Gifts and Wano Country

"Where did you get these? They’re amazing!"

Ace lovingly stroked the pair of Fingerless Gloves in his hands. They bore a Sun Pattern and had been sewn from some unknown material and strange metal threads, making them incredibly tough while fitting snugly around his hands.

Most importantly, the gloves could absorb and store Ace’s flame power, greatly increasing the temperature of the Flame-Flame Fruit fire he produced.

Beside him, Yamato kept swinging the spiked club in her hands. An Ice Blue Gem had been set into the grip of the club.

"Yeah, yeah! It feels like cold air is rising up from A-Ken! I’ve never used it this comfortably before!" Yamato said with a wide grin. A-Ken was the name she had given her spiked club.

"I promised someone I wouldn’t reveal the smith’s name," Yota said dismissively. "As long as you think they’re useful, who cares where they came from?"

As he spoke, he took a massive pair of Bracers from the Sealing Scroll behind him. "I’ve got something for Pops too."

"Oh!" Whitebeard, who had been drinking, glanced at the enormous Bracers in surprise. "You got something for me too? What do these Bracers do?"

"Pops, why not put them on and find out?" Yota said with a smile, handing them over.

Whitebeard curiously put on the Bracers and casually threw a couple of punches. After frowning slightly in confusion, white light lit up around his hands.

"Hm? They can actually absorb and store vibrational force!" Whitebeard muttered in surprise.

Once the stored vibrational energy reached its limit, Whitebeard gave a casual swing of his arm, immediately sending enormous waves surging across the sea.

The amount of power the Bracers could absorb and store was far below Whitebeard’s full-strength attacks, but it was still enough to astonish anyone.

More importantly, with these Bracers, most of the recoil force from Whitebeard’s attacks would be absorbed by them. The remaining shockwaves would barely affect his body at all.

It could even be said that after attacking at full strength in the past, Whitebeard had needed to pause and catch his breath. Now, he could keep attacking until he was exhausted, increasing his combat power by at least ten percent.

"Not bad, Yota. Getting weapons with such special properties must have taken quite a bit of effort, huh?" Whitebeard laughed heartily without pressing him about where the items had come from.

"Yeah… it was pretty troublesome," Yota said.

In truth, making these things had not been particularly difficult. With the Sage of Six Paths’ skill in crafting ninja tools, combined with Yota’s Munch-Munch Fruit and the calculating power of the Electronic Chip, simply producing these items had been incredibly easy.

The only somewhat difficult part had been converting the tools from the Chakra system into something usable with all forms of energy. That alone had taken the Sage of Six Paths several days.

But to people of the Pirate World, who had never seen treasures like these before, it was only natural that they thought Yota must have gone through great trouble to acquire them. Yota had no intention of explaining otherwise.

"Ah, what a shame. If we’d had these things during the last battle, then aside from Kaido, not a single member of the Beasts Pirates would’ve escaped!" Ace said somewhat unsatisfiedly as he swung his hands a few times. The flames rising from them had turned blazing white.

Yota’s eyes lit up slightly. "Kaido can come looking for trouble with us, but we can also go looking for trouble with him."

"Don’t forget that you promised a lot of people back then. The people of Amigasa Village are still waiting for you."

"That’s right. Let’s go defeat Kaido and liberate Wano Country right now!" Before Ace could answer, Yamato was already waving her spiked club in excited agreement.

"Don’t be stupid. That’s Kaido!" Whitebeard casually punched Yamato on the head, raising a huge lump on the spot.

"With just the three of you, even if you join forces at full strength, you probably won’t be a match for Kaido alone! Not to mention the entire Beasts Pirates."

"Ugh, that bastard old man really is strong," Yamato said listlessly as she lay sprawled across the deck.

However, Yota noticed a faint flicker of interest in Whitebeard’s eyes.

In the original story, Whitebeard had carried old injuries, and the Whitebeard Pirates had been roughly equal in strength to the Beasts Pirates. If they fought, the outcome would have been uncertain, but there would inevitably have been enormous casualties. That was why he had never gone looking for trouble with Kaido.

But now, Whitebeard’s old injuries were gone. He was healthy and powerful, and with Yota and Yamato joining them, the Whitebeard Pirates held an absolute advantage against the Beasts Pirates. Naturally, other thoughts had begun to arise.

Whitebeard was worried about Ace and the others going there, but that did not mean he did not want to settle things with Kaido himself!

In the end, however, Whitebeard still said nothing. He was getting old, and the old man no longer wanted to stir up trouble.

His relationship with Kozuki Oden had been quite good, but he was even less willing to let his children get hurt now. As people aged, their drive faded too.

Yota naturally said nothing about Whitebeard’s reaction on the surface, but in the middle of the night, he secretly sought Whitebeard out.

"Yota, no matter what you say, I won’t agree to let you go looking for trouble with Kaido."

"Wano Country is Kaido’s home territory. It’s too dangerous for the three of you to go there!"

Whitebeard did not simply punch Yota as he had Ace and Yamato. Of the trio, Yota was undoubtedly the calmest one, and Whitebeard wanted to know why he was so confident about taking on Kaido.

Yota smiled slightly. His eyes suddenly took on the shape of the Rinnegan, and then a black space appeared before him.

"Pops, this is an ability I recently awakened. I call it—Kamui!"

The next day, Whitebeard unexpectedly agreed to let Yota go to Wano Country. He also told Ace and Yamato to follow Yota’s orders, leaving the two of them quite surprised that Whitebeard was willing to let them go.

In truth, Yota had always been the most reliable member of the trio. Although Ace decided their overall direction, Yota had always been the one to figure out the details, so the other two did not think too much about it this time.

"Ace, this is the Flame Ship I specially built for you." Deuce, the former vice-captain of the Spade Pirates who had not appeared in a long time and now worked in logistics for the Whitebeard Pirates, confidently pointed at the vessel, which was only slightly larger than a speedboat. "It’s much faster than an ordinary ship. Its entire hull is made from the alloy Yota provided, and it’s even tougher than Adam Wood."

"The only problem is that the hull is too small. It doesn’t handle wind and waves well and can easily capsize—but with your strength, that shouldn’t be much of an issue."