“Um… Sister Nanamo, can I take it back?”
Watching Trebol fling his snot around, Yamato felt a pang of regret, her face scrunching up.
To sum it up simply…
Subway. Old man. Phone. [TN: This is a Chinese meme about an old man in the subway who had a scrunched up face while looking at his phone.]
If her kanabo got covered in that disgusting mucus, she probably wouldn’t be able to keep it anymore.
But if she didn’t use her kanabo and used her hands instead… that somehow felt even more disgusting.
“No. You already agreed. Do your best. I believe in you. When we get back, I’ll praise you in front of Dad.”
“Sorry for putting you through this, Takeru. I’ll deal with this opponent as quickly as possible. Once it’s over, I’ll definitely give you a thorough wash…”
After a brief internal struggle, Yamato decided to let her weapon suffer for the time being.
Trebol, however, was thinking about something entirely different. What shocked him was neither Machvise’s defeat nor Nanamo’s strength, but the name of Yamato’s technique.
Doflamingo had wanted to establish a connection with Kaido, and through a Devil Fruit, he had already made some initial contact with him.
Compared to Whitebeard and Big Mom, Kaido was more like a young man, and his war-loving nature made him a better potential partner in Doflamingo’s eyes.
Given this, Trebol, as one of the family’s officer, had naturally studied some information about Kaido. The move Yamato had just used, Thunder Bagua, was Kaido’s signature technique.
“Hey… what’s your relationship with Kaido? Our Doffy has done business with Kaido before. There’s no need for you to get involved too, is there?”
“Kaido? What Kaido? I don’t know any Kaido! I have absolutely nothing to do with him!”
Even after all these years, the name Kaido still triggered a stress response in Yamato.
She already hated it when people associated her with Kaido, so naturally she had no intention of acknowledging their relationship.
Besides, what did Doflamingo having dealings with Kaido have to do with her?
“Narikabura Arrow!”
Yamato swung her kanabo through the air several times, sending several waves of “club energy” flying toward Trebol.
In essence, it worked on the same principle as a swordsman’s Flying Slash Attack. Although Yamato knew nothing about swordsmanship and did not understand a swordsman’s heart, if someone handed her any random blade, with her physical strength and mastery of Haki, she could still slash out energy blades.
Using a kanabo did not change the underlying principle.
Trebol’s fighting style looked disgusting, but after thinking about it carefully, Yamato realized she had no need to make physical contact with him at all. Attacking from a distance worked perfectly well.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Trebol’s body was blasted apart, several large holes appearing in him, yet he quickly regenerated.
“? I used Haki. How can that be… Is he a Logia user?”
Armament Haki could grasp the true body of a Logia user, but that did not mean Logia users had no way to deal with Armament Haki.
Armament Haki could nullify the passive evasiveness granted by elemental transformation, but as long as a user possessed Observation Haki, they could sense an incoming attack and consciously disperse their body in advance to avoid it.
Trebol’s current situation fit Yamato’s understanding well enough. What felt strange, however, was that she clearly could not sense any particularly strong Observation Haki from him. In theory, this should not have been possible.
The negotiations had broken down, or rather, Yamato had never had any intention of negotiating with Trebol in the first place. Faced with this situation, Trebol naturally did not choose to simply sit there and wait for defeat.
“Snot Blade-Catcher!”
This time, it was not snot being flung outward, but a chain of mucus still connected to his body.
Catching sight of it from the corner of her eye, Nanamo actually shuddered, feeling fortunate that she had dumped this opponent on Yamato and did not have to deal with him personally.
Yamato, whose kanabo had now been stuck fast, did not feel nearly as fortunate. Every hair on her body stood on end at this moment, as though she had finally reached her breaking point.
“I can’t take this anymore! You b*stard… you’re way too disgusting!”
All this did was thoroughly enrage Yamato.
In an instant, Yamato’s body transformed. Her height increased by several inches, while white mink-like fur completely covered her body.
Her sharp teeth were no longer concealed, and wisps of frigid air spilled directly from the corners of her mouth. As she stared fixedly at Trebol, she pushed her Observation Haki to its limit, terrified that he might fling something else disgusting onto her.
“Namuji Glacier Fang!”
A surging current of freezing air poured out from Yamato’s mouth. Combined with the moisture by the seaside, the extreme cold even caused tiny snowflakes to drift through the air.
And amid that bitter chill, Yamato suddenly discovered something working in her favor.
Trebol’s sticky mucus was not resistant to freezing. Under the effects of the low temperature, it instantly froze solid into ice. If Trebol had not released the mucus chain in time, even his own body might have been frozen along with it.
After finding his weakness, Yamato stopped trying to beat Trebol with her kanabo. She simply stood where she was and kept attacking him with her icy breath.
Over on Nanamo’s side, she was also swiftly and efficiently cleaning up the other members of the Donquixote Family.
Baby-5 transformed into a scythe and tried to attack Nanamo, only to be casually caught and then smashed into the ground with a single blow, immediately losing consciousness.
Giolla released a cloud of pink smoke that enveloped Nanamo. She was the user of the Art-Art Fruit, which allowed her to transform anything she touched into abstract-style artwork, but her own combat ability was mediocre.
The difference in Haki was so great that her Devil Fruit ability could not affect Nanamo at all, and she was likewise knocked out with a single punch.
Lao G had already released the restraints on his body. He practiced a martial art called Jio-Ken, and this martial art has a secret technique called Battle Insurance Fist, which can accumulate the body’s power.
Even in old age or serious illness, he could rely on this secret technique to restore himself to his peak condition.
“Ultimate Art of the Geo-Fist Sytle: Battle Insurance Fist, Seal of G!”
“Bracchium!”
Lao G raised his hands into the shape of the letter G, while Gladius’s arms swelled up as well, preparing to unleash a high-powered explosion at close range.
Boom! Boom!
After two explosions, the area where Nanamo had been standing was almost completely swallowed by smoke and dust. Having finished their full-power attacks, the two glanced at each other, seemingly wondering whether they had succeeded.
Yet against attacks like these, Nanamo could not even be bothered to use Haki for defense. Relying solely on the durability granted by her natural gifts, she walked out of the smoke while yawning.
“You people are no good. If this is all you’ve got… it’s hard for me to get motivated.”
Nanamo appeared beside them at a speed neither could react to, grabbed Lao G and Gladius by the heads, and slammed them violently into each other.
The Donquixote Family, who had still been full of confidence just moments ago, were now either dead or wounded, with more than half of them already unable to continue fighting.
While Nanamo was clearing out the enemies on her side, the battle between Trebol and Yamato also began to change.
Although Trebol’s body moved around like a lump of slime, constantly dodging and preventing Yamato’s Namuji Glacier Fang from directly striking his body, Namuji Glacier Fang consumed very little of Yamato’s stamina.
Like Kaido’s Blast Breath, it was merely one of her most basic elemental attacks.
If accuracy was lacking, then she would simply increase the area of fire coverage. Under wave after wave of icy assaults, the coastline of Dressrosa, a tropical nation, experienced for the first time what eternal winter truly meant.
Even a snowy night with a raging blizzard would have seemed incredibly warm compared to Yamato’s frost.
Trebol likewise felt the bone-piercing chill, but even more deadly was the change taking place in his body.
The fluidity of the mucus making up his body continued to decrease, faint signs of freezing beginning to appear, while his movements became somewhat stiff.
And in this bitter cold, Yamato only fought with greater and greater vigor. If she had not found Trebol’s mucus so disgusting, she would have charged over with her kanabo long ago.
Crack…
Under the extreme cold, Trebol’s movements slowed, and in the end, he was grazed by the breath of Namuji Glacier Fang.
The pale-blue mucus visibly solidified, then broke away with a crack. Although Trebol quickly produced more mucus to fill the missing section, Yamato noticed what was happening.
“So that’s it! I was wondering how you kept dodging attacks coated in Armament Haki. That body of yours is fake!”
Trebol appeared burly, and beneath his oversized cloak seemed to hide a powerful physique, but this was actually an illusion.
Trebol himself was skin and bones, a tall and lanky man as thin as a bamboo pole. His broad body was nothing more than a false appearance created with mucus.
Trebol could control his frail true body to dodge attacks inside the mucus, so most attacks that struck him would simply pass straight through, even if they were coated in Armament Haki.
After all, how could an attack that never truly hit him cause any damage?
“In that case… I’ll just aim for your head. I refuse to believe that head of yours is also some fake made out of mucus! Narikabura Arrow!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
After adjusting her target, Yamato swung her kanabo twice, sending out two more waves of club energy that tore through the air toward Trebol.
Just as Yamato had expected, Trebol no longer dared to take the attacks head-on. He hurriedly twisted his head aside to evade them, but was still grazed by Yamato’s attack.
Compared to the thick layer of mucus surrounding his body, the mucus covering Trebol’s face was only a thin coating. Even though the attack had not struck him directly, the shockwave still scraped away the mucus, leaving his face swollen and red.
“Damn it. How can a tiny place like Dressrosa have someone this troublesome…?”
In North Blue and the first half of the Grand Line, where Haki was not widespread, Trebol practically enjoyed the same status as a Logia user. There were hardly any attacks capable of hurting him.
Even opponents who could use Haki were often deceived by Trebol’s ability and came away with the wrong impression.
Yamato was probably the most terrifying opponent Trebol had ever encountered.
“Ne, ne, I’m saying we should be able to talk this out… Whether you’re Kaido’s student or his relative, we’re not enemies. Why fight such a meaningless battle?”
Trebol did not believe that someone Yamato’s age could have simply copied Kaido’s techniques from watching him on the battlefield. In Trebol’s eyes, the two had to share some kind of relationship.
Since he lacked the strength to fight her head-on, Trebol would much rather resolve the conflict through words.
What he did not know was that the more he mentioned Kaido, the angrier Yamato became.
“Kaido, Kaido, Kaido! Can’t you say anything except Kaido?! I’m telling you, even if that rotten old man were standing right here today, if I wanted to beat you up, he wouldn’t stop me!”
At present, Doflamingo had not yet partnered with Caesar Clown to produce those inferior artificial Devil Fruits and establish large-scale trade with Kaido. He had merely formed an initial connection through one or two Devil Fruits.
Hanafuda had accomplished something similar. Although Doflamingo could also resell some weapons produced in Wano Country, those things truly amounted to little in Kaido’s eyes.
If Yamato asked Kaido to personally take action, Kaido might ignore her, but he would not interfere with Yamato choosing to fight on her own either. Trebol did not have enough standing to make Kaido step in and mediate.
“Rotten… rotten old man?!” [TN: Old man here also means father.]
The word Kaido had a tendency to make Yamato lose her composure, and in a moment of carelessness, she had practically shouted out their relationship. Trebol was startled, but his gaze quickly turned cold again.
Now that negotiations had completely broken down, no matter how terrifying the other side’s background might be, he could not just stand there and wait to be beaten.
“In that case… then try this!”
A tiny flame appeared at the tip of Trebol’s cane. It was actually fitted with a concealed lighter, and he prepared to ignite the mucus scattered all around them.
The mucus Trebol created was itself a flammable and explosive liquid. A tiny spark was enough to trigger a violent explosion. He intended to blow everything in the area sky-high.
Constantly spreading mucus around the battlefield had also been part of Trebol’s plan.
But when the flame touched the mucus, nothing happened at all. Because the mucus had been frozen by the cold air, it could no longer be detonated.
“Idiot. Were you planning to set ice on fire? Thunder Bagua!”
Yamato swung her kanabo downward. Trebol twisted his body, trying to evade the attack. From that angle, Yamato’s kanabo still should not have been able to strike Trebol’s true body.
But halfway through the swing, the path of Yamato’s kanabo suddenly changed, shifting from a downward smash into a diagonal sweep.
Boom!
“Namuji Glacier Fang!”
Trebol was sent flying like a baseball, and Yamato followed up with another blast of ice. By the time he hit the ground, he had been completely frozen over, his life or death uncertain.
Yamato then immediately inspected her kanabo. Only after confirming that not a trace of anything filthy had gotten on it did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
At the same time, the repeated defeats of the family’s officers had nearly destroyed Buffalo’s will to fight. He transformed into helicopter mode and flew into the air.
“Monsters… they’re all monsters! Lord Trebol and Lord Pica were defeated that easily… How could I possibly beat monsters like these?!”
The joints of Buffalo’s body began spinning wildly. Ever since eating the Spin-Spin Fruit, he had never flown this fast before. Yet there was a cloud flying far faster than he was.
“Humph! You want to compete with Lord Hermes in speed? You’re far too naive, brat!”
You can read ahead upto 45 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.