"This won't do. If your forces become too strong, it'll be quite troublesome for me."
Kurozumi Orochi sat in the Flower Capital, watching the footage transmitted through the Visual Den Den Mushi, looking for all the world like a master strategist.
Of course he knew about Kozuki Oden's prison break plan at the quarry. Leaving aside the spy he had planted right beside them, Kuri alone had sent him plenty of advance warnings.
He hadn't intended to intervene too much in this affair. Whether Kozuki Oden or Kaido grew stronger, neither outcome was particularly good for him.
Now that Kozuki Oden had been rescued, he certainly couldn't just let them all withdraw unscathed.
"Fukurokuju, did you bring the people I asked for?" Orochi called out toward the empty corridor outside.
Like a ghost, a figure materialized in the doorway.
"A woman and two children — they've been brought back." Fukurokuju bowed slightly.
Kurozumi Orochi couldn't see his expression through the shoji screen, but he maintained an appearance of complete deference.
"However, the woman kept resisting and the child wouldn't stop crying, so I knocked them all unconscious."
As the leader of the Orochi Oniwabanshu and a ninja, he followed only the commands of the current shogun. He cared little for anyone else, even those of the so-called legitimate bloodline.
Of course, that was putting it diplomatically. In his eyes, siding with Orochi was clearly the more promising path. Kozuki Oden and his followers were practically wanted criminals now.
Even so, Orochi didn't fully trust him either. Orochi had only told him to bring three people back, but Fukurokuju didn't actually know who those three people were.
He assumed the notoriously woman-averse Orochi had a taste for married women with children.
Though that woman did have a certain appeal, and a rather strong-willed personality to boot.
"It's fine. Lock them up, but don't hurt them for now."
"By the way, you left the letter where I told you, correct?" Orochi grinned wickedly.
Lady Kozuki and her children — these were the heaviest bargaining chips in Orochi's hand.
"It's been placed." The long-eared man nodded, and seeing that Orochi had no further instructions, he departed.
Kurozumi Orochi thought for a moment, then clapped his hands. Two samurai immediately emerged from the shadows.
Both samurai stood over two and a half meters tall, clad in airtight armor. Looking closely, their attire bore a strong resemblance to the Meito Musubi of Inazuma, though this style of dress wouldn't raise suspicion in Wano.
After all, the military forces of each region wore similar armor, differing only in the designs of their masks. Kurozumi Orochi had specially modified the armor, even changing the crests to depict biting serpents.
"It's about time. Have the ambushing Mimawariguchi make their move." Kurozumi Orochi ordered.
Of course he wouldn't send these two samurai to reinforce the quarry now — that would be impossible to reach in time. In truth, he had already laid an ambush there. With Oden and the others having charged deep into the quarry, they had walked right into his trap.
The two samurai received the order and pulled out Den Den Mushi.
Meanwhile.
The Mimawariguchi, dressed in ronin garb and wearing tattered straw hats, used grappling hooks to scale the quarry walls amid the chaos of battle. Looking down at the combatants shouting below, they chose to fire from the shadows.
In a direct confrontation, they stood no chance against Kozuki Oden and his warriors, but they could whittle away at their strength from a distance.
"Let's test these modified weapons on you!"
One of the Mimawariguchi grabbed a crossbow, loaded a bolt, then inserted a purple crystal-like object into the side.
This was an electrical crystal — a crystal that constantly released electricity, granting the bolts devastating power. Its destructive force even exceeded that of the existing flintlock rifles.
The dark night was suddenly pierced by a faint glimmer of light. Amid the intermittent flare of flames, the bolts themselves were barely noticeable.
It wasn't until several samurai who had been on the verge of killing their foes were suddenly pierced through the chest and collapsed stiffly that anyone realized something was wrong.
"Be careful, there are enemies in the shadows!"
Kin'emon and the others were fighting four Head Jailers. Hearing someone shout, they instinctively glanced in that direction — and in that moment of distraction, both Kin'emon and Izo were struck by the Mimawariguchi's bolts.
Kin'emon, caught off guard, was pierced through the chest. The cross-shaped bolthead made the wound bleed profusely.
But he gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and somehow managed to stay on his feet!
Izo was not so lucky. A bolt pierced his lower leg, and he pitched forward. The Devil Fruit user he had been fighting — a hyena — seized the opportunity and clawed through half his chest in a single strike!
It must be said that people's physical constitutions vary greatly. Kin'emon's toughness was not something Izo could match.
"Brother!" Kikunojo's pupils contracted the moment he saw the scene. He abandoned his opponent and lunged frantically toward Izo.
This left his back completely exposed to the enemy!
"Kiku!"
Denjiro shouted. He fended off attacks from his own enemies while trying to warn Kikunojo. Kikunojo realized his mistake in that instant, spun around and swung his blade, driving his foe back.
The Rhino Fruit user had been about to take advantage of the opening to run Kikunojo through, but the attack failed. Instead, a shallow scratch was left on the enormous rhino horn.
"Phew—"
Kikunojo panted heavily. He couldn't afford to be distracted, so he could only keep calling out to his brother.
"Brother, brother, are you o—"
But he only got halfway through before disaster struck. A red light crashed down from the sky like a taut crimson thread, plummeting straight to the ground.
"Shhk—"
Blood sprayed like a fountain.
"Aaagh—!" The pain sent Kikunojo crashing to the ground. His severed arm — still gripping its sword — was kicked away.
"Missed, huh? Only took off one arm!" The attacker kicked Kikunojo's severed limb aside, then slowly raised his head, his blood-red gaze fixing on Kin'emon and the others.
"Reinforcements from Orochi?" Dekiro, one of the Head Jailers, breathed a sigh of relief. He had been finding these samurai rather troublesome, and with reinforcements arriving, they might at least recoup some of their losses.
"You Kaido people — what the hell are you doing?" The Mimawariguchi's tone was far from polite.
They were only in a cooperative relationship with Kaido, not his subordinates.
"Something this big happens, and does Kaido even know?"
"We've already contacted Onigashima, but reinforcements will take some time." Dekiro panted.
"What about you? Kozuki Oden has returned to the country — how did you not have a single piece of intelligence on this?"
This guy was already starting to shift the blame.
[
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