"Ah..." Luffy's pupils contracted violently, his mouth hanging wide open. Right before his eyes, Lucci tossed Momonosuke aside like a piece of worthless garbage.
In the next moment, the shock in Luffy's eyes gradually dissolved into a blood-red rage. "You... damn you!"
"Why did you kill Momo?! Why?!" Bellowing at the top of his lungs, Luffy lunged forward.
In his Gear 4: Boundman form, he unleashed a massive punch.
Lucci's pupils shrank. Realizing he could not dodge the trajectory, he was forced to brace himself to take the impact head-on.
BOOM!
The fists collided with a thunderous roar.
A concussive shockwave rolled outward. The Akazaya samurai, who were still painfully crawling across the stone, were pelted by a volley of flying debris, yet not a single one let out a cry of pain. Their faces were drenched in tears, yet their eyes blazed with an unyielding, unbreakable resolve.
After the single exchange, just as Luffy prepared to launch a follow-up assault, Lucci executed a series of rapid retreats. Swiftly widening the distance between himself and Luffy, he fell back to the side of the two remaining masked agents.
"We're leaving!"
Casting a final, calculating glance at the gathered forces, Lucci retreated without a single shred of hesitation. Drake and Luffy had fully recovered their strength; it was simply impossible for his diminished vanguard to shake them. If they wanted to secure Nico Robin, they would have to formulate a brand new strategy from scratch.
Remaining here would yield absolutely zero opportunities.
However, executing the legitimate heir to the Shogunate meant the Land of Wano would inevitably fall into absolute chaos. This development would provide the World Government with the absolute perfect opening to annex the territory.
All things considered, this operation could still be deemed a success.
Yet, even Lucci himself hadn't anticipated that the assassination would unfold so smoothly. The heir of Wano had been entirely too easy to eliminate.
Following the departure of the CP0 agents, Onigashima was left in absolute shambles. The sovereign heir of their nation had been ruthlessly assassinated at the literal climax of their victory...
No matter how one analyzed the situation, it bred a profound, suffocating sense of despair.
Three days later.
The Flower Capital, the night of the Fire Festival.
The Fire Festival was a sacred night when the citizens of Wano gathered to honor the spirits of the deceased. It was also the most significant celebration on their cultural calendar. For the people, dedicating this day to remembering their departed relatives brought an overwhelming sense of solace. Those who had crossed over to the other world would receive their blessings through these solemn rites.
Despite being a memorial festival, the atmosphere was exceptionally joyous. This was the Fire Festival night—the grandest celebration in the Land of Wano.
Furthermore, following the absolute victory of the Kozuki alliance, a proclamation had been broadcast across the entire country: Kurozumi Orochi was dead. Kaido of the Beasts had vanished without a trace. Onigashima had been reduced to a smoking pile of rubble.
Every single report confirmed that their liberation was real. Two days prior, the citizens had witnessed the legendary samurai of Lord Oden marching into the Flower Capital, ascending directly toward the Shogun's castle.
Anyone who fully understood the catastrophic devastation Orochi had inflicted upon Wano was filled with unbridled ecstasy. Outside the boundaries of the Flower Capital, nearly every region of the country had been systematically reduced to a wasteland where the populace lived on the absolute brink of starvation.
Over the last forty-eight hours, two definitive decrees had been issued from the Shogun's castle:
First, the Land of Wano would return to its historical foundations. Effective immediately, all food resources would be shared equally among the populace, and every blighted region would receive immediate aid to rapidly restore independent agricultural self-sufficiency.
Second, the weapons factories were to be permanently dismantled.
From this day forward, the Land of Wano belonged once more to the Kozuki clan!
However, a dark rumor had simultaneously begun to circulate within the streets of the Flower Capital. It whispered that the legitimate heir to the Shogunate, Lord Kozuki Momonosuke, had been targeted and assassinated by an enemy on the battlefield.
For the vast majority of the citizenry, they merely treated the whisper as an absurd joke, dismissing it with a casual laugh. No one took it seriously.
Yet, there was a faction among the populace who firmly believed that where there was smoke, there was fire. If such a catastrophic question existed regarding the lineage, it had to be answered immediately. Consequently, a crowd began to gather outside the gates of the Shogun's castle, loudly demanding that Lord Momonosuke show himself to the public.
Since he was the rightful heir of the Kozuki bloodline, he was destined to formally ascend to the position of Shogun. They demanded that Lord Momonosuke make an official appearance to prove that the civilian whispers were nothing more than malicious rumors.
An entire day had passed since the crowd assembled, yet the Shogun's castle remained locked in absolute, deathly silence. Outside the grand entrance, members of the Akazaya Nine stood guard in shifts, systematically barring anyone from crossing the threshold.
This prolonged isolation caused suspicion to fester within the crowd. If everything was truly perfectly fine, why had Lord Momonosuke delayed his ascension to the Shogunate? Could it be that the horrific rumors were true, and Lord Momonosuke had already...
"Lord Samurai! We only ask for a definitive answer! We beg you to tell us the truth! Has Lord Momonosuke truly... just as the rumors whisper... already... already... died?!"
At the base of the Shogun's castle, a assembly of several hundred citizens had coalesced. Anchor-ing the front of the crowd was an elderly samurai who appeared to be in his late fifties or sixties. The absolute deference the surrounding citizens displayed toward him clearly indicated that this old man's social status was far from ordinary.
Standing guard before the heavy doors of the castle were Ashura Doji and Raizo.
The two samurai looked down at the old man with incredibly conflicted expressions. Naturally, they recognized him; several decades ago, this man had served as a prominent commander within Wano's elite samurai legions.
But the reality of their current situation was so devastating that it could not be neatly articulated in a handful of words.
Lord Momonosuke... was already dead.
The moment this truth weaponized itself across the length of Wano, there was no telling what kind of structural collapse it would trigger. If handled poorly, the entire country might dissolve into fractional civil war.
Yet who among the crowd could possibly match the sheer, agonizing desperation of the Akazaya themselves? Momonosuke was the solitary son of Lord Oden, the absolute, singular heir to the Shogunate...
Had it not been for the crushing weight of their duty to the nation, they would have abandoned everything long ago. They felt they had entirely failed Lord Oden; they had failed to protect Momonosuke, and they had failed to safeguard Wano.
The World Government's strategic intent had been made jarringly clear. The next time their ships crossed the border, they would likely issue a compulsory ultimatum demanding that Wano formally annex itself under their global jurisdiction.
And their country, naturally, would resist with every fiber of its being. But a Land of Wano stripped of the Kozuki bloodline was a nation stripped of its future.
Inside the inner chambers of the Shogun's castle.
Kin'emon and the remaining members of the Akazaya were dropped onto both knees. Before them rested a container composed of pristine crystal, radiating a soft, solemn light.
Preserved within the crystal was Momonosuke.
The young boy's small torso had been completely impaled. A massive, hollow cavity gaped through his chest—a sight that was agonizingly jarring to look upon. The precise coordinates of that wound had completely obliterated more than half of his heart.
He was irrevocably, undeniably dead. Even Drake's miraculous Senzu Beans possessed zero capacity to reverse a fatality of this magnitude.
The Akazaya stared blankly at Momonosuke resting within his crystal coffin. Not a single soul spoke; not a single tear fell.
Because their tears had already run completely dry.
From the exact microsecond it was verified that Momonosuke possessed absolutely zero chance of resurrection, every single one of them had wept until their eyes burned. Gradually, the tears ceased to flow, leaving behind nothing but an absolute, hollow void.
None of them had ever anticipated that with the war practically won, the enemy would ruthlessly execute Momonosuke. Every beautiful dream of their liberation had been pulverized into dust in a single fraction of a second... This lingering, agonizing weight was enough to drive a man mad with grief.
The chamber fell into an absolute, suffocating silence, to the point where they could hear the rhythmic thumping of each other's hearts.
"I will ascend to the position of Shogun of Wano!"
A sudden, resonant declaration shattered the silence from the upper doorway.
Following the echoing words, a figure stepped forward, gradually materializing before the eyes of the Akazaya.
The individual wore a flowing, masterfully tailored masculine kimono, their entire presence radiating an undeniable, commanding aura. Rested firmly against their hip was a legendary blade, its sheer spiritual pressure asserting its status as a masterpiece among swords.
The figure exuded a unique blend of effortless grace and the absolute majesty of a born sovereign.
And the legendary weapon resting at their waist was none other than the personal blade of Kozuki Oden—Ame no Habakiri!