**Chapter 19: Sunny's First Step Into Hell – The Month of Madness**
**Sunny POV**
The day after my fifteenth birthday was supposed to be quiet. Wake up to Belle-mère's scolding for oversleeping, steal breakfast before Nami could swipe it, argue with Aqua about who hogged the blankets the night before. Maybe train a little, maybe nap in the tangerine groves. Instead, reality cracked like glass under a hammer.
One moment, I was blinking away sleep in my futon; the next, my room dissolved, folding in on itself like a bad origami project. The bed vanished beneath me, the wooden floorboards melting into nothingness. Colors twisted—gold sunlight bleeding into swirling voids of purple and black—sounds warped into screams I couldn't recognize, and a pressure crushed my chest like I was being squeezed through a straw.
Then—*BOOM*.
I slammed face-first onto barren stone, my skull rattling like a maraca in a storm. Dust exploded around me, and I coughed, tasting dirt and blood. "…Ow. That's illegal," I muttered, pushing myself up on shaking arms.
The world around me was *wrong*. Skies stretched into endless auroras, shifting like living paint. Mountains towered like entire continents stacked on top of each other, their peaks piercing clouds that roiled with thunder. Oceans poured off the horizon into bottomless voids, waterfalls of blue cascading into infinity. The planet felt alive, vibrating with raw power that hummed through my bones, making my Haki tingle involuntarily.
[System]: "Welcome, Sunny. Location: RBG Dimensional Training Ground. Planetary size: Approximately 100 times greater than Earth. Escape condition: Defeat five assigned opponents."
I froze, my heart skipping. "…Wait. What?"
And then his voice came—RBG, that cosmic troll, echoing across the skies like thunder with a smirk.
"GYAAHH-HAHAHA! SURPRISE, BRAT!" He laughed, the sound booming from everywhere and nowhere. "Think I'd let you just eat cake and kiss girls for your birthday? Nah! Real growth comes from blood and sweat! Here's the deal: You're stuck here until you kill five enemies. And not just any enemies… but copies of monsters from your world. Copies stronger than their prime. Ten times stronger, in fact!"
"…Excuse me?" I stammered, standing up, my mind reeling. Ten times? Prime Kaido was already a walking apocalypse—multiplied by ten? That was god-level nonsense.
"Don't worry, brat," RBG continued, his voice dripping with amusement. "If you die, you respawn! Damage? Reset! No escape until you beat them all. Enjoy your training! Oh, and one more thing—I've removed those pesky seals {Ego} and [System] gave you. Full power from the start. Have fun~!"
The voice faded, leaving me in stunned silence. I flexed my hands, feeling the raw, unrestrained surge of Haki—blue Armament coating my fists like liquid sapphire, Conqueror's crackling around me like electric storms. No seals holding me back. Full throttle.
"RBG… you clown-faced lunatic… TEN TIMES STRONGER?!" I shouted at the empty sky, my voice echoing off the massive mountains.
{Ego}: "Heh. You're whining already? Tch. Figures. Not that I'm worried about you or anything. Just… don't embarrass me."
[System]: "Correction: I *am* worried. If Sunny dies too many times, my heart will break. But it's okay… I'll stitch you back together. Even if it takes forever. Because you're mine, Sunny."
"…Great. A tsundere in one ear, a yandere in the other. Best birthday ever," I muttered, dusting off my clothes. "Fine. Where's my first—?"
The ground trembled—not a quake, but a *scream*, like the planet itself was roaring in pain. A shadow darkened the world, blotting out the aurora skies. A shape vast as a mountain moved, scales glittering like storm clouds, horns splitting the heavens. Kaido. Not the drunk, weary version from the manga—prime Kaido, at his peak, multiplied by ten. His aura crushed my lungs, the pressure so intense it felt like gravity had tripled just from his presence.
He carried his kanabo casually, slung over one shoulder like a toy, a sake jug sloshing in his other hand. His grin was wide, sharp as a blade, his eyes burning with a mix of boredom and bloodlust. "GUH-RA-RA-RA! SO… YOU'RE THE WHELP!" His voice cracked stone, sending fissures racing across the ground. "RBG SAID YOU'RE THE FIRST TO FALL BEFORE ME. LET'S SEE IF YOU LAST A BREATH!"
I blinked, my mouth dry. "Prime Kaido was already impossible. Now you're Kaido ×10!? Tutorial boss, my ass—this is a raid boss!"
Kaido's grin split wider, his laughter booming like thunderclaps. He leapt—no, he *detonated* into the sky, the ground exploding beneath him as he descended like a meteor, his club raised high. "THUNDER… BAGUA!"
*BOOOOOOM!*
The impact split the ground for miles, shockwaves hurling me like a ragdoll. I tumbled through the air, crashing into a boulder that shattered on impact. Pain exploded through my body—ribs cracked, blood spraying from my lips. Darkness swallowed me.
[System]: "Warning: Lethal damage."
{Ego}: "Pathetic. You haven't even given me a reason to mock you properly yet."
When I opened my eyes, I was lying face-up in a crater that definitely hadn't been there five minutes ago. Smoke curled upward, my ribs felt like they'd been used as Kaido's personal xylophone, and my brain was still echoing from the sound of his club. Respawn. Great.
"…Shut up, both of you," I croaked, dragging myself upright, every muscle screaming.
The ground trembled again. Kaido's massive silhouette loomed over me, club resting lazily on one shoulder, his sake jug sloshing as he took a swig. His aura was a wall of pressure, making it hard to breathe. "BOY," he boomed, his voice like thunder rolling through my skull. "YOU'VE DIED THIRTY-SEVEN TIMES ALREADY. GIVE UP."
I spat blood, forcing a grin despite the pain. "Give up? Sorry, old lizard. Respawn buttons were invented for people like me. You're just my training dummy with alcoholism."
As days passed by, the first week was pure torment. Kaido didn't even bother dodging—my techniques bounced off his scales like I was tickling him with a feather duster. I died. A lot. Sometimes my skull got flattened like a melon under a cartwheel, leaving me a smear on the ground. Sometimes he hurled me across mountains, my body skipping like a stone on water until I splattered against a cliff. Once, he literally used me as a baseball, pitching me into orbit—I respawned mid-air, falling back down only to get clubbed again. Comedy in death: I'd wake up laughing sometimes, muttering, "Note to self: Don't taunt the dragon."
{Ego}: "Strategy suggestion: Stop headbutting the indestructible dragon, you moron. Your skull isn't made of Haki—yet."
[System]: "Strategy correction: MORE headbutting, Master! The data shows increasing blunt force trauma may… eventually… statistically… work. Your resilience is improving by 0.2% per death!"
{Ego}: "Your calculations are the definition of insanity."
[System]: "And yet Master listens to me more. Jealous, tsun-tsun?"
Meanwhile, Kaido just laughed, his booming guffaws shaking the ground. "YOU REMIND ME OF A CERTAIN BRAT IN WANOKUNI. STUBBORN, LOUD, AND STUPID. BUT YOU DIE FUNNIER!"
"Thanks," I wheezed after one particularly humiliating respawn, popping my arm back into its socket with a grimace. "I'll add that to my résumé: Professional Punching Bag."
As more days passed by, something shifted on what felt like the tenth day. My Observation Haki sharpened under the endless pressure of Kaido's monstrous aura—I began to "see" the trajectory of his club before it landed, feeling the displacement of air molecules like whispers on my skin. For the first time, I dodged clean, twisting my body with Bang's flow, the club whistling past my ear by inches.
Kaido's eyes widened briefly, then he grinned even wider, his sake jug sloshing as he took a swig. "GOOD. DON'T DIE TOO FAST, WHELP!"
Of course, I still died a minute later—his follow-up tail swipe turned me into a human projectile—but hey, progress. I respawned laughing, wiping blood from my mouth. "One dodge down, a thousand to go!"
As days blurred together, by the fifteenth day, I weaponized Air Crunch properly. I hardened the air around Kaido's legs, locking him in invisible shackles that creaked under his strength. He tore through them in seconds, scales cracking the air like thunder, but it gave me time to unleash a barrage—Bang's Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist flowing into Jiro's knocking strikes, my blue Armament Haki shimmering like sapphire lightning.
His scales actually cracked—a hairline fracture, but it was there, blood seeping like dark ink.
I laughed like a madman, adrenaline surging. "HA! SEE THAT? YOU'RE NOT IMMORTAL, JUST STUPIDLY OVERBUILT! What's next, Kaido? Gonna cry?"
Kaido grinned back, blood trickling from his lip, his eyes gleaming with approval. "GOOD. MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE, BRAT."
Then he one-shot me through three mountains, my body leaving a trail of craters. Respawn. Laugh. Repeat.
As the days wore on, the death count climbed: 157 by what felt like the twentieth day. My body adapted—respawn after respawn forged me sharper, my blue Armament Haki denser, my Conqueror's leaking naturally, bending the environment like a storm front. I layered Air Crunch with Conqueror's pressure, creating invisible blades that sliced the air. One managed to carve a line across Kaido's chest—he laughed, calling it a "mosquito bite," then crushed me under his dragon form's tail, my body turning into a smear of blood and bone.
"Messy… but fun," I muttered upon respawning, cracking my neck. Comedy in the carnage: I started taunting him mid-death. "Hey, Kaido, ever tried therapy? You seem tense!"
He'd roar with laughter, then smash me into paste.
As a month drew near, on the thirtieth day—or what felt like it, time blurring in the endless cycle—I was battered, bruised, my black tattoos from {Ego} and [System]'s seals glowing faintly as I experimented with them mid-battle. I unleashed something new: Space Crunch. Instead of hardening air, I folded the void itself—the distance between us collapsing like crumpled paper.
Kaido lunged, his club raised. I clenched my fist, space warping around him—his attack slowed, stretched, as if he were swinging through molasses. For the first time, his eyes flickered with surprise, his sake jug spilling as he stumbled.
I grinned, blue Haki flaring like ocean storms. "Gotcha, dragon."
My fist, cloaked in jet-blue Armament so dense it crackled, smashed into his jaw. The shockwave tore the clouds apart, a blue explosion of power ripping through the sky. Kaido staggered, blood spraying, his scales shattering like glass.
The world went silent for a heartbeat.
Then Kaido laughed, his voice booming despite the blood dripping from his mouth. "FINALLY! SHOW ME MORE, BRAT!"
The battle resumed, fiercer than ever. His strikes came faster, but so did mine—dodging with Observation foresight, countering with folded space that made his attacks miss by inches, only to loop back and hit him from behind. I died again, and again, but each time, the copies grew weaker, my power sharper.
**Kaido POV (Brief)**
This boy. Every day he died. Every day he returned, his strikes sharper, his will heavier. He reminded me of that brat Luffy—but darker, hungrier, less bound by ideals and more by sheer madness. This wasn't just training. This was evolution. And for the first time in centuries, I felt alive again, my blood pumping with the thrill of a real fight.
**Closing Scene**
At the end of the month, the battlefield was unrecognizable—mountains leveled into rubble, rivers boiled dry into steam-filled valleys, craters littering the land like pockmarks on a war-torn moon. I stood there, blood-soaked, trembling but unbroken, my blue Haki flickering like dying embers. Kaido was still laughing, even with blood dripping from his mouth and cracks spiderwebbing his scales, his kanabo cracked in half.
I wiped my face, grinning through the pain. "Messy… but fun. One down, four to go."
The copy of Kaido faded, dissolving into ether, and the dimension shifted, the aurora skies calming. Respawn button, don't fail me now. I'd died hundreds of times, but each death carved me sharper. Hell was my gym, and I was just getting started.
{Ego}: "Correction: You are insane. But… not bad, moron."
[System]: "That's my Sunny… Don't break, okay? You promised me forever. Data logged: Master's growth rate—exponential."
I laughed, collapsing onto the stone. "Yeah. Forever it is."