"Let me go!!"
His terrified screams were swallowed by the howling wind. His delicate face rippled like waves under the relentless gale.
Kozuki Momonosuke,
heir of the Kozuki Clan, and one of the last remnants of Wano's noble family.
Whether in the original story or now—
to Ghidorah, he felt like... dead weight.
Completely lacking the qualities of a strong warrior.
Utterly disappointing.
"A thousand-year-old Kozuki line... and it produced this oddity."
"A once-glorious nation, destined to vanish in the river of time."
Ghidorah muttered to himself.
At his side, King seemed to interpret some unspoken order from those words—and instinctively let go.
"AAAAHH!!"
"WAAAAAHH!!"
Momonosuke plummeted from the sky, tears and snot streaming down his face as he screamed in terror and despair.
The rushing wind, the shrinking clouds, and the rapidly approaching ocean surface—it felt as though his heart was about to burst from his mouth. His mind went blank, overcome with pure fear.
"Hey… why'd you drop him?"
Ghidorah asked absentmindedly as he noticed.
Uh...
Had he misunderstood?
King, startled, suddenly spread his wings and dove.
With a burst of supersonic speed, he caught the frail figure just moments before it would have crashed into the sea. With a thunderous flap, he returned to Ghidorah's side high above.
Momonosuke, his face deathly pale, looked like he had returned from hell.
Realizing he was airborne again, he burst into tears, shouting:
"Please, I'm begging you—don't kill me!!"
"I don't want to die!!"
Ghidorah glanced at King a few more times, clearly surprised.
He hadn't expected this seemingly cold, stoic man to harbor such... twisted humor.
Catching his look, King frowned and asked in confusion:
"Weren't we killing him?"
"Did I ever say we weren't?" Ghidorah shot back, glancing at him. "Just in case—wait until we see an island. Then we'll deal with him."
King's eyes twitched at the words. He looked down instinctively at the boy he was carrying.
As if reading King's thoughts, Ghidorah said slowly, as if to himself:
"Fate is a strange thing. Sometimes... it throws in unexpected twists."
King didn't quite understand.
Ghidorah didn't elaborate.
The two flew toward the first half of the Grand Line.
Along the way, they came upon an island.
King dropped Momonosuke again.
Boom!!
The feeble boy crashed into the island with a deafening thud, embedding himself in the ground.
Without another glance, the two took off again, continuing their journey toward the first half of the Grand Line.
Ghidorah had already searched every volcanic island in the New World—but found no trace of Rodan.
All that remained were the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, they dove back into the cloud cover.
But not long after, while gliding through the clouds, Ghidorah's eyes suddenly widened in surprise as he noticed activity in the sea below.
On the sapphire surface of the ocean—
dozens of warships bearing the World Government's insignia surrounded an island.
No, not an island—
A living creature.
Zunesha. Zou.
The ancient elephant—the symbol of a once-prosperous beastman race.
Nika's steed.
He hadn't expected to run into it by chance. And upon realizing what he was seeing, Ghidorah's expression darkened.
Those warships below clearly belonged to the World Government.
"So… 'Imu' has set their sights on this too?"
Zunesha—an ancient being with immense symbolic and destructive power.
Seeing it now, Ghidorah couldn't just look away.
Especially since the city on its back… was once a part of Bika.
And Bika, to both the ancient world and Ghidorah himself, held a very special meaning...
As if sensing something, Zunesha suddenly froze, its massive body trembling.
But with that tremble—
the Mink Tribe living on its back suffered.
Like a sudden earthquake, the entire civilization atop its back descended into chaos.
The Minks, who had lived peacefully for centuries atop Zunesha, had never experienced anything like this.
Panic spread rapidly—until they noticed the warships approaching.
Blaming the disturbance on the invading fleet, the Mink Tribe began to mobilize for battle.
ROOOAR! ROOOAR!!
What they didn't expect—was for Zunesha, silent for centuries, to suddenly bellow.
A terrifying trumpet blast echoed through the skies, so powerful it left every living creature dizzy and deafened.
"Hey, hey, Jumbo—if you keep shouting like that, the country on your back's going to be rubble!"
At that moment, a voice—impossibly loud—rang out from the sky.
A shadow shot down from the clouds, landing with a BOOM atop Zunesha's massive head.
"Rooar~"
Zunesha responded with what sounded like a happy, joyful call.
> "Can you calm down already? Have you forgotten our promise from back then?"
Ghidorah, clearly annoyed, rebuked the elephant sternly.
As his words fell, the turbulent waves gradually subsided.
The swaying warships below finally stabilized.
"I thought I was dead! That was insane!!"
On the decks, World Government soldiers collapsed, pale-faced, still trembling in fear as they stared up at the towering behemoth.
"AAAAAHHH!!"
Suddenly, a shrill scream rang out.
A soldier pointed at the elephant's head in shock:
"I-it opened its eyes!! The giant opened its eyes!!"
Everyone on the surrounding warships instinctively looked up.
Centuries of time had left Zunesha's eyes deeply sunken—
so much so that even the most detailed records had never included their appearance.
But now, from within those deep sockets, a brilliant sapphire-blue eye gleamed, subtly glancing upward.
It tried to look toward the sky—but its deeply recessed eyes seemed to fail it.
That vast blue gaze carried an unmistakable hint of... disappointment.
And then—just as everyone watched in awe—
that gemstone eye suddenly turned angry.
Zunesha's enormous trunk rose high.
"Not good!!"
"Turn the ships around!!"
Recognizing the movement, the warships below broke into chaos.
They scrambled to retreat.
But it was too late.
Zunesha's massive trunk came crashing down with a deafening roar.
BOOM!!
A tsunami-like wave erupted, sweeping across the entire sea.
The World Government's warships shattered like toys, reduced to floating wreckage.
"Bastard!!"
Even before the waters calmed, a furious roar pierced the air.
From within the crashing waves, a silver-haired man shot skyward, ripples spreading behind him as he launched a kick toward Zunesha.
Compared to the mountain-sized elephant, the figure looked smaller than an ant.
And yet, that minuscule body—
distorted the very space around him as he flew, shaking the heavens with his power.
On Zunesha's head, Ghidorah's expression changed the moment he felt the overwhelming force.
His eyes widened in shock:
"One of the Twenty Kings...!!"
Since escaping Impel Down, Ghidorah had faced many powerful foes.
And yet, none had shaken him like this.
Because the Twenty Kings—
were not just rulers of a mighty ancient alliance.
Each of them was a monster in their own right.
Even for someone like Ghidorah—
this was no fight to take lightly.
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