"I think I remember you're a liberal now. I don't expect you to want to become a pirate, but isn't it nice to come down into the quagmire and take a look? People like you, who hold high positions, don't really understand the truth of this world.
Maybe if you look from a different place, you'll gain something new."
Kuzan hadn't said anything yet, but a dragon's mind crashed.
Inside the Dragon Dimension, Reshiram, who had been enjoying the show, suddenly choked on itself, causing Zekrom beside it to snicker.
"What's wrong? Didn't I say it before? The people our Lord chooses can always bring us little surprises."
"No, someone like you who advocates ideals couldn't possibly understand how much impact that sentence had on me."
That sentence hit Reshiram as hard as an elementary schooler teaching a college professor how to solve a problem. It was one of the rare shocks in its dragon life.
To deal with these difficult times, or rather, to delay the crisis coming from Kaido, Yamato's brain was working in overdrive, trying to talk this Ice Substitute into becoming the shield.
Outsiders would never know. To be precise, not even Yamato herself knew just how far her thinking could go under such conditions.
"Speaking of which, Zekrom, I just had an idea."
"What?"
"If we could make this state her normal state, then her growth rate should double…no, maybe even more."
"That's unusually proactive of you. You don't even really acknowledge her. Why suddenly take the initiative to help her grow?"
They were once one being, but after the split, their beliefs diverged drastically. Though they hadn't constantly been at odds since being born here, seeing the other struggle was always amusing.
Originally, Zekrom was just enjoying the show, but it didn't expect Reshiram to suddenly say something like that.
"So that Truth doesn't become too naïve, so naïve that even I can't stand it."
"Is that so? That really does sound like your personality. But this thing isn't realistic. You should have noticed, it's a chance occurrence that only happens when she's scheming against that father. That father-daughter pair… they're strange."
"That's why, if we could just turn everyone into Kaido…no, that kind of thing is too weird. I can't quite put it into words, but as long as you get what I mean, that's fine."
Despite their ideological differences, Zekrom and Reshiram shared similar ways of thinking, and Zekrom had already understood what the other meant.
"This isn't realistic. For her, it would probably be hell. I think your approach has a problem, but the plan itself is still feasible. I think it could work."
There's always some kind of karmic force at play. Yamato had no idea that while she was trying to trick Kuzan into joining them, she herself was dancing on the edge of being stabbed in the back.
Kuzan didn't react like Reshiram did as he could barely follow Yamato's train of thought.
"You're already a pirate with the Beasts Pirates, and the officially designated successor. Neither your father nor Dad, those two pillars of yours, would oppose your succession. For someone like you to call your environment a quagmire… do you really mean that?
Boss, another bottle. No, bring a whole dozen. We're running low on alcohol."
"Coming, coming. But we're out of room temperature ones. I can only give you the chilled ones."
The tavern owner didn't care about his customers' identities. A dozen bottles of Sherry could earn him decent money, so he just brought them up quickly.
Even though one of them was a former Marine Admiral and the other was a monster with a bounty of over 2.8 billion, the owner didn't recognize them.
Whether it was a Marine Admiral or a great pirate like Yamato, they were too far removed from his daily life. Even though he often read about them in the newspapers, he never gave it much thought.
He saw himself as just an honest businessman, at most, one who watered down his alcohol.
People like that would never cross paths with someone like him in this lifetime. He remembered some key flags, knew the island's sheriff, was familiar with the dockworkers, and even recognized the regular drunkards who came to his bar.
But he had no impression of these big-name figures.
Only people like Marines, bounty hunters, or Underworld merchants—those who deal with pirates every day—would remember the general features of such individuals clearly.
Sometimes, just wearing someone's signature outfit made impersonation easy. As long as you didn't run into someone familiar, most people wouldn't notice. Differences in appearance would just make outsiders think the wanted poster was a bit outdated; after all, people could suddenly lose a lot of weight or gain it.
Taking the chilled wine, a trace of cold air emanated from Kuzan's hand, completing the actual chilling of the drink.
What the boss gave him was technically "chilled," but this island was unique. Galápagos Island was a Winter Island, with a very cold climate. What passed for room temperature here would be considered chilled elsewhere. What they called "chilled" was actually alcohol stored in an unpowered fridge, meaning room temperature wine.
"Well, how should I put it? Some places are quagmires to me too. I heard you Marines all have your own kind of justice. If Akainu's justice doesn't align with yours, then why not go somewhere else to seek your justice?
What's that saying again? People should live in the moment."
Asserting justice is not Yamato's hobby, but it was the perfect remedy for deceiving a Marine. Passionate, lazy, domineering, ambiguous; every Marine higher-up had their own take on justice.
And that was the root of the conflict between Akainu and Aokiji. In Aokiji's eyes, Akainu was too extreme and unscrupulous.
In Akainu's eyes, Aokiji was too lazy and lacked a proper passion for justice.
"Ara ara, am I drunk, or have we met before? Who told you all this strange stuff?"
"No one. At least, not you."
"Well, what a coincidence then."
Living in the moment and treasuring the present. Those were things Kuzan had learned from Garp back when he learned under him.
Garp always did whatever he liked, following his heart. The young Kuzan had admired Garp and wanted to be like him. But in the end, he couldn't be as free as Garp. After becoming an Admiral, he was bound by many constraints.
Now that he was free again, he wanted to experience that feeling.
"Your suggestion's not bad. I really don't have a place to go lately. Following you for now might not be a bad idea."
"I get it. We're temporarily teaming up for mutual benefits, right?"
From the start, Yamato had been looking for a meat shield. Even someone like Kuzan could only keep Kaido interested for so long. Once Kaido lost interest in him, Kuzan would just be another random passerby in Yamato's eyes. Whether he became friend or foe didn't matter.
As for Kuzan, he didn't take Yamato's bait directly. Assassinating Kaido or kidnapping Queen may sound tempting, but Kuzan knew very well: the fact that she dared to propose those conditions meant she had already determined he couldn't actually pull it off.
More than any of that, what concerned him was something else. What he really wanted to know was how Yamato had managed to gather so much detailed information about him.
Aside from that, no one knew what he planned to do. Whether he left the Marines because of a falling out with Akainu, or as part of a Marines' plan, only he truly knew.
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