“So you’re doing this just because you have nothing better to do?”
“You wouldn’t be wrong to see it that way. Babanuki and the others are always stuck in Udon and rarely get any opportunities. He’s an old member too, so giving him a few benefits isn’t a problem.”
“So you’ve defined prison breaks as distributing welfare benefits now, have you?”
Kaido’s logic wasn’t hard to understand.
The warden and the prison guards rarely had any opportunities to fight, which was unfavorable under the Beasts Pirates’ system. But simply handing out rewards for no reason wasn’t in line with Kaido’s personality.
To him, only battle had value—a belief deeply rooted in his thinking. Since that was the case, he’d give them opportunities to fight. A prison break became a perfectly reasonable way to hand out benefits.
“Worororo! It’s just an experiment. Even if they really escaped, they wouldn’t be able to stir up much trouble in today’s Wano Country. At worst, I’d just swing my kanabo a few more times.
And if they really do cause any damage, then blame Queen.”
“Pfft! Cough, cough…”
Queen nearly choked to death on his oshiruko. At this point, it wasn’t just Arceus, he was starting to lose all understanding of Kaido’s logic as well.
He had already survived Kaido’s whim; after all, Kaido couldn’t actually fight him the way he would fight Garp, as that would kill him.
“Wait! Boss Kaido, what does that have to do with me?!”
The prisoners hadn’t escaped yet, but even if they did, he should be innocent.
“You spent so much manpower and resources building all those defense systems, and they’ve barely been used. If those people really manage to escape and cause damage, wouldn’t that prove everything you built is just for show?
And you still think that has nothing to do with you?”
“That still doesn’t make sense! If they escape from Udon, shouldn’t that be Babanuki’s responsibility? If they can’t handle these welfare benefits, it’s going to become a disaster!”
Queen argued his case with reason and conviction. However, he had forgotten one thing. The person he was arguing with was Kaido, not Arceus.
“Ahh, Queen’s in trouble again. I guess this is karma.”
Yamato swallowed a chunk of roasted meat from the neighboring table in one bite and predicted Queen’s fate.
“Young Miss, how did you arrive at that conclusion?”
Speed had just returned from the kitchen carrying freshly prepared food and happened to hear Yamato’s prediction.
“He still doesn’t truly understand my father. It’s not that he never listens to reason, but he only reasons with people who can fight. On this entire island, the only one who can make Father act reasonably from beginning to end is Dad, because he can’t beat Dad.”
This was Yamato’s history of blood and tears, a conclusion she had drawn from her own growth process.
At first, she had absolutely no ability to resist Kaido. Whatever he said went. He never bothered explaining things to her. Even when he did explain, he was really explaining them to Arceus.
Later, she grew stronger and could exchange a few moves with Kaido. At that point, Kaido started trying to teach her various principles. He never succeeded, but he didn’t care. Whether Yamato listened or not, he’d still come at her swinging.
After she became capable of holding her own against him, Kaido finally started taking her opinions into consideration. But whenever they disagreed, he’d still do things his own way.
Only now, when she could fight Kaido for days at a time and occasionally take the initiative to challenge him herself, did Kaido truly value her opinions and grant her the right to negotiate.
Based on her understanding of Kaido, if someone weaker than him made a point he couldn’t refute, then Kaido would simply stop refuting.
Queen had pointed out a small flaw in the plan, but it didn’t save him. Instead, it triggered Kaido’s unreasonable mode.
“Excellent. I admire the courage it takes to argue with me. Tonight, I’ll give you some extra training.”
“?!”
Looking at Kaido, who couldn’t even be bothered to make up an excuse and had laid his intentions bare, Queen’s eyes widened. Countless complaints filled his heart, yet not a single word came out.
“Enough. There’s no point making things difficult for him. Why don’t you just thaw Garp out and fight him directly?”
“Garp? I’ve already lost interest in that old man. Ever since Kuja, he stopped being my target. Too many burdens weigh on his heart. I read the battle report too, that guy could’ve caused far greater losses.
If it weren’t for that brat, he never would’ve been defeated so easily. There’s no way Who’s-Who could’ve stabbed him head-on.”
Back when Amazon Lily was being transported, Kaido had already found Garp’s distraction during battle dull.
Even after Kaido made Garp fully aware of the consequences of his choices, Garp hadn’t changed. In Kaido’s eyes, both the man’s body and spirit had rotted away. So he simply allowed Kuzan to freeze him.
“I’m more interested in knowing when those five old ba*tards will finally be unable to sit still. Those guys are the real ‘old geezers.’”
For the current Kaido, rather than fighting Garp, he’d be better off looking for Rayquaza, or spend time bonding with Yamato. If all else fails, he could research those guys he encountered long ago.
Gengar had brought back a great deal of intelligence from Mariejois, including the appearances of various people. It was from that information that Kaido discovered Saturn looked almost exactly the same as he had thirty-eight years ago at God Valley.
While Kaido was contemplating what to do next, Queen sank into a mixture of self-induced emotion and suspicion toward Hawkins.
【Lord Arceus really is more reliable. Come to think of it, Hawkins’s divinations can be wrong too. How could I possibly end up unlucky because of Lord Arceus?】
Taking advantage of the fact that Kaido’s attention was elsewhere, Queen slowly edged backward, intending to find somewhere safer before anything happened.
“Speaking of which, that brat is there too, right? He’s not dead yet, is he? What was his name again? Momonosuke?”
“Never paid attention. If he died, someone would have informed us. No news means he’s still alive. As for what kind of state he’s in, who knows? Who would care about someone like that?”
“Isn’t that brat Oden’s son? He doesn’t resemble his old man in the slightest. Cowardly, useless… Anyway, they’ve already been given a chance. Hopefully they can make things interesting for me.”
Meanwhile, inside Udon Prison, the brawl between the Marines and the pirates had completely ended. Yet no pirates came to clean up the mess. Only Drake remained, lecturing people.
“You like fighting so much, huh? Good. If you don’t finish today’s quota before sunset, you’ll find out what hardship really means.
Or maybe you can try escaping prison and experience some of the hidden things here.”
As he spoke, Drake kicked the ground beside Koby’s ear and continued scolding him.
“You’ve got some guts, kid. You actually dared to get involved with that walking disaster? Around here, the people connected to him are usually the first ones to die.
What? Planning to spread your Marine justice in this place?”
It sounded like a scolding, but in reality Drake was using this method to remind them what they needed to watch out for here. Though Drake had never been a prison guard, he had plenty of experience as a prisoner and had personally experienced the hidden punishment methods of this place.
The prison currently appeared to be unmanaged, but Drake was certain that the moment things showed signs of escalating, Babanuki would suddenly appear and suppress everything. A group of exhausted prisoners wearing handcuffs stood no chance against Babanuki.
No other methods were necessary. Hunger and exhaustion alone were enough to drive many people insane.
As for why he had singled out Koby, it was because Drake considered him the most unstable one.
In the middle of a prison fight, he had still been trying to protect Momonosuke. That kind of behavior was obviously unsuitable in prison.
Drake had already done everything he could. Whether they listened was no longer his concern.
The first principle of an undercover agent was simple: before receiving orders, even if your comrades died right in front of you, you endured it.
Although Drake’s identity had effectively been exposed from the start, he didn’t know that. At the very least, he wasn’t going to compromise his infiltration mission for Koby and the others unless he received orders from higher up.
Ignoring the members of SWORD, Drake went to find Babanuki.
“Where’s Dobon? Boss Jack told me to come hurry him up.”
After finishing his own business, Drake turned around and began looking for Dobon’s whereabouts.
“Right under your feet. He’s a bit depressed right now and somewhat unwilling to face reality.”
Babanuki casually pointed to the side. Only then did Drake notice that two nostrils were sticking out of the dirt.
“What’s with him…?”
“Aftereffects of heartbreak. No, that’s not right. He was never actually in love. He’s more like a special case who gave up on a potential romance himself. You could say he brought it on himself. Hey! Dobon! Get up already! You don’t even want the contributions that were handed right to you?”
Babanuki slammed a fist downward before hauling Dobon out of the ground.
“Alright, take him over there. It’s not his first time anyway. He’ll be fine in a few days.”
After watching Dobon get dragged away, Babanuki looked over at Daifugo.
“See that? That’s what happens when your brain is full of that kind of stuff. Don’t learn from him. He’s gotten so obsessed that he’s not thinking straight anymore.”
After wasting some time, Dobon reappeared on Onigashima and met the already waiting Who’s-Who.
“What happened to you? Did one of Perona’s Negative Hollows hit you?”
Looking at Dobon’s gloomy expression, Who’s-Who felt as though he were staring at some kind of vengeful spirit.
Although Who’s-Who hadn’t even remembered Dobon’s name before, that was simply because he had never thought highly of him.
Among the Beasts Pirates’ officers, Who’s-Who was arguably the most utilitarian.
He didn’t harbor any grand ambitions, he simply wanted a better life.
As a result, officers like Dobon, who spent all day stationed at the prison and whom Who’s-Who considered to have little future potential, had never been worth paying attention to in his eyes.
But things were different once you got to the single-digit Numbers and the senior officers above them.
Perona was practically invisible on Onigashima and had little presence, but her status was that of Setsuna’s adopted daughter.
By extension, her adoptive parents were the current No. 0 and a senior officer. In Who’s-Who’s eyes, that made her far more important than Dobon, so he had memorized basic information about her abilities and background.
“No, but I contributed too, right?”
“Uh… I guess so. After all, you did take a punch.”
The protagonist of that battle was Kuzan, while Queen and Hancock were the supporting leads. They were the main contributors against Garp. As for everyone else, what they did didn’t really have much impact.
Who’s-Who understood this clearly. The stab he delivered accelerated the battle’s conclusion, but that stab alone wouldn’t have been enough without Kuzan and the others.
On the other hand, even without that stab, Garp would most likely still have fallen. By then, more and more people had arrived, and Garp simply had too many things to worry about.
Who’s-Who didn’t know how to evaluate Dobon’s question. After all, when it came to it, Dobon’s contribution was probably the smallest. The only reason he’d even been mentioned by name was because he had taken that punch.
Of course, getting hit wasn’t enough by itself. Fourtricks had paid the price for overestimating his own defenses. Although his Metapod shell did grow back, he lost his priority mate selection rights.
“What if I wish for a beautiful woman?”
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