White light flashed violently. Two souls crossed paths in the void.
Kaido felt his consciousness sucked into a massive vortex. The next second, his perspective shifted back to a height of ten meters. The familiar weight. The reassuring security of dragon scales covering his entire body. The broken remnant of the Hassaikai stabbed into the dirt right beside him.
"Ah, I'm back."
Kaido raised a pitch-black dragon claw and clenched it into a fist. Conqueror's Haki roared to life within him. Black-red lightning danced wildly between his fingers. Atmospheric Authority, the Devil Fruit, the Demon Dragon Body—every ounce of his power had returned to its rightful place within his soul. Kaido tilted his head back and roared to the heavens. "Worororororororo!"
That was his voice. That was the roar of Kaido of the Beasts.
Twenty meters away, Ginyu had returned to his own body. Purple skin. Shattered ribs. Agonizing pain wracking his entire frame. Ginyu frowned as he stood up. The injuries were severe, but he was an elite warrior of the universe. He could push through this.
"Hmph," Ginyu scoffed. "Finally switched back. Even if this body has a few scratches, the 120,000 power level foundation is still there. Your black dragon body barely registers over 100,000. Against me, you're still—"
Ginyu's words died in his throat. Something was wrong. A very faint, yet impossible-to-ignore sensation rippled through his body. It felt like something was crawling through his meridians—no, he didn't have meridians. It was in his muscle fibers. Deep in his bones. Even clinging to the walls of his blood vessels. A remarkably thin, black film.
"What is this?"
Ginyu looked down at his arm. The purple skin looked completely normal, but the ominous feeling in his gut intensified.
Kaido's laughter rolled down from above. "You finally noticed?" Kaido pointed a thick, black claw at Ginyu's body. "I spent quite a while inside that broken shell of yours. Did you really think I was just sitting there taking a beating?"
Ginyu's pupils shrank violently. He finally realized what that black film coating his muscle fibers was doing. The film began to contract, like a lit fuse on a powder keg. Black-red lightning burst outward from deep within Ginyu's body.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh—!"
Ginyu let out the most harrowing scream of his life. His body felt like it had been thrown into a meat grinder. An invisible force violently tore at every single muscle fiber.
Kaido stood with his hands on his hips, wearing an incredibly punchable smirk on his draconic face. "Wororororo. Weren't you just asking what this is? Let me enlighten you. That's my Conqueror's Haki. While I was wearing your skin, every time I threw a punch, I injected a little bit of Haki into your muscles. Every strike you thought was just a normal brawl was me burying landmines inside you."
Ginyu's eyes were bloodshot. He stared at his arm. Beneath the purple skin, black veins were spreading like a plague, slithering along his blood vessels like venomous snakes just beneath the surface.
"You... when did you—"
Pain cut his words short. A sharp crack echoed from his right knee. The entire leg snapped inward at an impossible angle. It was the exact spot Kaido had kicked earlier—a hidden trap waiting to be sprung.
"Just now," Kaido said smoothly, bending down to pick up the broken half of his Hassaikai. "Didn't you say I fight like a farmer swinging a sledgehammer? I'll admit, I don't know the first thing about your flashy ki blasts. But when it comes to planting hidden traps inside an opponent's body—" Kaido tapped the dust off the Hassaikai. "—any pirate in the New World worth their salt who doesn't know that trick would've died eight hundred times over by now."
Ginyu collapsed to the ground. The sound of tearing flesh echoed from his left shoulder—the exact spot Kaido had struck with an elbow earlier. Every single place Kaido had hit was now detonating simultaneously. The Conqueror's Haki formed a complete chain of destruction inside him. From head to toe, nothing was spared.
"Impossible!" Ginyu struggled to stand, but his legs completely refused to respond. The 120,000 power level foundation was still there, but his motor functions had been destroyed from the inside out. It was like an engine running at full throttle, but someone had snapped the driveshaft in half. No matter how much horsepower he produced, he couldn't output a single ounce of it.
"Captain!" Jeice flew over from a distance, terror painted across his face. "Captain, what's happening to you!?"
"Get off me!" Ginyu roared, violently swatting Jeice's hand away. But the sudden movement aggravated the hidden wound in his right shoulder. Another muffled snap of breaking bone. Ginyu face-planted, purple blood leaking from his mouth, nose, and ears all at once.
Kaido hoisted the broken wolf fang club over his shoulder and sauntered over. The shadow of the ten-meter-tall black dragon swallowed the entire ruins.
"What was it you were saying earlier?" Kaido tilted his massive head, pretending to think. "Oh, right. You said you wanted to recruit me as your fifth member. Said you were going to make me dance for three months."
Kaido crouched down. His dark gold, slit-like pupils were less than a meter from Ginyu's face. In those eyes, Ginyu saw his own utterly pathetic reflection.
"Now, I'm giving you an opportunity." Kaido extended a single pitch-black claw. "Perform that signature entrance dance of your Ginyu Force for me. If you do a good job, I might just let you live three seconds longer."
Ginyu's face twisted into a knot of utter humiliation. Fear. And uncontainable fury. He was the illustrious Captain of the Ginyu Force. Lord Frieza's most loyal warrior. An elite of the universe who had conquered thousands of planets. And he had been utterly defeated by some backwater native using such underhanded, filthy tricks.
"In your dreams!" Ginyu forced out with his last ounce of strength. He planted his hands on the ground, desperately trying to contort his broken body back into the Body Change pose.
Seeing the movement, Kaido's response was swift and merciless. He swung the Hassaikai down. The half-broken spiked club smashed precisely into Ginyu's jaw.
Crack. Ginyu's lower jaw dislocated instantly, knocked completely sideways and rendered entirely useless. The Body Change required him to fire a beam from his mouth. With his mouth broken, he couldn't shoot a damn thing.
"Wororororo." Kaido rested the Hassaikai back on his shoulder. "I spent quite a while in your body just now. It might not have been long, but I got a real good look at that little light-spitting parlor trick of yours. The beam originates right at the jaw joint. Break it, and you're a mute."
Ginyu lay paralyzed on the ground. Unable to close his mouth, purple saliva mixed with blood dripped uncontrollably down his chin. He tried to speak, but only muffled, unintelligible groans came out.
In the distance, Burter finally regained consciousness. He took one look at the scene before him. The Captain was face-down in the dirt. His jaw was crooked. His legs were broken. Black lightning arced across his entire body. And that pitch-black, gargantuan dragon was crouching happily beside him, looking at him like he was an incredibly amusing toy.
Burter's brain made an instant calculation. Can't win. Absolutely cannot win. We have to run.
"Jeice!" Burter sprinted over, grabbing Jeice by the collar. "To the ship! We need Lord Frieza!"
Jeice snapped out of it. He swooped down, hauling Ginyu's broken body over his shoulder. Ginyu mumbled a muffled protest, but he didn't even have the strength to raise an arm.
Kaido watched the three of them prepare to flee. He didn't give chase. He merely raised his draconic head, watching the three figures speed away into the distance, a massive, vicious grin splitting his face.
"Wororororo. Run. Go find your Lord Frieza."
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