A life gained at the cost of forever forgetting an important family member is nothing good.
The living still have the option of suicide, but toys are different. Under the constraints of the contract, they cannot resist and must obey orders.
They can only howl in powerless anger and humiliation within the prison of their hearts, but can do nothing except watch as their toy bodies rust, decay, and collapse.
The shattered remains of the toy underground is the final destination of all toys. The consciousness is their own, but the body is not.
They can only move toward despair, working endlessly with despair as their only goal. As toys, they cannot even surrender.
To Doflamingo, Yamato's words temporarily guaranteed his personal safety, but he was not satisfied with the situation.
Although without Dressrosa, he believed that with his abilities and that secret, he could still find a way out, but in that case, he would have absolutely no say in anything.
"I say, Miss Oni Princess, since you've already endured part of it, why not be a bit more magnanimous? Dressrosa has been built up for so many years. If I've to start over, your profits—"
The kanabo in front of his eyes caused Doflamingo to swallow his unfinished words. He was certain that if he continued, that kanabo would really smash into his face.
"Don't test the limits of my patience. And also, you're overestimating yourself. You're just a broker, someone dispensable."
In this timeline, Doflamingo was not an equal trading partner, just a subordinate broker.
In the original timeline, his artificial Devil Fruits had a monopoly. Even though their quality was questionable, they were among the few things Kaido could get his hands on.
But now things are different. Arceus had always rated them as trash. It was just that Kaido took an interest in them. After all, the Beasts Pirates had much better substitutes, so artificial fruits were completely dispensable.
Doflamingo's other value was his connections. In the original timeline, after Kaido received news of Doflamingo's defeat, he had Jack try to rescue him.
But now, Kaido had already established a connection in advance with his "big sister" Charlotte Linlin. Through their tea parties, the Beasts Pirates had also become one of the emperors of the Underworld, and Tesoro's status was in no way inferior to Doflamingo's.
Having Doflamingo was convenient, but he was by no means an irreplaceable broker. If they wanted, the Beasts Pirates could foster another broker in no time.
"And as for the losses from this incident, I'll make them up. Although I can't make money or manufacture weapons, that b*stard father only wants these things for fighting.
So I'll just become stronger and show him that it doesn't matter whether he has these things or not. That's enough."
That was Yamato's straightforward idea. She intended to compensate for the loss in quantity with a qualitative change in herself, and she was right about Kaido's thinking. If trading Doflamingo meant Yamato's growth, Kaido wouldn't care at all about Doflamingo's fate.
Yamato was about to switch into Dark Mode, but suddenly noticed that Zekrom's electricity had stopped rumbling. In the next instant, her mind returned to the Dragon Dimension in her heart.
"Zekrom? What's wrong? Why has your power disappeared?"
"Don't get the wrong idea, it's just that there's someone annoying who wants to have a chat with you."
With that, Zekrom's figure slowly faded, leaving only Reshiram behind.
"Are you really ready to face what you've been running from?"
All these years, Yamato's attitude toward Kaido had been very clear: she was running away. Even after gaining more power, she didn't want to face the trouble that was Kaido.
This could be called a shadow of her childhood.
An elephant trainer, when the elephant is still young, ties it to a post with an iron chain.
Because its strength is not yet fully grown, no matter how much the baby elephant struggles, it can't break free from the chain. Eventually, it gets used to it and stops struggling, even after it becomes a giant.
At this point, it could easily break free from the chain, but the elephant still habitually remains restrained by it, because in its ingrained way of thinking, it still believes that breaking free from the chain is forever impossible.
Kaido is just such a chain. Kaido has also been constantly growing stronger during this time. Whenever Yamato makes a breakthrough, Kaido reveals even greater power. Over time, she developed the instinct to avoid Kaido altogether.
"Yes! Running away can't solve the problem. Doflamingo is just a pirate, but there are countless pirates like him on the sea."
"People have different kinds of happiness. The changes of the world and the times are not something one person can decide, and you don't have the ability to solve everyone's conflicts."
"I know, but stopping just because it's difficult isn't right. If something is beyond my ability, I can't do it, but how can I just keep ignoring the matters right in front of me."
"I've always disliked this kind of thing, but Father will never change his way of thinking. Even if he overturns the current seas, he still won't change; battle is engraved in his bones.
At the very least, when everything settles, the Beasts Pirates will need to change the way they exist, or they'll become the biggest danger.
Dad isn't interested in these matters. Most of the time, he just lets Father run wild and only adds a few extra rules."
She thought of the other Wano Country. Without Arceus, if Kaido were left to his own devices, he'd probably do things even worse than Doflamingo.
The Wano Country over there is a living example. Even here, after screening and management under the Beasts Pirates' rules, they're still a bunch of hotheads, let alone without any management at all.
"Only by defeating Father can change happen. I don't want to run away anymore. Only by fighting head-on can I defend my ideals!"
After saying that, she felt something was off. It seemed she'd just voiced the black dragon's favorite thing in front of the white dragon.
"It's all right. What I oppose isn't ideals, but Zekrom's purely idealistic ideals. He's so idealistic he's never considered reality, and such ideals are meaningless.
Desire is endless. No matter how much you give, pure ideals will only end in ruin.
Truth will never be beautiful. Beneath the splendor you see, there is always a thorny path.
It's also necessary to overcome your wishful thinking and do things against your will considering the actual situation.
"A kingdom built steadily on solid ground is a real kingdom, not just an attractive empty shell."
[That's still much better than your so-called Truth. If you always yield to reality, you might as well throw away your goals and be a puppet.
If you always meekly accept everything, give up resistance, and never fight back, then of course there won't be any emptiness.]
Zekrom didn't speak. The last time he acknowledged Yamato, Reshiram hadn't interrupted either, but that didn't stop Zekrom from preparing his own retort in his heart.
"Ideals can avoid difficulties, because in an idealized situation, you have countless paths. But that isn't Truth, as not every difficulty can be avoided.
Sometimes there's only one path. Only when you dare to face difficulties and fears head-on, when you stop running away and are prepared to confront them directly, can you achieve your goal.
Since you're ready for that, then go, face difficulties with courage, and burn the thorns before you with the fire of Truth!"
In the outside world, Yamato's body also underwent changes, but it was not the sharp angular black armor. Her ability had been gradually shifting toward scaly armor transformation, but now it reverted to the soft fur-like form.
The fur on her body lengthened slightly, and a pair of broad wings, like those of a bird, appeared on her shoulders, with blazing flames burning at the front edges of the wings.
The claws on her fingers and feet grew even sharper, and the barbs at her elbows became more pronounced.
Flames burned fiercely around her tail as well, but the helmet from Zekrom's Dark Mode did not appear.
Instead, a flame-shaped V-shaped crown floated above her head.
White Mode was born.
****Please support on pat*eon for extra chapters; there is date to date subscription enabled on patreon. [There is a 7-day trial version availabe on patreon.]
https://www.pat*eon.com/dmtranslations
You can read ahead upto 75 chapters on my pa*reon.