"Uh… well… I'm not really sure either…"
Garp tried to play dumb and brush the question aside.
Sengoku wasn't about to let him escape that easily.
He immediately turned toward the Den Den Mushi and shouted, "Cain! You tell me!"
On the screen, Garp began blinking furiously at Cain, clearly signaling, 'Leave this to me.'
"…Huh? What was that? The signal's pretty bad… I can't hear you…"
Cain immediately understood.
He had already prepared for exactly this kind of situation.
While deliberately imitating a broken connection, he answered in increasingly fragmented bursts and slowly pushed down the antenna on the Visual Den Den Mushi.
The audio grew more distorted by the second.
Finally, after a burst of harsh static—
the screen went black.
Connection lost.
Cain breathed a sigh of relief.
Still, he knew this was only a temporary solution.
Garp might have voluntarily taken the burden of hiding everything onto himself, but the truth couldn't stay buried forever.
Uta saw Cain relax only to immediately start frowning again and gently patted his shoulder.
"Cain, you really don't need to worry this much."
"The World Government already knows who I am, doesn't it? Even Big Mom figured it out."
"We're the only ones who've never publicly confirmed it."
Cain fell silent for a moment, unconsciously tapping his fingers against the barrel of his binoculars.
"That's exactly the problem."
"We still don't know how Shanks feels about any of this."
Uta looked down at the ring on her finger and quietly complained,
"That's true. You already proposed to me, and he hasn't said a damn thing."
Cain could only sigh and turn his attention back toward the battlefield.
"At this point, we'll just have to find Shanks in Elbaf and talk to him face-to-face."
"As for Grandpa…"
Cain grimaced.
"Hopefully he can hold out."
…
"I CAN'T HOLD OUT ANYMORE!"
Garp stared in horror as Sengoku devoured his carefully hoarded donuts.
"Sengoku! I'm begging you! Stop eating them!"
After the call ended, Sengoku knew perfectly well that he wasn't going to get a clear answer out of Cain.
Still—
he more or less understood what was going on.
That didn't mean he planned to say anything.
The World Government had explicitly forbidden further investigation, which was proof enough that the matter involved something troublesome.
Sengoku had no desire to stick his hand into that hornet's nest.
Besides, Uta herself wasn't a pirate.
Even if Shanks really was her father, that had nothing to do with her.
And without hard evidence, Sengoku had even less reason to make trouble for himself.
So while he appeared to be sitting there shamelessly eating Garp's snacks, his real objective was simple.
If Garp desperately wanted to keep this secret—
fine.
Sengoku would let him.
More importantly, he could use Garp's guilt over hiding it as leverage to crush any remaining thoughts of rushing off to Wano.
"And I get to eat my fill while I'm at it…"
Crunch.
Garp narrowed his eyes.
"…Huh? Sengoku, what did you just say?"
"Nothing. Accidentally said the quiet part out loud."
Sengoku took another bite of donut without changing expression.
…
Time passed.
By the time dawn began creeping over the horizon, Onigashima had become a battlefield of fire and lightning.
The entire island trembled beneath Kaido's rage.
Ace and Yamato were still barely managing to hold their own together, but both were already exhausted.
Kaido, meanwhile—
still seemed bottomless.
"Conqueror of Three Worlds: Ragnaraku!"
Kaido swept Yamato aside with his tail and launched his massive body into the air.
Hassaikai spun in his hands as purple-black lightning and Conqueror's Haki erupted around it.
Then he dropped.
The kanabo descended toward Ace's head with enough force to pulverize the ground beneath him.
Ace raised Murakumogiri to block as his own Conqueror's Haki exploded outward.
But Kaido layered three crushing blows into the assault.
The first strike slammed into Murakumogiri and sent the weapon flying from Ace's hands.
The second smashed directly into Ace's head.
The ground beneath his feet exploded apart, and his knees buckled involuntarily.
The third blow drove Ace straight into the earth.
Stone and dust blasted skyward.
"I'll give you one thing."
Kaido pressed Hassaikai down while looking at Ace buried beneath the rubble.
"You've got one hell of a hard head."
"If that were anyone else, their brains would already be splattered everywhere."
"Heh."
Ace braced one hand against Hassaikai and the other against the ground.
"Thanks for the compliment."
His legs slowly straightened inside the crater.
Inch by inch, he forced the kanabo away from his face.
Ace lifted his head, met Kaido's eyes, and grinned.
"But this attack of yours…"
"…isn't even one ten-thousandth as bad as my old man's."
"Then let's see how long you can keep running your mouth!"
Kaido gripped Hassaikai with both hands and drove it downward again.
Another brutal strike smashed toward Ace's face.
Ace merely grinned.
"You're forgetting something."
"I'm not fighting alone."
"Namuji Glacier Fang!"
Yamato attacked from behind.
A torrent of freezing cold engulfed Kaido.
"Now—Flame Emperor!"
A pillar of fire erupted upward and swallowed him at the same time.
Kaido sneered.
"Fire meeting ice only creates steam. You don't even understand something that basic?"
He swung Hassaikai—
and hit nothing.
Ace had already elementalized and escaped through the ground.
At the same instant, he yanked hard on the chain connecting his weapons.
The Supreme Grade Blade Ace flashed from his waist.
At the other end of the chain, Murakumogiri shot up from the ground and tore toward Kaido.
Kaido knocked the naginata aside.
But Yamato had already moved into position.
The redirected Murakumogiri used the force of Kaido's own parry to whip around, and the chain wrapped around the arm holding Hassaikai.
It tightened violently and pinned the weapon arm toward the ground.
Yamato immediately rushed in.
THUD!
Her kanabo smashed directly into Kaido's head.
Steam exploded everywhere.
Kaido's vision disappeared inside the fog, but Observation Haki immediately located Ace.
He seized Yamato and slammed her into the ground, then lashed out with his dragon tail.
"You think some chains can restrain me?!"
"Vajra Arrow!"
Kaido violently pulled.
The shockwave from his swing tore through the chain.
Then he exploded forward and attacked Ace.
Only after his strike landed did Kaido realize—
that wasn't Ace.
It was nothing more than a mass of fire.
Yet the presence he had sensed had definitely belonged to Ace.
"That was close, old bastard! Pay attention!"
An unfamiliar voice came from nearby.
"Another second and you would've hit me!"
Kaido turned sharply.
Ace and Yamato were standing together.
A sea of fire spread beneath their feet, while Bell hurriedly returned to Ace's body.
Ace had already completed Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor.
A miniature sun was slowly sinking into the Supreme Grade Blade Ace in his hands.
Yamato wrapped her own Conqueror's Haki around the weapon as well, allowing it to merge with Ace's.
Then, to prevent the flames from dispersing and concentrate as much destructive force as possible, Yamato spent the last of her strength coating the blade in a shell of freezing air.
Inside that frozen casing, Ace's flames reacted violently.
The charge had taken time.
But only an instant.
The steam.
The chains.
Every preceding move had existed for this moment.
Their combined technique—
"Kagutsuchi of Fire: Ice Flame!!"
Kaido felt the danger immediately.
For one brief instant—
he thought he saw Roger standing before him again.
Kaido hurriedly swung Hassaikai.
"Great Virtue Thunder Bagua!!"
Blade and kanabo collided.
BOOOOOOM!!
Golden rings of force erupted over Onigashima.
One after another, they expanded hundreds, then thousands of meters outward.
The entire island sank slightly beneath the pressure.
The two enormous horns that formed the iconic silhouette of Onigashima's skull dome were erased in an instant.
Then a mushroom cloud larger than Onigashima itself exploded into the sky.
Within the rolling smoke—
Kaido stood breathing heavily.
Below him, Ace had already collapsed unconscious.
Yamato was barely still standing.
At the final moment of the clash, Ace had deliberately placed himself in front of her and absorbed the full force of Kaido's counterattack.
Kaido sneered and slowly stepped forward.
"You thought something at that level could take me down?"
He raised Hassaikai again.
Then—
his body twisted slightly.
Splurt.
Kaido suddenly froze.
A deep wound had opened across his shoulder.
He stared down at it in disbelief.
Most of Ace and Yamato's combined attack had indeed been blocked head-on.
But not all of it.
Their technique had unquestionably cut him.
How many years had it been?
Aside from the wound Kozuki Oden left behind—
no one had managed to leave a lasting scar on Kaido's body.
He pressed a hand against the wound on his shoulder and began to laugh quietly.
"You almost reached the bone."
"I really didn't expect that."
Then his expression hardened.
"But this is as far as you go!"
Hassaikai came crashing down toward Ace with annihilating force.
"Thunder Bagua!!"
"ACE!!!"
Yamato was already completely spent.
Yet somehow, at the sight of Kaido's kanabo descending, she found strength from somewhere deep inside herself.
She threw herself in front of Ace at the final instant, arms spread wide, prepared to shield him with her own body.
Then—
BOOM!!!
A deafening impact erupted.
Dust exploded between them.
Kaido's eyes widened in disbelief.
A new figure had appeared.
"Ah."
A familiar voice cut through the smoke.
"Looks like I'm a little late, Ace."
Yamato's shout had jolted Ace back to consciousness.
His fist moved on instinct—
but the instant he recognized the figure standing in front of him, the tension drained from his body.
His hand fell.
Ace managed a weak smile.
"No…"
"You're not too late."
"…Cain."
Inside the rolling dust, Cain stood with his back to Kaido and smiled casually at Ace.
Behind his head—
an immense wall of Conqueror's Haki had formed like an unbreakable fortress.
And it was holding Kaido's crushing attack completely at bay.