Brook's gaze drifted down to the long, slender legs peeking from beneath Toki's pink kimono.
Was she twenty six now?
Or eight hundred and twenty six?
He chuckled softly at the thought, then pinched her cheek like she was some troublesome child.
"Listen carefully. The samurai of Wano and the Mink Tribe of Zou are all under me now. Everything Joy Boy left behind, everything the Great Kingdom ever touched, I'm taking it. So you'd better cooperate."
Toki's eyes flared with humiliation. She had been carried like luggage, groped like a pillow, and now her face was being squeezed on top of it all.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she snapped, voice shaking with anger. "I don't know anything about Joy Boy or some Great Kingdom!"
"Yohohoho!" Brook laughed, bright and wicked. "Then keep pretending you know nothing. In that case, I'll just make you my one hundred and eighth concubine and have you give me ten or eight more children."
Toki's whole face turned red, rage and shame tangling together in her throat.
Before she could spit out another insult, Quetzalcoatl streaked into Wano's sky and dove straight toward Haikdou Castle.
The moment the giant beast appeared, Hyogoro hurried out, practically glowing. He had not expected Brook to come in person.
Brook landed atop the main tower with Toki still in his arms, then spoke down without wasting breath.
"Bring out seastone cuffs, every purity you've got. We're testing them."
"Yes, my lord!"
Hyogoro barked orders, then immediately stepped forward with a treasure chest, his expression so eager it was almost painful. His eyes shone with the kind of hunger that only came from someone who desperately wanted to be praised.
"Master Brook," he said quickly, opening the chest with both hands, "we found a Devil Fruit. I think it might be the Mythical Zoan you've been looking for, the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami!"
Nestled inside was a persimmon shaped fruit, strange swirls curling across its skin.
Brook's eyes narrowed, then lit up.
"Oh?" He took it, weighing it lightly in his palm. "You actually found it. Well done."
Hyogoro straightened, trying to look calm, failing completely.
"Hyogoro," Brook continued, smiling, "what do you want? Name it."
"I have no desires," Hyogoro said at once, gaze sincere. "Being the daimyo of Kuri is already the greatest honor of my life."
That was not false. With Ashura Doji sailing out to seek a breakthrough, Hyogoro now held most of Wano's real power in his hands, even more than Kozuki Sukiyaki in practice. He simply had no interest in a title that could not outweigh authority.
Brook did not argue. He simply pulled out a thin booklet and tossed it to him.
"Then take this. It's the latest awakening manual. Study it and see if it helps you awaken your Devil Fruit."
Hyogoro caught it like it was priceless treasure. His breath hitched.
"Thank you for the reward, my lord!"
Brook's tone turned casual, like he was remembering something mid conversation.
"Oh, right. Is there a place called Kula near Wano? Send people to look for it. If you find it, search for the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Nue."
Hyogoro nodded hard enough to snap his own neck. "Understood, my lord!"
While his men hurried to bring the cuffs, Brook held the fruit again and glanced at it.
This was Wano's guardian deity, Okuchi no Magami.
Only Wano knew that myth, so the fruit had always been reborn here.
Perfect.
Soon, rows of seastone cuffs were carried in, each labeled by purity. Brook began trying them one by one on Toki, watching her face, her breathing, the faint glow of her power.
He needed a balance.
Strong enough to crush the Time Time Fruit.
Weak enough that she could still walk.
After a few tests, Brook finally clicked a pair into place, then cut the chain cleanly. Her hands remained cuffed, but free to move, just like the shackles Yamato would wear in another future.
Toki swayed, then steadied herself. The moment she could stand on her own, she immediately stepped away from Brook, glaring as if her eyes could draw blood.
"Do you really rule Wano?"
"Yes," Brook answered easily. "Even the Kozuki family's top warrior is my apprentice."
Toki's head snapped up. "Impossible. Impossible! How could the Kozuki submit to someone like you!"
Brook appeared beside her in an instant, voice soft and teasing, like he was whispering a secret.
"Go take a walk. You'll believe it."
With one arm, he scooped her up again before she could protest, laughing as Quetzalcoatl lifted them into the air.
Toki's heart sank.
From above, she saw it.
Wano eight hundred years later.
A towering wall of stone that did not exist in her era. A new Wano built halfway up the mountain, proud and fortified. And at the foot, the old Wano, still there like a scar that refused to heal.
Her lips parted.
"How… how could it be like this…"
Brook watched her expression, satisfied, and then leaned close.
"Stay by my side from now on. I'm the one fighting the Twenty Kings. Don't place your hopes on cowards and failures."
His eyes burned with a heat that made Toki's skin prickle. Brook's words carried a blunt certainty.
The one who could command Zunesha would be his descendant.
And he did not mind a story where he boarded first and paid later.
Toki turned her face away, cheeks red, trying to dodge that gaze.
"You… let me go!"
Brook laughed. "Room one hundred and eight, you don't get a vote."
He continued the tour, still carrying her, until something near Haikdou Castle made him pause.
A cluster of massive figures.
Eight to nine meters tall, with horns.
Brook narrowed his eyes. "Other races in Wano?"
He ordered Quetzalcoatl down at once.
On the ground, he saw them clearly, two horned little giants wearing warrior uniforms. One woman stood out, her figure heavy with pregnancy, her face strangely familiar, like a shadow of Black Maria.
Brook blinked, thrown off.
Hyogoro hurried over to explain, lowering his voice.
"Lord Brook, they're the Red Horn Demon Clan. Lord Kaido arranged for them to enter Wano. And I've heard… Lord Kaido has a woman he's close to in this tribe."
Brook stared, then slowly turned his head, disbelief written all over his face.
"Kaido?" he said, tone incredulous. "That stubborn brute actually goes looking for women?"
-------------
Hyogoro kept talking as they walked, eager to fill Brook in on everything Wano had become during those missing years.
"A few years ago, Kaido found the Red Horned Demon Clan. Not long after, other demon clans tried to pledge themselves to him as well. So Kaido settled them on Oniyama, what used to be Onigashima."
Brook's gaze shifted toward the distant silhouette of that island.
"The air there suits them," Hyogoro added. "Not just giants. Demons too."
He hesitated, then pointed subtly.
"And that giant skull on Oniyama… it may not be only a symbol. People say it was left behind by an ancestor with mixed giant and demon/Oni blood."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
He had guessed the skull belonged to an ancient giant, maybe even a product of the Great Kingdom's oversized experiments, the kind that could create monsters like Zunesha or those colossal Sea Kings.
He had not expected the Demon clan to be involved at all.
Then another thought struck him.
Five of the Flying Six had double horns.
If Kaido had been gathering horned fighters, then those Flying Six might not be random at all. They could be ordinary demon clan members Kaido had personally recruited.
Brook's gaze flicked to the clearest examples in his memory.
Moria's red horns were almost identical to Yamato's, both growing from the forehead.
Could Yamato's mother be from the Red Horned Demon Clan?
And if so… was she connected to the woman who looked like Black Maria's mother?
Hyogoro continued, tone turning more casual, as if he were talking about the weather.
"Kozuki Oden also arranged for the Mink Tribe to settle in Wano. And… well. He's been very affectionate with three Mink women."
Brook sighed, half amused, half annoyed.
"Oden, huh… It's about time he had a child. Why hasn't he had one after all these years?"
So Oden had been shamelessly showing off every day… and Kaido finally got tired of watching and went looking for a woman of his own?
Brook clicked his tongue.
"And now that I think about it, Momonosuke was born only a month earlier than Yamato. Those two idiots really do have perfect timing."
Hyogoro nodded, then lowered his voice and began listing details like a proper administrator reporting to his king.
"Lord Brook, the Red Horned Demon Clan couple, Roshin and Judith, are both important combat cadres in Kaido's division. Judith is pregnant right now, so she's on leave."
He raised two fingers.
"They're both Devil Fruit users. Roshin has an Ancient Zoan, Stegosaurus. Judith has a Paramecia Belt Belt Fruit. She can create and manipulate belts, similar in nature to the String String Fruit."
Brook's expression remained calm, but his thoughts were moving fast.
During those eight years, Kaido, Oden, and the others had built full divisions. They led their own teams, guarded massive territories, recruited subordinates, hunted Devil Fruit users, sent the fruits back to Golden Island for recovery, and expanded their forces piece by piece.
Kaido, of course, recruited horned fighters first. Anyone carrying demon blood, especially double horns, was taken into his ranks without question.
And the Red Horned Demon Clan was the strongest branch of the demon clans.
Kaido loved strong people.
So it made sense he liked that tribe best.
Even his lover came from there.
Brook went quiet for a moment.
He had skimmed plenty of reports back at the Sky Island headquarters. But he had only checked the broad strokes, the state of each division, the territory maps, the troop counts.
Antonio had never mentioned Kaido having a lover.
Brook's lips twitched.
"So that's what I missed, huh."
Then his mind jumped again, oddly enough, to a half remembered design rumor.
When Oda first drafted Moria, there were ideas like a Stegosaurus Fruit and a Belt Fruit floating around. In the end, the story went elsewhere.
Brook dismissed the thought and spoke out loud, shameless as ever.
"Good. Very good. We should tell Kaido to come back more often and spread his seed."
Hyogoro's face went stiff. His brain immediately decided those words did not exist.
Brook continued anyway, smiling like he was discussing crop rotation.
"Unlike Redfield, Newgate, Shiki, those stubborn fools. All of them acting like proud loners. Not one of them leaves any strong offspring for the Hell Pirates."
Hyogoro kept his eyes forward, pretending the sky was suddenly fascinating.
When the Red Horned demons noticed Brook, they hurried over at once to pay respects to the boss of their boss.
A blond giant, nearly eight and a half meters tall, bowed deeply.
"Hell Pirates, Fourth Division, Beast Unit combatant, Roshin, greets Master Brook!"
Judith, along with several other Red Horned demons, immediately followed, heads lowered.
This was Brook.
The New World's overlord.
The man who dared to kill an Elder.
They could not afford even a hint of disrespect.
Brook waved his hand, casual.
"Good. No need to be stiff. Go on, do your work. Don't mind us."
They backed away quickly.
Then Hyogoro leaned closer, whispering something that made Brook's head snap to the side.
His eyes landed on the shortest Red Horned demon girl among them.
She was only around three meters tall.
Brook's first instinct had been that she was a child.
But Hyogoro's whisper told him the truth.
Adult.
And she was Kaido's lover.
Brook stared.
Then stared harder.
His soul nearly left his body.
"So Kaido likes the shortest one," Brook muttered, sounding personally betrayed by reality. "Is she fully grown, or did she mutate?"
Hyogoro coughed once and looked away.
Brook's eyes dragged lower, then back up, doing calculations he did not want to do.
No wonder Yamato came out… unusual.
So it was the mother's side.
Then Hyogoro whispered one more detail, and Brook's patience finally snapped.
"What?"
He pointed at the tiny demon woman, eyes wide.
"You're telling me her name is Yamato Nadeshiko?"
Brook pressed two fingers to his forehead, exhausted.
He had too many things to complain about today. Far too many.
"That's it. I'm done."
He turned on his heel and grabbed Toki, dragging her straight back toward the city lord's building.
He had decided. He was going to "cultivate feelings" and "teach her common sense."
In other words, he was going to train her until she stopped trying to bite him, and until she accepted that escaping through time was not happening.
Brook's voice floated back, half laughing, half threatening.
"If you want good fruit, you have to learn how to work the field. You have to open new land, cultivate the soil, and practice pulling radishes properly."
Toki's face flamed.
"Let me go!"
Brook ignored her.
The person who could command Zunesha, the one tied to that ancient promise, had to be his descendant.
And Brook had decided he was willing to be very, very patient.
For several days, Brook stayed in the Castle with Toki, drilling her in "skills" and "common sense."
In the morning, they pulled radishes in the fields.
In the afternoon, they ground soy milk in the workshop.
At night, Brook insisted on playing cards, calling it "training your mind."
Toki wanted to scream.
Brook, however, looked completely satisfied, as if he had discovered a universal truth.
"See?" he said cheerfully one night. "Love grows over time. Results come from effort."
Eventually, Brook brought Toki back to Ballon Island on Quetzalcoatl and introduced the newcomer to his women and cadres.
The introductions did not go smoothly.
Linlin, Shakky, Stussy, and more pounced on Brook like a coordinated execution squad.
Brook did not leave his room for a full week.
It was only when Shiki personally went to the North Sea and returned with a captured crew that Brook finally saw daylight again.
The Donquixote Family, founded only a year ago, had already grown to eight members.
Doflamingo.
Trebol.
Pica.
Diamante.
Vergo.
Giolla.
Lao G.
Machvise.
How could a small North Blue pirate crew escape Shiki's hands?
They could not.
But one name was missing.
Rocinante.
Brook heard he had been adopted by Sengoku, and was not with them.
A pity.
If Rocinante had been here too, Brook would have happily trained two former Celestial Dragons side by side and let them stir the world into chaos.
Brook leaned back, thinking, and another rumor surfaced in his mind.
He had heard that two brats, a red haired kid and a clown, were already sailing with Roger.
Shanks should also be a Celestial Dragon, shouldn't he?
Shanks was two years younger than Doflamingo. Both carried the three types of Haki.
Doflamingo had more manpower, more schemes, more business.
But Shanks was stronger.
Probably because Roger and Rayleigh were teaching him directly, while Doflamingo had only a pile of fools to lean on and no one to guide him.
Brook's eyes narrowed, a new thought forming, sharp and dangerous.
If Roger really died of that terminal illness…
Could Brook take Roger's crew?
And if he brought young Shanks aboard too…
Then the Four Emperor cards of the future could be collected early.
Shanks and Doflamingo together.
Two Celestial Dragons turned into twin blades aimed straight at Mary Geoise.
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