Chapter 205: The Stolen Prophecy!
"Gurarararara!"
The massive, booming laughter rang out across the expansive wooden deck of the Moby Dick, completely drowning out the crashing waves of the New World.
It carried a strange, overwhelming power that instantly silenced every single voice of clamor, panic, and unease that had been brewing among the crew.
The sheer physical force behind the legendary pirate's voice caused the very air to vibrate, rattling the massive sails hanging high above.
"Calm yourselves, my foolish sons!"
Edward Newgate, the man universally known and feared as Whitebeard, sat upon his massive captain's chair.
Despite the numerous medical tubes attached to his heavily scarred, muscular chest and the thick scent of medicinal alcohol surrounding him, his presence was akin to a towering, unmovable mountain.
His sharp, golden gaze swept slowly across the crowded deck, entirely filled with an unquestionable, supreme majesty and an absolute, unshakable confidence.
"Kaido's life or his pathetic death is absolutely none of our concern."
Whitebeard reached out with one massive hand, casually gripping the massive hilt of his supreme grade naginata, Murakumogiri, resting beside his throne.
"As long as that highly arrogant brat from the 'Suzaku Pirates' doesn't foolishly provoke our territory, we needn't pay his little games any mind."
He paused, the heavy silence on the deck completely absolute as thousands of pirates hung onto his every word.
The corners of his thick mouth slowly curved into a supremely domineering, fearless grin.
His voice, deep and resonant, echoed straight to the dark heavens above.
"...But, if they ever dare to lay a single, filthy hand on my family..."
A sudden, terrifying pulse of supreme Conqueror's Haki leaked from his massive form, causing the surrounding seawater to momentarily freeze in its churning.
"Gurarararara... they'd better weigh carefully who exactly stands before them in this sea!"
He slammed the butt of his naginata against the wooden deck, the sharp impact sounding like a thunderclap.
"I am Whitebeard!"
It was a simple, three-word declaration.
Yet, it held the overwhelming, absolute Haki to completely shake the very foundations of the seas!
"Oooooooh!"
"Well said, Pops!"
"Let those arrogant rookies come at us if they dare!"
The collective shout erupted from the crew in a perfect, thunderous unison that shook the clouds.
The lingering unease, the biting dread of a shifting era, and the terror of Kaido's sudden demise were completely swept away by this massive surge of spirit.
It was instantly replaced by a soaring, blood-pumping battle-lust and highly enthusiastic cheers that echoed for miles.
In their fiercely loyal hearts, as long as this legendary man stood tall with them, the sky could fall and they would simply hold it up together.
However, not everyone was entirely swept up in the fiery, emotional momentum.
Only Marco the Phoenix, standing slightly apart from the cheering, chaotic crowd, kept his blonde brows tightly knit.
A deep, highly analytical flicker of genuine worry remained swirling heavily in his tired eyes.
He knew that the fragile balance of the New World had just been violently, irreparably shattered, and a storm unlike any other was rapidly approaching.
And in a dark, highly inconspicuous corner of the deck, hidden entirely away from the bright lanterns and the roaring cheers, another man stood silently.
It was a tall, heavily built man with a thick, unkempt beard, missing a few prominent teeth from his rough mouth.
He stood with his head lowered, a half-eaten cherry pie clutched in his large, hairy hand, his facial expression completely hidden by the dark shadows.
"Zehahahaha..."
Marshall D. Teach laughed in absolute silence, his broad shoulders shaking slightly with suppressed, dark amusement.
His dark, calculating eyes gleamed with a terrifying, highly ambitious light as he processed the news of Suzaku's world-shaking victory.
In that quiet, chilling laugh lurked incredibly deep, sinister thoughts and highly treacherous schemes that absolutely no one on this ship could ever fathom!
...
Meanwhile, far across the treacherous seas, within the naturally fortified borders of Wano Country.
The Flower Capital.
The massive, bloody upheaval of Wano's supreme rulers had not yet fully erased the capital's gaudy, centuries-old splendor.
Under the dark, cloud-covered night, hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns still glowed warmly along the bustling streets.
The distant, muted sounds of song, forced dance, and forced revelry endured in the entertainment districts.
Yet, beneath the fragrant perfumes of the courtesans, the faint, undeniable scent of fresh blood and heavy gun-smoke lingered thickly in the cold wind.
It was a grim, silent reminder to all who breathed it that the ancient land of samurai had violently changed masters overnight.
Inside the grandest, most exclusive pleasure house in the very heart of the capital, a profound silence reigned.
In a highly elegant, beautifully decorated tatami room hidden away from prying eyes, a small censer of the absolute finest, most expensive aloeswood burned slowly.
The sweet, heavy white smoke curled lazily toward the painted ceiling.
Wano's absolute number-one oiran, the breathtakingly beautiful "Komurasaki," sat gracefully before a polished bronze mirror.
She was gently, methodically plucking the strings of her high-quality shamisen with a beautifully crafted bachi.
The musical notes were incredibly clear, sharp, and flawlessly executed.
Yet, to a trained ear, the melody was heavily laced with a lingering, profound bewilderment and a deep, unsettling anxiety.
"Miss Komurasaki."
A tall, imposing figure knelt completely silently on the tatami mats directly behind her.
His voice was hushed, tightly controlled, but entirely unable to hide its violently surging excitement—and a deeply terrifying, simmering anger.
It was Kyoshiro, the feared Yakuza boss universally known as the capital's "Kingslayer."
His iconic, massive light-blue skyward hair was immaculate as always, perfectly styled despite the chaos outside.
Yet, his usually sleepy, heavily downcast eyes now blazed brightly with a barely caged, incredibly violent fire.
Komurasaki immediately stilled her nimble fingers, the final, haunting note of the strings echoing softly into the quiet room.
Through the reflection of the polished mirror, she regarded the man who was her most trusted, deeply loyal ally in this hellish country.
"Speak, Denjiro."
Without even turning her beautiful head, a single, hushed call completely stripped the man's fake identity away.
She reverted him from a ruthless, bloodstained yakuza boss back to the fiercely loyal Red Scabbard of twenty long, agonizing years past.
"Kaido... has truly, finally fallen?"
Her gentle voice trembled slightly, sounding exactly like a fragile, impossible dream that she was utterly terrified to wake up from.
Denjiro—no longer Kyoshiro—drew a deep, highly trembling breath, his broad chest heaving violently.
He nodded his head sharply, his usually stoic voice quavering heavily with raw, unrestrained emotion.
"Yes, Lady Hiyori! It is absolutely, beyond all shadow of a doubt!
He gripped his own knees tightly, his knuckles popping in the quiet room.
"The invincible Beasts Pirates... they have been utterly, completely annihilated on Onigashima!"
Kozuki Hiyori, the hidden princess bearing the tragic, heavy fate of her entire ruined nation upon her slender shoulders, slowly turned around.
The heavy, ornate kimono rustled softly against the tatami mats.
On her flawless face, a visage lovely enough to easily topple entire kingdoms, absolute shock and profound disbelief were written plain.
"But... but how?" she whispered, her hands clutching the fabric of her dress.
"The ancient, prophesied day of reckoning spoken of by my mother... it has not yet arrived."
"A highly arrogant pack of foreign pirates—ruthless wolves far more vicious and unpredictable than even Kaido—violently stole the fruit of our victory!"
Denjiro suddenly spat the venomous words, his handsome, traditionally elongated features completely twisted by a terrifying, burning rage.
For twenty long, agonizing years he had patiently, painfully endured.
He had transformed from a hot-blooded, fiercely loyal youth into a cold, highly calculating underworld kingpin.
He had literally warped his own face with the sheer, unadulterated anger of his grief, changing his appearance completely to survive.
He had swallowed unimaginable, daily humiliation, bowing his proud samurai head and faithfully serving the very foes who boiled his master alive.
He had done it all waiting for the sacred, foretold day to violently cut off the heads of Orochi and Kaido with his own blade.
He had dreamed of the glorious day he would officially restore the sacred Kozuki bloodline to the throne.
He envisioned standing proudly as the highly meritorious, foundational pillar of the brand-new, restored realm!
Now, in a single, chaotic night, absolutely everything was completely ruined!
His meticulously crafted, twenty-year script of blood, sweat, and unparalleled grit had been violently torn in half by absolute strangers!
"Lady Hiyori, those 'Suzaku' pirates bared their greedy, terrifying fangs the very instant Kaido fell to the earth!"
Denjiro leaned forward, his voice a harsh, desperate whisper.
"They... they intend to forcefully, completely occupy Wano outright for themselves!"
Hiyori's delicate brows immediately drew together in deep, profound concern.
Though this was absolutely not the grand, poetic ending she had desperately sought in her heart, driving out the monster Kaido was still a massive, undeniable boon.
At the very least, the horrific weapon factories could be stopped, and the polluted rivers might eventually run clean again.
Yet, Denjiro's very next, highly agitated words completely froze her hopeful expression.
"They... they are violently, ruthlessly reforming absolutely everything!" he hissed, his eyes wide with absolute horror.
"They seized the entire country by overwhelming, terrifying force, and then... then they immediately issued public proclamations across all regions!"
He slammed his fist against the tatami mat, unable to contain his deeply ingrained, traditional outrage.
"The official decrees say... they will permanently, completely abolish all nobles and all samurai statuses!"
"What?"
Hiyori gasped, her eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated shock.
To abolish the samurai was to erase the very cultural soul and historical foundation of Wano Country itself.
"They forcefully opened the massive, hoarded granaries of all the lords and nobles, boldly claiming to share the sacred grain equally with the filthy commoners!"
Denjiro's voice rose in pitch, his traditional worldview completely shattering.
"But not as an act of noble charity! They decreed that everyone, high-born noble and proud samurai alike, must physically labor in the fields and construction sites to earn their daily rice!"
The more he spoke of the radical, system-breaking changes, the wilder and more bloodshot his eyes became.
"Lady Hiyori, can you possibly picture such a horrific, humiliating sight?!"
He grabbed the hilt of his sword, his body trembling with the sheer indignity of it all.
"They actively, forcefully make highly exalted nobles and honored, proud samurai toil in the mud directly alongside lowly commoners in base, manual labor!"
He bared his teeth, looking exactly like a cornered, highly desperate beast defending its dying territory.
"They boldly declare to the entire populace that from this day forward, in the sacred land of Wano, all people are... completely equal!"
Hiyori listened to the terrifying, completely unprecedented report, her beautiful eyes darting back and forth as she processed the information.
Then, she lapsed into a very long, incredibly heavy silence.
The only sound in the elegant room was the soft, rhythmic crackling of the burning aloeswood in the censer.
At long last, she looked up, her gaze softening as she ventured a highly hesitant, dangerous thought.
"Denjiro... is this truly, inherently not a good thing?"
She thought of the starving children in Ebisu Town, the people laughing through their agonizing tears because of the defective SMILE fruits.
"Letting absolutely every starving commoner finally eat his fill, allowing them the dignity of earning clean food for themselves and their dying kin..."
She looked deeply into her retainer's furious eyes.
"...is this not exactly what my Father ultimately wished for the people of this country?"
"It is a highly insidious, deeply poisonous ploy!"
Denjiro violently cut her off, his voice cracking loudly with absolute, uncontrollable fury at her naive words.
"Princess, you are far, far too trusting of these ruthless, manipulative outsiders!"
He shook his head frantically, entirely rejecting the very concept of such radical societal equality.
"This is the absolute vilest, most dangerous of open schemes—designed specifically to permanently sever at the very root the sacred bond between the samurai and the land of Wano!"
He stepped significantly closer, completely ignoring all bounds of traditional propriety, his tone incredibly cold and low.
"Consider the reality of our history! For countless ages, the lowly commoners fed the high nobles through their labor."
He gestured wildly, outlining the strict, unyielding feudal hierarchy that had defined their entire existence.
"The nobles fed and armed us samurai, and in return, we proud samurai gladly, fiercely gave our very lives and blood to guard the nation and its people!"
He struck his own chest proudly.
"That precise, unbreakable hierarchy is Wano's absolute, undeniable foundation!"
He pointed a shaking finger toward the window, toward the distant, newly claimed territories of the Suzaku Pirates.
"Now, the Suzaku Pirates completely bypass the rightful lords and hand the grain straight to the filthy people!"
His voice dripped with absolute, aristocratic disgust.
"They are deliberately making the ignorant masses feel they completely need neither the guidance of the noble nor the protection of the samurai!"
"They buy the fragile, foolish hearts of the populace with mere scraps of food! They would completely rot our country's proud soul with their so-called, sickening charity!"
Denjiro's breathing was heavy, ragged, completely consumed by the terrifying vision of a future where his status meant absolutely nothing.
"In a short time, the commoners will entirely cease to revere us as their betters!"
"The proud samurai will completely lose their rightful stipends and their historical honor! The high nobles will be reduced to nothing more than common, dirty clay!"
He grabbed the tatami mat, his nails digging into the woven straw.
"Wano will fundamentally cease to be Wano! The very identity of our nation will be erased!"
He looked up at Hiyori, his eyes burning with absolute, fanatical conviction.
"This terrifying ideological reform is a hundred times worse than even Kaido's brutal, physical rule—it is the literal, cultural extinction of our entire heritage!"
In his desperate, blinding fervor to convince the princess, he invoked the one absolute, supreme authority none in their faction could ever dare refute.
"Even the great Lord Oden himself would absolutely never suffer such a vile, fundamental undermining of our sacred realm's traditions!"
Seeing Hiyori completely silenced by the heavy invocation of her legendary father's name, a terrifying, dark resolve flashed brightly in Denjiro's eyes.
He knew the critical, point-of-no-return moment had finally come.
He dropped fully prostrate onto the floor, his forehead pressing hard against the tatami mats in the deepest display of traditional samurai loyalty.
"Please, rest absolutely assured, my Princess! Your faithful retainer will absolutely not stand idle while our country's soul is stolen!"
He raised his head slightly, his eyes cold and highly calculating.
"I have already secretly, swiftly rallied many proud, traditional samurai who absolutely refuse to bow to this new, insulting system!"
"They deeply, entirely detest the Suzaku Pirates' terrifying, culture-destroying tyranny!"
He took a deep breath, delivering the final, highly irreversible piece of his report.
"I have already officially, widely issued the strict call to arms in your sacred, royal name..."
His voice dropped to a dangerous, conspiratorial whisper.
"...to officially, violently restore the true Wano and completely expel the foreign invaders from our shores!"
"We shall ruthlessly, bloodily wrest back absolutely all that is rightfully ours from those vile, manipulative pirates!"
In the elegant, dimly lit tatami room, an incredibly heavy, suffocating silence fell anew.
It was a silence so absolute it felt as though the very air had been completely drained from the space.
Only the sweet, thick incense smoke continued to curl slowly upward, partially veiling Kozuki Hiyori's exquisite, now deeply pale face.
She gazed down upon her kneeling retainer—a man entirely devoted, yet pushed completely, fanatic to the very dangerous brink of sheer obsession.
She looked at the man who was willing to plunge a recovering, starving nation directly back into a bloody civil war just to maintain his own social caste.
And for the very first time in her incredibly tragic, difficult life...
She felt a deep, highly unsettling, and terrifying doubt about the true meaning and cost of the sacred word "restoration."
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