September 25, 1500, Age of the Sea Circle
Orion opened his eyes in the darkness of the cave, and felt the tremendous pain running through his entire body. The side effects of using "Berserk Mode" were as severe as always, and this time the situation was even a little worse than the last, since Orion had maintained that state until the very limit.
Orion's mind was still a bit hazy, but little by little he began regaining clarity, and the memories of his clash with Kaido returned to him. Finally, he reacted, realizing that he had been defeated by the pirate—so he should have been dead!
He looked around with difficulty, and managed to distinguish a figure in the distance, chained to a large rock protruding from one of the cave's walls. However, he couldn't make out her appearance clearly, since his senses were still not working properly after waking from a coma of two days.
"I see you finally woke up! I thought you were going to die, but you turned out to be pretty tough. What's your name?" said the figure in the distance, in a childlike voice.
"My name? I am Orion… How long was I unconscious?"
"I don't know, it's hard to tell the passage of time in this place, but… a few days?" the girl replied carelessly.
Orion tried to open the system screen, but nothing happened. It was obvious: the system had deactivated, just like all of his special abilities. Even his adult mind was dormant, so it was little Orion who was now in control.
He tried to move his arms to sit up, but the pain in his muscles was unbearable, and he couldn't summon enough strength to perform even the slightest movement. He had no choice but to remain lying on the cave floor, staring into the surrounding darkness.
"Hey, why did you suddenly go quiet? You're not really going to die now, are you? Just when I finally have company again, I don't want to be left alone!" the girl said from the distance.
Orion grunted heavily in irritation, but still tried to keep his composure and speak to the girl.
"I'm not going to die… I'm just a little sore… In a few days I'll be fine," Orion said, and his stomach growled fiercely, signaling his desperate need for food.
"You'll survive a couple more days?" asked the girl with curiosity and a bit of concern. She had been trapped here for almost two weeks, and she didn't want to lose her only companion.
Orion didn't answer the girl's question. He simply closed his eyes and tried to recover as quickly as possible.
…
September 26, 1500, Age of the Sea Circle
The next day, Orion was finally able to move enough to sit up from the ground. His muscles still ached horribly with every minor movement, but at least he was no longer bedridden and immobile.
With some difficulty, he walked to the cave's entrance, where strong iron bars had been placed to prevent prisoners from leaving the improvised cell. There, some plates of food lay on the ground, occasionally tossed into the cell by Kaido's subordinates.
Orion grabbed the food and devoured it immediately, not caring at all about its taste. He was starving after not having eaten for three days, and his body desperately needed any nutrients it could get.
Since Kaido's men never entered the cave, the food plates had piled up near the entrance. Orion ate two of them, the ones not yet covered in mold, and just as he reached for the last plate of edible food, the chained girl's voice rang out from the distance, filled with concern.
"Hey, hey. Orion was your name, right? Don't eat all the food! Give me some too, I'm starving!"
Orion looked toward the direction of her voice and raised his eyebrows.
"You haven't eaten your own food?"
"What are you talking about! That food is for both of us! Do you really think my stupid father is generous enough to give each of us that much food?"
"Your father? What do you mean?" Orion asked, unable to follow the words of the chained girl in the distance.
"My father, Kaido! Who else could it be? We're his prisoners, obviously he's the one giving us this food," the girl said as if she were explaining something obvious to an idiot. In her mind, her impression of Orion was starting to shift into that of someone not very bright.
"Fuck! Your father is Kaido?!" Orion exclaimed in shock, as he approached the girl for the first time.
As he got close enough, he was finally able to see her appearance despite the darkness that filled the place. She was a girl with long silver hair, small horns sprouting adorably from her head. Her height was that of a normal child, despite being the daughter of a giant like Kaido. She was dressed in Japanese-style clothing, and her current state of health was quite poor.
Even without the system at his disposal, Orion could still use all his abilities that weren't tied to special powers, so he had no problem applying his medical knowledge to analyze the girl's condition. And even without medical expertise, her state was so bad that anyone would have noticed.
Not only was she malnourished and dehydrated, but she also bore large bruises all over her body, and her face was swollen—probably the result of having been severely beaten not long ago. As soon as Orion thought about who could possibly dare to thrash Kaido's daughter in his own territory, an idea came to mind, and paired with the girl's words, he deduced the truth: she had been locked up here by her own father, and beaten by him as well.
But the real question was… why would Kaido do something like that to his own daughter?
"Orion! Give me some of that food you've got there, at least a bite, I'm dying of hunger!" Yamato begged, drooling exaggeratedly as she stared at the food before him.
Orion didn't keep her waiting—he immediately handed her the plate of food. Yamato snatched it impatiently, and in just two bites devoured everything that had been on it.
"Ahh, I'm still hungry! My dad is so stingy! Can't he give me more food? Does he really want to kill his son?" Yamato complained indignantly.
She had been enduring her father's harshness for months. Kaido had always been strict with her, but ever since she had declared her identity as Oden, her father had become far worse.
Two months earlier, he had locked her up with three samurai. After spending a couple of weeks with her, they had helped her escape, sacrificing their lives in the process. Afterwards, she hid for two more weeks, until her father captured her again and locked her in the same cave once more—this time in complete solitude.
On top of that, Kaido would come regularly to see if she had abandoned her "stupid idea" of calling herself Oden and inheriting the will of his enemy. And every time Yamato declared firmly that her name was Oden, Kaido would beat her mercilessly, leaving her on the brink of death.
Even so, Yamato still gave her father the benefit of the doubt. She wasn't entirely sure whether he truly intended to kill her, or whether he would stop his brutal "teaching methods" if she was really about to die. Maybe it was just something any child would refuse to accept—that their father could kill them with his own hands.
Orion looked at Yamato strangely, and asked what was on his mind without any filter at all.
"Son? Aren't you a girl?"
Even though young Orion was now much more mature at almost eleven years old, he still hadn't developed that delicate social skill some people call tact—and perhaps it was something he had no interest in developing at all right now.
"I was born a girl and they named me Yamato, but I've decided my name will be Oden, and I'll be a man!" the girl declared imposingly, trying to raise her arms to make a stronger impact, but failing, since her arms were chained to the massive rock.
In truth, both her arms and legs were chained to the wall, and her movements were extremely limited.
"Oden? Like the legendary Kozuki Oden?" Orion asked with interest.
It was the first time he had met someone who had chosen to take the name of another person, and it stirred his curiosity—especially since Yamato was clearly a girl, yet she claimed she wanted to be a man like Oden.
Yamato's eyes seemed to light up when she heard Orion mention the name of her idol, and immediately she began to speak passionately about him.
"That's right! Kozuki Oden, the most impressive man who ever lived! I want to live like him, and continue his legacy! I want to experience everything he did! Did you know that when he was only six years old he started visiting the red-light district, spending vast amounts of the national treasury? And when he was eight years old…"
Yamato's words fired out like a machine gun, as she completely forgot about her hunger and all the other pains tormenting her.
For an hour, she spoke nonstop about Oden and his great feats, while Orion simply listened in silence, watching her animated expression thoughtfully, without interrupting her.
Finally, when she was somewhat satisfied with the first part of her tale about Oden, she paused for a moment to catch her breath and spare her vocal cords. Orion then finally spoke for the first time in a long while.
"Are you stupid?" Orion asked, tilting his head and looking at her curiously.
His question was genuine, and Yamato realized that he wasn't trying to insult her—he truly was asking if she was stupid.
"Stupid? Why would I be stupid? Do you think it's stupid that I want to live like Oden and carry on his dreams of liberating Wano and opening this nation's borders?!" Yamato exclaimed indignantly, already accustomed to being questioned by her father and his subordinates.
Orion slowly shook his head.
"I don't mean that. I think it's amazing that you want to follow in Oden's footsteps and accomplish something that great. People need to have big dreams if they want to achieve big things! That's what my master always said," Orion answered with a passion that surprised Yamato, who hadn't expected him to share her vision of the world.
"Then why—" Yamato, after seeing Orion's passion, couldn't understand his earlier question and wanted to ask him about it, but he cut her off before she could finish.
"But why do you want to erase your identity and become someone else? What's good about that? Not only is it a waste to live that way, but it's also an insult to that person's memory!" Orion said firmly, making Yamato look confused and open her mouth in surprise.
No one had ever told her something like that before. Usually, whenever she spoke about wanting to become Oden, the people around her would scold her harshly and try to dissuade her at all costs, just like her father with his severe and brutal methods. No one had ever taken her seriously, or considered her words as something she could truly act upon.
Orion wasn't rejecting her idea outright like her father and his subordinates, nor was he accepting without questions like the samurai who had once shared this very cave with her a month ago. He was looking at her seriously, judging her dreams with honesty. They might not agree, but at least they were meeting on the same level of understanding!
"But it's the only way I can honor him! If I become Oden and finish what he couldn't, then his name will receive the recognition it deserves! If I don't abandon my current identity, I can't achieve anything! Who would follow a little girl into battle? I need to be a powerful, legendary man if I'm going to carry on his legacy!"
Tok!
Orion smacked her lightly on the forehead with the palm of his hand—not hard, but enough to surprise Yamato and stop her passionate speech. Then he looked into her eyes seriously, and his clear, childlike gaze—which usually reflected his youthful self—took on a hint of depth, resembling that of his adult self.
Yamato stared at him dumbfounded, watching the change happen in real time. The little boy in front of her, who wasn't much taller than she was and was covered in wounds just like her, seemed to emit an imposing aura that made her want to listen to his words. It was a kind of natural charisma.
Orion placed his hand under Yamato's chin and gently lifted her head, forcing her to meet his eyes. Then he spoke seriously.
"That's why I'm telling you you're wrong. What kind of legacy would it be if you just turned yourself into him? Oden's legacy is far richer than that. Just as you were inspired by him, countless others were inspired the same way!
Do you think all the people he inspired are going to abandon their identities and try to become their idol? That's stupid, and it's a way of ruining his legacy!
Instead of becoming Oden, remain yourself. Take his legacy, make it your own, and stamp it with your personal mark. That's how will has been inherited through the ages, and that's how people connect with one another!
Don't take someone else's legacy so lightly!"
Yamato was left stunned by Orion's words, and her mind began racing to process what the boy had said.
In truth, these were basic principles people applied in their daily lives. But for her, who had lived a completely abnormal childhood, they were concepts she never could have understood without actively thinking about them—and until now, no one had put them into words for her to consider.
"No one will follow you because you're a girl? Only if you become a man can you fulfill your wishes? Don't go looking for such simple excuses! If you really want to do something, just do it! And if you can't do it alone, then ask someone else for help!"
Little Orion released Yamato's face, which he had been holding, and then—under the girl's astonished gaze—he grabbed one of his own teeth and yanked it out.
This was a false tooth Orion had created with his Art Coating ability while in Berserk Mode, and he had placed it in one of the gaps in his teeth caused by the natural process of losing his baby teeth.
Orion stared at the tooth in his hand carefully and closed his eyes, focusing his mind intensely, trying to recall the sensation that coursed through his body whenever he used his special ability "Art Coating."
At last, the little tooth began to tremble, until finally it transformed into a sword. It was, of course, the cutlass Ace, Orion's constant companion.
Little Orion looked at the sword in his hand and thought,
"It's just as I suspected—my special abilities aren't completely sealed."
This was something Orion had theorized after using Berserk Mode the last time. His idea was that his special abilities weren't truly sealed, but rather that without the system acting as an intermediary, he couldn't use them, since he had always relied on the system to activate them.
It was similar to what young Orion had experienced with common abilities after awakening with his adult self's memories locked away. He had only been able to use the abilities his child self had already practiced, while the others remained inaccessible simply because he didn't know how to trigger them—even though the abilities hadn't truly disappeared.
Something similar was happening now with his special abilities, and Orion had just confirmed it. His special skills, like Space Door or Art Coating, weren't truly blocked—he just didn't know how to use them, since he had always relied on the system as the medium.
"Once the Berserk Mode penalty ends, I need to try using my special abilities without depending on the system," Orion thought fleetingly, before turning his full attention back to Yamato.
"There's something I haven't told you, Yamato," Orion said with a smile—though with several missing teeth, it didn't look nearly as cool as he imagined.
"My master's name is Gol D. Roger!"
"!!" Yamato immediately recognized the name Orion had mentioned, and seeing the sword in his hand, her surprise only grew.
Orion focused all his spirit into his sword, and for the first time, his Armament Haki imbued the blade. Although Orion had obtained the ability to use Armament Haki, until now he had never managed to channel it through his sword.
With a sharp gaze, Orion recalled all of his experiences with the blade through the years, pouring his entire spirit into his cutlass. Then, with one fluid and powerful motion, he cut through the chains binding Yamato without difficulty.
Had his system been working at that moment, it would have surely displayed a notification announcing the increase of his Swordsmanship level.
Yamato, sitting on the cave floor and staring at Orion, felt freedom return as the chains fell away.
"My master told me about Oden, and he's someone I admire greatly. But you are not Oden, and you will never be him!" Orion declared firmly, making Yamato feel a little disheartened.
However, he extended his hand and grasped the girl's arm, pulling her up with strength and helping her to her feet.
"But you don't need to be Oden! I'm not Roger, but I carry part of his legacy with me. And you are not Oden, but you carry part of his legacy with you. So let's walk our own path together, bearing their legacies with us, with the respect they deserve!" Orion said, tightening his grip on Yamato's hand, which—like so many things in this magical world—was incredibly soft despite the fact that she frequently wielded a massive club.
"If you need help to achieve your dreams, I'll be here to help you!" Orion concluded with a smile.
Looking at the boy before her, who was squeezing her hand firmly while resting the legendary cutlass of the Pirate King on his shoulder, Yamato thought that maybe he was right.
Maybe they did have their own path to walk, and their own story to create.
Perhaps many years in the future, people would tell their stories just as she had once heard those of Oden and Roger, and maybe someone would inherit their will and dreams. The world would keep spinning at its frenzied pace, and though they would no longer be there, a part of their spirits would remain.
"My name is Yamato, nice to meet you!" Yamato said, gripping Orion's hand tightly and flashing her own joyful smile.
...
Thank you for reading! If you'd like access to extra chapters and want to support my work, you can visit my patreon.
P@treon/CrotoWN
Your support helps me keep writing and sharing more chapters!