Kaido

After the battle at God Valley, Kaido chose to set sail alone.

That battle had shown him too much.

The world did not make room for someone simply because he was "strong."

Only those who stood at the very top had the right to make the rules, even to define justice and evil.

So he founded his own pirate crew.

With the power of his Devil Fruit, Kaido quickly became a priority target for Marine surveillance.

Capture, transport, imprisonment, research—

He went through nearly every step, one after another.

His shackles were reinforced layer by layer.

He was moved from prison to prison.

The white lights of laboratories came on again and again.

But the result was always the same.

Failure.

Chains broke. Prison doors shattered. Laboratories were torn apart by his roars.

Even when his body was cut open, when he was injected repeatedly and analyzed as a "specimen"—

Kaido still walked out alive.

And each time he escaped, he grew stronger.

Once he had developed his fruit's power to a relatively stable level, one name began echoing through his mind.

Rock.

The man who had slapped him into the ground in front of everyone on Hachinosu.

It had been a naked humiliation.

From that day on, Kaido pursued him with near-obsessive determination.

But Rock's whereabouts seemed to have been deliberately erased from the world.

Whenever Kaido finally heard where he had appeared, it was already too late by the time he got there.

Either he had missed him, or he heard news like this:

"Oh, he just had one hell of a fight with Roger."

"He went head-to-head with Whitebeard a couple of days ago."

"Shiki got dragged into it too."

Every time, Kaido could only grit his teeth.

He was arrogant, not stupid.

He was not yet