Chapter 15 : One Piece (5)

“Pirate? You’re really a pirate?”

Yamato’s eyes, once filled with caution, now sparkled with excitement as she looked at me.

“Then you came from outside Wano?”

“Yeah. I came from outside Wano.”

Hearing my answer, Yamato pursed her lips, clearly having a lot of questions but unsure where to start. I pulled out a few food items from my inventory and handed them to her.

These were the delicacies I had packed during my food tour in Wano’s capital.

“Wow! I haven’t seen proper food like this in so long!”

“It’s been that long?”

“Yeah. My dad never gives me decent food. All I ever get is a rice ball the size of my fist.”

My expression twisted at her words.

Yamato was tall for someone around 15 years old—probably thanks to her father Kaido’s massive frame.

But giving a kid this big nothing more than a fist-sized rice ball?

‘Locking her up in this underground prison is bad enough, but this? What a terrible father.’

Even if Yamato was suffering from that ridiculous “Oden disease,” locking her away and starving her was just madness.

From what I’d tortured out of one of Kaido’s subordinates, it turns out he publicly executed every pirate who’d secretly tried to help Yamato recently.

From where I stood, Kaido was no better—or worse—than Oden in his final years in terms of mental instability.

“Go ahead, eat.”

“Huh? Really? I can eat this?”

“Yeah. I brought it for you.”

“Thanks!”

Yamato grabbed the food with her bruised and battered hands and devoured it.

Was she eating or inhaling it?

As I watched her devour the food like a whirlwind, I walked over to a section of the underground prison.

I infused my sacred sword with holy energy, lightning, and magic—

Ssshk!

—and sliced through the prison wall.

Whoosh!

Beyond the severed wall, the vast sky opened up.

“Yamato.”

I gazed into the open sky and called her name.

“Huh? Just a second!”

Gulp!

Swallowing the food in her mouth, Yamato hurried over to my side.

“You want to get out of here, don’t you?”

“Out of here?”

“This place. Onigashima. Or rather, all of Wano.”

Yamato stared blankly at the sky, then down at the land of Wano beneath it.

She hesitated before replying.

“Can I really leave this place?”

She spoke with a worried and uncertain expression.

“I’m wearing shackles that’ll explode if I leave this island. And even if I run away, my dad’s so strong he’ll catch me and lock me up again.”

But then—

“Can I really leave this place?”

Yamato. She had spent her entire life under Kaido’s thumb. A life of surveillance masked as protection. A life with no freedom, where every movement was reported to her father.

And in that life, she came to admire one man. Kozuki Oden. A lunatic with zero redeeming qualities, yet unmatched in sheer will. Despite his wild and infamous youth, he had earned the unwavering respect of Wano’s people.

Yamato read Oden’s journal and witnessed his unbreakable will at his execution—and it made her dream of freedom. To be like Oden. To overcome her father’s oppression with an indomitable spirit and achieve true freedom. That’s why she called herself Oden. To her, Oden was the embodiment of freedom. He represented the future she longed for.

“Yamato, you don’t need to be Oden anymore.”

I looked at the shackles clamped around her wrists—ones that would explode the moment she left Onigashima. I slashed them off with my sacred sword.

“Wait—!”

And cast a barrier spell around them before tossing them far outside Onigashima.

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion echoed. Yamato and I turned toward the source of the blast—it was the remains of her shackles, now destroyed within the barrier.

“That blast could’ve killed me! That b*stard of a father!” Yamato trembled as she stared at the aftermath. She had thought the shackles would just cause a small explosion. But what she just witnessed? That was no small blast. Even someone as tough as Yamato might’ve suffered a fatal injury if she’d been hit directly.

I looked at her, fuming in anger, and reached out my hand with a smile.

“Yamato. You’re already free. The wide, unknown world—the one filled with adventure, like what you read in Oden’s journal—is yours to explore.”

Yamato’s so-called ‘Oden disease’—the delusion that she is Oden—stemmed from her deep yearning for freedom. Reading Oden’s journal, seeing his unyielding will—she idolized him, practically deified him. Because to her, he was freedom itself. So, she insisted she was Oden, in her desperate attempt to claim that freedom for herself.

But I realized something. The reason her “Oden disease” ran so deep—it was because in her entire life, she had never once felt free. Crushed beneath Kaido’s shadow, under constant watch and pressure—she had never tasted freedom.

But what if she could now? What if she could finally escape Kaido and feel true freedom—before the disease took deeper root?

‘Wouldn’t that cure her?’

That’s why I acted. I told her: she is free. She doesn’t need to call herself Oden anymore—she can just be Yamato.

“Really…? I’m really free now…?”

“Yes. Take my hand, Yamato.”

“O-okay.”

As she shyly took my hand, I cast a healing spell on her.

“It… it tickles…” Her bruises faded, her wounds healed—her body returned to a healthy state.

“Hold tight.” I pulled her closer by the hand.

“Ah—!” With a yelp, Yamato stumbled into my arms.

“W-wait! What are you—” Ignoring her protests, I held her tight and jumped off Onigashima. My wings flared open as we soared into the sky. Higher and higher, until Wano and Onigashima looked tiny beneath us.

“WAAAH!”

“We’re here. You can open your eyes now.” At my words, Yamato, who had shut her eyes in fear, slowly opened them.

“Whoa… this is the sea? It’s… so wide!” She was in awe. From up here, the vast ocean stretched endlessly in every direction. And then—tears welled up in her eyes.

“The… ocean… it’s so big…” It was understandable. She had only ever seen Onigashima and the land beneath it—Wano. Moved by the vast sight before her, she wept silently. I stood beside her, quietly taking it all in as well. Bathed in the soft moonlight, we admired the beauty of the world for what felt like a long time.

“Yamato.”

“Hm?”

“It’s time to decide.”

“Decide what?”

“Are you coming with me or not.” Suddenly, I felt a massive presence. I pointed in its direction. Yamato’s eyes followed my finger—

“Wororororo! Who dares raid my domain?!” A colossal, serpentine dragon wreathed in fire was charging straight at us. Kaido. A beast large enough to cover an entire island.

“I-Is that Dad?!”

“Looks like it.” Grimacing, I pulled Maxim out from my inventory.

“Whoa! A ship!”

“Yamato.” I stepped onto the deck. “Will you be my nakama?”

Frozen for a moment, Yamato then spoke, “Promise me one thing. Promise me freedom.”

Smiling, I replied, “Of course.”

“Then… okay! What’s your name?”

“Shine. My name is Shine.”

Woooong! I charged the Maxim with Holy Lightning.

Yamato tested my name on her tongue a few times, then grinned, throwing her arms wide. “Captain! Let’s go to sea! To adventure!”

“Set sail!”

KABOOOOOOM!

The thunder within Maxim exploded outward, propelling the ship at incredible speed—racing across the sky in the opposite direction of Kaido’s approach.

‘Too late now, Kaido.’ I smirked, watching him unleash a futile blast of Boro Breath. Your daughter’s with me now, Dragon Daddy.

And so, the Radiant Pirates, whose first achievement was the plunder of Onigashima, embarked on their maiden voyage.