The year 1514 on the Grand Line calendar found an unnamed deserted island basking under the scorching sun. On its rocky shore, a handsome young man with short black hair clutched a peculiar fruit in his trembling hands. The fruit's emerald surface bore strange infinity-shaped patterns that seemed to pulse with otherworldly energy.
"This isn't a Devil Fruit, this isn't a Devil Fruit," he muttered like a prayer. "This is just Australian lobster, just Australian lobster..."
After steeling his resolve, Kai took a decisive bite.
"Delicious! Ugh!"
The taste hit him like a freight train. It was as if someone had stuffed a dragon fruit with rotten herring and fermented fish, creating a flavor that assaulted every taste bud and rejected his very soul. Kai doubled over, retching violently, but he forced himself to continue eating.
Bite after agonizing bite, he consumed the entire Devil Fruit. This was his only shot at defying fate and changing his destiny in this brutal world.
Nobody understood the terror of the pirate world better than him. Here, the strong could cleave mountains and split seas with casual strikes. Even the aftershocks of their battles could obliterate entire islands. The New World swarmed with monsters beyond imagination, and even the supposedly safer Four Seas crawled with vicious pirates and tyrannical nobles who squeezed the life out of ordinary people.
And then there were the Celestial Dragons, whose "Sacred Flames" could rain down from the heavens without warning.
Kai's luck had been cosmically terrible. He'd been playing Pokémon Emerald when somehow he'd transmigrated, but instead of landing in the relatively peaceful Pokémon world, he'd ended up in One Piece. While Pokémon had its world-ending crises, it was still fundamentally a harmonious utopia compared to this nightmare.
"At least fate hasn't completely abandoned me," Kai whispered, clenching his fists as he felt new power surging through his body.
The moment he'd swallowed that Devil Fruit, he'd known exactly what he'd gained: Zoan-type Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Beast Form: Rayquaza.
"Thank god I caught Rayquaza before transmigrating and not some Caterpie or Magikarp," he muttered, shuddering at the thought of being stuck with String Shot or Splash as his only abilities.
Shaking off those terrifying alternate timelines, Kai turned toward the island's forest to search for food. But before he could take three steps, a thunderous crash erupted behind him.
Spinning around, he watched dust clouds billow skyward, revealing a massive crater dozens of meters long. At its center lay a perfectly human-shaped impact hole.
The scene struck him as eerily familiar.
A massive hand suddenly thrust up from the crater's center, gripping the ground. A dark shadow rocketed upward and landed directly in front of Kai with earth-shaking force.
The figure towered seven to eight meters tall, a mountain of muscle and menace. Wild black hair whipped in the wind, two fearsome horns jutted from his skull, and dragon-scale tattoos covered his left arm. His muscular torso was draped in a cape, making him look like a demon god given flesh.
"Wororororo! Didn't die again, damn it!"
That laugh alone was enough for Kai to identify his unexpected visitor: the bungee-jumping enthusiast without ropes, the irredeemable battle maniac, the undisputed "mentor" of countless pirates, and one of the Four Emperors, Kaido of the Beasts.
"Hm?"
Kaido's gaze fell upon Kai like the weight of a mountain. In that instant, Kai felt as though he'd been dropped into an arctic ocean. His muscles locked up, his body no longer feeling like his own, as if a savage beast had marked him as prey.
Damn it! Just one look was enough to paralyze him? What was the point of coming to this world if he'd remain this pathetic?
Such cowardice was absolutely unacceptable.
Kai forced his fists to clench, suppressing the terror clawing at his heart and meeting Kaido's gaze without flinching.
"Interesting." Kaido's mouth curved into an amused smirk. "What about this then?"
A tremendous aura exploded from within the Emperor, crashing toward Kai like an invisible tsunami. His head immediately felt heavy, consciousness threatening to slip away entirely.
Should he give up? This was Kaido, the World's Strongest Creature. Losing to him wouldn't be shameful, so why endure this suffering?
But something deep inside him rebelled against that thought.
Why did surrendering feel so wrong?
Gritting his teeth and clinging to his last shred of consciousness, Kai roared: "Don't look down on me! It's just Conqueror's Haki!"
BOOM!
An invisible force exploded from Kai's mind, bursting from his body and colliding head-on with Kaido's Conqueror's Haki. Simultaneously, brilliant emerald light erupted around him.
"Oh? A Devil Fruit user?" Kaido leaned casually on his kanabo, watching Kai's transformation with genuine curiosity.
The green light exploded outward, revealing a dragon-humanoid figure where Kai had stood. The creature was entirely emerald green and surprisingly slender, with razor-sharp claws on both hands and feet. Yellow infinity-symbol markings adorned his body, while rudder-like appendages with crimson edges sprouted from his back. A serpentine tail swished behind him, ending in fins that matched his back appendages.
Long, flat horns crowned his head, with smaller matching ones jutting from his chin.
A Mythical Zoan. And the qualities of a king.
Kaido's eyes lit up with genuine interest. He withdrew his Conqueror's Haki and slowly raised his kanabo, pointing it directly at Kai. "Kid, how about joining my pirate crew?"
"What if I refuse?" Kai gasped, still catching his breath from the Haki clash.
"Then I'll send you to hell and let your Devil Fruit be reborn," Kaido replied with brutal honesty.
"How refreshingly straightforward. Seems like I don't have much choice..." Kai smiled bitterly, appearing to accept his fate. Then suddenly: "But if you want me to join, I'll have to test your strength first, you bastard!"
"Dragon Pulse!"
Kai's jaws parted, and violent, mystical energy surged from deep within his body. The power gathered in his mouth before transforming into a dazzling shockwave that erupted forward with devastating force.
Even if joining the Beast Pirates was inevitable, there was a world of difference between meekly agreeing and being forced to submit after a proper fight. The latter would definitely earn more of Kaido's respect.
This conclusion had crystallized in Kai's mind after witnessing how Kaido had treated fighters like Shutenmaru, Kid, and Luffy.
Sure enough, seeing Kai's defiance, Kaido wasn't angered but delighted, bursting into booming laughter. "Wororororo! Kid, that's right! Even when you're afraid, you must charge forward bravely!"
Kaido made no attempt to dodge or defend, standing his ground without even activating Armament Haki.
The massive shockwave struck his towering frame without obstruction.
BOOM!
The deafening explosion tore through the air as dense smoke and dust swallowed the area completely.
Kai's expression remained grim. He harbored no illusions about this attack causing any real damage to Kaido. This wasn't the Pokémon world, where Dragon-type moves dealt double damage to Dragon-types.
Without hesitation, he slashed his claws rapidly through the air. "Air Slash!"
Countless cutting attacks formed from highly compressed air tore through the smoke like a torrential downpour, all aimed at Kaido's position.
"Not bad, kid."
Kaido's wild laughter suddenly rang out from within the smoke.
WHOOSH!
The pitch-black kanabo cut through the air in a horizontal sweep.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every single air blade shattered to pieces from that one devastating swing.
"Is that all? Don't you have any stronger moves?" Kaido casually shouldered his weapon, his eyes gleaming with unfulfilled battle lust.
Despite taking the Dragon Pulse head-on, Kaido stood completely unharmed except for a few superficial scratches on his chest.