"Or is it becoming like you—forgetting who your own father is, then using the martial skills your father taught you to try to kill him?"
Ron's voice was low and serious. Every word was like a sharp sword stabbing straight into Yamato's heart.
"Or stealing your father's precious Devil Fruit? And you even planned to join forces with outsiders to kill Kaido? Ridiculous."
Ron's words came one after another like a barrage, catching Yamato somewhat off guard.
Yamato's pupils shrank slightly, and panic flashed through her once-firm eyes.
Her hand tightened unconsciously around her kanabo, her knuckles turning pale from the force.
"How… how does he know? That's impossible! There's no way an outsider could know…"
It was as if Ron's words had struck something inside her heart, causing ripples to spread through it.
Ron slowly straightened. Under the sunlight, his figure appeared even taller and more upright.
He turned and looked out the window at the bustling reconstruction outside, taking in the busy and orderly scene.
Sunlight passed through the window lattice and cast mottled shadows across his sharp side profile, adding a mysterious aura to him.
"Look outside, Yamato."
His voice suddenly became icy cold, as if it had come from the depths of winter.
"Stop living inside your pathetic fantasy."
As Ron's words fell, the temperature inside the hall seemed to drop sharply.
A chill seemed to surge in from every direction, making Yamato tremble.
She stood there blankly, staring at Ron's back, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
The atmosphere was already as heavy as dark clouds about to collapse, so oppressive that it was almost impossible to breathe.
Ron slowly turned around. In the interweaving of light and shadow, his figure seemed to gain an invisible majesty.
In those eyes, deep as the sea, the once-calm surface now stirred with faint ripples.
A sharp light flashed through them like a meteor suddenly crossing the night sky—brief, yet enough to make one's heart tremble.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at her with a burning gaze.
"A fool like you, who forgets your roots, wants to kill your own father just because of some broken diary—"
By the end, the mockery and contempt in his words seemed ready to set the air itself on fire.
The corner of his mouth slowly curved into a dangerous arc. His smile looked lazy, yet carried a terrifying decisiveness.
"In the past, I wouldn't even have bothered wasting words. I would have simply killed you and been done with it."
His tone was as calm as if he were stating the most ordinary fact, yet everyone present felt a chill rush toward them, as though death's scythe were already hanging above their heads.
The instant the word "killed" left his mouth, Kaido's dragon eyes suddenly contracted.
In those dark, deep eyes, a flame seemed to blaze.
A terrifying pressure erupted from his body, as if a sleeping beast was slowly awakening. That powerful aura spread outward with overwhelming force.
Tables, chairs, and benches creaked under the impact, as if they might be crushed at any moment.
Yet in the very next second, the governor-general of the Beasts forcibly suppressed his rage.
That violent aura was like a wild beast being shoved back into a cage.
Though it still raged restlessly within him, some calm returned to the surface.
Ron seemed completely unaware of the storm-like fury behind him.
He remained calm and composed, continuing in a voice so steady it was frightening.
"Words, history, records…"
As he spoke, his long fingers lightly tapped against the window frame.
The rhythm was unhurried, yet each tap seemed to strike everyone's nerves, making them tighten unconsciously.
"They are merely vessels for other people's thoughts. They are the 'truth' that victors want later generations to see."
After saying this, he slowly walked toward Yamato.
Each step was steady and firm, as though he were not walking across an ordinary floor, but along a path leading to truth.
As he moved, the air seemed to grow even heavier.
When he was only one step away from Yamato, he stopped and lowered his head slightly, looking down at the trembling girl.
There was not the slightest pity in his eyes—only determination to wake her from the fog.
"You're already this grown, yet you don't even have a single thought of your own?"
His voice was not loud, but it exploded beside Yamato's ears.
Yamato bit her lower lip tightly. Her lip had lost its color, turning pale and stiff.
Her fingers gripping the kanabo were white, her knuckles standing out sharply from the force.
With even a little more strength, the weapon might swing without hesitation.
Her eyes churned with complicated emotions—anger, confusion, wavering… and a trace of fear so faint it was almost impossible to notice.
Every word Ron spoke stabbed into her heart like a sharp blade, ruthlessly exposing the truth she had not dared to face for years.
The doubts and confusion she had buried deep inside now surged up like a tide, leaving her nowhere to escape.
"I…"
Her voice was hoarse beyond recognition, like wind drifting from a distant desert—dry and powerless.
Her throat seemed blocked by something.
She wanted to refute him, but in the end, no words of rebuttal came out.
Because deep in her heart, a voice was telling her that perhaps the man before her was right.
It was a voice she had always refused to acknowledge, yet could not ignore.
Like an invisible hand, it was slowly tugging at her consciousness.
The hall fell into deathly silence, a silence that seemed capable of swallowing people whole.
Only Kaido's heavy breathing echoed through the space, like an old bellows. Each breath carried helplessness.
The sunlight remained bright, pouring through the windows and scattering patches of light and shadow across the hall floor.
Yet that warm sunlight could not reach this corner shrouded in shadow, nor could it dispel the heaviness and sorrow filling the air.
Yamato lowered her head.
Her long white hair hid her expression, making it impossible to see what she looked like at that moment.
But the few drops of tears falling to the ground, like crystal pearls, exposed the collapse inside this stubborn girl's heart.
Those tears slid down her cheeks and landed on the floor, splashing faintly—the final struggle of her collapsing inner world.
"Face reality!"
Ron's voice rang out once more, breaking the silence and bringing a heavy end to this farce.
Just then, his voice suddenly rose without warning, like a thunderclap exploding through the suffocating quiet.
"Oden was a complete and utter coward!"