Chapter 203: Values
“You’re still too green right now, brat!”
After just a moment of stalemate, Aoxi’s fist was completely suppressed.
During the half-year of sparring on the uninhabited island, Kaido had taught her more than once not to obsess over those flashy attack methods, but to focus on improving her own Haki.
Because only Haki is the power that transcends everything, belonging to the human body itself.
This statement is somewhat absolute and may not necessarily apply to “special cases” like Aoxi and the other two, but at least in this current stage, Haki is the most powerful and direct power.
And at this moment, Big Mom, whose Haki intensity far surpasses Aoxi’s, is undoubtedly an opponent she cannot match right now.
Thud!
Without any surprise, after Aoxi’s fist crumbled in defeat, Big Mom’s fist wrapped in Conqueror’s Haki did not lose momentum and directly struck Aoxi’s abdomen.
Boom——!
The powerful impact directly penetrated Aoxi’s body, then unstoppable, pulverized everything behind her into oblivion.
The ground was plowed out with a hundreds-of-meters-long, fan-shaped impact surface.
“Cough…”
This was the most severe damage Aoxi had suffered since arriving in this world.
This strike had broken through the defensive limits of her body, causing real damage to her divine body, which was still in its juvenile stage.
Her legs seemed to have lost strength, unable to support her body any longer, so Aoxi clutched her stomach and knelt on the ground.
“Mama~ Mama~”
“This is beyond my imagination, brat.”
“To still maintain consciousness after taking an attack of this magnitude… You’re no ordinary human, are you, little girl?”
“You’re a special race like Jin, right?”
Facing Big Mom’s question, Aoxi did not answer—or rather, she simply couldn’t answer now.
The intense pain and the constant weakness emanating from within her body left her without even the strength to cry out; she could only barely circulate divine power to repair her body while trying her best to maintain her posture without moving.
Seeing Aoxi like this, Big Mom no longer pressed for answers.
“Well~ You’ve delivered that brat Kaido’s message, and old lady did as he wanted, so this matter ends here.”
“And this farce is also about time to conclude.”
Big Mom let go of her hand, and Napoleon spun once in the air before transforming back into the captain’s hat and landing on her head.
“As for what comes next, it’s time to discuss the alliance.”
……
Just as Aoxi had guessed earlier, Kaido had the idea of allying with Big Mom.
However, the reason he had her pick a fight first and beat up Big Mom’s sons was not, as Aoxi thought, to position the Beasts Pirates to dominate the upcoming alliance.
On the contrary, Kaido did this to prevent Big Mom, that domineering woman, from seizing control of the alliance.
His plan was to leverage the potential Aoxi had displayed, using this “promising future” combat power to elevate the originally disadvantaged Beasts Pirates to a position equal to Big Mom’s pirate crew.
At least, they couldn’t be led around by the nose by Big Mom like in the last alliance.
……
Of course, there was another, even more important reason: Kaido wanted to borrow Big Mom’s hand to give Aoxi a proper beating.
As for the reason~
“Brat, you seem to have some quite special power targeting the soul level, which might be why you’re angry about old lady’s method of creating homies.”
“But let old lady tell you, this is ‘Whole Cake Island’, old lady’s domain!”
“Old lady does whatever she wants!”
“Because old lady is strong enough to protect this place with absolute power.”
“You find extracting others’ souls hard to stomach, but here every month, every day, countless people beg old lady to do it.”
“Compared to the cruel world outside, here they just give some lifespan to enjoy peace and plenty—shouldn’t they be grateful to old lady?!”
Big Mom crouched down, pinching Aoxi’s face with two fingers to force eye contact.
One large and one small pair of pupils locked in eye contact, Big Mom said seriously:
“Little girl, wanting others to follow your rules is fine in itself—after all, it’s what everyone thinks.”
“But before that, this sea, this world has one fundamental law—the strong make the rules, and the weak can only obey.”
“You want to make your own rules and have others obey… Fine!”
“Use power, use power stronger than everyone else’s! Power strong enough to rewrite everyone else’s rules on this sea at will!”
“Got it?”
Big Mom stared into those tender golden eyes, brutally injecting this world’s most basic values deep into Aoxi’s mind.
“As for you, trying to interfere with old lady’s rules—you’re far from ready.”
“This era belongs to me, Charlotte Linlin!”
After saying all this, Big Mom waved her hand and casually tossed Aoxi toward a certain spot in the arena.
Whoosh——
Thud~
After flying a not-too-distant distance, Aoxi was gently caught in Sister La’s arms.
Looking at the pained and confused little face in her arms, Sister La offered no comfort, simply placing her hand on Aoxi’s chest.
Golden flames began to spread, rapidly repairing Aoxi’s body.
The warm flames felt comfortable on her skin, and Aoxi’s furrowed brow soon relaxed, though her voice remained weak.
“…”
“Sister La, Sister La…”
“Mm.”
“Is it… really like that pink Big Mom said?”
Aoxi’s voice rarely carried a hint of confusion.
“Mm…”
“Which part are you referring to?”
“If it’s about the alliance, then yes, the current situation is pretty much as Captain Kaido anticipated.”
Though there was the surprise of the Roger Pirates, the outcome was indeed what Kaido wanted.
“If you’re talking about that ‘might makes right’ values spiel from Charlotte just now…”
“Mm… Martial prowess is indeed the most direct and useful tool, but ultimately, it’s just a tool. Use it when appropriate, set it aside when not—that’s all.”
“Just don’t fall into the extremes of always using force or never using it.”
Sister La’s words stopped there; she didn’t want to impose her views too heavily on Aoxi.
This was also where she differed from Kaido.
They had an unspoken understanding on “letting Big Mom beat Aoxi up,” but their starting points and desired outcomes were completely different.
For Kaido, he wanted Aoxi to abandon her naive “life equality” idea and adopt his “survival of the fittest, martial prowess supreme” values.
But Sister La was different.
Sister La didn’t care what Aoxi’s values turned into; she just wanted Aoxi to experience a true clash of values.
……
As for why they two didn’t do it themselves…
On one hand, Kaido really isn’t great at verbal teaching. Ask him to teach Armament Haki flow or Conqueror’s Haki Infusion, and a few whacks with his club will get you there.
But ask him to spout big principles, and though he can squeeze out a few words, the effect…
Mm~
Anyway, with this brat Aoxi, it’s always in one ear and out the other; sometimes if she gets annoyed, she’ll even talk back, pissing him off to no end.
Most crucially, whenever Kaido falls into path dependence and tries to make her “listen up” with the club, this one sees she can’t win and just pats her butt and leaves.
Lightfoot skills aren’t the same as martial prowess, and speed doesn’t equal strength, but damn, Aoxi runs fast~
……
As for Sister La, Aoxi is willing to listen to her words, even very attentively.
But she doesn’t want her words to bind Aoxi; as a big sister, she hopes her little sister can forge her own path.
Moreover, Aoxi’s current values, while far from fully inhuman, are also absolutely distant from the normal values a broad-sense human should have.
Having Sister La regulate Aoxi and the others’ daily habits is fine, but making her a psychology teacher? Who knows what she’d end up teaching.
……
In short, in this awkward situation of “those who speak aren’t listened to, and those listened to don’t speak,” Kaido and Sister La tacitly began scouting for someone truly suitable to teach Aoxi.
Someone stronger than Aoxi, whom she could also hate.
After all, the weak can’t convince her, and those too close make her throw tantrums…
Like some kids who are wild at home like little emperors, but instantly behave in front of the teacher at school.
Similarly, only someone Aoxi genuinely hates from the heart and won’t run from—someone with fundamentally opposing enmity—is the most suitable.
And conveniently, Kaido knew just such a person, and was quite familiar with her~
……
Sister La looked at Aoxi’s somewhat vacant golden eyes and said calmly:
“In my view, this boils down to just wanting you to see what value and the world look like in others’ eyes.”
“As for whether to accept it and move closer… that’s ultimately for you to decide.”
