Kurosaki Rei first felt the smoothness of Yamato's skin beneath her thin clothes. Soon after, he sensed her belly slowly bulging outward. Clearly, this time Yamato wasn't using Life Return to absorb the red bean soup as she drank it—she was letting it accumulate in her stomach.
As Yamato gulped it down glug glug glug, her belly swelled faster and faster, until it was practically round like a ball.
Once again, Kurosaki Rei marveled at the "elasticity" of people in this world.
Back when he first read One Piece, he wasn't surprised when Luffy ate himself into a ball—after all, Luffy was a rubber man.
But later in the manga, many other people would also instantly become fat after overeating—Kid, for example. Their bellies were just as elastic as rubber, able to expand enormously without bursting.
Of course, Kurosaki Rei felt this was also related to physique. Only the strong could have this level of elasticity. If your constitution wasn't up to standard, binge eating like this would probably still kill you.
As Kaido's daughter, Yamato's Oni lineage already gave her a powerful body. After years of growth, her physique was exceptionally solid. Even with her belly stretched into a ball, she showed no obvious discomfort.
Instead, she set the big pot down with a satisfied expression and rubbed her round belly.
"I'm kinda full now."
As soon as she finished speaking, a rip sounded.
The seam on the side of Yamato's clothes split open, then tore completely under the pressure.
But the straightforward Yamato—who identified as male—didn't care about such details at all. She was only slightly troubled.
"It's been a long time since I ate like this. My clothes are ruined. I actually liked this outfit."
As the clothes burst open, Yamato's Will of D sprang free in full force. From the side, Kurosaki Rei had a perfectly unobstructed view.
His hand shot out immediately, grabbing the edge of her clothes to hold it together.
"Finish the demonstration first. I'll fix it for you tonight."
Yamato nodded. She took a deep breath, and at that moment, Kurosaki Rei could already feel a strange rhythm begin to circulate within her body through his palm.
Then, as Yamato slowly exhaled, she deflated like a leaking balloon. Her belly gradually flattened.
Throughout the process, Kurosaki Rei closed his eyes and focused on sensing it. But honestly, relying on touch alone made the experience far too vague.
Once Yamato had completely returned to normal, she looked at him.
"Well? Did you learn it?"
Kurosaki Rei was silent for a moment. He shook his head and withdrew his hand.
"It's kind of abstract. But I feel like I vaguely grasped something. Let me try it myself first."
With that, he buried his head in food again, quickly eating until his own belly bulged.
Imitating Yamato, Kurosaki Rei took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
And then…
Nothing happened.
It was a bit awkward, but Kurosaki Rei didn't give up and kept trying.
After several failed attempts, he fell into thought.
In the original story, characters who could use Life Return never explained how they trained it. It was treated as something they could just naturally do. That was why Kurosaki Rei initially assumed it wouldn't be difficult to learn.
But now he realized that precisely because the original story never described the training process—because everyone just used it naturally—this ability was actually hard to learn.
Take Yamato, for example. She had learned Life Return purely through the power of "I just thought it should work." How was he supposed to reference that? Just think really hard and hope for the best?
Kurosaki Rei sat there trying for a while longer. His belly still didn't shrink instantly, but he noticed that mimicking Yamato's breathing and exertion did accelerate digestion somewhat. He didn't feel as bloated anymore.
"Let's get back to work first. There's no rush—I'll try again at lunch."
Kurosaki Rei stood up. Since he couldn't digest everything instantly, he obviously couldn't keep eating. He planned to do some physical training instead—and maybe "educate" Yamato a bit along the way.
"Didn't you say you were going to tell me a story?" Yamato followed after him. "Hurry up and tell it."
Her worries came quickly and left just as fast, as if she'd completely forgotten everything from before breakfast.
Kurosaki Rei naturally kept his word and smiled.
"Then I'll tell you a story about a monkey…"
Time flew by. After a full morning of labor, Kurosaki Rei and Yamato each hugged a large pot and sat on a massive rock in the quarry, ready for lunch.
"Brother Rei, hurry up! What happened after the monkey was pressed under the Five Elements Mountain?"
Yamato urged impatiently, just like a reader waving monthly tickets and begging for updates.
"Don't rush. Finish eating first, then I'll continue."
Kurosaki Rei chuckled. He'd only casually told Yamato about Journey to the West, yet she was completely hooked.
Thinking about it, it made sense. Yamato was the kind of person who could reach an emotional climax just from reading Oden's journal. Growing up in the closed-off land of Wano, she'd had very little entertainment.
And the early parts of Journey to the West were full of adventure and freedom—elements that someone her age would easily get addicted to, especially since she already yearned for adventure and freedom.
"Alright…" Yamato said, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh right—how's your Haki training coming along? When we get out, we're supposed to team up and defeat Kaido."
That was the exchange condition for hearing stories—she was supposed to help Kurosaki Rei get stronger.
"My Armament Haki—Ryuo—is already fairly proficient. Observation Haki is… average. What I really want to learn right now is your technique for eating quickly."
Kurosaki Rei replied.
His Observation Haki level wasn't low, but it was still far from the level of future sight or Observation killing he envisioned.
After mastering Ryuo, his offensive power had increased by more than one tier. Combined with turning it passive via the Origin Seed, he was a long-lasting violence machine in actual combat.
"Then try again," Yamato said. "My clothes are already ruined anyway."
She picked up the big barrel again, boldly exposing side cleavage. Kurosaki Rei felt a bit guilty looking at it, but he still placed his hand on her stomach.
If he couldn't learn it in one try, then he'd just keep trying.
As Yamato went glug glug glug again, her belly swelled once more.
Inside Udon Prison's surveillance room, veins bulged on Queen's forehead as he watched.
"They're about to drink all the red bean soup, those idiots!"
Beside him, Babanuki—the warden with an elephant head grafted onto his stomach—broke out in a cold sweat.
"Please don't be angry, Lord Queen! I've already arranged for more ingredients to be delivered. We'll definitely meet your needs!"
Everyone in Udon Prison knew that one of the Three Calamities, All-Star Queen, loved red bean soup more than anything. Anyone who dared steal his soup would meet a miserable end.
That was why even if prisoners earned large amounts of meal tickets, they rarely exchanged them for red bean soup—no one wanted to anger Queen.
At the same time, there was another person watching this scene through surveillance who was equally furious—Kaido, far away on Onigashima.
"That brat—what exactly is he doing with Yamato?!"
Kaido's expression darkened. He'd already been furious the first time he saw this in the morning. Now his rage meter was about to explode.
"Don't be so angry," Black Maria said with a smile. "Didn't Yamato say it herself? She's teaching him how to digest food quickly."
"Hmph."
Kaido snorted and said nothing more, but his displeasure was obvious.
The main issue was that he'd been sitting there watching all morning, only listening to that brat spout nonsense myths, and never once seeing the "disciplining Yamato" he'd been expecting.
Worse still, he strongly suspected that Kurosaki Rei was making those stories up. That "Bull Demon King" character felt suspiciously related to him, which made Kaido extremely unhappy.
Still, since Kurosaki Rei did seem to be gradually guiding Yamato toward something resembling normality, Kaido decided to endure it—for now.
Back in Udon Prison, Kurosaki Rei withdrew his hand and stared thoughtfully at his palm.
"Well? Did you get the trick?" Yamato asked, casually wiping her mouth with her wrist.
"I think I kind of understand," Kurosaki Rei said slowly. "That strange absorption ability doesn't work only in your stomach."
"It's like, in that instant, your entire body is absorbing the food. The stomach is just the central hub."
Yamato grabbed a flatbread. "Didn't really get it, but as long as you learned something, that's good."
Kurosaki Rei's analysis wasn't groundless.
From experiencing it twice and observing carefully, he concluded that Life Return was a full-body absorption technique.
Even in normal digestion, nutrients are processed in the stomach and then distributed throughout the body.
Life Return was simply faster and more brutal.
In that instant, every cell in Yamato's body mobilized, linking together to form invisible channels throughout her body. Those channels connected to the stomach, and in a split second, they began疯狂吸收 the food's energy.
It was as if every single cell participated in "digestion."
With that method, digestion would of course be incredibly fast. And because cells directly received nutrients, accelerated metabolism could heal injuries.
In a situation like Yamato's, where there were no injuries, each cell acted like a tiny storage unit, hoarding energy and releasing it slowly when needed.
Once the stored energy exceeded what the cells could hold, the body would undergo metamorphosis to accommodate more—using the excess energy in the process.
The final result manifested as an increase in constitution.
Since the human body naturally seeks balance, increases in constitution would also bring small gains in strength, agility, and other physical attributes.
At that point, Kurosaki Rei felt like he'd discovered the stat-grinding method of the One Piece world.
Eat.
In the original story, Luffy's stats undeniably rose as he progressed. But that increase didn't come from "killing monsters and leveling up"—it came from long-term Life Return.
After thinking it through, Kurosaki Rei recalled the sensation from earlier. He took a deep breath and tried again, attempting to mobilize his entire body to absorb the food in his stomach.
After several breaths, he still didn't succeed—but it wasn't completely ineffective. The feeling of heaviness in his stomach had eased significantly.
Kurosaki Rei's eyes lit up.
"Yamato, let me touch it again tonight. I think I'm close to getting it."
Yamato saw no issue with that at all and nodded boldly.
"If you can learn it, that's great. I'm counting on you getting stronger—so we can defeat Kaido together."
Somewhere far away on Onigashima, a certain old father watched this scene as the veins on his forehead multiplied even further.
After eating his fill, Kurosaki Rei glanced at the elderly, frail prisoners who couldn't earn enough food. Then he turned back to Yamato.
Another new question had just occurred to him.
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