Anime Girls are Moist

Chapter 1145 1,144: When there's nothing left to hold on... He come...

The moment Rei Ao's hand clasped Yamato's—

she still hadn't fully come back from the near-death haze.

Just half a minute ago,

she had been slumped against a scorched, broken wall.

Blood seeped from wounds all over her body.

The hand gripping her kanabō didn't even have the strength left to lift it.

Three days and three nights of sleepless pursuit had already ground down her stamina, her will—along with the faith she'd clung to for twenty years—into dust.

In her ears, the samurai's venom-soaked insults still echoed.

"Kaido's bastard."

"Onigashima's leftover filth."

"Even if you helped bring Kaido down, you'll always be Wano's calamity."

They held blades stained with her blood and closed in step by step.

The hatred and contempt in their eyes were no different from the bandits and brutes she'd seen on Onigashima back then—not in the slightest.

She had thought her life was about to end on this land she'd fought with everything she had to protect—

in a way that was humiliating and pathetic.

Until Rei Ao cut through the storm of blades and reached her, then held out his hand.

That hand was clean and warm, untouched by blood.

It didn't belong in this twisted world around them.

Almost on pure, dying instinct, she placed her numb, stiff hand into his palm.

And then—there it was.

A warm, vast power.

From where their palms met, it surged through her whole body without the slightest resistance.

It wasn't domineering. It wasn't violent.

There was none of that forced, sluggish feeling of energy being shoved into her.

It was like a hot spring in early spring, flowing over frozen earth—

carrying just the right warmth as it gently streamed through every vein, every inch of muscle, every bone-deep gash.

The blood vessels that had felt like they were being pierced by thousands of steel needles were smoothed in an instant by that warmth.

Muscle fibers torn from pushing herself too hard were gently filled in, repaired.

Even the wounds tainted with rust and poison were carefully swept through—washed clean of filth and pain alike.

The tearing agony that had run through her entire body vanished in a blink.

Not even a lingering ache remained.

Her strength—overdrawn to the limit, emptied out completely—felt like a reservoir being filled in an instant.

Fresh vitality flooded back through her limbs and bones.

Stunned, she lowered her head and stared at her hand.

The hand that had just been split open at the tiger's mouth from gripping her weapon, the back of it covered in blade cuts—

was healing at a visible speed.

The ragged flesh slowly drew together, smoothing flat.

Scabs fell away at an unbelievable pace.

Beneath them was skin as clean as new—without even the faintest scar.

She lifted her hand to her cheek.

The cuts from flying stones were already gone.

Her lips, so cracked they'd bled whenever she spoke, regained a soft, healthy red.

The dark, doubled vision from blood loss turned razor clear—

so clear she could make out the patterns in the drifting clouds a thousand meters away.

Even the ringing in her ears that had tormented her nonstop for three days and three nights—stealing every moment of peace—

finally went silent.

Between heaven and earth, only the whisper of wind remained, and the steady breathing of the person beside her.

She still hadn't recovered from the sheer shock and daze—

when Rei Ao's arm lightly slipped around her waist.

The hold was gentle, fully respectful—no trace of offense—yet steady and secure.

A sudden, dizzying sense of weightlessness hit her.

Instinctively, she clenched the corner of Rei Ao's clothing.

The fabric beneath her fingertips was soft and warm, a stark contrast to her own torn, blood-soaked kimono.

Wind roared past her ears, lifting the loose strands of hair on her forehead.

In the blink of an eye, she and Rei Ao shot up several thousand meters into the sky—

and came to a steady stop high above Wano.

The biting wind swept up her waist-length white hair and brushed it across her cheeks.

She lowered her head to look down.

All of Wano spread out beneath her, whole and complete.

The mountains and rivers she had snuck across countless times, every trip filled with careful hiding.

The towns and villages she had yearned for behind the iron windows of Onigashima.

The land she'd bled across for three days and three nights, every step stamped with blood.

Now it looked as small as an unfurled painting, lying quietly on the deep blue sea.

She could even see the samurai below—still holding their swords, still searching across the mountains for her and the remaining Beast Pirates.

From up here they were as tiny as ants scrambling through dirt, moving house in panic—

ridiculous, insignificant.

"Look at it," Rei Ao's voice sounded by her ear.

Gentle as the wind brushing past her at that moment.

Not a trace of coercion. Not the slightest intention to force her.

Only complete respect—and a promise to catch her no matter what, without asking why.

Yamato's gaze slowly swept across the land beneath them.

Her eyes paused first on the Flower Capital, where she'd once had fire in her blood and hope in her chest.

Now that fire and hope had long since gone cold—chilled through by endless exclusion, slander, and hunts after the war.

The people she'd risked her life to protect turned around and treated her like a disaster that had to be erased.

Even the broken shack where she'd briefly hidden had been pelted with stones and drenched in filth.

She had taken Kozuki Oden as her life's faith, memorizing his travel journal until she could recite it by heart.

She'd believed that if she walked his path, she could become a free samurai—one the world would recognize.

But in the end, the bushidō she worshiped showed her its ugliest, narrowest face.

The vows she'd guarded became a joke people used to attack her.

They said, "Kaido's daughter dares to mention Lord Oden?"

Her gaze moved over Kuri's beach.

That was where, as a child, she had first slipped away from Onigashima in secret—first stepped onto soft sand.

Back then she'd believed that once Wano was freed, she could stand openly in the sunlight here—

no more hiding, no more being locked in a lightless prison.

But that youthful joy had long been crushed into powder by three days and three nights of pursuit, endless curses, and hatred—scattered to the wind.

The Wano she longed for had never truly accepted her.

The people she'd wanted desperately to protect turned their blades toward her heart.

The dream she'd clung to had shattered completely—there was no putting it back together.

The light in her eyes dimmed, little by little.

Then, slowly, it brightened again.

Not with hope—

but with a freedom she'd never felt before, like setting down a burden that weighed a thousand pounds.

At last, she shook her head gently.

Her voice carried a faint tremor—yet also a steadiness and release she had never had before.

"No. There's nothing left."