He actually got here this fast?
Big Brother Kaido, you weren't on a business trip nearby, were you?
I'd only just seen in the newspaper that Hero Garp had beaten you so badly in another sea that you'd fled with your head in your hands.
Don't you feel embarrassed, Big Brother Kaido? Running into a former friend while you're down and out.
Roa sighed. It looked like he wouldn't be leaving casually today.
Pushing open the carriage door, Roa stepped out and looked up at the monster poking its head through the clouds. Knowing full well what he was doing, he asked, "Oh! Big Brother Kaido, you look really cool like this. The Mythical Zoan Azure Dragon Fruit? Auntie Linlin gave you the captain's treasure? What did you pay for it? Don't tell me you gave Auntie Linlin a child?"
Bullet and Dylan followed Roa out of the carriage. Bullet, in particular, looked up at Kaido with extreme vigilance.
"Hmph, what nonsense are you talking about? I just owe Linlin a huge favor."
Big Brother Kaido snorted coldly and lowered himself further until he was hovering only a few dozen meters above the ground. For someone hundreds of meters long, that distance was practically close enough to touch the ground just by lowering his head.
He studied Roa, whom he had not seen for six years.
Roa was now around 1.7 meters tall. He wore the splendid clothes favored by nobles, with a sword hanging at his waist.
His black hair was slightly curly, lying limply against his head. His skin was exceptionally fair, making his entire body seem to glow. He was extremely handsome, the corners of his lips naturally turned upward. Combined with his perpetually curved eyebrows and eyes, he seemed to be smiling at all times.
"That's a real shame."
Roa said regretfully, "I was actually looking forward to seeing how extraordinary a child inheriting both your bloodlines would be."
To be honest, if a child inheriting Auntie Linlin and Big Brother Kaido's bloodlines were really born, wouldn't King Luffy be sweating bullets?
"You're still thinking about strange things even after growing up, brat."
Big Brother Kaido continued to snort. "I should have known you'd be here! This country full of wailing is your favorite nest!"
"Honestly, Big Brother Kaido, don't make me sound like some monster lurking in a cave, waiting for a hero to come defeat me."
Roa complained, "If you insist on putting it that way, I should be a Demon King, shouldn't I? No matter what, my home shouldn't be a damp cave. It should be a magnificent Demon King's castle."
"Demon King?"
Kaido's enormous eyes shifted slightly, instantly taking in the entire scene below.
The more than one hundred wraiths with pitch-black eyes surprised him slightly.
He knew how picky Roa was. If his standards had not dropped over the years, then none of these wraiths possessed ordinary strength.
Moreover—
Kaido's gaze focused on Bullet behind Roa.
That brat was also giving off an extraordinary aura.
Roa, six years had passed, and you really did have the bearing of a Demon King!
But that made it even clearer that he had come at exactly the right time!
Greedy light flickered in Kaido's eyes.
If he could recruit Roa, then his Beasts Pirates, which currently consisted of only a few strays, could finally take shape!
He had to hurry!
Those two bastards Shiki and Linlin were surely already on their way. It was even possible that Ochoku and Silver Axe would start taking action too.
There was no helping it. Roa was simply that popular. When he joined the Rocks Pirates, everyone already knew that he was destined to stand at the summit of the sea.
The problem was that this brat was too cunning. Six years ago, he had not returned to Beehive Island at all. Otherwise, the battle to recruit him would have begun long ago.
Kaido was about to extend an invitation.
But—
"Big Brother Kaido, you came at just the right time!"
Roa looked up and said with a smile, "I was just planning to establish a war company. You like war so much, why not come work with me? We can grow stronger and bigger together and restore our former glory! We'll take the business worldwide!"
Kaido, who had been carefully choosing his words, was genuinely choked by Roa's statement. The tables had truly turned—he was the one who had come to recruit someone!
Roa naturally knew that Kaido's invitation was nothing but empty talk. But he knew even better why Big Brother Kaido had come.
He had come to freeload off him!
The current Beasts Pirates consisted of nothing but Big Brother Kaido himself and a bunch of nobodies. None of the Three Calamities or the Flying Six existed yet.
If that fellow Morgans was not Big Brother Kaido's dedicated hater, then the current Beasts Pirates did not even have a commander with a bounty exceeding three hundred million.
There was no helping it. Uncle Shiki had recruited too aggressively. Anyone with a little strength who wanted to cling to a powerful patron had gone to join him.
To put it bluntly, aside from Big Brother Kaido himself, the current Beasts Pirates were not even as strong as his own wraith army!
All he could say was: Big Brother Kaido, why not hurry home and give birth to my grandniece? When the time came, he could even call you his father-in-law. Who could possibly say no to that white-haired, powerful tomboy?
As for anything else, he had better stop daydreaming.
"I'm not interested in your business!"
But Big Brother Kaido clearly had not understood Roa's tactful hint. He said bluntly, "Join my Beasts Pirates, Roa! If you and I join forces, surpassing the Rocks Pirates at their peak will be nothing!"
"Alas."
Roa sighed.
Big Brother Kaido, really, how could he be so tactless?
I already told you I have my own undertaking. How can you still shamelessly spout this crap?
"I'm sorry, Big Brother Kaido!"
Roa said righteously, "Only the captain is qualified to be my captain! The day the captain died, I decided I would never become a pirate again!"
Hearing this, even a man like Kaido could not help rolling his eyes.
Weren't you the first one to run away at God Valley, you little brat?
And afterward, you didn't even return to Beehive Island. You had packed your bags and prepared to escape long beforehand.
Even so, he now understood what Roa meant.
"So, brat—"
Big Brother Kaido's gaze instantly turned hostile. "Are you refusing me?"
Boom!!
A violent aura descended like a tsunami.
The earth trembled, and the pirates under Roa—or rather, his employees—foamed at the mouth and collapsed unconscious one after another.
The wraiths were unaffected. They had no will of their own to begin with, so naturally they could not lose consciousness.
Even Bullet widened his eyes.
It's the same as Lord Roa's!
Roa shook his head helplessly.
I knew this would happen. Big Brother Kaido always flies into a rage at the slightest inconvenience.
"Yes,"
he said.
Boom!!
Black lightning instantly erupted from Roa's body, writhing and radiating in every direction.
The two immense Conqueror's Haki collided in an instant, and the clash of their auras burst into countless bolts of Haki lightning.
The air trembled, and the ground shattered.
Dylan staggered backward. A clash of Conqueror's Haki at this level was something even he could not ignore.
"What?"
Big Brother Kaido was shocked.
Conqueror's Haki at this level!
This brat!
"You really are beyond me, Big Brother Kaido. At this level of Conqueror's Haki, you're indeed stronger for now."
Roa praised him sincerely.
The strength of Conqueror's Haki depended solely on the user's own power.
Big Brother Kaido was still formidable.
But he was not impossibly strong.
In fact, if Uncle Shiki or Auntie Linlin had come, Roa would definitely have made a different decision.
But Big Brother Kaido at twenty-seven was different.
Big Brother Kaido's strength was just ahead of him, not far away.
"Wororororo! Interesting! Then let me see what gives you the nerve to refuse me!"
The dragon inhaled.
"Heat Breath!"
Oh?
Are you really going to play with fire in front of me?
Before you continue