Kaido: Ron, Lend Me the Nine-Tails to Play With

Ron looked down at Rayleigh. Standing atop a broken wall, Rayleigh appeared composed, his tone calm. There was not even the slightest hint of aggression or insult in his words, yet that very attitude of I'm reasoning with you inexplicably made Ron want to laugh.

Did it matter whether the target was him?

If the target was not him, was he not allowed to make a move? Did he have to just stand by and let them do whatever they wanted?

They had taught him that whether pirates reasoned or not depended on their mood.

As for Ron's mood, it had been quite good—until the Roger Pirates came to stir things up.

Ron was very annoyed.

Extremely annoyed.

"Oh, then suit yourselves."

Though Ron's tone was calm, his actions were anything but.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Demon's body trembled slightly as numerous chakra arms extended from both sides, forming pairs and beginning to condense Tailed Beast Bombs.

Dark crimson light flared in their palms—ten of them in total.

Rayleigh's expression immediately darkened. His gaze swept over the ten forming Tailed Beast Bombs before returning to Ron's enormous golden fox eyes.

"You... what do you mean by this?"

"I have no obligation to tell you."

Bang!

Just then, Roger descended from the sky. His longsword, wrapped in Haki and fury, came down fiercely upon Ochoku like a bolt of black lightning.

Already gravely wounded, Ochoku could not even dodge. He could only grit his teeth and use the last of his strength to raise both arms, blocking with Haki.

Boom!

A deafening blast erupted through the ruins.

Under Roger's immense force, Ochoku's knees buckled violently, and he was forced to his knees.

He spat out a mouthful of blood, splattering it across the scorched ground.

"A misunderstanding..."

"Roger, this is definitely a misunderstanding..." Ochoku's voice was hoarse and urgent, muddled by blood and barely intelligible.

Roger's face was dark as he looked down at him and said angrily, "Bastard, you kidnapped Annika. You were the one who made me do something so stupid."

"No—cough!"

As Ochoku desperately denied it, he spat out another mouthful of blood. His body trembled continuously beneath Roger's blade, while the bones in his arms let out overwhelmed cracking sounds.

"I was forced to do it!" Ochoku rasped, his eyes darting madly toward Ron. "If I didn't admit it, that bastard Ron would kill me!"

"Don't try to deceive me again!" Roger's voice suddenly rose. "You bastard, I'll never believe you again!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he drove his wrist downward, rapidly increasing his strength.

Boom!

Under the crushing pressure, Ochoku's body began to bend into a strange, twisted arc.

Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth, his nostrils, and his ears, dripping onto the ground and pooling into a small dark-red puddle.

"Bastard," Ochoku roared hoarsely, his voice filled with his last struggle and unwillingness.

Buzz!

All of a sudden, a violent shockwave wrapped in a storm came howling in from nearby.

Roger froze for a moment, then immediately withdrew his sword and flashed backward, narrowly avoiding the edge of the shockwave. He flipped through the air, spun as he landed, then raised his head and looked toward where the shockwave had come from.

Not far away, Whitebeard was charging over in great strides, his naginata dragging behind him and carving a long trench through the ground.

Behind him, Kaido carried his spiked club over his shoulder and followed close behind in a few great strides.

"Bastard, Roger!"

Whitebeard cursed, then suddenly leaped high into the air. Twisting at the waist midair, he poured both his Conqueror's Haki and the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit into his naginata. Black Haki patterns coiled around the blade, while a white ball of energy gathered at its tip. Then he brought it crashing down.

"Newgate..." Roger murmured. Without hesitation, he gripped his sword with both hands, wrapped it in Haki, and swung upward.

Bang!

Blade met blade once more.

A heavy boom exploded, and the aftershock rapidly spread outward. Layer after layer of earth was peeled away, while rubble and dust rolled outward like waves.

Whitebeard pressed down on his blade from above, his expression grim. "Bastard, look at what you've done."

"Newgate, listen to me. This is a misunderstanding." Roger gritted his teeth against Whitebeard's blade pressure as he spoke.

"Misunderstanding my ass!" Whitebeard gave him no face at all. "I told you, if you made a move against Ron, no matter what happened, I wouldn't stand by and watch!"

"Ron?" Roger paused, then hurriedly explained, "No! There's a misunderstanding between him and me, and that misunderstanding was caused by that bastard Ochoku! I'm settling the score with him right now!"

Whitebeard did not answer at once. He had only one thought in mind: Do I look like an idiot to you?

At the same time, Kaido gripped his spiked club and leaped into the air. He did not target Whitebeard or Roger, but instead lunged straight at Rayleigh.

"You've gone too far! Take this!!!"

Kaido's voice still echoed through the air when his spiked club came smashing down with a piercing howl.

However.

Rayleigh merely raised one hand, his palm coated in Haki, and caught the spiked club perfectly.

The impact blasted up a ring of dust beneath his feet, but his body did not move in the slightest.

"Kid from the Rocks Pirates, calm down," Rayleigh said.

Kaido's face turned red as he gripped the handle with both hands and pushed down with all his might. Yet Rayleigh was like an ancient tree rooted in the earth; no matter how hard Kaido tried, he could not budge him an inch.

Just then, another chakra arm extended from the right side of the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon and grabbed Kaido, who was still suspended in midair.

"Ron? You grabbed the wrong person! Why are you grabbing me???" Kaido turned and cursed at Ron. What kind of eyesight was that? How could he mistake someone as big as him?

"Shut up."

The next second, Nine-Tails chakra surged through that chakra arm and into Kaido's body.

Kaido's body shuddered. A layer of pale red chakra cloak swiftly covered his body, radiating a warm glow.

At that moment, Kaido could clearly feel his strength surging wildly.

The feeling was difficult to describe. It was like a hand that could originally lift only a stone suddenly being able to lift an entire mountain.

The fingers gripping his spiked club trembled slightly—not from fear, of course, but from excitement.

The power flooding into him was simply too overwhelming, so overwhelming that it gave him the illusion that he could kill Rayleigh.

"Ron... isn't your Devil Fruit way too ridiculous? You can even transfer power to someone else?" Kaido turned back to Ron with a shocked expression.

"Hey, kid." Rayleigh's unhurried voice drifted over. "You're making me look rather foolish."

Rayleigh suddenly increased the strength in his hand, and the spiked club Kaido had been pressing down began to push back upward inch by inch.

Kaido's expression stiffened as he cursed, "Bastard."

Then he turned back toward Ron and shouted, "Ron, lend me that big thing of yours to play with!"

"Idiot, what do you take me for? Do you think I can give you anything?"