"The same surname as Kozuki Oden? Was he Oden's brother?"
Yamato stared at the gravestone in a daze.
Kyoshiro hurried forward and bowed before explaining,
"This man was not a member of the Kozuki Family. All I know is that he came from outside Wano."
"The people of Ringo granted him the Kozuki name after his death to honor the debt they owed him."
"Huh? They could just give someone the Kozuki name?"
Yamato blinked, then turned toward Kyoshiro.
"If I remember correctly, every Shogun in Wano's history had to come from the Kozuki Family, right?"
"Wouldn't that mean he was qualified to inherit the position too? Unlike me and Kurozumi Orochi, he would've had a legitimate claim!"
Kyoshiro's brow furrowed briefly before smoothing out again.
"Does the Shogun wish to take the Kozuki name as well?"
"No way! I don't need to cling to someone else's name. Being Yamato is enough for me!"
"And I'm staying Shogun whether my claim is legitimate or not. I might be relying on Kaido's support right now, but someday, I'll make every person in Wano willingly accept me as their Shogun!"
"But still…"
Yamato stared at the name Kozuki Moria carved into the headstone.
The longer she looked, the more familiar it seemed.
She rubbed her chin, placed the empty food container on the ground, and bowed solemnly before the grave.
When she straightened again, her brow remained slightly furrowed as she turned toward Kyoshiro.
"You said the people gave him the Kozuki name because they were grateful to him. What exactly did he do?"
"What kind of favor would make the people of Ringo give an outsider the most precious surname in all of Wano?"
Kyoshiro paused internally.
He had assumed the new Shogun was merely curious for a moment, but she clearly intended to dig deeper.
After years spent undercover beside Orochi, deception came naturally to him.
Yamato, however, was different.
He still could not decide what kind of attitude he should take around her. One careless sentence might expose his true identity.
Suppressing the thoughts churning inside him, he answered evenly and chose only the safest facts.
When Moria was young, he had drifted into Wano from overseas, and the kindhearted people of Ringo had taken him in.
During the second year of Kozuki Oden's humiliating public dances in the Flower Capital, Moria learned that Kaido had invaded Wano.
He gathered his companions and challenged Kaido directly.
His entire crew was wiped out.
Not even their bodies were recovered, so the people could only raise this empty grave in his memory.
As he explained, Kyoshiro deliberately emphasized the timing.
He could not read Yamato's intentions and dared not openly judge who had been right or wrong.
This was the only safe way to quietly express his loyalty to Kozuki Oden.
"I see."
Yamato suddenly laughed softly.
"No wonder he deserved the Kozuki name."
"A name willingly given by the people is far more valuable than one inherited through blood."
Yamato understood that Wano's people had never needed a carefree Shogun who wanted to sail around the world.
They needed someone who would stand in front of them the moment they were mistreated.
Oden had died without ever fully understanding that lesson.
Yet this man named Moria had understood it from the very beginning.
At that moment, the name Moria, combined with Kyoshiro's story about his battle against Kaido, finally connected to something in Yamato's memory.
When Ace had been considering becoming a Warlord, he had specifically explained the members to her.
One of the former Warlords, removed from the organization just like Blackbeard, had been a man named Gecko Moria.
According to Luffy, that man had also fought Kaido.
Could they be the same person?
Yamato quickly shook her head and stopped thinking about it.
Putting this much together had already pushed her limited brainpower close to its limit.
Still, when she had time, she could sail out and meet him to confirm whether he was truly the owner of this grave.
In Yamato's eyes, Kozuki Moria—the man who had risked his life for the people of Ringo—was far more deserving of the Kozuki name than Oden, who had spent years dancing like a fool in the streets.
"Oh, right."
Yamato began packing her belongings and looked toward Kyoshiro.
"Come with me to the entrance waterfall in a few days. Bring every person you have."
"There might be a hard battle."
"If we win, Wano won't have to worry about food for a while."
Yamato had exhausted nearly every brain cell she possessed before finally devising this solution to Wano's urgent food shortage.
To Kyoshiro, however, those words instantly tore him away from his earlier thoughts.
A chill shot up his spine, and his arm began trembling uncontrollably.
Countless suspicions flooded his mind at once.
'Has she already seen through my disguise?'
'Does she want me to bring everyone because she's targeting my forces?'
'Is this really about obtaining food, or is she planning to wipe us all out?'
'Did I reveal something?'
His thoughts descended into chaos.
His hand instinctively settled over the sword at his waist, his fingertips growing cold.
Then he looked at Yamato's open, straightforward expression and gradually calmed himself.
Whatever her intentions, now was not the time to expose his identity.
He had endured for eighteen years.
He could endure this too.
Suppressing his doubts, he bowed and answered solemnly,
"Yes, Shogun. I will gather everyone and await your orders."
…
Meanwhile, a masked wanderer had appeared among the ruins of Oden Castle in Kuri.
He never accepted the food Yamato distributed and survived entirely by begging in the streets.
No one knew where he had come from, and he relied on Tenguyama Hitetsu of Amigasa Village to keep him alive.
Every night, he searched through the ruins of Oden Castle while repeatedly muttering Lady Toki's old prophecy.
The wanderer was none other than Kurozumi Orochi, who had narrowly survived Kaido's attack.
As the user of the Mythical Zoan, Model: Yamata no Orochi, he possessed eight lives.
Kaido's blows had taken three of them, but Orochi used his remaining lives to fake his death and deceive everyone.
Now that he understood Kaido could no longer be relied upon, and with intelligence from his spy Kanjuro, Orochi had become even more convinced that Oden's retainers—the same men whose existence had haunted him for years—would return here in accordance with the prophecy.
So he waited within the ruins.
Two years from now, when someone finally overthrew Kaido, he intended to work with Kurozumi Kanjuro from inside and outside, then seize control of Wano once more.
His presence here would eventually cause enormous trouble for Momonosuke's group when they arrived two years later.
…
Several days passed.
This was Wano's most dangerous entrance.
The atmosphere had already become razor-tense, stretched like a bowstring on the verge of snapping.
Kaido had received news several days earlier and personally ordered King the Wildfire to defend the area.
The Beasts Pirates' elite forces sealed off the entire shore, their cannons aimed toward the sea as they waited for the approaching ship.
Along the coastline, Yamato and Kyoshiro's forces faced the defenders in a tense standoff.
The stalemate did not last long.
A piercing roar echoed from the sky.
King transformed into his pteranodon form, spread his black wings, and dove toward the ocean beyond the waterfall beneath a crushing wave of wind pressure.
Kyoshiro tightened his grip on his sword until veins rose along the back of his hand.
His gaze swept across the battlefield, his heart still full of confusion.
Even now, he had no idea what Yamato's plan was or what she intended to accomplish.
At that moment, Yamato stomped hard enough to shatter the rock beneath her feet and roared at King in the air,
"STOP RIGHT THERE! I WON'T LET YOU DO IT!"
As Yamato shouted, an enormous snow-white sailing ship surged up the waterfall's raging current.
The emblem of the Whitebeard Pirates stood proudly upon its bow.
It was the rebuilt Moby Dick.
These were the reinforcements Yamato had called in.
The Whitebeard Pirates.
Her solution was simple.
If Wano lacked food, they would buy it from overseas.
If they lacked money, they would pay later.
Izo had willingly provided the funds to purchase grain.
The others either remembered their friendship with Kozuki Oden or felt indebted to Yamato for helping save Ace during the Summit War.
Together, they had gathered enough supplies for Yamato and Wano.
King recognized the ship immediately, and killing intent surged through his eyes.
"The remnants of Whitebeard?"
"You defeated strays can barely protect yourselves. Did you come here to avenge Oden?"
"Who gave you the courage?"
The instant he finished speaking, King folded his wings and plunged downward at tremendous speed, preparing to kick the Moby Dick's hull.
As one of the Beasts Pirates' All-Stars, his strength was more than enough to send the massive ship tumbling back into the depths and smash it apart.
But just before his foot struck the hull, a crimson flash wrapped in Conqueror's Haki erupted.
A heavy fist layered with both Armament and Conqueror's Haki slammed directly into King's face.
The tremendous force knocked him out of the sky and straight into the sea, sending waves several meters high crashing outward.
A booming laugh traveled across the shore on the ocean wind, shattering the battlefield's murderous tension.
"BWAHAHAHAHA! YAMATO, I'M HERE!"
---
God damn it this fic fallen off, the author has unhealthy amount of lesbian kink, bro always change cain to woman so he can have some lesbian time with uta -_-, i already erased it so you dont need to read that part unless you are into that too.