Watching Yamato stand there dumbfounded, Kaido on Onigashima slapped his thigh repeatedly, unable to hide the grin on his face.
He was just too uneducated—otherwise, at this moment, he would at least have added a heartfelt: "Brilliant!"
Kurosaki Rei had dug a pit and let Yamato jump into it herself. Her own logic had now contradicted itself completely, forcing her to think about what was right and what was wrong.
In the previous question, she had clearly arrived at a firm conclusion on her own:
forcibly taking someone else's wife and making her do things against her will was despicable behavior.
Following that simple line of reasoning, Kozuki Oden abducting civilian women, engaging in nightly group sex and rape—on top of doing it in a sacred place like a temple—could no longer be described as merely "despicable."
That was downright beastly.
As this realization struck her, Yamato's body trembled. She suddenly snapped back to awareness and stared at Kurosaki Rei in fear, backing away repeatedly.
"No… something's wrong. There has to be something wrong. Let me think again—let me think!"
As she spoke, Yamato retreated to the wall, sat down, hugged her knees, and curled up into a completely shut-down posture.
Looking at Yamato like this, Kurosaki Rei couldn't help but smile. He quickly raised a hand to touch his face, forcing the smile away.
This isn't good, he thought.
I don't think I'm particularly scheming… so why does watching Yamato get talked into shutting down feel kind of fun?
At the same time, on the other side of the screen, Kaido burst into uninhibited laughter.
"I like this kid!"
After being driven mad by his daughter for so many years, this was the first time Kaido had ever seen Yamato get completely shut down.
Sure, he could make Yamato "lose" physically—beating her with a club, starving her—but none of that ever made her yield in her inner world.
Did he want to see her weak from hunger?
Did he want to see her bleeding after getting beaten senseless?
No.
What he wanted was to see her admit she was wrong.
Of course, Yamato hadn't admitted that yet—but seeing her question her life and curl up in self-doubt was already deeply satisfying.
Kaido was liking Kurosaki Rei more and more.
Even though the kid called himself an Oni Slayer and seemed inherently opposed to the Oni race, none of that really mattered.
Kurosaki Rei was an outsider—a traveler. The "oni" he'd slain before clearly weren't the same as Kaido's Oni race. It was just a self-given title.
In fact, as far as Kaido knew, there were only two Oni left in the world: himself and Yamato.
If he could rope Kurosaki Rei into the Beast Pirates and have him educate Yamato every day, Kaido was confident that within two years, Yamato would become a qualified successor.
"Someone who can make Young Master Yamato eat dirt like this is really rare,"
Black Maria said with a smile, subtly flattering Kaido.
"If you ask me, sending her to Udon Prison this time was truly a masterstroke."
After all, it had been Kaido's order to send Yamato to "reform through labor."
Of course, Kaido hadn't originally expected Yamato to reform—this wasn't the first time he'd thrown her into Udon Prison.
"Hm… let them stay together a while longer. But don't make it too obvious. Starting tomorrow, have them work alongside the other prisoners."
After a brief moment of thought, Kaido gave the order. He felt that maintaining a "natural" state was best for now.
If it was too obvious that they were being favored, Yamato would grow suspicious.
Yes—despite acting like a lunatic who called herself Kozuki Oden, Yamato wasn't stupid. On the contrary, she was quite sensitive.
Another morning arrived.
Kurosaki Rei stretched lazily, just about to start training his Haki, when a guard walked up to their cell.
"Kurosaki Rei. Young Master Yamato. Starting today, you're going to the mines."
After opening the door, the guard spoke, his gaze lingering on Yamato.
"Lord Queen is at Udon Prison today. Young Master Yamato, it'd be best if you don't think about escaping."
To be honest, some of the Beast Pirates' lower-level rules were pretty sloppy.
Kaido ordering Yamato into prison wasn't a rare occurrence.
And every time, Yamato would escape. As long as she didn't immediately go challenge Kaido again, everyone would collectively pretend they'd forgotten—some kind of unspoken understanding among the higher-ups.
But this time, Kaido had explicitly said he wanted Yamato to stay in Udon Prison for a few days.
That meant the underlings had to take it seriously.
Queen, one of the Lead Performers who normally didn't stay at Udon Prison, had arrived that very morning riding a boar-drawn cart—specifically to keep an eye on Yamato.
Yamato wasn't stupid. She knew she had no chance of escaping under a Lead Performer's watch, so she'd behave a little better.
And with Queen's status, even if he disciplined Yamato, Kaido wouldn't say a word.
"That damn Kaido… we have to start working today?"
Yamato cursed her father on reflex.
"But my injuries are mostly healed. What about you, Rei-bro?"
"My injuries are fine. Mining's no big deal."
Kurosaki Rei wasn't surprised at all. He'd never expected to rest in the cell forever. Mining was just mining—he could treat it as daily physical training.
In fact, if you were strong, life in Udon Prison wasn't that bad.
Kaido believed in strength above all else—even in working more to earn more. The more you mined, the more ration tickets you got.
You could eat your fill, and if you had leftovers, you could even secretly give them to others—as long as the guards didn't catch you.
As they walked out of the prison, this was the first time since arriving in the One Piece world that Kurosaki Rei had seen the sun—on his fourth day there.
He noticed that most prisoners in Udon Prison didn't wear shackles. Their strength was average and easy to control, and shackling them would reduce labor efficiency.
In the quarry, prisoners moved in groups, entering the tunnels under guard supervision and beginning their day's grueling work.
"Hey, brat! What are you looking around for!? Get to work already!"
While Kurosaki Rei was observing the environment and thinking about future escape routes, a alpaca-headed ability user walked up to him, spraying saliva everywhere as he spoke.
Thanks to his Observation Haki training, Kurosaki Rei quickly dodged, avoiding the disgusting spit.
He recognized the man—a Gifters, someone who had eaten a SMILE fruit. Parts of his body had permanently turned animal-like, leaving him a grotesque hybrid.
Some Gifters looked okay, even cute—but the alpaca man in front of him was downright revolting, especially with that foul spray of saliva.
"You dare dodge!? Get back to work!"
Angered, the alpaca man raised his whip and lashed out.
But the whip never landed.
Before it could fully accelerate, a pale hand caught it.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on my friend!"
Yamato's furious voice rang out. With a flick of her arm, she sent both whip and alpaca man flying, slamming him to the ground.
The alpaca man was about to curse, but when he looked up and saw it was Yamato, he swallowed his words.
Scrambling to his feet, he pointed in a direction.
"Y-Young Master Yamato… that section of the mine is easier to work."
The small commotion didn't attract much attention. Nearby prisoners and guards barely glanced over—clearly, Yamato causing trouble here wasn't anything new.
"Come on, Rei-bro. He said that mine's easier to dig. We should work harder—Udon's red bean dumpling soup is really good!"
Yamato grabbed Kurosaki Rei's hand and pulled him toward the mine. As a frequent visitor, she treated this place like home.
Sometimes, when she was hiding around Onigashima, too hungry to go beg Kaido or the other officers for food, she'd deliberately challenge Kaido, get beaten, and be thrown into Udon Prison.
As long as she worked hard there, she could eat her fill.
Once she'd recovered, grown stronger, and healed up—she'd break out and go cause trouble again.
Letting Yamato drag him along, Kurosaki Rei didn't resist. Instead, he carefully observed the prisoners in the quarry.
After watching for a while, he realized he might have overestimated the average level of the New World.
Most of the prisoners were samurai who had followed Kozuki Oden and lost the war against Kaido. In theory, those who could fight in such a war shouldn't be weak.
Yet from what Kurosaki Rei saw, their overall stats hovered around twenty points—some were even under ten, basically at normal human levels.
Only then did it click.
Even in the New World, where strong fighters were said to be everywhere, talent still mattered. Not everyone could become a top-tier powerhouse.
These people—like most of the Beast Pirates' low-level members—were just cannon fodder, padding the numbers in war.
They might bully civilians just fine, but against real powerhouses, a single burst of Conqueror's Haki would drop them all.
That was exactly how it went in the original story. The Beast Pirates had massive numbers, but in real battles, only officers above the Headliner level truly mattered.
Luffy's Straw Hat Grand Fleet boasted five or six thousand men, but the real fighters were only those on his ship—matched directly against the Beast Pirates' officers.
In the end, this world was still ruled by top-tier combat power. No matter how many grunts you had, they couldn't decide the outcome of a war.
Kurosaki Rei picked up a pickaxe and started mining. Yamato worked even harder than him, her movements practiced and professional—clearly not her first time here.
"Yamato, thanks for helping me out just now."
Mining was monotonous work, but it didn't stop Kurosaki Rei from chatting with her. After what had just happened, he'd found another opening.
"We're friends, of course I'll protect my friends."
Yamato replied with a bright, carefree smile.
"I appreciate that," Kurosaki Rei said.
"But have you ever thought about this—given my strength, I could've grabbed the whip and taken him down myself. If you hadn't stepped in and I did it instead, what do you think would've happened?"
He was testing her.
Yamato instinctively frowned as soon as she heard a question from Kurosaki Rei—experience told her there was probably a trap somewhere.
But after thinking it over, she didn't see an issue and answered honestly:
"I've seen prisoners resist guards before. Usually, more wardens gang up on them. But don't worry—if that happened, I'd help you fight too."
Kurosaki Rei shook his head.
"Yamato, you missed the core issue. You just said it yourself—if I resisted, it would draw more guards, maybe even a Headliner or Queen himself."
"But when you knocked that alpaca guy down… nothing happened."
Yamato froze.
A bad feeling rose in her chest. After the past few days, she'd learned to recognize the signs—Kurosaki Rei was about to say something that would once again shatter her identity as Kozuki Oden.
"Rei-bro… what are you trying to say?"
She hesitated, but still asked.
Kurosaki Rei stopped swinging his pickaxe and looked straight into Yamato's eyes.
That gaze made Yamato uneasy—
And on Onigashima, watching the live feed, it made Kaido positively thrilled.
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