Kaido and Abel

In the first few days after leaving the Heavenly Kingdom, Kaido barely stopped at any island.

He flew from High West toward the New World, and the shadow cast by his azure dragon body as it passed through the clouds split the gray-blue sea below in two.

Along the way, he encountered several ships flying pirate flags. The people on deck heard dragon roars coming from the clouds and looked up, only to see a giant dragon sweep overhead.

Kaido paid no attention to those stares. He had only possessed the Azure Dragon Fruit's power for a few days and was still adapting to his new body.

Once, he tried to breathe fire at the sea. No flames came out—only a cloud of black smoke that choked him into sneezing in midair.

That sneeze triggered a small thunderstorm, turning several palm trees on an uninhabited island directly beneath him into charred stumps.

He hovered in the air and looked down at the smoking scorched ground, snorted through his nostrils, and continued flying toward the New World.

He needed to find somewhere to test just how powerful this Devil Fruit was.

He could not beat Annus, but there were plenty of people in the New World who could help him test his moves. As long as he did not run into one of those monsters, like Garp—he would soon pay the price for that thought.

Kaido found his first test subject in a stretch of sea called Anvil Rock in the northern New World.

It was a rookie pirate who had only recently risen to prominence.

That rookie captain possessed an Ancient Zoan Cat-Cat Fruit, Saber-Toothed Tiger form. In his hybrid form, he was extraordinarily fast, and his claws could rip gaps straight through an entire warship deck.

The instant Kaido