"No kimono, no geta... and such a powerful aura. You're from the outside sea, right?"
While Karl sized up Yamato, Yamato was sizing up Karl.
Seeing Karl now back in his knight's armor, his bearing utterly unlike Wano's samurai, Yamato's tone suddenly turned excited.
Though the mask hid her true face, her expression had to be brimming with excitement.
"Correct. I'm from the outside sea."
Karl nodded, then made his intent clear. "I'm here to challenge the Governor-General of the Beasts Pirates—one of the Four Emperors, Kaido."
"You're going to challenge that old geezer?"
At that, Yamato got even more excited. "Want me to help? If we fight together, we might beat that old man!"
Good grief.
With the first line, Yamato nearly filial-pietied Karl to death.
The corner of Karl's mouth twitched. He looked at her and asked, knowingly, "Your name is...?"
"You want my name?"
Yamato struck a pose that, to Karl, was comically close to Franky's.
Her tone shifted to a samurai's cadence as she introduced herself solemnly. "I am Kozuki Oden, a samurai!"
"Your real name."
Seeing her brush him off with that name, Karl grew impatient. "If you won't give it, I'm leaving."
"Wait—"
Afraid he'd bolt, Yamato hastily raised a hand to stop him. Then, without hesitation, she removed the hannya mask and the green wig, revealing her real face and hair.
A beautiful, valiant face; a mane of gradient white hair; scarlet oni horns; a statuesque beauty who looked seven or eight years older than Karl and stood seventy centimeters taller than him.
Riiip—
After taking off the mask, Yamato tore off her kimono sleeves as well, revealing arms that looked slender but could kill with a punch, and a glimpse of a very well-endowed figure at her side.
Casting off the disguise, Yamato drew the kanabō from her back, hefted it onto her shoulder, grinned at Karl, and introduced herself properly. "I'm Kaido's son—Yamato!"
"I'm Karl."
Satisfied, Karl nodded and gave his name in earnest.
"Karl, you're the first outsider I've met besides that old man's underlings."
Eyes full of anticipation, Yamato stated why she'd appeared before him. "Can you take me to sea? I want to board your ship and see the world outside!"
"With your strength, leaving here should be easy, no?"
Aside from a strong impression of Yamato, Karl had clearly forgotten a few small details.
"I could, I could—but I can't leave..."
Yamato lifted both hands to show the cuffs at her wrists. "Because of these, I've lost my freedom. If I leave, they'll explode. I've been imprisoned on this island for over ten years!"
Karl's expression only grew stranger. "If so, why not just take them off?"
He could tell that Yamato's power was among the strongest he'd seen for someone her age.
Just two weeks earlier she'd celebrated her birthday—twenty-three now, and the strongest among those around twenty in this sea, bar none.
Beaten by a Yonko from childhood to twenty-three, she had mastered the three Hakis, inherited Kaido's body arts and club technique, and ate the Animal-Animal Fruit, Mythical Model: Okuchi-no-Makami—rarer than a Logia.
Fake bomb cuffs? Real bombs or seastone, she could rip them off.
Clearly, like the Kozuki Oden she idolized, her head had been knocked a little off by Kaido in childhood.
Hearing Karl, she stared in shock. "Take them off... I can?"
Karl shot back, "Why not?"
"These cuffs stole ten years of my freedom—can they really come off so easily?" Yamato said, voice trembling.
Karl fell silent, then eyed her with a pity that said if she got serious, someone would trick her into having a kid within a year. "You want to risk the sea, but won't take off the cuffs—so what do you need me for?"
"..."
Stumped, Yamato froze.
As she stood there at a loss, Karl's lips curled, a glint of triumph flashing over his face. He seemingly changed the subject. "Can you use Conqueror's Haki coating?"
"I can... I can. Do you want to see it?"
Worthy child of a monster; that talent was plot-armor-tier.
Hearing her answer, Karl griped inwardly—and finally understood why Ace could trade blows evenly with Yamato.
It had to be that line, "We don't get to choose our fathers," that made Yamato let him go.
Just mastering Conqueror's coating makes you a New World monster.
Add in a monstrous physique and a will forged by years of Kaido's beatings—her Haki capacity and quality far exceeded the norm.
On top of that, she'd eaten the Mythical Zoan Kaido fought so hard to obtain.
At twenty-three—adult by any standard—her potential was destined for the summit of this world.
Her strength trailed only Karl's. Among the twenty-somethings, Karl had met none stronger.
A monster like that—the Pirate King's son Ace could not have fought her even at terms, age-for-age.
Of course...
Even Karl didn't know that the cuffs on Yamato's wrists weren't bombs or seastone.
Without holding back against Ace, and even having worn seastone cuffs for years after eating her fruit as a hungry kid, Yamato could still fight evenly in base form—no fruit—using Conqueror's coating.
Here, Karl was tempted.
Not by base instincts, but because he'd found a teacher who could quickly make Carina and the others stronger in Haki.
Karl himself wielded the three Hakis fluently; his Observation and Armament were at the extreme.
But among Doflamingo's gifts there had been no Haki training methods.
Busy as he'd been, Karl had forgotten to ask Doflamingo for them.
Thus—
Aside from Karl and the little white dragon, no one in Gran Tesoro knew Haki.
And though they wielded it, neither of them knew the paths of awakening and cultivation.
And he wasn't about to bring in some man to teach Carina and the girls.
Seeing Yamato now, trafficker-Karl had a sudden urge to abduct.
So he put on the same face he used with Otama and, instead of pressing the coating topic, asked meaningfully, "Do you know Sky Island?"
"Mm-hmm, I do, I do!"
Snapping from her daze, Yamato nodded again and again, pulling out a journal. "I read in this bible that Kozuki Oden, that great man, sailed the outside sea, went to all kinds of islands, met all kinds of people, saw all kinds of things... and learned how vast the world is."
"So..."
Gazing at Karl with burning eyes, Yamato said, "I want to become someone like Kozuki Oden—go to sea and witness the world's breadth."
"In that case, come with me."
Karl extended his hand in invitation. "I'm headed to wonders ordinary people can't reach. If you're willing to remove those cuffs, I'll take you aboard and we'll sail together."
"I will!"
Missing the first half and fixating on the second—
Without the slightest hesitation, Yamato's jade-pale fingers gripped a cuff.
Ryuo flowed over her hand like drifting cherry blossoms.
Crack.
With a light squeeze, she crushed the cuffs that had stolen ten years of freedom into scrap.
Tossing the shards aside, she tore off the other cuff, then gripped Karl's hand, voice trembling with excitement. "Please take care of me, Captain!"
About to leave this place for an adventure at sea, Yamato's voice quavered.
Having easily recruited another beauty, Karl suddenly disliked his own charm.
With this face, recruiting crew was zero difficulty.
"Welcome aboard, Yamato."
After that moment of vanity, Karl clenched his right fist, sheathing it in golden flowing Haki, and stated his true purpose. "Yamato, show me the power of Conqueror's coating."
"No problem."
Unlike Carina and the others.
Raised under Kaido's fists and worshiping Kozuki Oden, Yamato, who always aimed to be a manly man, had none of a woman's hesitations.
A font of valor.
Hearing her captain's first request, Yamato gripped the kanabō with both hands and wound around it that pinnacle state only a rare elite can achieve—Conqueror's Haki coating.
Zzzzz...
Like two Conqueror's auras clashing, filaments of lightning danced over the club.
"Here I come, Captain!"
Fully charged, Yamato swung the kanabō at Karl. "Raimei Hakke!"
BOOOOM—!
Seeing the blindingly fast swing wrapped in Conqueror's, Karl poured will through his body, clenched his fist sheathed in golden flowing Armament, and drove a straight punch at the club.
The fist and club never met, yet a deafening detonation tore across the shore.
Karl's face shifted. It felt like his punch struck an invisible substance, harder than any metal.
No amount of raw power or Armament could burst through—it was completely suppressed.
"Aaaaah—"
With Yamato's cry, that invisible wall of air shoved Karl back, his feet carving twin grooves through the ground.
In a contest of strength, he was forced back—a rarity for Karl's body.
Even so, he grinned, exhilarated. "An extradimensional force? That's incredible."
Just as he'd learned her footwork at a glance—
As Raimei Hakke replayed in his mind, absolute insight parsed the usage of Conqueror's coating and made it his own.
In an instant, the Haoshoku that had lagged far behind his Observation and Armament surged up and, at once, became the strongest of his three Hakis.
Having grasped Conqueror's coating, Karl did not unleash it immediately.
Given the current bind, he couldn't.
On the far side of that invisible barrier, the push only grew.
His Armament and brute force were pinned.
Rather than instant-shift away and risk being batted like a baseball, Karl poured more Armament into his fist.
Zzzzz...
All power has a limit.
Even an extradimensional Conqueror's coating.
As with Haki's capacity and quality—
The greater the capacity wrapped, the greater the might.
Conqueror's coating sits above Armament, its quality superior.
In equal techniques colliding, the weaker is shattered by the stronger.
In equal grades of Haki, the lesser is crushed by the greater.
But if the weaker can swell capacity in an instant to several times the foe's, then even if the opponent's quality is superior, you can hold the line.
Now, Karl swelled his Armament's capacity—weak against strong.
Zzzzz...
Like a Conqueror's clash.
Top-grade Armament slammed into top-grade Conqueror's coating.
The whole shore of Onigashima changed color.
Wild shockwaves roared from the invisible space between fist and club, whipping up sand and dust.
Behind Karl, the sea heaved like a storm's arrival, waves rising higher and higher.
Even the blue sky bent under Haki's pressure.
White clouds drew together as if magnetized, massing into a canopy that blotted out the sun, turning pitch-black, white lightning writhing within.
Heaven and earth changed their hues—enough to stir an uproar across warrior-filled Onigashima.
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