"Marco…"
A hoarse voice cut in behind him.
Marco turned and saw Kaido, his massive frame wrapped in bandages. Katakuri's mochi still sealed the gash at his neck. Like Big Mom, Kaido's body was absurdly tough—ordinary steel needles couldn't even pierce his skin, so stitching the wound had been impossible.
"Kaido! Looks like you're in pretty good shape," Marco said, teasing him.
Even as an awakened Zoan user, Kaido's slashed throat hadn't fully recovered. Every word scraped against the damaged tissue. He forced out in a rasp, "Use your regeneration flames to fix my throat too."
Marco didn't hesitate. Blue flames flared in his palm and then gently wrapped around Kaido's neck.
With the phoenix flames accelerating the process, the pain in Kaido's throat eased almost instantly. Coupled with his own monstrous recovery, the wound began healing at twice its usual speed.
"Phew… finally some relief." Kaido let out a long breath.
"The neck's the most fragile part of the body," Marco went on. "If an ordinary guy took a blade there, he'd have been dead ages ago. The fact you're not only alive but up and moving this fast is pretty crazy."
"Hmph, who do you think I am?" Kaido snorted, hot air blasting from his nostrils, clearly annoyed. "I didn't expect that aside from fighting, you also had this kind of medical skill."
Marco's lips curled into a playful smile. "You probably don't know this, but before I became captain, I was always the ship's doctor. My regeneration flames work best on me, sure, but on injured or sick people, they can still speed up cell regeneration and division, so wounds heal a lot faster."
"So that's how it is," Kaido muttered with a slight nod.
But his gaze on Marco had grown more serious. The power Marco had shown in this war had completely surpassed his expectations. He knew Marco had awakened those black flames, but he hadn't imagined they'd be this overwhelming.
Even Marco's Haki felt stronger than before.
"I just heard King say," Kaido continued, "that you had someone move all the machines on this island?"
Marco nodded, his expression grave. "Yeah. I didn't defeat the Gorosei—just pushed them back for a moment. If they come at us again, we probably won't be able to hold them off. For now, we should retreat."
Kaido silently agreed. After clashing with the Gorosei himself, he'd been forced to admit his own limits. One-on-one, he could still manage. But against several of them at once… his strength just wasn't enough.
"By the way, Marco, how did you repel the Gorosei and the God's Knights?" Kaido fixed his gaze on him, eyes serious. "I'd already blacked out by then. I heard from King and the others that there was an incredibly powerful conqueror's Haki that blew away all the Gorosei and the God's Knights. Was that you?"
Marco met Kaido's stare and snorted lightly. "If I had Haki that strong, I would've used it a long time ago. That was Joy Boy's Haki."
"Joy Boy?" At that name, both Kaido and King raised their brows.
The Big Mom Pirates were just as stunned. They'd heard that name before. After the Three Emperors formed their alliance, they'd exchanged information, and the name Joy Boy—someone who'd lived eight hundred years ago—had reached their ears.
According to prophecy, Joy Boy was a savior who would bring joy to the people. Most treated that kind of legend as nothing more than a story… yet here was Marco bringing up Joy Boy now.
"Eight hundred years ago," Marco explained, "Joy Boy stored an insanely powerful Conqueror's Haki inside the ancient robot Emit. All I did was release the Haoshoku he left behind."
"Haki can be stored?" Kaido was visibly shaken by this.
King, however, looked even more fired up. "Marco, are you Joy Boy?"
Marco was left speechless for a moment before snapping back, "No."
But King refused to let it go. "Then how do you know Joy Boy stored his Haki in that robot?"
"That's none of your business." Marco clearly had no intention of explaining—and saw no reason to.
Seeing Marco shut him down, King grew restless on the inside, but there was nothing he could do. Even so, it only made him more certain:
Marco had to be Joy Boy.
King had always believed Kaido was Joy Boy. Yet after witnessing the battle on Egghead Island, he was now convinced Marco was Joy Boy reborn. The only explanation, he thought, was that Marco had simply lost the memories of his previous life.
He declared, voice firm, "No, you must be the reincarnation of Joy Boy. Because of reincarnation, you've lost your past life's memories, but that doesn't matter. Whether you're Joy Boy or Marco, I believe you can change this world."
"You're not wrong about that." Marco's lips curled into a small smile as he listened, and then he said seriously, "I can indeed change this world."
Kaido listened with a faint scowl, clearly displeased, and let out a cold snort. "Hmph. If you really are the reincarnation of Joy Boy, then I'll definitely have another fight with you when the time comes."
"Hmm, no problem." Marco nodded in agreement. He had already decided on that. Once they reached a safe place, he would fight Kaido—not only to fulfill the mission's requirement of "humiliating" him, but also to seize the leadership of the Three Emperors Alliance.
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