Meanwhile, at Tokage Port—
"Didn't expect to start fighting the moment we arrived."
The instant Izo finished speaking, he raised both pistols and fired twice. Two Beasts Pirates grunts closing in on him dropped immediately.
"Looks like they're pulling their forces back for the final battle. We should get out of here too. It's not time for the full-scale fight yet."
Ashura Doji cut down another grunt with a single swing, then called over his shoulder,
"Right, Ace?"
No answer.
"Ace?"
He looked back—
and froze.
Ace had obviously become the main target of the surrounding Beasts Pirates, but attacking him wasn't working out particularly well for them either.
One burst of Conqueror's Haki cleared a huge circle around him.
The problem was his fighting style.
Watching him battle, Izo and Ashura Doji couldn't help speaking at the same time.
"That's certainly… an effective technique."
They weren't wrong.
Ace looked ridiculous.
Murakumogiri was tucked beneath his left arm while his right hand wielded the Supreme Grade Blade Ace, cutting down enemies from every direction.
Anyone approaching from the front was sent flying with a single slash.
Anyone trying to sneak up from behind didn't even get close before a towering jet of flame erupted from Ace's backside and roasted them.
Three hundred and sixty degrees of protection.
Three directions of attack.
Beasts Pirates grunts collapsed in groups.
"Enough! Stop talking about it!"
Ace covered his backside in humiliation.
The tiny sun had crawled back inside his body and was deliberately choosing that exact spot to release flames.
It was obviously tormenting him on purpose.
"Get out here! Stop causing trouble!"
"Hehehe! You knocked me unconscious and dumped me in water earlier! This is payback!"
The little sun's indignant voice came from somewhere around Ace's lower back.
Then it deliberately fired two more bursts.
From everyone else's perspective—
Ace's backside shot flames again.
"Fine! Don't blame me for getting serious!"
Ace gritted his teeth.
"I prepared something specifically for an annoying little pest like you."
"Hah! Go ahead!"
The tiny sun sounded completely fearless.
Ace took a deep breath and rubbed his stomach.
"I didn't want to use this…"
"But we've been sailing nonstop lately. All those waves and rough weather have been making my stomach feel a little weird…"
The little sun suddenly sounded alarmed.
"W-Wait. What are you saying?!"
"Pfft—"
Silence.
The entire port fell completely silent.
Izo's pistols froze in midair.
Ashura Doji stopped with his blade directly above a pirate's head.
Every Beasts Pirate still standing stared blankly at Ace.
"You…"
The tiny sun, still attached to Ace's lower back, desperately tried to cover its nose.
Unfortunately, it didn't have hands.
"You actually used… a fart…!"
Plop.
It detached from Ace and dropped straight onto the ground.
Completely unconscious.
At exactly that moment—
King arrived.
He had just raised his sword to join the battle when he witnessed the entire scene.
The All-Star stood motionless.
He looked at the shriveled little sun lying on the ground.
Then at Ace, who was still clutching his backside.
Without changing expression, King deliberately extinguished the flame burning behind him.
The sacred Lunarian flame simply vanished.
Then, like a man avoiding a plague, he refused to even look at Ace again and shot toward Izo and Ashura Doji instead.
CLANG!
Ace intercepted King's sword.
The ground beneath him fractured in a spiderweb pattern.
"Don't ignore me, bastard!"
Ace grinned as the muscles in both arms tightened, forcibly shoving King's blade back.
"You managed to keep up with my speed."
King didn't sound angry.
If anything, he sounded mildly surprised.
Then he kicked off the ground and rapidly retreated sideways, opening a considerable distance between them before stopping.
Ace stared at him.
"…What are you doing?"
King remained silent for a moment.
Then the flame on his back reignited.
"Nothing."
His voice was ice-cold.
"I simply feel that getting too close to you might contaminate me with something strange."
King very clearly did not want to fight Ace.
Ace took one look at the deliberately reignited flame and immediately understood.
His face collapsed in horror.
"That wasn't intentional! Stop thinking weird crap, you bastard!"
Then another explosion rang out.
Yamato came charging onto the battlefield with her kanabo in hand.
The instant she saw Ace, her already reddened eyes became hazy.
"Ace!"
Her voice trembled with excitement.
"I finally found you!"
"You have no idea how much I thought about you all night!"
"Yamato! Wait—"
Ace never finished.
Yamato threw both arms wide and tackled him.
Ace's face disappeared against her chest, immediately awakening some very embarrassing memories from the Summit War.
His hands shot straight overhead.
Fingers pointed toward the sky.
Palms open.
The universal posture of complete surrender.
He absolutely did not want to make Yamato angry again.
This time, however—
Yamato wasn't angry.
She tackled Ace onto the grass, straddled his waist, grabbed both of his raised wrists, and forced them apart to pin him firmly beneath her.
"Yamato, what are—mmph?!"
Ace's pupils contracted.
Yamato leaned down and kissed him.
Hard.
There was no elegance or practiced technique to it. Yamato simply pressed close with wholehearted determination, leaving Ace too stunned to process what was happening.
Shock, embarrassment, excitement, and a dozen emotions he couldn't even name hit him all at once.
His mind went completely blank.
At first his body remained rigid against the ground.
Then, little by little, the tension drained out of him until he simply lay there staring upward in stunned surrender.
Everyone nearby had stopped fighting.
They were all staring.
Cain, who had only just arrived, silently pulled Uta behind him.
Uta immediately peeked around his arm anyway, eyes enormous.
"Yamato…"
She whispered.
"She's terrifyingly aggressive."
Eventually, Yamato finally sat back up.
She remained seated on Ace's stomach and wiped her mouth.
Ace stared blankly at the sky.
His pupils were unfocused, suspicious moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes, and his chest rose and fell heavily.
He didn't make a sound.
"…Ace?"
Yamato tilted her head.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
"What… exactly do you expect me to say?"
Ace sounded as though his soul had left his body.
"Say you missed me too!"
"I—"
Click.
Something cold snapped around Ace's ankle.
His strength vanished immediately.
He looked down.
Yamato was fastening Seastone shackles around his legs with hands covered in ice crystals.
"Wait."
Ace stared at her.
"Yamato, where did you get Seastone shackles?"
"I prepared them beforehand."
Yamato looked up.
Her eyes were still red—
but now there was also a suspiciously pink glow to them.
Her expression, however, remained completely serious.
"You can turn into fire, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep hold of you."
"That's why I prepared these."
"Why would you prepare something like that?!"
"So you can properly look at what I learned last night."
"What the hell did you do last night?!"
Yamato didn't answer.
Instead, she scooped Ace up into a bridal carry.
With the Seastone draining his strength, he was as limp as wet laundry.
Unable to struggle properly, Ace could only turn his bright-red face away.
Yamato looked toward Cain.
"I'll leave things here to you."
Then she carried Ace away at high speed.
Ace managed to poke half his face out from her arms and stretched one hand desperately toward Cain.
"Cain! Help—"
His voice was accidentally muffled against Yamato before he could finish.
All he could hear was Yamato's rapid, heated breathing above him.
"Come back to the Flower Capital with me!"
Yamato sounded unable to contain her excitement and nervousness.
"I have something to show you."
"Something only you're allowed to see!"
"Wait! What exactly are you planning?! Why did you shackle me?!"
Ace struggled uselessly.
"And before anything else, tell me why you kissed me!"
"That was my first kiss, you know!"
"It was my first kiss too!"
Yamato looked down at him with a dazzling smile.
"But that's not important anymore!"
Ace somehow became even more nervous.
"Once we reach the shogun's residence, you'll understand everything!"
"UNDERSTAND WHAT?!"
…
King stared blankly after them.
What exactly had he just witnessed?
Young Master Yamato had forcibly kissed a man.
Which meant—
unless Young Master Yamato genuinely considered himself a man attracted to other men—
there was only one possible conclusion.
Had Yamato's understanding of his own gender finally changed?
No.
That wasn't important right now.
Kaido-sama needed to hear about this immediately.
King glanced toward Cain and made his decision.
"This isn't the time for the final battle."
"Cain, we'll end this conflict here."
Cain paused briefly before nodding.
"Fine."
"Then tell Kaido that the decisive battle will be in three days."
And just like that—
a confrontation that had nearly turned into a major battle ended with two sentences.
On the journey back, Ashura Doji separated from the group.
This was Wano, after all. There was hardly any chance of him getting lost.
Izo, meanwhile, continued toward the Flower Capital with Cain and the others.
Uta sat on Bella's back while the little cloud carried her through the air.
In Uta's hands was a ball of ice containing the unconscious miniature sun.
After recovering from Ace's biological counterattack, the little Homie had sworn revenge.
Unfortunately for him, Bella—the unquestioned big sister among Homies—had immediately suppressed him.
Cain had another problem.
Since Yamato had carried Ace away without warning, both of Ace's weapons had been left behind.
The Supreme Grade Blade Ace.
And Murakumogiri.
Cain had no choice but to carry them for him.
Izo used the opportunity to explain.
Murakumogiri was more than six meters long.
It was simply too large for Ace to handle comfortably, even down to the thickness of the grip.
The Whitebeard Pirates had been unable to find anyone willing to modify it.
More accurately—
nobody had the courage to replace the fittings on Pops' beloved weapon.
That was one of the reasons they had come to Wano.
Once that explanation was finished, Izo's curiosity shifted toward Yamato.
"So… what exactly was that?"
He glanced in the direction Yamato had disappeared.
"What she just did to Ace scared the hell out of me."
"Does she actually like him?"
Cain and Uta looked at each other.
Both appeared equally lost.
"I have no idea," Cain admitted.
"I definitely didn't expect Yamato to suddenly become like this."
Neither Cain nor Uta had even considered the possibility that Yamato's behavior was entirely their fault.
…
By the time Yamato reached the shogun's residence, the entire compound had been locked down.
Not even a fly could get in or out.
Yamato had transformed and carried Ace back at full speed, arriving far earlier than Cain and the others traveling on foot.
Once inside, she put Ace on the bed and secured him with Seastone so he couldn't simply turn into flame and escape.
Ace leaned against the pillows and stared at Yamato in disbelief.
Her face was bright red, her breathing heated from the rush and excitement.
"Yamato…"
"You said you had something to show me."
"Why am I tied up?"
"I'm about to show you."
Her voice was low and intensely serious.
"Don't rush me, Ace."
"I studied all night for this."
Yamato loosened her hair, allowing the long silver-white strands to fall freely around her shoulders.
Then she began following what she remembered from the books the bathhouse proprietress had shown her.
Ace's eyes widened.
"Yamato, wait—"
What followed became considerably more private than anything either of them had expected when the day began.
Between Ace's bewildered protests, Yamato's disastrously literal interpretation of her overnight "studies," and an extremely awkward conversation about what becoming parents actually involved, the door remained firmly closed.
Whatever happened beyond that point was theirs alone.
…
Meanwhile, on Onigashima—
Kaido was still deeply hungover.
Strangely, he dreamed of Roger again.
This time, Roger came straight at him in battle, attacking wildly with the Supreme Grade Blade Ace.
Kaido didn't dodge.
He had already read Roger's attack pattern perfectly.
But there was one thing he couldn't understand.
Why the hell did Roger keep aiming at his black coat?