Punk Hazard Prison Break! Kaido: I'm Willing to Call You Captain

The Seastone sold smoothly.

Rather than appear in person, Lin Yuan sold one hundred and fifty tons of Seastone in batches through an underground broker Vegapunk had introduced. The first batch was thirty tons, bringing in three hundred million Beli. The second was fifty tons, bringing in five hundred million. He kept the rest for their own use.

"Seventy tons of Seastone, eight hundred million Beli." Bullet counted the money. "Enough to last us a while."

"Not enough." Lin Yuan shook his head. "We're not supporting two people. We're supporting an entire organization."

"What do we do next, then?"

Lin Yuan pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. An address was written on it.

"Punk Hazard."

"Going to see Vegapunk again?"

"No." Lin Yuan folded the paper. "We're going to rescue someone."

Two

Punk Hazard, underground laboratory.

Security here was ten times tighter than on the surface. But Lin Yuan had been here once before and knew the layout and guard positions like the back of his hand. He opened a door and appeared directly at the end of a corridor on the third basement level.

Bullet followed behind, carrying an iron bar he had taken from the transport ship.

"Who's locked up here?"

"Two people," Lin Yuan said as he walked. "You know one of them. The other, you don't."

"I know one?"

"Kaido."

Bullet's steps faltered.

Kaido. An apprentice on the Rocks Pirates, with a bounty of... He wasn't a pirate yet, so he had no bounty. But Bullet had heard the name and knew of his exploits—he had taken on a small country alone and slaughtered half its army.

"Why is Kaido locked up here?"

"Because he's too strong," Lin Yuan said. "The World Government wants to study his body and discover the secret of his strength. He has Oni blood in his veins. He's the test subject the World Government wants most."

Bullet fell silent.

He thought of the time he had been treated as a test subject—not when he was a slave on a pirate ship, but in the country he had destroyed, when that general had tied him to an operating table and tried to dissect him to find out why he was so strong.

"I understand." Bullet tightened his grip on the iron bar. "Let's go."

Three

Kaido was imprisoned on the fifth basement level.

His cell was in the deepest part, its walls cast from Seastone on all sides. Even the floor and ceiling were made of it. The cell had a specially made alloy door, thirty centimeters thick, which required three passwords to open.

Lin Yuan stood before the door and closed his eyes.

Spatial Perception penetrated the walls, and he "saw" Kaido inside the cell.

He was tall, a head taller than Bullet. Knotted muscles covered his body, making him look like a small mountain. His hands were suspended from the wall by Seastone chains, and his feet were chained as well. His head hung low, long hair concealing his face, but Lin Yuan could sense that he was still awake.

"Kaido," Lin Yuan said through the door.

The man in the cell raised his head.

A pair of dark yellow eyes, like a dragon's.

"Who's there?"

"Someone here to rescue you."

"Hmph, hmph, hmph..." Kaido laughed, his voice rough, with a beastlike savagery. "What makes you think you can?"

Lin Yuan raised a hand and opened a door in the door. Beyond it was the inside of the cell.

He walked in and stood before Kaido.

"The fact that I can open this door."

Kaido stared at him for a few seconds, then looked down at the Seastone chains on his body.

"Can you open these things too?"

Lin Yuan crouched and opened a tiny door at the chain's clasp. The clasp sprang open, and the chain slid off.

"Yes."

Kaido rolled his wrists, his joints cracking.

"What's your name?"

"Lin Yuan."

"Lin Yuan." Kaido repeated the name. "What do you want me to do?"

"Join me."

"Join you?" Kaido laughed again. "Do you know who I am?"

"I do. Kaido, an apprentice on the Rocks Pirates, an Oni. You went to war at fifteen, took on a country alone at seventeen, and were captured and brought here to be a guinea pig at nineteen."

Kaido's expression changed.

"How do you know all that?"

"I know a lot of things," Lin Yuan said. "I also know you don't want to stay here. You don't want to be a guinea pig. You want to get out, get stronger, and—die."

Kaido's pupils contracted slightly.

"How do you know I want to die?"

"Because you're too bored with life," Lin Yuan said. "You're too strong. No one can kill you, and you can't kill yourself. So you want to find someone who can kill you, or a battle that can."

Kaido fell silent.

"If you join me, I can't promise I'll be able to kill you," Lin Yuan said. "But I can promise you'll meet people who want to kill you every day."

Kaido stared at Lin Yuan for a long time.

Then he laughed.

"Worororororo..." His laughter was rough, like the roar of a beast. "Interesting. Very interesting."

He held out his hand.

"All right. I'll join you."

Four

After rescuing Kaido, Lin Yuan was in no hurry to leave.

"There's one more," he said.

"One more?" Kaido frowned. "Who?"

"King."

"King?" Kaido thought for a moment. "That Lunarian kid?"

"You know him?"

"I do. He's locked up upstairs, on the second basement level. I've been to see him a few times," Kaido said. "That kid's stubborn. He won't cry out in pain no matter how badly they beat him."

Lin Yuan nodded.

"Let's go save him."

The second basement level.

King's cell was smaller than Kaido's, but it too was made entirely of Seastone. King was strapped to an operating table, tubes protruding all over his body. His face was pale, but his eyes were bright.

Lin Yuan opened a door, went in, and freed him.

"Who are you?"

"Someone here to rescue you."

King stared at Lin Yuan for a few seconds, then looked at Kaido behind him.

"Mr. Kaido, you're leaving too?"

"I am," Kaido said. "I'm joining this kid."

King turned to look at Lin Yuan.

"What's your goal?"

"To overthrow the World Government," Lin Yuan said. "Kill Celestial Dragons, fight the Five Elders, and turn this world upside down."

King's eyes lit up.

The Lunarians had been hunted by the Celestial Dragons for hundreds of years, and his people had been almost entirely wiped out. He hated the Celestial Dragons, hated the World Government, hated this world.

"I'll join you," King said.

Five

The four escaped from Punk Hazard and returned to Void Island.

Kaido stood on the beach, gazed out at the sea, and took a deep breath.

"The smell of freedom."

"There's no smell of freedom here," Lin Yuan said. "Just the salty smell of the sea."

"Wororororo..." Kaido laughed. "To me, the smell of the sea is the smell of freedom."

King sat on a reef, removing his bandages. His burns hadn't healed yet, but he could move again.

"Lin Yuan, what do we do next?"

Lin Yuan pulled a sea chart from his pocket and spread it out on the beach.

"First, we build up our strength. We have money, weapons, and Seastone. What we lack is people."

"Recruit some?" Kaido asked.

"No." Lin Yuan shook his head. "We don't need a rabble. We need people who've been abandoned by the world, who have nowhere to go, and who are willing to risk their lives fighting alongside us."

"Like who?" Bullet asked.

Lin Yuan traced a line across the map with his finger, from the Calm Belt to the New World.

"The New World. There are a lot of people like that there."

"Then when do we leave?"

Lin Yuan looked up at the moon.

"Tomorrow."

(End of Chapter 11)