A few minutes ago, Queen was still happily working on his safe house, personally testing its effectiveness.
"Muhahaha, with a safe house built from Seastone and Arceus Steel, plus this special space, I don't believe there's anything that could threaten me here!"
Manipulating his mechanical arm, he patted the walls of the safe house. Seastone and Arceus Steel were currently known as the best materials in this world. Aside from them, only special alloys like Wapo Metal could compare.
Combining the unique hardness of Seastone with the toughness of Arceus Steel, Queen hadn't yet calculated just what level of attack this safe house could withstand, but at the very least, he was sure of one thing. He couldn't break it himself.
Other than everything being reversed, the Reverse World was no different from the outside. The only real difference was that day and night were swapped. The natural environment meant plants could be cultivated here just like outside.
In fact, because the Reverse World was created from Arceus's power, its environment was even more suited for growing Berries and similar plants. During this period, Queen had been almost living on an opposite schedule from the outside world, constantly busy with his own tasks here.
Usually, messages were delivered by Shaymin, who also had a key, but Shaymin moves in and out of this place much more quietly.
Just earlier, Queen had been gazing at the starry sky above—or rather beneath his feet, admiring this inverted sky, when a sudden change happened in front of him.
"B-Boss Kaido? Miss Yamato?!"
Kaido alone was a bit dangerous, but recently Kaido didn't seem too interested in him, so he wasn't a major threat to Queen.
Yamato alone might be troublesome, but at most it would just be mentally taxing, nothing beyond his control.
But when the two of them appeared together, and with their fighting intent on full display, that was definitely bad news.
Glancing at the shelter behind him, Queen darted back inside without a second thought, locked every lock on the door, and shut himself inside this iron turtle shell.
Just hiding out in the Reverse World would be enough to avoid risk, but the reason he built this shelter here was exactly for emergencies like this. Looking at it now, his timing was just right.
"Am I seeing a ghost? Did Miss Yamato become weird after going outside?"
Through the observation port left on the window, Queen saw that Yamato was attacking aggressively, while Kaido was on the defensive.
This was the Reverse World, sure, but even so, it shouldn't have completely swapped both of their personalities.
The shelter Queen built was basically a bunker. There were already many floating rock platforms inside the Reverse World, and Queen had hollowed out one of the stone pillars to hide his safe house inside.
Yamato was itching to fight Kaido, while Kaido, due to Yamato's change in attitude, was in a half-drunken, half-playful state. Neither of them was paying any attention to Queen, giving him the chance to watch from the sidelines.
"Worororo, I've really waited a long time for this day. Have you finally realized that fighting is everything?"
"Not at all! This is to make pointless fighting disappear! If it weren't for your twisted thinking, I wouldn't want to do this at all!"
Questioning Kaido, understanding Kaido, becoming Kaido—this kind of thing was unlikely to occur with Yamato. Up to now, her ideals still left her questioning Kaido.
Acceptance or understanding was impossible, but under the circumstances, fighting still became the only solution.
"Worororo, is that so? It doesn't really matter, the result is the same either way."
Kaido reached for the sake gourd at his waist, only to suddenly remember he'd finished the sake a long time ago, and the gourd itself had long since been smashed.
It was unclear whether Kaido was feeling joy at Yamato's change or because he found his own actions ridiculous, but he just laughed to himself, even to the point of tears.
His steps gradually became unsteady; even with his kanabo as support, he couldn't stand firm, and he stumbled to the ground.
"Is this… Boss' Drunken Dragon Bagua? He's going all out right from the start this time?"
Inside the safe house, Queen was hiding behind cover, watching the situation outside through a periscope extended from a wall slot. Judging by the gradual escalation, it seemed Kaido was drinking regular alcohol.
But no matter how you looked at it, from Queen's understanding of Kaido, this was already starting off at high intensity.
Yamato didn't let her guard down either. After fighting Kaido for so many years, she knew all too well that a drunk Kaido was even harder to deal with than a sober one.
This wasn't true drunkenness at all, but rather a strange fighting style akin to drunken boxing—half-drunk, half-sober.
"Stop pretending! Let me sober you up a bit! Ice Burn!"
A blast of icy flames spewed from Yamato's mouth, instantly spreading across this part of the Reverse World. The icy blue flames spread along nearby objects, leaving behind all kinds of strange-shaped ice crystals wherever they passed.
"Drunken Dragon Bagua - Lightning Hammered • Ragnaraku!"
With a deafening roar, lightning was pulled down by Kaido's Hassaikai, and the first round of combat between father and daughter began.
"Flames of ice? You really have gained new powers!"
Kaido's unsteady steps dodged left and right, causing Yamato's kanabo wreathed in Ice Burn to miss every strike. Yet, the Ice Burn possessed an exceptionally unique property to spread and cling.
It spread and burned like flames. Seeing the frozen part of his dragon tail, Kaido became even more excited.
Immediately, Kaido transformed into his Azure Dragon form, bursting the ice crystals off his tail, but his expression suddenly turned despondent.
"So many years have passed, and you've grown this much? Looks like I've become an old man, too."
"There he goes again."
If it were any other father and daughter, this would be a touching moment, but for Yamato and Kaido, that was never the case.
This despondency wasn't regret, it was the prelude to Kaido entering his fighting state.
As Kaido's tears fell, a massive tornado also rose up inside the Reverse World, with two tornadoes eventually converging onto his Hassaikai.
"Worororo, wonderful, it's truly wonderful that you've grown so much!"
From despondency to weeping to ecstatic joy. Kaido's emotions shifted several times faster than usual. It was a clear sign that he was deliberately accelerating his combat tempo.
In the midst of the storm, Conqueror's Haki and lightning followed the swing of the Hassaikai, launching toward Yamato along with the tornado.
"Kundali Dragon Swarm • Storm Thunder Assault!"
"Hallowed Glacier Slash • Dance of the Thunder Swarm!"
The effect of Ice Burn was ice, but its form was still fire.
Under the influence of the wind, its power was scattered, spreading across other parts of the Reverse World. In the face of this new situation, Yamato's countenance changed.
As black appeared across her body, her flames transformed into lightning, intertwining with the wind and lightning unleashed by Kaido.
If she were just using fire or lightning alone, Yamato didn't need to switch mode. But since she had yet to achieve the fusion of the twin dragons, to fully harness their power and reach maximum effect, switching modes was still an essential step.
Kaido's attacks were quite destructive, but their impact on the surrounding environment still couldn't match Yamato's. Without anyone noticing, the domain of ice gradually occupied the area, and Kaido's eyes slowly became shrouded in intense killing intent.
Drunken Dragon Bagua a gradual process and a cumulative state. Only now does it constitute Kaido's strongest attack in this mode.
Conqueror's Haki, advanced Armament Haki, elemental abilities, martial arts and physique; everything that could be used in battle was clashing in this Reverse World, which caused Queen to run into a problem.
Both Kaido and Yamato ignored Queen's existence, but his safe house got caught in the crossfire.
Extreme cold, lightning, wind blades; all of these were within his expectations.
From the outside, the safe house looked battered, but inside it was actually quite safe, and Queen himself was doing just fine, except for one unexpected issue.
When he built the safe house, he hadn't considered fire prevention.
Yamato hadn't used fire before, and while Kaido did have his Blast Breath move, he had basically never used it against Queen. That Blast Breath was more like Kaido's odd way of saying hello to outsiders, and its power was mostly in the explosion.
Originally, it wasn't a problem, but Yamato's recent trip outside had granted her a special boost, which ultimately caused the fire-natured Ice Burn to invade Queen's safe house, forcing him to temporarily leave.
While he'd stayed obediently holed up inside, no one paid him any attention. But now that Queen had come out, he stood out as something unusual in this almost lifeless Reverse World.
"Boss Kaido, Miss Yamato, long time no see! You're here too? What a coincidence!"
"Get lost, Uncle Queen!"
"Don't get in the way, Queen!"
Neither of the two wanted to greet him, which was just what Queen wanted. He planned to quietly sneak away, but he had barely taken two steps before realizing he'd bumped into an invisible wall.
Queen, like Mr. Mime, searched up and down but couldn't find a way out; this was caused by Arceus.
The Reverse World was vast, but this area had just been constructed and wasn't yet ready for people to destroy as they pleased, so Arceus had limited the scope of Yamato and Kaido's battle.
At the time, he'd casually put up some invisible walls; after all, Arceus never imagined that Queen would end up hiding inside the Reverse World without ever coming out.
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