"Hurry!"
"We cannot let Lord Oden fight alone!"
Across the vast white snowfield, hundreds of riders galloped furiously atop strange beasts.
Most of these creatures resembled giant ostriches, though there were also beasts akin to wild bulls.
Upon receiving word from Kuri, Shimotsuki Yasuie and the others had immediately mobilized every available fighter and charged toward the positions where Orochi and Kaido had deployed their forces.
With these beasts for mounts, they moved swiftly, covering the distance to the border between Ringo and the Flower Capital in just a single day.
Hundreds of samurai charged toward the Flower Capital as one. Even Shimotsuki Yasuie, who was not particularly skilled in combat, refused to sit this out.
Kaido and Orochi, who had prepared an ambush, were already gathered at the rendezvous point. Even before Kinemon and the others appeared, Kaido's Observation Haki had already detected the approaching forces.
"So they could not resist showing their faces after all. You came up with a fine idea, Orochi." Kaido said.
He was in a good mood.
Originally, he had planned to deal with Kozuki Oden alone, but wiping out all the rebels at once would save him the trouble.
What he could not understand was how several hundred rebels had survived for five years in a place like Kuri.
Did they not need to eat or drink?
"Oden has not arrived yet. Let us have some fun with these ones first." Orochi said.
The previous night, Oden had ultimately left the shogunate mansion.
Orochi had deliberately given him time — time to retrieve his twin blades, time to prepare himself to be defeated before Orochi and Kaido.
If Kaido and Oden had been left to fight each other one-on-one, the outcome might not have been certain.
A mutual defeat was not out of the question.
That said, Orochi still favored Kaido.
Kaido's Conqueror's Haki was slightly stronger than Oden's, and he was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user. In the original story, Oden's ultimate attack had managed to wound Kaido, but that did not mean Kaido would lose.
The injury had been severe, true. But Kaido had not even used his most powerful Beast Form, let alone techniques like Drunken Dragon Bagua that could amplify his strength further.
Though Kaido and Orochi had said they would play with Shimotsuki Yasuie's forces, neither had any intention of fighting personally.
Kings fought kings, and generals fought generals.
These opponents had not earned the right to face them directly.
It was not that there were no strong fighters among the rebels — Shimotsuki Ushimaru and Hyogoro were both formidable opponents.
But Orochi had his Seven Samurai, and Kaido had no shortage of capable subordinates.
"Go! Slaughter these rebel scum for Lord Orochi!" Akoumaru, the fiercest of the Seven Samurai, hefted a massive blade that curved like an ocean wave.
His sword shared his name.
Spotting the dust rising on the horizon, he itched to throw himself into battle!
He charged ahead, and the shogunate forces followed close behind.
The rest of the Seven Samurai were not about to be left behind either. Within moments, the two sides had clashed.
In truth, the fighters who remained with Shimotsuki Yasuie after all this time were all genuinely skilled.
Those who were truly weak had either quit long ago or were already dead.
This was why, despite being outnumbered, they showed no immediate signs of breaking.
"Prolonged fighting works against us! If we take down Orochi or Kaido, the rest will fall apart!" Hyogoro roared as he cut down an enemy.
He was speaking specifically to Shimotsuki Ushimaru and the other Scabbards who served Oden.
These Scabbards might have come from humble origins, but after years sailing the seas with Oden, their strength was nothing to dismiss. They were the only ones with enough power to even challenge Orochi and Kaido.
"There is no way we are letting you go straight for Lord Orochi!" Akoumaru swung his great blade in a full circle.
He cleaved a samurai in half at the waist, then launched himself like a meteor toward Hyogoro.
"Hyogoro of the Flower Capital — I have been wanting a proper fight with you for a long time!"
On another part of the battlefield, two samurai named Raitou and En'i engaged the equally formidable Shimotsuki Ushimaru. Neither was a match for Ushimaru individually, but when lightning and fire intertwined, their combined strength became something far greater.
"Your opponent is me." The Flower Samurai Kaito's target was Kikunojo.
Over five years, she had learned to wield a blade with her left hand.
Though her left arm was weaker, in a world where Haki existed, the disadvantage was minimal.
Kougi's opponent was Kinemon.
A samurai with two lives who could seemingly lock his health in place, facing off against another warrior notorious for bouncing back from the brink of death — Kingin.
It felt like a matchup ordained by fate.
The remaining two, Washizu and Yanagiba Ranji, were dispatched to deal with Uzuki and Raizo respectively.
In truth, neither was particularly impressive — above average at best.
They were no match for the Seven Samurai.
After a brief exchange, Yanagiba Ranji broke away to assist Akoumaru against Hyogoro.
This left Washizu to face Uzuki and Raizo alone, where he somehow managed to hold the upper hand.
For a moment, the rebel forces that had surged forward with such momentum began to lose ground.
And then, Kozuki Oden finally arrived on the battlefield.
He once again held Ame no Habakiri and Enma in his hands. It had been five years since he last touched these twin blades, and for a moment they felt almost unfamiliar.
Playing the fool like a clown and exposing his most pitiful self for so long had even caused Oden's Haki to deteriorate.
Fortunately, his dejection had not been voluntary, and he quickly readjusted his mindset.
As he surveyed the battlefield where both sides were already locked in combat, the guilt in his heart was beyond words.
"Everyone..."
Even through five years of hell, these people had never abandoned hope!
And what about him?
He had allowed himself to be thoroughly deceived by that despicable snake, Orochi.
"I am nothing but a worthless, stupid fool!" Tears welled in his eyes.
"I could not protect my wife! Could not protect my son or my daughter! Could not protect my country or my people!"
He murmured to himself as he drew his twin blades and walked toward the battlefield.
His Haki was surging upward, climbing back toward its peak!
"...For someone as useless as me to still have people like you following me — Kozuki Oden is grateful beyond words!"
"Today, I can only trade my life for the founding of a new Wano Country!"
By now, he stood atop a hill.
Looking down at the flames of war, at Orochi and Kaido laughing wildly like demons below, he threw his head back and roared:
"OROCHI! KAIDO!"
His voice echoed across the sky, carrying all the way to Kuri, resonating with every citizen of Wano Country.
"Lord Oden..." Kinemon and the others heard that voice and actually stopped swinging their blades for a moment, tears streaming from their eyes as they looked up.
Through the flames, the man standing on the hilltop was everything they had dreamed of seeing once more!
"Let us settle this!"
[
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