Seeing Yamato stand there dumbfounded, Kaido slapped his thigh on Onigashima, unable to hide the grin on his face.
If he had been better educated, he would at least have added, "Brilliant!"
Luke had dug a pit and let Yamato jump into it herself. Her own reasoning had now become contradictory, forcing her to think about what was right and what was wrong.
And in response to the previous question, she had clearly reached her own conclusion: snatching away someone else’s wife and forcing her to do things against her will was bastardly behavior.
Following that simple logic, Kozuki Oden had abducted women, forced them into group sex night after night, and raped them in a sacred place like a temple. That could no longer be described as merely bastardly. It was downright beastly.
As Yamato followed that train of thought, her body trembled. She snapped awake and stared at Luke in alarm, backing away again and again. "No... something has to be wrong. Let me think. Let me think some more."
As she spoke, Yamato retreated to the wall, sat down, and hugged her knees, looking as though she had completely shut herself off.
Luke smiled at the sight. Then he hurriedly raised a hand, touched his face, and suppressed the smile.
He thought to himself that this was not a good look. He did not have some secretly sadistic personality, did he? So why was it so amusing to watch Yamato mentally collapse because of his words?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, Kaido burst into uninhibited laughter. "I like this kid!"
Yamato had been driving him crazy for years. This was the first time he had ever seen her get so thoroughly stumped.
Sure, he could make Yamato suffer physically—beat discipline, or making her go hungry—but none of that could make her yield in her mind.
Did he want to see Yamato too weak from hunger to move? Did he want to see his daughter bloody and battered after taking his club?
No. What he wanted was to see Yamato admit that she was wrong!
Of course, Yamato had not admitted it yet. But seeing her shut down and question her entire life was already immensely satisfying.
Kaido found Luke more and more pleasing to the eye. Luke called himself a Demon Slayer, and that seemed as though it should naturally put him at odds with Kaido’s Oni race, but none of that mattered.
Luke was an outsider, a traveler. The demons he had killed before were not the same thing as Kaido’s Oni race. He merely called himself a Demon Slayer.
In truth, the only surviving members of the Oni race in this world were Kaido and his daughter, Yamato.
He felt that if he could recruit Luke into the Beast Pirates and have him educate Yamato every day, then within two years Yamato would probably become a qualified heir.
"There really aren’t many people who can leave Yamato stumped like that. If you ask me, sending her to Udon Prison for reform this time was a brilliant move."
Black Maria indirectly flattered Kaido. After all, Kaido had been the one to order Yamato sent here for hard labor.
Of course, Kaido had not expected Yamato to turn over a new leaf. This was hardly the first time he had 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 giving it some thought, Kaido spoke. There was no hurry to recruit Luke. For now, letting things develop naturally was best.
And if things were to remain natural, the two could not receive special treatment every day. Otherwise, Yamato herself would grow suspicious.
Yes, his daughter might act like a lunatic and call herself Kozuki Oden, but she was not stupid. Quite the opposite—she was very perceptive.
…………
Another morning arrived. Luke stretched, just about to begin practicing Haki, when a guard came to their cell.
"Luke, Yamato. Starting today, you’ll be mining."
After opening the cell door, the guard focused his gaze on Yamato. "Lord Queen is at Udon Prison today. Don’t even think about breaking out."
To be honest, the lower-ranking members of the Beast Pirates thought some of the rules were awfully lax. Kaido ordering Yamato imprisoned was not exactly a rare occurrence.
But Yamato broke out every time. As long as she did not immediately go challenge Kaido again afterward, everyone simply pretended to forget about it and did not bother dragging her back to prison. It seemed to be an unspoken rule—or silent understanding—among the higher-ranking officers.
But this time, Kaido had specifically said that he wanted Yamato to remain in Udon Prison for several more days, so the underlings had to take it seriously.
Queen, one of the All-Stars who normally did not spend much time at Udon Prison, had even arrived that morning in a boar-drawn cart specifically to keep watch over Yamato.
After all, Yamato was not stupid. She knew she had no chance of escaping with an All-Star present, so she would behave herself a little more.
And given Queen’s status, even if he disciplined Yamato himself, Kaido would not say a word.
"Damn Kaido. We have to start working today...?"
Whenever Yamato had a problem, she cursed her father first. "But my injuries are mostly healed. What about yours, Luke?"
"My injuries are fine. It’s just mining—a small matter."
Luke was not surprised that they were being sent to mine. He had never expected to rest in the cell forever. Mining was mining; he could treat it as part of his daily physical training.
In fact, capable people could live quite well in Udon Prison. Kaido believed in strength above all else, and he even believed that the more one worked, the more one earned.
The more work prisoners did at Udon Prison, the more food tickets they received. At mealtimes, they could eat their fill. They could even secretly give away any unused tickets, so long as the guards did not catch them.
Luke and Yamato left the prison. On his fourth day in the world of One Piece, Luke saw this world’s sun for the first time.
Luke noticed that most Udon Prison inmates did not wear shackles. Their strength was generally mediocre and they were easy to control. If they were shackled as well, they could barely work, which would be a waste of labor.
Inside the quarry, prisoners moved in groups beneath the overseers’ watch, entering different mine tunnels to begin their work.
"Hey, brat! What are you looking around for!? Get to work!"
As Luke surveyed Udon Prison and considered how he might eventually make a reasonable escape, a Devil Fruit user with an alpaca head came up beside him, spraying saliva everywhere as he spoke.
Thanks to his Observation Haki training, Luke quickly dodged the disgusting spit.
Luke recognized him as one of the Beast Pirates’ Gifters. Having eaten an artificial Devil Fruit, part of his body had become animal-like, and he could never freely switch between animal and human forms again. He looked like a monster.
That varied from person to person, though. Some Gifters looked all right—some were even rather cute. But this alpaca man in front of Luke looked revolting. Even worse, he kept spraying foul saliva whenever he spoke.
"You dare dodge!? Get to work!"
Seeing Luke avoid his spit, the alpaca man became furious and raised his whip to strike.
But the whip never landed on Luke. Before it could even fully accelerate, a pale hand caught it.
"Don’t lay a hand on my friend!"
Yamato spoke angrily. With a flick of her wrist, she flung both whip and alpaca man to the ground.
The alpaca man had been about to rage, but when he looked up and saw that Yamato was the one who had attacked him, he quickly swallowed his curses. Rising to his feet, he pointed in a direction. "Yamato, the ore over there is easier to mine."
This minor disturbance did not draw the attention of nearby prisoners or other overseers. The overseers were all accustomed to Yamato’s behavior. Clearly, this was not her first time doing hard labor here.
"Come on, Luke. He says the ore over there is easier to mine. We need to mine plenty—Udon’s red bean dumpling soup is delicious too."
Yamato grabbed Luke’s hand and called for him to follow her to the mine. As a regular here, she acted as though she had come home.
Sometimes, when she was hiding around Onigashima, hungry, and unwilling to beg Kaido or the other officers for food, she would deliberately challenge Kaido. Once he defeated her, she would be thrown into Udon Prison, where she could fill her stomach as long as she worked hard.
Once she had eaten and drunk her fill, recovered from her injuries, and grown stronger, she would break out again and go cause trouble.
Luke let Yamato pull him toward the mining area without resisting, all while observing the prisoners in the quarry.
After watching them, he realized something: he seemed to have overestimated the average level of the New World.
Most of the prisoners in the quarry were samurai who had followed Kozuki Oden and lost after going to war with Kaido. Since they had participated in that sort of war, they should not have been weak.
Yet after looking them over, Luke found that their average attributes were generally around twenty points. Some did not even reach ten, putting them completely within the range of ordinary humans.
Then it dawned on him. Even in the New World, where powerful people were everywhere, talent still mattered. Not everyone could become a formidable powerhouse.
Like most low-ranking Beast Pirates, these people were cannon fodder used to fill out the numbers in war. They could bully civilians well enough, but against a true powerhouse, a single burst of Conqueror’s Haki would drop them in droves.
That was how it was in the original story when the real war began. The Beast Pirates had so many people, but only officers at the level of the Headliners and above were actually useful in battle. Everyone else was just fodder to be mowed down.
Luffy’s Straw Hat Grand Fleet supposedly had five or six thousand people, but the only ones who could really fight were his own crew. They were the ones matched against the Beast Pirates’ officers.
At the end of the day, this world was still ruled by top-tier combatants. No matter how many foot soldiers one gathered, they could only throw away their lives; they could not change the course of a war.
Luke picked up a mining pick and began striking the ore below. Yamato worked even harder than he did, her movements highly practiced. One look was enough to tell that she had done this plenty of times.
"Yamato, thank you for helping me out just now."
Mining was tedious work, but working out did not stop Luke from talking with Yamato. After what had just happened, he had found a new angle of approach.
"We’re friends. Of course I have to protect my friend."
Yamato wore a bright, open smile.
"I appreciate you helping me, but Yamato, have you considered something? With my strength, I could have caught that whip and knocked him down myself. If you had not helped me and I had fought back, what do you think would have happened?"
Luke tested her.
Now, the moment Yamato heard Luke ask a question, she instinctively frowned. She always felt there had to be some kind of trap.
But after thinking it over, she did not see what was wrong with it, so she answered frankly, "I’ve seen prisoners resist guards before. Usually the other overseers come together to beat them down. But don’t worry—if that really happens, I’ll fight alongside you."
Luke shook his head. "Yamato, you seem not to have noticed the core issue. You said it yourself: if I resisted that alpaca, it would bring more overseers, maybe even the Headliners or Queen, who is stationed here. But after you knocked the alpaca down, nothing happened."
Yamato froze, a bad feeling rising in her heart. After the past few days, she could already tell what Luke was about to say. It was probably another argument meant to shatter her identity as Kozuki Oden.
"Luke... what are you trying to say?"
Yamato hesitated, but asked anyway.
Luke stopped mining and looked into Yamato’s eyes. That gaze made Yamato uneasy, while on Onigashima, it filled Kaido—watching the broadcast—with excitement.
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