At this point, all Cain could do was silently pray that Garp really wouldn't come to Wano.
He did feel a little guilty about it.
Waking the old man up in the middle of the night and throwing him into that kind of chaos was admittedly a bit much.
After thinking it over, Cain switched off the Visual Den Den Mushi's projection function. He stopped watching the disaster unfolding on Garp's side and left only the recording and transmission functions active, continuing to stream the battle over there.
Once that was done, Cain returned his attention to the fight above Onigashima.
Just as he had said earlier, Ace's mobility was one of his greatest advantages.
Against Kaido's enormous dragon body, there was no reason for him to meet every attack head-on.
After being chased around by Great Torch of Fire and Thunder several times, Ace quickly found his rhythm.
Kaido's entire body was wrapped in flames, but those flames came from the Azure Dragon's Bolo Breath.
They weren't Sakazuki's magma.
Which meant—
"I'm made of fire!"
Ace stabilized himself in midair as one arm transformed into flame. Conqueror's Haki wrapped around it as he charged straight toward the tail of Kaido's massive flaming dragon form.
"As long as I cover the flames you control with my Haki…"
"Your fire becomes mine!"
Huge sheets of flame were torn away from Kaido's tail and surged toward Ace's hand.
In the blink of an eye, they condensed into a flaming fist almost as large as Kaido's head.
"Fire Dragon—damn it, Cain already used that name."
Ace grinned.
"Then how about—"
He punched forward.
"Flame Dragon Fist!!"
The enormous fiery fist smashed directly into Kaido's dragon head.
Conqueror's Haki collided with Conqueror's Haki.
The resulting shockwave exploded in every direction, tearing open the sky itself. Dark clouds split apart and rolled away as moonlight poured through the massive gap overhead.
Kaido merely snorted.
A dangerous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Using my own fire against me?"
"Don't get cocky, brat!"
Then he truly exerted himself.
The amount of Conqueror's Haki coating his attack surged instantly.
The flames around Great Torch of Fire and Thunder became even more violent.
Even after Ace had stolen part of them, the remaining power was far beyond what he could withstand directly.
Kaido's gigantic flaming head drove straight through the Flame Dragon Fist and continued forward, smashing Ace and Yamato out of the air and directly through the roof of Onigashima.
BOOM!!
Dust erupted.
Stone fragments scattered everywhere.
Kaido shifted into his hybrid form and strode toward the center of the destruction with Hassaikai in hand.
His anger was so intense that every step left a charred footprint behind.
"The difference between us isn't something a little Devil Fruit trick can make up for, brat!"
"What you've got isn't enough!"
"Only Haki can—"
Before Kaido could finish, Yamato's anxious voice came from inside the smoke.
"Ace! Use that move!"
"What move?!"
"The one Cain taught us!"
"I don't know how to do it!"
"Who cares?! Just throw it out!"
Inside the smoke, Ace and Yamato gripped their weapons at the same time.
Two bursts of Conqueror's Haki erupted together.
They intertwined.
Collided.
Then merged.
"Hakai—Ocean Sovereignty!!"
A golden shockwave exploded from the center of the dust cloud and tore straight toward Kaido's hybrid form.
"My attack with Linlin?"
Kaido raised Hassaikai.
"But your version is still nowhere near enough!"
He didn't dodge.
Instead, he took the opening stance for Thunder Bagua.
Conqueror's Haki erupted across the kanabo as dense purple-black lightning wrapped around the weapon.
The instant the golden shockwave reached him—
Kaido twisted his waist and swung.
BOOM!
He stopped the attack head-on.
His feet carved two deep trenches through the ground as the sheer force shoved him backward.
Yet the cold smile never left his face.
His muscles bulged as Hassaikai pressed steadily against the blazing golden force.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Then—
Kaido stopped.
"Heh."
He lifted his eyes, the struggling golden light reflected in them.
"Take it back."
His arms surged with power.
Conqueror's Haki flooded directly into the shockwave.
The gold was instantly stained dark purple.
Then the entire attack reversed direction at even greater speed.
It flew straight back toward Ace and Yamato.
"Watch out!"
Yamato grabbed Ace by the shoulder and yanked him aside.
Fortunately, she reacted quickly enough.
The reflected shockwave tore past them by the narrowest margin.
The instant they regained their footing, Yamato spun toward Kaido and shouted,
"What's wrong with you, you horned gorilla?!"
"I could see the trajectory of every attack you just threw!"
"You weren't aiming at me at all!"
"Everything was targeting Ace!"
"Why?! Why aren't you hitting me too?!"
"As her father, isn't it perfectly natural for me to kill him?!"
Kaido's roar shook loose stones from the ground.
He had already flashed into striking range.
Hassaikai came down directly at Ace.
"Not happening!"
Two sharp impacts rang out so perfectly together that they sounded like one.
Ace and Yamato blocked the strike simultaneously.
Yamato transformed into her hybrid form in an instant.
Ace tightened his grip on Murakumogiri as flames surged around his entire body.
Behind him, Bell formed a blazing ring of fire.
Ace's body rapidly expanded until he stood nearly as tall as Yamato.
Semi-transparent flames gathered into a humanoid silhouette around him as he entered a partially elementalized state.
Ace grinned.
"Come at me…"
"Father-in-law!"
Kaido's face twisted.
"BRAT, DIE!!"
…
"Ohhh, now they're fighting in hybrid forms."
Cain watched through his binoculars.
"This is actually getting pretty—"
He stopped halfway through the sentence.
A purple light had appeared in his field of vision.
And it was approaching extremely fast.
Cain slowly lowered the binoculars.
The Hakai shockwave Kaido had reflected earlier was flying directly toward the mountain where he stood.
"…Why the hell is Ocean Sovereignty coming over here?"
Cain sighed.
"Seriously. If you're going to fight, fight properly. Stop making things harder for the spectators."
"If I reflect this thing again, it'll only get even stronger."
"So I guess there's only one option."
"Bella!"
Cain grabbed his weapon and leaped into the air.
Bella transformed into a white ribbon and wrapped herself around his body as he began building power.
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Strike!!"
The attacks collided.
Cain brought his strike down—
and split the Haki-laced shockwave cleanly in two.
Both halves screamed past either side of his body and shot into the sky.
The air shrieked beneath the pressure.
The divided shockwave kept traveling, clearing every cloud within hundreds of kilometers.
By the time it finally faded—
the night sky was completely open.
Nothing remained above except the moon and countless stars.
Cain dropped back onto the mountaintop, rested his weapon over one shoulder, and raised the binoculars again.
"All right."
"Cleaned up."
"Let's keep watching."
Bella returned to her normal form and created two small ice lenses over her eyes, using them like binoculars as she stared intently toward the battlefield.
Uta, meanwhile, turned the projection back on.
She was more interested in seeing what Garp was doing.
A booming voice immediately came through the Den Den Mushi.
Garp still had Seastone chains wrapped around one ankle, but that wasn't stopping him from excitedly running toward the coast with the Visual Den Den Mushi in his arms.
"Bwahahaha!"
"As expected of my grandsons!"
"They're all doing great!"
"Grandpa's coming to see you right now!"
"GARP, YOU BASTARD! STOP!"
Sengoku was riding on Garp's back with one arm locked tightly around his neck.
Originally, Sengoku had only ordered someone to bring Seastone chains so they could restrain Garp.
Unfortunately, the old bastard had taken advantage of a single moment of distraction and fastened the other end around Sengoku's ankle.
Now the two men were chained together.
One was desperately charging forward.
The other was desperately pulling backward.
Neither looked remotely dignified.
Listening to the crashing and shouting from the other side, Cain quietly turned the volume up.
"…Grandpa, it sounds like things over there are livelier than Onigashima."
"CAIN! QUIT MAKING SMARTASS COMMENTS!"
Sengoku's furious voice exploded through the Den Den Mushi.
He was visibly out of breath from wrestling with Garp.
"Talk some sense into him!"
"If he actually escapes and reaches Wano, I swear I meant what I said!"
"My next stop will be Wano too, and I'm beating the hell out of YOU!"
Uta placed a hand on Cain's arm and leaned closer to the Den Den Mushi.
Her voice became much gentler.
"Grandpa Garp, are you there?"
"I'm here! I'm here! Uta, Grandpa's here!"
Garp answered instantly.
Because the Den Den Mushi had binoculars strapped over its eyes, he could only see the battlefield and not Uta herself.
Even so, his tone softened immediately.
"Grandpa Garp, you don't need to rush to Wano."
Uta smiled.
Then she shared the idea that had just occurred to her.
"Cain and Ace both have partners now."
"Sabo has Koala too, so you don't really need to worry about any of them."
"Which means maybe you should start thinking about…"
She paused.
"Luffy?"
"Luffy?"
"Grandpa, didn't you know?"
"The Pirate Empress Boa Hancock has liked Luffy for a long time."
"The problem is that Luffy is completely clueless."
"He doesn't understand any of it."
Garp rubbed his chin.
Sengoku was still clinging to his neck from behind, but Garp had apparently stopped caring.
"Now that you mention it…"
"That girl did seem strangely interested in Luffy during the Summit War."
"And afterward, on that island too…"
His eyes lit up.
"Oh! I get it now."
"If Ace's side has already worked out, then we can deal with that after the fight."
Garp suddenly slapped his thigh.
"Sengoku!"
"I need to go back to Headquarters."
"While you're at it, get me authorization to cross the Red Line."
"I'm going to knock some sense into that brat Luffy!"
Cain immediately covered his face.
If Luffy were capable of understanding romance, he would have done it years ago.
And more importantly—
was Garp personally showing up really going to make him understand?
More likely, he'd literally crack Luffy's skull open.
Sengoku, meanwhile, became even more furious.
"You bastard!"
"Do you seriously think the Marines and the Seven Warlords are some kind of matchmaking service for your family?!"
"Ace is already walking around with a Warlord title while getting involved with the Beasts Pirates!"
"And now you want Luffy going after another Warlord too?!"
"That hardly counts as him going after her."
Garp snorted.
"If anything, if we're talking about someone getting involved with—"
He stopped halfway through.
Then immediately covered his mouth.
Sengoku went silent.
Then his voice dropped.
"What about Cain?"
"Go on."
"Tell me the truth."
"I've thought something was wrong for a long time."
His tone became increasingly serious.
"One Uta concert was enough to attract that much attention from the Red Hair Pirates."
"I investigated it before, but the World Government explicitly ordered me to stop."
"Garp."
"Tell me honestly."
"Is Uta…"
"…Shanks' daughter?"
On Cain's side of the call—
both he and Uta froze.
Neither of them had expected the conversation to somehow swing around and land directly on them.
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