Hahaha! That's Drought Jack! Lord Jack himself is here! If you know what's good for you, you'll surrender now!"
"Prepare to die! You think beating us means anything? Lord Jack will crush you!"
"Captain! You're finished! Lord Jack will stomp you into the sea like driftwood!"
The previously battered and defeated pirates suddenly roared with renewed excitement, bloodlust gleaming in their eyes as they spotted the massive ship approaching.
Their fear turned to fanaticism. Their despair to arrogant joy.
And that contagious fear quickly spread to the navy soldiers, who only moments ago had been cheering their captain's victory.
"No way… didn't that pirate say it would take twenty minutes for their main ship to catch up?!"
"They lied! Damn bastard pirates!"
"Captain, we have to get out of here! That's not just some pirate—that's Jack the Drought! He's got a billion-berry bounty! He's a calamity!!"
Despite Bai Yu's earlier display of strength, none of the sailors could ignore the reality: Jack the Drought was a top officer of the Beasts Pirates—one of Kaido's right-hand men. A Calamity, known across the seas for his ruthless destruction and overwhelming force.
The kind of monster who could single-handedly wipe out an entire nation.
But as fear built among the sailors and confidence returned to the pirates, Bai Yu simply stepped forward and drove his fist into the mast of the pirate ship—shattering it with a thunderous boom.
The entire deck trembled.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!" he bellowed.
Eyes snapped to him. The pirates froze. The marines straightened, startled.
"It's just Jack the Drought! I'll handle him. Your job is simple—make sure not a single one of these pirates escapes!"
"But, Captain… that's Jack… one of the Three Disasters under Emperor Kaido…" a sailor mumbled, avoiding eye contact, the fear clear in his voice.
Bai Yu gave a cold snort.
"I know you've already reported this to HQ. The old man's probably sending reinforcements. I don't care. I don't need backup. Just do your job—and let me do mine."
The sailors wanted to protest. They knew Bai Yu was strong. But this wasn't a run-of-the-mill pirate captain. This was Jack. A man with Zoan Devil Fruit powers—an ancient elephant-type, no less. A man who survived a direct encounter with an Admiral.
To fight him was madness.
But they also knew Bai Yu's personality. Once his mind was made up, there was no changing it.
So the sailors returned to the warship, dragging their prisoners with them, leaving Bai Yu standing alone at the stern of the captured pirate ship, staring out at the approaching behemoth.
The Mammoth.
Jack's personal ship loomed closer—its massive hull shaped like a prehistoric beast, its sails bearing the skull insignia of the Beasts Pirates. Music and laughter echoed from its deck.
They were throwing a party.
Bai Yu's mouth curled into a sneer.
Good. I like parties. Especially when they turn into my victory celebration.
With a powerful leap, he grabbed the thick iron chain hanging off the Mammoth's side and sprinted upward in powerful bursts.
"—Huh?! Who—!"
A drunken pirate turned just in time to see a blur of white. Bai Yu's kick smashed into his face, launching him skyward like a cannonball.
THUD!
The pirate landed at the feet of a giant figure seated on an oversized throne near the middle of the deck, holding a massive goblet of liquor.
Drought Jack.
Jack looked down with mild annoyance. He was in no mood to be disturbed.
"Who dares interrupt my drink?"
A voice howled across the deck:
"JACK THE DROUGHT—COME OUT AND DIE!!"
All heads turned. Pirates dropped food and cups. Instruments clattered to the floor.
They saw only a lone figure standing at the center of the deck—dressed in navy blues, wearing a tattered cape, and glaring with unshakable resolve.
A mere Captain.
Then, all at once, the pirates burst out laughing.
"Bwahahaha! Where did this clown come from?!"
"He thinks he can beat Jack? Is he looking for a quick promotion?!"
"A captain?! This is suicide! Lord Jack will crush him into paste!"
"He's even worse than those World Government dogs! What a joke!"
Jack's eyes swept over Bai Yu. Just another insect. A Navy officer who didn't know when to quit. He killed these types by the dozen every year. There was no thrill in it anymore.
But while they all laughed, none of them noticed the change in the air.
Cyan steam hissed from Bai Yu's skin. It swirled upward, quickly shifting from blue to orange to a deep, glowing red.
Then—BOOM—his aura erupted like a furnace.
"EIGHTH GATE—GATE OF DEATH: OPEN!!"
With a roar that shook the deck, Bai Yu launched himself skyward, twisting into a spiraling arc above Jack.
Jack's eyes finally narrowed.
The pirates' laughter stopped.
Then came the strike.
"SUNSET—ONE FOOT!!"
A roaring column of condensed air and blinding heat descended like a divine hammer, the pressure forming a shockwave before it even hit.
BOOOOOM!!
The deck exploded beneath Jack's throne.
The battle had begun.
Drought Jack was smashed into the hull of the Mammoth with a thunderous crash.
The impact rocked the ship, and for the first time in ages, even a monster like Jack—known for his inhuman endurance—blacked out for a brief moment.
Standing tall atop the massive throne that once held Jack, White Feather surveyed the deck. The chair was a symbol of command, and now he stood there—unshaken.
All around him, the Beasts Pirates stared, stunned.
"No way… this has to be a nightmare…! Lord Jack was defeated?!"
"Who is this guy?! Are Navy captains always monsters?!"
"Lord Jack, please get up!!"
But then came a panicked shout from below the deck—from the pirate prisoners White Feather had captured earlier.
"L-Lord Jack! We brought him here! He's the one who challenged us!!"
The temperature on deck dropped like a stone.
Pirates turned, their jaws dropping in horror.
So it was them! Those idiots brought this demon right onto our flagship!
Confusion gave way to fear. Anger turned to despair. In a single strike, White Feather had sent their chain of command—and morale—into chaos.
"Damn it… this stupid elephant… your skin's tougher than I thought!" White Feather muttered, flexing his leg.
From the outside, it looked like he'd just crushed Jack with a single kick. But White Feather knew better.
Even with the Gate of Death open, he couldn't kill Jack in one hit. He wasn't built like Kaido, whose body was nearly invincible. Jack was a calamity—a Zoan-user who transformed into a prehistoric mammoth. A monster of monstrous resilience.
He was strong. But not unkillable.
Sure enough, the silence didn't last long.
From the shattered cabin below came a deafening, trumpeting roar—deep, guttural, and filled with fury.
"WORM!! DIE!!"
BOOM!!
An enormous elephant's trunk, thick as an iron pillar, blasted upward through the deck, splintering timber and hurling the massive throne into the air.
"Lord Jack's alive!" the pirates screamed with glee, grabbing weapons and charging to join the fray.
But even surrounded, Bai Yu, his body burning red with the power of the Eight Gates, remained unfazed.
Jack's massive trunk swept across the deck—but to someone whose reflexes were amped to their limit, it may as well have been crawling.
Bai Yu ducked, weaved, and leapt into the air, dodging the behemoth's attacks with ease.
"These grunts are such a pain—Asa Kujaku!" he roared.
He twisted midair, fists moving in a blur. The force of each punch ignited the air itself, unleashing a hailstorm of fiery projectiles.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Hundreds of fireballs rained down, each explosion forming a petal of flame. It was like watching a crimson peacock unfurl beneath the dawn.
Pirates screamed. Some flew overboard. Others dropped, scorched and defeated.
The deck was an inferno.
"DIE!!!" Jack howled again, now fully transformed into his towering mammoth hybrid form. His trunk swung a rusted iron club the size of a ship's mast.
But in Bai Yu's eyes, Jack was just a training dummy.
He slipped past the giant's swing, flipped, and smashed a fist glowing with compressed air into Jack's face.
"Idiot. You're way too slow to touch me!—Nikukyaku!"
BOOOOM!!
An explosive shockwave blasted Jack off his hooves, sending his titanic frame crashing back into the ship.
Jack roared again—but this time, there was pain in his voice. Frustration. And just a little fear.
Even so, with his Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit, Jack's body became tougher with each passing second. Even with the Gates, White Feather knew he couldn't end this quickly.
He had to change tactics.
Fine. If I can't kill you… I'll sink your damn ship.
"Nikukyaku—Sanren, Yonren, Goren!!"
Three consecutive air-cannon kicks detonated against the Mammoth's keel.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ship creaked, splintered, and finally—snapped in half. Pirates screamed as the mighty Mammoth began to sink, its monstrous figure breaking apart into two flaming halves.
Jack's howl was almost drowned out by the roar of the sea.
White Feather, exhausted, finally let the Eight Gates close. His body gave out, collapsing onto a drifting plank in the water.
His skin burned. Muscles twitched uncontrollably. His breathing was shallow.
Just twenty seconds. That's all it had been.
In that time, he'd brought a calamity to his knees.
Above the waves, Drought Jack—still in mammoth form—was slowly sinking, his eyes wide with rage and disbelief. His body refused to give out.
Monster, Bai Yu thought. But I was one step faster.
He chuckled weakly, staring up at the sky, floating adrift as the flames crackled behind him.
And then—
"…So this is the mess that transmission was about, huh?"
A voice rang out lazily above the sea.
Borsalino—Admiral Kizaru—stood on the highest turret of a nearby warship, shielding his eyes with one hand as he surveyed the burning wreckage.
He held a Den Den Mushi in the other.
"I hope that troublesome nephew of mine isn't reduced to floating sushi."
One of his scouts scrambled over. "Admiral! Sighting confirmed! The Beasts Pirates' flag was flying over that wreckage!"
"Hmm… That is Jack's ship…"
With a flick of his foot, Kizaru kicked off a cannonball and turned into a golden beam of light, warping through the sky.
"I hope Jack didn't scare my dear nephew too badly," he mused mid-flight, half-smirking.
"Then again… if Bai Yu did get roughed up, maybe he'll stop making such a fool of the family."
He sighed dramatically.
"Sengoku already has to live with the shame of a straw-bale grandson. I can't spend every day cleaning up after him…"