The air in the grand hall of Onigashima was thick with the stench of stale sake, sweat, and the bitter tang of defeat.
Kaido slumped wearily in his massive seat, his waist tightly wrapped in fresh bandages.
He massaged his forehead, brows furrowed, his eyes burning with a barely suppressed fury that threatened to incinerate the very air around him.
This sudden, humiliating defeat had dealt a massive blow to his pride.
From the moment he consumed the Azure Dragon Fruit, he had never suffered such a loss.
His mind kept replaying that final moment—not the brawl, not the clash of Haki, but that single, impossibly fast slash that had felt like a scalpel of pure lightning, so fast he could barely react.
If not for his formidable Observation Haki and a desperate, last-second evasion, his kidneys might have truly been... gone.
"Damn it... Whitebeard!" he growled through gritted teeth, his voice thick with a hateful resentment.
With a furious roar, he slammed his fist into the solid stone armrest beside him.
A web of cracks instantly spread from the point of impact, and the entire room trembled slightly, a testament to the rage he could barely contain.
Seeing their captain's explosive fury, everyone present—from the mighty All-Stars to the lowest-ranking guards—lowered their heads in silence, not daring to breathe too loudly.
The tension was suffocating.
This battle had been a complete rout, and for the first time, they had truly understood just how troublesome a crew of Logia users could be, especially when such power was used for escape.
It was a tactical nightmare.
Queen, his usually immaculate appearance disheveled and stained with soot, stepped forward. Exhaustion and helplessness were written all over his face as he sighed deeply.
"Kaido-sama," he began, his voice heavy. "Please understand. It's not that I didn't want to help, but the situation at Udon was... absolute chaos."
He painted a vivid picture of the scene: prison cells blasted open by beams of light, thousands of rampaging prisoners running wild, and the streaks of golden light moving with impossible speed, sowing discord and turning his own cannons against his men.
"Faced with such an emergency, I had no choice but to prioritize the most urgent issue: regaining control of the inmates before the entire region was lost. I barely had a moment to rest—not even time to take a sip of my precious red bean soup."
After listening, Kaido fell silent for a moment before giving a slight, grudging nod.
"Cough... cough... Kaido-sama, I—" King clutched his chest, his body wracked by a violent coughing fit as he looked up at his captain.
With each cough, flecks of blood spattered onto the floor.
His face was as pale as paper, his forehead drenched in a cold sweat.
"King, don't speak," Kaido commanded, his brow furrowed with a trace of barely concealed concern.
"Focus on recovering."
Though his tone was stern, it was filled with genuine care for his most loyal subordinate.
He watched his commander struggle for breath and a fresh wave of cold fury washed over him.
Whitebeard's slash had been aimed to kill him, an attempt to wipe out the last of the Lunarian race.
The thought filled him with a rage that eclipsed his own humiliation.
"I'll remember this debt for you," he vowed, his voice a low and forceful promise.
Next, Jack staggered forward, his massive frame twitching as stray arcs of electricity still crackled across his skin, making him grimace in pain.
"Kaido-sama" he stammered, "it's not that I didn't want to help—I was completely paralyzed by electricity!"
He then recounted his humiliating encounter with the thunder-wielding okama, emphasizing the cowardly hit-and-run tactics.
"Those damn cowards never fight you head-on—they just stand at a distance and shoot lightning!"
"Another Rumble-Rumble Fruit user..." Kaido muttered, the mere thought giving him a splitting headache.
Finally, his gaze settled on the remaining Flying Six.
"Who's-Who is still unconscious while vomiting blood," Kaido stated flatly, his tone seeking answers.
"We don't know if he'll survive."
Black Maria glided forward, her imposing figure seeming to command the dim light.
She gave Kaido a slight bow, her voice a calm and steady island in a sea of tension.
"Kaido-sama, we arrived when you were engaged in fierce combat with Whitebeard. To intervene in a battle of that magnitude would have been suicide. Simultaneously, Bao Huang's reports came in: intruders with Kizaru's abilities were looting the treasury and causing chaos everywhere. So we went to capture them instead."
She paused, letting her gaze sweep over to Jack.
"This is something Jack himself can confirm, as it was on his authority that the rest of us were dispatched to deal with the other intruders."
Ulti, ever eager to defend her group, nodded frantically beside Black Maria.
"Yeah, yeah! Jack's the one who ordered us to go after them!" she chirped, her tone urgent and firm, as though afraid her words wouldn't be believed in the tense atmosphere.
The other members of the Flying Six present also gave subtle, confirming nods, their eyes conveying a shared, silent understanding.
Kaido's heavy gaze slowly shifted to Jack, a trace of doubt simmering within it.
Jack, feeling the weight of that stare, squared his massive shoulders and gave a firm nod in admission.
"Kaido-sama, that's correct," he confirmed, his voice a low rumble.
"At the time, Bao Huang's reports confirmed the intruders were all Logia-types. Only those proficient in Haki stood a chance of stopping them, so I sent the Flying Six..." His explanation was logical, reasonable, and sounded entirely plausible.
A long, heavy silence followed.
Kaido didn't respond immediately, his expression unreadable as he seemed to ponder the tactical decision.
Finally, he gave a slow, almost imperceptible nod, as if accepting the explanation.
He couldn't be bothered to press the matter further.
He turned his impatient gaze back to the Flying Six.
"And then? Did you catch any of them?"
The question hung in the air like a guillotine.
Black Maria lowered her head, not daring to meet Kaido's gaze, her long legs trembling slightly beneath her kimono.
Page One remained equally silent, merely shaking his head faintly.
Ulti wore troubled expressions, exchanging helpless glances.
It was Sasaki, his expression a mask of grim professionalism, who finally took a half-step forward.
"We didn't catch them," he stated, his voice steady despite the crushing pressure in the room.
"The intruders refused to engage us directly. The moment we arrived, they would simply flee. The speed of the Glint-Glint Fruit was... too fast. We couldn't keep up. Even our attempts to set up ambushes were useless."
As his words trailed off, the room plunged into a dead silence.
The air grew so thick with tension it felt as though even breathing had become as arduous as trudging through mud.
Kaido's expression darkened, his brows furrowing as a dangerous, furious light flickered in his eyes.
Finally, he spoke, his voice dangerously low.
"And the gold? The treasure?"
Black Maria, who had been the picture of composure, seemed to shrink.
A single, whispered word escaped her lips, a sound that seemed to suck all the warmth from the hall.
"Gone."
The word, though barely audible, crashed into the room with the force of a tidal wave.
The silence that followed was absolute, so profound you could hear the faint crackle of the torches.
It was one thing to be outfought; it was another to be outsmarted, outmaneuvered, and robbed blind on their own fortress island.
This was not just a defeat; it was an unprecedented humiliation, a true and utter disgrace that would be forever etched into the history of the Beasts Pirates.
It was Jack who finally dared to break the suffocating silence, deciding it was better to rip the entire bandage off at once.
"Kaido-sama... there's one more thing..." he began, his voice hesitant.
"Orochi is dead. Should we... select a new shogun to replace him?"
Kaido's brow furrowed for a moment, then smoothed back into a surprising calm.
"Oh, that guy? Dead or not, he was never much use anyway."
Hearing this, Jack finally exhaled, a wave of relief washing over him.
He couldn't help but admire Kaido's composure.
"Then... about the new shogun's selection..." he ventured cautiously.
"Don't concern yourself with it," Kaido cut him off. "I'll handle it."
Suddenly, a new voice cut through the tense air like a shard of glass.
"Jack's lying."
Every head in the hall snapped toward the masked figure of Bao Huang.
Kaido's eyes narrowed, suppressing the inferno of rage that was boiling just beneath the surface as he focused on his most reliable informant.
"What is it, Bao Huang?" he growled.
Bao Huang's voice remained eerily calm, but her words struck the room like a thunderclap.
"Kaido-sama, Jack is mistaken. Kurozumi Orochi is not dead. Our observers confirm he is alive and well in the Flower capital."
The atmosphere in the room didn't just freeze; it shattered.
All eyes snapped back to Jack, whose own were wide with utter, uncomprehending shock.
He knew Bao Huang never lied, never made mistakes.
Which meant the corpse he had seen, the death he had confirmed with his own eyes... it was all an elaborate deception.
But how? his mind screamed, frantically trying to reconcile what he had seen with what he was now being told.
Was it a trick? An illusion? Was I just hallucinating from the lightning?
--------------------------------
If you boys like harem and lemon i release a new one piece fic.
One piece : Capturing beauties makes me stronger.
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator