#Oni Princess Yamato x reader

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

Being Kaidou's prisoner and falling in love with Yamato would involve...

Yamato x reader. My first One Piece animanga fic! This fic is dedicated to the amazing @wendigoselene!

Warning: mentions of gender dysphoria (Yamato fears that his partner will not accept the fact that he has a female body).

*****

👹 You were born in Wano, the eldest child of Shimotsuki Ushimaru, daimyo of Ringo. You spend your early childhood living peacefully with him, your mother and your younger siblings, as well as your father’s pet komagitsune Onimaru; you meet Oden a few times, and the two of you grow very fond of each other. 

👹 Everything changes when Oden is executed by Kurozumi Orochi, backed up by Kaidou; your father and the other daimyo refuse to submit to Orochi, which leads them to be imprisoned on Onigashima. Your family expects to be wiped out, in order to avoid any future rebellion, but to your great surprise you are summoned in front of Kaidou: he has heard about the exceptional powers you alone in your family were born with, and wants you to put them at his service. In exchange, he promises, your family will be allowed to survive and even treated well, and you will want for nothing. 

👹 Even at your young age, the thought of serving the man who has imprisoned your father makes you seethe with anger; nevertheless, you decide to accept, wishing to at least protect your mother and siblings, and to remain alive until you can get your revenge. Once you have sworn to serve Kaidou, you beg him to free your father and the other daimyo, or at least to allow you to meet him, but are coldly rebuffed. 

👹 And so your life as a prisoner of Kaidou begins. You are kept in a small apartment little bigger than a cell, with three meals a day, a bed worthy of the name and your own toilet, but you’re still forbidden from going out if not under strict surveillance and from contacting your family, who is kept in a similar situation, if not through letters that are read by Kaidou’s men before being delivered, and a single meeting in person per year, also chaperoned. Your mother and siblings are kept healthy, housed and fed, which is more than can be said for most of Kaidou’s prisoners, but you’re never allowed to forget you are also prisoners, your family kept hostage to secure your subservience. You know that if your master -this is what you’re ordered to call him, and you do, the word tasting like poison in your mouth- were displeased with you, or had reason to suspect you are trying to escape or to oppose him, he wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate hurting the people you love.

👹 In the meantime, Kaidou has you trained by his men, in order to develop your natural powers. You’ve barely entered adolescence when you’re sent on your first mission, to which many others follow, against your master’s enemies, rebellious subordinates, or to subdue a new territory to his flag. You are strong, and determined to do what you have to for the sake of your family and the hope that one day you may gain freedom for you all, so it’s not long before you start making a name for yourself as one of Kaidou’s most formidable subordinates. In time, thanks to your successes, growing privileges are afforded to you and your family: more comfortable lodgings, good food, even a tutor for your siblings, who are now old enough to need formal education. You are paid more than well for your job, and your meetings with your family are increased to one every four months.

👹 All things considered, you have reason to be, if not happy, at least content with the existence you have carved for yourself, and relieved you and the people you love are at least safe and healthy, but you’re not. You hate your life, hopeless rage and shame and guilt filling your heart and, at times, making you feel as if you were suffocating. You keep repeating yourself that you’re only doing it for the sake of your mother and siblings, to keep them safe, that you’ll never be truly faithful to Kaidou and that you are still waiting for the chance to escape -or even better, to kill him- and you really are!, but you can’t help feeling that it’s not enough. After all, you have put your strength, and the powers you were endowed with, at the service of your mortal enemy, and your hands are stained with the blood of his enemies, innocents or people who simply wanted to regain their freedom; it’s them you should have tried to help, not this monster who helped that snake, Orochi, enslave your people and your land. Maybe you should have let Kaidou kill you, you think sadly, in order to spare yourself the indignity and at least die with honour; maybe, in that case, your father would have been proud of you. 

👹 Speaking of your father; you know he died just days after his and the other daimyo’s imprisonment -and you never cried as hard as you did that day, having harboured in your child’s heart the secret hope he would one day come save you- but you were never told what had happened that day, instinctively thinking that he had sacrificed his life to oppose Kaidou and Orochi. You’re not sure that, even considering you were only a child when you were forced to choose between servitude to Kaidou and the slaughter of your whole family, he’d approve what you did and are still doing, but you allow yourself to believe that he’s still watching over you, and will be proud when, one day, you find a way to kill Kaidou and Orochi and avenge him, your lord Oden, and all those who have suffered and still suffer under the usurper. 

👹 Soon after you reach adulthood, Kaidou chooses you as the leader of the Tobiroppo, a position you more than deserve but are supremely uninterested in, given the fact you care nothing about raising through the ranks of your master’s army, and that has the unforeseen consequence of earning you the envy and the resentment of many among Kaidou’s subordinates who had aspired to the same position. This matter leaves you indifferent as well; you’ve never made friends among the Beast Pirates, for obvious reasons on your part. Rather, you’ve always done your best to look cold and unapproachable, and some of Kaidou’s men also resent you for the apparent position of privilege you occupy, or distrust you because of your origins and the fact that you’re only serving Kaidou in exchange for your and your family’s safety. 

👹 You don’t mind being alone, since after all you’re surrounded by enemies; you have your mother and your siblings, safe and sound even though you can spend so little time together, and that is enough, or at least you force yourself to be content with it. Today, though, you feel particularly melancholic and lonely, and not without reason: exactly ten years have passed since your father’s death, and even longer since you were taken captive. Ten years… it’s more than half the time you’ve been alive, which means that you have spent more time under Kaidou’s thumb than free, and you can’t help wondering if those years were worthy the shame and dishonour of having sworn loyalty to the man who had your father killed and the land of Wano enslaved under Orochi. There is nothing you would not do to keep your family safe, but you are an adult now, and while you still train tirelessly, you know you are no match for Kaidou, nor have you ever had even half a chance to kill him. Maybe you never will, and you’ll spend your whole life serving him, working and fighting for him, a -sort of- willing slave to the man you despise, your family’s honour forgotten and your father’s disappointment and condemnation waiting for you in the next world…

👹 That night a big party, as usual hosted by Queen, takes place at Onigashima, but you’re not in the mood to celebrate - not that you usually do. You even considered asking Kaidou for an exceptional meeting with your family, to celebrate your recent promotion, but you don’t want your mother and siblings to see you while you’re feeling so dejected and hopeless. You mustn’t forget that you’re not the only one for whom those last ten years have been hard, and lonely, and you don’t want your family to worry about you. 

👹 You sigh, sitting on a large boulder facing the sea, on a little beach you sometimes spend time in when you want to be alone - which is most of the time. If only Oden were here, you wistfully think; you cried all your tears when you heard your noble lord hard been killed, and you don’t doubt that if he were still alive, and able to fight Kaidou fairly, he would easily dispatch both him and Orochi, and free the land of Wano. If Oden were here, everything would be different…  

👹 “Hello.” Yamato says, making you jump.

👹 You’ve never formally met before, which is probably surprising, since Onigashima is a tiny island. You only knew vaguely Kaidou had a daughter, even though you had never even bothered to find more about her, even just her name, instinctively convinced as you were that your master’s child could not be any better than him, and consequently that she wasn’t the sort of person you’d ever want to make friends with. Yamato, on his part, only knew you vaguely as one of his father’s many subordinates; he discovered the truth about your identity only that morning, as he heard him discuss your recent promotion to leader of the Tobiroppo, and immediately decided he needed to meet you.

👹 You stand from your seat and turn to face the person who has joined you on the beach; he doesn’t seem intentioned to hurt you, but ten years as Kaidou’s prisoner have taught you to be wary of anyone you meet, and this white-haired man must be no exception, no matter how bright his eyes, and how lovely his smile, are. “Who are you? Were you spying on me?” “Not at all; I just wanted to talk.” Yamato answers in a friendly tone “You’re Shimotsuki (name), yes?” “Talk about what? And who are you?” “I’m Kouzuki Oden.” “WHAT?!?!”

👹 It takes you a few minutes to clear up the misunderstanding. You’re immediately concerned to discover that Yamato is Kaidou’s child, fearing he has been sent to spy or hurt you in some way, but he promises that he has no ill intentions towards you, and moreover, that he opposes his father’s actions and intentions as much as you do. “The reason why I wanted to meet you is… well, I have a message for you.” Yamato says, and his excited smile slowly turns into a serious, almost solemn expression “From your father.”

👹 You end up spending most of the night together talking. Yamato tells you about how he met your father, as well as the other daimyo, when his father locked him together with them to punish him; he, as well as Yamato himself, thought the daimyo would hurt him because of his heritage, especially after they had been given swords and a single portion of food, after days of starvation. “But they didn’t; they were better than that. They cut me free from my chains, and gave me food. I promised them I would fight to liberate Wano like they wanted to do, to free it from my father, and they… they sacrificed their lives to make sure I lived. I will never forget their courage and kindness; it’s thanks to them that I am here today.” he tells you quietly “As he and the others prepared to break out, your father told me: I have a daughter who is about your age; you remind me of her sometimes. I fear Kaidou will attempt to hurt her, and to break her will to his. If you ever meet her, tell her I love her more than anything else in the world; that even though she’s still so young, I know she will make me proud, and that she will never forget her duty and the blood that runs in her veins.”

👹 Yamato is at first hesitant, fearing you might blame him for your father’s death, but your reaction is the exact opposite. To know this young man was with your father when he died, and that he and the other daimyo trusted Yamato enough to sacrifice their lives for him… emotion has filled your eyes with tears, and to receive your father’s message today of all days, while you felt so full of doubts about yourself and feared you would never succeed in avenging him and free Wano from Kaidou and Orochi, has rekindled hope in your heart, and filled you with a new determination. All of it thanks to Yamato, who you immediately feel sympathy for, and who is happy to tell you about the courage and kindness of your father and the other daimyo, of how they deliberately suffered hunger to make sure he was fed, helped him read Oden’s diary, and entrusted him with their hopes that one day Wano would be liberated and its enemy punished. 

👹 Yamato, on his part, envies you for having met his idol, Oden, in person; you have to admit that the two of you didn’t actually had that much of a relationship, since you only met a few times and you were too young to hold a conversation anyway, but you gladly share your memories of the man you both admire. You can’t help finding it a bit odd that Yamato has gone so far as to make Oden’s identity his own, adopting his mannerisms and even emulating his gender, but you deeply admire his courage in opposing his father, who clearly disapproves of his own son idolising his worst enemy, and who has done his worst to make him relent. That night, as you talk sitting on the beach, alone save for the waves crashing on the shoreline in front of you, a deep friendship is born between you and Yamato, a bond born of spiritual empathy and shared intent; you promise that you’ll support each other against all those who oppose you, united against the rest of Onigashima, and one day, when the opportunity arises -and it will; I promise, (name), one day we’ll get our chance. You mustn’t lose hope, your father wouldn’t want you to- you’ll fight together to liberate Wano and avenge both Oden and the daimyo. 

👹 Your friendship with Yamato becomes one of the few sources of joy in your life. You had never fully realised how lonely you felt, having no one to confide in, share your fears and hopes with, and ask for comfort when loneliness and guilt threaten to crush you. For ten long years it was your family’s safety, and the secret hope of one day finding a way to avenge your father and realise his ambition to restore Wano to its previous splendour, that sustained you, but you did feel isolated, forced to rely on your own strength without a friend to watch your back and to dry your tears when the loss of your father and the fear you’d spend the rest of your life serving the man who had killed him threatened to destroy you. Now you have Yamato in your corner, and he’s worth more than a whole army of friends; for his part, he also treasures your friendship, both as a link to his idol and his past saviours and since you’re the only person in the whole of Onigashima who doesn’t oppose his desire to emulate Oden but rather supports him. One could think that, given his exceptional strength and position as Kaidou’s son, Yamato has lived an easy and privileged life, but even though he has been opposing his father ever since he was a child, courageously enduring all the abuse and violence Kaidou has inflicted to make him relent, he's sincerely happy he has found someone in whose company he can simply be himself, and who accepts and even share his desire to see a free, open Wano. 

👹 That is not to say you are free to live your friendship in the open. Having agreed that knowing his two biggest detractors in Wano are spending time together would immediately make Kaidou suspicious that you're up to something -which you sort of are- you and Yamato find several ways to meet in secret, in the most hidden corners around Onigashima or on your favourite beach. You spend hours talking, but sometimes you bring food and drink to share a meal, an innocent pleasure you hadn’t known since the family dinners of your childhood. You also train together; Yamato is extremely powerful, not least thanks to the powers he acquired, he explains to you, eating a strange, foul-tasting fruit that allows him to transform into both a makami wolf and a human/wolf hybrid but took away his ability to swim. You spent your youth training under Kaidou’s orders, his underlings having no qualms about hitting and hurting a child, but this is different, this is you willingly sparring with a friend, both confident enough in each other’s power to use your own to the fullest. In those moments you feel free, powerful, in control of your own destiny - in a word, you feel alive, and all thanks to the young man who would have more reason than anyone to distrust you, but who has offered you his hand in friendship, and made your life worth living like it hadn’t been for a decade. In the depth of your heart, you don’t know if the two of you will ever be able to defeat Kaidou and free Wano; but even if your hopes were to be dashed, you’re happy to have met Yamato, and to have been gifted his friendship.

👹 Your moments together are the happiest of your life, as much as the few hours you are allowed to spend with your family; Yamato, who feels no filial love whatsoever for Kaidou, is nonetheless outraged you’re only allowed to meet your mother and siblings three times a year, for such a short time and always under strict surveillance. “I wish I could ask my father to allow you to spend more time together.” he sighs “But if he had reason to suspect we are friends, he’ll make sure we can never speak or meet again.” You assure him that you know, and that even though you are disappointed you can’t meet your family more often, you are grateful for his desire to help you. 

👹 On one clear night, you are both able to steal away from the castle, and meet at your usual boulder, at the beach; Yamato has brought a bottle of fine saké he stole from the kitchen, you some sweets to munch on. You sit quietly side by side, enjoying the warmth of the night and the sweet song of the sea. “What would happen to Wano, though?” you mention after a while, unable to forget, even just for a moment, how unlikely the success of your secret plan appears to be “Even if, by some kind of miracle, we were able to vanquish Kaidou, and Orochi, and all the troops under their command, who should rule the country then? Oden is dead, and his children have disappeared. As far as I can tell, there is no one in the world with the right to become the next Shogun.” “In the past, when the Shogun was incapacitated or died without leaving an heir, it was the council of the daimyo that ruled the country. You’re the eldest child of your father, and the other daimyo’s families have been killed; so you could become the next regent, until a legitimate heir of Oden is found.” Yamato suggests, which gives you pause. Becoming the new daimyo of Ringo after your father is a destiny you have known awaits you since you were a child, and in the event you’re actually able to vanquish Kaidou and Orochi you’ll be proud to do it, and follow in the path of your ancestors. But governing the whole of Wano, even though only as a regent… well, that’s a different matter altogether. Would you be worthy of it? And what if it turns out that there is no one left in the country with Oden’s blood in their veins, and who could legitimately assume the role?

👹 “And what about you? What will you do once you’re no longer under your father’s power?” you ask, and Yamato grins. “I’m going to leave.” “What?!” you cry, dismayed, and your friend explains that as soon he has freed himself of the explosive handcuffs Kaidou has put on his wrists, and that prevent him from leaving Wano, he plans on sailing away as a pirate, just like Oden did in his youth, to live adventures and discover the world. “I can’t wait! It’s going to be great!” he exclaims, while you stare at your own feet, dismayed, already dreading the day your friend’s hopes will come true and he’ll depart, maybe forever, leaving you alone. As Yamato’s friend it’s your duty to encourage him, like you know he would do if he were in your place, and you can’t very well ask him to renounce his dreams to stay and keep you company, especially if by then you’ll have become the new daimyo of Ringo, but the mere thought is almost unbearable: you have become so fond of Yamato, and he’s the only person you love in the world besides your family, your dearest and only friend. The only thought of never seeing him again, of losing him, breaks your heart. 

👹 Pretending you’re not upset is hard, but you’re able to hide your unhappiness. You and Yamato spend a couple hours sparring, finding out once again that you’re evenly matched, both feeling spurred to improve and do your best to defeat the other and still satisfied you haven’t been defeated, and in the end you say good-bye as usual before returning to your quarters. You are both walking back to the castle, but since it’s imperative to avoid being seen together, you reach it from opposite directions. You also make sure never to mention each other with other people, and even to keep your gazes from meeting -but not to the point it becomes evident you’re avoiding looking at each other- when you’re both forced to attend one of Kaidou’s parties or war councils.”I’ll see you soon, right?” you ask, and Yamato looks at you strangely, as if surprised you’d need to ask - as if surprised you had reason to fear otherwise. “Of course; you can’t get rid of me so easily, you know.” he jokes. Half an hour later you’re in your bed, in the small apartment you’ve lived in since you were eight but that you still refuse to consider your home; you stare at the ceiling, waiting to fall asleep, and think that you will never stop Yamato from leaving Wano, not even if it meant losing him forever, but you’ll treasure his friendship while you can. 

👹 Months pass; one day, looking at the calendar on your wall, you realise it’s your birthday - not that you have ever celebrated it, given your situation; your mother and siblings will certainly send their wishes with their next letters, and that is all the celebration you can expect, or need. You have just come back from a long, difficult mission on Kaidou’s orders, so you treat yourself to a day of rest; you spend two hours in a meeting with the Tobiroppo -and then feel the uncontrollable urge to drink yourself into a stupor, as it often happens after you’re forced to deal with all six of your underlings together- and then take a walk by yourself in the woods. Later, you’re about to have a quiet, solitary, peaceful -and not lonely; you’re not lonely, you repeat firmly to yourself, not when the large majority of the people in the whole of Onigashima wouldn’t even spit on you if they saw you on fire- dinner in your room when you notice a piece of paper that has been slipped under your door: Kaidou summons you to a meeting, in a little-frequented wing of the castle. Grumbling -can’t you just have a moment of peace, at least late at night and at the end of a three-weeks mission?!- you leave your dinner untouched and leave, soon reaching the room you’ve been summoned to. You open the door, and…

👹 “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, (name)!” your mother, siblings, and Yamato cry out all together; the room is festively decorated, there is plenty of food on the tables, and wrapped-up presents with your name on them. “I’m so sorry; I have known you for years and never thought about asking about your birthday.” Yamato apologises as you share a hug, and you quickly tell him you could never be angry, since you don’t know his birthday either. “You’ve planned all of this? For me?” you ask, stunned, and your friend grins, openly satisfied with himself; he found out your birthday was coming soon by accident, and so found a way to meet with your family privately, and proposed to organise a party in your honour. “Nobody deserves it more than you, (name); and I made sure neither my father nor anyone else knows, so you don’t have to worry.” 

👹 It is without a doubt the happiest day since you were eight; you open your presents -Yamato has ordered his in one of the best shops of the Flower Capital, your mother and siblings have used the allowance Kaidou has granted them on your request- eat much more happily than you were about to do alone in your room, and in the end, while Yamato entertains your siblings, you speak to your mother, for the first time without Kaidou’s men listening to your every word. “The last thing I could have imagined is you making friends with Kaidou’s child, but this young man is clearly different from his father.” she admits “I’m glad you can count on him, (name); you know how much we love you, but you need a friend to confide in.” You couldn’t agree more; you had never told your family you had made friends with the son of your worst enemy, not wanting them to worry for you, but you’re happy they appreciate Yamato as much as you do. “We’re going to save Wano, mother; we’ll defeat Kaidou and Orochi, and I’ll avenge father. You have my word, I don’t know how, but I’ll make sure they pay for what they have done.” you tell her, and she hugs you tight, murmuring that she’s so proud of you, of how strong and resilient you are, and she knows your father is as well. 

👹 Yamato insists on walking you back to your room, again making sure no one sees; the silence between you as you walk is easy and comfortable as ever, but when you’re standing at the door you suddenly feel shy… like a girl deciding whether to invite a suitor to come in at the end of a date, which is clearly not your case, but then why do you feel yourself blushing? “Are you alright?” Yamato asks, unaware, and you rush to nod. “I’ll never thank you enough for this; I’ll return the courtesy for your birthday, but… It’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you, Yamato.” “You’re very welcome; as I said, you deserve it.” “I’m not sure I do; but I’ll remember this night forever.” On impulse, you kiss him on the cheek; Yamato grins, but even in the darkness of the corridor you can see he has blushed furiously. You go to bed feeling much better than a few hours ago, falling asleep with your friend’s name on your lips. 

👹 The unexpected event that leads you to question, at least in the privacy of your heart, your friendship with Yamato takes place on a day like many others, when you reach your usual beach to meet him for yet another evening to spend together, and find he’s not alone. “This is Ace; Ace, (name).” Yamato says, clearly enthusiastic as he clasps the shoulder of a young man -he’s still a boy really, much younger than you- who you’ve never seen before. “He is a pirate from the East Blue, he came here to kill my father; we just fought, he’s very strong!” 

👹 Ace, you must admit, seems like a nice person, very friendly. You drink saké together, which you have stolen from the kitchens, Ace introduces you to his crew, the Spade Pirates, and tells you of his younger brother, Luffy, who he’s clearly fond of. “So your dream is to see the world outside of Wano? Why don’t you join us then, and leave with us?” Ace proposes in the end, once it’s time for him and his crew to depart, and you, standing only a few feet away, feel your heart break. Yamato thanks him for the offer but he’s forced to refuse, given the fact he's still wearing the handcuffs bound to explode as soon as he steps outside the borders of Onigashima; in the end, Yamato creates two Vivre Cards so that he and Ace can find each other in the future.

👹 “Are you sad?” you ask Yamato as, sitting on your usual boulder, you observe Ace’s ship getting smaller by the second on the horizon, and he shrugs, admitting his disappointment at having been once again precluded from leaving, this time in addition in the company of a person he had made friends with. “Well, that’s too bad; but one day we’ll meet again, I’m sure of it. Oden never lost faith in his dreams, and I don’t want to either.” he says then with a smile, bumping his shoulder against yours “Good thing you’re still here, (name); I don’t know what I would do without you.”

👹 Knowing that your friendship is important for Yamato makes you very happy, but at the same time meeting Ace, and seeing him and your friend together, filled your heart with an emotion you had never experienced… longing, tension, fear, and jealousy, but for what, since Ace has been perfectly civil, even kind and friendly, and did not upset you even unintentionally? It’s not fully his fault, you reason on the next day as, having been sent on a new mission by Kaidou, you contemplate the stormy sea your ship is easily sailing through, rather… the unpleasant sensation was due to the presence of a new person near your friend, who Yamato clearly liked, respected, and paid attention to. You like to think you’re not an egotistical, or possessive, person, and you should have been happy that Yamato had made a new friend, especially given Ace seemed to be a really good person and Yamato never neglected you to spend time with him; nevertheless, you felt your heart break when Ace offered Yamato to join his crew, which would have led him away from Onigashima, and away from you, and you did sigh in relief when the fire-powered pirate finally departed, leaving things as they were before his arrival, the routine you and Yamato had peacefully lived in for years. 

👹 Whatever the reason for that emotional state you can’t quite give a name to, you do feel instinctively guilty for it. No matter how much his friendship means to you, Yamato is not a toy in your possession, but a man who is entitled to form relationships with other people and to live his life the way he wants, even if his desires were to lead him away from you. Nevertheless, in the depth of your heart, you can’t help wishing things were different; that your company, your presence by his side, were enough for Yamato, so that he would not feel the need for other people in his life, and that he would decide to remain in Wano after you’ve liberated it, or at least to make sure that wherever he decides to go, you can come with him. It’s wrong, and self-centred, and selfish, but you can’t help it; you don’t know why you’re feeling like this all of a sudden, you only know it all started when Ace entered the picture and you did feel better, safer, after he had left…

👹 Oh. 

👹 You don’t really know what love is - romantic love at least. You know your parents loved each other; you never saw them exchange a kiss, that wouldn’t have been proper for a couple, but you remember the way they looked at each other as they danced together in your home following a music only they could hear, tenderness and an intimacy that had nothing to do with the fact they had had three children together. And you’ve never asked, but you know your mother loves him still, and that even should she marry again one day, she will never forget him. You’ve never experienced anything of the sort; you’ve never been in a relationship, and your only sexual experience has been an hour spent in a brothel during one of your missions away from Wano -you could have done the same in Black Maria’s pleasure hall, but you didn’t want the whole of Onigashima to know about your preferences in the alcove- that left you with a fleeting sensation of pleasure that soon disappeared, leaving only emptiness behind. You thought that maybe, one day, once you were no longer surrounded by enemies you were forced to keep your real allegiance secret from, you could find a partner, someone you liked and trusted and cared for, and with whom you could be yourself; it might be nice. Until then, you were more than satisfied with your family’s love… and Yamato’s friendship…

👹 Oh, shit. Shitshitshitshitshit… 

👹 But it’s impossible. You’re not… you’re not in love with Yamato! How could you? He’s your best friend. You’ve never done couple-y things, like dancing and… and he’s never given you flowers like your father did with your mother at least once a month… all you do together is training and drinking saké, he’s organised a secret birthday party for you and you’ve patched him up a thousand times after his fights with his father, and you’ve shared secrets and laughs and tears, because that is what friends do! He’s your only friend, the only person you care for and who cares for you besides your family; is it so surprising that the simple thought of losing him breaks your heart? And yes, you do find him very attractive, how could you not? Yamato is tall and strong, and he has a beautiful smile, bright eyes, and there have been a few times during your training that you’ve felt his body pressing against yours and your heart skipped a beat and blood rushed to your face and then there was that time you went to the brothel, and when the man you paid for his time saw how unresponsive you were, he told you to think about something nice, and your thoughts instinctively went to Yamato, to that time you had fallen asleep together on the beach, holding each other close against the cold, his arms holding you by the waist and your cheek resting against the softness of his chest…

👹 That had been the closest thing to peace you had ever experienced; a sensation so pure and perfect you never wanted it to end, and you know it never fully will, as long as the two of you remain together. You can’t lie to yourself any longer: you’ve fallen in love with Yamato, a feeling that is deep and true and lasting, something that is not better than, or even completely different from, the deep friendship that has existed between you for so long, but that has grown from and is made more precious because of it. You still consider Yamato your dearest friend… it’s just that now you also shiver at the thought of kissing him and the sight of the many among his father’s underlings who try to attract his attention -or him, directly, in their bed- makes you seethe with anger. 

👹 Should you tell Yamato what you feel? There have never been secrets between you, but this time, after agonising on the matter for days -and dearly wishing you could ask for your mother’s opinion; unfortunately all the time you spend with her and your siblings is still closely monitored, and you don’t even want to know what would happen if Kaidou found out you’re madly in love with his son- you decide it’s better if you keep it to yourself, at least until you have reason to believe he feels the same, since you want to avoid the heartbreak and awkwardness and that will surely follow a refusal. You still feel blessed to have him as your friend; and one day, you tell yourself, things may be different. 

👹 Two years after you and Yamato have said good-bye to Ace, his Vivre Card disintegrates, which makes you realise he has died. You both mourn him, and you privately apologise to Ace for not having gotten to know him as much as you could have during your time together, and for the secret, unjustified resentment you felt for him in your heart. Later, you read about your friend’s demise on the paper, and also about his brother Luffy, who has become a powerful pirate captain. Yamato tells you that this young man you’ve never met could be exactly the person you were waiting for, to help you bring down Kaidou. 

👹 You’ve been friends for exactly a decade -and you a servant of Kaidou for two- when finally everything changes, thanks to no one but Luffy himself, who just like Yamato expected has come to Onigashima to defeat his father, free Wano… and restore as a shogun Oden’s own son Momonosuke, who is miraculously alive -but, for some reason, is still eight years old even though he was born the same year as you and Yamato- and has returned together with his father’s retainers, the Nine Red Scabbards. In order to assist them, you decide to separate; Yamato goes to meet Luffy, and asks you to try and neutralise the All-Stars, the Beast Pirates’ top executives, in order to weaken Kaidou’s potential response to the invasion. 

👹 Knowing that your friend trusts you enough to face as strong opponents as King and the others -and he’s not simply saying it to please you, since he clearly doesn’t want you to be killed- fills your heart with warmth. As you prepare to part, well aware that you may not survive the night and not wanting to die with more regrets than you already have, you impulsively grab Yamato by the front of his shirt and kiss him passionately; he freezes, clearly taken aback, but a moment later he’s taken you in his arms and is kissing you back. After all the time you had spent fantasising about your first kiss, reality is a thousand times better than everything you might have expected; so sweet and passionate you wish you could spend the rest of the night just holding each other and smooching, but you have a battle to fight and a land to liberate. When you finally part, you and Yamato are both grinning. “I’ve been wanting to do that for years.” you confess, and your friend, who has gone adorably red in the face, smiles and admits that he wouldn’t have minded - far from it. You hold each other tight, well aware that tonight all your dreams and aspirations could come true, or be cruelly crushed by an unforgiving reality.

👹 “See that you survive.” “Right back at you; I’ll see you later.”

👹 Having left Yamato, you force yourself to ignore the warmth of his kiss lingering on your mouth and the fact your heart is still pounding, to focus on the battle that awaits you, and that you have waited for since you were eight. First of all, you reach your family, quickly defeating the guards who try to stop you, and lead them to safety to a hidden room you had selected a while ago, expressly for this purpose. Your siblings beg to be allowed to fight as well, since they also want to avenge your father and liberate their home from Kaidou, but you convince them to relent: they need to protect your mother, and should the battle be won without you, it will be up to them to continue the family line and rule Ringo. Your mother embraces you; she doesn’t try to dissuade you from your duty, but begs you to be careful, and kisses your forehead in blessing. 

👹 Your primary objective is to vanquish King, Kaidou’s right-hand man, and you find him on the castle’s Live Floor, fighting a young man who you assume to be a member of Luffy’s crew… a young man who looks exactly like your father did in his youth, except for the colour of his hair. You look at him, flabbergasted, and he looks back, equally stunned, having noticed the strong family resemblance between the two of you. “Who the hell are you?!” “Who the hell are you?! Why do we look like we are siblings?!”

👹 You’re completely astonished -this man does look like he could be your brother, but you’re ready to bet your father never betrayed his marital vows, not to mention that your new acquaintance doesn’t look old enough to have been conceived more than twenty years ago- but you quickly decide you’ll have time to talk later. “Name’s Roronoa Zoro.” “Pleasure, I’m (name). Mind if I help you against this guy?” 

👹 King is one of the strongest fighters you’ve ever encountered, but Zoro is, you find out, an exceptionally talented swordsman, able to wield three blades at the same time, and joining forces you’re able to defeat him. You and Zoro share a grin, having already developed respect for each other, and then part; you later meet Momonosuke, and help a kunoichi named Shinobu protect him from Kaidou’s men while Yamato battles his father. 

👹 You and Yamato find each other again after Kaidou’s defeat; you embrace tightly, happy and relieved to see each other unscathed. Together with your family, who you have freed from their hiding place, you witness Momonosuke, now in his adult self, present himself to the people of Wano as their new Shogun. Yamato introduces you to Luffy; you hear the two of them discuss Yamato joining Luffy’s crew, just like your friend did with Ace years ago, now that the straw-hatted pirate has removed Yamato’s exploding handcuffs, and you feel your heart break at the thought you’re going to lose him forever, just when a new future was opening in front of you. But you have known for years that this would happen, and no matter how painful it’ll be, you’re determined to encourage Yamato to realise his dream, rather than stop him or beg him to stay, whatever the price might be. 

👹 Once things have come back to normal after Kaidou’s defeat, you have a long interview with Momonosuke, who officially makes you the new daimyo of Ringo, as your father’s heir, and you promise you’ll do everything you can to support him for the creation of a free, happier Wano. You and your family return to your childhood home; you cry tears of joy when you find out that Onimaru, who had run away after your father’s arrest, has survived, spent five years protecting the graves in Ringo’s cemetery, and then was cared for by Kawamatsu, one of the Nine Red Scabbards. Your father’s old pet happily joins the family once more, to the great joy of your mother and siblings. 

👹 Speaking of your father. You and Zoro have a long conversation, soon realising that your resemblance is no coincidence but you are, in fact, related; his grandmother was Shimotsuki Furiko, your father’s younger sister, who in her youth left Wano with a small group of other people and -he tells you- settled in the East Blue. You introduce Zoro to your mother and siblings, and to Yamato, who also recognise his resemblance to your father, and Zoro tells you about his dream of becoming the world’s strongest swordsman, and about Kuina, who you both realise is also a relative of yours, through your clansman Shimotsuki Kouzaburou. You spar, get drunk on the best saké you were able to steal from Kaidou’s castle after his defeat, and quickly become friends.

👹 A few days later, a great festival takes place in the Flower Capital, to celebrate the return of the Kouzuki family to power; you and Yamato participate together with Luffy’s crew and your other allies, but at one point you’re forced to go intercept a Marines Admiral who has come to take Luffy, with no regards for the safety of Wano’s people. Momonosuke orders you to let him fight by himself, and he’s actually able to hold his own against the invader until the Admiral is forced to leave.

👹 Later on, you and Yamato take a walk together - or at least that was your plan, even though you end up hidden behind a hedge as you kiss senselessly, holding each other tight as the symphony of your moans fills the air. You’ve never felt so happy in your life, and once again, you wish you could spend the rest of your life held in Yamato’s embrace, hearing him purr contently as you kiss his neck; that will probably not happen, but you’ll enjoy your time together while it lasts. Yamato admits that he had known he didn’t just want to be your friend for a long while now, but never found the courage to tell you what he felt, mainly because he was almost sure you didn’t reciprocate his feelings.

👹 “The truth is… well, you remember when you told me you had gone to a brothel? The person who serviced you was a man.” “Yes, and?” “Well…” unsure like you’ve never seen him, Yamato points to his body “No matter how much I try to be like Oden, you know I still have the body of a woman. So I thought that maybe… if one day we’d become… intimate…”

👹 You immediately reassure Yamato that his gender has nothing to do with the affection and the attraction -yes, the attraction- that you feel for him. “If you really want to know… that night at the brothel, the man I paid did everything he could to make me feel good, but while he touched me I could only think about you.” you admit with a slight blush; how blind you have been, taking so long to realise friendship was not all you wanted from him! “I don’t care if you have the body of a man, or of a woman, or-or of both, or neither; you are Yamato, my Yamato, and I am in love with you. I will never stop wanting you… and I will still be here when you return from your journey at sea.”

👹 Yamato looks at you, suddenly crestfallen. “What? You’re not coming with me? I thought we’d depart together!” he protests, and you, while happy that he’s not planning on abandoning you to go gallivanting around the world -even though you could have told me at least!- point out that you can’t very well decide to leave on a whim. You are the daimyo of Ringo now, you have sworn allegiance to Momonosuke, and your land and your people need you, after so many years under Kaidou’s abusive rule. “But I don’t want you to remain only because of me; I’ll miss you like air, but you’ve been imprisoned here on Onigashima your whole life, no one deserves freedom more than you.” you add, forcing yourself to encourage him even though his happiness will automatically mean your loss “You can sail, either with Luffy or by yourself if you want, discover the world like you’ve always wanted… and when you decide to return, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

👹 You both reflect on the matter for a while, hand in hand as you sit on the stone steps of the Shogun’s castle, observing the fireworks exploding in the sky above you; the multicoloured light kisses Yamato’s pale skin and hair. “I want to protect Momonosuke too; I think this is what Oden would have wanted.” he says in the end, his tone pensive but not sad “And the Admiral’s attack today has proved that there are so many forces that could hurt him, and Wano; so I think I’ll stay, at least for a while.” “Are you sure? You’re not… disappointed?” “Well, the world is not going anywhere, is it? And in any case, departing without you would only be half the fun. Let’s promise this, (name); that one day, when there’s no longer need of us here… you can leave your mother and siblings to govern in your place for a while, and we’ll sail together.”

👹 Nothing in the world would make you happier, and you tell him; you and Yamato share a grin, finally free of fears about the future and your feelings, and kiss some more, oblivious to the fact you’re in plain sight, under the eyes of Wano’s partying people. 

👹 “(name)?” “Yes, Yamato?” “I love you too.” “I know.” 

👹 His cheek rests on your shoulder as you keep staring at the sky, where flowers of light bloom and disappear only a few moments later; you sigh, happy and in peace, and take your lover’s hand in yours, determined to never let go for the rest of your life.

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

I'm finally writing my First One Piece anime/manga fic!!

Being Kaidou's prisoner and falling in love with Yamato would involve...

I can't wait to post this! 5500 words written already!

EDIT: 7500 words!!

EDIT: Fic is complete at 8300 words!!

EDIT: Fic is posted!

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

The song of the lone wolf (part 2)

Werewolf!Yamato x werewolf!reader. This is part two of two.

This fic discusses matters of slavery, captivity and abuse.

*****

The full moon is near.

You are sure of it, sure enough to wage your life on it, even though the cage you are still locked in is situated too far from the only tiny window in the room to allow you to look at the sky outside. You have no way of knowing for sure, since you have lost track of the days since your capture, but you perceive it, a sensation intimate and almost sensual, like the caress of a lover on your naked skin, the shifting impulse not overpowering but still hard to resist, like it normally happens during the one or two nights that precede, or follow, the plenilune. 

On that occasion, when the shiny orb in the sky will have reached its fullness, you will shift regardless of your will, and remain in your wolf form until dawn. It is a natural event for those of your kind, that every werewolf experiences since the first plenilune after birth -or technically even before; it is known that children in the womb shift together with the parent- and that was once an occasion for celebration, packs coming together to howl to the moon and build closer bonds among their members. It was even thought that a person conceived, or born, under the full moon’s light would be blessed by Fate.  

You are a special case; as a disperser -a lone wolf, who lives on their own rather than with a pack- you have spent most of your plenilunes at home, lying in your wall-enclosed garden enjoying the night air and the moon’s soft light falling on you, which means that solitude on the coming of a night that was once occasion for celebration and gathering doesn’t bother you particularly…

… or at least that was the rule until roughly three weeks ago, when the former lover you had entrusted with your secret betrayed you to the man -Ophelio is his name, he informed you repeating the name as he pointed to his chest, which led you to believe his mother must have hated him right from the beginning- who then sent his men to capture you. Not having a pack means that, on one hand, the revelation of your true nature has put no one else in danger, but on the other, it also makes it even less likely that someone will at least try and come save you.  

Even though you and your captor have no way of communicating, the direness of your situation is evident. The country you lived in is unaffiliated with the World Government, but you read the paper regularly and can recognise a Marine officer when you see him, which means Ophelio might be powerful, or at least well-connected, enough to keep you prisoner against your will and that of whoever might decide to complain. You have no idea where they brought you, but given you have sailed for at least ten days since you were taken, you must be very far from home.

Alone, beaten and starved, unable to communicate, kept in a cage like an animal and forced to shift on cue -a considerable shame for one of your kind- and make a fool of yourself like a clown at the circus to entertain a crowd of strangers. You never thought you would stoop so low, but your current misfortune is actually only the second of your worries; every time the ship you sailed on stopped at some harbour, Ophelio brought a few well-dressed people on board to see you, and he also took photographs. This has led you to believe he is planning to sell you, perhaps to the menagerie of unusual creatures -mermaids, giants, dwarves…- some wealthy people keep for their pleasure, or as a slave and guard dog for your new master’s home. There have ever been, you have been told, werewolves who were captured and then bred to supply their master with more cannon fodder. 

You don’t want any of that to happen to you; you’d rather die, but you still haven’t lost all hope to regain your freedom. Ophelio probably thinks he has broken you, but despite all you have endured, the violence you still carry the signs of and the little food you have been given to eat, he has no idea how strong and resilient you really are; you just need one chance, a moment of distraction on your captor’s part, and you’ll find a way to escape, and then to survive, and then to return home. Soon, you have promised yourself, maybe even before the next full moon, you’ll be free. 

A witness could find your hope unfounded, nothing more than wishful thinking, but for the first time since you were taken -overwhelmed by no less than a dozen attackers, all armed with rifles; a couple of them had to say a limb or another part of their body good-bye though, just like Ophelio did with his left eye when he made the mistake of trying to touch you through the bars of your cage- you do feel optimistic regarding your future… all thanks to Yamato. 

The last thing you expected was to meet another werewolf in the land you were going to be sold in, but you did, and even though you couldn’t understand the conversation between him and Ophelio, you easily realised the young man -yes, man; his body might be that of a woman, but there was something openly, pleasantly masculine about him- was arguing with your captor about you, and ordering him to release you. Most werewolves would readily come to the aid of one of their kind, even one who was not part of their pack, and Yamato and the kind woman who accompanied him ultimately failed to help you in any way, but his anger and indignation for your state warmed your heart. Being a disperser, it had been years since the last time you had met one of your kind, and while you are usually content in your solitude, knowing that you were not alone, that someone cared for you and wished to help, filled you with hope and a strength that has nothing to do with the state of your body or the fullness of your belly. 

I’ll get you out of here; I promise. This is what he said, and while you have known each other for five minutes, you don’t doubt he was sincere, that he was ready to fight for you, maybe even to risk being captured himself, to help you. 

The presence of an ally, maybe even of a pack, will be invaluable, considering you have no money, nor clothes to cover yourself with, and don’t even know where you are, but no matter how grateful you are for Yamato’s desire to help you, you don’t plan on waiting patiently for him to come rescue you… at least not if you can help it. 

After a whole day spent performing in what seemed to be the heart of the market area of a large city, your cage has been brought back to Ophelio’s ship, at the nearby harbour. Your dinner, a meager portion like all those that came before it -two days ago there was mold on the bread; you are ashamed to say you ate it nonetheless, so intense was your hunger- was brought soon after, and then you were left alone, except for one man who, as usual, has remained to keep watch over you during the night. 

Silence has fallen, the gentle swaying of the ship and the song of backwash surrounding you. You lie on the floor of the cage, an arm bent under your head, the blanket you have come to be equally grateful for and to hate only partially protecting you from the cold, tired and still unable to sleep. You wonder what Ophelio might have in store for you from tomorrow on; will you spend another day at the pavilion in the market square, or will this be the day you are finally sold and taken away? What if it happens before Yamato finds a way to set you free? In that case all you have hoped for will have been for nothing, and the person who buys you might be even a worse master -how you hate that word!- than the one who captured you. 

The solution is simple; you’ll have to escape tonight, as soon as possible… and luck seems to be in your favour, because the man next to you hasn’t taken his eyes off you ever since he came in. 

The Marine who has been keeping watch over you until last night was a younger man, maybe a new recruit who had been assigned the most burdensome, and potentially dangerous, task that none among his more experienced comrades wanted; not surprising, since the Marines have learnt the hard way that a werewolf can be extremely dangerous even in their human form, and after you had bitten the third among them and carved out their commander’s eye the men had learnt to give your cage a wide berth. 

Things seem to have changed, because you have a new guard, and you found yourself smiling secretly to yourself as you saw him enter, the key to your cage hanging from his belt.

You would have thought that the danger of having their head bitten off would have discouraged even the most ardent suitors, but it is said that some people are excited by danger, aroused by situations and people that could easily put their safety and even their life at risk, and this must be the case with this man, an individual in his fifties who has been looking at you with a certain sort of interest ever since Ophelio dragged you, chained and bruised, on his ship. On a few occasions this man was the one who brought your food, and since you can’t understand each other’s language, he was able to explain in gestures that he would give you your dinner, and even a second portion of it, if you took your clothes off and put on a good show for him. You answered baring your teeth and making it clear that you would quench your hunger with his flesh if he just dared approaching, but your admirer was not discouraged; he grinned at you as he took your food away and then, as an added insult, offered you an empty plate, grinning and blowing you a kiss. A week ago, he came into the room you are kept in while the rest of the crew was occupied, he pointed a rifle at you and signaled for you to undress or else.

You did, and he enjoyed the show before taking your clothes away, leaving you completely unable to preserve your modesty. You have no idea how he explained the matter to Ophelio -or if the commander cared at all- but the next day you were given the blanket, which from then on has been your only protection against both cold and shame. 

And that same man is now to remain in the room with you, alone, for the rest of the night. He grins and winks at you as usual, but he seems to be suffering from a bad hangover, and a moment later he has slumped against the wall a few feet from your cage, an arm covering his eyes as he moans under his breath.

Silence has fallen on the ship; you can feel your heart pounding in your chest, aware as you are that this might be your only chance to escape, and that if you fail you could spend the rest of your life as a slave, never returning home, or seeing Yamato, again. 

Yamato. Simply thinking about him makes you feel better, for reasons and in ways you don’t know how to describe. Finding one of your kin when you felt lonelier than ever -which is saying a lot, for a disperser- and seeing his rage and indignance for your mistreatment filled your heart with gratitude, and a new determination; clutching his handkerchief to your chest, you think that there is a person in this city and this country you don’t even know the name of who cares about you, and that, it turns out, is all you needed in order to find a way to escape. Yamato has promised to help you, and you would wage your life he will at least try, but what if you were able to help yourself, regaining your freedom to save your new friend at least the inconvenience of having to fight a shipful of Marines on his own? 

You realise it is time to act when you notice your guard is about to fall asleep, his breathing getting deeper and his head starting to nod. You clear your throat -thrice, more and more loudly- to attract his attention, and when the man finally turns to look at you, you smile shily, kneeling on the floor of the cage in your most subservient manner, and “Food?” you ask, using the only word, apart from various profanities, you have learnt in the language used by the Marines.

The man mumbles something under his breath, annoyed, and closes his eyes again.

“Food! Please, I am so hungry… please, sir, can you give me some food?” you insist, confident your pleading tone will make the message understandable. You extend your hands towards him, simultaneously letting the blanket fall from your shoulders.

As you expected, your guard snaps to attention; his avid gaze passes over your body -the position of your arms only partially hiding your breast, your thighs open just enough to expose a glimpse of your pelvis- and a pleased smirk appears on his lips. 

“Food?”

You haggle for a couple minutes despite the language barrier, and in the end the man agrees to bring you twice the usual ration of food you are usually given if you… well, it’s clear what he wants in exchange. He makes sure the room’s door is closed, then he sits comfortably in front of your cage, as if he were a spectator at the theatre, and moves a hand in your direction. Come on, have at it. 

The next ten minutes are the most humiliating of your life, but in the end your guard is, as you hoped, completely enthralled, his face -not to mention the rest of his body, you notice with disgust- an image of lust and desire. He has moved progressively closer to your cage, but when his arm reaches through the bars you quickly move out of reach, his fingers only brushing against you.

Anger colours the man’s face, and you can see him hesitate for a moment, as if he had suddenly realised the danger he had put himself in. Determined not to give him time to change his mind, you keep touching yourself, his gaze held in yours as you press your back against the bars of the cage and you use your free hand to invite him to approach. 

Come on; you have been asking for this for three weeks. Don’t you want to take me?

Long periods of abstinence are probably a common occurrence for seamen, which makes it easier for them to be swayed by the sort of offer you are making, but the celerity with which the man throws all caution to the wind and reaches for the key to your cage fills your heart with disdain. The cage’s door has been opened a minute later; the grinning man steps inside, his hands already reaching towards you… 

He’s still smiling when you grab him, your already higher than average speed increased by desperation and by the awareness that if you only give him time to scream all you hope for will be lost; your hand is pressed to the man’s mouth, his body embracing his quite differently from the way he had had in mind. You feel him struggling, but even in your human form you are much stronger than the average human, and for a moment you are seriously tempted to kill him; he deserves it, and in this way he won’t be able to raise alarm, and your escape could pass unnoticed until dawn. How good it would feel, to know this bastard has paid for the way he has mistreated and humiliated you…

In the end you relent, not out of mercy but because you don’t want the blood of such a knave on your hands; you slam his face against the floor of the cage once, twice, thrice, and the man slumps at your feet, unconscious. You resist the urge to kick him in the stomach, just because you feel like it and it would make you feel at least a little better.

You did it; you are free! - at least from the cage, even though your escape has barely started, you remind yourself, and it’s way too early to celebrate and lower your guard. 

You quickly decide to leave the blanket, since it would only be in the way as you run and given the circumstances sacrificing your modesty is a little price to pay. You retrieve Yamato’s handkerchief from the corner you had hidden it in, and quickly walk out of the cage, reflecting on your next move. 

Even if you were able to reach it by climbing the wall, the only window in the room is too small for your body to pass through. The only other option is to leave the room through the door, which you do, and then silently cross a long, dark corridor, and then another, until a rickety set of stairs leads you to the bridge. 

No less than four men are standing guard there, two looking towards the open sea and two in the direction of the city, all of them holding rifles. You move silently among them, the dark of the night only partially covering your form as you cross the bridge… and then walk into a bucket that some deckhand has left next to the mop propped against a wall. The clang the bucket produces falling down probably sounds much louder to your ears than it actually does, but it’s enough to attract the attention of the guards. 

One of them approaches, and you quickly retreat to hide in the pool of darkness afforded by the conning ship, your back pressed to the wall as if you were trying to merge with it; you hold your breath, heart pounding as your right hand still clutches Yamato’s handkerchief, as the Marine -it’s him! The one who stood guard next to you until last night!- approaches, looks around, and finally bends to set the bucket upright, apparently uninterested in the reason for its fall. 

If he moves a single more step in your direction he’ll see you; your back is drenched in sweat, and you’ve never been religious -there is no specific werewolf creed, and your mother never took you to a temple- but suddenly you feel ready to pray any God, Goddess or demon who might come to your rescue now…

The Marine steps back, and turns to return to his post; a moment later he has disappeared, and you hear him murmuring something to the others - nothing to worry about, probably, since no one else approaches; you remain still for a moment more, until you know your shaking legs will be able to support you as you walk, and then move. 

Thirty seconds later you have reached the side of the bridge; to look for a rope or a ladder of some kind would be too dangerous, so you climb down the hull, slowly descending towards the harbour, the normally easy task made much more strenuous by the abuse you have suffered. You have quickly tied Yamato’s handkerchief around your arm in order to keep your hands free and you order your muscles not to give up, not to abandon you right now that you are almost there, almost safe; if you slipped and fell from this height, you can’t help but thinking, the impact could break your neck, not to mention the Marines would surely hear. 

You do not fall, and the first thing you do once your feet are touching the white-stoned floor is to fall to your knees, relief making your head spin. Your tribulations are far from over, since you’re alone, completely naked, in a place you don’t know at all, and Ophelio could realise you are missing at any moment, and send his men after you. Weak as you are, you are not even sure whether your body will be able to support you while you look for Yamato, or you’ll be found lying on the street unconscious at dawn, and outrunning your pursuers will be impossible.

All you can see of the harbour is a few low buildings, probably warehouses and offices, divided in the middle by the road you know leads to the plaza where you were exhibited today, a few bollards, two seagulls perched on a roof. The quiet murmur of the backwash fills the night, the moon above your head near to its full ripeness, magnificent and shiny like a jewel in the dark velvety sky; even in your hurry, you can’t help lingering for a moment to admire its beauty, the pale light falling on your skin delicate and comforting like the caress of a lover. 

You bring the handkerchief to your face once more, filling your nose and your mind with Yamato’s scent, still vivid despite the several hours since he gave it to you. A moment later you are sniffing the salt-laden air, desperately hoping… and then you find it, feeble, distant, but somehow resilient, almost stubbornly so, as if he were waiting for you, thinking about you, hoping to see you come, sore and tired but alive.

Now, I can’t disappoint him, can I?

The smell gives you no way of determining how far Yamato is from you in terms of distance or walking time. Not discouraged, you start walking -well, limping- down the path that leads to the plaza, the dark mantle of the night soon enveloping you. 

*****

Yamato had known ever since he and Shinobu returned to the palace that he wouldn’t have been able to sleep a wink that night, so he hadn’t even bothered to change into his night clothes. As expected, silence had fallen on the Flower Capital, an almost full moon shining in the dark sky out of his window, and he felt more awake and vigilant than ever.

He sighed as he let the back of his head fall against his pillow for maybe the tenth time in the last three hours. Yamato felt completely helpless, as much as he did during his youth under his father’s thumb, but this time he wasn’t the only one suffering; (name) wasn’t being punished for some crime she had committed, she had been kidnapped from her home to be exploited and sold. It was su burningly unfair, so cruel and awful and barbarous, both his human and wolf sides were begging him to march to the Marines’ ship, punch Ophelio in the face until the man had forgotten his own name, and bring back (name), to keep her safe, to protect her, not because he thought she couldn’t take care of herself, of course she could, he simply wanted to be there for her…

He grumbled under his breath, turning on his belly to hide his face in his pillow; every minute he lingered, every moment he remained there twiddling his thumbs, was one (name) spent starving and hurting in her cage and God knew what else. Yamato knew that if he explained Kin’emon and the others the situation of his new friend, they would readily offer their help to free her; unfortunately, an attack on the part of the Shogun’s retainers, and his bodyguard, to a Marine officer could trigger a diplomatic incident Wano could not afford, especially not while Momonosuke was trying his best to establish peaceful relations with kingdoms affiliated to the World Government. 

No, charging against the Marines wouldn’t do, and it wouldn’t help (name); he had to find another way. Just a few hours before a letter had reached the palace, announcing the young Shogun had completed his engagements out of Wano ahead of time, and would be back before the end of the next day. Yamato planned on asking Momonosuke’s help as soon as he arrived, if only to stop Ophelio from selling (name) and letting her new master depart from Wano with her; and then, they -he- would find a way to help her. 

He had to.

(name) would need him to his full strength when he’d have to fight to free her, but Yamato knew not even a blow to his head would allow him to rest tonight. The almost full moon shining in the sky should have helped; his mother used to say the plenilune and the nights immediately preceding and following it often brought a sense of comfort and wellness to the werewolves who bathed in its light, but on at the moment Yamato found no consolation in the bright orb outside his window. He kept wondering whether (name) was able to look at the moon from her cage, aboard Ophelio’s ship or wherever she was kept; it was unlikely she would find any comfort in it either.

I’ll get you out of there; I swear, on my life, I’ll find a way to take you away, he thought, wishing mind-speak could work over a larger distance than a few feet; maybe hearing his voice would have been of comfort for (name), to support her through her captivity. She was clearly a strong-willed, resilient woman, even after all the abuse she had been subjected to, but feeling she had a friend willing to fight in her corner couldn’t hurt, could it?

(name). Brave, resilient (name); beautiful (name), even in her starving, bruised state. Yamato couldn’t stop thinking about her, about the righteous fire burning in her eyes, and the trust and joy he had seen in her gaze when he had promised to help her; the memories of their brief encounter were so vivid in his mind and his heart, he felt he could almost smell her scent…

Wait a moment… 

Yamato stood from his bed quickly enough to give himself whiplash; he turned towards the window, almost expecting to see (name) through the glass. He couldn’t, but a single sniff was enough to confirm his impression; the woman was close… maybe closer than he expected, and not because she was walking down the corridor to come knock on his door…

He quickly walked behind the screen to reach the window and opened it; he looked out, he looked down, and a cry of joy erupted from his lips.

(name) was climbing the palace wall, slowly but surely ascending towards his room on the third floor, the stubborn determination in her gaze gracing her face with an otherworldly, raw beauty that took Yamato’s breath away. He had no idea how she had eluded the guards, nor did he notice the woman was, once again, completely naked; all Yamato saw was his handkerchief tied around (name)’s arm. 

He waved towards her, and she smiled, relief filling her eyes. “I found you!”

“You did! Oh, I’m so happy to see you!”

He waited excitedly as the woman reached his window, and leaned outside to help her climb inside; the moment (name)’s feet touched the room’s floor, she and Yamato shared a huge, relieved smile. 

“How did you escape? Are the Marines after you?” Yamato asked; (name) smiled as she shook her head, but when she tried to answer -“I…”- she suddenly stumbled, as if her legs could no longer support her weight; Yamato grabbed her by the arms.

“Oh! Oh, I’m not…!”

“It’s alright; you are safe now.” he hurried to reassure her, but (name) didn’t hear him; she had lost consciousness, and would have collapsed to the floor if Yamato had not supported her, lifting her in his arms to quickly carry her to his bed. 

*****

As a disperser you have spent most of your time alone, capable of interacting politely with others and even of enjoying the company of those -few- you consider friends but mostly content on your own, neither loneliness nor lack of interaction making you doubt of the goodness of the life you were leading.

Which makes it even more striking that you begin missing Yamato the very moment he leaves, disappearing behind the door that you have walked through in the opposite direction less than an hour ago to enjoy a walk and some peace and quiet in the palace’s gardens. It’s probably understandable, since he’s the only person in the whole country -which, you have been informed, is Wano, a place far away from your home you had only heard about; specifically, you are in the Flower Capital, in the official residence of its Shogun- on whose friendship and help you can count on, and without him you’d probably end up starving on the streets, or back in Ophelio’s clutches. Yes, it’s perfectly understandable feeling anxious as soon as he leaves your sight, and wishing he would come back immediately; it’s because you still feel in danger without him, nothing more…

Quit lying to yourself, (name), you chide yourself as you lift your gaze to embrace the beauty of the luscious gardens surrounding you, with pretty flower bushes lining the cobbled paths and evergreen trees protecting the bench you are sitting on from the light of the early afternoon sun. It feels tranquil, peaceful, most of all safe, which feels like the kiss of life after three weeks spent under your captor’s thumb. Thanks to the rest and the good food you have been able to enjoy, the bruises and wounds of your captivity have finally begun to heal, not to mention you always feel better, reinvigorated in both spirit and body, after the plenilune, but the main reason for your current wellness is another… 

Yamato has promised that as soon as the Marines leave you’ll be able to wander around the city, free to stretch your legs and enjoy the air and the sun, but while the prospect is more than a little attractive, especially if he were to accompany you on that stroll, you feel better already, your stomach full and your bruises treated and dressed, your blanket replaced by a pretty dress the Shogun’s sister personally offered from her wardrobe, knowing that in this land you have never been before, and in whose language you are still unable to communicate, there is someone who cares about you, and who considers you a friend. 

It doesn’t sound like much, at least it would not for pack-wolves, used to being surrounded by family and friends; but for you… for you it is a treasure you never thought you’d get to experience.

About fifteen minutes pass before Yamato returns, a stretch of time you spend reading the sheet of paper that constitutes your meager vocabulary in the idiom of Wano, each word or expression you and your new friend have translated from your tongue using mind-speak as an intermediate language. Hello; thank you; please; my name is (name). This is all you can say for the time being -well, and food, which you used as soon as you woke up this morning to tell Yamato you were starving- but you’d like to learn more, especially if your sojourn in the country were to last more than a couple of days…

“Here I am! Sorry I kept you waiting.” Yamato announces as he approaches, a small tray with two cups on it in his hands “I brought tea. And Momonosuke has just returned!”

“Oh! That’s good.”

“It really is. I’m sure you’ll like him.”

You sit side by side on the bench, listening to the sweet song of a couple of birds perched on the branch of a nearby tree. “As a child on full moon nights I used to shift and chase the birds around.” you confide in your friend “Unfortunately that included the chickens my mother kept to sell the eggs at the market; she got so angry when she saw it in the morning…”

“You didn’t spend the plenilune together?”

“We had no reason to. She was human; she still is, I mean.” you quickly correct yourself; you and your mother meet exactly twice a year, on the occasion of her birthday and your own, which sometimes feels too much already “She and my father were never a couple to begin with, and he disappeared from her life before she knew she was pregnant; he hadn’t told her he was a werewolf, which means… well, you can imagine her reaction on the first plenilune after my birth, when she looked in my crib and found a wolf pup in my place.”

In your heart to hearts, and while you still get along reasonably well, you know your mother never got used to the fact her only child was a werewolf. Even after she was able to contact another of your kind, who gave her a crash course on raising a child who turned into a wolf once a month and had a strong predilection for rare steaks and unplucked poultry, she never got over the fact that you were different, perfectly able to go to school, play with the other children and help her wash the dishes after dinner, but still abnormal, a creature that looked human but was something different, an unexpected, unasked gift from a man who, she once told you after she had had a drink too many, didn’t even have the courtesy of fucking her to satisfaction before waiting for her to fall asleep, steal her alcohol supply from the cupboard, and disappear.

You know she wasn’t ready to become a mother -you later discovered that most forms of hormonal contraception fail when one of the two partners is a werewolf, for some reason that has to do with the hormone difference between the two races; you always wondered whether your father didn’t know either, or he simply didn’t care- of such an unusual child even less, but she tried her best with you, and you tried your best to love her for it, but both of you heaved a sigh of relief when three days after reaching the age of majority you decided to go live on your own, far enough from the town you had grown up in to make running into each other impossible, and lack of regular visits justifiable. 

You never knew exactly whether the circumstances of your upbringing and your decision to be a disperser rather than joining a pack were linked; you are pretty satisfied with your life as it was until three weeks ago, and with the person you grew to be, but sometimes you wonder how things could have gone differently if you had been raised by a werewolf couple, your nature considered the normality or even a merit to encourage and foster, rather than something to hide and apologise for…

“My situation is the opposite.” Yamato mentions after a while, tearing you from your rapidly saddening reflections “My mother was the werewolf, my father was… well, not human, but you know the gist.”

You actually don’t, which is more than a little baffling, since you’ve never met a human with horns like the ones that emerge from your new friend’s snow-white hair, nor you’ve ever known werewolves could crossbreed with other races, but there’ll be time for questions.    

“Was she part of a pack?” you ask, sincerely interested in Yamato’s past, and he explains that she was, even though he never met his mother’s kin - indeed, he had never met another werewolf before he saw you at the marketplace… and after his mother died. 

“My father brought her back from his travels, having kidnapped her from her home. I don’t think he particularly cared about her, he just wanted to have a werewolf child, since those like us are supposed to be particularly powerful, and simply chose the first healthy young woman he could find. My mother was the one who raised me; she taught me everything I had to know about our kin. She was for all intents and purposes a prisoner, kept here against her will, but while I could see she was lonely, and sad at times there seemed to be no reason for, I can’t remember a single time she took it out on me or got angry when I really didn’t deserve it. She had any reason to hate me, since I was my father’s child and the reason why she was kidnapped; but she didn’t. I know she didn’t.”

“You must have loved her very much.”

“I did; and she loved me, unlike my father. She died when I was ten. She… well, I know that is not what it actually means, but she was my pack, and I still miss her very much. If… If only I had been old enough to protect her…”

A female werewolf kidnapped and enslaved, forced to bow to the will of her captor… you and Yamato’s mother went through a very similar ordeal, but her situation was much worse than yours, since Ophelio never showed any particular interest in you. You wonder whether seeing you in your cage led your new friend to think back to his mother, and while you don’t pretend to know what he might be feeling, you hope helping and protecting you, like he couldn’t help and protect her, will allow Yamato to make peace with her loss.

The tea you are drinking is good, strong and sweet like you like it -like you like many things- the pretty cup warming your hands; you and Yamato enjoy your beverage in silence for a few minutes, content with each other’s company. Night is many hours away, but you can feel the full moon’s pull already; a crispness in the air, blood running a little hotter than normal in your veins, the sort of innocent excitement of a child on the eve of their birthday burning in your heart; you can’t wait for the plenilune, especially since this time, unlike most of those that have preceded it, you won’t be alone through it.

“Werewolf packs can count up to fifty werewolves, right?” Yamato asks after a while.

“I think so. There is no rule, though, and today the situation is different since there are so few of us left; the average is between six and twelve members, and I have heard of a pack in Alabasta that counts around twenty members.”

“Twenty! To think I have met three in my life including me.”

“I know what you feel; on the other hand…”

You hesitate, unsure on how to express something you have reflected on in the privacy of your heart many times, but never had to share. In the end it is with your eyes still focused on the cup in your hands that you continue: “As I told you, I’ve always been by myself, but… the way I see it, a pack is not a matter of numbers, nor members necessarily need to be related by blood or marriage. If you think about it, a pack is not much different from a family, or a marriage, or a very deep friendship; you just need to promise to be there for each other, share the good and bad times, and protect one another in the moment of need, even at the cost of one’s life. Like you said, your mother was your pack, and you were hers; that you were alone changed nothing.”

Yamato looks at you, a grin slowly opening on his handsome face. “I like that.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Who knows…” you sigh, sounding more wistful than you planned to, “Maybe one day I’ll find a pack to be part of as well…”

“I thought you liked being on your own.”

“I do. But finding someone who actually trusts and cares for me, and who I can feel at home with, could be nice as well.”

You are sitting close enough for you to rest your head on Yamato’s shoulder when a servant comes to announce a Marine officer, whose description matches Ophelio’s, has come, looking for your friend.

Yamato seems disappointed that your former captor has found you, but you were expecting it any minute; you knew Ophelio would comb through the city looking for you, and imagine the young man who had challenged him yesterday was involved in your disappearance. Not to mention that Yamato’s looks don’t make it exactly hard for him to be traced…

“I’ll go.” you decide as you stand.

“I’ll come with you.”

“I appreciate that; but believe me, I am not afraid of him. I let him subjugate me once, and once too many; it will not happen again.”

Yamato grins in approval, and walks with you -which you are grateful for, since the palace is a veritable maze and you doubt you could find your way without a guide- to a larger chamber that, he tells you, is often used for audiences and formal meetings. You can’t help feeling nervous, even a little frightened, knowing that you’re going to meet Ophelio again, but you order yourself to pull it together; raise your chin, square your shoulders, and walk through the door. 

Clad in his Marine uniform, your former captor is nervously pacing the floor, but then he sees you and immediately starts inveighing against you, until a gesture of the only other individual in the room reduces him to silence. 

“That is the Shogun, Momonosuke.” Yamato informs you, and you hurry to bow deeply, which the man returns with a nod. Tall and strong, dressed in the finery of a lord, he looks as imposing as you expected from the ruler of Wano, but you are immediately reassured by his friendly smile, and the way he exchanges a knowing look with Yamato; even though you’ve never met before and you are, all things considered, an unwanted guest in his home, the Shogun is on your side, which is reassuring… even though you don’t plan on letting others defend you from an enemy you have already played for a fool once.

“This creature is my property! It escaped from my ship last night, helped by this woman here! I want it back!” Ophelio announces ragingly.

“I think you are mistaken, sir.” Yamato, who is translating the conversation for you through mind-speak, protests innocently “I can assure you I never stepped out of the palace last night, and as far as this lady next to me is concerned, she has always lived here in Wano.”

“What?! That’s not true! I’ve put her on display in the market plaza for a whole day, hundreds of people have seen her!”

“My bodyguard speaks the truth, sir.” Momonosuke intervenes “Lady (name) is my sister’s lady-in-waiting, a close friend of my family; she has been living here in the Flower Capital her whole life, and I’ve known her since I was a child.”

You see Ophelio splutter, and hesitate, probably wondering what you might have done to bring the Shogun on your side, and realising how harder taking you back will be now that he is protecting you. “How can you say she’s a native of this country? She doesn’t even speak the language!” he protests.

“Lady (name) unfortunately can’t speak.” Yamato promptly answers “But whatever, or whoever, you might be looking for, it’s not here. Now I suggest you leave…”

“I won’t! I paid fifty-thousand berries to have it, and I plan on fetching at least three times that at the auction! You stupid animal! Come here this instant, and I went easy on you until now, but I swear, I'll beat you to the point that even your mother will struggle to recognise you!”

Maybe Ophelio, who is now pointing his finger as you, thinks you won’t resort to violence in front of the Shogun; maybe in his rage he has forgotten how dangerous you can be, and how foolish and inconsiderate it is to challenge and threaten you without the bars of a cage between you.

In either case you are quick to remediate, advancing until you are face to face and then grabbing the arm whose fist he is waving in front of you. Ophelio gasps, and tries shaking your hand off, but your grip is much stronger than the average person’s even when you’re in human form; you stare at him, growling under your breath as you control your shifting so that your eyes, and your teeth, become those of a wolf, and soon you’re seeing Ophelio pale as he stares at the blood-thirsty gaze of a two-hundred pounds predator, and at fangs long enough to pass his arm right through. 

“I will never be your slave again; leave now. Or I’ll kill you and eat your heart.”

You are sure Ophelio would have caught your meaning even without Yamato’s translation, which your friend promptly offers, because you see terror colour his face; he actually seems a moment away from wetting himself. “I… I…”

“GO AWAY I SAID!”

You roar in his face, finally letting his arm go, and Ophelio scrambles away, almost tripping over his feet in his attempt of putting as much space as he can between the two of you; a moment later he has disappeared beyond the chamber’s door, the thud of his footsteps echoing farther and farther away along the corridor.

“Well, that was amusing.” Momonosuke comments, turning to smile at you and Yamato “And I’ll make sure the law that still permits the hunting and killing of werewolves here in Wano is abrogated as soon as possible, you have my word.”

You bow deeply. “Thank you.” you say, this time without the need for a translation.

“Yamato’s friends are my friends. I will see you both later, shall I?”

Another bow, and you and your friend excuse yourselves from the Shogun’s presence. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better, even though I still can’t believe I was stupid enough to fall prey to a cretin like that.” you admit shaking your head; then, not fully knowing why you feel the need to tell him but knowing it’s the right thing to do, you add: “He did mention paying a large sum for me, did he not? The person he gave the money to was my former fiancé; he was angry at me for breaking our engagement, and he sold me to Ophelio.” 

“Oh, (name)... that’s horrible…”

“It is; perhaps it’s my fault, I have a terrible taste in lovers… most of the time…”

A moment of silence passes between you, which Yamato breaks clearing his throat. “Well, I can assure you will be safe as long as you are here in Wano; not that I think you can’t take care of yourself but… you know… if you decide to remain for a while…”

“I’d like that.” 

And you really would; you’ll have to talk to the Shogun first, but the prospect of making Wano your new home is… attractive, and not just because there’s little that holds you back in your country of origin. You meet Yamato’s hopeful gaze, and doubts dissolve in your hearts.

“And I’d like to see more of the Flower Capital, as soon as the Marines leave.”“Of course! I’ll bring you to see all my favourite places. And the full moon is tonight! I can’t wait.”

As you admire the brightness of Yamato’s smile, and for the first time in years, you feel that you can’t either.

*****

Shinobu smiled to herself as she crossed the corridor leading to Yamato’s apartment, a bag of the same sweets she had offered (name) two days before clutched to her chest. The poor woman would have probably eaten any food offered to her, starving as she was, but through Yamato’s translation on the previous night she had told Shinobu those sweets actually tasted great, and since a friendship had started developing between the two women, the kunoichi had decided to gift her another bag. 

She hurried to bow deeply when she saw Momonosuke, walking in the opposite direction. “My lord.”

“Good morning, Shinobu. Were you looking for me?” the young Shogun answered amicably. 

“Actually no, my lord; do you know where I can find (name)? I have a small gift for her.” “Actually…”

Momonosuke hesitated, apparently embarrassed, as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “Truth to be told, and while I am sure she would appreciate your gift, I do not think (name) wishes to be disturbed right now. Nor Yamato, for that matter.”

“What…?”

“Come with me, but be silent.”

Confused, the kunoichi followed the Shogun through a second corridor, until they reached Yamato’s room, not far from the one (name) had been offered since her arrival at the palace. Rather than knocking, Momonosuke signaled Shinobu again to be silent, and then opened the sliding door.

The two wolves lay on the tatami, bathed in the morning light filtering through the open window. Shinobu recognised in one of them (name)’s wolf form; she rested on her belly, her large head on her front paws, her long, bushy tail swaying gently. 

The other wolf was slightly larger, his thick fur snow-white, a pair of familiar red-orange horns on his head; it lay with his head resting on the other’s back. The wolf yawned, exposing fangs that could have easily taken off an elk’s -or a man’s- leg, and then rubbed his head against the other’s neck; the female growled under her breath, the sound expressing amusement and fondness rather than anger, and turned her head to lick the male’s face. They looked so in harmony with each other, oblivious to the rest of the world, neither Shinobu nor Momonosuke had the courage to disturb them. 

They retreated into the corridor. “Do you think they…?” Shinobu started, unsure of how to express her thought, especially since it was the Shogun she was talking to.

Momonosuke smiled. “... mated?” he concluded for her “I really don’t know; but since the full moon was last night, and given how fond of each other they already became, I think it’s a good possibility.”

“I see…”

Shinobu smiled; the clear affection and strong syntony Yamato and (name) had developed for each other was plain to see, and since the Shogun had accepted the woman’s request to remain in Wano for a while, the kunoichi did not doubt she and Yamato would have plenty of time to spend together. “Well, I’ll give her my gift later, then.”

“Good idea.” Momonosuke agreed; he silently closed the door, and he and the kunoichi walked away, leaving the two wolves to their idyll.

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

The song of the lone wolf (part 1)

Werewolf!Yamato x werewolf!reader. This is part one of two.

This fic discusses matters of slavery, captivity and abuse.

*****

When the kunoichi met him, Yamato was in his room in the Shogun’s palace, drying his hair after a long training session - and consequent, much needed, bath. 

“Hello, Shinobu. What…?”

“Have you seen her?”

Yamato blinked, the damp towel still in his hands, and immediately tensed as he noticed the kunoichi’s serious, even anxious, expression.

“Seen who?”

“At the market.”

A long moment of silence followed, as Yamato, now busy putting his sandals on, reflected on the question. The Flower Capital’s market was renowned for the many goods sold in its stalls -especially after Shogun Momonosuke had officially opened the borders of the country to the world, which had brought traders from places far and wide to come to Wano to trade- but he had never seen anything particularly alarming there, beyond a seller and a buyer arguing over the quality of the potter’s creations, or the unjustified rise in the price of plums. Nevertheless, Shinobu looked deeply upset, and Yamato knew her well enough to know that agitation was most likely justified. 

The room they were in was situated on the third floor of the palace, in the heart of the Flower Capital. Yamato, who had just been named the Shogun’s bodyguard, had moved there on Momonosuke’s request, but he had never cared much for interior design, which is why the large, bright room was more than sparsely furnished. Yamato had brought in his bed from his father’s old castle -he had slept there for twenty years, except one night every twenty-eight, and knew getting used to another mattress would have been impossible- placed a folding screen to separate it from the rest of the room, put all his clothes and other things in a large chest, and hung a large portrait of Oden, painted on a good quality scroll, on the wall, before declaring he didn’t need anything else. And six months later, he still didn’t.

“Shinobu, what is wrong?” Yamato asked, a moment before a terrible thought filled his mind “Is Hiyori alright?”

Momonosuke had left two weeks before for his first official visit to several nearby kingdoms, with the goal of establishing a diplomatic and trade alliance between them and Wano; Yamato was supposed to go with him, but the young Shogun had asked him to remain home to look after his sister, who would rule the land in his absence and had recently experienced a kidnapping attempt at the hands of a small band of rogues, Kaidou’s former supporters who had escaped imprisonment. Yamato, who had looked forward to leave Wano for the first time in his life, had relented to his lord and friend’s wishes; he was very fond of Hiyori, and there were worse things than spending an evening accompanying her to the theatre, or making sure the many people who came to the palace for an audience carried no weapons and meant her no harm.

“What? No, the lady is fine.” Shinobu, who today wore a light blue bodysuit rather than her usual pink one, quickly answered; she looked more anxious by the minute “I’m talking about the woman in the cage.”

“The what?”

“Come with me.”

Yamato wasted no more time in grabbing Takeru from where he had placed it against the wall and then following the kunoichi out of the room.

*****

The market was, as usual, an exciting place full of things to see and buy, dozens of stalls selling the most diverse goods, carts of sweet treats surrounded by children, artisans waiting for clients with clothes to fix and tools to repair, and street artists gathering donations. Had he the time, Yamato would have liked nothing better than strolling around, enjoying the pleasant weather as he waited for some bauble to catch his fancy or ate a candy apple on a stick, but whatever Shinobu wanted to show him had to be very important, and not in a good way, and he couldn’t help feeling anxious.

“There.” the kunoichi said, pointing to a large octagonal pavilion that had been erected in a small plaza, right in the heart of the market district. As they pushed their way through the small crowd surrounding it, men and women bumping into others to catch a glimpse of whatever was being put on display in the center, Yamato could catch snippets of conversations going on around him “I have never seen anything like this!” “Can you believe something like her actually exists?” “She looks so normal, and yet…”

Whatever Shinobu had dragged him there to see, it had already caused much excitement among the people of the Flower Capital; it was… intriguing, in a sense, but Yamato felt tense, his instinct, the one that belonged to the part of him that usually remained dormant since he had learnt to control it but that always remained vigilant inside him, urging him to prepare, because the thing that was going to appear in front of his eyes in a minute would be so amazing, so utterly overwhelming, it would destroy everything he thought he knew about the world…

“Are those Marines?” he asked, surprised, as he noticed the uniformed men standing guard along the pavilion’s perimeter, the bad feeling inside him mounting to border on alarm. Wano was, at least for the time being, unaffiliated to the World Government, and while its agents were technically free to enter the country, Yamato couldn’t think of a single reason for their presence - a reason, at least, that did not represent a danger for Wano and its people. 

“And that is not the worst of it.”

“Shinobu, will you tell me what is happening?”

The kunoichi shook her head, her expression as tense as Yamato felt. “It’s better if you see it with your own eyes.”

Reaching the front of the crowd was no easy feat, but a few people recognised Yamato, both as the Shogun’s bodyguard and one of the heroes who had freed Wano from Kaidou, and allowed him and Shinobu to pass. 

It was then that he saw her; saw, and smelt, the woman’s scent reaching him with the sudden violence of a fist to the gut. It had been years since the last time Yamato had felt it, the scent similar but not identical to his own, and he couldn’t believe it, no, it couldn’t be true…

The cage at the center of the pavilion was barely large enough for a person to be able to stand and lay down, the structure made indestructible by Ryuo imbuement; it had been placed on a wooden pedestal so as to offer the crowd a better view.

But Yamato paid little notice to the cage, his gaze immediately focused on the person inside it, clearly kept there against her will. She was naked, her body barely covered by the blanket the woman desperately tried to hide behind, her eyes full of helpless rage as she looked all around, screaming in a language Yamato did not understand, even though he could easily recognise the sentiment expressed in those words: release me! You have no right to keep me here! Let me go!

“I… I can’t believe it…”

She didn’t seem to have smelled him -Yamato wondered vaguely if the reason was the presence of so many other people nearby, or his recently taken bath; he had used a scented soap- maybe because she was too upset and scared to notice, but before Yamato could step any closer to attract the woman’s attention, a loud voice filled the pavilion, making them both wince.

A man wearing a Marine coat had walked up to the side of the cage, lifting his arms to command the crowd’s attention. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he began; it was a mature, relatively short individual, a bandage covering his left eye “I thank you for your patience; the show is going to begin in a minute, so please come closer; there is some space here in front of me.”

“He has been doing it since this morning, once an hour; he clearly likes the attention.” Shinobu muttered “The whole city is talking about it. I… I thought you’d want to know.” 

Yamato nodded, his eyes still trained on the man who, acting more like a master of ceremonies than a Marine officer, was still inviting the spectators to come to the forefront; the woman in the cage was glaring at him, hate and resentment burning in her gaze, but he ignored her, preferring to smile proudly as he looked at the crowd hanging from his lips.

“The show you will witness now is something that has no equal in the world.” the man continued, the affected authority in his voice quickly captivating his audience “Something that was thought to have disappeared from the world centuries ago, but that I, Commander Ophelio of the Marines, was able to find, and bring back to light. The wonder I present to you here transcends what you until now thought true; a creature that has long been relegated to fables and legends, and that is now here, real, in front of you. I must ask you not to scream, and to keep your children close; you are perfectly safe, but our… attraction can become very aggressive.”

The warning, clearly aiming to excite the crowd’s interest rather than to reassure it, made Shinobu groan; Yamato didn’t move. He was focused on the woman, whose scent had awoken in him something he would have been unable to describe in words, a callback to a past he had never lived, a greeting that was recognition, request for help and offer of friendship in one. It was pleasant, even… attractive, in a way Yamato, who had never paid much attention to that sort of matter, did not know how to describe, and that had nothing to do with the fact the woman was naked under her blanket. 

I am here. I am like you. This was what her scent was telling him, without the need for words, and Yamato felt his eyes fill with tears. After all, those like him -like them, everything seemed to suggest- were usually sociable creatures, at their happiest in the company of their own kind; he had never realised how much he had missed it, and he had planned to search for others of his own kin once he’d be free to leave Wano, but his father had told him there was no one else like him in the kingdom, and he had never imagined, not even in his wildest dreams, that one day things might change… 

An excited shiver ran through the multitude gathered around the cage; several people craned their necks to get a better look, and the children, none of whom looked even remotely intimidated by the Marine’s warning, slipped between the adults to approach or asked their parents to be lifted on their shoulders. The excited chattering that had filled the pavilion abated; silence fell, as if every single person present were holding their breath.

Ophelio smiled proudly, openly delighting in the way he had captured the crowd’s attention. “Look at her.” he went on, emphatically pointing towards the woman, who in turn glared at him, baring a perfectly human set of teeth in a snarl “A young woman like many can be found in this fair city, not much different from your daughters and sisters; at least, this is what she appears to be, even though her fair appearance hides a very different nature. Look…”

The Marine met the woman’s eyes and clapped; he waited, they all did, but she remained still, defiant, still huddled in her blanket but with her back ramrod-straight; Yamato had no idea what vicissitudes had led the woman to be captured, but it was clear Ophelio was far from having bent her.

A full minute passed; no one moved.

Ophelio, looking more and more hassled, clapped two more times, glaring menacingly at the woman, who in turn grinned, openly amused, once more ignoring what was clearly an order she had recognised; even though she appeared not to understand the language, she knew she was embarrassing him and looked quite proud of it. 

“So? Is she going to do something or what?” one spectator complained; someone else laughed, and two women turned to walk away.

“Just a moment, good people of Wano!” the Marine exclaimed, smiling broadly at his public before nodding in the direction of one of his men, who readily handed him what at first glance Yamato mistook for a coil of rope; Ophelio grabbed it…

“NO…!” Yamato cried, just as Shinobu pressed her hand to her mouth in horror. 

The woman did her best to shield herself, but her captor was able enough to hit her through the bars of her cage, and the whip left angry red marks on her arms and chest; she cried in pain and, letting the blanket fall to the ground, she grabbed the bars, shaking them with enough force to make the Ryuo-imbued metal strain. She screamed, the rage and hate and helpless pain evident in her voice despite the language barrier, but Ophelio raised his whip-armed hand and lashed her two more times, leaving the woman lying on the floor of her cage, trembling in pain.

Some people in the crowd murmured in disapproval; a few parents led their children away, and a couple of men even raised their voice to blame the commander, and were quickly hushed by the Marines. Ophelio smiled affably at them, clearly anxious not to lose his crowd’s attention or sympathy.

“Your pardon, ladies and gentlemen!” he exclaimed “And please do not be troubled! Those like her are notoriously rebellious beings, and the whip merely helps to keep them tame. The creature you see here is not human, and feels no pain like you or I do.”

“I cannot bear to look; this is monstrous.” Shinobu murmured, misty-eyed. Yamato agreed; part of him, that part of him especially, would have wanted nothing better than to grab the weapon out of the man’s hand and to whip him to within an inch of his life, or even better to take the matter in his own hands, and fangs, but his instincts ordered him to wait, at least for the time being.

He remained still as Ophelio clapped once more, slowly, as he stared at his victim as if daring her to defy him once more; the woman sighed, and then slowly stood, showing herself to the public, who stared silently, captivated.

Her naked body was now in full display, but all Yamato’s gaze noticed was the cuts, some of them barely days-old or even more recent, and the bruises that littered her skin; the poor woman had clearly been beaten by her captor, whipped and subjected to who knew what other forms of abuse, to break her will and force her to obey. Yamato heard Shinobu sob by his side; he tensed, ready to attack, ready to make the Marine rue the day he was born, ready to fight whoever would dare to oppose him in order to free the woman from her cage. He didn’t care about the consequences, at the moment he didn’t even particularly care about who or what the woman was; no one deserved such treatment, to be caged like an animal and tortured for the amusement of a crowd. 

He was ready; he would free the woman, Yamato decided, and ask Shinobu to take her to safety as he fought the Marines. He tensed, feeling a ripple run through his body as he prepared to shift, his nails elongating in claws as soft white fur started to grow under his clothes… 

… and a moment later the woman tensed and started to sniff, at first cautiously, as if unsure of what she thought she had perceived, and then more and more energetically; she looked around, searching for the source of the scent her nose, much more sensible than that of a normal human even when she hadn’t shifted, had picked up, and then finally her gaze met Yamato’s, and the world came to a stop.

She stared, her eyes wide open, surprise etched on her face, a surprise that a moment later  blossomed into both relief and pain as she realised the real meaning of that new discovery. She cried something in her language; Yamato shook his head to communicate the fact he couldn’t understand her, and was about to attempt mind-speak when they both noticed Ophelio raising his whip threateningly once more. The woman winced; she lowered her head, and started to shift.

Soft but thick fur, the same colour as the woman’s hair, started to cover her naked skin, while the muscles and bones under it changed shape. Her limbs became smaller, her hands and feet changed into clawed paws, and her face, also covered in fur, elongated into a muzzle; her now pointed ears shifted to the top of her head, and her human mouth gave way to jaws capable of gutting a man with a single bite. 

The creature, at the moment neither human nor animal -and she was neither of those things, a now painfully tense and shivering Yamato thought; she was something different, something special and unique and he felt elated and desperate at the same time as he regarded her, forced to appeal to every drop of self-control in his possession to remain lucid. He wasn’t in danger of losing control and shifting himself, fortunately he never had since she had taught him well, but he felt his body responding to hers, as if they were the two opposite poles of a magnet, the creature inside him screaming and begging to be allowed to come out as well, to help, to save, to fight and kill whoever dared to oppose him- and by now unable to remain standing, fell on all fours and arched her back, allowing the stunned crowd to observe the long, fur-covered appendage that had grown above her buttocks.

“Oh, my God…” Shinobu murmured.

The whole transformation only took a couple of minutes, and in the end the large she-wolf who had taken the woman’s place lifted her head, her muzzle now brushing against the ceiling of the cage she barely fit in, and howled, a long, piercing note that seemed to shake the pavilion and fill the plaza surrounding it. Despite the pain the woman had endured, the sound felt neither submissive nor oppressed, and the strength it expressed led many spectators to step back. 

The creature was large, heavier than any real wolf, with large shoulders and long legs that could sustain her as she chased after her prey; her long tail brushed against the floor, her elegant face held high as the creature observed the crowd that stared right back at her, astonished, deceptively calm as her muscles tensed under her fur-covered skin.

Unfortunately, at the moment she was unable to run anywhere, or to hunt or to do anything else, and the she-wolf, whose human intelligence was still evident behind her yellow eyes, was as aware of the fact as her human counterpart had been a moment before. She growled, the sound quiet but menacing, baring fangs long enough to pass a man’s arm from side to side, and walked around the now tiny cage, clearly unnerved, before returning to observe Yamato, who smiled at her, open awe on his face.  

The Marine gave his public a minute to admire the caged creature before speaking again. “A werewolf.” he announced, clearly pleased with himself “One of the few left in the world, and the first whose existence has been documented in more than a century. Unlike what legends hold, she is able to shift whenever she wants, rather than only on full moon nights. Come closer, the cage is solid enough to contain her.”

Several people accepted the invitation, crowding around the cage to observe the she-wolf, who clearly did not appreciate the attention and kept howling and growling at them, nervously clawing at the cage’s floor and turning on herself in search of a position that protected her from the prying gazes.

“Is she able to speak in this form?” a woman excitedly asked; Ophelio smiled indulgently, as if to ignore the stupidity of the question.

“I’m afraid she can’t; in any case the woman does not speak our language, which means she wouldn’t be able to communicate even if she could.” he explained “On the other hand, she is able to understand and follow orders. Look…”

He looked towards the she-wolf, lifting his free hand with the palm upwards as he eloquently nodded in the direction of the whip he held in the other. The creature whined, as if lamenting the squalor of the state she had been reduced to, and then rolled on her back, waving her paws the way dogs did when they played. Several people laughed. 

“What do you think?” Shinobu wondered under her breath, but Yamato’s only answer was a shake of his head. He felt unable to speak, his heart full of a torment he did not remember ever experiencing since he was ten, torment and heartbreak for that poor, innocent creature who had been captured, abused and forced to make a fool of herself for the amusement of a heartless crowd. A doom that, had things gone differently, could have been his as well “We need to do something, we need to help her…”

Standing once more, the she-wolf looked at him; her eyes were yellow, as was natural for her -for their- kind, but something human still shone behind them, a lively intelligence and depth no animal could experience, and when she sniffed avidly, filling her lungs with the stifling air of the patio, Yamato knew she hadn’t simply seen him. The she-wolf, and the woman who shared her soul and half of her body, had perceived him, recognised him as one of her own, from his scent, different from that of the people surrounding them, but familiar. Now she knew as well… and that explained why the wolf’s bright yellow eyes were fixed on him.

Yamato moved without rationally deciding to, led by an impulse that was half instinct and half an irresistible attraction, platonic but visceral, towards her. Only partially aware of his body, he pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered in front of him, insensitive to the complains and shoves he received; he kneeled in front of the cage, and the she-wolf immediately crouched down, her face at the same level as his, her bushy tail swaying gently behind her massive body. Neither moved for several seconds; the wolf bared her fangs in what was unmistakably a smile that Yamato immediately reciprocated. He lifted his hand…

“Hey! No touching…!”

… and extended it through the bars of the cage, towards the she-wolf. He didn’t pet her -she was a predator powerful and quick enough to bite off any appedange whose touch she had deemed inappropriate, after all, not a domestic dog to keep on one’s lap, caress and fed morsels to- but remained still as the creature sniffed him with interest and then, finally satisfied, pushed her large head against his palm. 

“I’m very glad to meet you.” Yamato said; he hadn’t used mind-speak since his mother had passed, but it seemed to be one of those abilities one never forgot once they had learned it “And I am so, so very sorry.”

The she-wolf whimpered in response, a sound that expressed anguish rather than fear, the helpless rage of a creature who knew she was being treated unjustly but had no way to rectify the situation. She licked his hand in greeting and then bent her head, as if embarrassed that one of her kind was witnessing how low she had stooped, and then started to shift back to human, eliciting a new awed murmuring from the crowd, which both Yamato and the she-wolf ignored. Her muzzle retracted into the woman’s face, whose naked skin appeared as her thick fur disappeared under it; a minute later she was fully human once again, her claws having given way to shorter, innocuous nails and her limbs now able to support her body in an upright position. 

Nevertheless, the woman didn’t move, still holding Yamato’s eyes in her own, oblivious to the dozens of people avidly staring at them. 

“You are like me.” she mind-spoke to him, the message clear despite the language barrier. Yamato nodded, aware that while the least known ability of their kin would have allowed them to keep the conversation private, the time at their disposal was more than limited.

“I am. My name is Yamato, what about you? Have you been kidnapped?”

“I am named (name). Yes, they have taken me from my home, I tried fighting them off but there were too many of them… I can’t understand what they are saying, and they did something to my cage that made it impossible for me to break it, and…”

“Yes?”

The woman -(name); he had never heard her name before, Yamato thought, which was fitting, since she was also the second of their kind he had ever met- bit her lip, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

“Do you have some food, by any chance?” she wondered “They give me so little to eat.”

Admitting her need, especially with someone she couldn’t call friend, was no small sacrifice for proud creatures like them, which proved how much she was suffering, Yamato thought, his heart full of anguish. Werewolves were as a rule stronger and more resilient than humans, immune to most diseases and capable of great efforts, but starvation would have taken its toll on anyone, especially if combined with days, maybe weeks, of the physical abuse whose signs (name) still carried on her skin.

“No, I’m sorry.” Yamato murmured, feeling ashamed despite himself. If only he had known, he could have brought her some food from the palace…

“Is she saying something to you, Yamato?” Shinobu murmured; the kunoichi had followed him to the forefront of the crowd, clearly horrified as she witnessed for the second time the terrible state the younger woman had been forced into.

“Her name is (name). She’s hungry, that bastard is starving her in order to weaken her.”

“Oh! Err…”

Both Yamato and (name)’s gazes, hers now fully human and no longer yellow but in which something feral survived, turned on the kunoichi. “What is it?” he asked, and blinked as he observed Shinobu produce, seemingly out of thin air, a small bag of sweets, a sort that was particularly popular among the children of the Flower Capital and that was often sold at the market.

“I, err, had come to the market to buy these.” Shinobu admitted as she opened the bag “They are my favourite. Give them to her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course; she needs them more than me. I’m sorry I have nothing more nutritious to give.”

Yamato smiled at her in thanks before offering the bag to (name). “Eat.” he invited her “At least they’ll fill your belly.” 

(name) didn’t need to be told twice. She shoved her hand inside the bag and quickly filled her mouth with sweets. Yamato saw her close her eyes, overwhelmed by the immediate, simple pleasure of the delicious taste filling her mouth; starving as she was, she would have probably eaten whatever she could get her hands on, but a delicacy like that, after who knew how long without a full meal, had to taste like heaven. 

The wounds the whip had opened on her arms were still bleeding, Yamato noticed; shifting usually healed minor injuries, like bruises or cuts, on a werewolf’s body, and that it hadn’t happened was further evidence of the state of exhaustion (name) was in. He had to help her, he thought, as soon as possible; no matter how resilient she naturally was, there was no knowing how long the woman could resist the abuse and starvation her master was subjecting her to, not to mention she deserved better than to be forced to perform for the amusement of the crowd, locked in that tiny cage. 

He had to get her out of there, whatever the price. But how?

As she stuffed her face with sweets, (name) was still looking at him - specifically, at his horns, no doubt wondering how a werewolf could have them and specifically, what happened to them as he shifted. The truth was they simply moved, like his ears, on the top of his head, which pleased Yamato; he was probably the sole horned werewolf in the world, and thought that made him look even more fearsome.

“Thank you.” she said after a while; a positive aspect of mind-speak was that it allowed the user to carry out a conversation as they ate “To you both.”

“(name) says thank you, Shinobu.”

“Oh, it was nothing.” the kunoichi answered, smiling at the younger woman, who shily reciprocated.

He had a handkerchief in the pocket of his hakama, Yamato suddenly remembered; he retrieved it, and offered it to (name). “You are bleeding.” he pointed out, and the woman reached out towards him, but their hands never got to touch. 

“Hey, you! What are you doing?!”

The whip cracked between them, forcing them both to reflexively back off. The handkerchief slipped from Yamato’s fingers and fell to the ground, but (name) was quick to snatch it up and to hide it under her blanket, while her eyes rose to glare at Ophelio, who had walked a few paces away to speak to someone and had returned to the cage just in time to see his prisoner and one of the spectators staring silently -from his point of view- at and touching each other. 

“What are you doing? Step away, I said!” he ordered; the affable master of ceremonies had disappeared, and the man’s eyes shone in rage “And what is that stuff? Why did you give her food?!” 

Yamato was determined not to be cowed; he stood slowly, Shinobu silently backing him, as he faced the Marine, who was at least two feet shorter. Ophelio followed his own orders, taking a quick step back; he looked quickly around, noticing that while his subordinates were approaching, rifles in their hands, the crowd was still attentively following the conversation between him and the white-haired woman. 

“I gave her food because she is starving! You are keeping an innocent woman in a cage like an animal, abusing her to keep her compliant!” Yamato accused, indignation heavy in his voice, speaking loud enough for the whole crowd to hear “How dare you? Who gives you the right to treat her like this?”

“And why do you care? What reason do you have to worry about her?” 

Not lowering his gaze, Yamato felt Shinobu’s hand rest on his arm, a silent reminder of the need to choose his words carefully; he knew he would have confronted (name)’s captor in any case, but admitting that he had been so affected by her current situation because he belonged to her kind himself would have been a very foolish, not to mention dangerous, thing to do.

“I care because it’s wrong.” he insisted; his hands were itching, his instincts begging him to grab Takeru’s handle to beat that cruel little man to within an inch of his life, or even better, to shift and bite his head off, but Yamato forced himself to remain lucid “Because it’s cruel, and abusive, and inhumane. I don’t know where you come from, but taking another person as a slave is illegal in Wano; you need to let her go.”

The Marine smirked. “As you said, the laws forbid taking a person captive.” he pointed out “This creature is not human like you and me; she’s a werewolf, which means normal rules don’t apply to her.”

Yamato gaped. “But…!”

“Believe me, young lady, I did my research. The World Government has declared werewolves a protected species two centuries ago, when it was believed they had been almost hunted to extinction, but since this country is unaffiliated with it, and has never enacted a similar law of its own, what I am doing is perfectly legal.” 

The other Marines approached and, while two of them kept her at gunpoint, another forced (name) to hand the sweet bag, still half-full, over; the woman snarled, and swore -it was evident from her tone, even though Yamato could not understand her- under her breath, but she complied, meeting Yamato’s eyes for a moment more before looking away, as if ashamed that one of her kind was witnessing the sorry state she was in. 

“Yamato.” Shinobu murmured, touching his arm once more “We need to go.”

“He can’t get away with it!”

“I know! But arguing right now will not help your… friend. Let us decide what to do.”

Yamato wanted to argue that the two of them could easily best half a dozen Marines and their whip-armed commander, but he head to admit he couldn’t protect (name) -who, in her state, could not be of much use, especially if they didn’t instantly find a way to get her out of her cage- and at the same time battle her captors. He had to retreat, at least temporarily, and decide what to do.

He turned towards (name), who was again looking at him, heartbroken at having realised her defender was going to back down. “I’ll get you out of here.” Yamato told her; he had never felt so ashamed of himself, even though he rationally knew he had no fault “I promise.”

He received no answer; (name) retrieved her blanket to cover herself and hid her face under her arms, her abused body wracked by sobs.

“If you are so interested in my prey, young lady, you can try and buy her.” Ophelio pointed out; he was clearly pleased with himself, and Yamato would have given half of his blood to simply punch him in the face, just once “I’m holding an auction here in the city in three days; several affluent friends from all over the Grand Line will participate, but who knows, you might get lucky.”

Yamato didn’t answer; he turned around and walked away, Shinobu hot on his heels, his heart heavy with the same helpless, hopeless rage that he had seen reflected in (name)’s yellow eyes. 

*****

Neither spoke until they had reached the Shogun’s palace; Yamato was fuming, and he felt worse with every step that carried him farther from (name).

“I didn’t even know there was still a law in Wano that allowed the enslaving and killing of werewolves.” he murmured in the end, turning towards the woman who had walked silently by his side, equally aghast at the scene they had witnessed “It’s… it’s monstrous.”

Shinobu nodded silently. “I am sure neither Shogun Momonosuke nor his father would have ever implemented it.” She pointed out softly “But as far as I know, there have been no werewolves in Wano for centuries, other than you, your mother… and now (name). The law had been all but forgotten…”

“... but is formally still valid, which means that bastard can take advantage of it to keep a person prisoner, abuse her and sell her to the highest bidder. I… I can't believe it!”

Nevertheless, the gravity of the situation was undeniable. Momonosuke could maybe intervene to stop Ophelio and free her prisoner, but even if they found a way to contact him it would take the young Shogun days to come back, more days than poor (name) had before her new master took her away. Ophelio had said that some of the participants to the auction would come from outside Wano, and it might be impossible to find her afterwards.

This wasn't fair; it was cruel and terrible and awful, but Yamato saw no way to rectify that injustice and this was driving him crazy. He had never felt so helpless in his life, but he couldn’t abandon (name), because in another life he could be the one caged and sold, deprived of his freedom and exploited for the amusement and greed of a heartless master. 

He would have wanted to free her in any case, even if they were not among the few left of their kind, but Yamato was not in the habit of lying to himself, and he had to admit it: the idea of one like him kept prisoner and sold to the highest bidder was completely unbearable. 

“We still have three days until the auction.” Shinobu reminded him softly “We will find a way to free her, Yamato, I promise.”

He nodded silently as he started climbing the steps that led to the palace’s entrance, unable to ignore the heavy sense of foreboding filling his heart.