By the time the entire fiasco ended, Luffy was staring down a strange half-human, half-lion man. Well, that wasn't exactly how it was.
It was more like he was human but had a lion's head on his belly.
Strange, yes, but this was One Piece—so everything goes.
However, what mattered here was that the lion head was holding a little girl named Tama. Yuta, of course, knew of him, and seeing her crying and calling out for Luffy, his mind almost jammed.
He almost forgot that this happened in the story. 'Perhaps it's time to reread the story again.'
Honestly, there was always so much happening in One Piece that recalling everything was almost impossible. However, again, that didn't matter right now.
His body moved on its own before he even finished thinking.
"My name is Holdem, not Ball-De-Boo, not HoldenLionBellyGuy. It's Ho…"
Before he could even complete that sentence, a shadow appeared in front of him with a flash.
A colossal impact hit him right in the jaw, knocking him out with a single blow. The lion on his stomach was also affected, opening its mouth just long enough for Yuta to snatch the girl from him.
Within heartbeats, Yuta was back on the ground with Tama in his arms.
Tama, who was still in shock with her eyes closed, suddenly found herself in a warm embrace.
Upon opening her eyes, she found herself staring into the smiling, handsome face of a boy she had never seen before.
"W-what… what happened?"
"Hahah… don't worry. I'm here," he grinned.
"Yuta, you bastard! I was about to beat him!" Luffy protested. Taking away the protagonist's moment from him felt so satisfying.
"Big Brother Luffy!" Tama's eyes lit up upon seeing Luffy, but then she turned to the boy who had just saved her and smiled as well.
"Hmm, thank you for saving me, big brother. I'm Tama…"
"Ah, that's a nice name. I'm Yuta. A hero for fun. Nice to meet you."
…
"Where were you all this time?" Luffy asked. After leaving Totto Land, both Maki and Yuta were teleported back to the MHA world, so from then on, they were pretty much missing.
Though he had mentioned they would directly meet again in Wano.
"It's a long story. Don't worry about that. Where are the others?" Yuta didn't even want to recall whatever happened after they were back in the MHA world. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
"Hehehehe… don't know." Luffy just laughed, not caring a bit.
Currently, they were smuggling out food and clean, drinkable water toward Okobore Town.
Why? Because he could, and those over in Okobore Town were literally starving. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink. Luffy being Luffy—of course, he was going to meddle.
Wush
Suddenly, a random apple from the giant food pile being dragged by an even bigger dog disappeared, and in its place appeared a man with a big white cap and a long sword.
"Traffy!" Luffy lit up.
"You—what the hell are you two doing, you idiots? Kinemon told us to keep it low!" Law wasn't that excited to meet them, though; he was almost livid. He all but shouted at both Yuta and Luffy.
There he was, trying to gather intel, resources, and manpower for the upcoming fight—and here these two idiots were, making havoc.
"Oi oi, don't lump me in with this. I did nothing. It was all him!" Yuta immediately raised his hand. Why should he be blamed for Luffy's shit?
"Hehehe… it's fine," Luffy said, laughing it off as always.
"They're still chasing us!" Just as Law was about to give them a piece of his mind, Tama turned back and pointed at the approaching Orochi men.
"Leave it to me. I have something to try." Seeing his opportunity, Yuta grinned, and before anyone could take it away, he stepped forward.
"What are you…" Maki recognized that grin on Yuta's face and was about to stop whatever he was up to before a colossal pressure bore down on all of them.
"This is…"
"Color of the Supreme King."
"Damn it, he has it too."
Zoro, Law, and Luffy were wide-eyed, while those chasing them crashed mid-run, completely blacking out.
The most amazing thing was that none of the people on his side were affected much. They only felt a strong pressure, but everyone was still conscious. This was the result of Yuta's training—he had learned to control his Conqueror's Haki to this degree.
"That was awesome!" Tama, having no idea what Conqueror's Haki was, was just amazed at how Yuta did what he did.
She had felt a bit of the pressure from the earlier display; however, Yuta had controlled his Haki so well that even a kid like her could withstand it.
It was a big feat.
"You've been working hard to master it, haven't you?" Only Maki knew how hard Yuta had worked to learn this technique.
For the entirety of their time in Wano in the past, and then while they were with Toki, Yuta had been practicing—doing his best to master Conqueror's for some reason.
Since Maki had never experienced Conqueror's infusion, she didn't know how powerful that technique was. And since she didn't have Conqueror's herself, Maki being Maki, she wasn't interested in a power she couldn't have anyway.
All her focus was on the other two forms of Haki.
"Nothing but small tricks…" Seeing a chance to act cool, Yuta took it—earning starry eyes from little Tama.
…
From that point onward, things went mostly smoothly. From delivering food and water to the starving people of Okobore Town to regrouping with the rest of the Straw Hats and Red Scabbards—everything went smoothly.
"Lord Yuta, Lady Maki, it's good to see you two safe." Kinemon came out looking like a half-decayed zombie, scaring most people half to death.
Apparently, he was having problems with his motions or something. Yuta looked around, seeing the ruins of old Oden Castle. It was hard to believe that only a few months ago, he was here with Maki rescuing Toki—though that was actually twenty years ago.
'Seems like ruins don't have good toilets.' He couldn't help but take a jab, though he didn't say it out loud, just mused to himself.
But again, the real reason Kinemon gave them a scare wasn't his haggard look, but rather the graves with his and his companions' names erected not so far away.
"Kinemon, mind explaining what this is?" Maki pointed at the grave boards with a frown, not understanding what the point of having them there was.
They weren't recent either; those graves looked old—decades old.
"Alas, this is something I must say to all of you. We, in fact, were waiting for your arrival for this exact reason. Please come in. Let us talk inside."
xxx
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