Like small animals facing a natural predator, the oppressive force of Conqueror's Haki was more than enough to instantly shatter the psychological defenses of the weak-willed.
"Retreat! Fall back—now!!"
Veins bulged on Fukurokuju's forehead as he screamed out that single command with everything he had.
The moment his words fell, several smoke bombs slammed into the floor.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thick smoke exploded outward, instantly swallowing everyone inside.
This was a special type of smoke designed specifically to interfere with Observation Haki.
But before Tenma's advanced Observation—already evolved to the point where it could sense emotions—even closing his eyes wouldn't have helped them. The fear in their hearts blazed like searchlights, leaving them nowhere to hide.
"Heh. Childish tricks."
The famed blade Shidarezura in Tenma's hand instantly became wrapped in a layer of dark-red Conqueror's Haki. Toward the center of the smoke, he casually swung his sword.
The flying slash tore through the air—and the instant it touched the smoke, it split apart on its own, dividing into several razor-sharp waves that blasted outward in all directions.
—BOOM!!
A deafening explosion followed. The terrifying shockwave ripped the smoke to shreds, and the Oniwabanshu hidden within were blown away like rag dolls.
Tenma clenched his left hand in midair.
—Crack crack crack!
The floor shattered. Countless hard wooden planks seemed to come alive, transforming into ferocious wooden dragons that roared as they coiled around the airborne ninjas.
—Thud! Thud! Thud!
A series of heavy impacts echoed as the ninjas—wrapped up like rice dumplings—were slammed hard into the ground, completely immobilized.
Only then, realizing that even with all their strength they couldn't break free, did Fukurokuju's last shred of dignity collapse. He immediately shouted at the top of his lungs:
"My lord! Spare us! We were forced by Kurozumi Orochi! If you let us live, we're willing to swear loyalty to you—do anything, be your cattle and horses!"
As for the Orochi he so readily sold out—
at this point, rage was the last thing on his mind.
He had collapsed onto the ground in terror. His massive Yamata no Orochi form could no longer be maintained, reverting him to that same wretched, sleazy little man. He crawled backward on his hands, bawling and begging:
"Don't—don't kill me! I'm the shogun of Wano! I'll give you anything you want! Gold! Treasures! Women! Even the entire country!!"
"And—and I have Kaido backing me! If you dare touch me, Kaido will never let you off! He'll raze all of Wano to the ground!!"
Seeing this pathetic display, Tenma couldn't help but laugh.
"You're about to die and you still want to use Kaido to pressure me? Is there water in your brain?"
He leaned forward slightly, eyes cold.
"Didn't you ever wonder who that person was—the one Kaido said he struck a deal with, the one who wanted to swallow all of Wano whole?"
"I-is it… you?!"
Orochi's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his voice turning shrill.
"How is that possible?! You're just a samurai—"
Before he could finish, Shidarezura flashed.
Slash!
Blood sprayed into the air. In an instant, seven of Orochi's heads were severed, leaving only the main head trembling on his neck.
This was the closest he had ever been to death.
Orochi wet himself on the spot, smashing his head into the floor over and over.
"Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! You want Wano, don't you?!"
"I—I'll abdicate immediately! I'll pass the position of shogun to you! Everything in Wano is yours! All the wealth I've hoarded over the years—I'll give it all to you! Please, don't kill me!!"
At this moment, Orochi was nothing more than a stray dog. To survive, he wouldn't hesitate to sell even his ancestors.
"I don't give a damn about your 'willingness.'"
Tenma flicked the blood from his blade in disgust, his gaze icy.
"But your worthless life can still be useful—for now. I'm taking you to see someone. When we get there, you're going to spill everything: every filthy thing you've done, and every plan you had to keep ruining Wano in the future. Got it?!"
Orochi, already terrified out of his wits, heard there was still a chance to live. He nodded frantically, like a wooden chicken pecking rice.
Forget confessing—if Tenma told him to run naked through the streets, he'd do it without hesitation.
Truth be told, bullying someone spineless like Orochi brought no sense of accomplishment at all—only disgust.
Compared to Kaido, once the Barrier-Barrier Fruit was dealt with, killing Orochi was easier than crushing an ant. If not for keeping him alive as a living piece of evidence, Tenma would've ended him with a single stroke.
Tenma turned his gaze to the Oniwabanshu, who were likewise groveling on the ground.
"A bunch of textbook fence-sitters… fine. You'll live too—for now. Come with me to meet that 'old acquaintance.'"
With that, Tenma lightly hooked a finger.
All the bound ninjas and Orochi himself were lifted into the air as if dragged by invisible ropes. Like dead dogs, they were hauled along toward the inner depths of Orochi Castle.
There lay a hidden passage leading deep underground.
There lay Wano's buried history.
There lay the red Road Poneglyph.
And there lay the man who had faked his death and hidden in the shadows—
Kozuki Sukiyaki.
Deep within the shogun's residence in the Flower Capital—
the Kokeshi Doll Collection Room.
This had once been the private sanctuary of the late shogun, Kozuki Sukiyaki, and it was Tenma's true destination.
Kurozumi Orochi was no stranger to this room.
After all, it was one of the places his predecessor had loved most in life.
Yet right now, Orochi's head was filled with question marks.
Didn't Tenma say he was taking him to meet someone?
Aside from three cold walls, piles of bizarre kokeshi dolls, and various famed swords, there wasn't a living soul in sight.
Even the Oniwabanshu dragged in behind him looked equally confused—but with their lives hanging by a thread, no one dared utter a word.
Tenma walked straight up to the eerie row of dolls and casually brushed a hand over one of their spotless wooden heads.
Then he went to the sword rack and did the same.
"As I thought…"
He looked at his fingertips and smiled faintly.
Some dolls and blades were covered in thick dust.
Others were unnaturally clean—clearly wiped and maintained regularly.
"The one I'm bringing you to meet has been hiding like a rat in this dark corner, barely clinging to life."
Before the words even faded, Tenma slammed his palm onto the floor.
There was no need to search for secret mechanisms.
Under the absurd power of the Float-Float Fruit, a massive stone slab simply defied gravity and rose into the air with a thunderous rumble.
A pitch-black underground passage, seemingly bottomless, was revealed—blunt and unavoidable.
Seeing this, and recalling Tenma's words, Orochi's pupils shrank violently as an utterly absurd thought exploded in his mind.
Publicly, Kozuki Sukiyaki had been declared dead from illness.
In reality, he had been secretly imprisoned in the castle's underground chamber by Orochi and Kurozumi Higurashi.
Then one day, the old man had simply vanished.
The guards swore no one had left the castle, and no news of Sukiyaki ever surfaced afterward. Orochi had naturally assumed the old man had died somewhere unnoticed, his corpse long since rotted away.
But now—
faced with a secret passage even the current shogun had never known about—an ominous premonition tightened around his heart.
They descended step by step along the long underground staircase.
As they went, Tenma organized Wano's secrets in his mind.
Eight hundred years ago, Wano had been an ordinary island at sea level. To resist foreign enemies—or to conceal something—its ancestors built towering walls around the island.
Rainwater flooded in, submerging the old land. The people were forced to migrate to higher ground, creating the strange mountainous country Wano was today.
And at the end of this passage lay a place known only through whispered succession among the shoguns.
Naturally, the usurper Orochi knew nothing of it.
Now, only the man pretending to be dead below—and Tenma with his godlike foreknowledge—understood this truth.
Deeper still lay not only the Road Poneglyph, but the ancient weapon Pluton, sleeping beneath the land.
Of course, to awaken Pluton, the walls would have to be destroyed—
a true, literal "opening of the country."
In the original timeline, Kozuki Sukiyaki survived all the way to the very end before revealing himself.
But now that Tenma was here, he intended to make full use of this foreknowledge.
The staircase seemed endless, like a descent into the abyss.
As they went deeper underground, the air grew damp and cold. Tenma's keen perception caught a faint emotional ripple—
Fear. Anxiety. And the extreme tension of someone who knew they'd been discovered.
By the time they reached the massive stone door, that emotional fluctuation peaked.
Tenma shoved the door open without ceremony.
Inside was a grand chamber supported by enormous stone pillars.
At its very center stood a massive stone slab, radiating ancient authority—
the red Road Poneglyph.
No one stood nearby, but a torch that had just gone out—still smoking—and fishing tools scattered on the floor silently testified that someone lived here.
Snap.
Tenma flicked a small pebble.
It grazed the wall above the torch, sparks flying from the friction and instantly relighting the half-burnt flame.
The flickering firelight dispelled the darkness, illuminating a shadowed corner of the chamber.
Staring past the Poneglyph, Tenma spoke clearly and coldly:
"Enough hiding. I know you're there—Kozuki Sukiyaki."
The moment that name was spoken, Orochi jerked his head up, staring in that direction—
his heart hammering as if it were about to burst from his chest.