Under King's lead, El and Doflamingo soon arrived at the main entrance of the Skull Dome.
"Huh?"
Just as he was about to step through the doorway, El suddenly sensed something. His eyebrow raised slightly as he cast a casual glance toward a fox statue, seemingly meeting the gaze of its hidden observer. In the next second, El looked away, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
In his perception, the figure concealed behind the statue was clearly detected—the owner of that gaze was none other than Kaido's twenty-one-year-old filial daughter.
The reason she hid in the shadows, peeping at El after discovering another outsider had arrived at Onigashima, was because he was accompanied by Doflamingo.
Having worshiped Kozuki Oden since childhood, Yamato had always regarded herself as a man all these years. She deeply hated the evil pirates led by Kaido and constantly dreamed of liberating the country of Wano, driving out these wicked forces.
El, appearing on Onigashima alongside Doflamingo, was automatically included in Yamato's list of villains. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been spying on him—she would have rushed over excitedly, asking him what the outside world looked like, begging him to take her away from Onigashima to explore like Kozuki Oden, until she gathered enough strength and outside allies to return and liberate Wano.
It must be said that Kaido and Yamato, father and daughter, truly embodied the concept of "a father's kindness and a daughter's filial piety."
The father, who believed in the supremacy of strength and preyed upon the weak, could mercilessly beat his eight-year-old daughter and throw her into a cave filled with imprisoned Wano warriors, unafraid that the prisoners might kill her in anger. To prevent his daughter from sneaking out to the outside world, he restrained her with Seastone handcuffs rigged with explosives—truly displaying his kindness as an old father!
As a daughter, Yamato was equally exceptional. Simply because she witnessed Kozuki Oden's heroic bearing at his execution, she became so enamored that she regarded herself as Oden, even emulating his gender. When she picked up Kozuki Oden's logbook, she treated it as her bible, inheriting his will to liberate Wano and open its borders.
There was no doubt Kaido's education was a failure. El, who aspired to be the world's foremost master of girl cultivation—having shaped the four girls besides Robin into his own image inside and out—was fully qualified to despise Kaido in this regard.
But this also demonstrated that Kaido, like Charlotte Linlin, was the most traditional type of pirate: insidious, cunning, moody, cruel, and violent, showing no leniency even toward his own children.
Since Yamato regarded him as a member of the evil pirate crew, El naturally had no interest in getting to know her. A distant glance was sufficient.
El followed King to a certain room, where he saw a monster who had dominated the New World and was renowned globally as the Strongest Creature in sea, land, and air—with a bounty as high as 4,611,100,000 Belly—Kaido of the Beasts.
"Fuhihihi, this brat actually dares to come. I'm starting to appreciate you a little."
Seeing El appear alone at his base camp, Kaido, who had been drinking from a special gourd, praised him with his unique laugh.
"Oh, really?"
El reached out, resting his hand on his sword hilt, watching Kaido smile and playing along. "But in your mind, that's not what you're thinking. Whether you're truly drunk or faking it, your inner thoughts can't be hidden from me. So you don't need to use this trick to entertain me."
"Tsk. Your Observation Haki isn't like that bastard Redfield's—you can't read people's inner thoughts."
Kaido couldn't help but curl his lip. He set down the large gourd in his hand, picked up his massive Kanabo mace named Hassaikai, and grinned at El.
"Forget it. I can't be bothered to figure it out. If you want my respect, the Float-Float Fruit ability isn't enough—even if it's superior to Shiki's."
As his final words fell, Kaido's 7.1-meter-tall body vanished from King and Doflamingo's sight.
Like a bolt of black lightning, Kaido created a gust of wind within the room and instantly appeared before El.
The mace in his hand—larger than El's entire body—was wrapped in dark red lightning arcs and swung like a baseball bat toward El.
In response, El, having read Kaido's inner thoughts, unhurriedly drew his sword.
The black blade Shusui, with its red serrated pattern, was also cloaked in the same dark red lightning arcs as it collided with the mace.
BOOM!
Though the mace and sword clashed with a resounding impact, there was no physical contact between them.
When they were still more than ten centimeters apart, the sword was blocked by an invisible force. Even the mace, bearing power capable of smashing mountains, could not damage this intangible barrier—as if it were the manifestation of a fundamental rule.
As this invisible force madly absorbed the Conqueror's coating from both sword and mace, it generated unparalleled fluctuations of Conqueror's Haki. Except for King, who could withstand it, Doflamingo beside him had to bend his knees slightly to stabilize himself as he watched the two monsters battle.
Watching the invisible matter glow with dark red lightning arcs, continuously emitting Conqueror's Haki fluctuations, Doflamingo's eyes behind his sunglasses burned with passion.
Power at such a different level—truly enviable! If he could master this level of power and integrate it with his Devil Fruit awakening, why would he need to grovel so humbly?
The Conqueror's Haki fluctuations transformed into several shockwaves sweeping through the room. Soon, this terrifying energy pierced through all obstacles and rose into the sky.
The sky above Onigashima had also changed—from clear to dark clouds filled with surging blue and white lightning arcs.
Within moments, the clouds looked like thin paper torn open by a pair of invisible hands, revealing a massive hole of astonishing width, length, and depth.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789