Now that the adrenaline had worn down and the dust had settled after a good night's sleep, Dante needed to quickly evaluate how things were looking with the rest of the World after his few days spent in Wano.
If his calculations were right, he had a couple of days before the execution of Ace and the Summit War. There was no possibility of him being late to the battle, thankfully. Realistically, the only thing left to do was simply sail for Marineford and prepare himself for the grand battle.
"Captain! I see something in the water! It's a man, he looks like he's aggressively waving at us... oh no I think he's drowning, Dante!"
Dante put a hand on his hip and rubbed his nose. It had been only a day since he had asked Yamato to join his crew, and so far she had been alternating between using both his name and the title Captain. He could appreciate that she had filled in the role of first mate so easily, at the very least.
"Alright, turn the ship and get closer. We'll see what his story is. Should be interesting seeing as he's tens of miles from any land."
Dante already had a pretty good idea what this was. His Observation Haki told him that the man's strength was greater than that of a regular drowning civilian, and the fact that something similar had already been used against him proved it enough for Dante.
More than likely it was yet another assassin sent by the World Government. Ever since his first encounter, all that time ago, Dante had been dealing with semi-constant brushes with them almost any time he sailed his ship.
Be it in the form of mercantile vessels being a front for a group of armed assailants, a man drowning in the water, or even just abandoning subtlety and dropping down on him from the sky in a shoddy 'surprise attack'. He had grown tired of it a while ago, but he had to applaud the tenacity.
A few minutes later, Dante was pulling the man up from the rope net on the side of his hull. The man looked haggard, his clothes tattered and torn, yet he still seemed in decent physical shape. He seemed shocked for a flicker of a second at the sight of Yamato, only to return to his grateful expression.
"Thank you! Oh, god thank you so much! I thought I'd die out there, alone on the water. I was on a transport ship, but these pirates attacked, and I was flung overboard. I'd been barely keeping afloat for the last 10 minutes."
Yup. This fucker was another assassin. Dante's Haki hadn't spotted any signals aside from those underwater in a 10 mile radius. There was no transport ship, nor a pirate ship in any direction to be found.
"Yamato. Come here."
The Oni shuffled towards him, and when she was close enough Dante placed a hand on her shoulder and used the other to gesture towards the disheveled man.
"See, with life on a crew like ours, there comes a certain risk, and that risk is associated with your bounty. That risk can come in the form of hunters, or assassins."
After Dante had finished speaking, the mans eyes had gone wide. He flicked his wrist and a knife fell into his hand, made with seastone and with the intended function of jabbing Dante and leaving him to bleed out.
Within an instant, Dante had grabbed the knife from the man's outstretched hand and broken his wrist, now dangling the knife in front of him for Yamato to see. Her eyes were wide, and she had a hand on her chin. Clearly, the girl was paying attention. Good.
"Now, most assassins are far more skilled than the average bounty hunter, but you won't be seeing many of those if you reach a certain bounty level. They're afraid of the big fish so to speak."
Dante grabbed the assassin and dragged him over to the edge of the Deadweight's deck, lifting him up and holding him by the collar as the man dangled in the air above the water.
"Assassins however don't discriminate. Any moment they could come for you and be an inch away from gutting you. Trust is a rarely afforded commodity. Now, what do you reckon we do with assassins, Yamato?"
She hummed in thought for a moment, before coming to the most simple of conclusions.
"Kill them? I mean, if they've tried to kill you, it only seems fair they lose their lives in exchange."
Dante would pat her on the head for being such a good student but given the difference in height that seemed a bit difficult. Granted he could engage the Sin Devil Trigger and change that, but that seemed extremely wasteful just to give Yamato some praise. Instead, Dante settled for using words.
"Good answer, Yamato. Hit the nail on the head."
Dante was slowly grooming Yamato into being a true second in command to the Red Devil. It seemed his first speech had already changed her outlook on morality in this world, but with every moment that passed she soaked up more and more of Dante's words and ideals.
And besides, it wasn't like she couldn't be a Hero to the people while being a Devil to the opposition. That was Dante's entire plan with Kuja, after all.
Dante then turned back around and dealt with the assassin, skewering him through the chest with a Summoned Sword, sending that Sword down to the sea floor, ensuring that if he somehow survived the stab wound he'd soon die due to the water pressure.
Clapping his hands against one another, Dante turned back to Yamato and decided it was time to bond with his crewmate over something that wasn't homicide. He wanted her to have some positive impression of him beyond his ability to kill folks.
"Now then, I figure we got more than enough time till we reach Marineford. What say you tell me about this Oden guy?"
Instantly, she had taken the book out from her sash and was pulling Dante into the Captains Quarters, rambling on about how excited she was to tell him all about the Great Oden. Clearly, the man was a huge inspiration to her.
"Finally, I've been waiting so long to tell you all about him! Oden was a supremely powerful swordsman, and the great Daimyo of Kuri! But most importantly, he was a great pirate who sailed under the banners of Whitebeard and Roger!"
Quick as a flash, Dante's entire demeanour changed, now being laser focused on every word Yamato was saying. Any knowledge he could gleam about this world was a valuable resource to him, and this was seemingly an extremely important part of history.
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Several hours had passed. Dante had become surprisingly invested in the story, and Yamato's telling of the events in the logbook was awe inspiring. She had clearly practiced.
By the end of it though, both of them were left saddened. Dishonour. Heroism. Determination. It was a tragedy, in the end. The only thing that made said sadness dissipate was the knowledge that they had helped avenge Oden slightly by blowing Onigashima to fucking smithereens.
When they finished, though, and Dante mentioned such a thing, Yamato shook her head. She disagreed.
"We haven't truly avenged Oden until every last citizen of Wano is freed, and every last Beast Pirate is dead and buried."
Dante smiled at her determination to realise that goal.
"Don't worry, Yamato. We'll take care of it. Kaido, King, Orochi. All must die."
Both of them had long since been seated against the wall shoulder to shoulder for the story since the room only had one chair, but at that moment Dante rose and finally got that chance to pat Yamato on the head.
She was confused for a moment, but preened under the affection, so starved for anything resembling approval that she was feeling joy at just a headpat. When Dante removed his hand, she was half tempted to ask him to return it, but by then he had already crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
"You know, I'm glad you decided to join me, Yamato. It got pretty lonely sometimes on the Deadweight. These last few hours helped me realise that."
"I'm sure it did. But you won't have to worry about that ever again. You're stuck with me now, Dante."
"You think I broke into a castle and destroyed an entire island just for us to part ways a day later? If I'm stuck with you, then you won't hear me complaining."
Once again, she looked up at him and gave a wide, toothy grin, happy to be cared for and valued as part of a crew. Then, a thought came to her mind.
"You know, Dante, we've been sailing for a few hours now, but you haven't told me why we're going to Marineford yet."
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Well, basically the Marines are going to execute a man in a few days, a fella by the name of Ace."
Yamato's face went a shade whiter. She stood up in an instant.
"...Ace? You're sure that was his name?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure, got an earful about it a few days ago. We gotta go interrupt the execution and bust him out."
"They won't lay a hand on him."
Yamato's tone had gone positively venomous in that moment.
"...Seems like you know the guy."
"We met once, a few years ago. He was kind to me. He was... my first real friend. I can't allow them to hurt him."
Dante huffed.
"Well then, now I gotta go save his ass. Can't afford to have you sad now, that'd make me a pretty bad Captain."
She giggled for a moment, her mind momentarily taken away from the idea of Ace's death. Dante then spoke out again.
"It'll be fine, Yamato. As long as I'm there, the Marines won't lay a finger on him. And you'll be there to help him too. Don't worry about it."
A moment passed as she weighed Dante's words in her head. She sighed.
"Thank you, Dante. I don't know how many more times I'll end up saying thanks, but just know that you truly are the greatest thing that ever happened to me."
After finishing her sentence, she met Dante's eyes and the half-devil could almost see the raw gratitude flowing from her person. A few seconds later, Yamato looked away.
Dante had responded to her heartfelt words with a simple pat on the back, and some heartfelt words of his own.
"I tend to have that effect on people."
"Pfft, you ass. I thought we were having a moment."
For a short moment a comfortable silence took over, and in that silence Dante was deep in thought. He quickly realised something.
"Now that I think about it... oi, Yamato, you wanna explore every part of Oden's legacy, right?"
Yamato nodded to Dante's question before moving back to her position against the wall alongside him.
"Well, Oden was part of the Whitebeard Pirates. So is Ace. And that means Whitebeard will be at Marineford. If all goes well, you could be drinking right alongside Oden's old captain."
Yamato looked as if a new reality had opened up for her. Her eyes sparkled.
"Quick! To Marineford, with haste! Turn those sails, catch that wind, we can't lose a single second!"
Yamato had quickly ran over and slammed open the door to the Captains Quarters, taking control of the wheel. Despite not having any idea of where she was turning, she still held onto the wheel and barked orders at Dante.
'So much for being the damn Captain...'
Dante grumbled for a moment, but eventually set about following Yamato's words, exiting the Captains Quarters and rotating the sails to catch the wind, smiling lightly as he did so. If he were to be honest, he liked these slow, peaceful days on the ocean.
Sure, he would never back down from a good fight, and might be a closet battle maniac, but these calm moments at sea were worth everything. The fact that he had someone to spend them with now made it all the better.
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"The Red Devil is moving. Onigashima is gone. Marineford is in danger."
The Den Den Mushi went silent after that. A compiled report from the several hundred spies working under both the Marines and World Government. It did not bode well.
This time, it wasn't Sengoku rubbing his head, rather it was Garp. He was caught between two worlds. As a Marine, the news that Dante was moving towards Marineford was disheartening, and jeopardised the execution.
Yet, at the same time, the small part of him that loved Ace as a grandson felt immense joy. Because it meant that the chances they would fail had gone up considerably. And he was happy about that. Were he not so conflicted about it, Garp would consider himself a traitor to the Marines for even holding such thoughts.
Though, just because Garp was having a minor crisis of conscience didn't mean Sengoku was still. No, rather, the Fleet Admiral was having to physically restrain his hand to stop himself from throwing something.
At every turn, that son of a bitch waited for them. No matter what they did, he got involved somehow. And just what the fuck did 'Onigashima is gone' mean? Did Dante have something to do with it?
God, there were too many questions and too little in the form of answers. His mind was set. After Ace was dead, he would resign as Fleet Admiral, and enjoy retirement away from all the bullshit he had to deal with on the daily.