From Scratch

Now that Dante knew Yamato hated Kaido and wanted nothing more than to ditch Onigashima, the only thing left to do was successfully leave. Already Dante could hear the aggressive thumping of several pairs of footsteps ahead and above him, signifying quite cleary that they'd found the bodies.

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Come on, we gotta get moving."

Yamato looked at him confused for a moment, before slowly her eyes widened, hope blossoming inside of her slightly.

"You... you're really going to help me escape?"

Her voice was quiet, hopeful, and reluctant all at the same time.

"Sure. After all, you can't free Wano while you're stuck in a cage, can you? Way I see it, you're gonna need some help."

She looked at him astonished for a moment before smiling, nodding her head. She was giddy, but hesitant to celebrate Dante's aid. After all, they were still on the island first and foremost, there was no use celebrating now. Though, that didn't mean she wasn't moved by Dante's willingness to help her.

"Thank you, Dante. You can't imagine how much that means to me."

"We can discuss that later, and whatever you wanted to say about that Oden guy, right now we need to get moving. My ship is around the front entrance."

"Um... I don't mean to be a nuisance but before we leave, can you please remove these?"

She gestured to the seastone cuffs still linking her wrists together, causing Dante to almost smack himself on the forehead after forgetting them. He summoned the Yamato and sliced through each cuff binding her wrists, quickly dismissing the blade.

Yamato smiled at the raw power flowing through her veins, her muscles feeling hundreds of times stronger, her senses enhanced and her morale boosted. She missed the powers of her Devil Fruit.

"Alright, we've got two options. We either break the wall and dash towards the front of the Dome from behind, or we fight our way through and book it towards the ship. Honestly, I'm fine for either at this point."

Yamato sat for a moment in thought. They had the clear element of surprise, nobody knew they were able to escape at any moment. However, if they were to fight, she would need a weapon, which she would find in one specific place. That line of thinking brought an ingenious idea to her mind.

"The Armory... Yes! Dante, on the floor beneath us is the Armory, Kaido keeps every weapon the Beast Pirates own in there. Anything from gas, to bombs, to guns."

Dante paused after hearing her words.

"Bombs?"

The speed at which his expression shifted into a grin was sickening, but the prospect was too enticing. Kaido, building his Castle atop a bed of bombs. If he wanted to leave a message, this was the best way to do it. Oh, it was all coming together now.

"Yes. Bombs."

Yamato's own grin was just as wide as Dante's, eagerness tearing away at her for a chance to get back at the Kaido, who had made her life a living hell. A second later though, she hesitated.

"Though, if we use the bombs underneath Onigashima, it'll destroy the whole island, that'll kill almost everyone here. But... surely some of these people don't deserve to die. And besides, if we leave now how can we liberate Wano?"

Dante looked almost disappointed for a moment.

"Yamato. Look at me."

She met his eyes, and felt taken aback by the sheer presence he held in that moment. It was as if her every living cell was paying attention to his words while he spoke.

"These people, these Beasts, everything that has happened to them, and will happen to them, is entirely justified. They don't deserve your sympathy, and I applaud you for trying to be the better person here, but your kindness is misplaced."

He gestured to the room around them.

"Surely, you would want nothing but death and destruction for the people who enforced such horrendous circumstances upon you? Forced you to live in a cage, abandoned their sympathy for you in fear of Kaido."

He met her eyes once more.

"In the end, every Pirate that survives today is another one that can terrorise Wano. Every man left alive could kill another 10 innocent people. Think of Oden. Would he want these Pirates to live? Would he not see this as vengeance for the oppressed peoples of Wano? The tortured children, the enslaved workers."

"These Beast Pirates spend their time partying and enjoying their lives, drinking away into the night. Can you imagine that? Knowing that not 500 meters away people are starving to death, suffering, losing loved ones and being left to rot, yet still choosing to indulge your own personal desires? No, they simply don't care. There are no 'good ones'. There are only those deserving."

At this point, Dante was impressed with how he came up with such a speech on the spot. He had taken notes from Akainu's 'all pirates are evil and must die wah wah' attitude and seemingly it was working.

"This isn't some random act of violence, Yamato. This is Justice. They brought this on themselves. We can come back for Wano later, but no matter what, you and I will fix it all. I promise you that."

With the moon shining on Dante's back through the sliver of a window Yamato had, the Oni was left unable to take her eyes off of him. His speech was enthralling to her, and with every word he spoke she found herself becoming more and more enamored. Every word was the truth, and she began questioning why she ever believed otherwise.

Yamato's resolve had been hardened now. She knew what needed to be done, and she was more than okay with such an outcome. Her sympathy was wasted here. She smiled and thanked Dante for helping her see the truth, now having a much more positive view of him.

Dante meanwhile was slightly confused, wondering why it was so easy to change Yamato's stance on homicide but eventually chalking it up to him saying the right things. Given the way she spoke about Oden and Wano, the two were linked, so it wasn't too hard to spitball something.

Yamato took a moment to psyche herself up, coming to terms with the fact that she could genuinely be seeing the outside world today.

"Okay, Dante. I'll follow your lead."

"Good. Grab anything you want to take with you, cause after today you'll never be seeing this place again."

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Moments later, Yamato had grabbed the few items she considered worthy of bringing, being a hair clip and the book she had from before. She then converged on Dante, who summoned the Yamato and cut into the wall blocking Yamato off from the world, kicking the sliced open bricks afterwards., sending chunks of stone hurtling at pirates who never expected the attack.

'God, all this Yamato shit is gonna get real damn confusing.'

Despite all of the commotion over an intruder on the island, Kaido hadn't yet moved. This however didn't mean that regular Beasts hadn't been panicking heavily after finding their friends dead with no idea how.

The second the wall had been blasted open, the duo had started running. Though, Dante was far, far faster than Yamato the woman herself was no slouch.

Dante, however, was far too eager to get his hands on those explosives, so he grabbed Yamato's hand with one of his own and used the other to hold his sword, tearing his way through any opposition they found going down the stairs to the armory.

Despite all of the crimes Dante had committed in this world thus far, unprotected handholding was by far his worst one.

Seconds later, Dante found himself in heaven. Surrounding him was thousands of crates filled to the brim with bombs, canisters, weapons, guns, and maps. It was a hoarder's paradise, and a maniac's wet dream.

Yamato, entirely ignorant of Dante's awe, walked over to one of the corners of the room and grabbed a Kanabo if he was right, and slung it over her shoulder. Her eyes brightened when she held the mace, so clearly she was more than happy to be reunited with it.

Now that he was in this room, Dante quickly started to bundle every bomb he could find into the center, summoning a Doppelganger to light the explosives when he was done and having it hide in the shadows.

"Alright, that should work. Come on, time to go. I wanna see this place light up like a fucking Christmas tree."

In that moment, Dante remembered he could just open a portal with the Yamato and teleport directly to the Deadweight. His desire to have an exciting infiltration probably took precedent over his rational thoughts in the moment, but right now it seemed the easiest way to get out.

Twirling the Yamato in his hands for a moment, Dante raised the blade high and tore a bridge between dimensions, opening a rift through which he and Yamato could escape that led directly onto the deck of his vessel.

Implicitly trusting him, Yamato followed Dante through the portal and was left shocked as she was face to face with the outside of Onigashima. Freedom had never felt so close.

Quick as a flash, Dante began lowering the sails, having Yamato turn them so that they could carry themselves on the shockwave from the blast, with Dante kicking off the edge of the island to give the ship a boost while it turned.

Several men rushed out upon hearing the portal open, but each one of them was gunned down before they could even realise they had seen Dante.

"Dante, they keep coming!"

"I am very aware of that! Just hold that wheel steady, we need to get out of the blast radius."

A moment later, Dante felt something stir with his Haki. They were now far enough away that the top of the Skull Dome could be seen, however, with that came the sight of Kaido himself stood atop the skull, shaking in fury as he spotted Yamato with the Red Devil.

Within an instant Kaido began to transform, his body twisting and turning at disgusting angles, elongating and turning a light shade of blue. Within a few seconds of time Kaido had become a hundred foot long Eastern Dragon, and he was staring directly at the Deadweight.

"Red Devil! Unhand my son and I will give you the honor of a swift de-"

At that moment, Dante commanded his Doppelganger to set off the explosives.

Before Kaido could finish his speech, the sky was torn in two, scalding heat flowing in every direction as blinding light overpowered the eyes. A second later came the shockwave, sending the Deadweight tumbling forward across the waves at a blistering speed.

Looking back at Onigashima, all Dante could see was black smog and red hot fire in the air, nothing left of the Skull Dome apart from the dust that now peppered the ground. Kaido was nowhere to be seen, likely having been thrown away by the force of the explosion.

He stared for a moment. Then, he laughed.

"Ha... haha! Hahahaha! Fuck yeah!"

"...Hehehehehe! We did it!"

After Dante begun laughing, Yamato began joining him, until eventually she turned and hugged him, lifting him off the ground easily as she began to spin around. Her joy was infectious, and Dante found himself laughing once more.

Eventually she dropped him back on the deck and a few moments later stared at the remnants of Onigashima as though in a trance.

"It still doesn't feel real. It feels like any moment now I'll wake up in that room again, alone. But no... this isn't a dream. We did this. We destroyed it all."

She turned to him, tears lining the bottom of her eyes and a beautiful smile on her face.

"Thank you, Dante. Thank you so, so much."

Dante patted her on the arm and smiled back, still going over the explosion in his head again and again, awed by the devastation.

"Don't worry about it. We're friends. I'll always have your back."

She wiped her teary eyes and grabbed Dante in another hug.

"Yes, I like the sound of that. On my honour as the Inheritor of Oden's Will, I promise I will repay this debt to you."

"Woah, woah! There's no debt, like I said, we're friends. I didn't do this expecting something from you in return." Utter bullshit.

She shook her head violently, having long since backed away from the hug to talk with Dante face to face.

"I cannot allow that! Not after everything you have done for me. I assure you, whatever it is you ask of me I will do my best to achieve it."

Were he a lesser man, Dante would exploit this opportunity to try and sleep with Yamato. Of course, that isn't to say the idea didn't go through his head at least once, but he considered himself a man of higher standard.

"Well, if you really want to help me... How about you join my crew, and travel the world with me? Of course, after we fix up Wano."

Yamato smiled at him once more.

"I'd love to, Dante."