Maybe it was because he had just awakened Conqueror's Haki and overdrawn too much mental energy.
When Sasuke woke up, it was already several days later.
"Oh! You're awake?"
Even before opening his eyes, Sasuke heard Yamato's energetic voice.
"You... why are you eating next to me?"
Sasuke was utterly helpless.
Strictly speaking, he should have been awakened by the aroma of the still-steaming roasted meat in Yamato's hands.
"Do you want some?"
Yamato acted as if she didn't understand the question at all, instead shoving another fragrant roasted rib right under Sasuke's nose.
"That's not what I mean. I just wanted—"
Gurgle...
"Ehehe."
A 'I knew it' smile spread across Yamato's face.
In the end, in this ward that still smelled faintly of disinfectant, Sasuke, wrapped in bandages, somewhat painfully picked up the roasted rib and began to eat.
Seeing this, Yamato finally nodded with satisfaction.
Even though they had been locked in a life-and-death battle before he lost consciousness, when Sasuke woke up, he held no hostility toward Yamato.
It wasn't that he had amnesia.
In reality, when they fought to the last moment, their wills had intermingled within the Conqueror's Haki each emitted.
No need for excessive words.
What drove Sasuke to unleash that final attack wasn't killing intent, but the desire to prove himself.
To prove he was no less than anyone, to prove he was no longer that powerless child from the past, to prove he had completely moved on from his past...
Watching Sasuke struggling to gnaw on the rib, Yamato then flashed a provocative smile, suddenly taking an even larger piece of roasted meat and placing it before Sasuke.
Then, under Sasuke's speechless gaze, Yamato very childishly took a bite that consumed more than half of it.
"Hehehe."
Yamato, mouth still full of meat, kept up her provocation, chewing a few times before swallowing it all.
Her expression seemed to say something like "See? You're not as good as me, are you?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned his head away.
Even now, he didn't understand why everyone in this world could eat so much.
Naruto, Yamato, and the other pirates he'd met before all seemed to be bottomless pits.
And compared to himself, whose hands ached with pain just holding food, Yamato, with a hole in her shoulder, seemed completely fine.
One could only say Sasuke hadn't assimilated enough.
If he lived here for over a decade, he might have learned this trick.
During the previous continuous battles, Sasuke's greatest injury didn't come from Yamato, but from the internal damage caused by directly igniting the gas inside him.
If not for Calamity Flames clinging to life, anyone else would have died on the spot.
Adding to that, constantly maintaining Calamity Flames, the Eight Gates, and Body Revival Technique states, the fact Sasuke could still raise his arms now was only thanks to the Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit.
Injuries like these would have even kept those two with thick eyebrows in Konoha's hospital bed for half a year, maybe even in a wheelchair.
In contrast, Yamato, without a 'health regeneration cheat' like Calamity Flames, hadn't even lost consciousness.
After the Tobiroppo and other Beast Pirates' members arrived, despite her injuries, she not only arranged for maintaining order but also ate a huge meal before going to sleep to rest.
After waking up, Yamato's shoulder injury was already movable.
The monstrous physique is well-deserved.
"Mmm..."
As he ate, maybe because he was too weak, Sasuke actually choked on the meat. Fortunately, Yamato noticed in time, preventing this Mythical Zoan user from being solo-killed by a single roasted rib.
Gulp—
Taking the cup and drinking, Sasuke's expression immediately changed.
He forcibly adjusted his breathing to avoid choking.
It was alcohol.
Of course it was alcohol, what was he suspecting?
What else would a reckless person like Yamato hand him besides alcohol?
He should be thankful she hadn't replaced the IV drip with alcohol.
After wiping his hands and mouth clean, Sasuke looked helplessly at Yamato, who was still devouring food in front of him.
'This woman was a hundred times more difficult than Naruto.'
"How's the situation outside… I mean after I lost consciousness."
Hearing Sasuke's question, Yamato didn't even look up, mumbling as she narrated what happened after he passed out.
After their fight that day, the collapse of the King's Plateau attracted all the still-conscious people in the country.
Among them, besides Baby-5 and the still-petrified Senor Pink, all other Donquixote Family's members had disappeared.
According to the 'Boss' of the Happo Navy, Chinjao, they were probably all dead.
Trebol, the 'Strategist', was now a commander without troops and had been taken into custody by the Beasts Pirates.
Originally, he shouldn't have ended up like this.
But because Sugar died in the explosion, the memory-blocking effect of the Hobi Hobi no Mi was lifted.
This opened a can of worms.
Ignoring the already collapsed World Government on the surface, just the pirates who had been turned into toys and their affiliated forces were enough to repeatedly destroy Dressrosa.
Leaving aside the exclamations of shock from various forces thousands of miles away, just the fact that among those people were Beasts Pirates' members was enough to seal Trebol's fate.
—Although the Beasts Pirates had originally intended to annex the Donquixote Family anyway.
Of course, because memories were restored, the truth about King Riku being controlled by Donquixote Doflamingo, the Donquixote Family using the Hobi Hobi no Mi to eliminate all destabilizing factors in Dressrosa, etc., all came to light.
The reputation of the Riku Family completely reversed overnight.
Even Rebecca, who had just changed back from a snake-person and was still a bit dazed, received sincere apologies from the citizens.
King Riku, wandering on some unknown street, first turned into a snake-person, then cured by Princess Mansherry, and was finally reunited with his family after many years.
Viola cried her eyes out.
Because Chinjao hadn't lost his sanity, the Happo Navy didn't suffer much damage… at least compared to the country of Dressrosa, they were much better off.
After this incident, Dressrosa could almost be said to have been 'destroyed' once.
From buildings, citizens, to reputation, economy, and of course, national power.
It would probably take a considerable amount of time to rebuild.
Because of this, there was some debate within the Beasts Pirates about whether to take over this country.
Drake, popping up from who-knows-where, opposed it. Who's-Who saw it as a chance for redemption and firmly supported it.
The Page One siblings didn't offer opinions. Now it was up to Yamato, the 'young master', to decide.
By the way, after recovering, the Tontatta Tribe's members successfully reunited with Gancho and others and decided to withdraw from Dressrosa.
They also planned to set sail to find other tribesmen taken to Punk Hazard.
It was only after they made this decision that the Beasts Pirates belatedly found the artificial Devil Fruit factory.
Of course, by then, the place was already empty, but the tools, raw materials, and some overseers who knew the workflow were still there.
As long as they could find another group of people capable of freely cultivating plants to handle the growing process, this production line could be restarted.
Regarding all this, Yamato showed no intention of expressing an opinion. She just had her subordinates send the information back to Onigashima via messenger pigeons.
—Over such long distances, Den Den Mushi signals couldn't reach.
This matter needed Kaido's decision.
The reason sounded lofty.
Tobiroppo couldn't really say anything else.
Who's-Who wanted to persuade Yamato to act first and seek approval later, but Yamato simply ignored him, spending her days either wandering around or coming to Sasuke's ward to eat voraciously.
This left the eager-to-assist Who's-Who quite helpless.
But he didn't know something even more troublesome was coming.