Chapter 255: I've Decided to Take You to Meet Your Idol
"..."
Seeing that Kaido was on the verge of erupting in a violent rage, Queen wisely chose to shut his mouth.
Fish-Man Island's governance model was inherently impossible to replicate elsewhere. Queen understood this perfectly well.
The World Government possessed astronomical wealth, ruthlessly harvesting taxes from the entire globe to fund the Marines' military budget and sustain the unfathomable luxury of the Celestial Dragons.
Fish-Man Island operated on a surprisingly similar principle, except they were harvesting "taxes" strictly from the world's pirates, underground syndicates, and merchants traversing the deep sea.
If Fish-Man Island were relocated anywhere else on the map, or if Nereus's personal strength weren't so overwhelmingly absolute, enforcing such a system would be literally impossible.
Combined with the staggering fortunes scavenged from centuries of sunken shipwrecks across the ocean floor, Fish-Man Island possessed the sheer capital to accomplish its countless grand endeavors.
However, Yamato didn't understand any of the brutal underlying logistics. She simply saw the glorious end result and naturally assumed that was the only "correct" way to rule.
And that damn biography...
Although it was written by Wobbegong, a core member of Fish-Man Island's inner circle, he had pieced the narrative together mostly through second-hand oral accounts and old newspaper clippings.
Morgans was already a fervent lover of hyperbole, and Wobbegong naturally possessed a deeply ingrained bias of hero worship toward his King. By the time the manuscript reached Yamato's hands, the narrative was practically glowing with a holy, mythological aura.
With so many layers of buffs stacked upon Nereus's legend, Kozuki Oden's lingering Horcrux-like influence couldn't even manage to breach Yamato's psyche.
As for Kaido—the man who beat her half to death every single day—he was an unrepentant brute. In her eyes, there was absolutely no way his methods could ever be considered "correct."
"Young Master Yamato is still young, Big Bro Kaido. Once she goes out and sees the real world for herself, she'll understand," Queen said, trying to smoothly defuse the situation. "You shouldn't let something like this bother you so much."
As the current absolute second-in-command under Kaido, Queen shouldered a massive burden. He wasn't particularly afraid of Kaido doing anything drastic to him; after all, without Queen, Kaido would be forced to single-handedly micromanage the entire Beast Pirates.
Consequently, Queen was merely offering a half-hearted, perfunctory reassurance. Yet his words suddenly caused Kaido's eyes to light up.
"Go out and see the real world? That's not a bad suggestion," Kaido mused, his vicious aura dissipating. "Wano Country is relatively stable right now, and those local Daimyo have already split into different squabbling factions. Just keep those relations managed.
"I have some personal business to take care of. I'm heading out for a while."
Without giving Queen a chance to respond, Kaido hoisted his massive kanabo over his shoulder and strode out of the room.
As for what exactly Kaido was planning to do, Queen didn't care. Even if he asked, Kaido probably wouldn't tell him anyway. The Beast Pirates operated purely as an absolute dictatorship; Kaido possessed unquestionable authority.
A short while later, Kaido arrived before Yamato, who was currently engrossed in studying the biography.
The instant she registered Kaido's presence, Yamato instinctively shoved the book behind her back, snatched up her miniature kanabo, and aimed it squarely at him.
After years of being brutally beaten, her survival instincts had been tempered to a razor's edge.
In terms of pure talent, Yamato was an absolute prodigy. Had she not been constantly butting heads with Kaido in the original timeline, she would have undoubtedly secured the position of the Beast Pirates' true second-in-command, elevating the crew's overall combat power to an entirely different echelon.
"What do you want now?!" Yamato yelled defensively.
"Hmph. Not a bad reaction. It seems you haven't been slacking off these past few years," Kaido remarked smoothly. "Now then, Yamato... I will ask you one final time. Do you still believe that my method of ruling this country is wrong?"
This time, Kaido didn't immediately swing his club. In a remarkably rare display, he was actually attempting to have a heart-to-heart conversation with his daughter like a normal father.
In a twisted sense, Kaido actually had an incredibly high threshold of tolerance for his child. In the original timeline, he tolerated her bizarre insistence on being Oden, and even indulged her delusion by referring to her as his "son."
It was just that Kaido's version of "fatherly love" was something no ordinary person could ever endure. His grotesquely warped educational philosophy only served to breed even more intense, fiery rebellion in the next generation.
"Of course it's wrong!" Yamato declared fiercely. "A true King is acknowledged and embraced by the people! He leads his country toward genuine strength and prosperity! But you, Father—you are ruling this place purely with violence and lies!"
"Urororo! You are absolutely right! But that is exactly how this world works. The weak simply lack the power to resist. Do you really think 'Hero' is a dime-a-dozen profession out there?
"To be completely honest, I couldn't care less what ultimately happens to Wano Country," Kaido said coldly. "Therefore, I will give you two choices.
"First: you take over and rule Wano Country yourself. As long as you can meet my monthly logistical quotas, you can dictate everything else in this country exactly as you please.
"Second: show me martial power worthy of my acknowledgment. If you can merely fight me to a standstill, I will listen to your every command. Even if you demand that I take the Beast Pirates and completely evacuate Wano Country, I will agree to it."
Kaido's "logistical quotas" naturally referred to manpower, weapons, and wealth—everything necessary to fuel his grand war machine.
The first option seemed largely meaningless in Yamato's eyes. She had absolutely no idea how to manage agricultural production or industrial output. Unless she could miraculously boost Wano's overall productivity, nothing would genuinely change.
And as for the second...
"You're just messing with me!" Yamato snapped angrily. "How could I possibly defeat you right now?!"
"I never said you had to do it right now," Kaido replied calmly. "The current state of Wano is already infinitely better than when that idiot Orochi was running things into the ground. At the very least, I want these samurai to fight and bleed for me; I'm not ruling purely for the sake of petty, sadistic revenge like he did.
"I can give you all the time you need to grow stronger. However... you seem deeply dissatisfied with my educational methods..."
"Who in their right mind would enjoy being beaten half to death every single day?!"
"What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. One day, you will understand that having someone who consistently beats you until you have exactly one breath left is a luxury worth envying."
Before his words even finished echoing, Kaido's massive frame suddenly began to warp and expand. Azure scales erupted across his skin as he transformed into an immense, terrifying Azure Dragon soaring upon Flame Clouds. To Yamato's absolute horror, the colossal dragon reached out and snatched her in its massive claws.
Contrasted against the titanic dragon claw, Yamato looked impossibly tiny. She was firmly, inescapably bound by Kaido's Flame Clouds.
As she was suddenly hoisted high into the sky, an overwhelming sense of dread washed over her.
"Stupid old man! What are you doing?! Let me go!"
"Urororo! You'll find out soon enough! Since you hate my methods so much... I've decided to switch you to a brand-new educational curriculum!"
Ignoring Yamato's frantic screams, the massive dragon pierced straight through the dense cloud cover, soaring toward the distant horizon.
Kaido's destination was clear. He flew relentlessly toward the Red Line, only occasionally landing to hunt for food and replenish his water supply.
Even with the ability to fly, a journey of this magnitude required a considerable amount of time. But no matter how much Yamato screamed or demanded answers, Kaido completely ignored her. After brief rests, he simply grabbed her and resumed their flight.
A period of time passed, and Kaido finally arrived at his destination.
"Brace yourself! We're making landfall!"
"Huh? AAAAAHHHH!!"
Without warning, Kaido canceled his Zoan transformation high in the sky. Grabbing Yamato by the collar, the two of them plummeted in a terrifying freefall toward the island below.
BOOM!
Accompanied by Yamato's shrill, terrified shrieks, Kaido smashed into the earth like a meteor, cratering the ground with a massive, human-shaped impact—successfully executing his signature, bombastic entrance animation.
By the time he casually climbed out of the crater, dusting himself off, he was already completely surrounded by heavily armed Fish-Man guards. However, Kaido wasn't the least bit intimidated, nor did he initiate an attack.
"Urororo! I suppose I could have jumped from a bit higher," Kaido chuckled, patting the dirt off his shoulder. "Relax, I'm not here to fight. Which one of you is going to notify your King? Just tell him Kaido is here to see him.
"He refused my invitation to visit Wano last time, but now that I've come all the way to his front door, he surely won't refuse to see me, right?"
This island wasn't some random, unnamed rock in the ocean. It was Fish-Man Island's official surface port located in the New World.
Kaido's sole objective for this long journey was to personally pay Nereus a visit.
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