Chapter 23: An Unlikely Friend

"Let go!" She struggled violently and she suddenly released conqueror's haki.

Tyr was surprised for a bit, but he also matched hers and it was her time to go silent.

"Who are you?" She asked him with a glare. "You tell me first, didn't your parents tell you that it's rude to ask for names without introducing yourself first?"

"You asshole, my old man's Kaido! And he didn't taught me shit except how to fight!" She tried to bite him, but Tyr locked her joints.

"Okay, okay, fair point. I'm Tyr. And I'm here to see what Kaido's plans are." Tyr tried diplomacy.

"Oden! My name is Kozuki, Oden." She shouted at him.

"No, you're not. He died a long time ago, one of the villagers told me." Tyr raised a brow at her.

"I'm Oden, that's a done deal." She huffed stubbornly and Tyr sighed.

"Right... Oden, Kaido's daughter huh? Talk about what his plans are." Tyr tightened his lock on her joints.

"Ahh! I'm not his daughter! I'm his son, Kozuki, Oden!" She glared at him.

"Fine, fine, geez. Whatever the fuck you want to be, I don't care." Tyr smacked her.

"What I wanna know, is what. The. Hell. Is happening here?" Tyr tightened his grip on her.

'Wait, is he here to sabotage the old man?' The self-proclaimed Oden went pensive.

"Wait! I'll help you. My old man... I want to see him fail!" She said wholeheartedly.

"Hmmm, okay." Tyr felt her sincerity with his haki and let her go.

"Ow, ow, you have a pretty mean punch." She rubbed her face.

"Well, how about that help?" Tyr asked her again with a raised brow.

"Okay, okay, you're in such a rush." She rolled her eyes.

"I don't know much because my old man locks me up in here." She started and Tyr immediately deadpanned at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I do know some shady things he is doing right now!" She blushed in embarrassment.

"Fine, so what unsavory things might he be doing here?" Tyr sighed.

"He's trafficking children." She frowned heavily and the ground under Tyr fractured.

"He what?" Tyr's veins popped and she thought he looked really intimidating as the fire on his back raged.

"They gather children all over Wano and ship them somewhere. I've seen it once when I was sneaking outside of here at night." She explained and Tyr clenched his hands.

"Let's go then, we need to break them out." Tyr immediately turned around.

"Oni-hime, I came to bring you food while the captain is out. Seriously, Yamato. If you just behave for a bit then captain won't starve you." A tall, blonde girl suddenly appeared.

(Pic)

"Black Maria!? Damn, it. Why did you have to come now?" Yamato clicked her tongue.

Tyr immediately moved with soru as he flapped his wings and tackled the girl who was at least 20 foot tall.

"Agh!" She groaned as Tyr pinned her to the ground.

"Quick! Go get some rope to tie her up!" Tyr ordered Yamato and she ran to her destroyed house.

"W-wha? King? No... Who the hell are you?" Black Maria squinted her eyes at him.

"Shhh, I might be a gentleman. But I'm a firm believer of equal rights, lady. I'll beat the shit out of you if you try anything." Tyr flared his haki and she shut up.

Yamato quickly arrived and they tied her up. "So, Yamato huh? Do you know her?" Tyr pointed at Maria.

"Geh, don't call me that. And Maria... She takes care of children... She sometimes gives me food too when she's sure it's safe." Yamato frowned heavily.

"You take care of children huh? And you let them get trafficked to become slaves or whores?" Tyr glared at her.

"Tch, what do you know? I can't do anything. I'm indebted to the captain. Onis are discriminated everywhere and he took me in. So I take care of the children as best as I can before they're shipped away." Maria clicked her tongue.

"She's a good person, Tyr. Though her biggest flaw is she's loyal to the shitty old man." Yamato sighed.

"What do we do then?" Tyr grabbed Maria's neck.

"Hey, hey, are you thinking of killing her!? No! I told you, she isn't as bad as the others." Yamato pried his hands off of her.

"Hah, I guess Yamato saved you. And you're right, I don't know of your circumstances. But be ashamed of yourself, how can you follow your captain if he sells children?" Tyr spat on the ground.

"Do you have any idea how the slaves of the celestial dragons are treated!?" Tyr got heated.

"As if you know any better, they're at Mary Geoise. You can't go there." Maria tried to argue for the sake of it.

"Hmph, then you know nothing. I saw exactly what happens there. Why? I'm a celestial dragon." Tyr snorted.

"They kill them for sport, make them do back-breaking labor, turn them into toys. Slaves aren't even human in their eyes. No... Nobody except the other celestial dragons are." Tyr clenched his hands.

The two of them gasped. Opening and closing their mouths like a fish.

"B-but how can you be here?" Yamato asked. "I escaped from Mary Geoise."

"But what if Maria tells the old man?" Yamato thought it was a poor move from him.

"I'm already on the run, they know I'm missing. It's not like they can magically learn where I am, I could be anywhere after I get out of here." Tyr furrowed his brows.

"And what if he does learn of it? Who will he tell? The world government? Like they'll believe him. If he even believes her in the first place." Tyr pointed at Maria.

"Stay here, Maria... We will be saving the children. I'll put the blame on Tyr." Yamato tied her to a rock.

Maria just stayed quiet as she stewed in her thoughts.

Tyr flew to the skies with Yamato and she pointed out where the children were being kept.

"There they are, cause some trouble and I'll get them out of there." Yamato pointed at a secure building.

"Sure, no problem." Tyr dropped down to the main base of the beast pirates, Kaido's crew.

Tyr started burning everything around him and they swarmed Tyr.

"Tch, bunch of extras." He flared his conqueror's haki and almost all of them fell down.

Tyr mopped up the rest and kept burning the buildings there like they were made of tinder.

"Shitty bastards! Come at me!" Tyr saw some reinforcements.

"An intruder! Attack him!" They kept swarming Tyr and he beat the shit out of them.

They can use haki, but it was pretty much shit. Tyr zipped around with soru, his wings giving him maneuverability.

And after an hour of beating everyone up that came, he saw a familiar blonde.

"What? Here to try and stop me?" Tyr glared at Maria and she sighed.

"Yamato doesn't know where the boats are. I'll board them in it so they could return to their villages." Maria raised her hands in surrender.

"A change of heart? No matter, Yamato can deal with you if you try anything anyways." Tyr flew to the direction of Amigasa.

After arriving at the village, he quickly looked for Tenguyama.

"Tyr? Were you successful?" Tenguyama asked him.

"I found out that Kaido's kidnapping children and selling them as slaves." Tyr frowned heavily.

"What!? How can a man be so despicable!?" Tenguyama gritted his teeth.

"I've released them, though I want you to be their guide so they can return to their respective villages without harm." Tyr asked of him.

"Certainly! Lead the way!" Tenguyama agreed immediately and Tyr carried him as he flew back to Onigashima.

Going to the docks, Yamato and Maria were boarding the kids into the ships.

"Yamato, I brought someone who can safely lead them back to their villages." Tyr dropped Tenguyama into the ship.

"Do not fear, I will bring them back to safety." Tenguyama nodded at him and they started sailing towards the different villages.

"I... I won't tell the captain about you." Maria suddenly spouted.

"Can you... Can you tell me more about what happens in Mary Geoise?" Maria asked anxiously.

Yamato decided to listen as well and Tyr closed his eyes.

"Very well, let me tell you how depraved humans can be." Tyr furrowed his brows as he told them what the celestial dragons do to their slaves.

Yamato flared her haki in rage and Maria went quiet.

"P-please leave me alone for a second." Maria covered her face with her hands and started sobbing. Learning that she was sending children to such horrible fates.

"The celestial dragons... They don't deserve to live." Yamato gritted her teeth.

"Come on, let's get out of here. Tell Kaido that you were forced by me to break the children out later." Tyr gestured for them to make their escape.

They went to Yamato's house at the outskirts of Onigashima.

"Hah, I was just looking for people here. Then it suddenly turned into a raid." Tyr sighed.

"Thank you, Tyr. For helping those children." Yamato bowed at him.

"It's nothing special, it was the right thing to do." Tyr gave Maria a side eye.

"I'm sorry." Maria was ashamed of herself to let them get smuggled.

"Hah, fine. I understand your loyalty to Kaido. But there are lines that just shouldn't be crossed." Tyr was still a bit mad, but she did help too.

"Hey, Tyr. How about we celebrate this day? The old man hasn't received a blow like this in years!" Yamato grinned.

"Yeah, if this is his first defeat in years. Then I'll definitely come to him in the future and kill him." Tyr remembered amigasa's condition.

Certainly, the other villages would be in bad shape too.

"I'm not that high in the rankings, but I did heard they were looking for poneglyphs." Maria revealed.

"Poneglyphs? Oden could read them! Look here in his logbook." Yamato took out a worn out book from her shirt.

"It has an ancient language that was passed down to the Kozuki family. They were the ones who made them centuries ago." Yamato pointed at her book in excitement.

"Why though? And wouldn't they be able to read it without someone who can do so?" Tyr raised a brow.

"I don't know, that's all I got." Maria shrugged and Yamato sighed.

"I do not know as well." Yamato got downcast.

"Well, whatever they want with it. We won't be able to know. Let's just follow Yamato's suggestion." Tyr grinned.

"I will bring sake." Maria went off to somewhere.

"What we did was really great... Though I can't believe that Kaido's my father." Yamato looked at the ground in shame.

"Tyr... Do you think that I should be punished? For all the things he has done?" Yamato asked.

"Are you stupid? Of course not. I've already said this to my brother, but the sin of the parents do not carry over to their children." Tyr patted her on the back.

"Do you want to enslave people? Have you?" Tyr asked her and she shook her head.

"Then you're not a bad person like your father. You can't change who your parents are. But you can always strive for a path that is your own." Tyr smiled at her and she looked at him with sparkling eyes.

"Yeah, you're right!" Yamato grinned and her mood went up.

"Say, talk to me about your brother. Is he as strong as you? Does he have wings too?" Yamato was curious.

"Easy, easy." Tyr chuckled. "I'm just excited, I've never had someone to talk to like this before."

'Well, that's sad.' Tyr ruffled her hair. "My brother huh? I actually have two! Little brats, those two." Tyr chuckled.

"Ace is the older one, though he's a shrimp. Doesn't even reach our waist. While Luffy, he's a glutton that can eat tons of meat in one sitting." Tyr talked about them fondly.

Yamato listened to him intently. "Before I tell stories about them, how about I become your very first friend?" Tyr smiled at her.

Her eyes sparkled and Yamato grabbed his hand. "Really!? You mean it?"

"Yeah, aren't we already friends? I mean, we raided Onigashima." Tyr laughed.

"Then promise! Promise that we'll always be treasured friends." Yamato looked at him seriously.

"Un, I promise." Tyr nodded at her.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.