She suddenly spread her arms wide, unleashing the full power of her Soul-Soul Fruit!
Zeus the thundercloud, Prometheus the sun, and even Napoleon transformed into barriers, desperately shielding Katakuri, Smoothie, Cracker, and the other core children.
"Mother?!" Katakuri looked at her in shock.
For a rare moment, a glint of determination appeared in Linlin's eyes: "Go!! Everyone retreat!!"
She knew very well that if they kept fighting, everyone would die here.
Rhett did not pursue.
He simply raised his hand slowly. This time, he was going to completely clear the field. The war was already over.
The blood mist swept across the battlefield like a tidal wave, swallowing all the remaining Beasts Pirates remnants and Big Mom Pirates grunts who couldn't escape.
Inside the mist, their life force flowed like a gentle stream into his body, stored within him.
In the distance, Kaido had already broken through with his three All-Stars and reached the open sea. His azure dragon body circled in the sky, taking one last look at the battlefield. His dragon eyes were filled with unwillingness.
"Rhett... I will settle this score someday!"
"If you dare target Wano again, I promise you will die."
Still inside the mist field and he's already talking tough, is that right?
Get the hell down here!
Kaido fell from the sky.
Rhett instantaneously appeared in the air, grabbing the hair of Kaido, who had transformed back into human form.
At this point, Rhett fighting Kaido was like a father beating his son. For the first time, Rhett saw fear in Kaido's eyes. That was enough.
Rhett performed a German suplex and threw him toward Oden.
Oden caught him mid-air.
"Peach Garden Ten Hands."
The impact sent Kaido flying into the sea.
Kaido's chest should now have a cross-shaped scar, with two additional marks left by Rhett at God Valley.
Linlin, meanwhile, boarded the last remaining warship with her surviving core children and fled without looking back.
The entire sea around Wano finally returned to brief silence.
Regarding this war, Rhett had a clear understanding. The main factors that made the World Government and Navy wary were, first, his strength, and second, the turbulent state of the seas.
Moreover, Kaido and Charlotte Linlin alone did not pose a threat. Their core members couldn't die either. If they did, it wouldn't be much different from killing the Emperors themselves.
Besides, these forces were like Schrodinger's forces. It wasn't certain who they were really gathering for.
But if Rhett had killed them, the Navy would be at the doorstep of Rhett's enterprises tomorrow.
After all, if two future Emperors fell at the same time, the World Government would not just sit by.
Everyone knew that the reason Rhett dared to expand his power so aggressively was because of his broken abilities and the World Government's reluctance to deploy troops on a large scale.
If Linlin and Kaido died here today, all the pressure would fall on Rhett and Whitebeard's forces.
In the original story, it was the four Emperors, the Navy, the World Government, and the other smaller pirate crews that maintained the basic balance of the seas.
Killing two would undoubtedly disrupt that balance. Rhett's business was thriving. Why would he invite trouble for himself?
In the original story, the reason the Navy only had one G-1 branch firmly planted in the New World wasn't because the Navy didn't want to enter the New World.
It was because the pirates wouldn't allow it.
Regarding Whitebeard's war at Marineford, part of it was because Ace's identity as the Pirate King's son had been exposed.
The other part, Rhett believed, was that the Navy wanted to enter the New World. They planned to use Whitebeard's territory as a stepping stone.
The Marineford war was a failure for the Navy in terms of immediate results, but strategically, the Navy's strategy was clearly successful.
Rhett could have done better, sure.
But just like with wealth, the World Government allowed it to belong to anyone, but not to only one person.
Fighting the World Government and the Navy on behalf of some unfamiliar pirates? Come on, don't be ridiculous.
Rhett considered himself great buddies with the Five Elders. They were like "flesh and blood" to him.
Didn't you see how the Five Elders helped Rhett when he was starting out?
That's power. That's navigating personal relationships.
After the bloody battle, dawn arrived. The sky was gray like lead.
On the streets of the Flower Capital, white mourning banners hung low.
Rows of plain white coffins were neatly arranged in the center of the square. On each coffin lay a broken katana.
The cruelty of battle in One Piece made it difficult to leave behind a complete corpse.
No fancy decorations. No elaborate ceremonies. Only tens of thousands of silent Wano citizens standing on both sides, holding simple paper lanterns.
Kozuki Oden stood at the very front, his body covered in bandages.
"Everyone..." His voice was hoarse beyond recognition. "I promised to show you the day Wano's borders open."
The firelight reflected in his reddened eyes.
Behind him, the Red Scabbards carried the coffins, walking at the front. Every step they took was steady.
Denjiro's right eye was covered in gauze. Kawamatsu's fish-man skin was covered in burn scars. Kin'emon bit his lip hard to keep his sobs from escaping.
"Thud—"
The muffled sound of a coffin falling into a grave was like a funeral bell striking everyone's heart.
No one knew who started it.
A single rough paper money was thrown into the air. Then a second. Then a third. Soon, the entire square was covered in "snow."
The paper money landed on the pale faces of samurai, on the clenched fists of children, on the trembling shoulders of the elderly.
A little girl who had lost her father stood on her tiptoes, trying to put a paper offering into the coffin, but she couldn't reach.
Marco silently crouched down, lifted her by the waist, and held her up high.
"Daddy..." The little girl placed a crooked paper crane on her dead father's chest. "You promised to teach me to be a great female samurai..."
On the paper crane's wings, written in crooked handwriting, were the words "Love you, Dad."
When night fell, Oden lit the first torch.
"Wano..." His voice flickered in and out in the firelight. "Will never forget the blood and fire of today."
This was the highest level funeral ceremony in Wano.
The firelight reflected in Rhett's pupils. He stood at the very back of the crowd, then turned and walked away.
Tesoro watched Rhett leaving and called out to him: "Captain?"
"I don't like watching goodbyes," Rhett said without looking back.
Tesoro stared at Rhett's departing figure.
He quickly caught up.
"Captain," he lowered his voice, "are we really just letting Kaido and Linlin go like that?"
Rhett didn't stop. The blood mist surged silently around him.
"Tesoro," Rhett's voice was calm but terrifyingly different from usual, "what do you think this war was for?"
Tesoro was stunned. Revenge? Justice? To keep Wano alive?
"Revenge? Justice?" Rhett let out a scornful laugh. "Keeping Wano alive is just one part of it. When I came to Wano, I never expected such an opportunity."
"From now on, the New World answers to me."
He stopped and looked toward the distant, slowly dissipating smoke of battle.
As the last wisp of smoke disappeared into the sky, Oden suddenly drew his sword and cut off his own topknot.
"Swish!"
Black hair fell in scattered strands.
"Effective immediately, I, Kozuki Oden, declare again that Wano will open its borders when the prophecy arrives and when my benefactor needs it—" He raised his broken sword to the sky.
Nine bloodstained swords were simultaneously driven into the ground at once. The Red Scabbards' voices tore through the night sky:
"Open the borders—"
"Open the borders!!!"
The people's sobs finally burst forth, but were quickly suppressed into low, choked whimpers.
One by one, they stepped forward and poured their sake over the graves of the samurai.
The sake seeped into the soil, mixing with the still-damp blood, glowing faintly red under the moonlight.