Yamato quickly reached Ray's location at the mountainside.
"Hehe! Ray-san, let me reintroduce myself properly. My name is Yamato."
Hearing Yamato's words, Ray nodded once, then continued walking down the mountain without stopping.
Seeing Ray leaving, Yamato tilted her head and asked again, chasing after him.
"So... you agree to join me in defeating Kaido?"
Ray, who had already walked over ten meters away, simply responded without looking back.
"Follow me."
As these two simple words reached Yamato's ears, she smiled brightly.
"Hehe! Pleasure working with you!"
After saying this, she happily followed Ray toward the village.
...
Meanwhile, in the dilapidated Amigasa Village.
Tama and her grandfather, Tenguyama Hitetsu, were still sleeping soundly in their small house.
Cavendish had just woken up in the reinforced hut where the siblings Ulti and Page One were detained.
He had engaged in a deep conversation with Yamato late last night while guarding the prisoners.
Yamato had told Cavendish the truth about this country and her identity.
When he learned that Yamato was acting under the name of this country's former "crown prince" and mimicking a dead man, he was somewhat speechless.
'No wonder Boss Ray was unwilling to negotiate with her.'
'She really wasn't being sincere with herself.'
But upon careful consideration, the deeper meaning of Boss Ray's words should have been: 'As long as Yamato was honest and open about who she really was, he would agree to cooperate.'
This indicated that the Boss wasn't actually angry at the time, but simply wanted to test Yamato's attitude.
What exactly this "attitude" represented, Cavendish couldn't fully figure out.
But Yamato recalled a scene from the past.
It was from a few years ago when she met Ace.
When Ace parted ways with her, he had said something very similar.
"You are Yamato first, and only then the so-called Kozuki Oden."
At the time, she hadn't thought much about it.
But now, she roughly understood what Ray meant.
Even though her mind couldn't fully process everything, at least she now knew how to interact with Ray properly.
...
Cavendish was stretching luxuriously after getting out of his makeshift bed.
Following his usual daily routine, he still needed to properly wash his face and apply some light makeup.
Maintaining the image of a prince remained quite important, even in a dump like this.
But when he stepped outside, he suddenly realized the entire village barely had any drinkable water, let alone water for washing a face.
The streams were all filled with purple industrial sludge.
Using it to wash his face would damage his perfect skin instantly!
Cavendish, accustomed to a comfortable life, was deeply frustrated.
'The ruler of Wano Country, is truly trash.'
Cavendish was a prince of his own country.
Even if his father wasn't exactly a wise king, at least the entire nation didn't suffer from a lack of basic drinking water!
At this moment, he felt intense resentment toward Wano Country's ruler.
The main reason was his great fondness for Tama, that resilient little girl who had to live like this.
Secondly, this country denied him the chance to wash up and groom himself—what difference was there between that and death?!
Last night, he had even prepared a pretty dress for Tama from the ship's cargo.
He had been looking forward to playing big brother and dressing her up!
"What kind of fuckedup place is this?!" Cavendish shouted.
"Damn it! This time, I'll follow the Boss myself and overthrow this garbage country that offers its residents no way to live!"
At that moment, Ray had also arrived back in the village.
From afar, he could hear Cavendish grumbling loudly.
But seeing the guy so fired up, Ray didn't say anything.
However, if he knew Cavendish wanted to overthrow the country just because the ruler didn't provide clean water for his skincare routine, Ray would definitely think: 'That's completely unnecessary.'
'Being well-fed is far more important than grooming and dressing up, right?'
Soon, Cavendish also noticed the arrival of Ray and Yamato behind him.
Just from the atmosphere between them, he could tell the matter had definitely been resolved.
"Boss! Are you going to deal with Kaido now?" Cavendish struck a pose.
"I request permission to go kill that guy called Orochi!"
Hearing this, Ray nodded.
"Agreed."
He had no interest in Orochi, but if Cavendish could kill him, it would be a good thing for both Tama and Yamato.
...
Some time later, Frieda and the other members of the Beautiful Pirates woke up.
As it turned out, everyone was complaining about how terrible this country was.
Waking up with no water to drink, no way to brush their teeth or wash their faces—what kind of hellish life was this?
Especially the female crew members of the Beautiful Pirates, who were extremely distressed about their hygiene.
Thus, they had no choice but to send someone running back to the White Horse at the shore to fetch the limited remaining clean drinking water—at least, that was enough to cook breakfast.
After waiting for two hours with no sign of the crew member returning, Cavendish realized something was wrong.
The crew member he sent was known for his speed.
That distance should have been an easy round trip in one hour.
Clearly, something had happened.
Ray, who had been spacing out nearby under a tree, also realized the problem.
So, he released his Observation Haki, preparing to sense what was happening on the White Horse five kilometers away.
ZAP.
As the range of his Observation Haki expanded, Ray's brow furrowed slightly.
A trace of cold killing intent flickered in his golden eyes.
Ten seconds later, Yamato had the same dark expression.
She looked apologetically at Cavendish.
"I'm sorry... your crew member... is probably dead."
...
Ten minutes later.
An enraged Cavendish was sprinting through the forest toward the coast.
Upon hearing that his crew might be in trouble, all he wanted was to reach the White Horse as quickly as possible and uncover the truth.
However, before he even reached the shore, he saw the demon that had once been his nightmare.
A massive, hulking figure with tusk-like metal jaw pieces.
"Jack the Drought."
...
Flashback to earlier that morning.
Last night, Jack had received a task assigned by his elder brother, King.
[Mission: Investigate the Missing Tobi Roppo]
Thus, he woke up early this morning and headed with his crew toward the coastal area near Amigasa Village, where the incident occurred.
Shortly after sunrise, he arrived in the waters not far from the beach.
Spotting the pirate ship with a white horse-shaped figurehead, Jack immediately steered his ship closer.
As soon as they reached the shore, they encountered the pirate underling sent by Cavendish to fetch water.
After failing to extract any information through interrogation, Jack simply impaled Cavendish's underling with his massive curved blade.
Soon after, he set off with his subordinates toward the village to hunt down the rest.
…
Back to the present.
In the forest, Cavendish stared at Jack with eyes burning with fury.
Cavendish was well aware that Jack the Drought, with a bounty of 1 Billion Berries and one of the three All-Stars of the Beast Pirates, was far beyond his current ability to defeat.
But this bastard had not only nearly wiped out his pirate crew in the past, but had also killed his subordinate today.
Fueled by this double provocation, he decided to reclaim his honor.
Across from him, Jack merely looked down at Cavendish, feeling a vague sense of familiarity but unable to recall where he had seen him before.
For the three All-Stars like him, challengers like Cavendish who dared to oppose Kaido were nothing new—they had repelled or killed countless such rookies.
It was almost routine, something they dealt with daily like swatting flies.
Naturally, he paid Cavendish little mind.
"Move aside, trash," Jack grunted.
But then, Jack's expression shifted.
His eyes widened slightly behind his metal mask.
Because behind Cavendish, a woman he knew very well had appeared.
"Yamato-sama..." Jack growled.
"You are Kaido-sama son. How can you associate with such a trash pirate?"
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