Even with Cain's monstrous physical ability and his Observation Haki that let him glimpse the future, he was still being pressured.
Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit could repel anything, while Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit excelled in both speed and explosive force.
Both of them possessed extreme speed—fast enough to break past the reaction window Cain gained from seeing two seconds ahead.
In the end, two seconds was still too short.
Caught between their combined assault, Cain found himself struggling to keep up.
Every opening in his offense and defense was being pinned down in turn, leaving him no room to breathe.
It wasn't that Cain couldn't beat them.
It was just that he had to hide his true strength right now.
He couldn't afford to reveal even a fraction more than necessary.
If he exposed what he was really capable of now, then when the Marineford War began, his own grandpa and Fleet Admiral Sengoku might very well team up and hold him down with a combined beating.
And that would be a complete disaster.
"Cain, the next move I'm about to use once even made Fleet Admiral Sengoku stumble. So you'd better watch carefully."
Kizaru suddenly eased off his assault and spoke in that lazy tone of his, with a trace of amusement in it.
"Hmph. Don't think you can throw me off, Borsalino!"
Cain instantly saw through Kizaru's intention.
He knew the man was deliberately trying to distract him by making a big show of it—but even so, he couldn't help paying a little extra attention.
At the same time, he had to twist aside to avoid Kuma's incoming paw strike while still staying ready for whatever attack Kizaru might launch next.
Seeing that, Kizaru gathered a dazzling golden light in his palm.
At first glance, it looked no different from the laser techniques he usually used, and Cain's first thought was that it was nothing special.
Then Kizaru suddenly turned his head, pointed behind Cain, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"LOOK! WHAT's THAT OVER THERE?"
"Huh?"
Cain turned his head on reflex, and the moment he did, his heart dropped.
'Damn it!'
Kuma seized the split-second opening perfectly.
He moved so fast it blew straight past the reaction limit of Cain's future sight, and his powerful palm struck Cain square in the back.
Cain instantly knew things had gone bad, and inwardly he was cursing like mad.
'Damn it, isn't this the exact same trick I used when I messed with Luffy before? I remember Luffy even proudly showed Grandpa afterward. So Grandpa learned it too and actually used it on Fleet Admiral Sengoku? What a massive miscalculation!'
"Pa—"
A soft sound rang out, and Cain's body vanished on the spot, blasted thousands of meters away in an instant until he disappeared completely from the sky above Sabaody.
…
"DAMN IT, DAMN IT! GETTING SENT FLYING LIKE THIS IS SO INFURIATING!"
Cain lay inside the giant paw-shaped air bubble, wind screaming in his ears while the scenery around him blurred into streaks.
Irritated, he raked a hand through his hair, then forced himself to calm down and began thinking hard.
'Come to think of it… could it be because I'm also part of the Straw Hat crew, so Kuma treated me the same way? No… that's not it. The islands Luffy and the others were sent to were all carefully chosen by Kuma to match what each of them needed for training. So what about me? Where exactly did Kuma send me?'
'No, no, now's not the time for that. I need to hurry and save Ace! If I'm even a step too late, something could go wrong! Wait… this speed isn't right.'
Cain glanced down at the sea below and the islands and clouds flashing past at terrifying speed, and instantly realized something was off.
If things were working normally, Luffy and the others should have spent a full day flying through the air before reaching their destinations.
But his speed was absurdly fast.
In only a short while, one stretch of ocean after another had already passed beneath him, and even large islands flashed by in the blink of an eye.
And when he had been blasted away earlier, he had absolutely not misseen it—
That vast red wall cutting across the world had been the Red Line.
He'd flown straight past it and was now falling toward the New World.
'Kuma, just what the hell are you trying to do?'
Panic surged through Cain.
He tightened his grip on his weapon and slammed it hard against the paw bubble surrounding him.
The bubble didn't move in the slightest. It didn't even ripple, still holding him securely inside.
"As expected of the Paw-Paw Fruit… a power on the same level as Kaido's Azure Dragon fruit. There's no way brute force alone is going to break this thing. It's basically the same as Bartolomeo's Barrier-Barrier Fruit."
Cain muttered grimly, growing more anxious by the second.
"Then there's only one option left."
He clenched his teeth, determination flashing through his eyes.
"BREAK ALREADY!"
He had no idea which kind of Haki was the correct one to use against the bubble, so he stopped hesitating entirely and went all in.
He coated his whole body in Armament Haki while also unleashing his Conqueror's Haki without holding anything back.
The two overwhelming forces intertwined into a violent torrent, smashing again and again into the paw bubble around him.
The next second, a bizarre scene unfolded over the sea.
As Cain's Conqueror's Haki swept outward—and because he was still moving so quickly—countless fish, sea beasts, and even Sea Kings surfacing nearby were instantly knocked unconscious.
They floated one after another on the ocean, layered so densely that they formed a road of floating sea creatures stretching across the water.
It was an astonishing sight.
Under the combined pressure of his two Haki types, the seemingly indestructible paw bubble finally shattered in an instant.
But when it broke, it offered no cushioning whatsoever.
The tremendous momentum from Kuma's blow was still there, and Cain's body was flung onward like an untamed beast.
Cain panicked and frantically swung his staff, trying to slow his descent.
…
"Whoa, can you really eat this whole ship? It looks insanely delicious. I can try it, right?"
Out on a stretch of sea in the New World, Yamato stood aboard Katakuri's sweets ship, staring at the vessel built from cakes and desserts with pure excitement in her eyes.
She grabbed a piece of cream cake and stuffed it into her mouth with complete abandon.
Standing by the rail, Katakuri watched her utterly shameless eating habits and pressed a hand to his forehead.
"How is she exactly like Cain's little brother Luffy?"
Come to think of it, Cain had called him nii-san… and even said he would treat him to donuts, his favorite dessert.
Had Cain prepared that on purpose? Or had it really just been a coincidence?
Unexpectedly, that thought left Katakuri feeling strangely anticipatory.
But in the next instant, his expression sharpened, and he looked up at the sky.
Yamato also stopped chewing at once and raised her head warily.
An incredibly violent, overwhelming wave of Conqueror's Haki was approaching from the horizon at terrifying speed.
"Someone's here to stop us?" Yamato swallowed the sweets in her mouth and asked in a low voice, already gripping her kanabo, Takeru, with battle-ready focus.
"Probably not." Katakuri shook his head, gaze locked on the sky.
"The Marines haven't even announced Fire Fist Ace's execution yet. No one should know why we're traveling. We likely just ran into them by chance."
"Whatever the reason, I can tell one thing—this person is strong," Yamato said, her fighting spirit flaring instantly.
"So this is what a pirate's life is like? The moment you sail the seas, powerful enemies come looking for you one after another. Just like the adventures Kozuki Oden saw."
As an absolute diehard Kozuki Oden fangirl, Yamato naturally wanted to imitate him and challenge powerful figures wherever she found them.
Before her words had even fully fallen, she hoisted Takeru, swallowed the rest of the sweets in one gulp, and leapt straight from the ship onto the sea.
A blast of cold breath left her mouth, instantly freezing a wide stretch of ocean into thick ice.
She kicked off the frozen surface with all her might and launched herself high into the air.
Her kanabo was already wreathed in Conqueror's Haki as she shouted.
"I AM KOZUKI ODEN—"
Before she could finish introducing herself, the figure plummeting from the sky shouted back in alarm.
"MOVE!"
It was Cain.
The moment he sensed Yamato's Conqueror's Haki, he didn't dare take chances.
After all, there were only a handful of people on the sea who could wield that power.
He still hadn't figured out who it was, but his Observation Haki had already told him one thing clearly—
'Her Kanabo was coated in Conqueror's haki.'
So Cain stopped holding back and swung at once.
"DIVINE DEPARTURE!!"
The staff tore through the air, and the two forces collided with a thunderous impact.
The sheer force of Cain's strike blasted Yamato away before she could even attack, sending her crashing hard into the ice below.
Yamato stared blankly, completely dumbfounded.
Only the durability granted by her Mythical Zoan fruit kept her from being seriously injured.
She had barely gotten back to her feet when Cain's head smashed directly into one of her horns.
The two of them broke straight through the ice together and plunged into the sea below.
Fortunately, Katakuri moved just in time.
His arm transformed into mochi and shot outward, latching onto both of their wrists and yanking them back before they could fully sink beneath the water.
Dragging them back onto the ship, Katakuri looked down at Cain's face.
The moment he recognized him, surprise flickered in his eyes, followed by something more complicated.
"It's been a long time. No… perhaps I should say, this is our first real meeting, Chad Cain."
Cain very quickly pieced together what was going on.
Just as he had expected, Yamato really had gone to sea.
What he hadn't expected was for her to be aboard Katakuri's ship.
Did Big Mom know about this?
Was Katakuri really sailing around with Kaido's daughter just like that, without worrying that Kaido might come knocking afterward?
Cain was still running through all those thoughts when Katakuri's words reached him, leaving him momentarily frozen.
Then, rather awkwardly, he answered,
"Uh… so you really are Katakuri… nii-san."
Sure enough, calling a clearly much older man "big brother" felt incredibly strange.
Cain felt a wave of discomfort crawl over his entire body!
…
At the same time, on Egghead Island in the New World, Vegapunk was standing by a Den Den Mushi, speaking with Kuma.
"So, in other words, you launched Cain—who is also part of the Straw Hat crew—all the way here, toward Egghead?"
"Mm. Dragon mentioned his situation to me before. After thinking it through, I concluded that sending him to your island was the most suitable choice."
Kuma's voice came through the Den Den Mushi, steady and calm.
"And through Fleet Admiral Sengoku, I also came to understand just how dangerous Cain's existence is. He has an extremely high chance of throwing the world into chaos. He cannot be allowed to participate in the war to come. To ensure that without fail, I used the full extent of my power and sent him toward your location at the greatest possible speed. Judging by the timing, he should already have arrived."
"UH, NO, HE ABSOLUTELY HAS NOT!" Vegapunk waved his hands in alarm.
"I already heard from Kizaru about that boy. He possesses all three types of Haki, and on top of that, he ate… well, never mind the details. In any case, he never arrived on Egghead at all. Isn't it possible something interfered mid-flight? Perhaps he used Haki or something and caused the fruit's power to fail, and accidentally fell into some random stretch of sea halfway here…"
Vegapunk suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
The rest of the words never came out.
Then both he and Kuma, on the other end of the Den Den Mushi, fell into a heavy silence.
The stillness on both ends of the line was terrifying.
It lasted for a long time.
Then, in the next instant, Vegapunk snapped back to himself and shouted frantically to his satellites,
"THIS IS BAD, THIS IS BAD! LILITH! HURRY UP AND GO FIND HIM!"