"You must be Rolan, the one Ace mentioned?"
Rolan had just settled back onto the ground when a female voice spoke from beside him. He turned his head and saw it was Yamato, Kaido's daughter.
He nodded slowly, expression unreadable, "Yeah, that's me. What's up?"
Yamato's face brightened with excitement, "So it really is you! You're the one that bastard Master, Ace always talks about, right?"
Rolan's brows twitched at that. "That brat… still hasn't learned his lesson." He had expected Luffy and Ace to speak of him with respect, but hearing Ace refer to him that way was annoying, though very much in line with Ace's reckless personality.
Yamato studied him quietly. This Rolan was like an endless abyss; no matter how she looked, she couldn't measure his depth. As expected of Ace's master.
Rolan glanced back at her, expression cool, "I got something on my face?"
Yamato shook her head, "I'm just wondering how someone so young-looking could be this strong."
Rolan let out a low laugh, "That's a long story." Then he turned his gaze toward the arena where the battle raged.
Yamato blinked, following his eyes to where Luffy fought.
---
Isn't it exciting to face someone stronger than you? Kaido asked Luffy.
Luffy's legs churned on the ground like fiery wheels, flattening the battleground beneath him. Kaido stepped forward and charged. At once Luffy dashed toward him, his right fist spinning so fast it left afterimages.
The punch connected squarely with Kaido's face.
Boom!
Crackling red and black lightning exploded outward. In an instant, Luffy's blow appeared to pass through Kaido's head and emerge from behind.
"What?!"
Yamato stared in disbelief. Luffy's punch looked like it had pierced Kaido's skull, but on closer inspection the blow hadn't gone through at all. Instead, Luffy's fist had melded with Kaido's body like rubber.
Luffy's strike, reinforced with Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki, pummeled Kaido and sent him flying into the ground, carving out a massive crater.
Luffy laughed, breathless and wild, his voice echoing across the battleground.
Kaido frowned at that laughter, a feeling he despised more than pain. He liked to crush hope beneath his heel.
Without hesitation, Kaido charged forward, his club vibrating with red and black lightning.
He unleashed a sweeping assault, each strike wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, creating a deadly cage around Luffy. Boom, boom, boom — relentless blows hammered Luffy's body, leaving marks in the rubbery flesh.
Finally, Kaido delivered a crushing blow that sent Luffy hurtling hundreds of meters backward.
But Luffy only laughed harder.
He rose to his feet, stomping the earth, turning the ground into rubber.
Kaido watched, bewildered, as from beneath his feet a massive rubber fist shot upward, coated in Haki. The punch struck Kaido's jaw and blasted him skyward.
His body shot up tens of meters before slamming to a halt midair. His pupils tracked Luffy in the distance, stunned by what he'd seen.
Luffy's transformed body not only retained rubber's properties but seemed to reshape the very environment as his weapon. Kaido had never seen anything like it.
Even so, a confident smirk crept onto his face.
"I won't lose!" Luffy shouted as he surged forward again.
Kaido chuckled darkly. "This world is made for the strong to rule the weak. The strong devour everything. If everyone you mention were stronger than me, they'd be free. But they're not. I am. And that gives me the right to dominate them."
Luffy's expression hardened. "No. In this world, everyone deserves freedom. No one is meant to be enslaved."
Kaido laughed again, mocking. "Are you their savior now? Do you intend to force this world to bend to your ideals?"
Luffy didn't flinch. "I don't care what anyone calls me. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'll surpass you to become the Pirate King!"
At those words, the ground beneath Luffy became rubber and flung him forward, planting him before Kaido.
"Gomu Gomu no Space Shredder," Luffy roared, launching a devastating strike.
Kaido met it, club smashing into Luffy's chest. Instead of flying away, Luffy's body yielded like a stretched rubber band and latched onto the club as he counterpunched. The impact blasted both of them hundreds of meters away.
Luffy's arm lashed out at a nearby stone mountain, wrapping around it before springing back toward Kaido. Kaido flipped through the air, carving a trench into the earth as he landed and charged again, club crackling.
"Great Full Thunder Bagua," Kaido roared, infusing his attack with Haki and lightning.
Boom! The collision detonated in a massive explosion, a huge mushroom cloud rising from the point of impact. Luffy was blasted backward once more.
As the dust settled, Luffy's body began to shrink and change, the vibrant power fading until he appeared as an old man.