Kurosaki Rei froze for a moment when he saw his new "cellmate."
Considering where he was, the girl's appearance, and the way the guard had addressed her—with that odd mix of respect and restraint—Kurosaki Rei quickly arrived at an answer.
This new cellmate of his was none other than Yamato, daughter of Kaido, the Governor-General of the Beast Pirates… and the famously "filial" child of One Piece.
Kurosaki Rei hadn't studied the One Piece timeline in extreme detail, but judging from Yamato's appearance and apparent age, he felt fairly certain this wasn't the era when Luffy set out to sea. It was probably around ten years earlier.
When Luffy began his journey, Yamato was supposedly twenty-six. But the Yamato before him looked more like fifteen or sixteen—clearly underage.
"Young master, the Governor has ordered you to reflect on your actions. Please don't cause trouble here. It would be very difficult for us."
After escorting Yamato into the cell and locking the door, the guard spoke with a face full of bitterness.
Among the Beast Pirates, everyone knew just how troublesome this "young master" was. Aside from a few high-ranking officers, no one dared to say it out loud, but everyone shared the same unspoken thought—
Yamato had something wrong with her head.
She was clearly a girl, yet she insisted she was Kozuki Oden, who had been executed eight years ago—a full-blown case of idol worship frying one's brain.
And yet, she was Kaido's daughter.
The executives could more or less ignore her shouting and carry out some basic discipline, but the lower-ranking members didn't dare act rashly. After all, she was Kaido's daughter—disrespecting her just felt… terrifying.
"Hmph! I am Kozuki Oden! How could a prison like this ever hold me? Once I'm healed, I'll just smash my way out!"
As Yamato spoke, she swung her fists around.
Although she had been thrown into prison as a "prisoner," she wasn't shackled like Kurosaki Rei. Only her wrists were bound by Sea-Prism Stone cuffs, and the chain between them wasn't connected, so her freedom of movement wasn't really affected.
Hearing this, the guard could only force a bitter smile and chose not to argue with her. He knew all too well that the Beast Pirates' "young master" was seriously unwell and impossible to reason with.
So he turned around and left, not sparing Kurosaki Rei so much as a glance.
In his impression, Kurosaki Rei wasn't very strong, and with Sea-Prism Stone shackles on him, there was no way he could threaten the powerful Young Master Yamato.
The reason Yamato was assigned to this cell was simple: Udon Prison was full. This was the room with the fewest occupants, and it had even been cleaned not too long ago—relatively speaking, it was one of the cleaner cells.
Besides, based on their understanding of Young Master Yamato, she'd probably escape in a few days anyway, then go challenge her father again. In short, she wouldn't be staying in Udon Prison for long.
As for "labor reform"—that was Kaido's order, sure, but they couldn't control Yamato even if they wanted to.
In Udon Prison, only Queen the Plague, one of the All-Stars who occasionally came by, could truly keep Yamato in check. Even the Headliners didn't dare be too heavy-handed with her.
After the guard left, shaking his head and sighing, Yamato glanced around the cell and then casually sat down not far from Kurosaki Rei, showing no concern for the filthy ground.
Kurosaki Rei looked at Yamato beside him, feeling a headache coming on.
Why did he always end up assigned to problematic roommates?
Aizen Sōsuke had liked hiding his strength, but in daily life he was still a reliable and perfectly normal roommate. Yamato, on the other hand, was a full-on lunatic.
When Kurosaki Rei had been catching up on the manga in the space and reached the Wano arc, he had seriously suspected that Kaido hadn't been defeated by Luffy at all—but had instead been driven to death by his own filial daughter.
"Are you a samurai?"
At this moment, Yamato's gaze lingered on Kurosaki Rei's hands as she asked curiously, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Why do you ask?"
Kurosaki Rei replied, puzzled. He noticed Yamato leaning closer, which once again made him marvel at how strange height standards were in this world.
When he was young, reading the manga his master collected, he had thought the exaggerated physiques were simply an artistic choice to emphasize character traits.
But after actually arriving in this world, he realized that people here really were tall. Two- to three-meter-tall figures were everywhere. On the flip side, some creatures and people were extremely small.
As the daughter of Kaido—the so-called "strongest creature on the surface"—Yamato was naturally tall and well-built. Combined with her slender female frame, she appeared even taller.
Sitting beside Kurosaki Rei, she easily towered over him by more than a head, looking down at him from above.
"You've got a lot of calluses on your hands. I've seen hands like that before—samurai who are good with swords."
Yamato leaned in excitedly.
"So you're a samurai of Wano too, right?"
Kurosaki Rei glanced at his hands.
The space was a mysterious place. Even though his body had been enhanced and healed, certain traits left behind by years of martial training hadn't been erased.
For example, the calluses on his hands.
Though they weren't just from using blades—he had trained with all kinds of weapons in his younger days. Swords were among his specialties. It was just that after obtaining a Zanpakutō in the Bleach world, he'd mainly used a blade ever since.
"No. I'm just a traveler passing through Wano."
Kurosaki Rei answered. Since they were cellmates now, he could only accept the situation and see whether Yamato was capable of a normal conversation.
"Passing through Wano?"
Yamato froze for a moment, then her eyes lit up.
"Oh! I remember now—you're that Oni Slayer who tried to assassinate Kaido a few days ago! So you really are from outside!?"
She showed zero sense of distance, leaning in with an excited grin.
"That's great! I didn't expect to meet someone like you here. I'm Kozuki Oden. We share the same goal—let's work together and defeat Kaido!"
Kurosaki Rei was left speechless.
Honestly, even in his own era, it was rare for children to call their parents by name. Yamato wasn't just doing that—she didn't seem to regard Kaido as her father at all.
Seeing someone who had tried to assassinate her father, she was more enthusiastic than if she'd actually seen him, boldly declaring that they should work together to beat Kaido…
Kurosaki Rei liked challenging strong opponents, but he didn't enjoy courting death. He didn't have Luffy's protagonist halo—did she really think Kaido would let him keep "getting back up" forever?
The fact that Kurosaki Rei was still alive now was part of his identity setup. In reality, if Kaido spared everyone who challenged him out of admiration, he'd have been annoyed to death long ago.
If Kurosaki Rei escaped and challenged Kaido again, he'd most likely be beaten to death outright, not conveniently "smashed into enlightenment."
So he had absolutely no intention of provoking Kaido again.
His plan was simple: honestly learn the three types of Haki in Udon Prison, then find an opportunity to leave Wano and begin his real adventure.
After all, even without a main quest, this world still had side quests. If handled properly, the rewards could be substantial.
[Side Quest: Fruit Hunter]
Objective:
Kill Devil Fruit users who appear in the original story. While collecting world exploration progress, you will obtain generous rewards.
Difficulty: Easy ~ Certain Death
Reward: Limited Devil Fruit Chest
Failure Penalty: None
[Note: This quest will be settled after returning. Rewards are granted only once. The Pioneer may choose which of the defeated targets to use for settlement.]
Kurosaki Rei checked the details of the Limited Devil Fruit Chest, and it turned out to be different from what he'd initially imagined.
It wouldn't necessarily give him the Devil Fruit owned by the person he killed.
Instead, it would grant a Devil Fruit of the same category.
For example, even if he somehow killed Akainu, opening the chest wouldn't guarantee the Magma-Magma Fruit. It might just as well give him the utterly unimpressive Flame-Flame Fruit.
This kind of limited chest had both pros and cons.
The upside was that it was awarded during the final settlement by the space. That meant it could produce any Devil Fruit of the same category, even one currently possessed by someone still alive in the One Piece world.
In other words, the upper limit was extremely high.
Using Akainu again as an example: he might get the Flame-Flame Fruit—or he might get some unknown Mythical Zoan with fire abilities.
Of course, the space wasn't that cruel. There was an additional note: the stronger the target you kill relative to yourself, the higher the chance of obtaining a top-tier Devil Fruit.
To put it simply, if he went to the East Blue right now and killed Buggy the Clown, the Devil Fruit he got would probably be trash.
But if he somehow killed Kaido, the fruit he obtained might be even more monstrous than the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Azure Dragon.
"What's your name? Why did you stop talking?"
Yamato asked when she noticed Kurosaki Rei had gone quiet.
Kurosaki Rei came back to his senses—and suddenly realized something.
Right in front of him was a very decent Devil Fruit.
Yamato's Devil Fruit was the Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Okuchi-no-Makami Model.
Even Kaido, who had seen countless rare powers, had personally described it as an extremely rare and precious Devil Fruit—a Mythical Zoan, and one tied to the legendary guardian deity of Wano.
"My name is Kurosaki Rei. I'm from the distant East Blue."
Kurosaki Rei said. This, too, was part of his identity setup—likely tailored to match his origins from an eastern great nation.
As he spoke, he activated a reconnaissance-type skill and checked Yamato's stats. After seeing them, he could only mutter inwardly—damn.
[Beast Pirates · Yamato]
Constitution: 60Strength: 35 (Weakened)Agility: 35 (Weakened)Spirit: 50Charm: 50
Negative Status · Weakened:
Due to low-purity Sea-Prism Stone cuffs on her wrists, Yamato is cursed by the power of the sea, entering a weakened state and unable to use her Devil Fruit abilities.
That was all he could see.
Because Yamato's Spirit stat suppressed his own, he could only view limited attributes, along with this very obvious debuff.
When reading the original story, Kurosaki Rei had always wondered what kind of handcuffs Yamato was wearing.
At first, he'd thought they were ordinary cuffs, which was why Luffy could use Ryuo to remove them—pure Sea-Prism Stone was extremely hard and difficult to break directly with Haki.
But Yamato hadn't used her Devil Fruit abilities before the cuffs were removed, which led some to speculate that they were Sea-Prism Stone cuffs.
Now Kurosaki Rei knew the answer.
They were a specialty of Wano: low-purity Sea-Prism Stone cuffs.
Because of the low purity, they were easier to process and modify. Explosives and a range-detection device had been installed inside—if Yamato left Wano's territory, they would detonate.
But precisely because of the low purity, their durability was limited. They were easier to break, and their suppressive effect on Devil Fruit users was far weaker.
Kurosaki Rei estimated that once the cuffs were removed, Yamato's main combat stats—aside from Constitution—probably wouldn't exceed 50.
To be honest, he felt she was… a bit weak.
When he'd first seen Yamato appear in the original story, she was already at least commander-level, arguably the second-strongest in the Beast Pirates.
But the sixteen-year-old Yamato before him was quite ordinary in terms of strength. Perhaps she hadn't trained much when she was younger, and only started attending Kaido's "cram school" after her body fully matured.
In any case, judging by Yamato's current displayed strength—and the fact that she was still restricted by Sea-Prism Stone—Kurosaki Rei felt that if he truly wanted to kill her, it was theoretically possible.
Of course, he had no reason to do so.
And besides, if he killed Yamato in Wano, there was no way he'd be leaving this country alive.
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