Wano Country, Onigashima.
The smell of alcohol in the Skull Hall had faded considerably.
While Kaido was away, King had turned all of Onigashima into an enormous war machine.
Patrols scoured Wano Country's coastline day and night. Queen had been sent to monitor the samurai in the Flower Capital, while Jack guarded the perimeter of the main island.
The Beasts Pirates' flag still flew, but its flagpole seemed more fragile than ever.
King stood in the center of the hall, holding the urgent report.
His mask covered most of his face, but the eyes visible through its gaps churned with tangled emotions.
After the Summit War, Kaido had been slashed into the depths of the sea by a single stroke of Madara Uchiha's sword. King had quelled the rebellion in Wano Country alone, burned a pirate alliance of over two thousand men to ashes, and used the head of a man with a 1.7-billion bounty to intimidate the entire New World.
But he knew the Beasts Pirates were no longer what they had once been.
Kaido had yet to recover from his severe injuries, over half their officers had been lost, and their territory had shrunk to a corner of Wano Country.
And the Uchiha Clan had grown stronger again.
"Lord King." A messenger knelt at the entrance. "Lord Kaido is awake."
King spun around.
Kaido lay on a stone bed deep inside Onigashima, his body wrapped in thick bandages.
The gruesome wound stretching from his shoulder to his waist had scabbed over, but dark purple chakra patterns still shimmered faintly along the scar-the traces left by Madara Uchiha's slash, which even a Mythical Zoan's regenerative abilities could not completely erase.
His face had grown thinner than it had been a few months earlier, and part of one horn had