Reshaping Yamato's Worldview

"You should kill me. I am Wano Country's shogun, Kozuki Oden... A real man would rather die than submit."

Yamato's words were defiant, but her tone no longer held the fanatical fervor it had twelve hours ago.

Dawn sat cross-legged beside her, took out a rice ball wrapped in oil paper from another dimension, and handed it to her.

Yamato stared at that hand for a long time. Its fingers were slender, its joints distinct, its skin smooth as jade. It was this very hand that had, over the past twelve hours, shattered all her pride, all her convictions, and all her fantasies bit by bit through sheer strength.

At last, she reached out and accepted the rice ball, moving as slowly as an elderly woman. She tore open the oil paper and took a bite.

The warmth of the rice, the tartness of the pickled plum, and the savory saltiness of the seaweed burst across her tongue.

Such a simple flavor, yet it suddenly made her eyes burn. She could no longer remember when someone had last made her a rice ball.

She ate in small bites as tears silently slid down her cheeks, soaking into the rice ball with their salty bitterness.

Then Dawn's voice sounded beside her at just the right moment.

"I won't kill you. No matter what, you're still my fiancée."

Yamato froze mid-chew. She raised her head and looked through tear-blurred eyes at that excessively handsome face.

"That was just that bastard Kaido's decision. I'm a man. How could I marry another man?"

As she said that, her gaze avoided Dawn's eyes, and a blush surfaced on her pretty dust-covered face. Twelve hours ago, hearing herself called his fiancée would have made her glare in fury and raise her kanabo to smash someone. But