The New World.
The sky was a pitch-black void slashed by white lightning. A gale tore the sea into mountains of water, and sheets of rain hammered the Oro Jackson's sails and deck.
In that uproar, the freest ship on the Grand Line heaved among the giant waves, timbers groaning as if clenched in a titan's fist.
"Waaah! We're done for this time—done for!" Buggy clung to the mainmast like a koala, his scream shorn thin by wind and rain. "Captain Roger! Shouldn't we just give them what they want? If this keeps up, the ship will split and we'll all be finished!"
"Hahaha, relax, Buggy!" Shanks laughed, twirling his short sword. "Even if the ship goes under, we'll just be in the sea. You don't drown right away."
Buggy shot him a murderous look. "If I fall in, I'm dead! I ate a Devil Fruit!"
Shanks blinked, then smacked his forehead. "Right. Forgot you can't swim."
"Shanks, you idiot! How could you forget! It's your fault I can't swim!" Buggy howled, his hands snapping off to seize Shanks by the collar.
Laughter rippled through the crew, shaking off some of the tension.
Then—
"ROGER! Hand over the Poneglyph!"
The roar rolled out of the clouds like thunder, deep enough to rattle teeth.
"Here we go again…" Buggy groaned, body locking up.
Faces hardened across the deck.
From the black billows behind them, a massive shape shouldered out of the cloud-bank, blotting what little light remained.
Violet lightning wreathed its vast body. Crimson clouds boiled beneath clawed forelimbs. Azure-bronze scales flashed with cold light as a mountain-sized head thrust forward, gale winds spiraling from its fanged maw.
The Azure Dragon.
The strongest creature on land, sea, and air—Beast Kaido.
"Hahahaha! So you caught up after all, you overgrown lizard!" Roger bellowed, black hair lashing in the storm, blood-red captain's cloak snapping behind him. He threw his head back and laughed. "Hand over the Poneglyph? Not a chance. If you want it—come take it!"
Kaido's crimson eyes burned in the dragon's skull. "Then I'll bury you all here."
His jaws yawned, rows of fangs rimmed in blood. Air rushed into that furnace of a throat; a malign red glow swelled within, pressure rippling the storm.
"Die!" Kaido's roar shook the sky as a torrent of fire blasted from his mouth—a scarlet tide racing to swallow the Oro Jackson.
"Bolo Breath!"
Heat washed over the ship.
"Tsk, tsk… what disgusting spit," Roger muttered, hand falling to his sword. He bent to draw—footsteps pounded behind him.
Clack, clack, clack—
Wooden sandals. A one-armed samurai vaulted onto the deck.
"Lord Oden!" Shanks blurted.
Kozuki Oden rose into the air, gray at his temples, a quiet sorrow etched into his face. In his single hand, he held a black katana.
The blade's irregular Large Reverse Choji glowed a deep violet-black; along its edge, crimson sawteeth rippled.
Oden faced the onrushing dragon's breath. His robes whipped around him.
He cut once.
"Oden One-Sword Style… Purgatory Demon Slash!"
The sword flashed like a falling waterfall of light.
The dragon's flames split cleanly down the middle.
Boom—
The parted torrent detonated to either side of the ship, geysering the sea into walls of spray and smoke.
Kaido snorted. "That troublesome samurai."
Oden landed, sheathing the blade with a soft click.
"Incredible!"
"Lord Oden's strength—it's back!"
"That single stroke… it cut through the breath!"
Cheers burst from the crew, eyes blazing.
Oden only shook his head. "It's Shusui."
He looked at the thick-spined black blade, fingers tightening unconsciously.
Shusui—one of the 21 Great Grade swords—once wielded by Ryuma, the dragon-slaying samurai. Wano's national treasure.
After the battle where Ame no Habakiri was lost, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi had slipped back into Wano on their own, trying to lift their spirits. At Ryuma's tomb, they claimed the blade—and learned a harsher truth: Wano had fallen under the joint rule of Kaido and Kurozumi Orochi.
Oden had thought to leave Roger's crew and return to drive Kaido out. But alone he could not face the entire Beasts Pirates, and Wano's jagged terrain made the country a fortress. He set the plan aside, for now.
Rain streaked his face. He glanced at Roger, laughing like a man with no tomorrows, and let the thought settle.
Captain Roger's life is running short. I'll see this voyage through to the end at his side.
"Mamamama! You can't take Roger's head alone, Kaido!"
A shrill voice—witch-bright—cut across the storm from the far side of the sky.
Worry flickered across the crew.
"Damn it. That crazy woman too?" Rayleigh muttered.
A fiery figure rode a vast black thundercloud, long legs in high boots, tanned skin gleaming. Pink hair streamed behind her. She shouldered a huge blade with a grinning face carved in the steel.
Big Mom—Charlotte Linlin.
"You're late, Linlin," Kaido sneered.
She leapt lightly from the thundercloud and landed on the dragon's skull.
"Mamamama! Enough chatter, Kaido. Let's crush them!"
"Get off my head, you hag!" the dragon bellowed.
"Mamamama! I'm the one who gave you that Devil Fruit in the first place!" she cackled, flicking her hand.
The thundercloud shot higher, vanishing into the seething overcast.
In the next instant, purple lightning bloomed within the cloud-maelstrom and spilled outward, knitting itself into a colossal net that fell toward the sea.
The barrage smothered the sky.
"Tenman Daijizai Tenjin!!"
At the same time, Kaido reared back, the dragon's roar shredding the rain. Slicing winds howled from his maw in a storm of blades, raking air and ocean alike.
"Kaifu!"
Lightning and wind met and wove together—turning miles of sea into a writhing hell.
To be continued...