[November 29th DxD/July 22nd DBT]
After nearly a full day of laying waste to the area that once supported Onigashima's entry port, Vahn and Kaido were seated against a partially destroyed stone wall, sharing sake and food, when the latter questioned, "Remind me, why did you come here?"
"To send a message..." answered Vahn, taking several large gulps from a nearly meter-wide red sake cup before revealing, "You may not believe it, but I'm not from this world. I represent and patronize a transdimensional organization called the Dragon's Pavilion."
"I don't believe it..." asserted Kaido, taking several large gulps from his own sake cup before exhaling an alcohol-tinged sigh and adding, "But it would explain that fox's monstrous strength, this weird barrier, and your ability to recover from everything I throw at you..."
"Full transparency, I came here to invite your daughter to enter a place called the Tower of Ascension, a place where people from many worlds gather to meet, increase their strength, and pursue godhood..." revealed Vahn, producing a golden bangle atop his left palm, explaining, "This is a bangle that grants the intended wearer provisional access to the Tower's System and functions. That includes the ability to keep and produce items from a personal pocket dimension, the ability to see how powerful you are via a Status Window, and the means to communicate between dimensions with others who have access to the Tower's System."
"My daughter, huh..." muttered Kaido, hearing the rest of what Vahn had said but focusing on that specific part of the revelation as the image of a girl with white and turquoise hair, amber-brown eyes, and red-tinted Oni horns appeared in his mind. He thought of correcting Vahn by stating he only had a son, but he only referred to his daughter as such to ridicule her absurd dream...
"So, what happens if my daughter accepts your invitation...?" asked Kaido, glancing at Vahn out of the corner of his right eye.
"She would gain access to the Tower of Ascension every thirty days, as well as a hub space called the Intertwining Dragon's Palace..." revealed Vahn, shrugging as he added, "Time flows differently within the Tower of Ascension, so even if she only enters it eight hours each month, 120 days would pass in the Tower. As for the Intertwining Dragon's Palace, she can enter it whenever she pleases to meet and interact with other Ascendees. She could even take others there with her, but if they caused trouble, my foxy friend would be the least of their worries. It might sound absurd, but there are people in the broader multiverse who can destroy entire planets, much less smack around a few pirates..."
"It does sound absurd..." affirmed Kaido, nodding. But, at the same time, two feelings he hadn't experienced in quite some time swelled within him: curiosity toward the unknown and the desire to battle opponents far more powerful than himself.
"If you're curious, Edward Newgate, the man you know as Whitebeard, was among those chosen to enter the Tower as one of this world's four representatives," revealed Vahn. "He and his crew frequent the palace to purchase supplies and party fairly frequently. That's how I picked up his and the Devil Fruit abilities of his crew."
"You've copied that old monster's Devil Fruit...?" asked Kaido, his eyes flashing.
Nodding, Vahn caused his left hand and arm to vibrate intensely as he confirmed, "I have. However, considering Wano's unique structure, I felt utilizing it in our spar would be unwise."
"Uororororo...indeed..." affirmed Kaido, cracking a rare smile before tilting his head back and finishing the sake in his oversized cup in several large gulps. Then, following a protracted burp, he set the cup down and asked, "So, what exactly do you want from me and my crew? I won't bend the knee to anyone, but I can at least hear you out as gratitude for the food and drinks you've provided..."
While using his unique version of Telekinesis to refill Kaido's cup, Vahn noted, "Your penultimate goal is to initiate a war to overthrow the World Government. I have no issues with this. But your enabling of that tyrant, Orochi, and your defilement of this land and its people are unacceptable. I won't tell you how you should go about fixing things, but if you make an earnest effort to indemnify yourself to your daughter and recompense the people of Wano, you will be able to gain access to powerful weapons and a plethora of vital resources by doing business with the Dragon's Pavilion or trading with other worlds..."
"Killing Orochi is something I've been considering for a while..." revealed Kaido. "But I won't ask my men to demean themselves by trying to make amends to the people of this country. Their current plight is the result of their weakness and their former leaders foolishly allowing a snake to rise to the highest position in their country. Pulling my men out and permitting them to live in peace is one thing, but apologizing would imply we regret what we did when it's the people of Wano who should regret not fighting harder. Being weak isn't a sin, but expecting the strong to fight and die to sustain the weak's way of life is irredeemable..."
'So that's how he views things...' mused Vahn, not particularly surprised after spending the better part of a day trading blows and being wailed on by the burly Yonko. Kaido was undeniably a warrior at heart, so while what he had done to the people of Wano was unforgivable from a humanitarian perspective, it made sense from the perspective of someone who prized strength and the resolve to become stronger over everything.
"You don't need to apologize," stated Vahn, staring off into space as he contended, "The people of Wano are hearty and industrious. As long as they are not being actively suppressed, they can rebuild and restore the prosperity of their country. All you need to do is be better than the people who wronged you, King, and countless others. If you can do that, entirely new worlds will open to you...both literally and figuratively..."
"And all I have to do is give you my daughter, is that it...?" asked Kaido, preempting Vahn's response by exhaling a throaty sigh and appending, "Fine. She's more than old enough to make decisions for herself. And as long as our funding, weapons, and supplies don't suddenly dry up, we'll leave the people of Wano in peace. But Onigashima will remain ours. Do you have a problem with that?"
"In fact, I was hoping the Beast Pirates would remain on Onigashima," stated Vahn, explaining, "If your crew were to pack up and leave while Wano is in its current condition, the World Government would immediately make a play to bring it under their rule. If, instead, you were to coordinate with the remnants of the Shimotsuki and other Samurai clans to function as custodians until the restoration of the Kouzuki, not only would you be able to distinguish yourself from the Celestial Dragons, but I can promise your current earnings and war potential would pale in comparison to the boons you receive via the Dragon's Pavilion..."
Punctuating his words, Vahn raised his right hand, producing a stack of gold bars ten meters wide and just as tall. This was nearly as much gold as was in circulation back in the human world of DxD, but with access to a limitless number of meteors, comets, and asteroids ferrying minerals that were rare on Earth, it was a very small portion of what Vahn had prepared as gifts or, more accurately, leverage.
"Alright...I think we can work something out..." affirmed Kaido, nodding. He might be an Emperor of the Sea, but he was also a businessman with a global arms enterprise. Most of his trades were handled by a vast network of brokers, with one particularly influential family presiding over the entire enterprise, but he knew a good deal when it appeared before him. And with the means Vahn had demonstrated, most notably the barrier his crew had failed to penetrate even after a full day, he understood it would be far wiser to work with than remain the enigmatic man's enemy...
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After accepting Kaido's invitation to visit Onigashima proper, Vahn found himself in the room of a scaled-up, six-story Japanese-style mansion with a ten-meter clearance from floor to ceiling. Yasaka was also with him but maintained her fox form, compressed to around five meters tall and twice as long, excluding her tails. With them, she was more than fifteen meters long, allowing her to serve as a very comfy backrest as she coiled around him and allowed him to caress her head.
shaaaaaa
Following the bamboo door serving as the room's entrance sliding open, Vahn got his first look at the underlying justification for his assault on the Beast Pirates, a usually tall but currently petite-seeming woman with long hair fashioned into a ponytail with golden rods, starting white at her scalp, gradually transitioning to aquamarine-green, and ending in cerulean blue. Her resolute-looking eyes were dark orange bordering on brown, and her body was notably well-endowed, albeit with slightly longer arms and legs than normal and prominent curved horns that started crimson at the tips and became increasingly flesh-colored near their base. As for her outfit, it currently consisted of a sleeveless white kimono with very conspicuously placed emblems, exposing considerable side boob, pleated red hakama pants reminiscent of a Shrine Maiden, wooden geta sandals with crimson bands, a large purple-and-white nio-dasuki, a type of banded rope worn like a belt, forming large loops and dangling tails behind her back, and, as she had for the past eighteen years, metal manacles set to explode if she ever tried to remove them or leave Onigashima.
"Are you the one?" asked the woman, Yamato, doing her utmost to appear and sound masculine as she questioned, "Are you the despicable man my wretched father is attempting to sell me to?"
"I don't recall such an exchange occurring," responded Vahn, though, for a brief moment, the veritable mountain of gold he had offered Kaido as a gift appeared in his mind.
"Do you think you can deceive me by feigning ignorance?" asked Yamato, revealing, "Before releasing and compelling me to come here, that bastard told me to do everything in my capacity as a woman to satisfy and indulge you. But I am Kouzuki Oden, you lout! A man among men like myself could never lie with another man...!"
"Actually, that's something I wanted to address..." started Vahn, causing Yamato's intense glower to become tinged with confusion as he added, "I get idolizing and wanting to be like Oden, but coopting his identity as your own isn't very considerate to those survived by him. More importantly, it's not something that Oden would encourage. As his biggest fan, you should know better than anyone that he would want you to be the best version of yourself, just as he lived being the best version of himself."
"You speak as if you know the ma—I mean, me..." stated Yamato, lowering her vigilance just a bit and stepping closer, curious to hear what Vahn had to say.
"I know many things," affirmed Vahn, nodding slowly before smiling as he extended his hands and stated, "But we can discuss Oden and much more later. Before anything else, I would like to remove the explosive cuffs from your wrists..."
Blinking in surprise, Yamato held up her manacled wrists and asked, "You know these are explosives? Did my father tell you...?"
"It's just one of the many things I know," responded Vahn, exhaling from his nose as he wanted to reveal more but wasn't convinced Yamato could understand, even if he did. She was presently twenty-six, but because of her idolization of Oden, she had been a prisoner within her own home for the past eighteen years, regarding everyone around her as an enemy. She was surprisingly well-learned due to stealing and reading various books in preparation for her future adventures, but she lacked experience and was mentally and emotionally stunted.
Looking between Vahn's sympathetic expression and his extended hands, Yamato eventually formed her resolve and stepped forward with her own extended. She had no idea how he planned to remove the absurdly tough metal handcuffs, but she knew Oden wouldn't show fear or uncertainty in the face of the unknown.
fwip
"There," said Vahn, placing the manacles into his Inventory with a touch, causing them to disappear from Yamato's wrists. The ease of the process left the dysmorphic woman at a visible loss for words, her mouth hanging open, but that was just the beginning of the surprises as, feeling he was a little too big in comparison to the 263cm-tall woman, Vahn emitted steam from his body, rapidly deflating until he was approximately 300cm tall...
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