As far as Kaido was concerned, Moria’s matter was not worth remembering. An opponent incapable of leaving a wound on him was destined to be nothing more than a passing figure in his life.
Having both grown up fighting on the battlefield themselves, Kaido and Bullet each possessed their own extreme ways of thinking.
By Kaido’s logic, the law of the jungle was the natural order of the world. It was entirely justified for the strong to trample upon the weak however they pleased.
In Kaido’s eyes, Moria was unquestionably one of those weaklings and not worth paying attention to.
The people of Wano Country likewise believed that Moria had died in his battle against Kaido. The scattered corpses littering the battlefield were enough to show how brutal that fight had been.
Afterward, an additional gravestone appeared upon the snowy fields of Ringo. Within the isolated nation of Wano, ordinary people had no means of learning about events in the outside world. They had no idea what had happened to Moria afterward.
Sebastian and Wobbegong did not remain in Wano Country for long. They had come out to conduct business, not to travel abroad for leisure. After accomplishing their objective and taking a brief period to rest, they headed straight back to Fish-Man Island.
By the time Kaido had finished dealing with all the miscellaneous matters, the two of them had long since departed.
The most disappointed person about this was Queen. He had already prepared himself to put on a grand performance at the banquet, but it looked like he would have to wait until next time. However, after Kaido returned, Yamato proactively approached him.
“Father, that shorter Fish-Man uncle said that you used to be on the same ship as someone named Nereus?”
Before being infected by the Kozuki virus and influenced by Oden’s Horcrux, Yamato had actually been a perfectly normal child. The way she later turned out was not only due to the Kozuki influence, Kaido himself bore a large share of the blame.
After all, according to Kaido’s philosophy, raising a child meant making them stronger. Nothing else mattered, and neither did the process. The various things he did only accelerated the outcome.
For now, however, everything was still fine.
“On the same ship? I suppose that’s not entirely wrong. Back then, most people outside thought so too. What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly asking about this?”
The mention of Nereus immediately piqued Kaido’s interest. During the era of the Rocks Pirates, Nereus had looked after him on several occasions. In Kaido’s mind, Nereus was someone he could trust.
“The short one… Wobbegong, right? That guy always loved bragging about Nereus’s great deeds back in the day…”
“Bragging? Does that mean all those stories he told were fake?”
“That depends on what he told you. If it was things like freeing slaves, slaughtering Marines, or charging single-handedly into the World Government, then those were all true.
Worororo! Thinking back on it now, I kind of miss those days. There were plenty of naïve fools, but they were all an interesting bunch!”
As he spoke, Kaido suddenly burst into manic laughter. He grabbed a large jug of sake from the side and began gulping it down as though reminiscing about the past.
“Nereus’s strength is beyond question. If he doesn’t willingly come onto land, he’s an invincible existence in the ocean.”
Gulp… gulp… gulp…
Kaido left the rest unsaid. Even on land, there were very few people who could survive even a single exchange against Nereus. The man was a genuine monster.
“However… despite being strong, his way of thinking is still naïve. The reason those people became slaves is because they weren’t strong enough themselves.
As long as you’re strong enough, outsiders can’t dictate your fate. You can always slaughter out a path to survival.”
Kaido recalled his own past. That idiot from the Vodka Kingdom had actually wanted to hand him over to the Marines in exchange for greater influence for the kingdom.
If he had been a little weaker back then…
He probably would have been taken away by the Marines. As for what his future would have looked like after that, no one could say.
“How is that naïve?! Isn’t living according to your own will something really cool?! That uncle said he’s the great hero of Fish-Man Island. I want to be just like him in the future!”
“Worororo, just like him, huh? That’s quite an ambitious dream…”
Crash…!
The sake jug was hurled to the ground by Kaido, shattering into pieces. Yamato failed to notice that Kaido’s hand had already wrapped around his kanabo. She was still imagining the future with stars in her eyes.
“See? It’s a very—”
Boom!
Before Yamato could finish speaking, Kaido’s club had already smashed into the ground beside her. Even though he had barely used any strength, the shockwave startled Yamato so badly that she scrambled away on all fours to the side.
“Father! Why?! Why are you attacking me?!”
“Hm? I’m helping you achieve your dream. I won’t change what I said. That kind of behavior is naïve. But Nereus is strong enough. His strength allows anything he does to be justified!
And you, my daughter, are far too weak! Without that kind of power, you have no right to speak about empty ideals!
If you want to accomplish that goal, then hurry up and get stronger. There’s no better way for you to grow faster than through battle!”
Kaido staggered to his feet, looking completely drunk.
Yet his kanabo remained firmly gripped in his hand. Every swing landed precisely beside Yamato, leaving her in a miserable state without actually putting her life in danger.
What exactly happened after someone got drunk was hard to say. Some people donated money when they were drunk. Others used alcohol as an excuse to do whatever they pleased.
Whether they were revealing their true nature under the influence of alcohol or merely using drunkenness as a pretext was something only they themselves knew.
As for Kaido…
With his physique, even soaking in a vat of sake wouldn’t rob him of his ability to act. He simply enjoyed the feeling.
“Ahhh!!”
“Help!!”
“He’s going to kill me!!!”
“Worororo! That’s right, run faster! Getting stronger takes time, but before you become strong, you have to survive by any means necessary! Dodging and running away isn’t shameful. Enduring and biding your time isn’t shameful either. Only the living have a future!
Since you want to become someone even stronger than me, then get moving…! Thunder Bagua!”
He called it a Bagua, but the power behind it probably wasn’t even 0.08 Bagua. Not that it mattered; it was already more than enough. [TN: Bagua means Eight Trigram, so in chinese fandom, they used 1-to-8 to compare the power of Thunder Bagua.]
“When did I ever say I wanted to be stronger than you?!”
“Hmph. You’ll understand someday. But the fact that you still have the energy to talk means you still have strength left!”
The other people on Onigashima turned a blind eye to the entire scene, showing absolutely no intention of interfering. Life aboard Red-Hair’s ship or Whitebeard’s ship was relatively safe.
Neither of those men would do anything to their subordinates. Once you boarded their ship, you became a comrade, a son or daughter.
As long as you didn’t violate their iron rules, they would shelter you from the storm like protective parents.
But Kaido and Big Mom were different. Big Mom’s punishments included directly stealing lifespan or removing body parts. Kaido was even more unrestrained.
They didn’t have the father-daughter relationship that Yamato shared with Kaido. Approaching him while he was in a “drunken” state might just get them sent packing with a single strike from his club.
The only person who could have intervened was Queen, but he also chose to ignore it. With that time, he would rather spend it researching a brand-new entrance pose.
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