Having received his benefits, Kaido stopped dwelling on whether Ron had truly intended to kill him.
Carrying his spiked club, he strode toward the ship, though a trace of reluctance still lingered in his retreating figure.
Rocks walked up beside Ron, threw an arm around his shoulder, and smiled: “I really didn’t expect it—your performance completely exceeded my expectations, Ron.”
Ron felt squeezed a bit painfully, offering a modest reply: “Just sheer luck, sheer luck.”
Rocks tightened his grip even more, his laughter ringing loud in his ears: “Good kid, still calling it sheer luck?
If I hadn’t stepped in just now, even if Kaido didn’t die, he wouldn’t have been in good shape either.”
“Uh…” Ron was left speechless, having no choice but to smile wryly while letting him keep his arm around him.
“Wahahahahaha…” Laughing loudly, Rocks turned Ron around and walked toward the ship.
“Come on, I’m throwing a banquet for you tonight!”
…
The moment Kaido stepped onto the deck, he was feeling depressed.
Before he could even find a corner to sit down, Golden Lion’s light voice drifted into his ears, sounding entirely malicious.
“Hey, hey, hey, Kaido, you seem pretty unwilling to accept it.
How about it—want me to find a chance to take him out for you?”
Hearing this, Kaido turned his head, glanced at the smirking Golden Lion, couldn’t be bothered to respond, and walked away.
“Jihahaha.” Seeing that Kaido was ignoring him, Golden Lion didn’t get angry.
“You bastard, just because you have Linlin backing you up, your wings have grown strong, huh?”
Tch.
Kaido clicked his tongue inwardly.
Having been here for so long, how could he not know the nature of the Rocks Pirates?
Forget about kindly helping him kill Ron—if they didn’t stab him in the back when he walked past them, he would already be thanking the heavens.
Night slowly crept in, the sea breeze carrying a salty, fishy scent.
The Saber of Xebec had already sailed into vast open waters.
No islands were in sight all around; there was only endless darkness accompanied by the sound of crashing waves.
The banquet Rocks held for Ron had come to an end.
The tables were left in a complete mess with leftover food and empty glasses, and a few drunken crew members were lying sprawled out across corners of the deck.
If one had to sum up this banquet in a single word, Ron felt “boring” was the most fitting.
In fact, it was quite normal.
After all, he had just arrived and couldn’t integrate into this group at all.
Most of the time, he sat alone to the side, watching that crowd brag, curse, and pour drinks down each other’s throats.
Occasionally, someone would grab a weapon to start a fight over an unpleasant word, only to be laughed off and pulled apart by others.
The liveliness belonged to them; Ron had none of it.
After the banquet dispersed, the ship’s deck quieted down significantly.
Ron sat alone on the railing, spacing out in the sea breeze.
Not far away, Whitebeard also leaned against the railing on the other side, holding half a jug of wine in his hand, his gaze looking heavily toward the sea.
The two occupied separate ends, having no interaction whatsoever.
At this time, Kaido walked over at an unhurried pace.
He stopped beside Whitebeard, leaning against the railing.
“Looks like you’ve walked out from the shadow of being beaten, Kaido,” Whitebeard said with a chuckle.
“I just lack a powerful Devil Fruit.” The tone Kaido used to speak with Whitebeard was completely different from how he spoke to others.
After all, on the Rocks Pirates, Whitebeard was the only person he somewhat trusted—he never screwed him over, and sometimes even looked out for him quite a bit.
“Gurararara.” Whitebeard gave a light laugh.
“It’s the same old saying: a suitable fruit has to be found slowly.”
Kaido shrugged: “Of course I know that, but…
it’s just too difficult.”
Hearing this, Whitebeard chuckled twice more and said nothing further, his gaze returning to the pitch-black sea.
Kaido stood for a moment.
Finding it dull, he turned and walked in another direction.
His gaze fell upon Ron sitting on the railing.
After hesitating for a moment, he still stepped over.
“Hey, newcomer.” Kaido stood beside Ron, his voice quiet yet carrying a trace of stubbornness.
“Once I find my Devil Fruit, let’s have another fight.
How about it?”
Ron had been spacing out in the sea breeze.
Hearing the voice, he slowly turned his head, Kaido’s face reflected in his pupils.
“Don’t get me wrong, I can take a loss.” Before Ron could reply, Kaido also climbed onto the railing, his two legs dangling and swinging outside the ship.
“I just…
want to fight you again at my absolute strongest.”
A faint smile surfaced at the corner of Ron’s mouth: “Don’t you know…
only Haki can transcend all?”
Kaido showed a surprised look, instinctively asking back: “Did you hear that from Rocks?”
Ron smiled without answering.
He hadn’t heard it from Rocks, but rather from a man known as “Teacher Kaido.”
“Sigh.” Kaido let out a sigh and suddenly changed the topic, “Do you know the guy behind us?”
Ron glanced back: “Edward Newgate?”
“Yeah!” Kaido nodded, a spark of fervor flashing in his eyes.
“His Devil Fruit is the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
That is an incredible fruit—I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
From his words, Ron could hear an undisguised sense of admiration.
“Haki is very powerful,” Kaido continued, “but who could refuse eating a fruit that grants world-destroying power right away?”
Ron finally understood.
This kid Kaido felt that while Haki was certainly powerful, training it took far too much time, nowhere near as cost-effective as eating a strong Devil Fruit.
“Then do you think finding a powerful Devil Fruit is that easy?” Ron said with a smile.
Kaido was at a loss for words for a moment, only speaking slowly after a brief pause: “On the Rocks Pirates, the chances are huge.
Besides…
Rocks personally promised me that if he gets one, he’ll give it to me too.”
Just like that, the two chatted back and forth.
The sea breeze carrying the sound of waves swept past them.
Without realizing it, Ron felt that Kaido was actually quite straightforward and grounded.
Likewise, Kaido also felt that Ron was far more reliable than most people on the ship.
The most important thing was that they were both apprentices.
“Hey, Ron.” Kaido switched from “newcomer” to calling him directly by name.
“Let’s form an alliance so we can look out for each other.
The Rocks Pirates have all sorts of monsters and demons.”
Afterward, Kaido counted on his fingers, listing out a “Scumbag Ranking” for Ron.
He spoke very quickly, as if he had cursed these names thousands of times in his heart already.
Because he talked too fast, Ron only barely remembered that Golden Lion sat firmly at the top of the list—a point Kaido emphasized in particular, saying “that man is insidious and must be guarded against at all costs.”
As for the others:
Whitebeard and Rocks could generally be trusted.
Linlin was fickle; whether she could be trusted depended on the situation.
As for the rest, none of them were to be trusted at all, especially those listed on the scumbag ranking.
In the end, Ron nodded and agreed to the alliance.
The condition was that if a powerful Devil Fruit was found, it would go to Kaido, while the ordinary, plain ones would belong to Ron.
The next morning.
The light mist over the sea had not yet cleared.
Ron was deep in sleep when, in a daze, a wave of loud noise suddenly came from the deck above.
He frowned.
Before he could fully wake up, hurried footsteps echoed by his ears once again.
BANG!
The cabin door was kicked open.
The lock components were twisted beyond recognition, clattering onto the floor.
Ron sat up abruptly, rubbed his sleepy eyes, glanced at the poor door, and then looked at Kaido walking toward him, his brows furrowing slightly.
“Even if there’s an enemy attack, it’s not the turn of two apprentices like us to take action, Kaido,” Ron said with a hint of helplessness in his tone.
“Enemy attack?
What enemy attack?” Kaido shook his head with a bewildered look, seeming not to notice what he had just done at all.
“Forget about that—hurry up and get up, the Kuja Pirates are here!”
Ron froze for a moment.
The first person that flashed through his mind was the Pirate Empress, Hancock.
But the very next second he snapped back to reality.
The current timeline was still the Old Era.
In this era, the Kuja Pirates were led by Gloriosa and Shakky.