One Piece: The Legend of Beasts

The rain was pouring down, the wind was howling, and a heavy downpour was eroding a city that had been reduced to ruins, making everything blurry.

"Oh my, this heavy rain came so suddenly. I don't know when it will last."

On the dilapidated street, a middle-aged man of about 35 walked slowly with his hands in his pockets, looked up at the sky and sighed, his bangs were blown up by the wind, revealing his slightly weathered but clear face. His long black hair was tied into a ponytail behind his head, and he was wearing a blue and white long jacket, which had already become wet due to the rain.

Behind him were dozens of soldiers in armor, holding swords and looking around vigilantly to prevent any accidents. One soldier held an umbrella and carefully shielded the middle-aged man from the wind and rain.

"It's as if this place has suffered a catastrophe. Those pirates are so cruel!" A thin soldier in the back frowned as he looked at the corpses lying everywhere on the street. The strong smell of blood and corpses mixed together in the air, making him cover his nose tightly.

"Be careful, they might be lying in ambush nearby, don't let them take advantage of you."

"What is there to be afraid of? We are the elite among the elite in the Woka Kingdom!"

A pot-bellied soldier patted his belly and said to his worried companion disapprovingly, "Besides, with Mr. Kubota here, even if hundreds of pirates come together, they are no match for him!"

"Don't make me sound so great, Paul."

The middle-aged man with a ponytail hairstyle smiled awkwardly, "Without you guys taking the initiative to follow me, I wouldn't dare to defeat those guys from the Ghost Pirates alone."

"You are still as humble as always, Captain! Everyone knows that you are the strongest man in our country! Every soldier takes you as an example!" The soldier named Paul still said with a thumbs up and a smile, obviously respecting the man called "Kubota" very much.

The soldier holding an umbrella coughed twice, trying to change the subject: "According to investigation, the Oni Pirates used Brandy Island as their base after they captured it, with about 1000 pirates stationed there. Although most of them are just a mob, the one who is really feared is their captain, 'Chewing' Kidomaru."

When he said the last name, the soldier's face became much heavier and his lips trembled slightly.

"Kidomaru? That guy doesn't look good..."

Paul restrained his previous smile, and beads of sweat slid down his forehead. "It is rumored that he is an extremely cruel pirate. His mouth has a strong bite force, and he can easily chew even steel into pieces! Countless civilians and sailors have died under his mouth, so the government has given him a bounty of 2 million. It can be said that the Ghost Pirates became famous because of him alone!"

A soldier glanced at a horribly torn corpse on the ground and suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He almost vomited, his face full of panic: "Can we really defeat that monster? I heard that the navy sent a warship to attack it a few days ago, but it was torn into pieces not long after!"

"Why, are you scared, Ford?"

Paul leaned forward and touched the man's breastplate, grinning at him maliciously, "It's not too late to go home now, but you have to count your share of the reward as mine!"

"Who...who said I was scared?!"

Ford blushed and grumbled unconvincedly, his voice still trembling, "I... I just think Kidomaru is too cruel, I... I can't accept it for the time being!"

"Haha, you're still stuttering when you speak!"

"You two should stop arguing at a time like this."

The skinny soldier shook his head helplessly and shouted righteously, "Have you forgotten the purpose of our coming to Brandy Island? This is related to the life and death of each of us!"

"Albert is right."

Kubota turned half of his face to reveal a deep and sharp look. "Right now, the Woka Kingdom urgently needs a huge amount of money to pay the Heavenly Gold, otherwise the government will cancel its membership qualification. The treasures accumulated by the pirates are just a great help to us. Have you forgotten what His Majesty the King told us, Paul?"

Paul, who always likes to meddle in other people's business, got nothing on him this time. He touched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly, "I know, I just saw that Ford is easy to bully, so I wanted to take the opportunity to play a trick on him!"

Kubota ignored him, turned his head and looked straight ahead, saying: "In short, don't let your guard down. The lair of the Oni Pirates is not far ahead, and a fight could happen at any time on the road. As for that fellow Kidomaru, I will personally defeat him."

His tone was very calm, yet it carried an invisible sense of majesty, which made the soldiers present feel inexplicably at ease, and they followed the captain's footsteps in an orderly manner.

After walking for an unknown distance, a soldier said "Huh!" and pointed ahead in a puzzled tone, "Look! What is that?"

When the others heard what he said, they stopped moving forward and looked in the direction he pointed. In an instant, a shocking scene came into their eyes.

On a muddy ground stained red with blood, corpses were lying all over the place. It had become a mess after being soaked by the rain. From their clothes, it could be recognized that this group of people were originally a group of pirates.

The strong smell of blood made everyone shudder. Ford was the first to scream, "All...all dead!"

Albert was sharp-eyed. He quickly recognized their identities through the hideous skull with double horns painted on the belt of a corpse. He couldn't help but gasp: "They are all pirates from the Ghost Pirates!"

The soldiers were all horrified when they heard this. Everyone had thought of countless possibilities before the expedition, but they had never expected this result. Paul was even more frightened and uneasy, but he pretended to be fine and forced a smile on his face: "Could it be that they didn't divide the spoils equally and killed each other..."

He stopped talking in the middle of his words, as if he had become mute, his eyes widened, the fat on his face turned liver color due to extreme fear, and his fingers trembled as he pointed in a certain direction.

Not far away, in the ruins filled with smoke, a huge monster was lying motionless on the ground, like a small hill. A closer look revealed that it was a burly giant with a long horn on his forehead that had long been broken off. His eyes were rolled back and bloodshot, a row of sharp teeth had all fallen out, blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth, and his huge head was deeply sunken, showing that he had been dead for a long time.

On the back of the giant sat a thin figure. The man was wearing a black leather vest and was covered in blood. He held a mace in his hand upside down. The most obvious thing was the pair of short horns on his head.

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating his childish yet ferocious face.

For a moment, all the soldiers seemed to have stopped breathing. They stood still like clay puppets, staring blankly at the scene before them with deathly pale faces.

There is no doubt that the features of the giant are exactly the same as the appearance of Kidomaru on the wanted list. It is this rough face that has plunged many countries into panic and frightened the world. When children hear Kidomaru's name, they will immediately stop crying.

However, this once invincible and brutal pirate and the pirate group he led were defeated by a child who looked only eight or nine years old, and his proud steel teeth were completely shattered.

This shocking reality is something that no one can accept for a while.

The young man suddenly noticed someone approaching, his eyes widened, and black lightning burst out. Before the soldiers could understand what was happening, they rolled their eyes, foamed at the mouth, and fell to the ground one after another.

The rain kept falling, and the only people left at the scene were the boy and Kubota, the only one who was not affected.

"You're so young, but you already have the domineering Haki..."

Kubota picked up the umbrella from the unconscious soldier beside him and looked at the boy with interest. "Can you tell me everything that happened here?"

In response, the young man shouted mercilessly: "I have no obligation to do this! Get out of here!"

"No girl would like you if you've been so rude since childhood."

Kubota looked calm and composed, not angry at all. "Although I am very grateful that you helped me avoid a fight, you knocked all my men unconscious for no reason. You should give me an explanation, right?"

Before he finished speaking, the young man leaped down from the giant's corpse with a mace in his hand without saying a word, rushed to Kubota, and swept from left to right, creating a fierce gust of wind.

"Did you take action?"

Just as the stick was about to hit Kubota's forehead, suddenly a green light flashed, and Kubota's figure disappeared from the spot. The boy hit the empty space, lost his balance, and almost fell to the ground. Just as he was looking for the other party in horror, he suddenly felt a chill on his back, and slowly looked back, only to see the tip of an umbrella against his vest, and the tail end was held in the hand of a middle-aged man with a friendly smile.

"Now the winner is decided."

Kubota gently retracted the umbrella, then opened it again and placed it on his head. "I was just teasing you just now. Even if you didn't say it, I roughly knew what happened. You are not a resident of this island, right?"

The young man only felt a faint pain on his back. He knew that the other party was showing mercy, so he gradually put away his arrogance and muttered, "I heard that Kidomaru shamelessly claimed that no one could defeat him, so I came to this island to compete with him, but I didn't expect him to be so vulnerable!"

"Oh? What made you do that?"

"The strongest."

The young man answered directly, his eyes were extremely firm, "Only by becoming stronger by any means necessary can we save those weak guys from suffering. This is the only way to change this unreasonable world."

After hearing what the boy said, Kubota seemed moved, and the corners of his mouth slightly raised: "He's just a kid, but he has such unrealistic ideas."

"However, the more unrealistic the idea, the more likely it is to create unexpected results."

At this point, he slowly stretched out his left hand and said with a smile, "Would you like to come with me? Maybe you will find your answer there."

Seeing his calm and generous attitude, the young man did not sense any ill will from him. After a brief hesitation, he slowly stretched out his right hand and shook his hand: "If you can't help me fulfill my dream, I will never forgive you!"

"It's a deal. I won't let you regret it."

The middle-aged man smiled and said, suddenly remembering something: "Come to think of it, I haven't asked you what your name is yet?"

"..."

The young man was silent for a while before he spoke: "I don't have a name, and I have survived alone until now."

Kubota heard a hint of loneliness in his tone and sighed softly: "You reminded me of something in the past, but I'd better not mention it."

He bent down, put his left hand on the boy's shoulder, and put a gentle smile on his face: "Since my name is 'Kubota', you should be called 'Kaido'!"

"'Kaido'...?"

The boy thought for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter, "Oh ha ha ha! What a great name!"

The rain poured down in torrents, and with the sound of the rain, the figures of the two men gradually became blurred.

After that, the boy named "Kaido" successfully became a soldier of the Kingdom of Woka under the recommendation of Kubota. In just half a year, he defeated powerful enemies for the country with his extraordinary force and was recognized by all the soldiers. No one objected to Kubota's decision to give his title of "the strongest soldier" to Kaido.

Furthermore, the Woka Kingdom once became one of the most powerful countries among the member states, and the enemies would often surrender without a fight when they heard the name Kaido.

During the years he spent with Kubota, Kaido gradually discovered that he felt something he had never felt before, but he himself didn't know what it was and could never put it into words.

When he ventured into the world alone, this feeling gradually faded away. After all, it had become a past that he could not bear to look back on.

No matter how powerful the enemy is, Kaido has never been afraid and has mercilessly tried to defeat them one by one. The only thing that scares him is meeting the former military commander of the Woka Kingdom, whose whereabouts are now unknown.

But the scene he saw before him had to pull him back from the brink of escaping reality.

The mask shattered, revealing a handsome face on CP0's face. His long hair tied into a ponytail fluttered in the wind, his temples were a little gray, and he stared expressionlessly at the shocked young man.

"Kubota..." Kaido opened his mouth and tried hard to squeeze out the name from between his teeth.

"You still remember this name, even though I no longer have any attachment to it."

The CP0 said with a wry smile, "But it doesn't matter if you call me that. It's time for me to let you know."

He pointed to the medal hanging on his chest and said word by word: "'Vidruvi', this is the title given to me by my colleagues as a member of CP0, the World Government's intelligence agency."

Note: Kubota and Kaido (海道) are both names of a type of Japanese sake.