I Punch the Tailed Beast Ball

In the New World, Onigashima.

Kaido was gulping down alcohol by the barrel when the hurried footsteps of a Beast Pirates member reached his ears.

"Lord Kaido, this is bad! The news is all true! Our artificial Devil Fruit plan is completely finished!"

Hearing his subordinate’s report, tears immediately streamed down Kaido’s face. He covered his face with one massive hand and burst into tears.

His subordinates weren’t surprised in the slightest. It wasn’t because Kaido had particularly deep feelings for Doflamingo or Jack. Rather, this was simply how Kaido was. His emotions were unpredictable. Sometimes he’d suddenly start crying in the middle of drinking. It was practically routine.

"Joker, oh Joker! Didn’t we agree to build the strongest pirate crew made entirely of Devil Fruit users? How did you end up getting captured by the Marines?" Kaido cried while continuously gulping down alcohol.

Joker was Doflamingo’s codename in the underworld.

"Joker, how could you be so weak? Your dream was only halfway realized, yet you still got captured by the Marines!" Kaido angrily criticized Doflamingo’s weakness, disappointed that he had been so useless.

"But his opponent was an Admiral. It’s normal that he got captured," a Beast Pirates member muttered quietly.

Kaido was relatively tolerant toward his own subordinates and didn’t mind being interrupted. Wiping away his tears, he said, "If Joker had strength equal to mine, would he have been afraid of a mere Admiral?"

"What a pity about Jack. I’ll have to find an opportunity to rescue him."

Kaido hadn’t forgotten that one of his Three Lead Performers had also been captured.

...

The Whitebeard Pirates.

Seeing the Beast Pirates suffer misfortune put everyone in an excellent mood. The conflict between the two crews had been escalating, so naturally they were happy to see their rivals take losses.

"The Marines didn’t kill Jack directly but chose to capture him instead. Could they be planning something again?" Marco found it rather strange.

Unlike insignificant crew members, Jack was one of the Beast Pirates’ Three Lead Performers and one of Kaido’s most capable subordinates.

At first glance, killing Jack seemed like the easier way to enrage the Beast Pirates and provoke a war with the Marines.

In reality, capturing Jack alive was even more troublesome than killing him. A living person had greater value than a dead one. If Jack remained alive, Kaido might try to rescue him. But if Jack died, unless Kaido found an exceptional opportunity, he wouldn’t easily start a war against the Marines.

What was the strongest force on the seas?

Was it the so-called Emperors of the Sea? Or the Seven Warlords?

Neither.

The strongest force on the seas was the Marines.

A single Emperor stood no chance against the Marines and would only be defeated. That was considering only Marine Headquarters’ strength.

So although the Four Emperors seemed overwhelmingly powerful, it depended on who they were compared against.

If the Marines hadn’t truly been that powerful, Kaido’s anger last time wouldn’t have resulted in merely sending Jack and Queen to harass Marine bases.

"Jack doesn’t have a special identity like mine. There wouldn’t be much point in publicly executing him," Ace said.

Marco’s words reminded him of the Summit War.

"No matter what, it’s the Beast Pirates’ problem," someone else said indifferently.

"That may not necessarily be true. In this era of great upheaval, no one can remain uninvolved."

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice entered the ears of everyone aboard the Whitebeard Pirates’ ship.

Since they were all extremely familiar with each other, they instantly realized it belonged to a stranger. Only then did they notice that a tiny wooden boat had silently approached their ship.

"White Devil Senju Tobirama..." Marco, who had flown over to the ship’s side, recognized the man immediately.

The White Devil hadn’t appeared in newspapers many times, but every single appearance had been world-shaking news.

Izo raised his flintlock pistol and pointed it at Nagasawa.

"White Devil, don’t move!"

Nagasawa had silently approached their ship. Who knew whether he was friend or foe?

The other division commanders also drew their weapons and aimed them at Nagasawa.

Standing beside Marco, Ace looked at Nagasawa.

"White Devil, what are you trying to do?"

If Ace had encountered the White Devil alone, he’d have challenged him to a fight first to test his strength before laughing and inviting him to drink and eat meat together.

But the current situation was different. The White Devil had quietly approached their pirate ship with unknown intentions.

Nagasawa smiled.

"Relax, I have no ill intentions. I came with goodwill."

While escorting Jack and Doflamingo, Nagasawa had left behind a Shadow Clone to return to the Marines and continue spreading revolutionary ideals within the organization.

His real body, meanwhile, had been searching for the Whitebeard Pirates.

First, he wanted to see how the Whitebeard Pirates had changed after he altered the world’s timeline.

Second, he intended to seek cooperation with them.

They didn’t necessarily have to join the Revolutionary Army. Helping when the time came would be enough.

"Let him come aboard. Anyone who dares kill a Celestial Dragon is an interesting brat," Whitebeard said.

Since Whitebeard had spoken, the division commanders naturally obeyed and allowed Nagasawa aboard.

After boarding, the first thing Nagasawa saw was Whitebeard sitting there with IV drips attached.

Whitebeard was simply too enormous to miss. Standing 6.66 meters tall, he resembled a small giant.

Strictly speaking, this was Nagasawa’s first time seeing the real Whitebeard. During the Summit War, that had been himself, so it didn’t count.

Whitebeard sat on an enormous sofa. Although connected to IV drips, he showed no signs of weakness. He looked healthy, with numerous scars covering his exposed chest.

"Gurararara!"

Whitebeard burst into laughter before looking at Nagasawa.

"Brat, I admire your courage. How about becoming my son?"

Nagasawa was familiar with that line because he had said it to others before. Hearing someone else say it to him felt rather strange.

Still, he didn’t think Whitebeard was insulting him. Whitebeard didn’t casually accept sons. He only personally invited people he truly valued.

Of course, that didn’t mean Nagasawa would agree.

He had no desire to become someone else’s son, even if that someone was Whitebeard, the man known as the World’s Strongest Man and someone fiercely protective of his family.

"I’ll pass. That’s not why I came. I’m here to seek cooperation with the Whitebeard Pirates," Nagasawa said with a smile, stating his purpose.

After Nagasawa declined, Whitebeard showed neither embarrassment nor anger, but he still rejected the proposed cooperation.

The current Whitebeard no longer had grand ambitions.

He simply wanted to protect the great family he had built upon the seas.

"You’re rejecting me before I’ve even explained what kind of cooperation it is?" Nagasawa refused to give up.

"I’m not interested in taking part in a war between your Revolutionary Army and the World Government," Whitebeard said bluntly.

"Don’t be so quick to reach a conclusion. Why not hear me out first?" Nagasawa replied.

"Old Man’s intentions are already perfectly clear. Please leave," Marco said.

He understood Whitebeard’s thoughts well.

However, Nagasawa acted as though he hadn’t heard Marco and remained seated.

The atmosphere gradually became tense.

The corners of Whitebeard’s mouth rose as he laughed once more.

"What an interesting brat. Do you even realize where you are and who you’re facing?"

Suddenly, Whitebeard unleashed his Conqueror’s Haki toward Nagasawa.

The overwhelming pressure caused even the surrounding air to stagnate.

Nagasawa remained seated with a smile before releasing his own Haki to clash against Whitebeard’s.

The collision between the two overwhelmingly powerful Conqueror’s Haki created a tremendous shockwave, sending Whitebeard’s cloak fluttering and everyone’s hair flying wildly.

Fortunately, everyone present was a pirate of the New World. Otherwise, merely having their hair blown around would have been the least of their worries.

Black-red lightning continuously erupted.

The overwhelming aura shocked countless members of the Whitebeard Pirates.

The clouds above split apart, leaving behind a deep scar across the sky as though heaven itself had been torn in two.

"Such Conqueror’s Haki!" Marco’s expression became serious.

He had never expected someone to match Old Man’s Conqueror’s Haki so evenly.

The other Whitebeard Pirates were equally astonished.

Someone noticed the sky and pointed it out to the others.

That only shocked them even more.

It looked just like the clash between Old Man and Shanks.

But that had been Shanks—the man who stood alongside Whitebeard as one of the Four Emperors.

Although Nagasawa’s bounty had exceeded three billion Berries after liberating Dressrosa, they believed it was somewhat inflated.

A bounty wasn’t a complete measure of strength. To a large extent, it reflected the threat and damage posed to the World Government.

In their eyes, Nagasawa’s enormous bounty came largely from killing a Celestial Dragon and liberating an entire country. His own strength shouldn’t yet have reached Emperor level.

Yet his clash of Haki with Whitebeard seemed to tell them otherwise.

Nagasawa’s strength was far beyond what they had imagined.

Nagasawa erupted once more.

His aura suddenly intensified and actually suppressed Whitebeard, allowing some members of the Whitebeard Pirates to personally experience that terrifying Conqueror’s Haki.

"Good brat!"

Seeing that Nagasawa’s Conqueror’s Haki had actually surpassed his own, Whitebeard praised him before tearing away all his IV tubes, laughing as he picked up Murakumogiri and swung it toward Nagasawa.

Nagasawa clenched the air.

A blade shrouded in blazing flames appeared in his hand, its appearance obscured by fire as it blocked Whitebeard’s slash.

The two exchanged dozens of blows in rapid succession.

Each collision shook the entire ship.

Marco had already ordered the weaker members of the Whitebeard Pirates to retreat to the edges of the ship.

A battle between fighters of this caliber was dangerous even from the aftershocks alone.

"The White Devil is so strong!" Ace clenched his fists, excited after witnessing the battle between Whitebeard and Nagasawa.

"You aren’t thinking about challenging him, are you?" Marco couldn’t help asking after seeing Ace’s eager expression.

Ace nodded somewhat embarrassedly.

Whenever he encountered such a powerful opponent, he couldn’t help wanting to challenge them.

After exchanging several more moves, the two tacitly stopped at the same time.

They were aboard a ship.

If they truly became serious, the vessel wouldn’t survive their power.

Whitebeard had no desire to see his sons injured over something like this.

As for Nagasawa, fighting wasn’t his primary purpose anyway.

When it was time to stop, he naturally stopped.

"Bring a bowl! I’m going to drink with him!" Whitebeard laughed heartily.

Now Whitebeard viewed Nagasawa extremely favorably.

He genuinely liked this bold young White Devil.

If your strength wasn’t enough, acting arrogantly was simply courting death.

But if your strength truly matched your attitude, then it was merely the pride of a strong man.

A member of the Whitebeard Pirates brought out a bowl even larger than Nagasawa himself and placed it before him.

Judging by its size, Nagasawa guessed it had been specially made for Whitebeard.

However, Nagasawa’s alcohol tolerance was no worse than Whitebeard’s.

After all, he possessed Whitebeard’s template.

Whitebeard, on the other hand, didn’t possess Nagasawa’s.

With one hand, Nagasawa lifted the enormous bowl and gulped down every drop in a single breath.

Whitebeard nodded in satisfaction, liking him even more.

"I can help you eliminate Kaido. In return, you’ll help us once," Nagasawa said.

No matter what, Kaido was someone Nagasawa intended to eliminate.

Although the Revolutionary Army’s primary target was the World Government, Kaido, as one of the great pirates oppressing the people, would never be spared by Nagasawa.

Big Mom was the same.

Both of them were already on Nagasawa’s must-kill list.

"Brat, do you think I’d be afraid of Kaido?" Whitebeard grinned.

Clearly, that alone wasn’t enough to persuade him to help the Revolutionary Army.

Although Kaido was indeed troublesome, Whitebeard didn’t consider him troublesome enough to exchange such terms for Nagasawa’s assistance.

"Then... what about this?"

Nagasawa activated his Breathing Style as Chakra erupted from his body, and a golden flame appeared in his palm.

The sudden appearance of the golden flame caused the surrounding temperature to rise rapidly, making the air scorching hot.

Whitebeard narrowed his eyes.

Golden flames.

He was all too familiar with them.

According to his sons, it had been those incomparably powerful golden flaming slashes that had allowed him to suppress an Admiral.

But the truth was...

He couldn’t use that at all.

To this day, Whitebeard still hadn’t figured out what had happened that day or why it had happened.

The surrounding members of the Whitebeard Pirates also widened their eyes upon seeing the strangely familiar flames.

"Isn’t that the flame Old Man used before? How can the White Devil use it too?" someone asked in confusion.

Immediately afterward, without using any force, Nagasawa tossed a Flying Thunder God kunai toward Ace.

"This is for you."

Ace caught the kunai without thinking much about it.

The very next instant, Nagasawa used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear beside Ace, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Marco’s pupils contracted sharply.

In his opinion, while those flaming slashes were powerful, Old Man’s instantaneous movement ability during the Summit War had been the truly unstoppable technique.

Akainu had nearly died to that single move.

The flaming slashes were certainly powerful, but they weren’t impossible to dodge. At that time, Nagasawa hadn’t been as strong as he was now and couldn’t perfectly combine power with speed.

The Admirals hadn’t dodged because countless Marines stood behind them.

Had they avoided the attack, the Marines would have suffered catastrophic casualties.

"It was you?"

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