"Gonna make this ugly?"
Kaido fell silent for a beat, then grinned at the bartender.
"I, Kaido, am not that kind of lowlife. Even pirates have rules. I drank your liquor, so I will not smash your place."
He paused, then added, "How about this. Put me down for two Devil Fruits on credit. Pour me another."
You have no plans to pay, do you?
Dimon shook his head. Pirate honor was the sort of thing pirates told themselves, much like Marines carving the word Justice on their capes while helping the Celestial Dragons butcher entire islands.
"Seems you did not listen," Dimon said. He set a dagger on the counter. "Try it yourself. You have already gained immortality."
No joke?
Kaido hesitated, then sliced his own palm.
Blood beaded and ran. In the next instant, as if time rewound, the crimson stream drew back into the wound and the skin knit shut before his eyes.
In a matter of seconds there was no trace it had ever existed.
"Impossible."
Kaido sprang to his feet, stunned. "It is real."
He lifted his gaze to Dimon. "What are you?"
"Just a bartender. Call me Dimon. Now do you believe it?"
With the proof in front of him, disbelief had nowhere left to stand.
Kaido drove the dagger straight through his palm. Blood sprayed and spotted the floor.
An instant later, the blood reversed course and the hole closed up again.
"A little slower that time, but not by much," Kaido muttered, quick to extrapolate. "The heavier the injury, the slower the recovery?"
"Correct. Even a pierced heart or a severed head will return you to life."
Dimon nodded. Ruthless guy. All that just to run a test.
The Wine of Immortality did not numb pain. It still hurt.
"Ora ora... that is an invincible power."
Kaido barked a laugh, then blinked as a thought struck him.
"Drinking your liquor will not turn me into a deadweight in seawater, right?"
"I have not eaten a Devil Fruit yet. I still get to, yes?"
"No conflict."
"Ora ora. Thanks, boss. I am going to fetch you a Devil Fruit right now. Wait for me."
In excellent spirits, Kaido turned and strode out. He needed to verify every inch of this miracle for himself.
Dimon watched him go, very satisfied with his first customer. He had only hoped to draw in a few small-time pirates with the aroma. He had not expected Kaido to wander in.
"Kaido should be only around twenty now."
Even at twenty, he was already a monster. Devouring him would not be easy.
Forget it, Dimon thought. This is a fine apple. Plant it now and harvest when it is ripe.
Judging by Kaido's temperament, he might actually bring back a Devil Fruit and settle the tab.
All Dimon needed to do was devour Fruits to earn Demon Points. For him, the Wine of Immortality was something he could mass produce.
Kaido left the Immortality Bar with a wild heat building in his chest.
He needed a fight.
A fight that would shake the sky.
Ordinary men were no match. It had to be another member of Rocks' crew. Only monsters could let him cut loose.
He released his Observation Haki and quickly locked onto a target.
With a bound he landed on a rooftop, then leaped from eave to eave toward his mark.
Edward Newgate was strolling down a street when a lethal intent slammed into him.
"Newgate."
Whitebeard whirled.
Kaido dropped from above, kanabō raised high, Armament Haki crackling along its length as he brought it down without mercy.
"Thunder Bagua."
"What are you doing?" Whitebeard frowned and drove a fist forward. "Shatter."
The Gura Gura no Mi's quake force met the strike in the air and stopped it cold. The shock tore through Kaido's guard.
Kaido flew backward and spit blood.
The aftershocks alone collapsed buildings within a hundred meters, turning the block into rubble.
Pirates screamed and bolted.
"This is bad. Kaido and Whitebeard are at it."
"Run. If you do not want to die, get five kilometers away."
"Somebody tell Captain Rocks. Only he can stop them."
They scattered like birds, fleeing to a safe distance to watch.
Kaido clawed up out of the ruins. The blood he had spat flowed back between his lips.
"Ora ora. That was good. Again, Newgate."
Whitebeard looked at him with open disdain. "What madness seized you? You cannot beat me."
"Wrong. Today is different. I am unbeatable."
The skies cleared and the rain stopped. The kid decided he was him again.
Kaido laughed and charged, kanabō hissing with black lightning.
"Yare yare. Troublesome brat."
Whitebeard clicked his tongue and lifted his naginata to meet him.
Their weapons had not yet touched when their Haki collided. A miniature sun bloomed between them and the shockwave flattened the remaining buildings.
Kaido's kanabō flew free. Whitebeard seized the opening, clamped a massive hand over Kaido's face, and slammed him into the ground. Quake force gathered in his palm like a visible sphere.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward from Kaido. The earth caved into a vast crater as if struck by a meteor.
Figures appeared quickly along the rim. Every gaze turned to the center, where Kaido lay like a beaten dog.
He stared up, eyes rolled white, blood trickling from his ears and nose.
"Oi, Newgate, what are you doing?" Charlotte Linlin snapped. "What did you do to my little brother? You trying to kill him?"
"Jiehahaha. Kaido lost again. When will the brat learn?" Shiki floated in the air, all sharp teeth and mockery.
"So why are you fighting again?" Stussy cupped a cheek with one hand, exasperated.
"Hot-blooded men," Gloriosa sighed.
"Hungry? I can fix you something," Streusen drawled. "Then you can get your strength back and keep brawling."
With so many watching, Whitebeard lifted his hand from Kaido's face and snorted.
"He picked the fight. You alive, Kaido?"
"Cough... cough."
Kaido gave two weak hacks. Even as he did, blood flowed back and the wounds vanished.
The onlookers all started.
"What is going on?"
"He recovered. Did he eat a Devil Fruit?"
"No wonder he challenged Whitebeard again."
Kaido staggered to his feet. In those few heartbeats, every injury had disappeared.
He split a grin across his face. "Ora ora. Useless. I cannot die."
Haki roared off him like fire.
"Come on then, Newgate."