The Good Life: New Friends (ch. 117) (Patreon)

If there had been a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Kaido was the strongest opponent that I had ever fought, then they were banished the moment that we clashed. Odin's sword materialized in my hand, the blade turning black as my Haki flowed into it. Yet, our weapons didn't clash against one another and instead were caught in a contest of wills that sparked black lightning that danced across the ruins of Central Park. The ground buckled and the shockwave shattered what was left of the glass panels of the decaying skyscrapers around us. 

“Urororo! What ambition!” Kaido laughed from above, a wide smile on his face as his voice thundered out. “You're a greedy one, alright!" 

The clash shifted and I found that my blade was the one that faltered, the sky above clearing in an instant as I fell back a half step. In terms of raw strength, we were on equal footing. I would even give myself the edge. However, Kaido realized the same thing that I had in that clash. 

“But you lacked someone to test that ambition against until now!” He roared, blurring forward and swinging his kanabo at me with blistering speed. I made no move to block, instead Shambling myself to the other side of the kanabo as it passed through where I had been by taking the place of the dust particles that were swept up in the weapons wake. I darted forward, using the kanabo as a springboard board to deliver a thrust to Kaido's heart but he caught the blade with a ready forearm. 

It didn't even pierce the skin. 

“Wow,” I remarked, shambling myself away before he could deliver a backswing that would have killed me. I saw it flash behind my eyes. “You’re living up to the hype already.” He was better than me with Haki. Unsurprising, really. Robin gave me the low down about him, and Kaido had ruled the seas for decades as the King of Beasts. A man who turned himself over to the World Government dozens of times to be executed, but they never managed to kill him even when he bared his neck. 

His Observation Haki was sharper than mine. His Armament was stronger. And he was doing something strange with his Conqueror's Haki, letting it flow through his weapon. 

“It's too soon for you to be saying that, brat,” Kaido replied, shouldering his weapon as he took long lumbering strides towards me. “We haven't even started.” 

I had trained my Haki for a decade in Final Fantasy, but it was only at the end that I had tested it against something. And, for all of its defensive measures, Omega had been an escape ship first and foremost. It couldn't even use most of the power it had gathered, because that would have defeated its purpose. So while I had refined everything that I had managed to tap into, I hadn't managed to push my Haki to new levels. 

That needed to change, right now. 

My smile grew, “Firaga. Thundaga. Blizzaga. Aeroga.” As I rattled off each spell, I compressed the magic into balls that hovered overhead, contained into Amp-Rooms as I let my Room drop. Then, “Haste.” 

Kaido's smile grew as much as mine did as I blurred forward at high speeds, leaving a series of sonic booms in my wake, closing the distance between us in an instant. Our weapons clashed again, only this time I bombarded Kaido with magic. Lightning arced forward, slamming into him with sparks of heat and leaving behind scorched marks while bullets of fire peppered him. 

We blurred through Central Park with me having the definitive edge in speed, but Kaido wasn't pressed yet. Reaching back, I dipped my sword into the ball of Aeroga, coating it in wind magic as I copied Kaido's trick. Conqueror's Haki flowed into the sword, making it crackle with the same black lightning that his kanabo did. We hit the edge of Central Park, where we split, both moving down the block at high speeds, and a moment later, we saw each other again. 

I swung my blade, sending a flying slash at Kaido as he attempted to blitz me. He raised his kanabo up, blocking the blow, but his eyes widened a fraction when the rest of the cut still reached him. The compressed and sharpened air nicked his shoulders, but the true power of the cut was revealed when the buildings behind him were bisected and started to collapse into themselves because of the angle at which they were cut. Yet, the cut that was delivered to him was shallow. The kind that barely broke the skin and wouldn't bleed even if you squeezed. 

Barely a scratch, in other words.

“Interesting!” Kaido exclaimed, racing towards me as I backed off, letting him chase me down the street filled with rotting cars and what was left of ramshackle homes. A powerful bolt of lightning slammed into his kanabo, but this time the lightning crackled around the weapon. Then Kaido moved with a burst of speed, doing something to the ground that gave him the raw acceleration to close the distance in a second. 

My guard was up, blocking the blow, feeling a current of lightning tear through my body as he sent me flying through a building, slamming through a car, skidding across a street, before I crashed into a department store a block away. I tsked, annoyed with myself for getting hit. He moved too fast for me to Shamble away. That was an honest first. 

I didn't have any time to dwell because Kaido tore through the concrete and steel like it wasn't even there just to chase after me. I saw him coming, but I didn't Shamble out. What did he do, exactly? It was a bit like… 

“This,” I grinned, kicking off the ground ten times in a second to meet Kaido head on. Our weapons clashed and the building exploded outward as the foundations buckled. We shared a grin as we brushed passed one another, and I started to rethink my approach. Kaido's Haki was a real issue, but his durability was just as much as one. I needed a way past it, or a way to overwhelm it. 

Sensing a flash of danger, I had a half-second of warning before a bright red flash of heat erupted from the dust of the collapsing building. Using that technique to dodge out of the way, I flung myself into the air, and the ball of fire the size of an eighteen-wheeler slammed into a building down the block in an explosion of fire. Concrete and steel melted, the ball leaving behind a trail of bubbling asphalt. 

But my attention was elsewhere as emerging from the dust was a dragon. I wished it had been a surprise, but Robin hadn’t cared about spoilers when she gave me the low-down on Kaido and his known abilities. Among them was that he had eaten a Devil Fruit that had given him the power to turn into a dragon. He was a big one too, about a dozen times longer than any I had found in Final Fantasy and a fair bit longer than any of my draconic summons. 

Still, to not be outdone, I spoke, “Leviathan.” The serpentine dragon materialized underfoot, carrying me up and flying over the ruined New York skyline as Kaido gave chase. It was tempting to bring out my other summons, but in my fight with Omega, a weakness of my Magic Crest had revealed itself. 

Simply put, my capacity for mana didn’t match my replenishment rate. 

After the fight with Omega, it had taken a week to replenish my mana, and that had been in a relatively mana-rich world like Final Fantasy. In a world like this? It would take months. And a quick glimpse at Kaido’s prowess told me that I needed to fight smart if I wanted a chance at winning, so no trying to overwhelm him with raw firepower. At least not until I gained the edge in Observation Haki. 

Leviathan gathered water around itself, pulling it from the air and amplifying the amount with magic. Dropping my Room, I had Leviathan shift around to face Kaido. Raising a hand, I smirked down at him as I created a series of Amp-Rooms before Leviathan. Water condensed before Leviathan’s mouth before a torrent of water erupted, which passed through my Amp-Rooms that increased the velocity and focus of the blast of water into a beam. 

Water, with enough speed and focus, could be used to cut diamonds. And a large enough amount of it with enough speed and focus, I found, could cut the New York skyline like it was paper as Kaido dodged out of the way of the attack. The tops of skyscrapers slid off, falling to the street below, but I was hardly done. 

I created more Amp-Rooms in the path of the stream of water, changing its direction without any loss in velocity, to make another swipe at Kaido. The battlefield was taking shape in the sky above as I created more and more Amp-Rooms, splitting the beams until a cage had manifested around the roaring dragon. 

“Ramuh,” I made a partial summon of the lightning wizard to amp up the power of the lightning spell that sparked at my fingers. “Thundaga.” 

The chaos circuits hummed with power as violent red lightning sparked to life along the cage, flowing along the water before it zeroed in on Kaido like a shark that smelled blood. There was a maliciousness in chaos magic that just wasn’t there with normal magic. A maliciousness that Kaido felt as I closed the cage with a clench of my hand. 

Kaido roared, and for the first time, I knew I’d managed to hurt him. The high-pressure water cut his hide as lightning, and Conqueror’s Haki flowed through it, and the lightning tore through him. It was a combo that I had planned to use on Sukuna during our next match, and one that I was pretty confident would secure me the win. 

It barely slowed Kaido down. 

When the cage closed in too tightly, his draconic body began to shrink back to a humanoid form, though he didn’t lose the scales. He shot forward directly at me, a manic smile on his face and a fire in his eyes, and I had no doubt in my mind that Kaido was going to get along great with Sukuna after I won. 

I threw myself back, letting Leviathan desummon underfoot now that the cage was useless. Not that it mattered because Kaido had shot forward like a bullet, swinging his kanabo at me, and I just barely was able to block it with my sword. All the while, Kaido laughed, and I was starting to get a taste of what it was like to fight me. “You’re getting stronger! Try this!” 

To my immediate amazement, Kaido slammed his foot on the air like it was solid ground to launch himself at me when we parted from a clash in the open air. I blocked the blow, though I felt my arms rattle down to the bone from the sheer force behind them. Even a casual swing felt like an equal to All Might’s United States of Smash.

I didn’t have a Room around us to get more detailed information, but from the looks of it, he’d just… slammed his foot down really hard. Hard enough that the air became solid underfoot? It made all the scientific knowledge I had consumed over the years scream at the impossibility of it, but it wasn’t like I ever cared about what was impossible and what wasn’t. 

When I was blown back, I flipped, slamming my feet on the empty air with all the force I could muster… and sure enough, I felt myself kick off the air to throw myself back at Kaido. Our weapons clashed in the air, sending out a shockwave that toppled the nearby buildings before we parted. I landed lightly on a building, and Kaido did the same across from me a block over. 

I took in a deep breath, taking stock of the situation so far. The conclusion was evident enough. 

I was losing. 

The blow that he gave me wasn’t a critical injury or anything. I could easily heal the bruises and scratches with a quick Heal. The problem ran deeper, and it was obvious even if one were to look at us and saw that Kaido was sporting more injuries than I was. 

Kaido hadn’t even broken a sweat. 

I couldn't win a battle of attrition. 

“You're talented,” Kaido acknowledged. “But do you really think you can climb up to my level, brat?” 

I was losing, but that didn't mean I had lost. Nor did it mean that I couldn't win. His Observation Haki was better than mine? Then I would become better. His Armament was stronger? Then I would overcome it. There was no trying. There was no failure. I decided that I would do it, so I would do it. Limitations and impossibility didn't factor into it at all. 

Conqueror's Haki flowed through me as I used it on myself, turning my unbreakable will inward. Kaido's eyes widened a fraction and I just smiled at him.

“I've never been one to settle,” I gave him his answer before moving. The rooftop I stood on exploded underfoot as I kicked off it fifty times in the same second with Haste, blurring forward towards Kaido and our weapons clashed once more. The roof he stood on immediately buckled under us, but I didn't let my momentum bleed off as we fell. That movement technique that was so much like the Flash Step but different, and that Air Walk technique. Both of them were integrated seamlessly into my fighting style as I blurred forward at blisterings speeds. Speeds that A-Train wouldn't have been able to dream about. 

Yet Kaido kept up with me despite being a hundred times slower, since he simply knew where I would be. 

I bounced around him, kicking off the air as much as the rubble as the building collapsed inward. I moved so quickly that every time I slowed enough to adjust my trajectory as I bounced around Kaido, I left behind an afterimage. There wasn't any of the boyish satisfaction I would have normally felt in the feat as my blade clashed against Kaido's kanabo a dozen times in a single second. My focus was honed to a singular edge with only a single thought running through my skull. 

‘See it.’ 

I had the instincts. The SOLDIERs that had been decommissioned had their skills and experience harvested by me before they were Old Yeller'd. I wasn't a master swordsman like Sephiroth or some of the other First Class SOLDIERs, but I definitely wasn't just an idiot waving around a sword because I thought they were cool anymore. My Haki hummed with a refined power that I had harnessed over a decade. 

Yet, I still found an unexpected fist slamming into me and sending me flying through the floors of the skyscraper that collapsed around us until I hit the bedrock in the basement. 

‘See it.’ 

If the injuries hurt, then I couldn't feel it as I flipped to my feet just in time to dodge the kanabo that was thrown down at me like a spear and it struck the ground like a missile. Kaido smashed through the hole he made with my body just as I lunged for him, slashing with my blade and wind and fire magic diced the building around us. The cuts to his body were surface level shallow, and with a backswing of his fist, he slammed me out of the basement and into the tenth story of a building across the street. 

Kaido followed after me with a laugh spilling from his lips, taking a big swing at me, “Thunder Bagua!” Lightning tore through the office cubicles that we landed in, igniting the carpet and the ceiling. 

‘See it.’ 

The demands that I delivered myself rang out in my head like a bell as I blocked the strike, electricity flowing into me and I felt it. The spasms in my muscles, the scent of burnt flesh and hair filling my lungs. Yet, my focus didn't waver as I pushed back the kanabo… 

And then I saw it. 

“Vajra Arr-” Kaido started, light building up in his mouth. 

“Ifrit. Firaga,” I said, raising up a finger gun and letting loose a spear of chaotic black flames that struck his Vajra Arrow, causing a detonation of fire between us that scorched the building. Steel beams melted, concrete was liquefied into pure magma, while the very air ignited into a frenzied flame. Yet, it all went ignored as I pressed the attack, erupting through the flames and I saw surprise on Kaido's face for the first time. 

I could see it now. The future was unfolding before my eyes. A second ahead, perhaps. Then perhaps two. Then three. 

"Magician's Road,” I uttered the name of a new attack, a hand ghosting over my sword as a Room sank into the blade that hummed with magic and Haki. It wasn't a planned attack. Not really. It was just everything that I had learned up until this point flowing together into a single attack.

I swung, the edge of my blade slipping past Kaido's flesh as if it wasn't there, because as far as the blade was concerned, it wasn't. Kaido's confusion was palpable, but he still reacted, going for a punch that I could see ending my life if it landed. 

“Aeroga,” I uttered, a cut of wind racing forward towards Kaido's chest as the fist raced towards me. Only it never arrived as the cut slammed into his chest, causing it to split open in a gushing of blood. 

“What?!” Kaido shouted, a hand going to the wound and he realized in an instant that it was the same cut that I had marked with my blade. It was more than just a cut. The wound was seared from fire and lightning, scorching his internal organs as much as they were flash frozen or chopped up from wind magic. If I was being completely honest, it was actually somewhat alarming that he still had the presence of mind to be surprised because I’d kinda assumed that would finish the fight. 

But, that was no matter. 

I could bypass his durability now. Magician's Road was a new type of Room. One that didn't target the physical body, but the soul. My experiments had more than proven the connection between the soul and the body, but an attack delivered to the soul didn't translate to an attack on the body. Cutting off the soul of an arm didn't mean that the arm would detach, I had learned, even if it did lead to numbness in the limb until the soul was restored, because the limb was still there and the soul remembered its shape. 

Which was where the technique came in -- it was, in essence, a road that connected the two. 

An injury delivered to the soul would mark a path to follow. Delivering a second strike to the body would manifest the injury physically. It was, in function, an unblockable technique. It could only be avoided. 

Something Kaido could no longer do because I could see the future unfolding around me as I threw myself at him, sending us both flying outside of the burning building. Despite his wound, he barely slowed down as we clashed on a highway. His surprise faded and in its place was excitement, his smile growing until it consumed his face. 

“Titan,” I summoned the earth elemental, and in response, the ground under our feet and the buildings came alive. I could feel a sharp burn in my circuits as Titan manifested, becoming blocks of New York city. Buildings shook apart or collapsed into each other, roads lifted up to become the main body while distant skyscrapers twisted into themselves to become tendrils that Titan commanded. But I wasn't done. “Hades.” 

Hades manifested in full in the far distance, the bubbling cauldron unleashing a powerful debuff against Kaido -- Slow. To my eyes, Kaido suddenly seemed to be moving through quicksand, gravity working overtime against him. Yet, he accepted the debuffs with a roar of laughter, “Urorororo! Rocks was right! The Seas are vast!” 

He bent his knees ever so slightly before throwing himself at me, excitement sparking to life in his eyes and I think for the very first time, he was taking the fight seriously. The buildings and road around him lunged forward, attempting to ensnare him but he bounced off of them, even slowed significantly. 

“Alexander. Haste,” I intoned, feeling the turbo charged Haste settle upon me. “Amp-Room,” I continued, sprouting Rooms across Kaido's body. 

Then I vanished. 

Everything became a blur of motion and color, even to my own eyes as I moved faster than I could honestly perceive. My body was enhanced to the point of being super human, but it just wasn't enough to keep up with the sheer speed I was moving with. The only reason I didn't immediately run into a wall was my Observation Haki, and my absolute faith in it. The future rippled before me as I closed my eyes, seeing myself going exactly where I needed to go, so followed in my future self's steps. 

My blade found purchase against his flesh this time, his scales parting with sprays of blood as I darted around him. The cuts were shallow at first, but I poured more and more Haki into the blade in my hands, the hue of the dark blade darkening by shades the more I honed my Armament against the whetstone before me. I punished every opening Kaido had as Hades ensured that he didn't have the raw speed to keep up with me anymore or react as fast as he was used to. 

And yet, I found myself entirely unsurprised when I found myself narrowly avoiding death when Kaido swung his kanabo. Our weapons nearly struck one another as I put up a hasty dodge and the shockwave obliterated the nearby buildings, causing Titan to retreat. 

“Suppose it won't be that easy after all,” I admitted, understanding that Kaido's Observation had eclipsed mine again. 

No matter. I would just have to surpass him again. 

We raced through the streets, Kaido struggling to keep up against my enhanced speed and his debuff, but with every clash, he proved able to keep up despite the disadvantage. There was a burning sensation in my circuits that told me I was pushing a little too fast and hard with them, but I paid it no mind as I had Titan work in the background of the fight. 

We tore through Manhattan Island, leaving a trail of absolute devastation in our wake. There wasn't going to be much left of the city, I knew, and that was even before Kaido took notice of what I had Titan doing at the fringes of the island. Admittedly, it was kinda hard to miss. 

The very ground rose up, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of tons of stone and steel shaping itself in accordance with Titan's will and my design. That design being of a railgun, one that was two hundred stories tall with a barrel the size of a skyscraper, all created from melted buildings and the ruins of New York City. 

“Kaido,” I told him, a smile on lips. “Don't die.” 

With that warning delivered, I Shambled myself away across the city, and found myself standing on Titan's massive shoulder. The burn in my circuits intensified as I spoke, “Ramuh.” 

Summoning the Lightning Wizard in his entirety, only this time enhanced with Chaos. His skin was blackened like he had been seared into charcoal, while the red lightning glowed between the cracks. His robe was in tatters and his staff seemed to be made of carved bone, which he held up to the sky to summon a torrential storm above that cackled with lightning. 

“Thundaga,” I commanded and Ramuh lowered his staff, causing hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of lighting bolts to rain down upon the railgun, giving it its charge. The smell of ozone was overwhelming, the sound deafening, but the flow of lightning charged the rails and in a split second, a semi-truck sized bullet launched itself out of the barrel directly towards an undaunted Kaido. 

Kaido hadn’t been idle. He’d transformed back into his dragon form, covering himself in fire and lightning and swirling winds while all of his power gathered up into his mouth. He launched his attack the very same instant as the bullet left the railgun, both of them speeding forward on a collision course. 

The shockwave of the bullet flattened every single building it raced by, sweeping them up in its wake. But that was nothing to the detonation when the two attacks clashed, sending out a shockwave that obliterated the entirety of Manhattan Island. Central Park vanished, the buildings were reduced to rubble and dust, and the sea was blasted back -- it cut for an impressive sight. 

But, in the distance, I saw Kaido start to fall.

The sea came rushing back to fill the void, flowing over the reduced island and filling to bowl that was carved into the bedrock. Titan started crumbling underfoot, not spared from the explosion either, and I dismissed the summon before hopping off his rocky shoulder and bringing forth the Phoenix that I rode on towards Kaido.

He got lucky where he landed, transformed back into his oni self, an arm missing while his skin was scorched. He was half propped up by a piece of rubble, laying in a pool of water that was steadily rising. Yet, he was still alive when I arrived, looking up at me with his remaining eye, and a smile tugged at his lips. “That was fun.” 

His voice was rougher. Weaker. Still, he was a big bastard and it showed. “The one thing I don't get, though… why'd you send me to that boring wasteland in the first place?” 

I laughed, “That wasn't me. That was Asami. She's an enemy of mine, and she sent you there to have Yamato join her in her fight against me.” 

“Eh? My foolish son?! That fool! How can he expect to defend Wano if he can't even defeat me?!” Kaido thundered, and despite his condition, I half expected him to just stand up and go find Yamato to deliver a spanking. “Bah! Shortcuts.” 

Then he seemed to settle, “Suppose it doesn't matter anymore. I'm gonna die. What a pain.” He said, not sounding at all bothered by the thought. 

I laughed, “Why would I go through the trouble of rescuing you if I was just going to let you die?” 

That earned me some stink eye. Impressive considering that he only had one, and most of his face looked like raw hamburger meat. “What exactly are you aiming for here, brat?” 

My smile widened, “I think we could be friends.” There was more to it than that, but at the core of it… 

I had changed a fair bit over the years, but I was still me. 

Kaido held my gaze for a long moment, judging me and my words. Then he let out something that was one part a scoff and one part a laugh. “The more things change…” he mused to himself with a small shake of his head, seemingly swept up in a feeling of nostalgia. “At the very least, you're an interesting brat. I'll give you that. Fine. You win. I'll join your crew. On one condition -- you tell me what your ambition is.” 

My ambition? If I had to put it into words… 

“I want everything. Everything in this world. Everything in this universe. And everything in every universe beyond it. I want to hold it all in my hands… and then I want to throw it away, just because I can.”

I wasn’t sure why, but Kaido laughed like that was the funniest thing he had ever heard. But I didn’t mind. 

New friend acquired. I couldn’t wait to tell Yamato.