"Rei-bro, you're amazing! You learned Ryuo so fast. I thought I was already considered quick back then."
After getting back on her feet, Yamato looked at Kurosaki Rei with open admiration.
Kurosaki Rei grew curious and asked, "How old were you when you learned Ryuo? And how did you learn it?"
Yamato tilted her head and thought for a few seconds.
"Let me see… probably around eleven? Back then I suddenly felt like I'd grown a lot taller, and much stronger too. So I decided to uphold Kozuki Oden's will and defeat Kaido. Sadly, I was still too weak at the time and couldn't do it. After fighting him for quite a while, I got knocked out. When I woke up, I knew Ryuo."
Kurosaki Rei's expression turned strange.
He had just heard Yamato casually mention fighting Kaido to a stalemate—and she was eleven at the time.
What level was Yamato back then? And what level was Kaido?
She'd actually managed to "fight him for quite a while," and somehow didn't find that strange at all?
Kurosaki Rei was dying to complain: Teacher Kaido… he really did it, I'm in tears.
"Did your father teach you Ryuo?"
Kurosaki Rei couldn't help asking. During their conversation, Yamato had already acknowledged Kaido as her father.
Yamato shook her head vigorously.
"Of course not! That hateful Kaido only wanted to kill me. He just couldn't do it, because Kozuki Oden was watching over me."
Kurosaki Rei's expression grew even more bizarre.
"Then how did you learn Ryuo?"
Yamato answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world:
"Because I'm Kozuki Oden, of course. I'm Wano's hope—naturally I can learn Ryuo."
Kurosaki Rei pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let me ask you something. When Kaido 'fought you for quite a while,' did he use Ryuo?"
"Yes, he did. He was basically using Ryuo the whole time."
Yamato grew indignant as she spoke.
"I'd only just learned Armament Haki back then. That bastard was obviously trying to show off a higher-level power to mock how weak I was!"
"…Wow."
Kurosaki Rei was dumbfounded. He truly hadn't expected Yamato's thought process to be this… unique.
If he tried to put himself in Kaido's shoes, he felt like he'd be driven mad by her.
What an iron man with a soft heart. Kaido might never say it out loud, but he clearly cared deeply for his daughter. His kid comes trying to kill him, and he still tolerates it—and even teaches her Haki in the middle of the fight.
Thunder Bagua, Ryuo, Conqueror's coating—not a single lesson skipped.
"Yamato, you said earlier that you also know how to use Conqueror's Haki coating. How did you learn that?"
Kurosaki Rei couldn't help asking again.
Yamato thought for a moment.
"Hmm… probably about a year ago. I felt my strength had improved a lot again, thanks to Kozuki Oden's blessing. So I went to defeat Kaido and open Wano's borders. Unfortunately, even though we fought fiercely for dozens of minutes, I still got knocked out in the end. When I woke up, I knew how to use Conqueror's coating. All thanks to Kozuki Oden's protection."
Kurosaki Rei felt that if Kaido were standing here listening to this, he'd probably vomit blood on the spot.
At this point, Kozuki Oden sounded less like a historical figure and more like the user of some kind of possession Devil Fruit.
"Let me ask—during that fight, did Kaido use Conqueror's coating too?"
Kurosaki Rei pressed on.
Mentioning this made Yamato furious.
"Of course he did! I'm his own daughter, you know! But when he swings that club, he shows zero mercy. He coated it with Conqueror's Haki and smashed it straight at my head with Thunder Bagua—he totally looked like he wanted to kill me!"
Kurosaki Rei's mouth fell open.
You do realize he's your father, right? And you still insist on killing him?
Let's be real—if Kaido truly wanted you dead, would you just be unconscious after that swing?
What's your level, and what's Kaido's level? And you still managed to "fight him fiercely for dozens of minutes"?
Teacher Kaido… he really did it. I'm in tears.
"I've heard of Thunder Bagua—it's Kaido's signature move, right? Can you use it too?"
Kurosaki Rei asked.
Yamato nodded.
"Of course I can. What's so hard about that? After getting hit by Thunder Bagua so many times, even an idiot would learn it."
"And not thanks to your Oden-oppa's blessing?"
Kurosaki Rei teased.
Yamato looked at him, puzzled.
"What's an oppa?"
"Oh, don't mind it. It just means 'idol.'"
Kurosaki Rei realized he'd slipped out of character.
Yamato didn't press further, treating it as another strange term from the outside world.
"Of course not. Thunder Bagua isn't Kozuki Oden's move. I learned it myself. That bastard probably never imagined that not only would I survive, but I'd also learn his ultimate technique."
She grinned with satisfaction.
"Just imagining the look on his face when I end him with his own move makes me feel great."
Kurosaki Rei looked at Yamato and thought: This kid is hopeless.
Living off Kaido, using Kaido's resources, learning Kaido's techniques—yet determined to kill her own father. Everything Kaido does is wrong, everything he does to her is an attempt to kill her, and the only reason she's alive is thanks to the spirit of "Heroic Good Man" Kozuki Oden.
In Kurosaki Rei's view, Yamato ending up like this couldn't just be blamed on witnessing Oden's execution, reading his journal, and getting brainwashed by the Akazaya samurai.
The real problem was that Kaido had absolutely no idea how to raise a child. This kid had issues from the very beginning.
From Kurosaki Rei's perspective, Kaido was undoubtedly a brutal tyrant and a villain—but he was also one of the better fathers in the One Piece world.
Just look at the other "famous dads":
Usopp's father, Yasopp, abandoned his young son and sick wife just to chase freedom and adventure.Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon, threw his kid into Foosha Village and barely showed his face.Sanji's father, Vinsmoke Judge, treated Sanji like trash for being a "defective product," until Sanji had to escape with his sister's help.
These fathers barely cared about their children—yet Usopp still idolized his dad, and Sanji, despite hating his father, still considered him family.
Now look at Kaido. He didn't dump Yamato on someone else—he kept her by his side, raised her well, gave her everything she needed, and even had his subordinates call her the Oni Princess.
By pirate-world standards, he was practically a model father.
And yet he ended up with a "filial daughter" like Yamato.
Kurosaki Rei finally understood why Kaido loved drinking himself into oblivion—and why he liked attempting suicide when drunk.
"By the way, you said you're shackled because you're a Devil Fruit user. What fruit did you eat?"
Kurosaki Rei asked knowingly—at this point, he was genuinely curious about Yamato's inner world.
"Oh, me? I ate the Zoan-type Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Okuchi-no-Makami Model."
Yamato said proudly.
"They say it's a guardian deity of Wano, super rare and all. But I'm Kozuki Oden, the one destined to open Wano's borders, so that makes sense."
"A Mythical Zoan… That's incredibly rare. Where did you get it?"
Kurosaki Rei asked, genuinely curious about the details.
"That was a long time ago. I remember being locked in confinement by Kaido, starving to death. Then a fruit fell down through a hole in the skylight, and I just ate it."
Yamato recalled.
"Afterward, I realized it was a Devil Fruit and gained these powers."
She laughed.
"Rei-bro, get this—Kaido came later and told me it was a rare Mythical Zoan he'd worked really hard to get. Isn't that hilarious? Such an important fruit, and he couldn't even keep an eye on it—got blown away by a storm. How stupid is that?"
She burst out laughing.
"It landed right in my cell. Obviously Kozuki Oden was protecting me—making Kaido unlucky and me lucky!"
After hearing all this, Kurosaki Rei fell completely silent, staring at Yamato like she was an idiot.
"You don't seriously believe that's what happened, do you? That the wind just happened to blow the fruit away, up into the air, right through your skylight, where it conveniently fell in front of a starving you?"
Kurosaki Rei found it unbelievable that she could accept such a coincidence without question.
And afterward, Kaido even went out of his way to explain what kind of fruit it was and how hard it had been to obtain.
Kurosaki Rei felt Kaido was kind of tsundere about it.
He wanted to give his daughter a top-tier Devil Fruit, but didn't dare hand it to her directly. After she ate it, he was still worried she wouldn't understand how valuable it was, so he personally came to explain.
Teacher Kaido… he really did it. I'm in tears.
"…Isn't that what happened?"
Yamato looked at Kurosaki Rei, confused.
"Doesn't it seem more likely that your father wanted you to eat a powerful Devil Fruit, but was afraid you'd refuse if he gave it to you directly—so he used that method instead?"
Kurosaki Rei said bluntly.
Yamato froze. This was a blind spot she'd never considered before.
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible! He wanted to kill me—why would he give me such a powerful Devil Fruit? He even said it was a waste for me to eat it."
"And yet," Kurosaki Rei said, unable to hold back, "you didn't die, did you?"
He really wanted to lecture this unfilial daughter.
It wasn't that he liked Kaido's brutal rule—far from it—but Kaido was way too wronged here.
More importantly, seeing someone with a father who clearly cared about her, yet utterly failed to cherish it, made Kurosaki Rei irrationally irritated.
As a child, he'd yearned for parental affection—but he'd never had parents. In the end, he was an abandoned infant.
Because of that, he'd always been envious of kids who had parents.
If Yamato were just someone rebelling against Kaido's tyranny without being his daughter, she'd be a straightforwardly positive character.
But she was Kaido's daughter—and that made everything awkward.
It was like the last remaining crown prince of the Qing dynasty shouting every day about overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming. If the emperor didn't kill him, that already counted as immense favoritism.
How was he supposed to show love—by letting him overthrow the dynasty?
Even if Yamato wanted to oppose Kaido's tyranny, there were far more reasonable ways to go about it. With her identity and authority, she could have improved Wano's situation directly.
If she inherited everything in the end, wouldn't she be able to liberate Wano anyway?
Why did she have to insist on killing her own father?
"I didn't die… because I'm Kozuki Oden."
Yamato replied—but paused inexplicably halfway through.
"But Kozuki Oden is already dead. He wasn't some immortal myth—he lost to Kaido."
Kurosaki Rei pressed on.
"So why do you think you, someone not even as strong as Kozuki Oden himself, could survive so many 'near-death' encounters with Kaido?"
"Or do you think you're stronger than Kozuki Oden?"
This time, Yamato was completely stunned.
Kurosaki Rei's words forced her into a logical contradiction.
Kozuki Oden was her idol—the person she aspired to become. She certainly didn't think she was stronger than him.
And yet, in reality, Kozuki Oden had indeed lost to her father. So she'd always felt it was normal that she couldn't beat Kaido yet.
But Kurosaki Rei had hit the core of the issue:
If she wasn't even as strong as Kozuki Oden, why was she still alive after challenging Kaido so many times?
After all, Kozuki Oden had challenged Kaido only once—and after losing, he'd been executed.
…Right.
Why hadn't her father executed her after knocking her unconscious all those times?
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