The New World.
Across the churning surface of the sea, a lone pirate ship cut through the waves. Yamato handed the Transponder Snail back to Haruko after finishing her call. "See, Haruko? Wasn't my guess spot on? A Zoan Type, Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Crocodile. Am I amazing or what?"
"Amazing, amazing. Young Master, you are truly the most amazing," Haruko replied, her voice dripping with perfunctory patience as she tucked the device away.
"Haha! Haruko, don't praise me so much or I'll get cocky!" Yamato burst into a loud, boisterous laugh, clearly not picking up on the sarcasm.
Haruko looked at Yamato—who was laughing so hard her bright white teeth were fully on display—and let out a long, weary sigh. Our Young Master... how can she not have a shred of femininity? It's not like she's unattractive, she thought. Ever since they had set out to sea, Yamato had been letting herself go more and more. Currently, her personality was dominated by an obsession with treasure; she spent her days running off to every deserted island they passed to hunt for gold, and by some miracle, she actually kept finding it.
"Young Master! A pirate ship has been spotted to the southeast. It's flying a Jolly Roger we've never seen before. It must be a rookie crew!" a subordinate shouted from the crow's nest.
"A rookie crew?" Yamato walked to the bow of the ship and squinted toward the horizon. In the distance, a large pirate ship was indeed approaching, its scale even slightly larger than their own vessel. "If that simpleton Jack were here, he could just subjugate them directly. The problem is Jack isn't here, and I'm just not interested in a fight right now. Maybe we should just let them pass. What do you think, Haruko?"
"Since you're not interested, then consider it their lucky day," Haruko agreed. She certainly wasn't going to argue. If they captured a bunch of rookie pirates, she would be the one stuck doing the paperwork and managing the prisoners—a massive hassle she preferred to avoid.
Ten minutes later, the distance between the two ships had closed to less than 200 meters.
"Oh, look at them. Their numbers aren't small for rookies," Yamato noted, standing casually at the bow. Using her Observation Haki, she could sense the life forces on the other ship instantly: there were over 160 people on board. For a crew that had just entered the New World, gathering that many men was no small feat.
On the opposing ship, the atmosphere was far more frantic. "Boys, our luck is too good! It's the Beasts Pirates!" a tall man with a fierce gaze shouted, a crazed smile stretching across his face. "As long as we take these guys out, we'll instantly make a name for ourselves in the New World! Fire!"
Bang! Bang!
The moment the distance dropped to 150 meters, the rookies fired their cannons without hesitation.
"What audacity," Haruko muttered, her brow furrowing. She drew her sword in a blur of steel, sending out a series of slashes that detonated every cannonball in mid-air before they could get close.
"Young Master, shall we begin a counterattack?" a subordinate asked.
Yamato waved her hand dismissively. "No need to waste our cannonballs. I'll handle it."
As she spoke, Yamato's body shifted and grew. She entered her Dragon-Human Hybrid Form, her skin shimmering with scales and her presence becoming predatory. She opened her mouth wide as cyan light began to converge in front of her teeth, growing increasingly brilliant and dazzling. Haruko and the crew could feel the surrounding air vibrating violently, pulled toward Yamato by the sheer pressure of the energy.
The next second, a massive pillar of cyan light erupted. It looked like a torrent of countless beams woven together, moving so fast the naked eye couldn't track it.
BOOM!
The rookie ship was pierced through the center almost instantly. The wood shattered into splinters as if sliced by a giant, invisible blade. The light pillar continued past the wreckage and slammed into the distant sea, triggering a massive secondary explosion that sent a wall of water into the sky.
"How should I put it... this kind of attack... feels a bit weird. Like a monster. Haruko, what do you think?" Yamato asked, reverting to her human form and rubbing her chin.
Haruko couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "That's unavoidable, Young Master. In your Hybrid Form, you basically are a monster. Besides Lord Kaido, you're probably the only person on the sea who can launch an elemental attack like that."
Even among Mythical Zoan types, the ability to fire pure energy beams was rare.
"That's true. I should probably use that move less in the future. It feels a bit unbecoming. After all, I am a beauty," Yamato said to herself.
"Then you needn't worry, because not many people will be focused on your beauty while you're vaporizing their ships," Haruko said bluntly, not sparing Yamato's feelings at all.
Yamato's face dropped. "Hey! Haruko, isn't that a bit much? Am I not pretty? Is my figure not good enough? Am I not strong enough?"
"You are very pretty, your figure is great, and you are plenty strong. But don't you realize you lack any sense of femininity?" Haruko pointed out the glaring issue.
"Femininity?" Yamato's eyes widened slightly. It was as if she were hearing the word for the first time. She realized she had ignored the concept entirely. In her past life, she hadn't been female, and in this life, no one had bothered to teach her how to act. She had spent all her time training and fighting, and this was the result.
"That kind of thing doesn't really matter, does it? As long as I'm good-looking, it's fine," Yamato said, curling her lip. She knew if she tried to learn how to be "ladylike" now, she'd fail miserably. It was too late for that.
"Then why do you care about being 'unbecoming'?" Haruko countered. "If you don't care about femininity, then the monster thing shouldn't bother you."
Yamato rolled her eyes. "Image is important! Does a beauty like me not need a public image anymore?"
"As long as you're happy, Young Master. I have no objections either way," Haruko said, spreading her hands in a gesture of surrender. There was no point in arguing with someone so willful.
"Let's go. Let's see if there's anything left worth picking up," Yamato said, waving her hand for the ship to approach the debris.
As they drew near, they saw wreckage floating everywhere. Dozens of pirates were clinging to planks of wood like drowned rats, their eyes filled with pure terror. Just minutes ago, they had dreamed of fame and glory. Now, they were hovering between life and death.
"Oh my, quite a spectacular sight," Yamato joked, looking down at the survivors.
"That attack... it was you..." one of the pirates stammered, his voice trembling with fear.
"Foolish lot. Do you have no common sense? You don't just attack a Four Emperors' ship the moment you reach the New World," Haruko said coldly, looking at them like they were ants. She turned to the crew. "Search the wreckage. Bring up any treasure you find. If anyone resists, kill them immediately."
"Daring to attack the Beasts Pirates... I really don't know where these primitive monkeys crawled out from," one subordinate mocked.
"Exactly. Everyone in the New World knows what happens when you mess with a Yonko crew," another added as they began hauling crates of gold out of the water.
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