"Father, what a coincidence. Are you out collecting local cultural material too?" [TN: It involves recording folk songs, taking photos, observing rituals, or interviewing local people to gain a deeper understanding of a particular area's culture. Maybe she is talking about him collecting materials to gain deeper understanding of Charizard's culture. ]
Some time after leaving Charicific Island, the high-speed flying Yamato encountered Kaido as expected.
Of course, it was only Kaido who expected it. If she had her way, Yamato would've preferred him to disappear for decades. She'd definitely throw a huge banquet to celebrate it.
To avoid running into Kaido, she'd been flying at full speed without holding back, but unfortunately, it still wasn't enough.
"Worororo, it really is quite the coincidence. You've really grown over the years, it took me a lot of effort to catch up to you."
In order to catch up to Yamato, Kaido had temporarily abandoned Hydrachton. Although it was a decent mode of transport, it wasn't fast enough. When facing Yamato using Extreme Speed enhanced with lightning, its shortcomings became apparent.
Hydrachton may be massive, but it has little advantage in terms of speed, and its endurance couldn't match these two monsters, Yamato and Kaido.
Magic can only be countered by magic, and Extreme Speed can only be matched by Extreme Speed. Unless someone possesses a high-speed movement Devil Fruit like the Glint-Glint Fruit or Rumble-Rumble Fruit, there's no ordinary method of catching up to someone moving using Extreme Speed.
It's fine when facing ordinary Blessed Ones or Gifters, their Extreme Speed can't be used for long durations. At best, it's like "Soru" used for surprise attacks in battle. But Yamato's abilities had already surpassed that limit.
To successfully intercept Yamato, Kaido left a simple message for Hydrachton and began the pursuit using Extreme Speed himself.
"Is that so? Well, I just remembered that Dad was looking for me. He told me to hurry back to Onigashima, so I'll be off now. Thunder Bagua!"
Yamato laughed it off, trying to slip away. But when she used her ability again, instead of fleeing, she suddenly appeared right in front of Kaido and swung the Takeru VII down toward his head.
If Kaido could catch up with her once, he could do it again. She couldn't shake him off even from such a distance earlier. Now, with him right in front of her, escaping was even less likely.
At that moment, she cursed whoever invented the Vivre Card. That invention was basically a massive act of persecution against runaway girls.
The excuse of going back to Onigashima wouldn't work either. If Kaido had come looking, he clearly didn't have good intentions. By habit, once Kaido had the urge to fight, there was no way he would go away without a proper fight.
Since she couldn't avoid it anyway, Yamato simply decided to strike first.
According to some rumors, there was a certain Vice Admiral in the Marines named Garp who, upon encountering a tough opponent, would go punch some mountains first. Only after leveling a few peaks would he go back to face them.
Kaido's temperament these days was unstable, and he fought when he felt like it. If she could make him taste defeat, maybe he'd find a quiet place to train on his own.
She remembered Kaido had planned to seek special training from Arceus. As long as he got absorbed in that training, she could finally get some peace.
Though that might lead to bigger trouble down the line, Yamato always lived with a mindset of "deal with the present and worry about the future later." If she had to suffer either in the present or the future, she'd rather it be in the future.
Ambushes were part of fights too. From what she sensed, that last strike should've landed effectively.
She thought she had hit Kaido squarely in the head this time, but in the end, Kaido raised his weapon and blocked it.
A "loving father and filial daughter" dynamic was just their usual style. Neither Kaido nor Yamato held back in the fight. Going for the head had become Yamato's standard approach since coming of age.
Moreover, because the bug-like move "Protect" was seriously affecting their training, Yamato and Kaido had recently come to an agreement to ban the use of "Protect."
Kaido wanted to fight to his heart's content. Yamato wanted to shorten the length of their battles. If both of them used Protect, something that should take one or two days might stretch into four or five, or worse into an absurd cycle of Protect–Don't Protect–Protect.
"Not bad. Your fighting style is getting more and more flexible."
Yamato's sneak attack didn't make Kaido angry, instead, he revealed a satisfied smile. He liked brute force only because few enemies were worth ambushing. But if someone still relied solely on brute force against opponents stronger than themselves, then they were just being stupid.
In his eyes, ambushing was actually a form of progress, and he also sensed other powers.
"You're getting better at using Future Sight. Come to think of it, I really haven't checked your 'homework' in a while."
Yamato had always been somewhat unbalanced in her training — her mastery of Armament Haki was greater than that of Observation Haki, so her advancement in the latter had always been a bit slower. But the attack just now was different.
"How is that possible? I clearly saw it…"
"That's right. You did see it. But I already saw that you saw my future, so I made a few changes. You're still far from good in this area.
With your current level, it's still not enough."
When one party's Observation Haki is stronger, it creates a sort of suppression in prediction, preventing the fight from falling into an infinite prediction loop. At Yamato's current level, she couldn't yet foresee Kaido's exact actions, but she could get a general idea, and at least wasn't completely led by the nose.
"Namuji Glacier Fang!"
"Blast Breath!"
The two were already in Human-Beast form as they fought midair. When Kaido blocked her attack, Yamato responded with a close-range breath attack. Ice and fire clashed in the air, canceling each other out and generating a massive cloud of steam.
"Ice Meteor Thunder Fang!"
Gripping her kanabo with both hands, Yamato swung forward, and the steam around them was shaped under her control into a massive ice mountain, which crashed down toward Kaido below.
She knew well that this little trick wouldn't be enough to deal with Kaido. As she threw the ice mountain, the power of lightning already surged around Takeru, while she herself began gathering power.
Boom!
The falling ice mountain shattered into pieces. Kaido had burst through it from below.
"Worororo! Looks like my decision was right, after all. This is what makes you a worthy opponent, and it seems you've prepared some new tricks too."
"I told you before — this move was prepared just for you. Now enjoy it for yourself: Lord of Death Legendary Dragon Bagua!"
"Damn old man! None of your decisions are ever right! Just wait till I knock you down, then you'll get it!"
High in the air, the battle between the two only grew more intense. If Kaido weren't unable to swim, the two of them would've likely already fought their way into the deep sea.
As time went on, their fight drifted away from the original battlefield. A new island gradually came into view, and after a long flight, Hydrachton finally caught up to Kaido's location.
"Roar."
Watching Kaido and Yamato fight, Hydrachton quietly flew to the side to wait.
Although it had a combative nature, it also knew it wasn't qualified to interfere in this battle.
But during its bored wait, it saw something even more interesting. A group of pirates were desperately running in the sky.
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