Devil Fruit…"
The darts hammered his body with crisp, metallic ting-ting-tings, like needles pinging off steel. The ones that missed buried themselves half a feather deep in packed earth.
Watching Kaido stand there unmarked, Zhiyin Kun's face drained. His shots couldn't pierce the man's skin. What kind of monster ?
Kaido yanked up his kanabō. "You think that gets you into Big Bro Ares's unit? Beat it."
He swung once.
The club crashed into the rooster's crown WHAM and sent Zhiyin Kun cartwheeling into the distance, life or death uncertain.
The crowd of pirates blanched, hair standing on end.
Kaido swept them with a hard, predatory stare. "You want into Tengetsu Ares's squad? You get through me first."
No one dared answer.
With that, Kaido hoisted the unconscious Katakuri and headed for a doctor. The kid might be small, but he'd had the guts to seek Ares out and the will to endure real pain. Kaido couldn't help respecting that.
And so, Katakuri earned Kaido's recognition and officially his place in their training circle.
Two days later.
Edward Newgate made landfall on Hachinosu and beelined for Ares's training grounds. He knew the kid if Ares wasn't eating or sleeping, he'd be here.
He ran full tilt, unable to wait another breath. When he saw Ares wreathed in flames, his pupils tightened in shock. Then he grinned, elated, and bellowed from afar, "Ares! Show me how far you've come!"
His hand tightened on Murakumogiri as he vaulted into the air.
Ares drew in the flames with a thought. His eyes lit up. "Newgate, big bro!"
Blood-red Armament flared over his arm like a heated brand. He drove his fist forward.
The punch dragged the air after it in viscous ripples; shockwaves boomed as the pressure shell shattered.
Newgate's smile widened even as surprise flickered in his eyes. "Ares, you really have grown stronger!"
They met mid-flight.
BOOM.
The impact cracked the sky, a visible ring of force racing outward and scudding dust in all directions.
Newgate dropped from the air and caught Ares in a crushing bear hug, laughing from the gut. "Gura-ra-ra-ra! You brat you finally came back!"
He clapped Ares on the shoulder like a proud elder. "And tougher than ever. From the look of that training, you've put yourself through hell, huh?"
"I'm used to it." Ares grinned, then almost sheepish added, "Sorry I made you worry for a year, Newgate."
"Gura-ra-ra! Then I'll punish you by making you drink with me tonight." Newgate's laughter rang out. "I hear you're a Rocks division captain now. That shocked even me. But…"
His tone sobered. "That's not all roses. You'll be buried in missions."
The Rocks Pirates' war with the World Government had only escalated, dragging half the world into its undertow. Newgate had fought dozens of battles this past year alone.
Ares just smiled. "I don't mind. If fighting makes me stronger, I'm all for it."
"Gura-ra-ra… that's you, all right born battle-junkie." Newgate knew Ares well. His way of teaching had always been simple: tell the kid what he knew, then let fists and steel do the rest. It was how he'd learned too one insight at a time, beaten out of real fights.
Watching Newgate that happy squeezed something in Ares's chest. For a heartbeat he saw another Newgate, decades older, body a pincushion of tubes. The image stung.
"Hey, Newgate," Ares blurted, "what do you care about most?"
Newgate blinked, then softened into that gentle, almost fatherly smile. "Ah… I've wanted the same thing since I was a kid."
"Family."
"Family…" Ares already knew the answer, but hearing it from Newgate's own mouth left him a little dazed, as if two lives briefly overlapped.
He smiled back. "When you find your family, then they're my family too. Right?"
"Of course. My family's your family." Newgate squinted at him. "But you're saying weird things today, kid."
"Am I?" Ares laughed it off and scratched his head. "I'll get back to training."
He beat a hasty retreat and set to work again, leaving Newgate squinting after him, puzzled. There was something under those words… but guessing wasn't Newgate's style. He simply sat nearby and watched Ares train, as warm and familiar as a year ago.
Elsewhere, inside the Skull Castle.
Bang bang bang!
Bang bang bang!
Whoever was outside the door was in a hurry.
Rocks set down the sprawling chart compiled by the crew's navigators and strode over, frowning. He swung the door open to find Captain John pale and tight-jawed trouble written all over him.
At the sight of his captain, John didn't waste a second. "Captain Rocks something's happened."
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