The look in Kurosaki Rei's eyes made Yamato instinctively uneasy.
She had realized by now that whenever Kurosaki Rei wore that expression, some strange question was about to come out. And afterward, her worldview would take another heavy hit—often followed by a bout of self-isolation.
"Brother Rei… Sun Wukong, he—"
Yamato tried to speak first.
But before she could finish, Kurosaki Rei raised a hand to stop her. "Yamato, I just thought of another question."
"I… I don't want to hear Brother Rei's questions anymore…"
Yamato's face was full of bitterness. She was starting to seriously doubt whether she really was Kozuki Oden anymore.
"Do you still want to hear what happens next with Sun Wukong?"
Kurosaki Rei smiled, looking like a shady uncle coaxing a little girl.
Yamato's expression twisted with hesitation. She desperately wanted to know what happened next in the story, but she was also terrified of Kurosaki Rei's questions.
After a fierce internal struggle, her desire for the story finally defeated her fear of existential crises.
She nodded reluctantly. "Alright… Brother Rei, go ahead."
Kurosaki Rei raised his hand and pointed toward the prisoners—those worn down by suffering, still unable to eat their fill.
"Yamato, these people are citizens of Wano, right?"
She hadn't expected such a simple question and nodded immediately. "Of course. Otherwise, why would they be locked up here?"
A smile curled at the corner of Kurosaki Rei's mouth. "Then let me ask you—do you think they're pitiful?"
"Pitiful?"
Yamato tilted her head. "Not really? They can eat here, after all. People outside prison also have to work to eat. The old, weak, and sick can't eat their fill here—but they can't eat their fill in Wano either."
Kurosaki Rei froze for a moment.
He hadn't expected such a simple-minded Yamato to give an answer with so much philosophical weight.
Or perhaps it was precisely because Yamato was so naïve—so straightforward—that she could see through the surface and grasp the essence.
Thinking carefully, she wasn't wrong. In places like Kuri, people didn't even have the option of selling their labor for food. And in today's Wano, those living "normal lives" were still just trading labor—or something else—for basic necessities.
"Do you think they're pitiful, Brother Rei?"
Seeing him fall silent, Yamato asked in return.
"What I think doesn't matter," Kurosaki Rei replied. "When you were hungry, did it hurt?"
Yamato thought for a moment. "It hurt a lot. If that's the case… then people who go hungry really are pitiful."
As she spoke, the way she looked at the old and weak prisoners subtly changed.
Before, she had subconsciously viewed Udon Prison as a place where you could at least eat. Every time she came here, she focused on recovering and stuffing herself with food, then broke out once healed. She had never really noticed the many prisoners who still couldn't get enough to eat.
By using her own experience as an example, Kurosaki Rei instantly brought back memories of hunger's pain. Empathy bloomed.
"Yamato, don't you always say you're Kozuki Oden?" Kurosaki Rei continued. "Then tell me—what was Kozuki Oden's identity?"
"He was a man destined to become Wano's shogun," Yamato answered without hesitation. "A hero who would open the country and overthrow Kaido's tyranny."
Kurosaki Rei didn't refute her this time. He simply nodded. "So he was Wano's hope. You've also said he was someone deeply loved by the people."
"Of course!" Yamato nodded excitedly, thinking Kurosaki Rei was finally agreeing with her.
But his next sentence sent her plunging into silence.
"Then as Wano's leader, if you think these people are pitiful… why didn't you help them?"
Yamato froze completely.
After a moment, she pulled out Kozuki Oden's journal and flipped through it frantically, her eyes growing more confused by the second.
"I… I'm Kozuki Oden…"
Her voice wavered. "So I don't need to help them."
"Yamato, do you even understand what you're saying?"
Kurosaki Rei's tone turned serious.
Her body trembled. The journal slipped from her hands and fell to the ground, but she didn't even rush to pick it up. She looked at Kurosaki Rei in fear.
"I… I don't know. I'm Kozuki Oden, but Kozuki Oden wouldn't personally help pitiful citizens. He wouldn't step in during a national crisis either. I just need to be loved by the people."
Kurosaki Rei knew her mental defenses were crumbling, so he pressed on.
"You also find that strange, don't you? When the country was in danger, Kozuki Oden abandoned the people who trusted him and went off on adventures. After returning to Wano, he never actually did anything concrete for the people. Do you really think that was right?"
Indeed, although the original story tried hard to portray Kozuki Oden as a "great heroic man" beloved by the people, from start to finish he mostly did foolish or reckless things—and never truly did a single practical thing for the common folk.
The hungry weren't fed because of him. The cold weren't clothed because of him.
Setting aside his youthful scandals, after returning to Wano he merely compromised with Kurozumi Orochi and spent his days acting like a clown.
Not "enduring humiliation while secretly building resistance forces," but literally dancing half-naked in the streets—giving Kaido six full years to develop unchecked.
Even Goujian of Yue endured hardship while quietly amassing strength. Oden, by contrast, simply wasted time—losing a hand of four twos and two jokers.
During those years, he didn't organize resistance, nor did he do even the smallest good deed for the people. He didn't hunt to feed hungry children in poor regions—nothing.
So during that period, the people of Wano actually hated Kozuki Oden.
They had suffered enslavement for years, clinging to hope that Oden would return and save them—only to see him compromise and dance naked in the streets every day.
Later, after Oden was defeated and died in boiling oil, people claimed his endurance was because Orochi held hostages. Everyone was moved to tears.
Kurosaki Rei found it all… rather abstract.
Both Kozuki Oden and the people of Wano felt abstract to him.
The only things Kurosaki Rei could truly respect about Oden were his strength and his blunt honesty.
"But… but Kozuki Oden was always like that," Yamato whispered, her voice growing smaller as something inside her collapsed.
"Does 'always like that' make it right?"
Kurosaki Rei shot back, pointing at the elderly prisoners who were tearfully grateful for scraps of leftover food.
"Yamato, you think they're pitiful too. You shout about defeating Kaido and liberating Wano—but all these years, besides challenging your father, have you actually helped Wano's people even once?"
Yamato was overwhelmed. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"I… I feel like I should help them. But the journal never said Kozuki Oden personally helped the people."
"If the journal doesn't say it, you won't do it?" Kurosaki Rei asked. "Do you really think people will love you if you do nothing for them?"
In truth, Kurosaki Rei felt that Kozuki Oden may indeed have done very little—and yet still been loved.
But that love came less from admiration of Oden himself and more from hatred of Kurozumi Orochi and Kaido. By comparison, the Kozuki clan seemed virtuous.
What the people were loyal to wasn't Oden alone—it was the Kozuki bloodline.
More bluntly: feudal bloodline worship.
Wano was a feudal state. The people instinctively believed Kozuki rule was rightful. That was why even someone like Momonosuke, once put forward, was immediately worshipped with tears and prostrations.
But honestly—if Kozuki Oden had truly become shogun, would he have governed Wano well?
Not necessarily.
Given his life of visiting brothels at six and forcibly abducting women at fifteen, plus zero administrative experience, there was a real chance he'd have been a disastrous ruler.
As for Momonosuke becoming shogun at the end of the Wano arc—a lecherous child ruling a nation—well… sure. Great idea.
"Isn't that how it works?" Yamato asked hesitantly. "Because I'm Kozuki Oden, people will naturally love me."
Kurosaki Rei laughed. "Then go walk around and shout that you're Kozuki Oden. See if anyone loves or worships you."
Yamato fell silent.
She'd done that before. People only looked at her like she was crazy and ignored her.
"Wake up, Yamato," Kurosaki Rei said softly. "You're not Kozuki Oden. Those people are just numb citizens trapped in a feudal system, instinctively submitting to bloodlines. Even if you perfectly inherited Oden's spirit and strength and did exactly what he did, no one would love you."
His words pierced her heart like knives.
"And in some sense," he added, "the contributions he made to this country over the long term might not even compare to your father's."
Yamato panicked under the onslaught. She grabbed at the one point she felt she could argue back.
"How could he be worse than Kaido?! Kaido only brought suffering to this country!"
Kurosaki Rei raised his head, looking toward the forests of factories and the smoke that pierced the sky.
"Kaido caused massive environmental damage. But you can't deny that he dragged this country into industrialization. That is progress—he was just too brutal and too incompetent at governance, which is why Wano ended up like this."
Based on his observations, Kurosaki Rei felt that while some regions—like Kuri—were desperately poor, the core cities of Wano actually had a decent standard of living.
The country wasn't lacking food. The problem was distribution.
Overall, he suspected that Wano's economy under Kaido was actually stronger than it had been under Kozuki rule.
It was easy to understand.
Kaido wanted a complete country. He didn't burn and pillage indiscriminately—he functioned as Wano's violent guarantor, its guardian demon king.
After Kaido arrived, weapons factories were built. SMILE production, seastone products crafted by Wano artisans—all of these were exported, bringing enormous economic benefits to both the Beasts Pirates and Wano.
Kaido was a villain, but he broke open Wano's borders and forced a closed, backward society to move forward.
Decades—or a century—later, once the Beasts Pirates were gone, Wano would undoubtedly enter a period of rapid development, because the industrial and economic foundations would already be in place.
If Kaido actually understood governance, he could have ruled Wano quite well—ensuring the people's welfare while massively increasing factory output.
But Kaido was an uneducated pirate. He only knew how to exhaust resources for short-term gain.
The two greatest crimes he committed against Wano were:
First, putting someone like Kurozumi Orochi in charge—backing a vile little man and allowing him to torment the people freely.
Second, completely ignoring environmental protection. His factories destroyed river ecosystems. The damage wasn't fully apparent yet, but in ten years the surrounding farmland would likely be dead, famine would spread, and clean water would be impossible to guarantee.
As for whether Kaido's factory products were "inhumane"—weapons and seastone aside, SMILE fruits did have severe side effects.
But sold externally, they were expensive. There were plenty of people on the seas willing to gamble for power.
Kaido himself didn't share Orochi's sick amusement. Any failed fruits he discarded. The tragedy in Kuri was entirely the result of Orochi's perversion.
Even if Kaido shut down SMILE production, weapons and seastone alone would still generate enormous income for the Beasts Pirates.
One last thing Kurosaki Rei couldn't help but complain about—
SMILE fruits were trash.
Kaido's knockoffs couldn't compare at all to Vegapunk's creations. Ugly, full of side effects, and with questionable power gains.
Kaido fed SMILEs to so many subordinates—but could those fodder troops really be useful? They'd all collapse to a single burst of Conqueror's Haki.
Kurosaki Rei strongly suspected that Kaido had been conned by Doflamingo into this whole doomed venture—wasting manpower and resources, self-consuming most of the product, and ruining countless subordinates who might otherwise have had potential.
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