Chapter 4:
At first, the screen was black. Suddenly, a nature documentary played, about dinosaurs and how they hunted in the past. The thick British host then turned his attention to one specific dinosaur.
"For you see, the Pachycephalosaurus had extreme durability, especially in their skulls. In fact, that was the main way they hunted their prey. It just goes to show that sheer durability and power trumps all in the animal kingdom." The host says as it shows a pachy killing a triceratops with its head. "Fascinatingly, Pachycephalosaurus much preferred to eat rather small creatures such as insects, fish and even birds. However," The scene transitions into a pachy trying and notably failing to catch any of the species mentioned above, "from what we can tell from their remains, the Pachycephalosaurus had no true means to catch any of the creatures previously mentioned. Their bones just couldn't handle that sort of pressure, let alone catch any birds in the air."
The scene changes to archeologists digging through the remains of a pachy, looking frustrated, "The only two ways this could make sense would be if the Pachycephalosaurus could camouflage itself and wait for its prey to sneak up, or if it could somehow fly." The scene changes back to the pachy chasing birds, "Unfortunately, neither of those outcomes appear likely, and it does explain why the T-Rex was known as THE dinosaur, instead of the Pachycephalosaurus." The narrator concludes.
/./
Usopp grinned while holding his now black slingshot in hand, "Ulti, don't think I'm going to run from the fight again!"
Ulti was holding back tears as she looked at him, "Usopp-kun… You came!" She said as she slowly walked closer to him. While this was happening, Nidhogg was knocked out, seemingly asleep.
Ulti came closer and closer to Usopp who kept up his grin, 'Uh, isn't this a little close?' He thought to himself as Ulti got even closer. Soon, her face was right in front of his. Usopp began to blush, 'Okay, DEFINITELY close! I mean, she wouldn't be doing this unless she liked me, but why me?' Usopp thought before remembering all their conversations together, how she seemed genuinely happy with him, 'Wait does she actually like-'
"YOU IDIOT!" Ulti yells as she slaps Usopp in the face.
"W-WHAT THE HELL?!" Usopp yells with a red hand marked on his cheek.
"I told you to RUN! You aren't any match for a thing that made Kaido-sama bleed!" Ulti berates Usopp, completely missing the double standard.
"And you can? If it wasn't for me you would be paint on Nidhogg's side!"
"Actually," Ulti began to say as her eyes started to shine, "I can actually hurt him!"
"Bullshit, you were his hypeman like an hour ago! How the hell can you hurt something that can make Kaido bleed?"
"Simple, I just used my advanced armament haki." Ulti says, even though Usopp looks at her like she just made it up.
"Really Ulti? Advanced haki?" Usopp asks her in the fitting tone, "If I can see through that lie, you know it's shit."
"What are you talking about? Advanced haki is completely real!" Ulti huffs in annoyance.
Usopp, unable to contain himself when seeing his crush pout, decides to hear her out, "Fine, what does it even do?"
Ulti suddenly chuckles, "What does it do? It…" She pauses for dramatic effect, something she learned from her crush, "LETS YOUR HITS PASS THROUGH THINGS AND INCREASES THEIR RANGE!"
.
.
.
"... And?" Usopp continues.
"What are you talking about? That's all it really needs to do." Ulti says much to Usopp's dismay.
"THAT'S SERIOUSLY IT!?" He yells with displeasure. Ulti gives Usopp a surprised look, "Y'know, when something is called 'Advanced' it should really be advanced like comparing a bow to a gun, not comparing a slingshot to a bow." Usopp says in disappointment, also missing the double standard.
"Like you're one to talk." Ulti slyly calls him out. Usopp then gulps, realizing his mistake.
As the two love birds argued, Nidhogg started to wake up. 'Nika be damned,' He groaned as his senses returned to him, 'Who even are these people? Their haki feels different, especially that boy's. It reminds me of…' Nidhogg thought back to years ago.
/./
12 years ago
The sky split open as the two monsters clashed. Kanabo met teeth as Kaido kept up his barrage, giving Nidhogg no opening to land a hit of his own. 'That's what he wants,' Nidhogg thinks as he keeps dodging and parrying Kaido's strikes, 'His whole game plan is to swarm and overwhelm me with blunt hits. Accuracy doesn't matter if you keep throwing shit at the wall. Eventually one is going to stick.'
When Kaido aimed to grab Nidhogg's tail, the snake coiled and bit down on the oni. "Orororo!" Kaido winced as he felt the teeth bite against his iron skin, "I'm impressed a snake like you can push me this far. I'm even using haki and it still feels like I'll have my arm bitten off." Kaido pulls his arm out of the snake's mouth, pulling the snake in while doing so. "But hey, if you can't handle the heat," he starts as Nidhogg sees that Kaido has left him completely open, "YOU STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!" Kaido yells as he lands a direct hit on Nidhogg.
As Nidhogg falls down, Kaido thinks all is done. He looks at his arm and notices blood. "Orororo! I commend you for pushing me this far. It's been a while since I've bled. I never knew a beast as strong as you existed." Kaido praised the snake as he kept his eye on him with his observation haki. "I would have told you to join my crew, but you also killed a lot of my subordinates. As an emperor," Kaido says as he turns around, preparing his killing blow, "I just can't let that slide."
Suddenly, Nidhogg woke up and wrapped Kiado up with his body. As he prepared to bite Kaido's head off, Kaido suddenly wrapped his whole body in haki. He then takes deep breaths, 'In… and out. In… and out. Think about Mei, about Yamato, about King, about everyone.' He thought as his haki suddenly… morphed?
'No, morph isn't the right word. It's like his haki's… adapting. It's becoming slippery. It's less like he's wearing armor and more like he's covered in slime.' Nidhogg noticed as suddenly he began to slide right off of Kaido, his skin just like Nidhogg described!
"Now," Kaido says in bloodlust, picking Nidhogg up by the throat, "where were we?"
Suddenly, fog appeared all around the battlefield. As Kaido notices this, he realizes that Nidhogg has suddenly vanished! "Orororo, running away? No shame at all, honestly." He says as he begins to leave, "I wouldn't wanna fight me either!"
/./
Present Day
Nidhogg grunts, 'I suppose I have to get serious. Still, it's weird how that boy managed to hit me without Ryou. Sure, he clearly has armament haki, but I don't think he understands the extent of it, let alone all of his haki!'
As the two love birds bickered, they failed to notice the giant snake rising up from the ground. 'Do they seriously think I'm dead? Really?' Nidhogg thought flabbergasted, 'I'm Nika-damned Nidhogg! Do they even know what I am? What I am capable of? They clearly know about my clash with Kaido. Wait,' He thought as he rose up to full mast.
"Do you seriously think you're stronger than Kaido?" Nidhogg asked the pair outloud, much to their shock.
"HE'S ALIVE!" They both screamed, completely forgetting what they were arguing about earlier.
"Of course I'm alive," Nidhogg scoffed, "Yet, you still have not answered my question. Only Kaido has managed to best me. Do you truly believe that you're stronger than Kaido?"
This made Ulti stop. 'Me? Beating Kaido-sama? There's just no way!' She thought, 'I'm not even a conqueror, I don't have the right to kill him!' Ulti tried to move but remained completely still. It wasn't the drug that stopped her, it was fear. Fear that she would have to be stronger than her father, fear that she would have to be able to do what even her father wasn't able to do without getting scarred. The great, invincible Kaido, scarred. How could Ulti possibly fight a titan who managed to do the impossible?
But most of all, deep down, Ulti was scared that she would have to admit that Kaido could be killed, that for once in his life Usopp wasn't lying when he said Kaido died. That's what scared Ulti the most, that she was alone again.
Ulti knew she was done.
/./
Onigashima, 16 years ago
Ulti knew she was done. The Beast pirates are monsters and believe in survival of the fittest. There's no way that she and her brother are going to survive here, not when all the other pirates steal their food. It's not like they could fight back either, what do you expect a 6 year old and a 4 year old to do against grown pirates in the strongest crew of the New World? Ulti constantly gave any of the leftover scraps from her and other pirates' plates to Page One, but that's not nearly enough for a kid, let alone two kids!
So, when Ulti saw a division come back with all the food, water and treasure a person could ask for, she took her chance! Sue her, you would have done the same. What she didn't expect to find was two weird looking fruits in a large chest. It was bigger than any other treasure chest around, so she knew it had to be important. She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd seen this fruit before.
"N-nee-san. Have you found any food yet?" A weak voice came from across the treasury, "Please, I'm s-starving."
Just then, Ulti remembers where she's seen these fruits, 'They're devil fruits. If we both eat these, we can fight and eat again!'
"Pay-pay, come over here quietly." Ulti says as she gets her brother to follow her. Page One isn't quiet though, he scurries across the floor, tripping and scraping his knee against the creaking wood.
"AH!" He accidentally yells, immediately covering his mouth as Ulti rushes towards him. They both expected to be caught by the guards but weirdly, no one came. They never even heard the guards.
Waiting a bit to make sure the coast is clear, Ulti berates Page One, "What part of quiet don't you understand?" She quietly says, not wishing to push her luck with the guards any further.
"I-I'm *sniff* s-sorry Nee-san." Page One looks down, crying over his scraped knee, "I *sniff* I'm just hungry."
Ulti cools her anger, "Okay," She quietly says, "I know you're hungry, but don't worry, because I've found some food!" This made Page One's eyes light up a bit. Only a bit since he's already too hungry and tired to show anything resembling emotions aside from sadness, but this is definitely an exception!
Ulti notices this too and her excited tone reflects this, "But we have to be quiet. If the guards find out we're in here they aren't going to just take the food, they're going to do worse."
"Like, a ton worse?"
Ulti stopped, thinking of what to say next, "... Yeah, a ton worse. But they won't if we're quiet. So," Ulti says as she takes Page One's hand and gets up, "Let's be quiet. How about we use our tip-toes and pretend that our feet are marshmallows? That way we'll be quiet." She says as she silently leads her brother to the chest.
They finally get there, and Page One's eyes begin to light up even more. "Don't worry, Pay-Pay, you pick first."
"I want… This one!" He says as he picks the fruit on the left, eating half of it in a single bite. Suddenly, that gleam in Page One's eye becomes much more devious. "Mmm, hey Nee-san, this is really good! Here," Page One says as he takes a piece out of his fruit and offers it to Ulti.
Ulti chuckles, "You wouldn't be lying to me, now would you?" She asks as she takes the piece and swallows it whole, "Mmmm, you're right Pay-Pay. This does taste great." She says with an exaggerated expression as Page One has a shocked face.
"Wait, you actually like it? Nee-san, you must have a yucky mouth!" Page One said.
"Fufufu, does that mean you think this tastes bad?" Ulti slyly asks. Page One tried to defend himself, but Ulti stopped him before he could do anything. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Ulti motions her head to the other half of the fruit in his hands. Page One realizes it and then proceeds to devour the rest of the fruit.
Page One turns to the other fruit, "Hey Nee-san, can I have that one too?" He asks as he reaches his hand towards the fruit on the right.
"NO!" Ulti yelled as she grabbed his hand with all her power. She then sees Page One's terrified expression and immediately gets a hold of herself. "D-don't you think I should have the first bite this time? It's only fair, right?" That's what separates these two from the rest of the Beast pirates, they will always be fair to everyone who's fair to them. At least, that's what Ulti tells herself.
"R-right, Nee-san. Sorry" Page One mumbled as he brought his hand away from the fruit while Ulti grabbed it.
"Don't worry, Pay-pay. You were hungry, I probably would have let you eat it anyways!" She says with a smile.
'Pay-Pay, I'm sorry. Never forget that I love you.' She thinks as she eats the devil fruit.
From this moment on, Ulti's life completely changed.
Page One looked up at Ulti, "Well, how is it? Does it taste like mine?"
"Yes, does it?" A voice came from the door.
Ulti felt a chill run down her spine. She knew who it was, and she knew what was about to happen next. She just didn't think it would happen this early.
"You two. With me. Now." Was all Kaido said as Ulti prepared for what she thought would come.
And so, here we are, all caught up.
As they enter Kaido's throne room, Kaido gives a single order, "Leave us." Everyone followed suit in an almost robotic way. Kaido then sits on his throne, preparing to give the two kids quite the talk.
"Kaido-sama please, Pay-Pay had nothing to do with this. I'm the one who found the fruits and I gave Pay-Pay his. Please, Pay-Pay is completely innocent in this. He's still a kid, so you can raise him to be a strong warrior like the others. If you're going to kill any of us, kill me!" Ulti begged as she kneeled before the tyrant. Meanwhile, Page One was completely shocked over what he saw.
After a bit, Kaido began to say, "Are you done?" Silence. "I'll take that as a yes. First things first, you both ate the devil fruits that my crew worked hard to get, yes?" Again, silence. Kaido chuckles, "I'll also take that as a yes. Alright, now how did you get in my treasury in the first place?"
"We snuck in by hiding in the new treasure." Ulti simply said, unable to hide her fear.
"W-we noticed that most of the boxes were big enough to fill us in since most of the treasure could be used to cover us." Page One added.
Kaido put two and two together, "In other words, you dumped some of the treasure into the sea and used the extra space to get yourself inside the treasury?"
"N-no Kaido-sama! W-we w-would do no such thing!" Page One frantically said as Ulti began to sweat bullets.
Kaido raised his eye at this, but continued anyway, "Then why would you do this?"
"W-we were…" Page One begins to say but just can't get the words out.
Ulti decides to finish his sentence, still sweating bullets, "We were hungry. All the other pirates stole our food and there was no way we could fight back. We decided that since the treasury was right above the kitchen, we might be able to find food if we could make a trap door."
"So you went through all this just to try to eat some food?" Kaido asked, impressed. Suddenly his tone drastically shifts and he looks Ulti dead in the eyes with the glare of a monster, "Did you have any help?" He asks Ulti.
Once again sweating bullets, Ulti tells her version of the truth, "No. It was all my idea. I forced Pay-Pay to come, but he never wanted any of this."
Page One nearly jumped to defend his sister, but he forces himself to stop before he makes things worse. Kaido also noticed this.
"Well, I guess that's that." He says as he takes his club, "I'll take you up on your offer then, little girl." He says with murderous intent as he prepares to kill Ulti. Ulti braces herself, and begins to say goodbye to her last family member.
"NO!" Page One yells as he suddenly grows bigger and takes Ulti away with his mouth! "W-what?" Page One says out loud as he looks at himself and he realizes that he's now a dinosaur! Meanwhile, Kaido grins.
As Page One lets Ulti down, he gets knocked by Kaido's club. "NO!" Ulti yells and sees that Page One is unconscious. With that, she turns to Kaido and jumps at him. She doesn't even know what she's doing, she's only seeing red.
Kaido dodges all her attacks, "Maybe you should use your head!" He laughs. Ulti takes this as an insult and tries even harder to hit Kaido, but as Kaido begins to headbutt her Ulti prepares to headbutt him back. They both attack at the same time, and you could hear bones cracking.
However, it's not Ulti's, as she soon realizes!
Just then Kaido falls down, "Owwww," he says as he rubs his head, "So pachies really were that strong."
'Pachies? What's he talking about?' Ulti thinks before looking at herself and realizing that she looks like a dinosaur!
"Orororo, you don't look surprised." Kaido points out, "So you really thought it was your plan?"
"Wait, thought?" Ulti gasps in realization.
"Kid, don't think I wouldn't notice that my god-children are suddenly gone, and don't think we wouldn't put the devil fruits in an open chest right in the middle of the room when we literally have a section dedicated to devil fruits." Kaido said as he began to unravel the situation that Ulti and Page One are in.
"We?" Ulti asked, completely bewildered from what had transpired.
"Yes, we." Another voice says as Ulti turns to see Page One back in his human form being carried by a woman with a bow and arrow on her back. "My name is Mei. I am Kaido's wife and the sniper of the Beast pirates. You may address me as Mei-sama or Sensei." She says to both Ulti and Page One, both of whom are still bewildered.
"Mei, great to see you!" Kaido says as smoothly as he could with a massive headache. "I knew you were behind this."
"I'm behind it because you wouldn't get off your ass and do it yourself. Fucks' sake Kai, what happened to your promise to John?" Mei berates Kaido as she gets closer and closer to him and Ulti, making sure Page One is following at a healthy pace.
"I am keeping my promise! I'm teaching them the way the world works while also showing them how bad it is to be on the losing end! That's easily better than anything John did for them!" Kaido complained.
"That's not a high bar! If anything, it makes you look pathetic that you resorted to comparing yourself to John!" Mei fired back at Kaido, "That's like saying that you're better than the Celestial Dragons!"
"I am SO better than the Celestial Dragons!" Kaido says, completely missing the point.
Mei had an angered expression on her face, "You dumb brute!" She says, setting Page One down, getting closer to Kaido.
"Overconfident narcissist!" Kaido did the same. This back and forth continued between them until they were face to face, the tension in the room becoming more palpable than when Kaido was interrogating Ulti and Page One.
Ulti went over to Page One, "Are you okay?" She quietly whispered to him. He nodded, knowing it's better if they didn't interrupt the two titans. As they prepared to leave, a knife suddenly went in front of the door, stopping the siblings in their tracks.
"Don't leave just yet, we aren't done with you." Mei says as she pulls her arm back to her chest, making a 'hmph' motion.
"Wow, you actually didn't kill anyone for once." Kaido made a wisecrack comment. The room got even more tense until suddenly…
Mei laughed.
Then Kaido laughed too.
So far, this whole experience has made Ulti, to say the least, pretty confused. These pirates went from wanting to kill Ulti to saving her little brother to wanting to kill each other then wanting to kill her again and then laughing at Kaido's joke?
Also, Mei wants Ulti and Page One to call her Sensei? AND she and Kaido apparently planted the devil fruits in their storage room?
"What the fuck is going on?" Ulti correctly summarizes these events.
"Language!" Kaido says. Kaido. Told Ulti to watch her language.
It's official, Ulti is dead.
After finally calming down, Mei invites the siblings to her and Kaido's room and they sit at a private table. Mei begins, "Allow me to explain. Kaido and I knew your father before either of you were born. We were on the same crew for a time, and we were all close."
"Heh, John and I were like brothers! We slept together, ate together, even had se- OW!" Kaido says as Mei pinches him. "Fine, fine! Like I was saying, your dad and I were like brothers. So, he told me to name both of you! So yeah, you both have me to thank for your great names!" Kaido laughed as everyone else present thought the same thing: In what world?
Mei continued where Kaido left off, "But, because he's your god father, Kaido is also the one responsible for you two in case anything happened to the rest of your family. You both know what I'm talking about, right?"
Ulti and Page One both silently hummed in response. Page One might not remember everything that happened, but Ulti remembers it clear as day. The attack, the explosions, the crest of the World Government stitched to the back of that man as he effortlessly killed anyone who he came across, including her mother. He would have killed her and Page One too had it not been for her father telling his first mate to take them and run. The following days were just the three of them surviving on an island in the New World for a week until a Beast pirate ship came and took them. Ulti remembered how the first mate died protecting her and Page One from tigers, just minutes before the ships came into view. A few days later, and now she and Page One are unofficial Beast pirates.
Ulti remembers it all. Every. Single. MOMENT.
Instead of saying anything, she silently nods her head, but the anger in her eyes is clearly visible. Mei and Kaido both noticed this.
Mei continued, "So, we are going to be looking after you from now on." Mei finished, reaching her hand out to the siblings, "Welcome to the Beast pirates!"
But neither of them took her hand. Instead, Ulti sat there with the same anger in her eyes yet remaining speechless. Instead, Page One spoke up, "Why did you put us through this hell?" This surprised Ulti, expecting Page One to remain as speechless as he's been throughout the conversation. "Why didn't you give us any food when we were starving? Why didn't you stop the other pirates from bullying us? Why did you let us become so hungry that we had to eat those fruits? IF YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING AFTER US, WHY WERE WE TREATED LIKE SHIT?"
Silence followed for a few moments. After Page One sat back down, he went back to his normal, scared self. Kaido broke the silence, "Because we knew you would take it for granted."
Page One and Ulti both tensed at this, anger boiling through them both. Before they could say anything though, Mei spoke first, "At the end of the day, there are always going to be different classes of people. There will always be the strong and the weak. However, those who are born strong will normally become weak because talent without any training is just wasted potential. However, the opposite applies for those who are born weak. They understand how terrible it feels to be down, how it feels when they are the bottom class and they should get everyone's hate simply for existing. But when they become strong, they understand how strength TRULY works."
Mei continued, "I won't deny that we put you two through hell, but now that you understand what hell is like, you can truly appreciate heaven. That is the purpose of the Beast pirates, to make the world weak so that it can become strong again, and this time it can stay strong."
Kaido and Mei then spoke at the same time, reaching their hands out again, "This is what our dream is, and this is why we want you two to join us!"
Both of the siblings were speechless. Although, they shared the same thought in mind:
They each grabbed a hand, and joined the Beast pirates.
/./
Present Day
Ulti knew she was done. There was no way she could possibly match up to the invincibl-
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ULTI? DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU TOLD ME?" Usopp yells to her, snapping her out of her trance. Ulti realizes that Usopp is currently fighting Nidhogg, shooting a multitude of plants at him and somehow winning! Ulti couldn't believe her eyes! She tried to speak, but couldn't get words out of her mouth. "Not going to say anything? Fine," Usopp continues, "YOU were the one who told me how much I mattered. YOU told me that it's okay to be weak, as long as I'm trying to get stronger. And you know what? You were right!" He says as he dodges another of Nidhogg's attacks while countering with another bullet, knocking Nidhogg back a bit. "In order to be brave, you have to confront your fears! If you want to confront your fears, you have to confront your past. If you're going to confront your past, you have to be ready to face the ugly parts, even if you hate them!" Usopp says as he and Nidhogg continue to fight, the sniper getting more and more hits while the overgrown snake got less and less in.
Nidhogg was getting frustrated. He attempted to whip his tail at Usopp, hoping to hit him in the wide range of the attack, but before he even attempted to do so, Usopp saw him doing it and threw down a trampoline pop green. This also gave him a perfect line of sight for Nidhogg's head, and Usopp took advantage of the situation and launched an impact wolf directly at him. "I may hate myself so much that I can nullify the depression fruit, but that doesn't mean the world revolves around me! At the end of the day, we all have our own lives to look after." Usopp said while up in the air.
"Does that mean we should only care about ourselves then? That we might as well leave everyone else behind and never think about them again?" Ulti desperately asks.
"NO WAY!" Usopp yells as he lands and immediately predicts another attack coming, dodging accordingly, "If we abandon everyone else and only think about ourselves, we wouldn't be able to get stronger. Just look at me!" Usopp points out as Nidhogg pins him against the floor, his slingshot barely holding back the snake's tail, "Before I met you, I couldn't control my haki at all! Sure, I was doing fine with it but I couldn't keep up with the rest of my crew. I started doubling down on hating myself, but then you came." Usopp says as he gets out of his bind and immediately fires a barrage of different pop greens. "You got me to love myself again. You taught me that sure, I may see myself as a coward, but I shouldn't be so self centered and that I should look at the bigger picture!"
Nidhogg figures that it's better to focus on the girl standing completely still and charges towards Ulti. Usopp immediately charges towards her, knocking her down and pinning her against the floor, the two warriors face to face. "SO STOP DOUBTING YOURSELF AND PROVE OUR POINT!"
Just like that, it all clicked for Ulti. She saw all the enemies of her past each replace Nidhogg.
She saw Nidhogg, the representation of her fears.
She saw Luffy, the man that beat her second father.
She saw Nami, the girl that got her into this mess.
She saw Big Mom, the woman that completely outclassed her.
She saw the man that killed her first father, Rob Lucci.
But, she remembered what she told Usopp. What Usopp told her. What their beliefs are now.
And so, Ulti got up. She rose above everyone that made her life miserable, while taking a hand from the people that helped her and giving back two. She charged her head with the new haki she's learned, and launched herself at Nidhogg. Usopp then aimed one last bullet and fired, charging it with all of his haki as well. Both of the warriors had black lightning swirling around them.
Nidhogg realized something was up, "Wait, how can you both coat yourselves with conqueror's? No way are you that strong!" He yelled in disbelief as he covered himself head-to-toe in haki, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TWO?!" He yelled.
"My name is Ulti John," Ulti says as she motions Usopp to continue.
Usopp obliges, "And mine is Usopp,"
"AND WE'RE THE ONES WHO ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Both their attacks connect, and they both land on the ground behind Nidhogg, exhausted. They notice that Nidhogg's shadow still hasn't dropped and they both fear the worst until suddenly,
*THOOM*
Nidhogg drops to the ground, defeated.
Neither of the two could hear each other's victory scream, Nidhogg's fall was large enough to make a sonic boom, but they both knew what the other was thinking,
'We did it.'
Aaaaaand done! Finally, what was originally supposed to be a single chapter turned into 3 whole chapters and an Ulti backstory. I hope y'all liked it though, especially Ulti's backstory! I wanted to both explain how Ulti became a bro-con while also giving some insight into Kaido's character, lord knows Oda couldn't do the latter. I figured that I should make Kaido more like Sundowner rather than just starting wars because he wants to. I tried to make it so that Kaido is terrible at giving speeches while Mei was great at them, but since she died Kaido had to give the speeches and we all know how that turned out.
Be sure to give me all the feedback and criticism you can! Afterall, there's no point in life if you can't get better at the thing you love!