Chapter 160: Old Acquaintance
“Move the sign another 15.5 centimeters to the right, yes, yes, right there.”
“Hey, you there, why did you paint the laboratory’s floor dark too? What if a screw falls, how will we find it?”
“Hey! Where’s the guy drawing the plans? I’ve said it so many times, separate the testing area from the experimental area, divide it into three zones for me, with two gates per zone!”
……
At the foot of the volcano on Fenrir Island, Obei was wearing an ill-fitting safety helmet, holding a megaphone, and directing a group of construction brothers to build the weapon factory.
These workers specially hired from the infrastructure island in the New World were expensive, but their efficiency was higher; in just a few weeks, they had built the site’s framework almost completely.
As an island specialized in this field, its residents could play with ink lines at three years old and mix cement at five, with house-building skills as renowned across the seas as the Seven Water Capital’s shipbuilding in the first half of the Grand Line.
Its official construction team even had many like “Cement” Devil Fruit Users and “Bricklaying” Devil Fruit Users, these acquired civil engineering saints, known as the Mad Demon Construction Team!
“Hm?”
Obei, who was holding the blueprint for the experimental area and thinking about what instruments to add, suddenly noticed Aoxi leading a group of people struggling to carry some huge thing over here.
“What is this thing?”
Looking at the object in front of her covered in black cloth and over ten meters tall, she asked curiously.
She didn’t remember ordering anything this big……
“This? This is a statue specially requested by Boss Kaido, saying it’s to commemorate the completion of the Beasts Pirates’ first weapon factory, to be placed at the main entrance.”
Aoxi raised her hand to signal, and the pirates carrying it carefully set the heavy object down.
“A statue?”
“Requested by Kaido?”
Obei raised an eyebrow, walked over, and lifted the black cloth, discovering it was indeed a stone statue of Kaido in dragon form.
“I heard this thing cost a lot of money~ Boss Kaido wheedled and coerced Sister La for a long time before she nodded and approved the funds.”
“Hmph↓ That guy Kaido is pretty vain.”
“Hehey~ I was thinking of sticking a water pipe in this thing’s mouth and putting it at the entrance to use as a fountain.”
“It’ll bring wealth with the water.”
“I think this thing would be perfect to put in the testing target range as a target.”
The two sisters chatted back and forth, completely ignoring the captain’s request.
Anyway, the statue looked dumb and dumb, and it couldn’t possibly be La’s work, so it didn’t matter how they fiddled with it.
Meanwhile, the pirates responsible for moving the statue wiped their sweat and pretended not to hear.
“Alright, we’re heading out now.”
“Boss Kaido said an interesting guy appeared in our outer sea, seems like an acquaintance of his.”
“I’m going to check it out too.”
“Go on, go on, don’t come bother me if there’s nothing.”
……
Black Rock Reef, the outermost giant uninhabited island reef in the Fenrir sea area, with an area comparable to a small island.
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! Sashi burida na~ Hana-zō.”
“Didn’t expect you to still be alive, you guy!”
Kaido sat on a flat rock, greeting the man in front of him familiarly, while an unfamiliar pirate ship lingered on the sea surface not far away.
The man greeted by Kaido wore a captain’s coat, a half mask, with his exposed lower face full of sharp teeth, looking extremely ferocious.
“You’re living fine, you bastard, how could I possibly die first?”
The sharp-toothed man retorted unhappily, then said:
“You’ve made a name for yourself lately, you bastard; I even heard news about you in the Woka Kingdom.”
“Heard you allied with the Golden Lion and took down that great pirate John together.”
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! Woka Kingdom? Didn’t expect it spread that far already?”
“How is it? That old king dead from fright yet?”
After so many years, Kaido still hadn’t forgotten how his own country had betrayed him to the World Government.
That was the beginning of the change in Kaido’s worldview and values; from then on, his enemies were no longer individuals or specific countries, but the order itself maintained by the World Government for eight hundred years.
“That old man died long ago; the current successor seems to be his son.”
“Meh~ I don’t care about such boring stuff. Kaido, you must’ve looted a lot of good stuff this time, right?”
“I’m a pirate now too, hand it over!”
With that, the man named Hana-zō raised the weapon in his hand and pointed it at Kaido.
The man’s weapon was also strange, like a scythe handle connected to a meteor hammer, plus his steel gloves, looking quite intimidating.
“Roar~ It’s been so long since we parted, and now we fight right away upon meeting?”
“You really haven’t changed at all!”
Seeing the other’s stance, Kaido stood up too and pulled out his carried wolf fang club.
“However, as a senior in the pirate trade, I gotta properly teach you the rules between pirates!”
Kaido and Hana-zō had actually known each other since the Woka Kingdom days, fought many times, and could be considered both enemies and friends.
But after Kaido defected, they hadn’t met; recently, Hana-zō heard Kaido made a big name in the New World and decided to set out to sea as a pirate too.
Long time no see, nothing was more fitting as a reunion greeting than a fight.
“Hah!”
Clang!
“Urgh!”
“Thunder Bagua!”
“Uwah……!”
Compared to Kaido, who had been roaming the seas for many years and fought countless strongmen, Hana-zō’s strength obviously hadn’t improved much.
After just a few moves, Hana-zō fell into a disadvantage.
“You guy, you actually got this strong?”
Half-kneeling on the ground, Hana-zō propped himself up with the scythe, his tone full of doubt and surprise.
Back then, he could still trade blows evenly with this guy, wins and losses mixed, but now he couldn’t even fight back?
“This sea is far broader than a mere Woka Kingdom.”
“There are all sorts of people strong like monsters here…… With that group blocking in front of me, I can’t afford not to get stronger!”
As he spoke, figures of Rocks, Roger, Whitebeard, Golden Lion and others involuntarily appeared in Kaido’s mind.
“How about it, Hana-zō.”
“Come to my side, join the Beasts Pirates.”
Kaido extended his hand to him.
This old acquaintance’s current strength wasn’t impressive, but this sea was the best training ground; with his foundation, his future was promising.
But Hana-zō refused without thinking.
“Tch~ I don’t wanna be your subordinate yet.”
“You getting stronger suits me just fine; now you can see my new power I just got!”
With that, Hana-zō tossed aside his weapon, and his entire figure began to change.
His body suddenly swelled and grew, his face deformed and protruded outward, skin gradually turned brown, sharp teeth and claws abruptly extended……
“Roar~ A Devil Fruit? And an Ancient Zoan at that!”
Kaido’s eyes gleamed watching the Dragon in front of him.
“How’s that, this is the power I got after setting out to sea!”
“Now I’m several times stronger than before, be careful!”
The voice, now more barbaric and rough from full beastification, roared half-garbled from Hana-zō’s mouth.
“Roar!”
The Dragon swung its tail, shattering a large swath of surrounding rocks.
Kaido easily sidestepped, completely unharmed.
“Hm? As expected, just got the ability recently; control over the transformed body is too poor.”
Watching the other’s attacks that had power but no aim, Kaido shook his head.
Ancient Zoan power was very strong, but the other hadn’t mastered using it proficiently yet.
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! Hana-zō, you can’t use Zoan abilities so crudely!”
“Let me teach you what the strongest form for a Zoan Devil Fruit User is!”
Bad news, I seem to have some writer’s block……
Good news…… no good news.
Impossible! Me, writer’s block?
How could I have writer’s block?
Hmm~ Could it be updating too fast?
Eek~ Must be it!
