"W-Warden Babanuki! There's an issue!" A nameless grunt burst into the top of the Executive Tower, hunched over and breathing heavily as he waved frantically at the Warden.
"Did someone escape again?" Babanuki, a huge man looking close to ten feet tall, answered boredly, "Don't bother me with stuff like that! They'll be recaptured soon anyway!"
Babanuki was large in more than just height, as he had bulging muscles that were evident through his tanned skin, a large head with an ugly face, a large black curly beard, and two large horns that stuck out of his head. However, his most defining feature wasn't actually his own features, but instead his devil fruits.
On his chest, as if someone had attached it with glue, was a massive yellow elephant's head. Despite looking like it had been chopped off the animal's body and tied to his own, the elephant's eyes still moved, and Babanuki even used its trunk to unleash deadly attacks. It was strangely sentient in a way that didn't make sense, but that wasn't odd for this world.
"Oh, phew, if some prisoners escaping is fine, then there's no need to worry," The guard sighed, wiping some sweat off his brow at Babanuki's casual dismissal. "Sorry, Warden, it's my first week working here!"
"Don't sweat it," Babanuki just waved him off lazily, "So, who was it that got out?"
"Everyone."
"Oh? I've never heard of that prisoner," Babanuki chuckled, holding up a bone of meat as he took a large bite out of it. "He must not be important anyway. He'll be recaptured soon enough."
"Oh, um, that's not his name! I meant like everyone, as in, all the prisoners," The guard chuckled at the misunderstanding a bit sheepishly, "Man, I thought our heads would roll for this, y'know? Damn am I glad that this is normal!"
"Ha, yup! Prisoners manage to get out all the time, so if it's just- E-EVERYONE?!" Babanuki leaned forward, doing a spit-take as he spat out a chunk of meat he was chewing on, "What do you mean everyone?!"
"Like, all the prisoners," The nameless grunt clarified again, "The Vice-Warden's have already gone to try and stop them, but there's a big guy with a sword leading them, and he cut them up. Damn, this is a dangerous job, huh? If the Vice-Wardens dying happens a lot, then I might have to quit-"
"It doesn't happen a lot, you moron! I meant one prisoner getting out was normal - not all of them!" Babanuki huffed, lashing out with his hand as he casually swatted the grunt into the wall, knocking him out effortlessly, "Damn it! Why is it so hard to get good minions these days?!"
The Warden stood up from his seat in a huff, walking past the unconscious grunt as he headed towards the staircase to the lower floors of the Executive Tower.
"But, it doesn't matter if they all escaped! I'll deal with this riot myself!" Babanuki huffed, his eyes hardening as he started to descend the staircase, "I'm a Headliner! An Elite amongst a crew of Beasts! If these damn prisoners are attacking the Vice-Wardens, then we can skip the three-strike rule…"
His lips twitched up into a cruel smirk, which was matched by the elephant wrapped around his chest.
"I'll kill them all!"
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Babanuki did not kill them all.
"W-Wait! I'm sorry! I can be useful, I can help you against Kaid-"
Babanuki's head rolled off his shoulders, and his words were cut off without warning. He didn't even register his own death, as was evident by the way his eyes didn't shift when they dimmed and his mouth flopped open mid-word.
"Cold," Hyougoro muttered to my side, but still looked a bit impressed at the corpse of Babanuki.
"I might've been nicer if he didn't come in trying to kill you all," I just shrugged in response, casually wiping the blood off the blade of my sword, "I've been attacked enough that trying to take my life doesn't piss me off much anymore, but trying to take my subordinates lives? That ticks me off."
As Babanuki lay at my feet, I was a bit disappointed, but also glad at how easy he had been to take down. He had run up to the growing army of prisoners around me not even a minute ago, raised his trunk as he tried to launch his 'Excite Shot' at them, and then had promptly been forced to his knees by just one punch. I had been considering sparing the Warden because he would be a decently strong subordinate, being around level 300, but he'd pissed me off with his approach.
The 'Excite Shot' was a variation of the 'Excite Bullets' - which were pretty much poisonous bullets designed to inflict the most pain possible before either killing or incapacitating the target. Essentially, the Warden had tried to kill the entire group of prisoners, and me, in the most painful way possible.
I could forgive the attempt on my life - because that happened pretty often at this point, and if I held grudges for something like that then I'd miss out on a lot of subordinates and be killing a lot of beautiful women - but attempting to murder all of my newfound subordinates that I just spent 'so much effort' acquiring? That couldn't slide.
"Calling us your subordinates already? Hah," Hyougoro chuckled lightly, but didn't try to correct my verbage, "I suppose if I were to follow someone, I'd want it to be you. If you handled the Warden this effortlessly, then even Kaido might not be out of reach!"
"H-He's really d-dead! Monkey!" I glanced over as the sole remaining Vice-Warden, a woman named Solitaire, stared down with wide eyes at Babanuki's headless body.
"Calling him an animal? You should be nicer to the dead," I said dryly, smirking lightly as Solitaire huffed at my words, glaring at me lightly.
"I-I keep telling you I just talk like that, Monkey! It's my Smile's fault!" The woman huffed, and I just chuckled.
Before the Warden had so stupidly tried to murder my army of prisoners, the remaining two Vice-Wardens after Daifugo, Solitaire and Dobon, had come rushing down the tower to stop the forming riot. They hadn't been much of a fight, and Dobon - a rather annoying bowling-ball-shaped man in a giant mech-like hippo - was currently in my stomach.
Solitaire should've been the same, as while she was certainly gorgeous with a tall frame, slender body, pretty face, long silky green hair, and sizeable breasts, she wasn't so gorgeous that I would go out of my way to spare her. However, luckily for her, she looked pretty appealing compared to her fellow wardens.
Whereas Dobon had taken the same approach as Babanuki - that being targeting the prisoners under my authority with his large hippo's mouth instead of trying to fight me - Solitaire had at least been rather 'honorable' in targeting me, and was even decently skilled with her swords.
The woman had eaten a monkey-based Smile Fruit - which was just an animal-based Zoan Devil Fruit that was artificially produced - that caused her to have three sets of arms, having a total of six limbs sticking out of her rather long torso, which in turn allowed her to wield six blades, though she only used four. In most situations, being able to wield four swords was pretty overpowered, as the pure onslaught of offense was hard for someone to handle with only one or two blades.
But that was just in most situations. I gapped the woman heavily in speed, strength, skill, and pretty much everything, so she'd been easy to handle. In the end, a combination of her decent fighting power, good looks, and non-annoying attitude made me decide to spare her. She wasn't anything special, but she would be a nice addition to my growing army in this world.
"The guards are all taken out, Sir Hyougoro!"
Speaking of my growing army, a rather tall woman, looking to be roughly seven feet tall overall - which didn't wasn't actually that tall in the world of One Piece, as even my tall statue and frame that towered over people in the DxD world was just average compared to some of the prisoners and guards - with fluffy blue hair, a slenderframe, a thin and long face, sizeable breasts, and who was wearing a prison outfit called out.
"I told you to quit talking to me so respectfully, brat," Hyougoro huffed, but was grinning lightly as the woman and former Yakuza boss of the Ringo region of Wano, Cho, called out to him, "We're all just prisoners, and I don't feel like I should have any authority when this man did what I never could in just one day!"
Cho was one of the 'youngsters' that Hyougoro referred to, who were actually not that young as she seemed to be in her early to mid-30s. She, along with a lanky blonde-haired man with straw-like hair named Tsunagoro, a huge and ugly man named Yatappe, and an even huger and uglier man named Omasa, were former Yakuza bosses who had been split into the various portions of the prison.
They had also been the reason that taking over the prison had gone so smoothly. While most of the prisoners under my control were just grunts, being unable to even take on a normal guard after being starved for so long, they were exceptions. They couldn't handle someone like a Vice-Warden, much less Babanuki, but they could take on the Waiters here casually and hold their own against the Gifters.
As a result, I just needed to step in to take down the three Vice-Wardens and Babanuki. The rest had been done by them, as Hyougoro had proven useful by rallying them into fighting.
"Of course! If you want to follow this man, Sir Hyougoro, then I won't complain!" The loud and boisterous voice of Omasa chuckled, walking up with a guard casually slung over his shoulder, "If he's someone you'll bend the knee for, then he's more than enough for us!"
"Yes, Sir Hyougoro," The more sleazy voice of Tsunagoro agreed, "If you think he's the real deal, then I'll follow you. It's not like just anyone can take down the Warden anyway, y'know?"
Hyougoro had been helpful in overall speeding up the takeover of the prison, as instead of needing to intimidate or convince the other prisoners to follow me - which probably wouldn't have been hard once they saw me kill Babanuki, but was still overall wasted time - just having him by my side made the former Yakuza bosses bend the knee, which in turn made the other weaker prisoners follow willingly.
As a result, the prison had been conquered easily, and I had some nice skills to show for it. There were a fair bit of Gifters within the prison, not to mention the Vice-Wardens, and even Babanuki, who was lying at my feet and looking like a prime piece of steak.
Most of the skills weren't anything insane, as the Smile Fruits were still just Zoan-based fruits that were knockoffs of the real deal, but they weren't terrible either. For example, Daifugo had given me the [Poison Sting] skill - which doubled as the name of a Pokemon move, and pretty much did the same thing.
If I pricked someone with a sharp object, like my sword, they'd be inflicted with the [Poison] debuff - which just made them feel sick and slowed down their body's functions a bit. I'd have to test it out more, but it overall looked like it wasn't overpowered, but was a nice addition to the damage my initial cutting/stabbing attack would do anyway.
There were also, of course, some very useless ones, such as the [Protective Shell] skill I got - not from Madilloman, as his [Armadillo's Shield] actually wasn't bad because of how tough the shell was, but instead from a random Gifter I ate as the prisoners were running wild. The skill just did exactly what it sounded like - it created a protective shell, but instead of the protective and hard shell of [Armadillo's Shield], it was a… hermit crab's shell.
Which is to say, it covered my entire vision, was large and bulky, and shattered pretty easily. I'd had a random prisoner punch it to test it out, and even the rather average man could break through it without much effort, though it was only level 1. Overall, the skills were decent at best, and I'd probably never have a real use for most of them.
"...I haven't known you long, but," I was dragged out of my thoughts about skills as Hyougoro muttered, glancing over at the Yakuza bosses and then back to me, "...your strength shines even brighter than Oden's did! Truly, if there's anyone that could defeat that sham of a Shogun and remove Kaido…"
"You think that highly of him, huh? I'll admit, I thought Oden would have to rise from the dead for you to have hope again," The final Yakuza boss, Yatappe, chuckled as he glanced from Hyougoro to me, "I don't even really know who you are, or where you came from, but I don't care either! If you're here to take that big bastard down, then you've got my support!"
"Mine as well, but I don't do the whole 'kneeling' thing," Cho added in, smiling slightly and referring to the way so many of the prisoners would fall to their knees just from my presence, "I still have my pride as a boss, y'know?"
"I'll accept that," I just grinned lightly at their words, as I wasn't so arrogant that I'd demand they show their support by falling to their knees, and turned to Solitaire again, "But, we're not moving yet. I'm sure you report to Kaido often, correct?"
I continued as Solitaire nodded at my words, looking at me curiously, "You'll continue to do so. For the moment, we'll let him think that everything is normal, and the prison is still under his control."
That was another reason why Solitaire was alive and not in my stomach - I needed one of the higher-ups here alive to trick Kaido. I had planned to just use Babanuki, but Solitaire was preferable.
For now, Kaido could sleep and drink comfortably, thinking that there was no threat to him in Wano. Meanwhile, I'd quietly bring my forces into this world, establish a stronghold, and then start the true conquering. As he was none the wiser-
"I'll take everything." I hummed, a wide, hungry grin slipping onto my face that caused Solitaire to take a step back.
I could recklessly challenge Kaido right now alone and probably still win, but that wasn't my goal. To make the Captain of the Beast Pirates bend the knee, it wouldn't be enough to just defeat him. I needed to shatter his will.
I needed to take everything from him.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read the next 7 chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon ! (I'll be increasing that number soon, too! I think I said that like a month ago and never ended up doing so, but for real this time!)