...…
Kaido was forcibly dragged back to the dome by that giant rubber arm. His body drew an arc through the air, dragon scales scraping against the air with a piercing shriek!
In the end, he was slammed heavily into the center of the dome ruins by Luffy, whose veins were bulging—"Bang!"
Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, Kaido slowly stood up. After his vision spun for a moment, he stared fixedly at the completely transformed youth in front of him!
"You're still alive... Straw Hat brat."
Kaido's voice was hoarse, yet carried a trace of relief that even he himself had not noticed!
Luffy did not answer. He covered one eye with one hand and held his stomach with the other, laughing loudly.
He laughed without restraint, laughed like a "fool," laughed as if this was not a battle of life and death, but a game of reunion after a long separation.
That laughter echoed across the dome, penetrating the smoke, penetrating the ruins, penetrating everyone's taut nerves.
Kaido was stunned.
The Luffy before him had turned pure white, and Kaido suddenly felt that Luffy was very strange. He had never seen Luffy laugh so happily.
"This guy..."
Kaido shook his head, trying to focus his vision.
That yank and slam just now had left his head somewhat dizzy.
When he truly saw Luffy's current appearance, a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes.
Then came secret joy.
What surprised him was that although Luffy looked a bit strange, his body was still in decent shape. He had taken Kaido's Thunderous Bagua and was still alive?
The secret joy was also because this brat had taken his Thunderous Bagua and was still alive!
"Thunderous Bagua"—that strike, he had put all his strength into it.
It was a blow capable of shattering mountains and tearing apart the earth, a sure-kill strike he had unleashed with everything he had at the final moment.
Yet after taking that blow, Luffy had not died!
Not only had he not died, he was jumping around lively, laughing, and had even transformed into this appearance Kaido had never seen before.
Kaido digested the inexplicable emotions in his heart, then looked at Luffy and let out a long breath!
Luffy had not died. What did that mean?
It meant...
Kaido no longer had to carry that knot in his heart.
It meant that CP0's interference had not become the end of this battle. It meant he could, openly and honorably, kill this brat once more.
The corner of Kaido's mouth slowly curled upward.
That was not mockery, but relief!
"What happened just now..."
Kaido suddenly spoke, his voice low, with a rarely seen apologetic tone in it: "I didn't hold back my strength, and there was also that bug's matter..."
After struggling internally, Kaido rarely uttered those two words: "Sorry."
Luffy's laughter stopped.
He looked at Kaido, looked at this man who had just wanted to kill him, looked at this Yonko who was now actually apologizing.
"You don't need to mind it. Come, let's continue and decide victory or defeat!"
Kaido was taken aback for a moment, then he also laughed.
That smile contained cruelty, appreciation, and some complex emotion of "as expected of the opponent I had my eye on"!
The next second after Luffy finished speaking, Kaido opened his dragon mouth.
This time there was no wind-up, no charging, no time for Luffy to react at all.
"BOOM!!!"
Heat Breath instantly spewed out!
That scorching flame breath shot straight toward Luffy's face. Its speed was astonishingly fast, its power ridiculously great!
If such a terrifying strike hit, even the awakened Luffy would probably lose a layer of skin and suffer some pain.
Seeing the attack coming, Luffy's eyes widened in terror.
It was not a figure of speech, nor was it literally just "widened."
Luffy's two eyeballs actually shot out of their sockets like rubber, flying straight into midair, before returning to Luffy's eye sockets.
The corner of Kaido's mouth twitched.
This brat... what kind of monster was he exactly?
Amidst his surprise, Luffy's actions did not stop. His hands suddenly grabbed toward the ground. Everyone outside the light screen witnessed an unbelievable scene.
That originally incomparably hard ground softened the instant Luffy touched it.
Like rubber, it had softened.
Devil Fruit ability awakening—transforming all surrounding matter into the "properties" of one's own ability.
Luffy grabbed that rubberized ground with both hands and gave it a powerful yank. An enormous piece of "ground skin" was lifted up by him like flipping a blanket!
That piece of ground skin unfolded in midair, turning into a massive rubber shield that blocked in front of Luffy.
The Heat Breath struck it.
"Bang!"
Flame and rubber collided, producing a deep, muffled boom. But the shield did not burn, did not break, and did not even deform too severely.
It merely caved in, like a trampoline struck by a fist, absorbing all the impact force within it.
Then Luffy gave it a forceful flick, and the Heat Breath was directly reflected away!
"What?!"
Kaido's pupils suddenly contracted.
That rubber shield suddenly bounced up, reflecting the Heat Breath back exactly as it was—only even stronger!
The scorching flame breath, at a speed faster than when it had come, blasted toward Kaido himself.
"BOOM!!!"
Kaido was struck head-on by his own Heat Breath. Flames exploded across his body. His dragon scales were instantly burned pitch black. Thick smoke rose from him, and the air was filled with a burnt smell.
He was struck so hard by this blow that he could hardly tell north from south, looking almost like a charred statue.
Outside the light screen.
Children's laughter rang out like silver bells in various places.
"Hahahaha!"
"Dad, look! That big brother's eyes really popped out!"
"So fun! His ability is so fun to play with!"
"That big bad guy got burned black by his own fire, like an overcooked fish!"
"Hehehe! I want to play with that trampoline too!"
...
The children pointed at the light screen, laughing so hard they doubled over. Their laughter echoed through the streets, through the squares, through every place where people were watching the light screen.
The adults' originally tense expressions were infected by this laughter and gradually relaxed.
They exchanged smiles with one another.
Those smiles contained helplessness, relief, and a certain sentiment of "children are still so innocent after all."
"This brat..."
A middle-aged man shook his head, yet the corner of his mouth could not help but curl upward: "Clearly in a life-and-death battle, yet he makes it look like he's performing acrobatics."
"But I don't know why,"
The woman beside him said softly: "Watching him laugh, I can't help but want to laugh too."
This was true. The youth on the light screen seemed to possess some special kind of magic.
His smile was contagious.
No matter how tense, how afraid, how despairing you were before...
As long as you saw him laugh, you would feel that everything was not so bad after all.
God Valley.
The pirates' discussions rose and fell.
"Shakky, you really are sharp as ice and snow!"
Someone gave Shakky a thumbs-up: "Earlier you said that brat's fruit was suspicious. Who would have thought it was actually true!"
"That's right, that's right! At the time I still thought you were overthinking it. Now it seems we were the ones who underthought it!"
"Rubber Fruit... No, Nika Form! Who could have imagined that behind an ordinary fruit, there was hidden such a huge secret!"
The corner of Shakky's mouth curled slightly. She did not speak, only holding Shamrock and leaning against Rayleigh's shoulder.
Sharp?
No, actually Shakky had simply observed a little more carefully than others.
That youth's fighting style had not been quite right from the very beginning.
Big Mom stood not far away, rarely not emitting her signature laughter.
She simply watched the light screen, watched Luffy's playful battle posture, and a complex emotion flashed through her eyes.
"Mam-ma-ma-ma..."
She finally laughed, but that laughter was somewhat unusual.
"I really didn't expect it." Big Mom muttered, her voice so low it was almost as if she were talking to herself.
"When I was little in Elbaph, I heard the legend of the Sun God countless times. Back then I even wondered if there really was such a Sun God..."
Big Mom paused, then looked at Luffy on the light screen: "In the end, the first time we met, it turned out to be in this kind of situation."
Her gaze fell upon Luffy, upon that face laughing like a child's.
"Sun God... is a little brat..."
Her tone carried emotion, complexity, and a trace of indescribable anticipation?
Hajrudin, hearing Big Mom's words, gently nodded.
He knew Big Mom was not lying.
Those days she spent in Elbaph as a child were a past that the entire giant race was unwilling to mention.
But she had indeed lived there, and had indeed heard those legends.
"Sun God..."
Hajrudin murmured: "I never thought it would really be a human."
He looked at the bouncing figure in the light screen. Even now he still found it somewhat hard to believe...
However, little Loki beside him had an expression full of excitement and curiosity at this moment.
"Sun God!"
His voice was filled with excitement: "That's the Sun God!"
Ever since he was young, he had been full of longing for those legends.
That god who brought laughter, that hero who liberated slaves, that existence which made the entire giant race proud...
Now, he was vividly appearing on the light screen.
Although he was small in stature, although he was a pirate, that was the Sun God!
"I must go see him in the future!"
Little Loki clenched his fists, his eyes burning with light: "I must see with my own eyes what the real Sun God looks like!"
Harald and Ida beside him exchanged a smile...
It had to be said—youth was truly wonderful!
There were still dreams, still anticipation, and the ability to ignite such passion for someone he had never met.
Within the light screen, the battle continued.
Kaido charged out from the black ash, his dragon claws fiercely grabbing toward Luffy.
Luffy watched Kaido's offensive. Through agile maneuvering, he easily resolved every attack. At this moment, Kaido finally noticed something was wrong!
"It seems your fruit has awakened. Once a Devil Fruit awakens, it produces changes in the surrounding matter..."
As Kaido spoke, he charged toward Luffy once more. However, he still had one question he had not figured out: "Straw Hat brat, you're very strange. This kind of transformation of yours isn't exclusive to Zoan types!"
"What exactly is this Rubber Fruit!"
This time, Kaido opened his great maw. The Azure Dragon's bloody great mouth directly clamped Luffy tightly. Luffy had been playing on the rubber trampoline and was caught off guard, swallowed whole by Kaido in one gulp!
Seeing that Kaido actually wanted to eat him, Luffy's originally slender body suddenly swelled up. His arms seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, and he actually managed to pry open the Azure Dragon Kaido's mouth!
However, in the end Kaido steeled his heart and swallowed Luffy down into his stomach in one gulp, giving Luffy not the slightest chance to resist!
...