Boom! Boom!
Step, step.
The soubd of cannon fire echoed in his ears, along with chaotic footsteps and frenzied battle cries.
A young boy, not very old, charged toward the fortress ahead with a gun in his hands. In the next moment, he was blown into the air by a landmine buried along their path.
"This is..."
Familiar figures ran past him one after another. The uniforms they wore were exactly the same as the one he had worn when he served as a child soldier in the Galzforce. These were his former comrades.
Everyone was fighting for that so-called Medal. Bullet himself seemed unable to control his body as he ran forward with them. But just as they were about to succeed, someone behind him gave him a shove.
That was the first time he had been betrayed. The betrayal on the battlefield nearly cost Bullet his life, but in the end he still crawled his way back from hell.
At that moment, his thoughts were not about hating his comrades for their betrayal, but about hating his own weakness. If he became so strong that no one dared betray him, then no one would be able to betray him, right?
The scene changed. The Medal was already in his hand, and standing before him was General Gray, as if the award ceremony had just ended.
"Right… those guys are all dead."
He didn't resent them, but that didn't mean he wouldn't take revenge. Now the Galzforce had only one person left: himself. Those people had all died on the battlefield, or by Bullet's own hands.
[Bullet, win this final war for our country. As long as you win, you will be the nation's hero.]
Looking at the medal in his hand, Bullet fought with everything he had. Yet his strength only made Gray fearful, and unsurprisingly, he was betrayed once again.
The scene shifted once more. He had already come to the seas. The army, General, the nation—all of them had been destroyed by his hands, and he began his own voyage.
He plunged into the sea like a tiger descending the mountain. For a time, no one could stop him. Yet it also left Bullet confused. Having lost his goal, he began destroying things aimlessly, until Roger appeared.
He stayed on Roger's ship, challenging Roger from time to time, striving to surpass him. The atmosphere aboard Roger's ship even began to influence him, gradually changing his original way of thinking.
If he could have stayed there forever, perhaps Bullet might have escaped from his extremes.
But then Roger fell ill. He had contracted a disease that absolutely could not be cured.
Once again, Bullet fell into confusion. Especially when he saw that Roger, even after learning the exact time of his own death, could still face everyone with a smile. It only made Bullet understand even less.
Not many people can smile in the face of death when they clearly know the moment it will arrive.
Protect.
For a moment, he even had the thought of wanting to protect Roger. But in the end, he erased that idea from his mind. After challenging Roger one more time, he left the Roger Pirates.
"Bullet, it seems you still don't understand the meaning of protecting something."
At that moment, Bullet seemed to see Roger, and the flashback of memories came to an end.
Usually, when someone experiences such a life-flashing-before-their-eyes moment, there are only two possibilities: either they are about to get back up with a sudden burst of strength, or they are about to die, so in that instant they recall everything from the past.
"Get lost! I will surpass you, Roger! I will surpass you eventually and become the strongest!"
Bullet roared in his heart. Roger's voice finally disappeared from his mind, but his body did not hesitate. He still swung his fist forward with all his strength.
"Kaido! You are the highest step before me! I will step on your corpse and prove that I have surpassed him!"
"Worororo! Roger is already part of the past! I've lost many times, but the me of today won't lose! If I lose to you guys, that girl will laugh at me for years!"
In the past, Kaido also had his own goals to pursue, and someone he wanted to surpass. But just as he said, those things belonged to the past, the things the old Kaido once did.
Now, he is the one leading this era. Standing at the forefront, he has no interest in copying the path of those who came before him. He desires the treasure of the Pirate King, but he has no intention of following Roger's mysterious way.
He will use this to open an era that belongs to him.
"As for losing, save that talk for when I feel like retiring!"
Kaido could accept failure, and he wasn't someone who couldn't bear to lose. But he couldn't lose inexplicably to just anyone. If he had to lose, then the only defeat he could accept right now would be losing to Yamato.
At least when that day came, there would be nothing more he could do to help her. He could simply watch her take the power she gained from defeating him and use it to achieve her own goals.
Boom!
Boom!
Bullet's fist struck Kaido's shoulder. Conqueror's Haki burned fiercely, Armament Haki surged violently, and the techniques Bullet had honed for many years were all unleashed in this moment.
Kaido could feel it; his bones seemed to be cracking, muscle fibers snapping in great numbers. Behind his body, the force of the punch left a cylindrical crater carved into the island.
Whether it was rock, soil, or even the steel plates embedded within, all were annihilated by the remaining power of that single punch.
But the kanabo in Kaido's hand had already swung out. The violent power of the dragon raged across the sky, and the place where Hassaikai swept past had already disappeared.
A massive hole had appeared on Bullet's upper body, as if something had devoured it completely.
Yet his tenacious vitality kept him alive. Drawing on the last of the strength within his body, he forced out one more punch toward Kaido.
The punch seemed weak. When it landed on Kaido, it had long since lost the strength it once carried. Even if Kaido did nothing, it would not have caused any damage.
But the aftermath of that previous punch seemed to linger.
From the spot on Kaido's left shoulder where he had been struck earlier, a large amount of blood began to flow, quickly running down and soaking his entire arm.
"Not bad. The last enemy who made me bleed was that old man Whitebeard."
"Heh… looks like you, the apprentice of Rocks… have walked ahead of me… The one who will surpass Roger… will it be you?"
"Roger? I think I surpassed him long ago."
"You really are… arrogant…"
Bullet's voice gradually weakened. The Haki wrapped around his body had already dissipated. As his breath finally ran out, his massive body at last went still.
"Our personalities are too different. Otherwise, I might've tried recruiting you. But if you'd actually agreed to join me, I'd probably look down on you."
After glancing at Bullet, Kaido put away his weapon. As the setting sun descended on the horizon, Kaido's battle also came to an end.
The battle on Bubble Island lasted three days and two nights in total. Three fighters participated, one withdrew midway, and the final victor—Kaido of the Beasts.
Kaido originally intended to deal with Bullet's corpse, but during the process he noticed some fragments of glass. Next to a broken compass was a small plate marked with letters that seemed to indicate Laugh Tale.
"This thing… the Eternal Pose to the Final Island? Well, if it's destroyed, then it's destroyed. Using something like this would take a lot of the fun out of it."
What Kaido enjoyed wasn't the process in the normal sense. What he enjoyed were the battles that occurred while seizing the Road Poneglyphs from others. Obviously, that path would bring far more fights.
Looking at Bullet again, Kaido seemed to feel that simply leaving like this would be inappropriate. He swung his kanabo once more at the ground.
The earth split open, and Bullet's corpse slid down into the crack.
On Amazon Lily, Shanks let out a sigh, though it was unclear what he was sighing about.
"It's all over."
"It's over?"
"Yeah. The battle is finished. Of those two monsters, there should only be one left now."
Ruffling Uta's hair, Shanks confirmed once again with his senses. Of the two ferocious auras he had sensed before, one had now completely vanished.
Bullet was a special case. Compared to being a companion, he was more like just a passerby in the Roger Pirates, and he never had particularly deep ties with Roger's crew.
Combined with Bullet's previous actions, Shanks's opinion of him had already dropped to zero, so he didn't feel much about it. What worried him more was the situation in the future.
"Is that so? Looks like Governor-General Kaido has won."
Olga sat up and brushed the sand off her body. At that moment, she had already spotted the dragon's shadow flying across the sky.
"Alright, you lot! Pack things up, we're heading back to Onigashima!"
After receiving the order, the people on the Shadow Fox began cleaning up the mess on the beach, mainly things like tables and chairs.
Kaido had taken quite a long time. On the first day they were still watching the battle, but by the second day they had already relaxed. With Shanks acting as a human shield blocking the shockwaves, the rest of them even held a small impromptu banquet.
"Come to think of it, since we won the fight, shouldn't we set off some fireworks or something?"
"Sorry, Sister Olga. The island doesn't have things like that. Before Amazon Lily was moved from its original location, we threw away a lot of non-essential items."
"It's fine. We can just use another method. It's even more environmentally friendly this way."
With a casual snap of her fingers, a wave of black ripples spread out from beneath Olga's feet, and numerous illusions appeared. Meanwhile, Ann on the other side picked up several sheets of drawing paper and activated her ability on the pictures.
She was the user of the Vision-Vision Fruit. As long as something was drawn on paper, she could project it as an illusion. So when Kaido arrived, what he saw was a false scene filled with the sounds of drums and celebration.
"Congratulations on your victory, Governor-General Kaido!"
"Worororo! Wasn't that obvious? How could I possibly lose here?"
The wound Bullet had inflicted on his shoulder had already been treated with special methods. Aside from having spent a lot of stamina, Kaido showed no visible signs of injury.
Kaido also noticed Red Hair.
"You, someone who doesn't respect battle, actually came here."
"Hahaha, I'm really not interested in that sort of thing. Besides, didn't you and him have a pretty satisfying fight? That should be enough, right?"
"Tch. I don't feel like dealing with you right now. The concert's already over, so you should head back to your ship. I'm not interested in carrying you while I fly."
Since he had just finished an enjoyable battle and there were quite a few people around, Kaido had no intention of continuing to fight Shanks. Instead, he was effectively telling him to leave.
With Shanks's abilities, even with only one arm he could easily swim back to the Red Force.
"What a coincidence. Actually, this time I want to go back to Wano Country with you."
"Go back to Wano Country with me? Red Hair, do you know what that means?"
Kaido's gaze focused on Shanks once again.
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