Chapter 253

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Kaido opened his jaws wide and a ball of fire so hot that it took the form of plasma started to form on his throat.

The ball enlarged as he prepared to release it, however, from the sky, from the dark clouds he himself had made just a minute ago, lightning crackled and then a large foot made of lightning came crashing on his jaws.

His parted jaw shut close as the plasma ball burst inside his mouth.

His body, floating in the sky, came crashing down on the rooftop of the Skulldome whilst a figure formed out of the feet made of lightning.

Amon, wearing his same white coat, formed in his giant form as his leg still pressed down on Kaido's jaw, keeping it shut for good whilst smoke came out from the corner of the dragon's lips.

Amon stared down as Kaido tried hard to raise his head and open his jaws, trying to overpower Amon's strength.

But Amon's leg didn't bulge.

It wasn't as if his base strength was more than a fucking dragon's, but the actual reason as to why Kaido couldn't overpower him was because…

The <Gravity> around Kaido increased further as the dragon growled.

"I thought you'd know from Marineford, that just because you can't see me… doesn't mean I am not there." Amon said, his face cold as he started down on the dragon's single golden coloured eye.

Then both Kaido and Amon sensed the presence of 7 strong individuals jumping out from behind him.

Kaido's eye glowed in rage as he looked at Yamato amongst the newcomers.

Amon lessened the gravity just enough for Kaido to say, "Yamato, you ungrateful dog."

"Yo, that's your daughter." Amon whistled. "Calling her a 'dog' out of nowhere like that… you two sure have a good relationship."

Kaido's eye moved up in his socket and locked at Amon's.

"You brat." He growled. "Are you here to kill me? Then go ahead, try it. I don't have the fragile body of old man Whitebeard. The marines have tried dozens of ways to kill me, none of them worked. Show me what you can do-"

His words stopped midway as one of his four horns simply dropped to the ground, chopped on its root perfectly. 

Amon's sword clunked, drawing the wide-eyed Kaido to look at his sheathed sword that he never saw unsheathing.

"You do know you are not 'unkillable', do you not?" Amon said calmly. "As long as a person has Conqueror's Coating, killing you isn't hard, let alone impossible—as you try to put it."

Amon drew his feet back from Kaido's jaw, but the man didn't attack immediately unlike how Yamato from behind expected.

Instead, Amon talked and he listened. "Fish-Fish Fruit, Model Azure Dragon. The 2nd strongest mythical zoan I know of." The first was the Quetzalcoatl fruit. "You'd have had the chance to win against almost anyone, except for me."

"So, I will give you a choice. Either I kill you in a single sweep as I did to Whitebeard, therefore you normally, casually, helplessly embrace death. Or…" he turned his head back to the Sins. "You fight with the seven of them, one vs one. If you can defeat all of them, I would go back from here with your little Wano untouched or battle you normally myself, honourably—your choice. However, if you lose to them, they'd kill you."

He continued without a stop. "In simpler words, you die either way. But this time, you'd at least die in a proper battle, an honourable one."

"..."

"So choose, you have 30 seconds."

Then, as if time had slowed down in the roof, 15 seconds passed which felt like an eternity. Kaido finally opened his mouth.

"Why?" He stared at Amon. "Why do you want me to fight them?"

Amon smirked. "So that you can be a training dummy. Why, you got a problem with that?"

Kaido's draconic jaws clenched. "...If I win, you'd fight me normally? No high-speed movements? No high-speed attacks?"

Amon raised an amused eyebrow. He was asking his opponent to not use his 100%? How dumb was that?

He shrugged. "Oh well, if you wish."

Kaido's grim face formed a grin as his serpentine body started to shrink and soon he stood in his hybrid humanoid form.

He dismissed Amon and looked at the Sins, instead. "So, who's gonna come first?"

From the crowd… Yamato stepped forward.

—★—

The current Kaido was scared of death, but he was more scared of an unfruitful death, outside everyone's eyes.

Amon had shown what he could do. He easily cut his horn in a millisecond, so it wouldn't be a shock to see him slash his neck off either.

Kaido feared that type of death the most.

So he would fight. He would fight to see how long his body could last, and he would fight to see what his limits were.

If he could defeat all 7 of them, then at least he'd die by the hands of the strongest being he has ever seen. If not...

Kaido's club, coated with Conqueror's Haki, clashed with Yamato's own haki coated club.

Their clash caused air to stir, the dark sky to almost split in half, and the whole Onigashima to shake violently.

"Look at you, trying so hard to kill your own father."

Kaido said, chuckling as even their gazes clashed.

"Father? What fatherly duty have you ever done to claim that title?! To me, you are nothing but Kaido!" Yamato yelled out loud, her eyes almost teary. "Today I will use my hands, use the strength you have given me, the techniques you have taught me, to fight against you. Today, I, Oden, will free my country of your clutches!!"

Their clubs drew back and then struck again. The clubs never met, instead the black lightning surrounding them did. The clash caused space to crackle at the impact point.

From the sidelines, the Sins watched the fight grimly.

"Really weird relationship, as I said," Amon muttered. "Also, I have to fix that Oden-complex of hers. She was fine in Skypiea, but changed the moment we stepped into the boundaries of Wano."

He muttered half to himself and a half for the people behind him to listen to.

"So… who exactly is Oden?"

Raki was the one to ask that as Amon turned to her.

He didn't answer her immediately and instead grabbed two of the swords from his waist and then pushed them onto her. 

She accepted them both and started to inspect them as Amon talked.

"Kozuki Oden was the former Shogun of Wano. He was the 2nd division commander of Whitebeard Pirates back in the day, and he was also the guy who out that large scar in Kaido's torso." Amon explained. "The swords in your hand are his, too. He was the greatest samurai of all time, though not necessarily the greatest swordsman."

Amon continued while turning his head to the fight where Yamato started to bleed.

"Around two dozen years ago, he was killed by Kaido after inflicting that injury on him. His death story is pretty cool, I guess. Anyway, in short, Yamato admires him a bit too much. She was delusional enough to believe herself to be Oden just after his death, and since then she hasn't abandoned that thought. Her whole life's goal was to free Wano off Kaido and Orochi's suppression, and now she's finally the closest to that possibility. So yeah, she's pretty excited and nervous."

He went silent, letting the Sins take in his words before they nodded.

He then turned to the swords he handed to Raki.

"Now, that's all about Yamato's past. Let's talk about those two swords now." he said, "The white sheathed one is called Ame no Habakiri, the blade that can 'slice through the heavens', as the creator put it. It has a will of its own, but it's not a 'cursed' blade. I guess calling it a 'blessed' blade would be the right word, instead. Basically, it has the ability to keep the wielder's mind cleansed, helping in concentrating and rationality, and it can also draw power from nature itself to a certain degree. Though what type of power it draws is unknown to me. It can be Haki, or simply body strength."

Then he looked at the other sword. 

"The purple sheathed one is called Enma, the blade that can 'slice through the depths of hell', as the creator put it. A typical cursed blade, I guess. It draws Haki from the user more than it should be possible to imbue in a sword. With that, you can easily cut mountains. Usually, your Haki would be dried out soon at that rate, but I am sure Raki can manage."

He looked at Raki. "You have used Wado Ichimonji before, yeah?" 

Raki nodded. That's the sword Zoro got in Loguetown in canon, and in this timeline, Amon did when he returned from his trip on the blue sea to skypiea for the first-time.

"Enma is the masterpiece of the blacksmith who made Wado Ichimonji. While Ame no Habakiri is made by the last descendant of the smith who made the Kitetsu blades."

After a while, Raki nodded. "You really went into the history of it, huh?"

Amon smiled. "Well, I am a bored God. Anyway, it seems Yamato is almost done…"

Everyone turned their gazes back to the fight at his words. There... they saw it. 

Kaido was injured and wounded. There were cuts in different parts of his body, and he was bleeding from his forehead. He was huffing deeply, his stamina unable to overwhelm his daughter's who he has trained himself for 2 years.

However, Yamato was in a worse condition.

Her zoan didn't focus on defence, so each of Kaido's attacks that managed to hit her was a devastating one. 

At last, Kaido's long tail snapped Yamato's weapon first before his club smacked on her jaw, throwing her metres back. She struggled to get up again, but Amon clapped his hands.

"That's a defeat, Yamato." He said. "No need to push yourself too much, I can sense you are on the verge of collapsing."

Yamato clenched her fist along with her jaw for an entire minute before sighing.

"I understand…"

It's not as if she needed to defeat him by herself. Not when she was weak enough to be unable to do that.

Then Wyper stepped forward. Nobody protested as he walked past Yamato and stood in front of Kaido with his arms crossed.

Amon went ahead and took Yamato in a carry before walking back to the Sins and putting her back in her feet where she leaned against Amon's shoulders.

"Thanks…" she said amidst heavy breaths. 

Amon chuckled softly as his eyes observed Wyper's liquid-fire leap at Kaido in the form of a fist and engulfed his face immediately, but his face then came out unscratched from below which seemed to surprise Wyper greatly.

'Heh…'

If just that much heat could melt Kaido's haki-enhanced draconic skin, then he would have been killed by Sakazuki already when he was captured in the past.

"You know Yamato, no need to be so formal," Observing the battle, Amon said. "We are like what? Mother and Son? Sister and Brother? Distant cousin? I don't know. Your blood and DNA flows within me, treat me like family."

Yamato froze at this as her gaze slowly turned to Amon's smiling face. After a while, her lips thinned as she nodded softly while muttering a thanks.

She needed to feel the company of someone close now that she was going to see her father die. No matter how much she says she hates Kaido, she would only realise after his death the value of family. So… Amon was just proposing himself as a substitution for her only family. 

He leaned his mouth closer to her ears. "For example, if you feel lonely, I can always call you mommy."

Yamato seemed to consider his words for a minute before nodding seriously. "I will… think about it after all this ends."

Meanwhile, Raki gave the two of them deadpan looks from the side.

—★—

 "Huff...Huff…"

Blood dripped down from Kaido's club as he leaned on it to not fall face first.

His body was burned badly, his light blue skin was now dark blue and his mouth was agape as he took deep breaths in. From here and there, such as his shoulders, calves, and waist, his flesh was almost melting which released a smell like charred fried fish.

But…

In front of him, Wyper laid with his body twitching and his eyes closed. He was unconscious while bleeding more than Kaido. There were bruises everywhere, proof of being hit by Kaido's club, and his brown shirt was stretched red.

"Who's…" Kaido huffed. "Next?"

Amon bought Wyper's body flying via a thread of electricity and then pushed Raki forward before anyone else could step forward.

Raki seemed surprised but she stepped forward nonetheless. A part of her felt as if going after Yamato and Wyper meant Amon saw her as the 3rd strongest here, which caused her heart to feel hollow all of a sudden.

If only she had her zoan…

She sighed and walked forward while unsheathing her new swords.

Kaido's single eye slowly focused on her sword as a small, strange grin formed on his face.

'How would Oden have reacted knowing his swords would be the ones taking my life?'

Even with that thought, Kaido clutched harder on his club and raised it over his shoulder.

"Don't hold back, little girl." He said.

Raki scoffed. "I never planned to, anyway."

With her swords out, she kicked the ground and rushed at the Strongest Creature Alive. 

Raki could feel Enma trying and even succeeding at sucking on her Haki, but only a small but adequate amount of it streamed through the blade. Her guess would be Ame no Habikiri's soothing feeling. It was cancelling the curse blade's side effect for the most part.

'Guess this is why Oden made his set out of these two blades exactly.'

Thinking so, she crossed the blades in front of her and went for a cross slash across Kaido's chest. 

Kaido moved his club too, its tip crackling with Conqueror's Haki. 

...Then it happened.

All of a sudden, Raki's eyes went terribly wide as an unfamiliar power crackled around her own swords. 

Black lightning.

Her heart leapt but she suppressed the sudden excitement and clashed with Kaido's club head-on.

Crack!

The space cracked in the middle of the weapons, not even touching, as the wind suddenly started to blow faster around there.

Raki tried to push that unknown power far, and it worked. Kaido was momentarily pushed back, and she took the chance to land a kick on the man which threw him a few feet back.

Instead of continuing with her barrage of attacks, Raki kicked back and turned to Amon.

"O-oi, brother!!! That was Conqueror’s Coating. Wasn't it?!"

She sounded very excited but Amon was by then pointing his finger at her mockingly.

"It was, but it wasn't yours." He said. "As I said, Enma absorbs the wielder's Haki. And so it had absorbed Oden's Haki for decades, even his conqueror's haki. Using the sword, you were able to tap a bit into that large reserve of Conqueror's Haki stored within."

"Ugh, talk about a tease." Raki groaned heavily and turned back to Kaido.

Amon didn't tell her one crucial thing. He hasn't told her yet that she did have Conqueror's Haki, just a different stage of it. However, by tapping into the stored Conqueror's Coating of Oden, she'd get used to welding that stage too which would allow her to tap into her own Conqueror's Coating as soon as possible.

'It was  just to surprise her.'

That's the main reason why Amon got those two words for her. 

Raki, unbeknownst to that, rushed at Kaido another time.

"I am finishing this as soon as possible then ."

Raki said as Kaido groaned. By now his movements were slow, his mind foggy, and his breaths heavier than before. He faced Yamato, who was mid-Emperor level. Then he faced Wyper, who was low-Fleet Admiral level. And now there was Raki, this was already too much for him.

Raki took in a deep breath as she took a pose. Her wings widened behind her and curled up as if holding two invisible swords.

"Twelve sword style…"

Raki's words seemed to command the reality itself as two swords materialised on her wings, and then her wings multiplied along with her arms. Two more heads popped up on both her left and right side as more arms appeared on her body. In the end, she was holding twelve swords.

"...Sky Sword Style, Seventh Form Variation: Dragon's Roar!!"

The space itself stirred as Enma's conqueror's haki started to coat all over her swords along with her <Tremor> powers. Then in a breathtaking set of movements, her body twisted in the air, swirling like a tornado, as she passed by Kaido's body in the metaphysical form of a Dragon's Roar.

Kaido who tried to defend himself with his club failed miserably as he froze in his spot with his eyes going wide...before one by one, his limbs started to fall to the ground.

First, it was his arms, and then, his knees. At last, when his body was about to fall face-first… his severed head very simply dropped to the ground as well.

A long silence stretched at the rooftop of Onigashima, whilst Raki's arms and wings vanished before she fell on her face too.

"Gotta say…" Amon whistled. "As weakened as Kaido was at that moment, barely an Admiral, cutting through his defence like that was impressive nonetheless."

His words were what made the Sins and Yamato finally take in the sight and realise… King of the Beast, the Strongest Creature, was now dead.

Just like that…

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Author's Note: With that, only 2 Emperors remain? Even though the Sins ganged up on poor Kaido 😔.