After their audience with the new shogun, the four daimyō were expelled from the Flower Capital.
"Damn pirates!" Rain Province's Amegetsu Tempura slammed his fist against a roadside tree.
Shimotsuki Ushimaru shook his head. "Calm down. They need us to keep the country running. Lord Kozuki Sukiyaki won't be killed—yet."
"What's our next move?" asked Fūgetsu Miyui, brows knit. "We have to rescue Lord Sukiyaki."
"That'll take planning." Shimotsuki Kanga soothed them, eyes firm. "For now we obey orders, feel those two pirates out, and map their bottom line. Then we choose our moment."
"…That's all we can do."
Inside the shogun's mansion, Kaidō—of all people—was the cautious one for once.
"I doubt they'll sit still. Bet they're already scheming to topple us and spring Sukiyaki."
Dimon didn't even look up. "Relax. They can't do a thing."
Not because he looked down on Wano—well, maybe a little—but because this world respected one language only: force. Without Luffy's deus-ex-heroics, even a hundred years wouldn't rattle Kaidō's rule. Dignity rides on a blade's edge; truth travels the farthest at cannon range.
Kaidō grunted. "So why Wano? We're not hiding, are we? What's so special about this country?"
"Plenty." Dimon stood. "Come on. Let's pay Kozuki Sukiyaki a visit."
They descended into the secret cell. Sukiyaki, denied light and freedom for days, had been whittling little girl dolls to pass the time.
Dimon didn't comment on the hobby. He stepped in and went straight for the throat:
"Where is Pluton?"
The old man's hands trembled. He stared up, disbelieving.
Kaidō blinked. "Ancient weapon?"
"I don't know. Kill me," Sukiyaki spat, jaw set.
"You think stone walls and stubbornness will slow me down?" Dimon smiled thinly. "At worst I waste a little time."
Sukiyaki clamped his mouth shut. He wouldn't give them a syllable.
Dimon stopped humoring him. The interrogation turned physical—and thorough.
When the beating ended, Sukiyaki curled on the floor, face swollen, voice hoarse:
"Even if I told you, it's useless. An ancient weapon needs ancient script to awaken! Only the Kozuki pass that knowledge down. You can kill me; I'll never teach you!"
"Tough old bone." Dimon's lips quirked. "But here's the problem—I 'know' a little ancient text myself."
He'd devoured Kozuki Oden. Oden's knowledge was now his.
"Impossible…" Sukiyaki shook his head again and again, refusing to believe.
Dimon didn't argue. If the old man wouldn't talk, then they'd excavate.
They left the cell. "Keep him alive," Dimon ordered the Tide-Song Guard—the zealots who once summoned a demon and would now happily die for one. "Two meals a day. That's enough."
Outside, Kaidō caught up. "You were serious? Pluton's here?"
"Dead serious. We still have to find it. It's a super-dreadnought—one salvo erases an island." Dimon's eyes gleamed. "One day, I'd love to put a round straight into Mary Geoise. The Elders and Im won't die, but the view will be glorious."
"This island's huge. Where do we start?" Kaidō was hooked now. "We need manpower. We should found a crew and start recruiting."
"I've got a lead. North of the Capital—Mount Fuji. Pluton should be inside the mountain. There's also a Road Poneglyph down there; we'll copy it on the way."
Excavating a mountain took bodies—lots of them.
Wano overflowed with "samurai." Time to turn them into laborers.
That afternoon, a proclamation swept the nation:
By imperial edict: Lord Kozuki Sukiyaki, stricken by long illness, abdicates forthwith. The office of Shogun passes to Dimon.
Dimon had considered crowning Kaidō as co-shogun, but Kaidō couldn't care less—his mind was already on building his own crew.
The Flower Capital heard the news first; other provinces would lag a day.
In the streets, commoners traded rumors.
"Lord Sukiyaki? Sick? No way!"
"I saw him at the pleasure district last month. Healthy as an ox!"
"Even if he retires, shouldn't Kozuki Oden inherit?"
"That brat kidnapped my daughter back then. Him as shogun? Nightmare!"
"He's Daimyō of Kuri now. Maybe he's changed…"
Most shrugged—different master, same taxes. But the samurai class didn't take it lying down. Hundreds gathered before the mansion, demanding to see Sukiyaki.
Inside, Dimon enjoyed the idle luxuries of feudal nobility while maids attended him.
Old man Locke, captain of the Tide-Song Guard, bowed. "Lord Dimon, a crowd of samurai are outside. They demand an audience with Lord Sukiyaki."
"From now on, you handle small stuff," Dimon said lazily. "You ran a royal guard once. This is nothing."
Locke hesitated. "There are… quite a lot of them. At least several hundred, all armed."
That was inconvenient—Dimon lacked enough hands to police a capital.
He set his cup down. "Fetch Kaidō. Have him suppress the lot. Arrest every last one and ship them to Mount Fuji for excavation duty."
He stood, eyes turning cold. "And draft a new law."
"The Abolish-Swords Edict," Dimon said, every word a nail. "Within the Flower Capital, no samurai may bear a blade. Anyone caught hoarding weapons will be tried for treason."
Ruling a country wasn't a parlor game—and Wano, to him, was no sacred garden.
It was a worksite and playground.
"Go. Do it well," Dimon added, almost offhand, "and I'll grant you eternal life."
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