Outside Onigashima near the entrance to the Skull dome, Big Mom and Perospero had coincidentally met up.

"Got it now, Perospero? The Alliance with Kaido was my idea!" Big Mom explained to his first son.

"I'm sure it was, Mama. But we've all been dreaming of the day that you become King of the Pirates." Perospero replied.

(Cue- Succession of Witches- FF8)

"Surely you mean Queen." Rime's voice was heard as she phased in, standing upside down in the air.

"Hey, I know what I'm talking about!" Perospero protested.

"Do not worry, I mean no disrespect." Rime said, walking forward and phasing out before phasing back in on the ground as she still walked before stopping.

"Good. Cause if you were actually insulting him, you'd have another problem." Big Mom said. "And of course, I know what he's saying either way. Don't you kids trust me?" she asked Perospero.

The child was silent for a moment before he nodded his head. "If that's your final decision, Mama, then I'll follow it. What a relief…."

"Alright. I think I got the picture now." Marco the Phoenix said, having listened in on the entire conversation. "Despite your invitation to work together, our mutual goal of vanquishing the ogre Kaido is no more, Perospero."

"Marco the Phoenix…" Rime said, phasing behind him. "Why are you here fighting? Is it because of the promise your captain made to Oden here long ago? Or is it something else?" she said, holding her hand up as an orb with phoenix feathers swirling around it appeared.

"Good question, Rime my dear. I honestly thought he'd be better than this, helping out these kids. How sad that Whitebeard's remnants have fallen so low." Big Mom said.

"Remnants? You think pop's voice is binding us to his will? Everyone who's left is free to do as they please." Marco the Phoenix said.

"So you're here because you chose of your own free will." Rime said.

"Yeah…course…I wouldn't expect you to get it…specially with that thing so close to your heart." Marco the Phoenix said pointing to her chest.

"You refer to the shard. A piece of my fiance's lost half of power that binds me to Tormal's will." Rime said. "You are well informed, as expected of one of Edward's commanders."

"You don't have to call me that. I'm just an ordinary doctor now." Marco the Phoenix said as he touched her before blue flames surrounded her.

"Ti- wait.." Rime said as she looked at the flames. "They're burning but…they don't hurt. What is…"

"Tell me something…the one you were linked to. Even after all he's done…can you still find it in your heart to love him?" Marco the Phoenix asked.

"The only one I would ever love is Spade. No matter how much time passes. I would never stop." Rime said.

"Good. Then we're done here." Marco the Phoenix said as the flames stopped as a black jewel fell beside her. "There was someone I would have liked to fight along with here. But he's not here anymore. But you…you still got a shot."

"Your powers… they separated the crystal." Rime said. "How is this…"

"This is the power of a phoenix…to heal the injured and save the needy." Marco the Phoenix said.

"Almost similar to Phoenix's Flames of Rebirth." Rime said, looking at the Eidolon's soul in her hand. "Thank you."

"You can thank me with a drink…after we win this war." Marco the Phoenix said.

"Hmhmhm. Of course." Rime said.

"Well then, it looks like you both aren't taking orders anymore." Big Mom said as she and Perospero stood before them.

"Go inside and get to your fiance. I've got these two." Marco the Phoenix said.

"Very well." Rime said, picking up the crystal as she disappeared.

"Now then…guess we're not done yet." Marco the Phoenix said.

Back inside, many things were going on at once.

"Okay…some of us will start heading towards the roof now." Jexi said.

"Right. And…" Leonie said as Carrot was running off. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to avenge Pedro!" Carrot said.

"Wait. Let me go with you. I have business with Perospero as well." Ace said, following her.

"Wait, you two!" Wanda, a dog mink Musketeer called, running after them.

"If Ace is with her, Carrot will be fine, I think." Hope said. "Let's focus on getting Luffy to the roof so he can finally get Kaido."

"Indeed." A voice said as Rime appeared before them.

"It's you… the one who attacked us on Sun Jewel." Homura said.

"Guys, wait. Something is different about her now." David said.

"Yes… The darkness in her scent seems to be gone." Cheetah said.

"I have Marco the Phoenix to thank." Rime said, holding the crystal out.

"Whoa, he severed you from Tormal? Well, that's to be expected of him." Zephyr said.

"Rime…" Spade said as he approached her.

"We shall have all the time to talk about what happened in the past after this is done, my beloved." Rime said before removing the visor over the upper half of her face, revealing crystal rainbow eyes. "Just know that I am here to fight by your side, forevermore." she said, putting her right hand to his cheek.

"Alright, we got ourselves one more for the good guys!" Akane said. "They've got things here, Hope. The others probably went on ahead already, you should get going to. I'll back ya up on the way. "

"Got it. Thanks, Akane." Hope said as he and Akane went to catch up.

"Well, guess it falls to us to take care of any loose ends, eh?" David asked.

"Uh…question? Does oni invasion count as a loose end?" Eddy asked.

"...Yeah, I'd say it does." David said.

"Well look!" Eddy said, turning David's head to show the samurai being covered in ice and looking like oni.

"Whoa, that is freaky! Um, no offense, Kabuki." David said.

"No…they aren't true oni." Kabuki said.

"This is Queen's doing. Another of his plagues." X Drake said.

"Seriously? What the hell kinds of things does he experiment with?" David asked.

"Do you want the full list?" Cheetah asked.

"On second thought… No, I don't." David said.

"There must be an antidote to this affliction." Ginseng said.

"But first, we need an inhibitor…" Reisen remarked, before she then noticed Gus who was hit by one of the ice oni Excite bullets, as he was trying to use his own fire to burn the ice off his shoulder, as it was stopping the progress. "…Wait, if that's ice that Queen is infecting us with… then the counter-agent could be…"

"Heat." Frederica said as she cast some heat spells.

"The heat can help stave it off but it won't cure it." Chopper said. "Queen has to have the antibody on him. If I had that, I could make a vaccine."

"Then we'll get it." Ethox said.

"I'll stave the infection off." Gus stated, as he rose his hands, creating a dome of fire that enhanced the heat of the room, reducing the effects of the infection. "But hurry… I don't think I can hold this long with the infection sapping my strength…"

"We'll work things out on our ends as well. Just hurry. There isn't much time!" Kokoro said.

"Muhuhhahaha! You're darn right you don't have a lot of time!" Queen said over a megaphone. "My Ice Oni virus is the prize jewel of my Plague Rounds. It slowly creeps its way throughout the body's systems. Once the victim is completely covered, they die from exhaustion and mindlessly attack anyone, be they friend or foe!"

"At the rate the infection spreads from person to person, I'd give them about an hour." Raine said.

"That is all the time you guys will have to get the antibody off of Queen and make that cure." David said.

"More than enough time." Ethox said as the Fatebreakers formed up. "Anyone who wants to beat the stuffing out of Queen and stop the infection, follow us!"

"You really think that fatass is gonna let us come to him? We can't go head first into that ice zombie apocalypse, it's suicide." Seiya said. "Think for once, you wanna waste your energy on something like that?"

"Well then what are we supposed to do?" Ethox asked.

As they were trying to think up a way to fix the situation, Apoo was at one of the sealed exits.

"Open up! I gotta get off this floor!" Apoo called.

"Yo, Brother Apoo!" Queen called, throwing something the Sea Roar's way as he caught it.

"What's this thing?" Apoo asked, holding a vial of some sort.

"The only antibodies in the world." Queen said.

"Oh, for the Ice Oni…" Apoo started before realization hit him like a cruise ship. "Wait a second…!"

"Okay, I think it's time to get this party started!" Queen said. "It's time for Queen's Game Night! You gotta give them a fighting chance. Now…let's play some freeze tag!" he said as Apoo looked in shock at the people looking at him.

"Apoo has the antibodies!" Kazuma said.

"C'mere!" Velouria roared, as she lunged towards Apoo, in an attempt to tackle him down, only for the musical pirate to side-step quickly enough to avoid being caught.

"Yaaaaaah!" Apoo said as he soon had the entirety of the uninfected after him. "What are you thinking, Queen?! This is totally insane!"

"Relax. All you have to do is survive for an hour and you'll win and they'll all die." Queen said.

"We don't have time to lose then." Belladonna said.

"Wait, hang on." David said. "Isn't there another loose end you all need to focus on?"

"Ah, yes. Orochi. He could still be scurrying around." Roxy said.

"Orochi? Guys. It's cool. The guy got beheaded on stage. We all saw it. He's gone." Pit said.

"Pit… I think there is something you need to know about Orochi." David said.

"I see where David is going. I've read about the Snake-Snake Fruit: the Yamata no Orochi model. It lets its user survive up to seven times if beheaded." Aslana said.

"Yes, which means Orochi is still alive and no one knows it." Cheetah said. "Right now, he's hiding like the rat he is. And we cats need to find him."

"Yes. You all should go after him. We'll take care of things here." Omnimon said..

"The hunt begins then." Cheetah said. "Orochi, we do not know why you wanted Ishihara dead so badly… but regardless, we come for you!"

Meanwhile, the battle between Kaido and the samurai grew ever more intense as they continued to counteract the dragon with many tricks of their own.

"Now…" Kin'emon said as he, Ashuradoji, Inuarashi and Denjiro all held two swords each.

"Oden Two Sword Style!" they said.

"You can't beat me with a cheap imitation." Kaido said.

"Paradise Totsuka!" they cried out as they cut at the scar Kaido had.

"Grrr…not bad but…that is not enough to reopen my wound!" Kaido said as slashes of wind started to be fired across the rooftop.

"Invisible Slashes?!" Denjiro asked as they avoided them as best they could… until one hit Kiku and sliced off her left arm.

"Kiku!" Kin'emon and Izo cried as Kiku herself was in shock from the pain.

"All of you! Get off!" Inuarashi called to his fellow minks as they retreated.

"Kiku…can you still fight?" Kin'emon asked, cauterizing her wound with his flames.

"Of course. This is nothing." Kiku said.

"Wororororo! Now this is what I like…the way of the samurai. Whitebeard…Roger…those two did it right." Kaido said as he started to return to his human form. "It may not be a way of the times but…death is what completes a person. Let's end this now, if that's so true!"

"Don't be conceited, Kaido. There is no glory in losing to you!" Kin'emon said.

"Come on. We need to keep going." Jexi said as he and some of the others fought their way up the stairs.

"Hold it right there. You guys…are gonna pay for messing with my guys." said a man as he had a gorilla growing out of his left arm.

Headliner

Briscola

Gorilla SMILE user

"Hey, guys! Glad we finally caught up and…" Hope said as he and Akane caught up, but Hope's train of speech was stopped when he saw Briscola. "Uh…."

"Why the hell does that guy have a Gorilla growin' outta his left arm of all places?" Akane asked.

"A couple of wiseguys huh? Well how is a gorilla supposed to grow?" Briscola asked as the gorilla started throwing punches at the group.

"How should we know?!" Hope avoided the Gorilla's punches before Briscola wound up at Mark. "Mark, heads up!"

"Gorilla Punch Punch!" Briscola said, punching at Mark with every single ounce of the gorilla's two fists.

"Geez…we're fighting a lot of animals today. Oh well." Balthus said as he got in close before landing an uppercut as he took out the SMILE user.

"Briscola!" the pirates called out.

"Ah ah ah." Yuri said before throwing a fullisade of magic infused knives widespread at them.

"Go on ahead you guys! The Ashen Wolves will take care of these punks!" Balthus said as the four outcasts stood together.

"Indeed, they shall taste the magical might of House Nuvelle." Constance said, unleashing Agnea's Arrow on a group of pirates.

"It's exhausting fighting so many of you guys so…*sigh*." Hapi sighed as a large hawk swooped down. "Naty, you're up." she said.

"Yes." Natyal said, taming the hawk to their side.

"Hahaha, Hapi's curse and Natyal's taming skills, terrifying combo!" Balthus said.

"Now get going." Yuri said. "Don't waste your energy on these grunts." he said.

"Thanks, good luck!" Hope said as the group went on ahead without them. "Yuri's right. We can't stop and fight every Gifter we see."

"Yeah, so let's make sure you guys are as fresh as possible." Sanji said. "But keep an eye on Luffy. He would fight anyone that catches his eye."

"Sanji…" Jimbei said as Luffy was already running ahead of the group.

"Geez, that guy is like a cat. Too short of an attention span." Yuri said.

"That may be an insult to the actual cats… He's kind of more like a raging bull." Hapi said.

"You're both wrong." Mark spoke up. "Luffy is just a Luffy."

"...That makes no sense, but at the same time, it makes perfect sense." Scarlet said.

"You people are wasting your time." a voice said as two new figures appeared. One was a man with giraffe horns with a giraffe's body growing from his neck while the other was a man with a chicken growing out from his head.

Headliners

Hamlet

Giraffe SMILE user

Fourtricks

Chicken SMILE user

"Ugh, they just keep becoming more grotesque and ridiculous!" Constance said.

"Why can't these guys ever have any ordinary transformations like normal power users?" Hapi asked.

"Ordinary? That's a word that only applies to you." Hamlet said. "Expectations? That's what we surpass!"

"Uh huh." Hapi said. "Yet you both have ridiculous appearances, it's hard to take either of you seriously."

"The truly strong keep their mouths shut." Fourtricks said before he and Hamlet were attacked by Bakugo and Scarlet.

"Quit growing like that!" they both called out, taking out both Headliners.

"Don't you just love how these kinds of things bring us closer together?" Mark asked.

"Move now, team bonding later!" Bardock stated firmly. "Let's go!"

The group continued to climb up the stairs to the roof, taking down anything that stands in their way.