As the two titans clashed in battle, the Beast Pirates didn't just stand by and watch. Under King's orders, troops quickly encircled the mother and her two children.
Yamato, meanwhile, was still struggling fiercely in his grip, desperately trying to break free and reach Ozz.
Then came Queen, swaggering onto the scene with a cigar clamped in his teeth. He glared furiously at Ozz, who was currently locked in an intense fight with Kaido.
That bastard Black Emperor had literally blown a hole through Lord Queen's royal behind.
Still, no matter how pissed he was, there was no way he had the guts to charge in and fight Ozz head-on. So instead.
"Hey!!! Kozuki leftovers! Just because the Black Emperor's backing you doesn't mean you're off the hook!"
Queen threw his head back and laughed maniacally, his fat face trembling with indignation.
"Lord Queen doesn't give a damn!"
King, still holding Yamato under one arm and a blazing longsword in the other, closed in on the last of the Kozuki family.
With both All-Stars moving in, Kozuki Toki was overwhelmed with despair.
"If that's the case… then I have no choice but to send you to the future…"
Her expression was grim as she summoned a mysterious power into her hands. That conceptual force so abstract yet so potent gave Ozz the faint illusion that, if he allowed himself to be engulfed by it, he might truly be swept away through time.
A hail of arrows was trained on the group, the flames at their tips crackling through the air. For ordinary people, this would've been devastating.
But the time travel technique was said to be instantaneous.
With a slash of his blade, Ozz carved the ground open, sending a massive shockwave ripping toward King and Queen.
It covered a broad area, but the power was restrained. After all, Yamato was still in King's grasp. Ozz didn't intend to cleave anyone into six pieces.
King's expression darkened as he met the slash head-on with all his might.
Queen, on the other hand, went pale as a sheet. His cigar dropped from his lips, fat trembling like jelly. He didn't exhale in relief until he saw King had successfully blocked the blow, at which point he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Toki hesitated for just a second when she saw the scene unfold.
But that single slash, unexpected and overwhelming, was enough to scatter the enemy formation and sow temporary confusion among the Beast Pirates.
Amid the chaos, one of the grunts, his bowstring drawn to full tension, was startled by the sudden blast and loosed his arrow involuntarily.
It shot skyward.
And struck Momonosuke.
Because Toki had hesitated a moment too long, her son had not fully passed through the time portal. A warm, wet sensation spread from below. Then came the pain.
But no one could hear his scream because Momonosuke was already gone.
Flung twenty years into the age of the Worst Generation.
"Phew… close call," Ozz muttered, though it wasn't clear what he was really referring to.
To Toki, it simply sounded like a sigh of relief that the Beast Pirates' attack had been thwarted in time.
She had no idea she was now the mother of two daughters.
"I can't thank you enough, Lord Ozz."
No longer calling him Ozz-tarou but with a respectful suffix, Toki bowed low with Hiyori in her arms.
"It was nothing," Ozz replied with a smile.
Hiyori gazed up at him with sparkling eyes, but he didn't feel much.
She was cute, yes but Ozz didn't particularly like Hiyori.
At her core, she was just another willful girl who disregarded others' sacrifices.
She had snuck away from Kawamatsu, who nearly committed seppuku out of guilt for losing her, leaving him to rot in a fish-filled sewer for over a decade.
And she had the nerve to say it was to keep him from starving.
Instead of eating less herself or searching for food, she'd simply vanished.
Later, with no knowledge of Kyoshiro's true identity, she wandered into a brothel and willingly became a courtesan.
Despite living comfortably, she tricked lecherous men out of their wealth with her beauty.
She lurked around Orochi for twenty years and achieved nothing. Robin's single day of infiltration had been more useful than her entire two-decade "undercover" stint.
Then she met Zoro once and slept next to him.
All things considered, she was a woman born to be a courtesan.
Not that there was anything wrong with that. But in a woman burdened with her clan's legacy of blood and vengeance, Ozz found it hard to respect.
From here, things followed a familiar pattern.
The remaining samurai, those who hadn't been sent to the future, escorted Toki and Hiyori away.
Ozz didn't stop them. He just stood there with his arms crossed, watching.
The Beast Pirates stared at him warily.
The deep scar his slash had carved into the earth was still there, and none of them dared make a move.
Even King tightened his grip on Yamato, clearly hesitant to act rashly.
Once Toki and the others had gone, and ignoring Kaido who still wanted to fight Ozz had no reason to stay.
He took a step.
"Boom!"
Just before Kaido's club came crashing down, his figure vanished.
Flames and smoke billowed in his wake.
Only Kaido and the Beast Pirates were left behind.
The air was tense.
Kaido seethed with fury.
The subordinates stayed silent.
And Yamato kept screaming for Ozz.
"Again, thank you, Lord Ozz."
In a makeshift safehouse a crumbling hut, two women in patched kimonos, one grown, one small, bowed to the man sipping tea across from them.
Denjirou, Kawamatsu, and the others who had stayed behind also knelt, heads low to the floor.
He might not have been their lord, but the debt they owed him was as great as the heavens.
"Hah…"
Ozz took a sip of hot tea, his face unreadable as he looked at the people bowing before him.
He'd always done things according to his own will.
Not the kind of selfishness that ignored people he should care for but the kind that left his conscience clear.
"There's no need for all this. After all, Kaido and I do have a bit of personal history."
Even so, Ozz didn't move a muscle. He accepted their kneeling gratitude without protest.
After all, saving lives deserved thanks.
Well, he had cost them their heir.
To be honest, Ozz had once considered taking Wano.
It was rich in seastone, and a sizable nation. It would've made a fine addition to the underworld network.
But standing here now, he realized that deep down, he didn't like this country much.
If he took everything from the Kozuki clan and claimed it for himself, would he really be any different from Kaido?
Just another man with the bigger fist, creating new troubles down the line.
Maybe it was Ozz's sheer strength that gave these desperate samurai hope. One of them tried to speak.
"Lord Ozz… please, lend us your strength…"
"That's enough."
Ozz hadn't even spoken yet Toki cut the man off.
She could see clearly that Ozz had no intention of sticking his neck out.
From the very beginning, his ties with the Kozuki clan had been lukewarm at best.
He hadn't gone all out against Kaido.
He got along well with Kaido's daughter.
Everything pointed to one fact.
Ozz… was not the savior of Wano.