Chapter 210: A Battle Against Kaido!
The rooftop plaza fell silent.
Big Mom's eyebrow twitched. She glanced from Shane to Kaido, a curious look on her face. Kaido, however, just narrowed his eyes.
After a moment of silence, he threw his head back and roared with laughter. "Worororo!! You've got a lot of nerve, kid!"
"But I like it! That's how a young man should be! That's the kind of spirit I've been waiting for!" Kaido slammed his iron club on the ground, the impact sending another tremor through the chateau and cracking the floor. He unhooked the giant gourd of sake from his waist.
"But... I can't just ignore an insult like that. Since you had the guts to say it to my face, you must be prepared for the consequences!"
"Hey! Kaido!" Big Mom yelled, annoyed. "Take it easy! You're going to bring my whole chateau down! Get out of here! If you're going to fight, do it somewhere else! Not in my territory!"
"Shut up, old hag!" Kaido took a long swig from his gourd. "Can't you see? The vice-governor I want isn't coming with me! This is an urgent matter! Nothing is more important!"
"Go somewhere else? All the islands for miles are your territory! You want me to fly this kid out for hours just to find a place to fight?!" He'd already made a concession last year by moving their fight from Water 7 to Enies Lobby. He wasn't going to do it again.
"It doesn't have to be that complicated!" Big Mom yelled. "Hey! Brûlée! Where's Brûlée?!"
There was no answer. The Charlotte children, who had remained on the rooftop to maintain order, looked around, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Mama, Brûlée is seriously ill and bedridden. She couldn't attend the Tea Party. I told you two days ago and even gave you her gift of apology. Have you forgotten?" Katakuri said with a slight frown.
"Who has time to remember things like that?!" Big Mom snapped impatiently. "What about Mont-d'Or? He's here, isn't he?!"
"I'm here, Mama!" a pale-faced man with a long red nose scurried out from the crowd.
"Mamamamama! Brûlée's Mirror-Mirror Fruit is out, but at least we have your Book-Book Fruit as a backup!" Big Mom grinned. "Go on, use your power to create a story world! If these two want to fight, let them go in there and have at it!"
"Eh?" Mont-d'Or pointed at himself, stunned. "Me?" He looked from Shane to Kaido, both of whom were now staring at him, and broke out in a cold sweat. "Mama, don't you think you're overestimating me a little? Lord Shane and Lord Kaido... just the aftershock of their fight would probably knock me out, and then..."
"The aftershock? Don't worry about that! I'm still here, aren't I? I'll block it for you!" Big Mom slapped him on the back of the head. "Now stop wasting time and get to it!"
"Yes, Mama!" Mont-d'Or, seeing stars, didn't dare to argue. He clapped his hands and activated his power.
VWOOM!
A massive, ten-meter-tall book appeared in the open space. It opened to a page that was filled with text on one side and a swirling, dark portal on the other.
"Hey, kid!" Kaido stared at Shane. "If I win, you're coming with me to be the vice-governor of the Beast Pirates! A man's word is his bond, right?"
"If you can win," Shane sneered.
"Worororo! Come on in and find out!" Kaido laughed, then strode into the portal.
Shane gestured to his crew, telling them not to worry, then glanced at the cover of the book. A Collection of Fairytales from the Four Blues.
A fairytale, huh? Interesting.
With a glint in his eye, he followed Kaido into the story world.
The moment they passed through the page, they were plunged into darkness. A few seconds later, their senses returned. They were standing in a dense forest. Sunlight streamed through the canopy, and the air was filled with the scent of earth and flowers. Everything was there, but nothing felt real, as if it were all a dream. In a nearby clearing stood a small cottage. A girl with skin as white as snow and a red ribbon in her black hair was singing happily by the door, surrounded by seven dwarves who were dancing in a circle...
BOOM!
Kaido's club, wreathed in purple-black lightning, slammed into the ground. The cottage, the girl, and the dwarves all screamed as they dissolved into dust.
"Oh? This place is pretty spacious!" Kaido said, looking around. "I thought all of Linlin's brats had fruits that were only good for eating and drinking. This one is actually interesting!" But that was all it was. In the end, power was everything. The army of Zoan users he was building was far superior to this flashy nonsense.
"Hey!" Kaido took another swig from his gourd. "Want some before we start?"
"I never turn down a drink," Shane said, glancing at the gourd, "but I'm not particularly interested in drinking from a flask that's still wet with another man's saliva."
"You're insulting me? Fine!" Kaido drained the gourd and gripped his club, his breath puffing out in clouds of white smoke. "Then let's go, kid! Show me how much you've improved in the last year!" He'd heard about the fights with Akainu and Kizaru. So what? He was Kaido, the Beast King! What was an Admiral to him? He was the undisputed strongest in a one-on-one fight, the man at the very pinnacle of the world, with a bounty of 4,611,100,000 Belly! No one had ever been able to kill him, not even himself! This kid... was not yet worthy!
BOOM!
The ground shattered as Kaido launched himself into the air, his club, Hassaikai, crackling with black-and-red lightning.
"THUNDER BAGUA!!!"
This brings back memories...
Shane looked up at the rapidly approaching weapon, planted his back foot, and coiled his body like a spring. This was the attack that had awakened his Conqueror's Haki. This was the attack that had nearly knocked him unconscious. And now, almost a year later... a move like this...
"USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS! IT'S COMPLETELY USELESS NOW!!!"
Shane's wild laughter echoed through the forest as he threw a punch, meeting the club head-on.
BOOM!!!
Fist and club collided, and a firework display of black-and-red lightning filled the sky. The aftershock alone uprooted trees and cracked the very ground for hundreds of meters.
"Worororo! You took that one with ease! Now that's more like it!" Kaido laughed as he was thrown back, landing a hundred meters away. He shook out his tingling hand and stood up, only to see Shane casually take off his coat and begin to stretch, his joints popping like firecrackers...
"What are you doing?" Kaido asked, confused.
"Ah, don't mind me," Shane said, continuing to roll his neck. "It's been a while since I've used this form. Just need to get the joints warmed up... There, that should do it!"
A savage grin spread across his face.
CRACK!
With a sickening sound of shifting bone, Shane's muscles began to writhe and contort, and his body rapidly expanded. The ground beneath him buckled under the sudden increase in weight. In the space of a single breath... the handsome young man was gone, replaced by a five-meter-tall giant of pure muscle, weighing over a ton and a half. Compared to the seven-meter-tall Kaido, there was still a size difference, but it was no longer a matter of a hawk versus a chick.
"Fighting a big guy like you in my 'Paper Arts' form just doesn't feel right," Shane said, clenching and unclenching his fists, already accustomed to his new body. He looked up, his black hair whipping around him like a demon's mane. "So, in a way, you're lucky, Kaido. You're the first person I've fought in my true form since coming to the New World."
Outside, on the rooftop of the Whole Cake Chateau, everyone was crowded around the giant book. But the portal was now blocked by a large iron gate, a safety measure created by Mont-d'Or.
"What's the meaning of this?!" Morgans squawked, flapping his wings in frustration. "Linlin! Your son's power is completely unreliable! How am I supposed to write my story if I can't even see the fight?!"
"Mont-d'Or!" Big Mom yelled, equally annoyed.
"I'm doing my best, Mama!" Mont-d'Or cried, wiping the sweat from his brow. "My ability has two modes! A small 'Reading Room' that everyone can see, and a vast 'Story World' that no one can! But... you can read the text! The text describes what's happening!"
Text?
Bonney was the first to rush over, peering at the left page of the book. Black words were appearing on the page as if written by an invisible hand, providing a real-time account of the battle. But... she couldn't read.
"Robin," she said, tugging on the older woman's sleeve. Robin smiled and knelt down, whispering the story into her ear.
Morgans, meanwhile, put on his monocle and began to read aloud: "'Shane threw a punch, and Kaido threw a punch back. "Take this!" Shane said happily, using all his might. Kaido's giant body flew into the sky like a dandelion seed... This isn't fair! Kaido was very angry. He stomped on the clouds, making Mr. Sun wobble...'"
Morgans's voice trailed off, a vein throbbing on his forehead. "Hey! This is what you call a description?! This is a battle between Emperors, not a children's bedtime story!"
"It's a fairytale book! What do you expect?!" Mont-d'Or shot back.
Morgans gritted his teeth. He paced back and forth, looking from the childish text to the sealed portal. Then he took a deep breath, as if coming to a momentous decision. The next thing Mont-d'Or knew, Morgans had tucked his camera under his arm, taken a running start, and thrown himself headfirst through the iron gate and into the portal...
"Worororo! So this is your true form!" Kaido said, his initial surprise giving way to a savage grin. "Now you're even more to my liking, kid!" He slammed his club on the ground.
WHOOSH!
He shot forward like a cannonball, his club spinning, wreathed in purple-black and red-black lightning.
"Then let's try this one..." his roar echoed through the forest.
"CONQUEST OF THE THREE WORLDS: RAGNAROK!!!"
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