Suspecting that Black Maria had a special relationship with Kaido, Celo directly invoked Kaido's name to threaten her.
It worked shockingly well; Black Maria immediately froze and didn't move or make a sound.
If he had an extra burlap sack big enough to fit her, Celo would've packed her up and carried her away, too.
Not for personal reasons
But he wanted to raise the stakes with Kaido and the Beasts Pirates.
That way, he could even say:
"Kaido, you don't want the Marines to bully Black Maria, too, do you?"
But even if he did have a big enough sack, Celo simply had no hands free to carry her.
"Hancock, let's go."
Celo once again picked up the burlap sacks containing Katakuri and Jack, and swaggered out of the room with Hancock.
Outside, the Beasts, Pirates, and courtesans cheered loudly upon seeing them exit.
They looked like they'd all had a little too much to drink.
"Didn't expect such a young guy to make that much noise in there!"
"Almost stronger than Lord Kaido!"
"That woman's gorgeous! Was she the one making all that noise? Hehehe…"
"That was Lady Black Maria's room. With her guidance, it's no surprise things got intense!"
"You can tell this kid's got serious talent, he lifted those huge sacks like nothing!"
"Stop it! You're embarrassing him!"
Not a single one of them suspected that Black Maria might be inside one of those sacks Celo was carrying.
Celo truly regretted not bringing one more oversized burlap sack in advance.
But thanks to how clueless these Beasts Pirates were, he and Hancock made it smoothly to the library.
It was hard to imagine that such a brawny, uncultured crew would even have a library in their HQ.
Maybe they had too many rooms and just filled one with books to make use of the space.
Or maybe Kaido knew that his daughter Yamato wanted to learn about the outside world, so he kept books there for her.
"Who's out there?!"
Before Celo and Hancock could even knock, the library door flung open from the inside.
What greeted them was a demonic-looking face mask.
"I don't recognize you two. What are you doing here?!"
A brash female voice came from behind the mask, and the figure began eyeing them suspiciously.
"Celo, could this be the Yamato you mentioned?"
Hancock asked, excited. All the features matched what Celo had described.
"Celo? So you're looking for me? I prefer to be called Kozuki Oden!"
"Can we go inside and talk? It's about Ace."
"ACE?!!!"
The moment Celo said that name, Yamato shouted, stunned.
As if she'd just heard something unimaginable.
Then her face lit up with joy.
She even started hopping up and down on the spot.
Celo and Hancock were completely dumbfounded.
If Celo hadn't motioned for Hancock to bring Yamato into the library, she might've kept jumping there until the next night.
"Enough jumping, Yamato, err, Kozuki Oden. Let's sit down and talk properly about Ace."
"Okay, okay!"
The chance to hear news about Ace made Yamato sit down eagerly.
She even removed her mask, revealing her true face to Celo and Hancock.
Seeing how delicately beautiful Kaido's daughter was, Hancock couldn't help but question whether she was truly Kaido's child.
How could that ugly, brutish man produce a daughter this pretty?
And it couldn't have been Big Mom's child either; that fat hog surely couldn't have birthed a woman with such a graceful figure.
Maybe Yamato was the daughter of Kozuki Oden, that legendary samurai on Gol D. Roger's ship?!
Dozens of wild theories raced through Hancock's head.
If Yamato hadn't impatiently cut in, Hancock might've even started guessing she was an alien.
"Hurry! Hurry! I want to hear about Ace!"
"Ace… he's scheduled for public execution at Marineford in 15 days…"
"WHAT? What did you say?! That's impossible!!!"
After such a long silence with no news, Yamato never expected that the next thing she'd hear was that Ace was about to be executed by the Marines.
She was stunned.
"We're going to Marineford to rescue Ace. We came to Wano and Onigashima to ask for your help."
Celo stated its purpose directly.
From the way Yamato had just reacted, he was 100% certain she would never sit by and let Ace die.
Sure enough, Yamato immediately grabbed them and tried to run out of the library, out of Onigashima, out of Wano, straight to Marineford.
But she had barely taken a step before both Celo and Hancock pulled her back.
That's when Hancock noticed Yamato's wrists were shackled.
"Your hands…"
"Yeah… I can't leave Onigashima. Forget reaching Marineford, I'm useless…!"
Following Hancock's gaze, Yamato realized her wrists were still bound.
She immediately slumped to the floor in despair, on the verge of tears.
In just a few minutes, Yamato had gone from overjoyed at hearing Ace's name, to determined to save him, to utterly devastated.
Even Celo and Hancock had trouble keeping up with her mood swings.
"Celo, what's with her handcuffs? Kaido's daughter is shackled in the Beasts Pirates' base?!"
Hancock was completely baffled.
No one outside Wano would believe such a thing.
Just as Celo was about to explain, he noticed Yamato had grabbed the hilt of his katana.
"Let me borrow your sword. I'll cut off my hands, I have to go save Ace, no matter what!"
"Whoa, whoa, don't do anything stupid!"
Celo quickly knocked her hands away from the sword.
First of all, that was unnecessary.
And second, how was she going to save Ace at Marineford without hands?
Would she fight with her feet? Her horns?
What was she planning, a Golden Lion-style escape, wielding kanabōs with her stumps?
"Wait! I can remove the cuffs!"
"Don't stop me! II, wait, did you say you can remove them?!"
Yamato, nearly hysterical, froze and stared at Celo.
She wasn't sure she'd heard correctly.
She figured Celo thought they were just ordinary cuffs.
"These aren't normal cuffs! They'll explode if tampered with."
"I know. You try to destroy them, and they go boom, right?"
"How do you know that?!"
Yamato was stunned.
But she quickly assumed Ace must've told Celo.
From the beginning, she believed Celo was Ace's friend.
(Though she still didn't know his name.)
"Oh, right! What's your name?"
"I'm Celo. She's Hancock."
After talking with her for nearly half an hour, Yamato was only just now asking for their names.
Celo couldn't help but laugh.
At the same time, he unsheathed his katana.
The moment Yamato felt the blade's sharp aura, she instinctively straightened up.
"C-Celo… you're going to cut my handcuffs with that sword? Can you do that?!"
It wasn't that Yamato doubted his strength; she was more worried that if he did break them, she'd instantly explode.
Anxiety and dread flooded her mind.
"Yamato… you don't want Ace to die either, do you?"
Celo calmly threw the question at her.
Instantly, Yamato shoved both her hands forward toward the blade.
No more hesitation.
Her forced bravado made Hancock chuckle out loud.
Even now, Hancock didn't understand why Kaido would shackle his daughter.
Or what was so scary about unlocking some handcuffs?
If it were up to her, she'd snap them with one finger.
At this point, she couldn't help but seriously doubt Yamato's actual strength.
Wouldn't dragging along such deadweight, slow Celo down in the mission to save Ace?
While Hancock dove back into her mental debate, Celo had already raised his katana, eyes focused.
A mysterious force, seemingly Armament Haki, but something more, spread from his hand and wrapped around the entire blade.
"Ryuo Phantom Blade Dance!"