"Are you angry already? Kozuki Oden is exactly that kind of person."
Caelan spoke evenly, enunciating each word. "He claims to love his country and people, but his choices were self-centered. He says he is devoted to the people, but his judgment was poor. He cares about his followers, but he was ineffective as a leader."
"What is there to admire in someone with such serious flaws?"
"Aside from his innate skill in martial arts, he lacked everything else. He was neither wholly ruthless nor decisively righteous. In the end, he was simply unreliable."
Caelan's tone was calm, with only a hint of sarcasm.
Yet that calm voice struck Yamato's heart like a hammer.
Large fragments were eighty, small fragments were forty.
One way or another, after the exchange, Yamato's faith had been shattered into pieces.
She had admired Kozuki Oden for eighteen years, only to find him a man riddled with shortcomings.
If she aspired to become Oden, did that not make her an even bigger fool?
"I do not want to listen. You are lying. You are making things up!" Yamato's face darkened, her once-clear words breaking apart.
Finally, she threw her head back, her expression collapsing. "Ha. That Oden is fake! I am Kozuki Oden. I am the hero of Wano!"
In that moment, she forgot Caelan's cutting criticisms of Oden.
Because the cowardly, incompetent Oden was false in her mind. She was the true one.
She loved the country and its people. She served the people. She would be a good leader, upright and decisive.
"Is this a turn to the dark?" Caelan murmured, surprised by Yamato's reaction.
He had not expected a few harsh truths about Oden to drive her to this extreme.
He had intended to correct Yamato's outlook. He had not expected to overcorrect.
"I will not forgive you for defaming Kozuki Oden!"
Yamato charged with her kanabo.
Dark Armament Haki wrapped around the mace.
She swung hard at Caelan's head.
The strike tore through the air with a sharp whistle.
Swish.
Caelan turned lightly, letting the blow pass, and even had time to comment, "How am I defaming him? I am stating facts, am I not?"
"You keep twisting things. Just admit Kozuki Oden was the weakest person in the world!" Yamato blurted without thinking.
"Not small, not great," Caelan said with a faint smile. "That is confirmed by his wife."
"Ahhh! You… Thunder Bagua!"
Yamato raised the kanabo and rushed at full speed.
Her momentum climbed as she charged.
When she reached Caelan, she brought it down with everything she had.
With Armament Haki's ryuo and the immense power she inherited from Kaido-sama, this blow could shatter mountains and split stone.
The iron club cut the air. Pale blue arcs danced along its length.
It moved so fast it left only a black blur.
"Oh."
Caelan swatted backhand, meeting the descending mace.
No matter how fast she was, to him it was a crawl.
Power that could crush a hill was like an ant before him.
Clang.
In an instant, the kanabo was knocked aside, and Yamato, gripping it tightly, was hurled into the air.
"You overwhelming monster, I will defeat you!"
Yamato felt that terrifying strength.
It exceeded her limits, but she refused to yield.
"Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami!"
White hair grew across her body as her frame expanded into a divine beast form.
She stepped on the air, as if it were solid ground.
"Divine Step, White Serpent Drive!"
Faster than before, she streaked forward, leaving only afterimages.
Lightning crackled along the mace, Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki entwined, as she swung fiercely.
A massive, tangible shockwave crashed down toward Caelan.
It crushed the air, a mountain falling from the sky.
However.
The blow that should have boomed like thunder simply stopped in midair.
One hand.
A slender, powerful hand.
It reached up and gently supported the descending mace.
The force that could smash a hill hung there, unmoving.
"How can this be!"
Suspended by her own weapon, Yamato stared, stunned.
She could not believe that her full-strength strike in her divine beast form had been caught barehanded.
Caelan glanced at her astonishment and smiled faintly. "Good strength, but far below your father."
"Argh! I will beat you!"
That slight, mocking smile imprinted itself in Yamato's mind, stoking her fury.
This man not only spoke against Kozuki Oden, he even used her most hated father to weigh on her. Unforgivable.
Yamato landed, gripped the kanabo, and bore down with all her weight.
Her transformed features were fierce, every muscle straining to the limit.
This was her absolute full power. She could not draw out more.
It was useless.
No matter how hard she pushed, the mace did not move at all.
That hand felt as if it were anchored to the world itself.
She tried to wrench the kanabo free to swing again.
Still impossible.
She could neither drive it down nor pull it out.
"You have done your best, Wano's misguided one."
Caelan spoke calmly.
He closed his fingers around the mace.
The finely forged iron shrieked.
Crunch. Crunch.
As if the mace itself were wailing.
Caelan's fingers sank into the metal.
"Takeru!"
Yamato cried out in pain.
Takeru was the mace's name, the weapon she had held since childhood. She was deeply attached to it.
To see it damaged in Caelan's grasp shocked and pained her.
That was Takeru, which could clash with Kaido's Hassaikai without a scratch.
Yet Caelan's bare hand had dented it.
"Worry about yourself first."
Caelan wrenched the mace and swung hard.
Yamato, clinging to it, felt an irresistible force run through the weapon.
She was yanked into the air.
Caelan slammed the mace down again.
Yamato crashed with it.
Boom.
The compacted ground before the mansion split, dust billowing.
When it cleared, a human-shaped crater remained, Yamato embedded within.
Dazed, seeing stars, blood at the corner of her lips.
Caelan stepped in and drove a punch into her soft abdomen.
"Urgh!"
Yamato's body curled like a shrimp, all strength fleeing her limbs.
Under Caelan's power, she dropped out of her divine beast form and returned to human shape.
Broken in will and body, she lay there, eyes dim.
She was already shattered.
(To be continued.)