Although he could more or less guess the outcome, he had to confirm it with his own eyes—
and reclaim a crucial "spoils of war."
At this moment, Kuri, the ruins of Oden Castle.
Not long ago, the Nine Red Scabbards had been brimming with momentum, swearing to crusade against Kaido.
Now, they were like homeless dogs, battered and bloodied as they fled back here.
A crushing defeat.
A total, absolute defeat.
Even though they had prepared themselves mentally long ago, when they truly faced the brutal reality of being utterly crushed by Kaido's army, these iron-boned warriors still couldn't help but weep bitterly.
Their lord had been captured.
The great cause was lost.
They wished they could commit seppuku on the spot and follow their lord in death.
But they could not die.
The chance to escape had been bought with their lord's life, and his final command weighed on their shoulders like a mountain:
Live on. Let Wano open its borders.
For that dream, there was still one last—and even more painful—task they had to complete.
They had to escort their lord's wife and children out to sea and into exile.
Inside the ruined hall.
Kozuki Toki held her eight-year-old son Momonosuke and her six-year-old daughter Hiyori tightly in her arms.
Looking at the wretched state of the retainers before her, this extraordinary woman—who had traveled forward from eight hundred years ago—showed no great surprise.
In a calm voice, as if she had long seen through fate itself, she said:
"Oden… failed, didn't he?"
"Lord… Lord Oden entrusted his swords and his dream to us!"
"My lady! Please leave with us at once! Take the young lord and the princess and flee by sea! Kaido's pursuers will be here any moment!"
Kin'emon knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face as he slammed his forehead into the floor again and again.
Yet Kozuki Toki did something that shocked everyone.
She gently shook her head.
"Don't rush. I have something to say."
Time was critical. She gave them no chance to respond, speaking rapidly yet with striking clarity.
"People cannot return to the past—but time itself can flow into the future."
"I'm sorry for hiding this from you all for so long. In truth, I am also a Devil Fruit user."
"My power… is to send people into the future."
"The future?!"
The revelation struck like thunder, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
Kozuki Toki did not explain further. Gritting her teeth, she forcefully pushed the sobbing Momonosuke into Kin'emon's arms.
"My lady?"
"Mother?!"
A resolute look appeared on her face.
"Kaido has surely sealed off the entire sea by now. The only path left is to send Momonosuke—and all of you—into the future."
"Hiyori and I will stay behind. We will remain in this era and act as the inside support for the counterattack twenty years from now."
"No! Mother! I don't want to leave you and Hiyori!"
Momonosuke struggled desperately, crying until he was hoarse, his small hands flailing in the air as he tried to return to his mother's warm embrace.
"There's no time for hesitation!"
Kozuki Toki sternly cut off the retainers who were about to protest.
"Oden said it himself—twenty years from now, the world will undergo earth-shaking change!"
"I will send you there. And when that time comes, you must fulfill his final wish!"
With that, Kozuki Toki did not hesitate any longer.
She raised both hands sharply.
A mysterious and eerie light burst forth, instantly enveloping Kin'emon and the others.
"Whoosh—!"
The light flashed and vanished.
The hall, once crowded, became completely empty in an instant.
The Nine Red Scabbards and Momonosuke had vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed.
Having forced herself through it all, Kozuki Toki finally collapsed.
Tears streamed down her face as she clutched her remaining daughter, Hiyori, her entire body trembling.
But only a few seconds later, she forced herself to calm down.
Looking at the bewildered Hiyori in her arms, her eyes regained their resolve.
There was still no time to waste.
Before the pursuers arrived, she had to entrust Hiyori to Oden's old friend Shimotsuki Yasuie—
and then she still had to go and set in motion that prophecy meant to echo for twenty years…
"Ah… even though I hurried here at full speed, it seems I was still a step too late."
A teasing voice suddenly came from above.
Immediately afterward, a suffocating wave of Conqueror's Haki crashed down like Mount Tai collapsing.
Without giving Kozuki Toki any time to react, both she and Hiyori rolled their eyes back and collapsed, unconscious.
Tenma landed slowly.
Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, his powerful Observation Haki had already sensed several life signatures vanish into thin air.
So they had all been sent to the future.
This differed slightly from the original timeline—
not a single one of the Nine Red Scabbards was left behind. Every last one had crossed time.
One thing puzzled Tenma, though.
If everyone had already been sent away and there was no one left to protect her, why leave behind little Kozuki Hiyori?
Whatever.
It didn't matter.
The biggest target of his trip to Kuri had always been Kozuki Toki herself.
A Devil Fruit as broken as the Time-Time Fruit—Tenma had no intention of letting it reincarnate somewhere unknown and be eaten by someone else.
And on a personal note, he found Kozuki Toki—a classical, Yamato-nadeshiko–type beauty—quite to his liking.
Anything Tenma set his eyes on, he had to obtain.
The only slight regret was that he hadn't intercepted Oden's two famed blades, Enma and Ame no Habakiri.
Not that he lacked weapons—he already had the named blade Shidarezura.
But his future shogunate's Oniwabanshu would need expansion, and those two swords could've forged two top-tier swordsmen.
Still, one shouldn't be too greedy.
The most important prize—Kozuki Toki—was already in hand.
Tenma shook his head.
With one hand holding Kozuki Toki and the other Hiyori, the stone slab beneath his feet lifted the three of them into the air.
He looked down once more at Oden Castle, the symbol of the Kozuki clan's glory.
Between his fingers, several specially made bombs appeared.
He casually tossed them downward.
Moa Moa no Mi—hundredfold amplification!
The tiny bombs instantly transformed midair into massive instruments of destruction.
"BOOM—!!!"
Amid the deafening explosion, Oden Castle was swallowed by fire and rubble, completely erased into history.
News of Kozuki Oden's defeat and death spread through Wano as if it had grown wings.
Kurozumi Orochi danced with joy inside his palace, happier than during the New Year.
Though he was a little displeased that Kaido hadn't dragged the Kozuki family before him for a public execution—denying him the pleasure of humiliating his enemies—
he didn't dare bare his teeth at Kaido.
Instead, he hastily issued a proclamation, announcing Oden's death and the escape of the Red Scabbards.
For a time, crowds gathered beneath the massive notice boards.
Looking at the bold characters—
"The Traitor Kozuki Oden Has Been Executed"—
the people of the Flower Capital reacted with eerie indifference.
Some even scoffed.
"Hmph. He stirred up everyone's nerves, and this is how he ends? What a joke."
"Guess we won't get to see that idiot lord dancing naked anymore. Life just lost a bit of entertainment."
"Good riddance. A fool like that only embarrassed himself."
"Shh! Keep it down—don't bring trouble on yourself."
Even with such warnings, this was a nation-shaking event.
How could idle gossip possibly be silenced?