Looting

"Sure enough, I'm not very talented at genjutsu." Yota rubbed his head and complained.

No matter how weak Black Maria's will was, she was still a Tobi Roppo-level expert, no weaker than an ordinary Vice Admiral. Even while unconscious and after Yota had injected her with a large amount of hallucinogen, she was not so easily hypnotized by genjutsu.

Fortunately, just as Yota was nearly mentally exhausted, he finally managed to learn the location of the Beasts Pirates' treasure vault.

After getting the information, Yota did not bother with the unconscious Black Maria. He had no intention of truly becoming mortal enemies with the Beasts Pirates.

If he robbed the Beasts Pirates' warehouse and ran into Kaido, he only needed to hand everything over and say he was willing to join him. Kaido would still happily take him in as a subordinate.

But if he killed Black Maria, then if Kaido found him, he would probably get hit with a Thunder Bagua. After smashing him to death, Kaido would probably spit a few blasts of Dragon Flame and scatter even his ashes.

Following the information Black Maria had given him, Yota quickly found an iron door inside the Skull Palace. The door and the surrounding walls were even mixed with a certain amount of Sea Stone, clearly intended to guard against certain unusual Devil Fruit users.

However, Yota was not here to steal—he was here to rob the place outright!

No matter how good your security measures were, as long as the explosion was powerful enough, it could blow them all apart!

After placing Exploding Tags in the gaps of the iron door, a thunderous boom rang out. The two iron doors crashed to the ground, revealing the splendid treasure vault within.

He passed over the gold, silver, and jewels. Money only needed to be sufficient for Yota, so his attention was focused mostly on the weapons.

Wano Country was famous as a nation of craftsmen and mineral resources, so it certainly would not lack excellent weapons.

"Not bad, not bad. These weapons are truly high quality. Though they aren't famous on the seas, their quality is definitely better than the Grade Sword in my hand."

Inside Kaido's treasure vault, Yota did not even see weapons of Grade Sword rank. Instead, he found several Great Grade Swords.

Clearly, Grade Swords were not even worthy of being placed in Kaido's treasure vault.

There were also several Devil Fruits in the vault, each thoughtfully labeled: a Bat Fruit, a Devil Frog Fruit, and a Honey Badger Fruit.

"Damn, there's even a Honey Badger Fruit. After eating this fruit, wouldn't you refuse to bow to anyone?" Yota remarked in surprise. Kaido truly lived up to his nickname as the zookeeper; all three Devil Fruits he had collected were Zoan-type.

The Beasts Pirates definitely possessed more Devil Fruits than these, but Kaido had likely given most of them to his subordinates as rewards. These three Devil Fruits were probably only being stored here temporarily. Once he recruited a powerful crew member, or one of his own men rendered some great service, he would likely reward them with these Devil Fruits.

Yota directly opened the Sealing Scroll and stored away the Great Grade Swords and Devil Fruits. He did not care much about the gold and Beli.

As the leader of the Beasts Pirates, Kaido naturally needed money to keep his Pirate Crew running, which was why he had collected so much gold, silver, and treasure. But Yota had no plans to build up a force of his own, so money did not mean much to him.

That said, he still took quite a bit of gold. It might come in handy someday.

Once he had taken everything, Yota felt somewhat uneasy. He prepared to head out, call Ace over, and get the hell out of there!

Even if Kaido had left, that did not mean he had lost contact with Oni Island. One Den Den Mushi call could summon Kaido back. With the speed at which Kaido could transform into a flying dragon, it would take only a few days at most.

In the original story, Ace had come to Oni Island but only fought Yamato, so Kaido naturally did not care much. Even if he received word, he would not immediately return.

But Yota had already looted the entire Beasts Pirates' treasure vault. He refused to believe Kaido could still ignore that.

Yota had spent two or three hours inside the Skull Palace. He had assumed Ace was still fighting Yamato, but when he came outside, he found the two sitting there drinking.

"What's going on? Did I miss something?" Yota asked them, his face showing a hint of confusion.

At that moment, Yamato and Ace had their arms around each other's shoulders. When she saw Yota approaching, Ace grinned and said to Yamato, "Yamato, this is the ship's doctor of our Spade Pirates, and also my best partner. Don't let the fact that he's a ship's doctor fool you—he's no weaker than me in a fight."

"Oh, oh, oh! He's that strong?" Yamato cheerfully stretched out her other arm and pulled Yota into the embrace as well. Both Yota and Ace were of ordinary height, while Yamato, with her Oni race bloodline, stood more than a head taller than either of them. The sight was rather comical.

A tall, beautiful girl had her arms around two short boys, making Yota feel like an elementary school student.

Unfortunately, Yota tried to exert a little strength and found that he could not break free at all. Especially since Yamato wore Sea Stone handcuffs around her wrists; though their purity was insufficient, every touch made Yota feel weak all over.

"Forget it. It's just drinking, what's there to be afraid of?" Yota sighed. Looking at their expressions, he knew both had drunk quite a lot, which was why they were acting so uninhibited.

In truth, Ace and Yamato had rather similar personalities, and their situations were somewhat alike as well. Neither was particularly satisfied with their origins, so after fighting for a while, they had formed a bond.

Moreover, in the world of pirates, evenly matched opponents often did not have bad relationships with one another.

Yota simply had not expected them to make up so quickly.

"Yamato, with your current strength, you still can't defeat Kaido?" After taking another swig of liquor, Ace looked at Yamato and asked.

Yamato shook her head. "No. That bastard Pops is far too strong. I can't even last a few moves before he knocks me flat."

A grave expression appeared on Ace's face. Only at this moment did he truly understand the strength of the Four Emperors.

"By the way, you should leave quickly. If Pops comes back, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave."

"Don't you want to go out to sea too? Why don't you come with us?" As if suddenly remembering something, Ace invited Yamato.

"If I could leave, I would have gone out to sea long ago." Yamato's expression darkened slightly as she raised her handcuffs. "That bastard Pops put bombs inside my Sea Stone handcuffs. They'll explode as soon as I leave Oni Island... I don't know whether it's true, but I don't dare gamble on it."