Lucas and Yamato

Lucas and Yamato

For hundreds of years, countless defecting samurai, down-and-out nobles, and desperate ronin steered battered ships out of the borders of Wano Country, putting down roots in the remote corners of the great sea.

Some of them built small villages like Shimotsuki Village, while others usurped nests belonging to others, carving out the national territories of places like the Kingdom of Ao and the Kingdom of Ye.

In the slums of the Kingdom of Ye, along the muddy streets, ronin wearing rusty katanas and washed-out white kimonos could be seen everywhere, along with courtesans dressed in gaudy clothes, stepping on geta shoes and swaying their waists.

The smell of cheap cosmetics mixed with the stench of blood and sweat, fermenting in the damp air.

If outsiders who didn't know the truth stepped into this place, they would most likely think they had strayed into Wano Country by mistake.

Lucas stepped on geta shoes, walking unhurriedly through the center of the street.

The ronin who had been shouting boisterously just moments before subconsciously pressed against their hilt, yet lacked even the courage to lift their heads and glance at him, bowing their heads side to side to make way;

those courtesans who had originally been making eyes at the ronin now bashfully lowered their eyelids, secretly glancing at him from the corners of their eyes with blushes staining their cheeks.

Awe and worship were the only tributes people offered to the strong in this lawless land.

Lucas turned a blind eye to it all. His gaze crossed the overlapping broken houses, looking toward the "Royal Palace District" on the summit of the mountain—a castle built in imitation of the Shogun's Castle of Wano Country.

After three days and nights of fierce battle without any progress, the marine girl who once battered him into a bruised state and forced him into a crazy evolution on the brink of life and death could no longer keep up with his pace at all.

Since the Kingdom of Ye could no longer give him any improvement, the matter of going out to sea should also be officially put on the agenda.

In this world, strength was the foundation of everything.

Yet before leaving, he had to thoroughly settle all the grudges here.

Meanwhile, the offshore waters of the Kingdom of Ye.

A white warship floated alone on the sea surface, and a group of female soldiers wearing marine uniforms gathered together on the deck, chattering about something.

"Tsk tsk, Vice Admiral Gion stayed for three days and nights this time, our supplies are almost used up."

"I really envy these monsters. If it were me, let alone fighting for three days, I'd collapse after three hours."

"Speaking of which, do you think the vice admiral can drag that Lucas back this time? This is already the third year."

"Catch? Drag him back for what? Drag him back to lock him up in the marine headquarters prison, and make the vice admiral go visit him every day?"

The female soldier who spoke squeezed her eyes, and a chorus of knowing laughter immediately erupted around her.

Throughout the entire marine forces, only Vice Admiral Tsuru's and Gion's teams would be so unorthodox, never bringing anyone other than female soldiers on missions.

It was not that they had any prejudice against males, but rather that some things were easier to understand implicitly among women than between men and women.

A Japanese-style room beside the Shogun's Castle of the Kingdom of Ye.

A burly giant with dual horns on his head and muscles piled like granite sat cross-legged on the tatami. He held a sake jar comparable to that of an ordinary adult male, tilting his head back to gulp wildly, and the alcohol flowed down his well-defined chin, soaking the front of his garment.

Sitting opposite him was an old hag draped in a white kimono with loose, scattered hair.

Her face was covered with wrinkles, her eyes sunken deep into their sockets, and the corners of her mouth turned down slightly, making her look like a man-eating evil spirit from legends.

Kurozumi Higurashi was reporting something in a low voice to Kaido, using her hoarse voice that sounded like sandpaper rubbing against wood.

The words "Wano Country" and "Kozuki" could be vaguely heard.

Outside the Japanese-style room, in the long corridor.

A little girl with a pair of small red horns on her head and waist-length white hair was leaning against the wooden railing, staring dazedly at the gray sky.

Her long hair was very peculiar, with the tips of the hair graduating from white to green, and finally dyeing into a dark-sea-like blue.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up fiercely.

At the edge of her field of vision, a familiar figure was walking slowly along the stone steps.

"Big Brother Lucas!"

Yamato shouted in surprise, moving her short legs and running toward Lucas dadada.

The small horns on her head wobbled with her running, and her long white hair fluttered behind her like a white waterfall.

Lucas stopped in his tracks, bent slightly, and steadily caught the little girl who flung herself into his arms.

The usual icy detachment on his face instantly faded, revealing a gentle smile sufficient to make any woman's heart flutter as he reached out to tousle her soft hair.

"Run slower, don't fall."

"Why did you come? Did your dad come along this time too?"

The small body in his arms nodded hard.

Five years ago, to prevent their conspiracy from leaking, Kurozumi Higurashi had moved the meeting spot with Kaido from Wano Country to this "second hometown" where she used to run with the underworld.

That was also the year when three-year-old Yamato came to the Kingdom of Ye with Kaido for the first time, and met Lucas, who had just become the new taboo of the Kingdom of Ye.

That day, a group of reckless human traffickers targeted Yamato while she was alone. And Kaido was hiding on a rooftop not far away, holding his sake jar and watching with cold detachment.

In his view, this was merely a minor trial for his daughter.

The monsters of this great sea were different from ordinary people since childhood.

Kozuki Oden was able to throw his wet nurse over his shoulder right after he was born, and he, Kaido, was already the strongest combatant in the entire country at the age of ten.

Yet, this "trial" he meticulously planned was abruptly interrupted by Lucas.

That gang of human traffickers happened to be on Lucas's cleanup list that day.

The heads of a dozen traffickers fell neatly to the ground under his fierce swordsmanship.

It was this fleeting glimpse that carved an indelible mark in young Yamato's tiny heart, and an inexplicable sense of security welled up in her mind.

Ever since then, whenever Kaido was coming to the Kingdom of Ye, Yamato would pester him relentlessly and insist on coming along.

"Of course! He'd never let me go out alone!"

Yamato pouted her little mouth and said indignantly, her small fists clenched tightly.

"Clearly I'm already very strong now! All those adults at home can't beat me, but he still treats me like a kid!"

Lucas poured cold water on her without mercy:

"You are a kid to begin with. If you want to call yourself an adult, you'll have to wait at least another ten years."

"Hmph! How come even you say that!" Yamato puffed out her cheeks in anger and struck Lucas's chest hard with her fist.

"I'm just stating facts."

Lucas gently set her down on the ground, his gaze flashing imperceptibly.

To this day, he was still very curious about which woman could have purified the violent factors in Kaido's genes completely clean and given birth to such a straightforward, sincere, and even somewhat overly naive daughter.

Every time he saw Yamato's crystal-clear eyes, he couldn't help thinking of the "Kozuki Oden fanatic" in the original timeline who had her brain washed into a fool by a tattered diary.

That pathetic woman who, for the sake of a dead man, didn't hesitate to turn against her own father and live in the shadow of others for the rest of her life.

"Alright, don't be mad."

Lucas rubbed her head and sat on the railing beside her.

"Let me tell you about some of the fun things I've encountered during this time."

"Okay, okay!"

Yamato instantly cast aside her previous unhappiness, sat obediently beside him, cupped her chin in her hands, and looked at him with glittering eyes and a face full of anticipation.

Story after story, "artistically processed" by Lucas, tumbled out of his mouth.

Scheming against a little girl was indeed a bit unethical.

But as long as he moved his lips a bit to fabricate a few thrilling "adventure stories," he could reap a wife a few years later who possessed the ceiling of looks and the ceiling of combat power, and who would be utterly devoted and obedient to him.

Any man with a normal brain would not refuse such a sure-win, risk-free deal.

This year was the exact year in the original timeline when Yamato picked up that damned diary and had her brain thoroughly washed.

He wanted to see whether Kozuki Oden's crappy diary filled with self-indulgent sentimentality was more powerful, or his day-in, day-out companionship.

To her, who had been locked up in Onigashima since childhood with a life that was boring and dull to the extreme, the world in Lucas's words was the most wonderful fairy tale.

She had no idea that the gentle and handsome big brother before her, who would tell her all sorts of adventure stories, was calculating in his heart right at this moment how to turn her, bit by bit, into a treasure belonging to Lucas alone.

Beneath the grayish-white sky, the little girl's crisp laughter echoed through the empty corridor.

(PS: Although what the protagonist is doing is somewhat unethical, this isn't a Marine fanfiction; only Marine protagonists need morals.)

(Regarding the timeline, Kozuki Oden's birthday is in February, and he had passed his thirty-ninth birthday when he died. It's only January right now, so the timeline is fine.)