Boer slowly turned to face Yamato, who remained in her half-beast form, cold radiating from her body. His azure eyes calmly surveyed her tall, powerful silhouette, scrutinizing her as though observing some rare natural phenomenon.
Yamato spoke, her voice piercing the stagnant air in the hall. "Who exactly are you? And what exactly do you want?"
Her pupils contracted slightly beneath her mask. She gripped her spiked club, Genzo, so tightly that her knuckles whitened. The white-haired young man before her was far too strange-he was about her age, yet he stood so casually before Kaido, doing and saying things no one else would even dare imagine. His very existence was like a stone thrown into stagnant water, disrupting the cycle of violence that had remained unchanged on Onigashima for twenty years.
"Aaron Boer... just a passing traveler." Seeing her remain silent, Boer supplied his own answer casually, then turned back to Kaido, who was sitting on the floor.
He stepped forward, looked straight into the Emperor of the Sea's draconic eyes, and asked a question that stopped every Beasts Pirates officer present from breathing:
"Mr. Kaido, in your heart... is there still any 'love' for Miss Yamato?"
The air seemed to freeze.
Kaido's enormous hand stiffened slightly around his sake bowl. His mouth twitched, veins bulged on his forehead again, and a threatening growl squeezed from deep in his throat. "Brat... keep spouting that bullshit, and I'll flatten you too!"
"I'm serious." Boer remained unmoved, even taking another half step forward, his blue eyes seeming intent on piercing everything Kaido tried to conceal. "This question directly determines whether the... 'measures' I'm about to propose are feasible. Do you love her? As a father."
The word "love" was like a red-hot branding iron, searing Kaido's chest until his breath caught.