-Broadcast-
The Sky Screen's examination of Kozuki Momonosuke took an unexpected turn, the golden light shifting from the tyrant shogun to trace the roots of his complex psychology. To understand the son, one had to understand the father—and the failures that shaped a generation.
[Kozuki Momonosuke's multifaceted personality—his lustful appetites, tyrannical governance, paranoid suspicions, and calculated cruelty—did not emerge from vacuum. These traits traced directly to his original family's influence, particularly the formative years before age eight when his worldview crystallized.
He'd been blessed with a competent, gentle mother who provided stability and wisdom. He'd cherished a lovely, beautiful sister whose presence brought joy to his childhood. But his biological father, the man whose bloodline and legacy he carried, had been utterly absent from meaningful fatherhood. Kozuki Oden was, by any honest assessment, an extremely incompetent father—perhaps one of the worst in Wano's history despite being among its most celebrated warriors.]
[The Sky Screen displayed contrasting images: young Momonosuke clinging to his mother Toki, playing with his sister Hiyori, while in adjacent frames, Kozuki Oden stood at a ship's railing, staring at horizons, always elsewhere even when physically present. The visual juxtaposition emphasized abandonment more effectively than words alone could convey.]
[Kozuki Oden held legitimate claim to the Shogun's position as the only son of Shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki. Ironically, despite never sitting upon that seat of power for even a single day, he managed to produce an exceptionally capable heir. After Momonosuke reclaimed Wano Country from the Beast Pirates' occupation, one of his first acts involved restoring his father's historical standing and official recognition.
Oden's remains were exhumed from their solitary, unmarked grave and interred with full honors in the Kozuki clan's ancestral tomb. His title as General of Wano Country was posthumously restored, official records amended to reflect his legitimate status.
This elaborate restoration served calculated political purposes beyond filial piety. By elevating Oden's legitimacy, Momonosuke undermined the Kurozumi clan's legal foundation entirely. The historical narrative became clear: Kurozumi Orochi had stolen the position of Shogun, ruling against heaven's mandate. Kozuki Momonosuke inherited his authority directly from Kozuki Oden through proper bloodline succession, not from the usurper Kurozumi regime.
The Kozuki clan's reclamation of Wano thus carried legitimacy that the Kurozumi rule had always lacked. It was brilliant political theater backed by blood right, rendering Orochi's entire reign legally void in retrospect.]
[Documents appeared on the Sky Screen—official proclamations, genealogies, legal arguments establishing the chain of succession. Momonosuke's cold pragmatism showed clearly; even honoring his father served strategic purposes, personal sentiment subordinated to political necessity.]
[When discussing Kozuki Momonosuke, one cannot avoid examining Kozuki Oden—the two shared the closest possible blood connection, yet their governing philosophies represented diametrically opposed extremes. Where Momonosuke calculated every move with ruthless precision, Oden acted on pure impulse and emotion. Where Momonosuke suspected betrayal around every corner, Oden trusted with childlike faith.
They were natural contradictions, father and son embodying opposite responses to the same world.
After experiencing too many hardships—abandonment, time displacement, his mother's death, years of hiding and fear—even if Kozuki Oden were somehow resurrected from the dead, Momonosuke would show him no warmth, no filial affection. The son's face would remain cold toward his biological father, because in Momonosuke's harsh assessment, the Kurozumi clan's usurpation resulted directly from Kozuki Oden's willful, selfish behavior.
His father had chosen adventure over duty. That choice destroyed everything.
And for that, Momonosuke would never forgive him.]
[The Sky Screen showed a hypothetical scene—Oden returning to life, reaching toward his grown son, only to be met with ice-cold rejection. The emotional devastation on the resurrected father's face contrasted sharply with Momonosuke's pitiless expression. Viewers across the seas felt the tragedy of that broken bond.]
[Kozuki Oden possessed numerous character flaws, but lust dominated all others—an appetite he successfully passed to his son like a cursed inheritance. Both father and son, even as minors, displayed remarkable prowess in seducing women, particularly excelling at what was euphemistically termed "driving big cars"—pursuing women older, larger, or more mature than themselves.
Some metaphysical magnetism seemed to run in their bloodline, an inexplicable charm that attracted beautiful women despite questionable behavior. Otherwise, Kozuki Momonosuke would never have been blessed with a mother as exceptional as Toki. Without her protection during those crucial early years, he would have perished in flames long before reaching manhood, his potential burned away in Wano's chaos.
Kozuki Oden excelled as a samurai—his blade skill approached legendary status, his strength matched monsters, his courage never wavered. But he failed utterly as a general, lacking the political acumen and responsibility leadership demanded. He proved himself a good brother to those he befriended, loyal and generous to a fault. But as a father? Catastrophically inadequate.
For such a man to become the monarch ruling Wano Country represented disaster for its people. He possessed neither the temperament nor the discipline for governance, his free spirit and wandering heart fundamentally incompatible with statecraft's demands.
If Kozuki Oden had been born into an ordinary samurai family—without the burden of succession, without the responsibility of an entire nation resting on his shoulders—he might have achieved far greater heights. He could have adventured freely, built genuine brotherhood with pirates and warriors across the seas, lived according to his own code without his choices destroying thousands of lives.
Instead, birth into the ruling family made him a tragic figure, a square peg hammered into a round hole, his virtues becoming vices when applied to governing.
Future generations would remember him as a cautionary tale, a joke whispered in Wano's drinking establishments: the general who abandoned his post to play pirate, whose naivety invited wolves into the henhouse, whose death accomplished nothing because his life had already surrendered everything worth protecting.]
[The broadcast didn't spare Oden's reputation, showing his failures in stark detail: opportunities for intervention ignored, warnings dismissed, political threats welcomed as friends. The contrast between his battlefield prowess and political incompetence created cognitive dissonance among viewers—how could someone so strong in combat prove so weak in judgment?]
[Where Kozuki Momonosuke embodied darkness—suspicion, ruthlessness, calculated cruelty—Kozuki Oden represented the opposite extreme. He was loyal to the point of self-destruction, valuing personal bonds over practical considerations. He advocated freedom absolutely, even when freedom meant chaos. He believed in everyone's inherent goodness, trusting even those who showed clear signs of treachery.
Kozuki Oden was, in the most literal sense, an ancient man—someone whose values belonged to a simpler, more innocent age. He could not lie convincingly because deception felt foreign to his nature. Selfishness simply didn't exist in his psychological makeup. He focused entirely on personal honor and code of conduct, willing to sacrifice even his life for abstract principles.
This profound innocence stemmed from his privileged upbringing. Growing up under his father Shogun Sukiyaki's protection, Oden encountered mostly honorable people—samurai who valued shame culture, retainers who served loyally, warriors who respected codes of conduct. He had minimal exposure to genuine villains, to people like Kurozumi Orochi who could wear loyalty's mask while harboring treachery's heart.
When finally confronted with a hypocrite capable of sustained deception, Oden possessed no defense. He lacked the cynicism required to suspect ulterior motives, the paranoia needed to question professed loyalty. The Kurozumi clan had spent years—decades even—planning their seizure of the Shogun's position. Their success resulted from both meticulous preparation and fortunate timing, but most crucially, from finding the perfect dupe in Kozuki Oden.]
[The catastrophe unfolded through a series of seemingly innocent choices, each logical in isolation but disastrous in combination.
Kozuki Sukiyaki fell seriously ill during his tenure as Shogun, his condition deteriorating to the point where succession planning became urgent. Meanwhile, his son Kozuki Oden yearned to see the world beyond Wano's shores, to experience the freedom of pirate life that his isolated upbringing had denied him.
Duty demanded Oden remain. Responsibility required him to prepare for assuming the Shogun's mantle. But Oden prioritized personal desires over obligations to his nation and family.
In pursuit of freedom, he ignored his position as heir and snuck out to sea from Wano Country like a common runaway. This abandonment created the power vacuum that Kurozumi Orochi, that talented actor pretending loyalty while plotting usurpation, eagerly filled.
By the time Oden returned to Wano many years later, everything had transformed beyond recognition. The Shogun's position belonged to the snake. His father remained imprisoned, isolated from the outside world. The nation he should have protected had become a weapons factory serving foreign pirates. His wife and children suffered under occupation, reduced to hiding and fear.
And it was entirely, completely, unquestionably his own fault.]
[The Sky Screen displayed the timeline of disaster: Sukiyaki falling ill, Oden departing on the Moby Dick, Orochi ascending to power, Wano's transformation into the Beast Pirates' industrial base. Each domino fell because Oden had removed himself from the board, choosing adventure over responsibility. The visual presentation made the causality undeniable.]
[Kozuki Oden's approach to recruiting retainers demonstrated both his greatest strength and his fatal weakness. He refused no one who showed willingness to serve. As long as they kowtowed, declared allegiance, and shared sake in the ritual bonding ceremony, he accepted them completely. Background didn't matter—humble origins, questionable pasts, suspicious circumstances—none of it warranted scrutiny in Oden's eyes.
His tolerance knew no bounds, his capacity for forgiveness seemingly infinite. The past was past; the present offered opportunities for redemption. He firmly believed that under his personal influence, any retainer would become a good person, someone useful to Wano Country. Loyalty beget loyalty in his worldview, trust earned through being trusted.
This philosophy yielded genuine advantages. He gathered extraordinarily loyal subordinates, warriors who would die for him without hesitation. The Nine Red Scabbards represented the pinnacle of this success—a team of retainers so devoted they followed their lord through time itself, continuing to serve his son decades after his death. Under Young Master Kozuki Momonosuke's leadership, they made indelible contributions to restoring order in Wano Country before their eventual execution.
But the disadvantages proved catastrophic.
Kurozumi Orochi exploited Oden's kindness masterfully, recognizing the samurai's blind spot for anyone who performed loyalty convincingly. Oden genuinely believed that granting the Kurozumi name and position would inspire reformation, that trust would transform the serpent into something noble.
In reality, Orochi remained fundamentally a venomous snake lurking in darkness, his nature unchangeable regardless of opportunities for redemption.
Kurozumi Orochi proved himself a natural-born actor of extraordinary talent, deceiving not only the naive Kozuki Oden but also the more experienced Kozuki Sukiyaki. This theatrical skill enabled him to seize political control of Wano Country with minimal resistance. He even kept the former Shogun under house arrest in a small residence, isolated from outside contact, maintaining the fiction of Sukiyaki's continued consent to his rule.
During the years of Oden's absence, Orochi's grip on Wano tightened incrementally, consolidating power so gradually that resistance never organized effectively.
The Kurozumi clan's weakness for theatrical performance sometimes worked against them—they became so absorbed in acting that they risked forgetting their true selves behind the masks. But Kurozumi Orochi's actual strength exceeded most estimates. According to subsequent historical analysis, his personal power could have controlled Kozuki Oden even without Kaido's external support.
The snake didn't need the dragon as crutch. Orochi could have seized and held Wano through his own capabilities, keeping the Shogun's position firmly in Kurozumi hands through a combination of political maneuvering and underestimated combat ability.
This revelation surprised many historians—Orochi had been dismissed as pure coward, yet the evidence suggested otherwise. His reliance on Kaido stemmed from greed for additional security rather than genuine necessity.]
[Combat footage appeared—Orochi's Hebi Hebi no Mi (Snake-Snake Fruit), Model: Yamata no Orochi transformation, eight heads striking with coordinated precision. The Sky Screen analyzed his abilities clinically, demonstrating how the supposedly weak administrator could have defeated Oden in direct combat through regeneration and overwhelming multi-directional attacks. Viewers who'd dismissed Orochi as pure villain without substance reconsidered their assumptions.]
[Kozuki Oden enjoyed remarkable fortune during his first voyage beyond Wano's shores. He encountered the Whitebeard Pirates, a crew legendary for loyalty and kindness under Edward Newgate's paternal leadership—precisely the type of people whose values aligned with Oden's own worldview.
After the samurai challenged Whitebeard to combat and suffered defeat—though earning respect through the quality of his battle—he chose to remain aboard the Moby Dick, adventuring alongside the Whitebeard Pirates and finding the brotherhood he'd always craved.
During this period, Edward Newgate developed genuine paternal affection for the young samurai. He broached the idea of formal adoption, offering to make Oden his son in the way he'd eventually adopt so many others. Unfortunately, Kozuki Oden rejected this generous offer directly, citing that his biological father still lived and such adoption would constitute betrayal of filial duty.
Whitebeard, demonstrating the magnanimous character that made him beloved, took no offense at this rejection. If they couldn't be father and son through adoption, they would be brothers through choice. Kozuki Oden and his two Mink retainers remained welcome aboard the Moby Dick, both sides enjoying a pleasant time sailing the seas together.
It was, perhaps, the happiest period of Oden's life—free from responsibility, surrounded by true comrades, living according to his own code without consequences for others.]
[Scenes of the Moby Dick's voyages filled the Sky Screen: Oden laughing with Whitebeard, sparring with crew members, exploring islands with childlike wonder. The broadcast captured joy that would soon curdle into tragedy, freedom purchased at prices Oden never calculated.]
[Fate intervened during one sea voyage when Kozuki Oden rescued a beautiful woman from human traffickers, saving her from a terrible destiny. This woman would prove to be Kozuki Momonosuke's mother—a mysterious figure who called herself Amatsuki Toki.
Their meeting seemed destined, written in stars and tides, two souls drawn together across time itself though neither understood the full significance yet.
Amatsuki Toki could not—or would not—explain her origins clearly. Her vague answers and mysterious background naturally raised suspicion among the Whitebeard Pirates, who'd learned through hard experience that beautiful strangers sometimes carried hidden dangers. They watched her carefully, wary of potential threats to their family.
But Kozuki Oden dismissed such concerns entirely. He'd been instantly captivated by her beauty, that mysterious elegance that set her apart from common women. Soon the samurai fell completely into her arms, their romance blossoming with passionate intensity.
The Whitebeard Pirates maintained wariness initially, but careful observation over time revealed that this woman named Toki possessed no combat ability whatsoever. She made no attempts to manipulate Oden into leaving the crew, showed no signs of ulterior motives. Getting to know her revealed a genuinely kind person, a rare woman of remarkable character despite her mysterious origins.
Eventually, the Whitebeard family accepted her completely, addressing her with respect as "Lady Toki." She became one of them, welcomed into the strange extended family that sailed under Whitebeard's protection.
In a quiet ceremony aboard the Moby Dick, Kozuki Oden and Toki formalized their union, binding themselves together as husband and wife. The predetermined trajectory of fate began turning, wheels set in motion that would reshape the future.
The fruit of their love soon made itself known. Lady Toki carried new life within her, a child conceived in this turbulent old era aboard a pirate vessel far from any homeland.
The baby boy was named Kozuki Momonosuke.
Born at sea, born into chaos, born to a father who valued freedom over duty and a mother who'd traveled through time itself to reach this moment. No one aboard the Moby Dick could have predicted that this infant, this small bundle of potential, would one day surpass his legendary father's fame.