One Piece: The Dragon All-Star - 190

Chapter 190: Searching for the Dark-Dark Fruit

Wano Country, inside the Shogun’s castle.

The iron scent of blood still lingered in the room.

Umit stood frozen where he was, watching the Donquixote officers fall one after another, cut down as cleanly as a field of wheat under the scythe.

He held his breath without thinking, not daring even to swallow too loudly, afraid the slightest sound might draw the reaper’s gaze down on him.

But after giving the order to deal with the Donquixote Family, Kai seemed to forget Umit existed.

He calmly went back to his paperwork.

He did not so much as glance Umit’s way.

The silent disregard frightened Umit more than any torture could have.

Not knowing what would happen next left his back slick with cold sweat.

What does he want?

To kill me? Lock me up? Let me go?

A thousand guesses boiled in his skull.

Minute by minute, his face turned paler. His body started to shake.

At last, Kai finished the last document and set his pen aside.

Only then did he look up, as if just remembering there was someone else in the room.

“Oh. You are still here, Umit,” he said.

The offhand remark hit like a gunshot.

Umit jerked, his legs going so weak he nearly collapsed on the spot.

“Lord Kai! I am useful. Do not kill me. I will pay for my life,” he blurted, voice cracking with sheer panic.

If he was a second too slow, his head might roll.

Kai leaned back lazily in his wide chair, fingers interlaced before him. He watched Umit with unhurried curiosity.

“Then explain your value,” he said.

“I have money. Ten billion Berries—no, twenty billion—for my life,” Umit babbled.

“And Devil Fruits. I have three Zoan Fruits in my collection. All yours.”

“Idiot.”

Kai shook his head, unimpressed.

“If I kill you, your money and your Fruits end up mine anyway.”

Hearing him lay that out so bluntly made the corner of Umit’s mouth twitch.

So much for subtlety.

He clenched his teeth.

Now was not the time to be stingy.

He threw his biggest card on the table.

“I… I am willing to serve the Beasts Pirates,” he said. “Every shipping route and fleet I have built up over the years can merge with Beasts Logistics with no conditions.”

If that did not move Kai, nothing would.

Still, now that he had spoken the words, Umit’s frantic mind began to clear.

If Kai had truly planned to kill him, he would not have left him alive this long.

There had to be something in him Kai wanted, something that only worked so long as he was breathing.

Sure enough, the man on the throne finally smiled.

“A wise choice,” Kai said.

He snapped his fingers and pointed at Umit.

“Untie him,” he told the ninja at his side.

“Yes, Lord Kai.”

The ninja moved in and swiftly removed Umit’s bonds.

Newly free, Umit lurched forward and bowed so deeply his forehead nearly touched the floor.

“From today, I, Umit, and everything I own will follow only Lord Kai’s will,” he said.

Kai only nodded once.

He was not naive enough to believe this display of “loyalty.”

A man like Umit had no real loyalty in his bones.

That was fine.

Kai would give him some.

“Law. Take out his heart,” he said.

No loyalty?

Then they would use a literal heart instead.

All the color drained from Umit’s face.

For a second, he thought Kai had changed his mind after all.

“Lord Kai, I truly surrender. I will follow you with all my heart,” he said, voice almost breaking.

“Relax. I am not taking your life. You will understand in a moment,” Kai said, waving him off.

Law stepped up without a word and raised his blade.

An invisible field snapped into place around Umit.

An instant later, steel flashed.

A red lump, about the size of a palm and still beating, dropped neatly into Law’s waiting hand.

He turned and offered it to Kai.

“T-that is… my heart?” Umit croaked.

His hand flew to his chest.

There was a hollow there that had not been there before.

Seeing his own heart pulsing in Kai’s hand left him stunned and blank.

“Of course,” Kai said.

He studied the organ with interest, nodding lightly.

Then he curled his fingers and squeezed.

Under that simple pressure, the once-strong beat faltered.

The heart slowed, stuttering.

Umit felt it at once.

It was as if a giant, unseen hand had crushed his heart still.

Agony ripped through his chest.

His legs buckled and he hit the floor like a sack of mud.

His mouth worked, instinctively trying to drag in air, but nothing reached his lungs.

Without his heart pumping, his organs starved.

The edge of death closed in on him, black and cold.

Right before his consciousness slipped, Kai relaxed his grip.

Thump. Thump.

The heart kicked in his hand again, strong and steady.

Umit sucked in a ragged breath like a drowning man breaking the surface.

He gulped air in great heaves, his whole body trembling from the shock of still being alive.

“I will hold onto this for now,” Kai said lightly. “You do not mind, do you?”

He crouched so he was eye-level with the ruin of a man in front of him and smiled.

Umit, naturally, did not mind.

He twisted his face into the most obedient expression he could manage and nodded hard.

If he had any strength left, he would have lifted both hands and feet to agree.

Seeing how quickly Umit “understood,” Kai nodded, satisfied.

“Good. So long as you do not try anything, I will not squeeze,” he said.

“Look at it another way. As long as your heart is in my hand, none of your enemies will ever get near your weak point again, right?”

Umit screamed inside.

He would have much preferred his heart to stay in his own chest and risk being stabbed.

On his face, though, he managed only a twisted excuse for a smile.

Kai ignored whatever was happening behind his eyes.

He stood and his tone shifted.

“Listen. Our cooperation will never be public,” he said.

“When you go back, you will hand over the twenty billion Berries and three Devil Fruits you just offered, as ransom paid to the Beasts Pirates. To the outside world, that is the price I accepted to spare you.”

“Understood,” Umit panted.

“Good. On the surface, you keep everything the same. Run your shipping empire as usual. But I have a long-term job for you.”

Kai held his gaze and spoke each word clearly.

“You will use all your routes and contacts to search for a Devil Fruit for me. Its name is the Dark-Dark Fruit.”

That was the real reason he had left Umit alive and gone to this much trouble.

“The Dark-Dark Fruit. Got it,” Umit said after a brief pause.

“I will start the search as soon as I am back.”

Inwardly, he shrugged it off.

So Kai had his eye on the Dark-Dark Fruit’s power.

For anyone who did not know the full story, the so-called most evil fruit in the world was a double-edged blade.

Its strength came with obvious flaws.

No intangibility. And any hit hurts twice as much.

That was exactly why Kai felt safe handing the hunt to Umit.

His only real concern was whether the Dark-Dark Fruit was like the Rubber Fruit—a Mythical Zoan hiding behind a Paramecia label.

Given that it could not turn the body into pure element, it was not impossible.

If that were true, the Fruit might have its own will.

It might hide from him on purpose, waiting only for Teach.

There was not much he could do about that.

At best, he could make sure to catch Teach within the next three years and force-feed him some useless Fruit first.

One way or another, he would not let the Dark-Dark Fruit fall into Teach’s hands.

Blackbeard could stay Whitebeard’s “good eldest son.”

Maybe, in time, he would even inherit the Whitebeard Pirates.

Once the dazed but still-breathing Umit had been sent off, with his life and business both clinging on, Kai stretched.

The chores were finally done.

It was time to train.

He could feel it.

His power was edging up against the next wall.

Time, like a wild donkey, only ran faster once it started.

In a blink, a year passed.

In that year, the Beasts Pirates had grown at a frightening pace.

More and more merfolk and Fish-Men chose to settle in Wano’s inland seas, adding new life to the country.

Trade boomed.

Den Den Mushi branded with the Beasts’ mark, sold at friendly prices, spread across the New World and beyond, “storming the castles” of every market in sight.

They had not yet reached Kai’s dream of one snail per person, but on average, every household had one.

To him, though, that prosperity was only icing.

On this brutal sea where the weak were prey, the foundation of everything was still absolute strength.

Onigashima, inside Kai’s private quarters.

He was holding a meteorite chunk bigger than he was.

He tore into it the way someone else might gnaw on bread, each bite grinding stone to gravel between his teeth.

Grit scraped against his molars. Shards tumbled to the floor.

Suddenly he stopped and let out a small, satisfied burp.

It was not his stomach that felt full.

It was something deeper, a fullness built up to the edge of bursting.

“Finally… is it time?” he murmured.

He tossed the half-eaten meteorite aside.

He could not keep the smile off his face.

How could he?

He had spent a whole year diligently eating rocks for this.

“But it feels like… something is still missing,” he said.

He clenched his fist, trying to stir the new power coiled inside him.

It pushed back against him from behind some thin, invisible barrier.

“Of course. Just piling it up is not enough. I need something strong enough to break it,” he said.

His gaze slid toward the great hall in Onigashima’s main keep.

The main hall blazed with light.

As usual, Kaido sat with his massive gourd in one hand, watching the dancers below with half-closed, drunken eyes.

Then his gaze sharpened.

“Kai. Here to drink with me?” he rumbled, a hiccup bubbling in his chest.

Kai smiled.

“Kaido. It is time,” he said. “Let us have the fight that decides who the Beasts belong to.”

“Wororororo!”

Kaido’s laughter shook the hall.

The fog of drink vanished from his eyes, replaced by wild joy and killing heat.

“I have been waiting for this day,” he said.

“Need to sober up and get ready? I can wait,” Kai offered.

“Hmph. No need,” Kaido snorted.

His sheer presence pressed down on the room.

“I am always in top fighting shape.”

News of their coming clash spread across Onigashima like a storm.

“What? Big bro Kai is going to duel boss Kaido?” one pirate yelped.

Disbelief was everyone’s first reaction.

Then the hunger hit.

A fight between Emperors.

You could live your whole life and never see one.

Miss this, and you would regret it forever.

No one hesitated.

They organized themselves in a heartbeat, swarming toward the appointed battlefield in excited, reverent packs.

An unmarked, barren island off Wano’s coast.

Normally even sea birds ignored the place.

Today, the waters around it were packed.

Dozens of ships flying the Beasts’ flag crowded the ring, jostling for position.

Almost everyone from Onigashima had come out to watch, all for the chance to witness the battle that might decide the future.

On deck, pirates shoved, shouted, and even traded punches, all for a better view.

Not one of them set foot on the island.

Everyone understood.

That ground belonged to two people only.

“No surprise from Kai-aniki. He really made it this far,” Page One said, peering through his spyglass, voice full of worship.

“So he is finally taking the throne? Come on, start already,” Ulti said, practically vibrating.

Jack crossed his arms, face twisted.

He had reasons to back them both.

Queen, on the other hand, had his own cheering section screaming themselves hoarse for Kaido.

King stood silent at the bow.

His face was as calm as ever, but a rare shadow crossed his eyes.

On the Rayquaza, the air was just as taut.

Hiyori, Viola, Robin and the others all looked anxious.

They had absolute faith in Kai.

But his opponent was still Kaido, the “strongest creature in the world.”

Yamato alone looked completely at ease.

“Relax. Kai is definitely going to give my old man a proper beating,” she said.

Bonney stared up at her, worry plain on her face.

She tugged on Kuma’s coat.

“Daddy… do all daughters end up like that to their dads?” she asked quietly. “I am not going to be like that, right?”

Kuma rubbed his forehead.

“Yamato is… a special case,” he said.

You could scour the seas and not find many father–daughter pairs like that.

Enel stood with arms folded, Observation Haki stretched to its limit, locked on the two presences at the island’s heart.

So that was the “strongest creature in the world,” was it?

“Shame I still cannot join a fight like that,” Zoro muttered.

His hands tightened around his swords as he stared at the empty rock, hunger and frustration in his voice.

“Do not rush it. Our time will come,” Ace said, tipping his hat down.

His grin was as bright as ever, but the same fire burned behind it.

“They are starting,” Viola said suddenly.

She had never taken her eyes off the island.

As she spoke, the first wave of killing intent crashed over the sea.

The once-calm water boiled.

Waves heaved.

The great ships bucked like toys in a sudden storm, pitching and rolling as the swell slammed into their hulls.