While Yamato and Ace remained very thoroughly occupied inside the shogun's residence, Cain and the others finally made their way back to the Flower Capital.
Since they had traveled on foot, the journey took considerably longer.
Izo hadn't returned in far too many years. As he looked over the familiar streets and buildings, a complicated expression crossed his face.
"This place really hasn't changed at all."
Then he shook his head.
"But staying exactly the same isn't necessarily a good thing."
"Even Pops understood that every new era needs new changes and new people. Wano, though…"
Izo sighed.
"I just hope Yamato can make this country better."
Uta drifted closer.
"You're really that comfortable leaving Wano to Yamato?"
She had heard plenty about just how fanatically many people in Wano revered the Kozuki family, so Izo's attitude surprised her.
Izo shook his head.
"The Kozuki family has already passed into history."
"What I want to see now is a new Wano, not one chained forever to old traditions and decay."
"Yamato has kept in contact with the Whitebeard Pirates this entire time. She may not be an ideal leader, but there's no question that she genuinely cares about Wano."
"In some ways, even more than Lord Oden did."
Izo's expression softened.
"Yamato has always wanted to sail out to sea, but unlike Lord Oden, she never abandoned everything and left without looking back."
"She stayed."
"She chose to confront Kaido head-on."
"For that alone, I think she's earned the right to call herself Wano's shogun."
Then he put his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Besides, she and Ace are friends now."
"If she ever runs into trouble, we can always help her."
"So I'm not worried."
Cain smiled as he listened and started toward the shogun's residence.
He had barely taken two steps when several samurai moved in front of him.
"We sincerely apologize, Cain-sama."
"The shogun has ordered the entire residence sealed."
"No one is permitted to enter."
Cain stared at the heavily guarded compound.
"…It's broad daylight. What the hell are Yamato and Ace doing in there?"
He sighed and looked toward Izo.
Izo merely shrugged.
"Whether I go inside doesn't really matter. I was mostly feeling nostalgic anyway."
"Let's look around somewhere else."
"And while we're at it, we can find someone to replace the fittings on Pops' weapon."
Cain nodded.
"Works for me. I need to have two swords forged anyway, so we may as well go together."
"I want to look around too," Uta added cheerfully. "Bella can come with me."
Then an angry voice erupted from the ice sphere Uta was carrying.
"Let me out!"
"LET ME OUT!"
"That bastard is inside there! Why are we leaving?!"
The tiny sun thrashed furiously inside its frozen prison.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't an advanced Homie and couldn't transform into a proper combat form.
Even when he desperately produced flames, their strength was nowhere near Prometheus'.
Only while merged with Ace's fire could he display his full potential.
So no matter how hard he struggled, Bella's ice kept him completely trapped.
"This thing has been yelling the entire way here."
Uta casually tossed the ice sphere up and caught it.
"What an awful personality. He's nothing like Bella."
Izo nodded.
"Ace said he acts a lot like Ace did when he was little."
Cain immediately agreed.
"Yeah. Ace was an obnoxious little brat."
"Mama."
Bella floated over and looked up at Uta.
"Give this little brother to Bella. Bella will teach him how to behave."
They were both Homies, and Bella completely outclassed him, so Uta had no objection.
She handed over the frozen sphere.
Bella caught it with a small extension of cloud and spoke gently.
"Little brother, Bella understands that Uncle Ace shouldn't have knocked you out with a fart. If you feel wronged, you can tell your big sister. Big Sister can—"
"Hah?"
The tiny sun cut her off with open contempt.
"You old hag! You froze me without even asking and now you're calling yourself my big sister?"
"Just wait until I get out of here—"
Veins immediately bulged on Cain and Uta's foreheads.
Even Bella, normally the gentlest of the three, slowly hardened.
Her soft cloud body crystallized into its combat form.
"It looks like this new little brother was born with something wrong in his head."
"H-Hey, you old lady, what are you—"
Crack.
The tiny sun froze solid.
Completely.
Bella wasn't finished.
She split the ice sphere apart, grabbed the tiny sun, slapped him twice hard enough to wake him up, threw him onto the ground, then formed an ice hammer.
BAM!
"OW!"
BAM!
"WAIT!"
BAM!
"THAT HURTS!"
Bella had never been insulted this badly in her entire life.
She was only one year old!
Even Papa and Mama had never spoken to her that way.
And this little thing had called her an old hag twice in less than a minute.
The more Bella thought about it, the angrier she became.
So the hammer came down harder.
Cain and Uta watched without making any effort to intervene.
"AAAAH! IT HURTS!"
Only after the little sun had been beaten half-conscious did Cain finally walk over.
He exhaled a faint stream of hot air toward its mouth.
The moment the tiny sun sensed the intense heat, his eyes snapped open and he greedily swallowed it.
His spirit instantly returned.
His body swelled larger and larger.
He still couldn't enter a true combat form, but the surrounding temperature noticeably rose.
The little sun rolled upright and pointed triumphantly at Bella.
"Hahaha! Old woman, I'm back!"
"Take this—"
SMACK!
Cain flattened him into the ground with one palm.
Then he picked him up and tossed him back to Bella.
Crack.
The little sun was frozen solid again.
"Yep."
Cain dusted off his hands despite there being nothing on them.
"Personality hasn't improved at all."
He looked toward Bella.
"Teach him properly."
"If that doesn't work, put him out and we'll make another one who knows how to behave."
"Understood!"
Inside the ice sphere, the little sun stared in horror as Bella slowly approached.
At last, he had understood the situation.
There was not a single person here he could afford to offend.
Worst of all was the natural predator standing directly in front of him—
Bella, the ice-cloud Homie.
"No!"
"DON'T COME CLOSER!"
Crack.
Smack.
Crack.
Ice shattered again and again.
His screams, pleas, and desperate cries blended together.
Nobody helped him.
"Big Sister! Mercy! Big Sister, please!"
"Oh, so now I'm your big sister?"
Bella narrowed her eyes.
"Too late!"
BOOM!!
…
"Achoo!"
When Ace finally woke up, two days had passed.
He lay flat on his back beneath the ceiling of the shogun's residence, staring blankly upward for a long time before his mind finally caught up with reality.
His entire body felt exhausted.
He tried moving one hand.
Nothing.
Then one leg.
Eventually, some feeling returned.
He didn't even want to think too hard about what the past two days had been like.
Yamato's idea of "studying" relationships had turned into a chaotic, coercive ordeal that left Ace thoroughly drained and still struggling to process what had happened. His protests had done little to slow her down, especially while the Seastone restraints left him too weak to escape.
If Yamato hadn't already spent the entire previous night awake and exhausted herself beforehand, Ace genuinely wondered how much longer the whole disaster might have continued.
"So…"
His voice came out hoarse.
"What exactly did I…"
Before he could finish, his face disappeared into something enormous and soft.
Yamato, who was nearly half a body taller than him, had him locked tightly in her arms while sleeping peacefully.
Ace immediately stopped moving.
Not because of the Seastone.
At some point, the shackles had already been removed.
The real problem was Yamato's grip.
Every time Ace tried inching away, she followed him in her sleep and hugged him even tighter.
After several attempts, he surrendered.
He barely managed to turn his head far enough to expose one eye and breathe.
"…What the hell has my life become?"
Yamato's breathing remained slow and steady.
Her lips moved slightly, as though she were speaking to him even inside her dreams.
Then her arms tightened again.
She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and murmured,
"Ace…"
"…I like you…"
Ace froze.
His hand had been resting near Yamato's shoulder after adjusting the blanket over her.
Now it stopped completely.
His fingers trembled.
Then his entire face turned red from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears.
After everything that had happened—
somehow, those few sleepy words hit him harder than anything else.
Ace remained silent for a long time.
Eventually, he released a long breath.
His hand lowered onto Yamato's head and gently rested there.
"…Idiot."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Who does things like this?"
Ace stared at the ceiling.
The confusion in his eyes gradually settled into something clearer.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted in a helpless, resigned smile.
"I only came to Wano because I thought I should help out."
"I was going to leave the fight with Kaido to Cain."
He glanced down at the sleeping Yamato.
"But now…"
Ace sighed.
"…I think I've got a reason why I need to challenge Kaido myself."
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