"Admire that great idiot?"
Lucas took a swig of shōchū and shook his head with a laugh.
"Forget it. Is someone who couldn’t even protect his own country really worthy of admiration?"
"What are you talking about?"
Yamato’s expression froze, and she immediately became agitated.
"Kozuki Oden was the greatest hero in Wano! He endured humiliation and ultimately gave his life for his people. He was also the beloved lord of the Nine Red Scabbards. You’re saying he isn’t worthy of admiration?"
"Why?!"
Yamato clenched the kanabō in her hand, every muscle in her body tensing.
She had thought she had finally encountered someone who shared her admiration for Oden.
She had never expected him to open his mouth and call Oden a complete idiot.
She couldn’t accept that.
"Why?"
Lucas smiled and shook the gourd in his hand.
"You’ve always claimed to be Kozuki Oden. So if you were him, what would you have done in the circumstances he faced back then?"
"You believed a pirate’s lies, willingly subjected yourself to humiliation, then went berserk for revenge after discovering you’d been deceived, only to drag the Nine Red Scabbards into the disaster and get them wiped out, while causing the entire population of Wano to suffer."
"Does someone like that qualify as a hero?"
"Someone without even the slightest sense of the bigger picture is like a single rat dropping spoiling an entire pot of porridge."
"Kaido certainly stops at nothing to achieve his goals, but at least he’s a successful warlord."
"But Kozuki Oden was the shogun of Wano. Yet he allowed himself to be manipulated by others. The disaster he himself caused was left behind for someone decades later to clean up."
"If he’d been willing to put aside his pride back then and ask Whitebeard—or Gol D. Roger, another of the Four Emperors at the time—for help, would Kaido and Orochi even have been able to establish themselves here?"
"Would Wano have fallen into turmoil?"
"Let’s take it one step further. I’ll give you a hypothetical."
"If you had been Kozuki Oden back then and couldn’t bring yourself to ask Whitebeard or Roger for help..."
"But with tens of thousands of Wano’s samurai united in opposition, the daimyō of the various regions—many of whom were renowned swordsmen—along with the yakuza bosses and the Nine Red Scabbards..."
"With you leading from the front, do you really think Kaido and the Beasts Pirates could have established a foothold in Wano?"
"Remember this: it wasn’t Kozuki Oden who sacrificed himself for Wano."
"As Wano’s shogun, he failed Wano and dragged the entire country down with him."
"And if he’s even inferior to a ruthless warlord like Kaido, is such a great idiot really worthy of worship?"
Yamato stood there in a daze.
She stared at the journal she had taken out and treasured for so long, unable to process what she had just heard.
The radiant image of Kozuki Oden that had always existed in her heart had actually begun to crack.
At the very least, Lucas’s hypothetical had forced her to place herself in Oden’s position.
And she suddenly realized—
If that wasn’t the behavior of a complete idiot, then what was?
"No! I don’t believe it! The Nine Red Scabbards still revere Kozuki Oden!"
Yamato tightly gripped her kanabō and hurriedly argued,
"Not long ago, I heard that Ashura Doji of the Nine Red Scabbards had already declared that he would gather the samurai and open Wano’s borders."
"He must be doing it to fulfill Kozuki Oden’s dying wish!"
"I believe I can replace Kozuki Oden and lead them to open Wano!"
"I’ll prove it to you! I definitely didn’t choose the wrong person to admire. Kozuki Oden absolutely wasn’t a complete idiot!"
"Come with me, and I’ll prove that everything I said is true!"
Yamato was visibly flustered. She clutched her journal tightly and stared at Lucas with an urgent expression.
Lucas smiled and took another swig of shōchū.
"I happen to be interested in seeing what happens, too."
"Then let’s go together."
Meanwhile, in the Flower Capital.
With Ashura Doji’s call for the samurai to assemble, the entire capital rapidly sprang into motion.
Thousands upon thousands of samurai streamed in from every direction.
The entire Flower Capital suddenly took on an atmosphere of a storm gathering before the calm.
The residents of the Flower Capital, as well as those from the neighboring regions, were all alarmed.
After ten years without such a major disturbance, everyone’s hearts were gripped with tension.
Many people could no longer suppress their emotions. Even the elderly and infirm dragged themselves toward the Flower Capital to gather.
Under normal circumstances, Orochi would never have allowed such a thing to happen.
He would have driven out anyone he considered troublesome or anyone who posed a threat to his rule long ago.
But this time, in order to capture all these rebels in one sweep, Orochi had listened to Kyoshiro’s proposal and allowed these unstable elements to reveal themselves.
As more and more people entered the capital, the Flower Capital became increasingly oppressive.
It felt like a powder keg that could explode at any moment.
Yet as time passed, the situation showed no sign of stopping.
Residents from every direction continued gathering, along with former samurai who had been reduced to little more than beggars.
The Flower Capital became extraordinarily lively.
Orochi sat at the entrance to the capital, with the Oniwabanshu and members of the Kyoshiro Family behind him.
Looking down at the densely packed crowd gathered in the open area before the city gates, the smile on Orochi’s face grew wider.
He especially glanced back at the tens of thousands of samurai he had personally gathered and cultivated.
In Orochi’s eyes, no matter what happened, how could these rebels possibly withstand tens of thousands of blades?
"Kyoshiro, tell me, isn’t this Ashura Doji completely out of his mind?"
"Otherwise, why would so many people come here just to watch him die?"
Orochi shook the sake cup in his hand and smiled cruelly.
According to the samurai’s summons, the gathering would take place at sunrise.
There were only thirty minutes left until the sun rose.
Orochi was eager to see the outcome.
He had gathered such a massive force. He certainly didn’t want all that preparation to end with no one showing up.
Kyoshiro looked back at the assembled samurai.
His heart grew heavy.
While concealing his true identity and serving under Orochi, the Kyoshiro Family he had secretly built up now numbered 1,200 samurai.
This had originally been part of his preparations for opening Wano’s borders.
If Ashura Doji had absolute certainty of victory, Kyoshiro would have risen up without hesitation.
But if Ashura Doji failed when it came to opening Wano’s borders, it would be nothing short of a nightmare for Kyoshiro.
He didn’t want the men he had painstakingly trained to bet on the wrong side.
At that thought, Kyoshiro instinctively looked toward Kozuki Hiyori.
Hiyori immediately understood what he meant and shook her head sadly.
After Lucas left, she had done everything she could to find him.
Having personally witnessed Lucas’s strength and learned his identity, Kozuki Hiyori understood that if Lucas were willing to intervene, they might still have a chance to fight.
But even after searching throughout the entire night, Kozuki Sukiyaki had been unable to find any trace of Lucas.
This was a battle to open Wano’s borders driven almost entirely by Ashura Doji’s burning determination and hot-blooded resolve.
Was it really worth betting everything on?
If they bet wrong, it wouldn’t merely be the bandits under Ashura Doji who would be destroyed.
Even the forces Kyoshiro had painstakingly trained could be reduced to nothing.
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