"Op...opinion?"
Queen's entire body of fat trembled violently. He stared in horror at the bottomless, still voraciously swallowing seawater great rift valley, then glanced at Kane's eyes, which had returned to black but now seemed even more unfathomable.
His legs gave way.
With a thud, this great pirate with a bounty exceeding one billion actually knelt right there in the pile of rubble.
"N...no opinion! Five hundred billion it is, five hundred billion!"
Queen's hands shook as he tried to wipe the waterfall of cold sweat pouring from his forehead, his voice hoarse and completely changed.
"But... Admiral, the entire Wano Country's cash combined isn't enough for that amount! You see..."
Before he could finish.
BOOM——!!!
A deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the sky!
The massive Azure Dragon form, after enduring the residual shockwave of Susanoo's world-cleaving slash, finally couldn't hold on. It exploded into a plume of white smoke mid-air, forcibly reverting to human form!
BANG!!!
Kaido, having lost all lift, crashed heavily into the ruins less than ten meters in front of Kane.
As the dust settled.
The "Strongest Creature" was in an utterly wretched state.
He was drenched in blood, a terrifying, bone-deep slash wound visible on his chest, and hot blood still gushed from the base of his right dragon horn.
He was defeated.
Defeated utterly and completely.
Yet, on that blood-stained, ferocious face, there wasn't a trace of fear facing death, only a beast-like stubbornness.
Crack, crack.
His impossibly hard bones supported him as he slowly rose from the deep crater.
"Shut up! Queen!"
Kaido spat out mouthfuls of bloody froth, his bloodshot eyes locked fiercely on Kane, roaring, "I'm not dead yet! The Beast Pirates will never compromise!"
"Uwohohohohoho!"
He spread his thick arms wide, threw his head back, and let out a bone-chilling, maniacal laugh.
"Magnificent! This is the power of a top-tier powerhouse! This is the power to overturn the world!"
Kaido took a heavy step forward, letting the blood from his chest spill onto the ground.
"Come! Calamity! Kill me!"
"I've long grown tired of this utterly boring, damn world!"
"Let me, like Captain Rocks back in the day, face the most exhilarating death at the pinnacle of this era!"
He pointed a finger, jabbing it heavily against his own chest.
"Use this head of mine to pave the way for your Navy Admiral's supreme prestige! Give me an end right here today!!!"
His deranged plea for death echoed over the desolate ruins.
High above, King tightened his grip on his long sword.
In the distance, Jack lowered his head.
They knew their captain all too well; it was a pride etched into his very bones.
Better to die standing than to live kneeling!
However.
Kane, standing opposite, showed no reaction at all.
He brushed off a speck of dust from his sleeve, the red Sharingan slowly fading away, returning to its original deep black.
Kill you?
Let you die a glorious death on the battlefield?
Let you go down in history with some bullshit heroic title like "the unyielding pirate"?
That would be far too easy for you.
Just as Kane was pondering how to make this muscle-brained brute experience true despair—
Tap, tap, tap…
A sudden and unusually lighthearted set of footsteps came from behind the nearby rubble of a giant boulder.
In this deathly ruin where even the Three Disasters dared not breathe loudly, the footsteps sounded incredibly jarring.
Kane followed the sound.
He saw a little girl, about four years old, with long white-green-pink hair and two small red horns on her head, stumbling over the debris as she ran toward them.
"Yamato?!"
Kaido, who had been resolutely prepared to meet his death, froze. His tragic, heroic momentum instantly shattered as he roared, "What are you doing out here, you idiot?! Get back!"
However, the four-year-old Yamato completely ignored her father's impotent rage.
Her large eyes sparkled with intense, fanatical stars, fixed directly on Kane, who stood there wearing his Justice Coat.
"Hey!"
Unfazed by the terrifying killing intent still lingering around Kane, Yamato ran right up to him, excitedly pointing her little finger at him:
"Was that huge, super cool blue giant just now something you made?!"
Yamato's face flushed with excitement as she gestured wildly. "One slash! Just like that! It cut the whole island in half! That's ten thousand times cooler than my stupid old man's dragon breath!"
"I want to do that too! I want to become that big blue guy!"
Her childish voice echoed over the ruins.
The air suddenly grew still.
Queen, kneeling behind them, felt his eyes were about to pop out of his head as he desperately tried to signal Yamato: Little ancestor! Can't you see this guy just beat your dad to a pulp?!
Meanwhile, Kaido, who had been ready to die moments ago, now had several thick veins bulging on his forehead, his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
Ten thousand times cooler than my stupid old man?! Is this how you backstab your own father?!
As for Kane.
He looked at the four-year-old child before him, her eyes filled with admiration after seeing the Susanoo.
A truly "devilish" inspiration flashed through his mind.
He had rewritten Kozuki Oden's fate, turning him into a fool dancing in a mud pit for the rest of his life.
This meant Yamato had lost the chance to become a "die-hard fan of Kozuki Oden."
So now… this little girl had become a fan of him?
The corners of Kane's mouth slowly curled up into an extremely gentle, "kind" smile.
He leisurely bent down, kneeling on one knee to bring his gaze level with the four-year-old Yamato, and naturally reached out to gently touch the pair of adorable little horns on her head.
"Little girl, did you think that blue warrior was cool?"
Kane's voice was as gentle as a spring breeze in March, capable of melting the hardest ice.
"Mhm! Mhm! Super cool!"
Yamato nodded frantically like a chick pecking at rice, her eyes still full of stars.
"That's not something just anyone can become."
Kane gazed into Yamato's eyes, his tone becoming solemn and sacred, as if passing down some great faith. "That blue giant is called… 'the Embodiment of Justice.'"
"Only those with great compassion, who protect the weak and are determined to drive all cruel and merciless villains from these seas can earn its recognition."
Kane pointed to the word "Justice" on the back of his coat.
"I am a Navy Admiral. This is the power of the Navy."
Kane glanced out of the corner of his eye at Kaido, whose face had already turned ashen, and continued his intense brainwashing of the four-year-old girl: "Only by joining the Navy can you become a towering hero like that blue giant."
"Do you want to be a hero?"
Yamato was stunned.
"Protecting the weak... the embodiment of Justice... a hero..."
These words were a devastating blow to a four-year-old child who had grown up in the extreme environment of the Beast Pirates, where the strong preyed on the weak and brutality was glorified!
"I want to be one!!!"
Yamato clenched her little fists without hesitation and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"I won't be a pirate anymore! Those guys aren't cool at all!"
"I want to be in the Navy! I want to wear a white coat with words on it too! I want to become that big blue guy!"
The little girl spun around excitedly, imitating Kane's cool pose with one hand in his pocket, trying her best to puff out her small chest.
"From today on, I am a hero of the Navy!"
Her clear, joyful cries echoed endlessly over the ruins of Onigashima.
"..."
The wind stopped.
The expression on Kaido's face froze completely at that moment.
His large, bell-like eyes stared fixedly at his only daughter, a wave of intense dizziness washing over him from deep within his mind.
"Pfft—!!!"
A massive mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs violently sprayed from Kaido's mouth!
This wasn't from being struck; this was pure rage-induced vomiting of blood!
"Kane—!! You bastard!!!"
Kaido knelt on the ground, letting out a wail a hundred times more wretched than when his dragon horn was severed!
Wanting to die? Wanting a glorious, vigorous and spectacular death?
Not a chance.
Being utterly crushed in a one-sided fight was one thing, but his only flesh and blood, the future heir to the Beast Pirates, being brainwashed right before his eyes by his enemy into becoming a die-hard Navy fanatic?!
What could be more soul-crushing than this?!
[Ding—Detected host's extremely malicious actions! Brainwashing Kaido's offspring in person, distorting the life path of a chosen one! Inflicting devastating psychological damage on Kaido!]
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