"Togen Totsuka—Dragon Flash!"
Kozuki Hiyori unsheathed her twin blades and slaughtered in all directions; the ordinary members of the Beasts Pirates were naturally routed in an instant.
Saying Kozuki Hiyori's strength wasn't much was only in comparison to a Four Emperors like Kaido; the small fries under a Four Emperors were certainly no match for her.
Even King, in his enhanced form with the Oguchi-no-Magami Fruit, wouldn't dare claim a certain victory against Kozuki Hiyori, let alone these nameless subordinates.
However, the round Queen didn't expect his subordinates to stop Vegapunk; as soon as the battle started over there, Queen had already slipped away without a trace.
Vegapunk and Kozuki Hiyori didn't stop him. When Vegapunk descended, the four floating warships on the periphery had already formed a barrier. Now, no one was allowed to enter or leave Onigashima. Even if Queen wanted to escape, there was nowhere to run.
A group of small fries only took Kozuki Hiyori a dozen seconds. Once everyone was cleared out, Vegapunk clapped his hands and opened all the prison cell doors.
"So strong! Are there actually such powerful samurai in Wano Country?"
Yamato was the first to jump out, looking at Kozuki Hiyori with a face full of surprise. Kozuki Hiyori also glanced at Yamato but only gave a cold snort.
During her time on the floating warship, Kozuki Hiyori had gained a clear understanding of the backgrounds of all the important figures in the current Beasts Pirates. Naturally, she knew about Yamato, this Oden-obsessed fan.
However, the reason Kozuki Hiyori was unwilling to give Yamato a good face wasn't because Yamato was Kaido's daughter, but because Yamato wanted to be Kozuki Oden every day—which meant she wanted to be her father!
After all, the current Kozuki Hiyori's experiences were completely different from the original story, and her personality had naturally changed significantly. She certainly couldn't tolerate an extra father appearing over her head.
If it weren't for the fact that Yamato was technically in the same camp as her, and seemed to have some intellectual issues, Kozuki Hiyori would probably have taught her a lesson long ago.
Ace ignored Yamato, who was pestering Kozuki Hiyori, and immediately ran to Otama's side. Seeing Otama open her eyes and slowly wake up, he instantly wept with joy.
"Eh!? Big Brother Ace, are you dead too?!"
"Everyone is here! Could it be that everyone was killed by the Beasts Pirates? But going to hell together isn't too bad, I guess!"
Hearing Otama's dazed questions, Ace, who was crying with tears and snot, suddenly broke into a smile and said:
"Don't worry, Otama! No one is dead! You were also saved by this Mr. Vegapunk!"
"Eh!!"
Realizing what was happening, Otama touched her heart, felt the warmth of her skin and the beating of her heart, then widened her eyes and jumped up:
"Oh my, I was actually saved! Is it really true that good deeds are rewarded?!"
When she turned her head and saw the blond Vegapunk, her face turned slightly red, and she gave a respectful bow:
"Thank you for saving this humble girl, Big Brother Vegapunk!"
"What kind of strange address is that? Forget it..."
Vegapunk said helplessly. There were plenty of Monsters and strange verbal tics in the pirate world; Otama wasn't particularly special. At least she sounded a bit cute rather than making people feel she was crazy.
He took a close look at the girl Otama, reached out a hand, and gave her cheek a gentle pinch, pulling out a small kibi dango directly.
"As expected... she's already a Devil Fruit User... Is it this early?"
Vegapunk didn't care much whether it was this early in the original story. He was still quite curious about this Kibi Dango Fruit.
The origin of the Dango Fruit clearly came from the legend of Momotaro. Coincidentally, Wano Country also had the story of Momotaro slaying demons. It was slightly different from the real world, but not by much; at most, the three animals—chicken, dog, and monkey—were slightly different.
This Devil Fruit not only lacked the characteristics of the food dango itself but also didn't have much logic. It was entirely based on myths and legends. It was quite different from other Paramecia-type Devil Fruits and was actually closer to the essence of Devil Fruits—the so-called crystallization of wishes condensed by mental power.
With a dango pinched off, Otama covered her cheek and said shyly:
"Big Brother Vegapunk, are you hungry? But this humble girl's dango can only be eaten by animals; it won't satisfy a normal person's hunger!"
"It's fine, I don't need this dango to satisfy my hunger."
Vegapunk waved his hand, casually returned the dango to Otama, and looked at the others in the prison.
"If you're ready, let's go. I expect the rest of the Beasts Pirates will be here if we don't leave soon!"
"Although we can win, as for you all..."
Vegapunk glanced at the ordinary villagers and the pirates of the Spade Pirates, who weren't much stronger than the villagers. If a fight really broke out, these people probably wouldn't even be able to withstand the aftershocks.
"I understand. I will protect everyone. As for the Beasts Pirates, I'll leave them to you, Mr. Vegapunk!"
Ace nodded steadily. Having just experienced a mental ordeal, this originally impulsive kid had lost some of his drive but had also become much more composed than before.
At least he wasn't like those other Supernovas who had just rushed into the New World, getting their heads heated and wanting to take down a Four Emperors' head, only to be beaten so badly they wouldn't recognize their own mothers.
To put it bluntly, in the original story, if Ace hadn't been lucky—finding Kaido wasn't home when he went looking for him, and then being favored by Whitebeard, who might have known his background—ending up in a situation like this would have been inevitable.
Seeing Ace prepare to protect those burdens, Vegapunk also nodded, grabbed Kozuki Hiyori's small hand, and the two prepared to set off.
"Wait! You're going to cause trouble for my old man, right? Take me with you!"
Yamato quickly reached out and requested. Vegapunk glanced at her and nodded:
"Then set off with us! By the way, you should be an Artificial Devil Fruit User, right?"
"Eh?! How did you know? My Devil Fruit ability was modeled after my old man's Azure Dragon Fruit. According to him, it cost quite a bit!"
"But the dragon I turn into is pink... It feels so strange! The creator my old man found definitely wasn't skilled enough!"
With a smack, Yamato's head throbbed as it was struck by Vegapunk's hand-knife, forming a large bump. Yamato, with tears in her eyes, became indignant:
"What are you doing, you jerk?"
"Nothing, just testing the hardness of your head!"
Vegapunk had a nonchalant expression and casually changed the subject:
"Aren't you going to unlock the handcuffs? Those are Sea Stone handcuffs, right? They should have a significant impact on your strength."
And Yamato, living up to her nickname as the female version of the rubber monkey, quickly forgot about the bump on her head as Vegapunk diverted the topic.
"Are you talking about the Sea Stone handcuffs on my wrists? There's no key for them here! And there are bombs inside these handcuffs. They say the explosive power is very strong; they'll explode if I leave Onigashima or try to force them off!"
Vegapunk glanced at Yamato's handcuffs. This was also a rather ridiculous thing... Such small handcuffs had an explosive power more terrifying than a missile. Never mind Luffy and Yamato at the time, even Big Mom of the Four Emperors was left looking disheveled by the explosion.
What couldn't be done with this kind of black technology? Yet he had to put a bomb on his own daughter. Vegapunk could only say that Kaido's brain had issues.
However, when Vegapunk permeated his electromagnetic ability into the Sea Stone handcuffs, he realized it wasn't that Kaido's brain had issues, but that these bomb handcuffs might actually be a one-of-a-kind item.
"Where did Kaido get this kind of thing? No wonder he hasn't used these bombs; turns out he got some Dyna Stones from somewhere!"
Dyna Stones could be called the small-scale nuclear bombs of the One Piece World. Their effect was dozens or hundreds of times stronger than ordinary explosives. However, this stuff was impossible to stabilize; if processed, the most likely outcome was blowing oneself up. So they could only be used crudely as bombs.
This was also why the Marine rarely used such bombs. Dangerous storage, difficult usage, low yield, and hard mining were all its various drawbacks.
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