Yamato remained frozen, her expression a jagged mix of distress and bewilderment. The identity she had clung to like a life raft—the persona of Kozuki Oden—was being systematically dismantled by the strongest man in the world.
Whitebeard didn't press her. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the railing.
"Marco," the Old Man rumbled. "Would you like to be me? To be the father of this crew?"
Marco adjusted his glasses, a lazy but sharp smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'll pass, yoi. I don't want to be a father. It's too exhausting being as busy as you are every single day."
Whitebeard let out a soft grunt and looked toward the twin brothers standing near the mast. "Dekalban brothers. You've been together since you were in the womb. You do everything the same. Do you want to become each other?"
"I don't want to be this idiot brother!" the younger twin shouted instantly.
"Idiot brother? I'd never want to be like him!" the elder mirrored, dancing back with a mock scowl.
As the laughter of the crew rippled across the deck, Yamato's eyes flickered. A faint realization began to take root in the center of her turmoil.
Beside Ornn, Marco gave him a sharp nudge with his elbow. Ornn looked up and caught Whitebeard winking at him. The message was clear: I've set the stage. You give her the closing argument.
Ornn blinked, momentarily caught off guard. He had expected Whitebeard to play the role of the ultimate spiritual mentor before officially adopting Yamato into the crew. He had even been mentally rehearsing a grand, stirring speech—something about how a man born between heaven and earth cannot live in depression.
But Whitebeard was handing him the lead. Ornn wasn't about to be hypocritical. He stood up, walked over to Yamato, and met her firm, searching gaze.
"I've wanted to tell you this for a long time," Ornn said, his voice level and grounding. "You can worship Oden. You can learn from his qualities. But you can't abandon yourself just to become him."
Yamato opened her mouth to protest, but Ornn pressed on.
"You are you. You are Yamato. Don't be bound by the label of 'Kaido's daughter.' You didn't choose your bloodline, but you decide the path your feet take. Improve yourself. Use your own strength to break the chains, rather than fantasizing that being someone else will make the world love you."
Silence followed. Yamato didn't look away. She processed his words with a heavy, focused intensity, her chest heaving as she fought through years of self-imposed delusion. Finally, she raised her head. The confusion was gone.
"I understand, Ornn," she said, her voice resonant and steady. "From now on, I won't say I want to be Oden. I will use the name Yamato to defeat Kaido. I'll use my own strength to show that idiot father of mine exactly how wrong he is!"
"Gurararara! That's the spirit!" Whitebeard laughed, his massive palm landing on Yamato's shoulder with enough force to shake the deck. "We aren't just the children of our parents. We're the children of the sea. It's a waste of a life to trouble yourself over such trivial things."
...
The air at the banquet grew lighter after the breakthrough, but the practicalities remained. Whitebeard set down his jug and looked at the two of them with a more sober intensity.
"So," the Old Man said. "What's the next move? Kaido isn't a man who lets things go. He'll be hunting for his 'son' until he finds a trail."
Yamato instinctively turned to Ornn. Over the last month, she had grown accustomed to his quiet, orderly way of arranging the world. He always seemed to have a blueprint for the future.
"I have a question, Senior Whitebeard," Ornn began. He didn't ask why Whitebeard hadn't offered them a spot on the crew; he had no intention of joining, and Whitebeard was likely avoiding the awkwardness of a potential refusal. "If we cross the Calm Belt directly from the New World, can we reach the West Blue or the North Blue?"
In Ornn's memory of the maps from his previous life, the Grand Line was the equator and the Red Line was the meridian. Together, they divided the world into four quadrants. The New World sat adjacent to the North and West Blues.
Whitebeard gave a slow, affirmative nod. "It's possible. But few are foolish enough to try. The Calm Belt is vast, and without wind, a ship is at the mercy of whatever decides to swim up from below. Even if you're strong enough to ignore the Sea Kings, you're looking at a month of pure rowing just to reach the other side."
He paused, eye-balling the two of them. "In that time, you could sail to Fish-Man Island, reach the Twin Capes, and cross back into the four seas via Reverse Mountain."
Ornn frowned. His mental map had failed him. In the drawings he remembered, the Calm Belt looked like a narrow strip—a shortcut. But reality was denser. The maps only simplified it to save space; no one sailed the Calm Belt, so no one bothered to draw its true, grueling scale.
"I see," Ornn murmured, his mind already discarding the 'shortcut' theory.
"Boy," Whitebeard said, leaning forward. "You want to see the world?"
"If possible," Ornn replied, regained his focus. "I want to start from the beginning. Like Roger did. I want to see the four seas and the first half of the Grand Line before returning here. By then, Yamato and I will be more mature. More ready."
Yamato's eyes lit up. The idea sang to her. Oden had jumped onto Whitebeard's ship halfway through its journey; his journal was full of the New World, but the rest of the world was a mystery.
"If that's the path you want," Whitebeard said with surprising generosity, "I can help. I'll send someone to escort you to Fish-Man Island and provide a Permanent Pointer to the Twin Capes."
Ornn didn't celebrate. He stared straight at the legend. "What's the price?"
He didn't believe in unconditional kindness from a Yonko. He wasn't the 'protagonist' of some fairytale; he was a craftsman who believed in fair trade.
Whitebeard held up two fingers. "First: defeat Kaido. Help me settle the score for Oden. Second... I haven't decided yet. Consider it a favor owed. When I call, you don't refuse."
Ornn didn't hesitate. He reached out and gripped Whitebeard's massive finger. "Deal."
"Gurararara! Good! A man of the sea is only as good as his word!"
Whitebeard hoisted his wine gourd high. "Lads! Keep the party going! And someone find Jinbe—tell him I have a job for him."