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Chapter Cover Side Story - The Days on Kuja's Eastern Route · Too Much Powder Makes One Pale, Too Much Rouge Makes One Red
Inside the Kuja Palace, the Snake Princess was applying makeup to Hancock.
After lightly dusting powder onto her face, she discovered that it actually made Hancock's skin appear less delicate than it naturally was, so she could only wipe it away. Then she applied some lipstick, but realized that no matter what shade she used, it was still inferior to Hancock's naturally crimson lips by several degrees, forcing her to remove it as well.
Tulip stared at Hancock's flawless jade-like face and suddenly felt completely helpless, as though any kind of makeup would only be a severe desecration of such breathtaking beauty.
Throughout the entire process, Hancock remained expressionless, eventually rolling her eyes in boredom…
...…
Wano Country was simply too small!
Whenever Kozuki Gushi sighed like this, the people around him would always laugh, instantly filling the air with cheer.
Because Kozuki Gushi was a strange little man with a bowl-cut hairstyle and a height of barely one meter. He couldn't even become a proper samurai.
His sword was longer than he was.
Although he carried the Kozuki name and the blood of the General's lineage flowed through his veins, the people around him still showed him little respect.
After all, rumors said that even the Kozuki General himself had once remarked that if Gushi did not bear the Kozuki surname, a disgrace like him would have long ago been granted the honor of seppuku.
Kozuki Gushi had long grown used to such gazes. He merely smiled at those around him.
But late at night, in the silence, whenever he looked into the mirror at his own tiny, hunched body, he always had to resist the urge to tear himself apart piece by piece and end his own life in agony.
…
Then one day, Kozuki Gushi disappeared for a very long time.
Snow drifted through the winter skies, and the people of Wano Country thought that perhaps Kozuki Gushi really had died somewhere in some unknown corner,
Hopefully not within the lands of the Kozuki family.
…
Year after year passed…
Just when people had nearly forgotten that there had once been a dwarf named Gushi, he appeared once more before the people of Wano Country.
He had become gigantic.
The former one-meter-tall dwarf had transformed into a colossal monster hundreds of meters tall, with two enormous ox horns growing from his head.
He claimed this was a technology popular overseas, one that could bring tremendous change to the ancient and outdated Wano Country and fulfill everyone's dreams.
The Kozuki General refused to allow such a monster to return to his territory.
Gushi sat alone at sea for two days before abandoning the Kozuki surname and entering the service of the Amatsuki Daimyo. Perhaps in order to humiliate the Kozuki General who had cast him out, Amatsuki Kumi married the daughter of the Amatsuki Daimyo and later inherited the entire territory of the Amatsuki clan.
Though her husband was a demonic giant hundreds of meters tall, he was still technically a husband who had married into the family. Furthermore, after Gushi taught her how to read and write the ancient language, his wife felt that such a life was acceptable enough.
Until the tragedy caused by Amatsuki Kumi becoming overly obsessed with the technologies he had brought back from overseas…
A massive experimental accident occurred.
Every citizen within the Amatsuki territory transformed into beast-like monsters. That day happened to be a night of the full moon, and beneath the moonlight, hordes of monsters slaughtered and attacked one another, eventually going mad enough to rampage into the territories of other Daimyo as well…
That catastrophe later became known as the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
The final isolated island remaining from the Amatsuki territory of Wano Country also came to be known as Onigashima…
Though that was after the Kozuki General led his samurai and beheaded the completely insane demon Amatsuki Kumi.
The Sword God Shimotsuki Ryuma severed the giant demon's head with a single slash, yet unexpectedly, Amatsuki Kumi still did not die.
His wife, the daughter of the previous Amatsuki Daimyo, carried out a stone coffin. Filled with hatred, she carved two lines of ancient text onto the underside of the coffin lid before cursing the demon who still lived even after losing his head.
She cried that he would never find peace for all eternity.
That was her curse upon Amatsuki Kumi.
And amid her venomous hatred, she too withered away and died…
Using the overseas technology brought by Amatsuki Kumi, the Kozuki General specially created a Devil Fruit that transformed the immortal yet deathless Amatsuki Kumi into a gigantic long-legged elephant.
As punishment, he was forced to carry the entire Amatsuki territory, and all of its citizens, who had become furry monsters, upon his back, wandering the seas for eternity, never to return again.
Year after year passed, and Zou indeed never returned to Wano Country again.
Even later, when a massive upheaval swept across the world, neither Zou nor the people upon its back were ever seen.
And somewhere along the line, Wano Country established its law of national isolation.
Then another two to three hundred years passed…
Until one of the heirs of the Kozuki family, a samurai named Musashi, learned of the history from two to three centuries ago and resolved to set sail in search of Zou, hoping to confirm the truth of that buried past.
…
Kozuki Musashi found Zou, along with the descendants of the Amatsuki people living upon its back.
However, contrary to his expectations, Zou was not some deathly land overrun by beastly monsters.
Instead, it was a joyful and harmonious place known as the Mokomo Dukedom.
"That's because we're all fluffy!"
The people who called themselves the mink race told him this with cheerful smiles as they warmly welcomed him.
Kozuki Musashi got along very well with the mink race. Their king, the Wolf Lord, could drink heavily and had a personality perfectly suited to Musashi's tastes. The two eventually swore brotherhood, and as proof of their bond, they added the mink race emblem around the divine bird crest of the Kozuki family.
The banquet lasted for days and nights, lively as exploding fireworks…
The heavily drunken Kozuki Musashi suddenly came back to his senses and realized that, without noticing it, he had wandered alone into the forest outside the mink race city…
It was as though some kind of voice had been guiding him, leading him toward an underground tomb chamber hidden beneath the earth.
It was Zou's voice…
No…
It was Amatsuki Kumi!
Because of their blood connection, Kozuki Musashi could hear the voice of the gigantic elephant beneath his feet, and following that guidance, he found the tomb chamber of Kumi's wife.
The moment he opened the stone coffin and saw the ancient writing carved onto the underside of the coffin lid, Kozuki Musashi completely broke down.
…
"...I thought it was only a fable made up by ancient Wano people after accidentally seeing Zou and combining it with the giant skull at Onigashima!"
Inside the underground tomb chamber, Kozuki Musashi shouted furiously at the voice of Zou echoing through his mind.
"Because the people here are nothing like the stories said! They… they seem to be living happily…"
That is because… they have forgotten the past…
Zou's voice echoed within Kozuki Musashi's mind.
Whether or not to tell them this history… that decision belongs to you… heir of the Kozuki family…
Kozuki Musashi burst into uncontrollable tears, overwhelmed with grief. At that moment, a trembling voice suddenly came from behind him:
"Musashi… what you just said… was all of it true?!"
Kozuki Musashi froze and spun around sharply.
Under the moonlight stood the Wolf Lord, his face filled with disbelief.
"We were originally ordinary humans, and it was people from your Kozuki family… who turned us into this?!"
A line of tears ran down the Wolf Lord's face.
Kozuki Musashi hurriedly tried to explain.
"He was Amatsuki! Amatsuki Kumi!"
Grinding his teeth, the Wolf Lord roared:
"If he was Amatsuki, then how are you connected to him by blood?! In the end, he was still a Kozuki!"
Kozuki Musashi could not answer.
Tears streamed down the Wolf Lord's face as he demanded:
"When did you know?"
"From the very beginning…" Kozuki Musashi slumped in despair. "The reason I left Wano Country and searched for this place… was to confirm whether the legend was true…"
The Wolf Lord's expression twisted hideously.
"And yet you still drank with us? Held banquets with us? Pretended we were brothers?!"
His voice trembled with fury and anguish.
"Tell me, when everyone was happily celebrating together, when we accepted you as one of our own… what exactly were you thinking inside your heart?! Speak, Kozuki Musashi!!!"
"I felt… sorry." Kozuki Musashi's face turned deathly pale, his lips trembling. "But I believed that even if the legends were true, since both you and most people in Wano had already forgotten everything, then we could start over! Aren't you all living well now anyway, "
Before he could finish speaking, the Wolf Lord let out a furious howl and lunged at him with lightning crackling around his claws.
"What are you doing, Wolf Lord?!" Kozuki Musashi drew his sword to defend himself and shouted, "We're brothers!"
"We were!!"
The Wolf Lord had completely lost himself to bloodlust. His wolf howl was filled with indescribable sorrow and despair…
Meanwhile, in the lively banquet-filled Kurau City, the drunken mink race people blinked in confusion.
"Didn't that sound like a wolf howl?"
"You heard wrong! Hahaha, come drink more!"
"It's the wine Brother Kozuki brought! Somehow it tastes even better than usual!"
"Hahahahaha…!"
At the deepest hour of the night, a cold flash of steel swept through the underground tomb chamber.
With a single strike, Kozuki Musashi killed the Wolf Lord.
Even as his final breath faded, the Wolf Lord's eyes remained fixed on him in hatred.
Kozuki Musashi utterly collapsed.
Inside the underground tomb chamber, he held the Wolf Lord's corpse in his arms and wept bitterly beneath the moonlight shining overhead…
.........
"And what happened afterward is just as I said before… Overcome with guilt and regret, Kozuki Musashi left behind that farewell letter in ancient script upon the Seastone wall before committing seppuku."
After finishing the story recorded in Kozuki Musashi's final letter, Robin jumped down from Zou together with Liam, disappearing into the endless sea of clouds below.
The cat and dog rulers stood blankly at the edge of Zou, motionless for a very, very long time.
Until dusk arrived.
Until darkness slowly spread across the sky.
With a ptui, Nekomamushi spat out his pipe, letting it fall into the dim, swirling clouds below. Expressionless, he said:
"Hey, old dog… do you think Kozuki Oden knew this history?"
For a long time, Inuarashi gave no reply, causing Nekomamushi to turn and look at him.
"I don't know…"
Inuarashi closed his eyes, and a tear mixed with streaks of blood flowed down his face.
In a hoarse voice, he muttered:
"I don't want to know…"
(End Of This Chapter)