"Looks like everyone down there noticed us."
The enormous dragon moving through the thunderclouds was Cain.
He was currently concealed inside the storm Bella had created, looking down over the Flower Capital from high above.
"I know you eventually want to fight Kaido, but now really isn't the time to start an all-out battle."
Uta sat atop Bella nearby, gazing toward the city below.
"And are you sure this is a good idea? Showing up this dramatically could cause all kinds of unnecessary misunderstandings."
"That's exactly why I'm doing it."
Cain grinned.
"I want Kaido to know I'm here."
Just then, a streak of white shot upward from the direction of the shogun's residence, moving at tremendous speed straight toward Cain.
"You damn horned gorilla! You've got some nerve! Didn't we agree you wouldn't come to the Flower Capital?!"
A kanabo crackled with Haki.
"Thunder Bagua!!"
"That's… Yamato."
Uta watched the rapidly approaching figure with a strange expression.
"It looks like Kaido hasn't noticed you yet, but Yamato definitely has."
She paused.
"And she thinks you're Kaido."
Then Uta smiled.
"Actually, this works out perfectly."
"Go say hello to Yamato. You know what kind of greeting I mean."
"It'll also give everyone in Wano a chance to see what you can do. That should stop any idiots from getting ideas above their station later."
Cain nodded.
"I was thinking the same thing."
He glanced back toward her.
"Hold on tight. This might get loud."
His huge dragon body twisted through the storm and plunged downward toward Yamato.
The long pink form descended directly toward the shogun's residence, finally giving the samurai below a clear look at the dragon overhead.
And then—
"Why is Kaido pink?"
"Maybe the gorilla's drunk."
"Nonsense. He's obviously cooked."
The nearby samurai stared.
"You've eaten shrimp before, haven't you? Though judging by that color…"
"He's probably only half-done."
Cain ignored the commentary and continued diving.
Yamato had already reached him, Conqueror's Haki wrapped around her weapon as she completed the windup for Thunder Bagua.
Cain shifted back into human form midair, reached for the weapon behind his back, held it vertically, and coated it in Haki.
"Thunder—"
Then Yamato finally got a proper look at him.
Her eyes widened.
'Oh, crap.'
'Wrong dragon.'
'That's Cain! Why is he here?!'
In a panic, Yamato redirected her fully charged attack toward an empty section of sky.
BOOM!!
Cain, still diving at full speed with his own attack already prepared, froze for half a heartbeat.
'She's not clashing with me?'
Now he had nowhere to put all that momentum.
The two were about to slam directly into each other.
Cain hurriedly twisted aside at the last possible instant.
Fortunately, they avoided the collision.
Yamato shot past him and continued upward from the sheer force of her jump.
That happened to carry her directly past Uta, who was still sitting on Bella.
Yamato barely had time to recognize her before gravity took over and she started falling again.
Uta immediately urged Bella downward after her.
Cain was considerably less fortunate.
Once again—
he found himself upside down.
And as everyone familiar with Cain knew, controlling his movement while falling headfirst was one of his greatest natural enemies.
So—
BOOM!!
Cain smashed into the street and blew open a crater, sending dust billowing in every direction.
The surrounding samurai immediately drew their swords and closed in cautiously.
Nobody knew what this supposed "Kaido" intended to do.
Then the smoke churned.
An enormous pressure suddenly erupted from within it, forcing everyone to stop.
Fortunately, Cain had corrected his posture at the last second.
He still couldn't properly control his direction while falling headfirst, but at least he had learned how to rotate his body before impact.
So instead of landing face-first—
he hit the ground in a remarkably stylish pose while also bleeding off the force behind the Thunder Bagua he had never used.
Cain exhaled.
"Whew."
"Okay. That entrance actually wasn't too bad."
Then he instinctively stepped to the right.
Yamato came crashing down headfirst beside him and buried herself in the street.
Her entire upper body disappeared underground.
Cain smirked.
"Hah. Trying to land on me? Not happening—"
His Observation Haki suddenly warned him.
Cain looked up.
Through his glimpse of the future, he saw Uta jumping down from Bella at relatively low altitude.
He immediately raised his arms to catch her.
The other part of the future he had seen didn't seem important enough to worry about.
That was a mistake.
Uta's foot landed directly on his face.
Then it slipped.
THUD!
Her legs went apart and she landed squarely on Cain's head.
Fortunately, the cloud of dust Yamato had kicked up still hadn't cleared, so none of the samurai outside could see what was happening.
They could only hear voices from inside.
"Cain! Why were you underneath me?!"
"I was trying to catch you! Why did you just jump down like that?!"
"I saw you and Yamato miss each other, so I followed! You said we were making a dramatic entrance, remember? Obviously I needed a landing pose too!"
Uta protested indignantly.
"I even picked a spot beside you! How was I supposed to know you'd move over here?!"
"I moved because Yamato was falling on me!"
The grand entrance they had imagined was officially dead.
All three of them had somehow managed to embarrass themselves in completely different ways.
When the smoke finally cleared, the surrounding samurai got their first proper look at the newcomers.
Cain emerged while holding his bleeding nose.
Uta was bright red as she held her skirt down with one hand and viciously pinched Cain's waist with the other.
Yamato crouched nearby rubbing her head, with a large chunk of broken brick somehow lodged across both horns.
All three shared the exact same thought.
'This is nothing like I imagined.'
…
Some time later—
"Everyone! There's no need to worry!"
Kyoshiro stood atop one of the higher structures in the shogun's residence and addressed the dense crowd of samurai below.
"That man is not Kaido!"
"He is the shogun's younger brother, and he has come to join us in our battle against Kaido!"
"We now possess another fighter capable of standing against Kaido himself!"
"Together with Shogun Yamato's strength—"
Kyoshiro raised his voice.
"Wano will finally be reclaimed from Kaido completely!"
A roar of long-suppressed excitement erupted from the crowd.
Inside the residence, Cain lay sprawled across the tatami mats, listening to Kyoshiro's increasingly dramatic speech with a deeply unimpressed expression.
Yamato sat cross-legged nearby with a cup of tea, looking perfectly comfortable.
"How is that guy saying all this like it's established fact?"
Cain turned his head toward the distant balcony where Kyoshiro was still passionately rallying everyone.
"Wano is supposed to be isolated from the outside world. Where did he even hear that story?"
The whole idea of Cain and Yamato being siblings had been fabricated by outsiders.
Why was Yamato letting him repeat it like official history?
Yamato scratched her head and coughed awkwardly.
"Ah… that."
"After Grandpa Garp came here and established the Marine branch in Wano, Kyoshiro became one of the people who could communicate regularly with the outside."
"So naturally, he saw the news too."
She gave Cain an embarrassed look.
"And since calling you my brother gave us a convenient justification for openly fighting Kaido…"
"I never corrected anyone."
"…Right."
Cain put his arm back beneath his head.
He didn't say anything else, though internally he was already wondering exactly how deeply the old man had involved himself in all this.
Uta poked her head out from beside Cain.
"Does that mean I can call you Big Sis Yamato too?"
Yamato didn't object.
She had long since stopped caring much about titles like that.
If anything, hearing Uta call her big sister felt surprisingly nice.
After all, Yamato had always wanted younger siblings the way Ace had.
The thought made her cheeks turn slightly pink.
Her attention then drifted toward Bella.
Yamato reached over and poked Bella's soft cheek.
Once.
Twice.
Finding that nowhere near satisfying enough, she used her Devil Fruit ability to create a large plate piled with glittering ice crystals and pushed it toward her.
Bella immediately buried her face in the ice and began happily crunching away.
Yamato rested her chin in one hand.
"I still can't believe Bella is your kid."
"She's way too cute."
She watched Bella eat.
"You're making me want one too."
"Bella's special."
Cain answered casually from the tatami.
"If you stole an ordinary Homie from Big Mom, it wouldn't be able to do everything Bella can."
He paused.
"Though Ace mentioned recently that he wanted one too…"
Cain suddenly went still.
A terrible realization struck him.
Bella had existed for quite a while now.
And Cain had never told Garp about her.
Not once.
When the old man eventually discovered that he apparently had a great-granddaughter Cain had been hiding from him all this time…
Cain could already imagine the lumps on his head.
He silently rolled onto his side, pulled out a Den Den Mushi, and dialed Garp.
…
At that same time, on the sea surrounding Sphinx Island—
flames burned wildly across the water.
Naturally, Ace was responsible.
After the incident in Totto Land, Ace had learned that Bella had eaten the More-More Fruit.
And that gave him an idea.
He wanted Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit to have a proper place to remain.
So through Sabo, Ace contacted Lilith and managed to acquire a small quantity of Green Blood.
Originally—
he had intended to use it on Murakumogiri.
Unfortunately, something had apparently gone wrong.
"Hey, hey, hey! Wait!"
Ace twisted wildly.
"Stop trying to crawl inside me!"
"Ohohoho—no, no, no! That tickles! That tickles way too much!"