The next day, Onigashima.
Kaido was already somewhat drunk as he continued drinking.
At that moment, a Beast Pirates communication officer hurriedly rushed inside.
"Buru buru buru!"
"K-Kaido-sama!"
"Hm? Hic! What is it?"
"Wano... Wano has rebelled! Lord Orochi has already brought people to Onigashima! Our mines and weapon factories throughout Wano are all under attack by samurai!"
"Hm?"
Kaido froze briefly, but the moment he heard the word weapons, his drunkenness instantly faded somewhat.
As a former member of the Rocks Pirates during the God Valley incident, he had witnessed part of the World Government's true strength.
And if he wanted to achieve his goals, then he needed even stronger weapons.
That made Wano's weapon factories critically important.
"So they chose to make their move early after all?"
At that moment, King the Wildfire also walked in.
"Orochi has arrived. Do you want to see him?"
"Bang!"
Kaido slammed his sake gourd onto the ground.
"Bring him in! Even that idiot Oden, whom all of Wano no longer trusts, managed to create this much chaos? Bring that fool in!"
Not long afterward, Rowan entered while wearing Orochi's appearance.
At over seven meters tall and with two massive horns atop his head, Kaido truly resembled some kind of monstrous bull demon.
However, before Rowan could even speak, a gigantic spiked iron club smashed downward toward him.
"AH!"
A kunai shot outward.
Rowan instantly vanished.
His right hand gripped the sword hilt tightly as Conqueror's Haki exploded outward, black lightning crackling through the air before compressing into the Asauchi.
Fushan!
"BOOM!!"
The ground shattered beneath Kaido's club strike, yet Rowan's lightning-fast slash was also avoided.
After just one exchange, the drunken haze completely vanished from Kaido's eyes.
"You're not Orochi."
Rowan looked toward the two of them.
"You swung first without even letting me speak? If Orochi knew you treated him like this, he'd be heartbroken."
Kaido planted the kanabo beside him.
"That guy's useless now. But I didn't expect Oden to erupt at a moment like this either."
Beside him, King folded his arms across his chest as he stared at Rowan.
"So this happened because of you?"
Rowan smiled.
"Obviously, isn't it? You support Orochi, while for now, we've chosen to support Oden."
"No."
King denied it immediately.
"Oden and Orochi are fundamentally different. That naïve ruler of Wano would never allow pirates to run wild in this country."
"And besides... a single Warp-Warp Fruit ability isn't enough to defeat us, Cloaked Man."
Rowan scratched his head.
"So I'm already that famous? But I never said I came alone."
The instant those words fell, six kunai shot outward.
"Swish! Swish!"
However, before the kunai could travel far, King's blade sliced all of them cleanly in half.
Holding his sword, King spoke coldly.
"Your teleportation ability seems to rely on those dart-like weapons. So what other tricks do you still have?"
At that moment, a black spatial mark had already attached itself to the low-level pirate carrying the Den Den Mushi.
Rowan sighed softly before vanishing instantly.
Three seconds later, four figures appeared simultaneously.
Rowan drew the Asauchi from its sheath.
"Just like I never said I came alone, I also never said kunai were a prerequisite for my teleportation."
Beside him, Rayleigh also unsheathed his sword.
"Kaido, you should know the bottom line of the Roger Pirates, right? Oden was one of our crew."
Among the four present, the only people Kaido recognized were Oden and Rayleigh.
Roger wore a mask, while Rowan's appearance had already shifted into Kuzan's.
"Gurororo!"
Kaido's sake gourd was already empty. He casually tossed it aside and wiped his mouth.
"Now this lineup is finally getting interesting!"
"RAAAH!"
The kanabo swung violently, causing the entire cavern to tremble.
"BANG!"
Oden blocked the strike with both swords crossed.
At that moment, blazing flames suddenly surged forward.
"Ah!"
A blade swept through the air, splitting the flames apart.
Rayleigh held his sword as he looked toward King.
"So it's only you? In that case, our side has two extra people."
The instant those words fell, black lightning exploded outward.
Kaido's iron club swung again, smashing Oden directly into the mountain wall.
"BOOM!!"
The mountain shattered apart as a gigantic azure dragon coiled through the sky.
Blazing heat gathered within its massive jaws before erupting outward.
Bolo Breath!
The explosive torrent of heat descended from the sky.
Oden charged forward head-on, both hands gripping his blades tightly as Enma and Ame no Habakiri erupted with overwhelming Haki.
The dragon claw slammed downward, the immense impact driving Oden into the ground.
"BOOM!"
The earth split apart as the dragon claw pinned Oden down, carving two massive trenches through the battlefield.
With a roar from the beast, a figure was blasted away, followed immediately by a dragon tail whipping toward him head-on.
"BOOM!"
Haki collided midair like crashing thunder.
Blue sword light flashed repeatedly as man and dragon fought in a brutal clash.
All across Onigashima, the Beast Pirates looked upward toward the sky.
"Who is Kaido-sama fighting?"
"Did he get drunk again?"
"King-sama is fighting too!"
"It's enemies!"
"Someone actually dared invade Kaido-sama?!"
Amid the rising commotion, not a single person dared approach.
Just as predicted from the beginning, the center of a battle between top-tier fighters was not a place weaklings could even endure.
Even with Conqueror's Haki alone, ordinary people would struggle to remain conscious, much less approach.
Queen the Plague also stared upward at the sky, his expression serious.
As a former member of the Pirate King's crew, Oden's strength needed no questioning.
But Queen wasn't worried that Kaido would lose.
However...
The enemy invasion had brought four opponents.
Oden was fighting Kaido-sama.
King was occupied by the Pirate King's right-hand man, Silvers Rayleigh.
Then what about the other two?
A teleportation ability was ideal for ambushes and infiltration.
Those remaining two enemies definitely weren't here just to watch the fight.
On the battlefield scorched by Bolo Breath.
The masked Roger looked toward Rowan.
"Wasn't Sir supposed to fight Kaido alone? If things continue like this, Oden's reputation will recover."
"And if that happens, it'll become much harder for the Revolutionary Army to carry out liberation and reform within Wano later on."
"BOOM!"
Black lightning exploded across the sky.
The azure dragon wrapped in dark flame clouds swept its massive tail through the air, sending Oden flying.
Beneath the mask, Rowan's expression turned ugly.
Looks like that old man hadn't only made preparations at Tokage Port.
He had also instructed Oden beforehand regarding Onigashima.
At Tokage Port, the battlefield had turned into a complete extermination operation the moment Rowan, disguised as Orochi, broke through and boarded the ship to escape.
Orochi's subordinates had all been gathered together and wiped out.
And now, the samurai led by the daimyo of each region and Hyogoro had already boarded ships at Tokage Port in Udon, waiting to be deployed.
Udon's Tokage Port was also the closest harbor from which Onigashima could be seen.
Sure enough, within the range of Observation Haki, Rowan could vaguely hear roaring cheers coming from the direction of Udon.
They had seen Oden fighting Kaido to the death in the sky.
Ever since the age of Ryuma, Wano had legends of dragon-slaying swordsmen.
Ryuma's blade, Shusui, had even been revered as a national treasure.
And now, this scene looked like the rebirth of that legend.
The man battling the evil dragon through the heavens was the same Oden in whom they had once placed all their hopes.
At that moment, another Bolo Breath swept across the battlefield.
Rowan and Roger leapt aside to evade it.
"This country probably has many people like Shimotsuki Yasuie."
Rowan glanced toward Udon.
"The ideological reconstruction afterward is going to be a long and difficult task. This twisted samurai mentality only strengthens the authority of those in power. That's not what the Revolutionary Army wants to see."
"Yasuie's schemes actually represent the interests of this country's ruling class. But it seems he forgot one thing."
"Though Kozuki Oden is stupid, his way of thinking isn't as hopelessly rotten as theirs."
Roger burst out laughing.
"Mr. is absolutely right!"
"They underestimated Oden too much. Becoming the shogun of Wano was never truly what he wanted anyway!"
"Well... maybe a little, hahaha!"
At that moment, the Den Den Mushi in Rowan's coat began ringing.
"Burororo... Burororo..."
"Yeah. Aside from Queen, all of their high-end combatants are here."
"Begin."
"Deploy the troops according to plan."
"And regarding the samurai forces at Tokage Port, aside from suppressing the mines and weapons factories in each region, arrange some of them as assault forces."
The Den Den Mushi call ended.
Outside Wano's waters, Dragon and Kuma also began moving.
Five twin-masted sailing ships rose into the sky.
The massive vessels, each carrying nearly two thousand people, lifted from the sea and floated in midair, sending waves crashing below.
Kuma then used the power of the Paw-Paw Fruit to launch the ships toward their designated targets.
Onigashima's harbor.
The Beast Pirates stationed there suddenly noticed the sky growing dark.
The next moment, a gigantic twin-masted ship descended from above, crashing directly into the center of the pirates.
"Liberate Wano!"
"Liberate every oppressed citizen of Wano!"
"Kill these pirates! The future of the revolution begins tomorrow!"
Amid furious roars, Revolutionary Army soldiers who had restrained themselves for so long leapt from the ships one after another.
Their blades coated in Armament Haki cleaved pirates apart instantly.
"BANG!"
With Observation Haki assisting their aim and Armament Haki enhancing their attacks, bullets pierced straight through pirate foreheads.
In an instant, slaughter erupted.
And that wasn't all.
Soon afterward, more giant ships descended from the sky, scattering throughout Onigashima and dividing the battlefield into isolated sections.
The samurai from Tokage Port were also deployed onto the island, tasked with assaulting positions defended by the Numbers.
High above in the sky, the battle between Oden and Kaido's dragon form continued relentlessly.
And because of that, the morale of everyone below surged to its peak.
"BOOM!"
Black thunder exploded once again across the heavens.
Kaido's azure dragon body coiled through the sky, dark flame clouds swirling around him as his tail swept outward, smashing Oden away once more.
The target was Rowan's group.
"Even after five years, there are still this many people who believe in you. Right now, all of them are watching you."
As Rowan spoke, he looked toward the azure dragon in the sky.
"Because of various reasons, both you and your father failed the people of Wano in many ways."
"But even now, they still choose to trust you."
"So what are you going to do?"
Climbing out of the crater, Oden wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"It's becoming more and more interesting!"
"Ever since Roger Captain, it's been a long time since I fought someone like this!"
The moment his words fell, Oden charged forward once again.
Both hands tightly gripped Ame no Habakiri and Enma.
Crimson Haki clashed violently, exploding outward as the flashes of his dual swords turned the sky into a dazzling spectacle.
"KAIDO!!"
With a furious roar, Oden raised both blades into a cross-shaped stance.
Togen Totsuka!
Brilliant sword light illuminated the heavens.
A wound burst open across the dragon claw, blood raining down from the sky as Kaido's dragon roar shook the island.
The next instant, the azure dragon vanished midair.
Kaido dismissed his Mythical Zoan form and glanced down at his left hand, blood dripping steadily from the wound.
"Not bad Haki."
After praising him once, Kaido thrust his hand into the ruins, grabbing and pulling out a massive spiked kanabo.
At this point, he was completely sober.
Still holding the iron club, he pointed it toward Rowan in the distance.
"The face you're using now belongs to a Marine."
"So are you that old hag working under Orochi?"
Rowan looked back at him.
"That Mane-Mane Fruit user was already killed by me."
"As for who I am?"
"That old hag asked the same question before she died."
Just as Kaido was about to continue speaking, a figure suddenly rushed toward him from the distance.
"KAIDO!!"
Sword light flashed as Oden leapt high into the air with both blades in hand.
Kaido also gripped his kanabo tightly.
With Observation Haki, he had long since sensed Oden's approach.
Togen Shirataki!
Thunder Bagua!
"BANG!"
"BOOM!!"
The violent collision shook all of Onigashima.
This was a clash of raw power and Haki itself.
Black lightning exploded through the sky.
The shockwaves of their Haki swept across the ruined ground like tangible force, while dark flame clouds stained the heavens.
The entire island looked as though the apocalypse had arrived.
The next moment, Kaido revealed the strongest form of his Mythical Zoan.
Azure dragon scales covered his body as the iron club in his hand swept outward once more.
"BOOM!"
This collision sent Oden flying again.
Kaido's left hand still dripped blood as he planted the kanabo against the ground.
"As expected of Roger's crew."
"The fact you can injure me at all is impressive."
Within the ruins, Kozuki Oden slowly stood up again, fresh blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Heh..."
He chuckled softly before tightening his grip on his swords once more.
Not far away, Rowan commented while watching the battle:
"Oden's Haki is extremely strong. His mastery of Conqueror's coating is also highly refined."
"Only with that level of power can he break through the defenses of top-tier monsters."
"But in that last exchange, when it came to physique and raw strength..."
"Oden is inferior to Kaido."
Beside him, Roger kept his eyes fixed on the battle raging in the center of the battlefield.
Oden's razor-sharp swordsmanship clashed endlessly against Kaido's savage iron club.
Conqueror's Haki swept across the surroundings like tangible force, tearing everything apart in its wake.
"That little brat from Rocks' ship has actually grown this far."
Roger sighed emotionally before glancing toward Rowan.
"But against a monster this strong... does Mr. really have confidence?"
Rowan glanced sideways at Roger.
"You haven't reported to work in the prison for quite a few days now."
"I even killed another Celestial Dragon recently."
"Take a guess what kind of good stuff I got from that."
Roger spread his hands helplessly.
"Rayleigh told me you killed one of the top combatants of CP0."
"And that Marine, Borsalino, only escaped because of his speed."
"With achievements like that, I really am curious now."
Rowan replied calmly:
"If Oden can't hold on later, you'll probably get to see it."
"And there's also Queen of the Beasts Pirates."
"I need you to capture that guy alive for me."
"..."
Roger let out a long sigh.
"With this body of mine, taking someone alive isn't exactly easy."
Rowan shrugged.
"As long as he still has one breath left, that's enough."
"Vegapunk can modify him afterward."
"And honestly, that fat bastard probably wouldn't mind being remodeled anyway."
Back during the MADS era, Vegapunk had undoubtedly been the core figure.
After him came Queen and Caesar.
Queen definitely had talent.
As long as he stopped creating those idiotic anti-human monstrosities, he could still be useful.
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