Treasure

"Is this Kaido’s most precious Devil Fruit?"

Yota weighed the three Devil Fruits in his hand. They were an Ancient Zoan Velociraptor Fruit, an Ancient Zoan Savage Lion Fruit, and the Mantis Shrimp Fruit.

After looking at them for a while, Yota simply picked up the Mantis Shrimp Fruit and stuffed it straight into his mouth—he had already removed the Eight-Headed Serpent Fruit from his body, so this was the perfect chance to test the Mantis Shrimp Fruit and see whether it was really as miraculous as Kaido claimed.

Only moments after eating the fruit, Yota opened his eyes in surprise. "It actually seems pretty strong!"

As an expert in human body modification, he was astonished to discover that the structure of his arms had been transformed into a special configuration resembling powerful springs and elastic bands. With the slightest swing, the speed of his fists became almost unbelievable.

"My speed has increased by nearly tenfold… Even an ordinary person who ate this Devil Fruit could probably throw so-called supersonic punches."

"Anyone with even a little foundation in martial arts could use a fist technique like Morning Peacock! Are there really ordinary animals this terrifying in the world? This is far stronger than most Ancient Zoans, isn’t it?"

Having obtained three more Devil Fruits, Yota was in high spirits. He kept his promise and released all the Beasts Pirates members whose value had already been drained. As for what Kaido and the others planned to do afterward, that had nothing to do with him.

The people of Wano Country had some objections to this. However, seeing that Yota had given them several Devil Fruits, they ultimately kept quiet.

After all, the Beasts Pirates had suffered severe losses. Aside from their high-ranking officers, even their ordinary grunts had been sent to the mines for labor reform. Their officers had also lost their Devil Fruit abilities, greatly weakening their strength.

Yota gave Denjiro, Kawamatsu, and Asura Doji one Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit each, increasing Wano’s strength instead. With the three of them serving as a deterrent, the Beasts Pirates would presumably no longer dare invade Wano Country.

Of course, when they truly saw the Mammoth Fruit, Triceratops Fruit, and Saber-Toothed Tiger Fruit that Yota had obtained from the Beasts Pirates, all three wore the same stunned expression despite having prepared themselves mentally.

Everyone understood perfectly well just how terrifying an ability that could extract Devil Fruits was.

One month later.

"Wood Release—Tree World Descent!"

"Water Release—Great Exploding Water Surge!"

"Earth Release—Creating Something From Nothing!"

Under the three most effective construction techniques—Water Release, Earth Release, and Wood Release—the mountains and rivers polluted by the factories Kurozumi Orochi had built were restored to life. The foul-smelling river water became crystal clear, the soil littered with industrial waste was cleaned up, and all kinds of vegetation grew from the earth once more.

Other than still lacking some animals, this land quickly returned to how it had looked more than a decade ago.

"Amazing… Thank you, Mage! Thank you, General!" A group of ragged, emaciated villagers joyfully kowtowed to a handsome young man and an extraordinarily beautiful young woman.

The young man and woman were naturally Yota and Kozuki Hiyori. Although Kurozumi Orochi had been eliminated and the Beasts Pirates driven away, the damage they had inflicted upon Wano Country had yet to recover.

If they truly wanted to deal with industrial waste like this through conventional means, Wano Country likely would not return to its former state even after more than a decade.

What was more, under Kurozumi Orochi’s bone-scraping style of rule, nearly half the residents outside the Flower Capital had died. That was only because people in the Pirate World possessed such strong vitality. If they had been people from a normal world, saying that fewer than one in ten had survived would not have been an exaggeration.

Under such circumstances, the country did not even have enough laborers. Trying to carry out costly and exhausting pollution control efforts was naturally even more difficult.

Thus, Wano Country had fallen into a vicious cycle. To clean up the pollution, they needed sufficient manpower; but to have sufficient manpower, they first had to clean up the pollution and produce enough food. Otherwise, if people could not even fill their stomachs, how could they possibly deal with pollution?

In fact, Kozuki Hiyori, Denjiro, the other Nine Red Scabbards, and Wano Country’s samurai had already prepared themselves to spend twenty or thirty years slowly restoring the country. It was only then that the news reached Yota, who had originally been preparing to leave.

With nothing better to do, Yota decided to help Wano Country. At the same time, he wanted to test the construction capabilities of the ninja techniques he possessed.

Thus, over the past month, Yota had continually used his ninja techniques to help Wano Country clean up pollution and produce food. In that short time, Wano’s granaries had already stored enough food to feed the current population for more than a decade.

And this land was the final area that needed treatment. Once it was restored, Wano Country’s affairs could finally be considered settled for the time being.

"All right, there’s no need to thank us. Just live well from now on," Kozuki Hiyori said gently. Although her strength was nothing exceptional, after so many years of hardship, her character and temperament had truly become exceptionally mature.

At the very least, Kozuki Hiyori was far more qualified as a female general than Momonosuke had been in the original story.

That night, Yota had just finished a round of training and was soaking comfortably in a hot spring.

"Wano Country’s hot springs are probably its only good point… Still, it feels like the Sea Stone particle content in these springs is higher than elsewhere. Luckily, I’ve trained well enough. Otherwise, I might go weak just from soaking in a hot spring."

"Now that I think about it, Ace and Yamato both seemed to hate hot springs. They never soaked in one even once while they were in Wano Country… Well, that makes sense. One has fire powers and the other has ice powers, so naturally they wouldn’t like hot springs much."

As Yota lay floating on the water and pondered this, he suddenly heard a splashing sound. Someone had opened the door to the hot spring bath.

Through the hazy steam, a beautiful green-haired young woman slowly walked in, wrapped in a bath towel.

"Uh…" Yota froze for a moment. "Hiyori… what are you doing…?"

"Big Brother Yota," Kozuki Hiyori said, her shy face faintly visible through the mist. "I came to scrub your back."

"Ah… this…" Looking at Kozuki Hiyori’s flushed face, Yota felt at a loss for a moment. His mind was in turmoil, as though an angel and a devil were fighting within him.

Devil: This is your chance. Who cares what she’s thinking? She’s the most beautiful woman in Wano Country.

Angel: Stop talking nonsense and get to it!