Chapter 255: Blackbeard Crashes the Party!
"Rubber Ape King… Ultra-Speed Hurricane Punch!"
Blazing blue flame-like energy vanished in an instant, all of it condensing inside Luffy's body.
With just a swing of his fist,
an overwhelming blast of fist-flame energy rippled outward like shockwaves.
His Gear Fourth body worked like a bellows,
compressing the explosive energy within until it detonated with a booming release.
Every punch inflicted devastating damage to his own body.
Under normal circumstances,
using Hurricane Punch in this overloaded state would be suicidal.
But now, with the Rubber Fruit on the verge of awakening and the Will of Nika sharing the burden,
Luffy unleashed his full fighting spirit.
"This power… Who the hell are you?!"
Kaido had already pushed his Haki to the max,
yet he was still being knocked back repeatedly.
More than that,
he could sense it—
This brat's power wasn't just from the Reincarnation Game.
There was something very strange about his Devil Fruit too.
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy!
I'm the man who will become Pirate King!"
Luffy laughed wildly,
his inflated body trembling violently, heart pounding with a drum-like rhythm.
Thump... thump... thump...
Hearing that, Kaido's pupils shrank.
He wasn't the only one.
Far off in the New World, on Zou—an island perched on the back of a giant elephant—
that very elephant suddenly awoke from its slumber.
Its legs, which had marched on for decades without pause, came to a halt.
Zou began to tremble.
"What's going on?!"
"An earthquake?! Or are we under attack? Could it be Kaido's men?!"
The warring Mink Tribe suddenly stopped,
sensing the massive shift.
Cat Viper's pipe fell from his mouth as his expression stiffened.
"Zunesha… It hasn't moved like this in decades. Is there someone powerful enough to awaken it?"
Duke Inuarashi looked equally uneasy.
"Could it be... the ancient legend?"
As retainers of the Kozuki Clan,
they knew many ancient secrets.
If Zunesha was stirring,
it must be something tied to the events from 800 years ago.
"After eight hundred years... the drums of liberation ring out once again.
Have you returned, Joyboy?"
Meanwhile—
Shanks, sailing away from the East Blue with his newly founded Adventurers' Guild,
heard a deafening spiritual echo.
"The Drums of Liberation… it's Luffy?!"
He abruptly raised his head,
his gaze as if piercing across the ocean.
By his old understanding,
even if Luffy was the chosen one, the awakening of his Fruit should only happen after reaching the New World.
So why was it happening now?
He gave a helpless smile.
Since the Reincarnation Game had shattered fate,
Luffy too was no longer bound by the original path.
"No matter what...
Let's go see it for ourselves."
The Adventurers' Guild flagship turned toward the Oikot Kingdom,
where the Drums of Liberation echoed loudest.
Mariejois.
High in the gardens of Pangaea Castle, Im suddenly looked up,
gazing toward the East Blue.
He summoned the Five Elders.
"The Drums of Liberation have sounded.
A Rubber Fruit user is awakening.
Go and investigate."
Normally,
an event like this would spark panic in Im.
After all, that Fruit was eaten by Joyboy—
the single greatest threat the World Government had ever feared.
No one knew the Fruit's terrifying power better than Im and the Five Elders.
And after centuries of slumber,
it was suddenly awakening now?
It reeked of destiny.
But things had changed.
The Reincarnation Game had broken fate.
The World Government was no longer what it was—
now reborn as the God Clan.
Even if Joyboy returned,
without becoming a player, he couldn't change the world.
Now, fate belonged to the Game Merchant.
Oikot Kingdom.
Sanji, flying in a hot-air balloon with the barely recovered Zoro and Nami,
scattered specially prepared flyers over the city.
Civilians, slaves, children, and the elderly stooped to pick them up.
"What's going on, Sanji?"
Nami looked at the flyer's bold headline with confusion:
"When the time comes, raise your hands and pass the light to the Pirate King!"
Zoro didn't get it either.
Why weren't they helping Luffy?
Why hand out weird flyers instead?
Sanji was also baffled.
He scratched his head and said,
"Luffy told me he found an item—something that can beat Kaido.
But only if we hand these out first."
RUMBLE...
Suddenly, the whole kingdom shook violently.
Kaido had taken his Azure Dragon form,
wreathed in searing flames, circling above Oikot like a natural disaster.
He dove down toward Giant Rubber Luffy.
Rising Dragon: Flame Bagua!
Kaido's strongest move—
a Conqueror's Haki-empowered dive meant to obliterate his enemies.
"A world-ending dragon!"
"A walking apocalypse!"
"The island's going to sink!
Someone save us!!"
People across Oikot looked up in terror.
Since Kaido's arrival, he had slaughtered the royal family and seized control.
They'd lived in fear ever since.
Now, as destruction loomed,
they fell to their knees and prayed—
desperate for someone to save them.
But in the world of pirates,
tears of the weak meant nothing.
Only the strong could shatter skies and sink islands.
"Rubber Pirate… get up! You can do it!"
Though the azure dragon loomed massive above,
the desperate townspeople still saw that small figure fighting back.
Even in despair, they cheered.
"Kaido-sama, it's taking you quite a while.
Need a hand?"
"Zehahahahahaha!"
A shadow suddenly entered the battlefield.
It was the same man who had incited the crowd in the arena to attack Zoro.
Now he stood amidst the ruins—
a tangled mess of unkempt black hair, a dirty face,
a red coat draped loosely over his shoulders,
his hairy stomach exposed.
"Who are you?"
Kaido, still in dragon form, turned his giant head.
"Name's Blackbeard.
I'm the Black Envoy of the God Clan.
Here to arrest the one who ate the Nika Fruit—Monkey D. Luffy!"
Blackbeard stood on the rubble,
gazing lazily up at Kaido as he introduced himself.
But his eyes were burning.
He had spent twenty years lurking in the shadows, finally obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit.
He thought it would make him the strongest.
But then the Reincarnation Game appeared—
and shattered all his plans.
One Devil Fruit wasn't enough anymore.
Still, he adapted.
Whitebeard's crew rejected him.
The new Adventurers' Guild?
Shanks knew him too well—he'd never be accepted.
So he turned to the World Government—now the God Clan.
They needed agents to roam the world.
It was the perfect cover.
And their first command?
Capture Monkey D. Luffy.
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