Chapter 263

—

"You really think this is a good dress to wear even though I am going to fight?" Yamato asked Amon, looking over her body.

Yamato had two strands of hair falling to her chest where she wore a green t-shirt and a white jacket on top of it. Below her torso, her black tights were tightly clenched around her thighs. On one hand, she wielded a black thorny bat in her hand. On the other, she wore a golden ring around her wrist.

"Uh, blame your temporary captain." Amon shrugged.

Seconds later, Yamato sighed looking at the short brown-haired girl avoiding her eyes.

All the Sins' had a uniform different from the other. That's why all the members of a Sins' battalion also had different outfits than the other Sins' underlings.

"Also," Yamato turned to Amon again. Then she raised her wrist and pointed at the golden ring. "I don't actually need this." She said, "Uh, I mean, I am grateful and all. This is really cool and flashy, too, but I don't think I would even use it in a fight. So putting it in my battle suit might instead damage it..."

Looking at the ring that can summon a Raid Suit at a command, Amon waved his hand. "All the Sins have a Raid Suit made for them. It takes a lot to make raid suits for people who were not genetically enhanced, you see? I had extra parts and decided to make one for you. Though you can take it off and put it in your bag if you are really uncomfortable using it in a battle."

At his words, Yamato looked down at the ring for a moment before shaking her head with a sigh. "Oh well, never mind then. I will wear it since you went through so much to make it."

Amon chuckled at that. "That's great, then. Anyway, we should go out already, it's getting late."

Yamato nodded as the sword on Amon's waist shook before a gate to the outside world opened up behind Amon. The gate was human-size at first before it expanded into the side of an island.

"Everyone," Amon pointed at the gate. "Head out."

In his words, the 7 submarines that were beside him sank in the water as they slowly went towards the outside world. Meanwhile, the owner of the seven ships, the Seven Sins, and Yamato, stood beside Amon.

—★—

There were honestly so many marine bases in the grandline alone that it was ridiculous.

However, in the one-piece world where more than 30 million islands existed, even if most were uninhabited, it only made sense that the power ruling over the world would have thousands of its branches all over the world, especially the grandline where it was most needed.

But Amon wasn't destroying only one base each day. His army was ever-increasing, meaning he lacked no people. Because of that, he could deploy dozens of groups each day to attack multiple bases.

The majority of them were successful, too. That's why, after 9 months of engaging in the war, the number of Marine bases present in the grandline was close to nonexistent.

As of right now, at the end stage of the war, exactly 12 bases remained in the grandline.

One of them was Marineford, under Sengoku. Three were under the three admirals. Finally, another was under Garp who was rarely present on his base.

For now, Amon was leaving those five for later and instead was targeting the other 7 bases.

That's also why Yamato was dressed in the combat uniform of one of Sin of Envy's people.

Yamato had stayed in Wano for three months after Kaido's death, helping the people keep calm beside the soldiers deployed by Amon. But after that, she couldn't hold her adventurous spirit from wanting to see the broader world again—now that the biggest war in 800 years was going to happen—saying it's her duty since Oden had the same dream.

Yamato accepted her own name outside Wano, but as long as she was in there, she was too much into character. Kaido's death calmed her off that personality a lot, but the larger part of her still believed herself to be Oden.

So, before she could leave Wano again, Amon made her realise who she was. It was simple, really. He just had to make her understand, Oden was a man and she was… a woman. A woman who could experience things that a man never could.

Since then, she's been aiding the Enherjars whenever she wanted, or whenever she was needed—which was rare.

But today was such a day.

Today all seven of the Seven Deadly Sins were going to attack seven Marine Bases. That's where Yamato was going, as well.

No, not because Yamato became a sin. She had gracefully declined the offer made by Amon, saying she didn't want any heavy responsibilities for the unforeseen time.

Instead, she was going to aid someone.

Aisa had finally turned 15, and Amon felt it was time for her to take responsibility that her powers brought, now that she was used to them. So, he handed her the mantle of Envy Sin just a week ago. Meaning, this was her first mission, and also the first time she was going to lead a fleet.

But Amon wasn't dumb enough to trust a little girl who lived her entire life in harmony within the clouds. She would fail just by the pressure on her shoulders. So he asked Yamato to guide her on this mission.

Yamato didn't have any problem with that.

"Alright, everyone. It's time to set sail."

Amon said, standing on the shore of an island where seven Submarines were preparing to leave, with Seven Sins peeking out from the lid at the top.

"Make sure that I don't need to go there to save anyone." He said while eyeing Hancock, Wyper and Raki.

Hancock's battle uniform was pink in colour and looked almost like her Kuja Empress suit except for some slight changes. One of them being the short bright pink cape hovering over her shoulder.

Wyper, on the other hand, wore a shiny black jacket over his dark red shirt with a short red cape hovering over his shoulders.

Raki wore a simple yellow jacket with a green cape on her shoulders and a green tie resting on her chest. She had a green short-skirt ending above her knees, from where yellow tights covered her legs.

She wanted to wear the same coat Amon wears, but her proposal was refused. Though she still wore a tie to show the resemblances.

At Amon's stare, Hancock looked ashamed while Wyper and Raki clicked their tongues in secession. The latter two have fought Garp and Sengoku the most in the last 9 months, and so they were the ones who needed to be rescued the most too. From the looks of it, they clearly weren't happy with that.

He then looked at Aisa. "At the same time, Aisa. Make sure to listen to big sister Yamato, okay?"

Aisa gave a nod.

"Other than that-" he gave everyone a look. "Be careful."

One of them would really really need it.

—★—

Within the office of one of the seven bases that were being targeted by Amon, 31 surviving Vice Admirals who escaped the destruction of their bases, Three Admirals, and the Fleet Admiral sat around a round table.

"As planned, we have gathered at one base, instead of staying spread on our own bases," the grey-haired Sengoku said. "Instead of fighting them one by one, it's better for us to gang up on one of them. Even if Amon comes to help, he would either have to run like he usually does, causing his mission to fail, or he would have to face us head-on."

Though he said that, he doubted what would happen if Amon chose the second option.

Amon's multiple fruits are a famous story all around the world. Back in Marineford, he could match Kaido, Whitebeard, Garp, and Sengoku himself at once. Now that he had so many more fruits… The addition of 32 more Vice Admirals and 3 Admirals would cover the spot of Kaido and Whitebeard, but even that shouldn't be enough.

But… the one Sin who would be unfortunate to come to this island, would at least have a very high chance of being eliminated.

Sengoku knew about Amon's mind-reading prowess, so sending spies on his region was very useless, more so now that Alabasta was hidden from the world. However, out of sheer luck, one of his spies that he had sent out of desperation, had somehow managed to infiltrate Alabasta where he saw the seven submarines prepared for war.

The marines only learned this news a week ago when the said spy snuck out of the other dimension via the same tactic he used to get in—by hiding inside a ship that was carrying some Enherjars out of Alabasta.

Using Gion's help, Sengoku very quickly gathered all the Vice Admirals in this base that was under Vice-Admiral Hina.

Gion was given the Logia, Cloud-Cloud fruit, which was basically the better version of Rear Admiral Smoker's Smoke-Smoke fruit. Using her fruit, she brought everyone here via fast-moving clouds.

Gion was a very special Admiral in everyone's eye because of this fruit. She could generate and absorb lightning though she couldn't manipulate it, but that alone might just be enough to weaken Amon even if a little. So she was a very valuable asset.

Moreover, Gion's new assistant, the white-haired Rear Admiral named Killua, also had a very strong Devil's fruit. The Gravity-Gravity fruit.

Along with them and counting all the other marine soldiers present on this island alone… even if Amon managed to escape with the Sin, the army of that Sin would be captured and executed on spot.

The white-haired girl named Fuyu, sitting on a Vice-Admiral's seat, suddenly shook as her eyes two twitched.

She looked at Sengoku immediately. "Sir, I am sensing changes in the aura. A great number of individual auras are very close to this island."

Her Aura-Aura fruit could help her observation, that's why nobody doubted her and with the Fleet Admiral's command, everyone stood up.

Then, except for Hina, everyone veiled their presence as much as they could before going to the shore of the island, hiding behind trees.

Minutes later a long black submarine stirred out of the water before the lid opened and two girls spun up on a platform.

"L-look, I am telling you there are really strong people on this island!" A brown-haired girl that none of the marines had ever seen before, said to the white-haired girl beside her.

"Calm down, calm down." The girl, who everyone recognised as Yamato, said in a soothing voice. "You haven't been around strong people releasing their hostile presence, that's why you must be mistaking it. The marines these days are always doing that to keep lesser pirates and sea-kings away by feeling instinctual fear, you see. There should only be a Vice Admiral in here, I can sense her myself. Besides, Amon is never wrong-"

She could not finish her words before one Garp the Fist's knuckles slammed on her jaw, throwing her hundred of metres into the shore as the brown-haired girl paled.

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