"Hey! Have you heard? There's a towering foreigner who recently arrived at Port Itachi. He says he's a pirate and wants to see the legendary samurai of this nation, so he's setting up an open challenge ring!"
"I heard! I heard! They say a dozen masterless samurai have already been violently defeated by him! He even boasted on the ring, publicly declaring that the so-called legendary samurai of Wano Country are nothing special!"
In the lively taverns of Bakura Town, situated below Oden Castle in the Kuri region, a few local passersby were gossiping loudly after a few cups of sake.
Kozuki Oden —the current beloved Daimyo of Kuri and the sole legitimate candidate for the next Shogun of Wano Country—happened to be walking past these people on his way to the market.
He immediately twitched his ears when he heard these hushed conversations. He paused, softly mumbling a few words to himself.
"Foreigner...?"
"Pirate...?"
Those two specific, taboo keywords instantly reignited his restless, adventurous spirit, which had gradually calmed down over the years of managing his territory. His once mature and steady eyes suddenly became wild and lively once more.
Whoosh!
A fierce wind howled through the street. Kozuki Oden appeared as if teleported directly among the chatting individuals, grabbing two of them by the collars.
"What were you just talking about?! What foreigner?! What pirate?!" Oden demanded, his eyes wide with desperate excitement.
"O-Oden-sama!!"
The terrified passersby found themselves locked in Kozuki Oden's two massive arms. Since Oden was their respected Daimyo, they dared not conceal anything and stammered out all the rumors they knew.
What they said could be simply summarized in one sentence. Or rather, Kozuki Oden only selectively heard one sentence: A person from the outside world had arrived at Port Itachi with a ship!
"Thank you for the information!! I'm going to personally teach that arrogant foreigner a lesson right now!!"
Leaving this dubious excuse hanging in the air, Kozuki Oden released them, swung his massive wooden clogs—clack-clack-clack—and ran rapidly towards Port Itachi like a localized typhoon.
Not long after, probably only a few minutes.
Kozuki Oden's loyal retainers, Kin'emon, Denjiro, and the others, returned to Oden Castle after finishing their political studies with Shimotsuki Yasuie in Hakumai. However, they did not find Kozuki Oden anywhere on the grounds.
They asked Kanjuro, who was supposedly on duty guarding the castle, but Kanjuro claimed he knew absolutely nothing of his lord's whereabouts.
By evening, Kozuki Oden was still nowhere to be found. In their rising urgency, the retainers began frantically searching the streets of Bakura Town.
It wasn't until they also learned from the bruised passersby that a foreigner had arrived at Port Itachi that they immediately cried out in sheer, panicked alarm.
"Oden-sama!!"
"You are the one who will inevitably inherit the Shogun's position of all Wano Country! You absolutely cannot try to go out to sea again!!"
"Quick, quick, quick! Everyone to Port Itachi! We must stop Oden-sama before he jumps on a pirate ship!!"
Back to Kozuki Oden.
After learning that a foreigner had arrived at Port Itachi, he didn't inform a single soul and rushed there impatiently.
Wearing a pair of massive wooden clogs, dressed only in an orange kimono with a huge purple and white shimenawa rope tied around his shoulders and waist, his white fundoshi was faintly visible as he sprinted wildly across the countryside.
Finally, after running without stopping for hours, he successfully arrived at the abandoned shores of Port Itachi.
He stood on a small hill outside the natural harbor, slightly out of breath, his gaze full of absolute, burning anticipation as he looked ahead.
There, in a deserted clearing near the rocky beach, a colossal, muscular man with two curved horns on his head sat cross-legged on a simple, charred wooden challenge ring.
The wooden ring and the surrounding weeds were completely burned clean by fire. More than a dozen armored samurai Oden didn't recognize lay groaning or unconscious on the surrounding ash, their weapons shattered.
"Hahaha! A massive man with horns on his head! There's absolutely no one who looks like that in Wano Country! He really is a foreigner!!"
Kozuki Oden let out a loud, excited cheer. Once again moving his large wooden clogs—clack-clack-clack—he rushed violently down from the hillside, kicking up a massive dust cloud.
Kaido, who was sitting bored on the challenge ring, had actually noticed Kozuki Oden's approach long ago through his Observation Haki. There was no way around it; that wildly excited, untamed aura made it impossible for a seasoned warrior not to notice.
Moreover, although Kozuki Oden was politically naive and lacking in many aspects of leadership, his raw fighting strength was undeniably absolute. Neither the current Kaido, nor his peak Emperor-self in the original timeline, could ever treat a combatant of Kozuki Oden's supreme caliber as a mere grunt.
"Finally, someone interesting has actually arrived!"
Kaido bared his sharp teeth in a ferocious, bloodthirsty smile. He stood up from the smoldering challenge ring and lazily picked up his massive kanabo, Hassaikai.
"FOREIGNER!! How did you manage to come to Wano Country?! Do you know navigation?!"
Kozuki Oden shouted enthusiastically as he sprinted. At the exact same time, his hands gripped the hilts of the two legendary longswords at his waist—Enma and Ame no Habakiri.
Advanced Armament Haki (Ryuo), resembling flowing, ethereal cherry blossoms, flowed violently from Oden's arms and poured into the unsheathed twin swords, the blades immediately emitting a terrifying, vibrating hum.
A hint of absolute seriousness flashed in Kaido's reptilian eyes. Crackle, crackle, crackle.
Purplish-blue lightning was released from his entire massive body, violently mixing with his equally flowing Armament Haki, coiling densely around the spiked iron club in his hand.
"Oden Two-Sword Style—"
Seeing the sheer, physical threat of Kaido's stance, Kozuki Oden exuded a fierce, demonic aura not a single fraction weaker than Kaido's, a wild, joyful smile stretching across his face.
Oden stomped hard, shattering the bedrock, and leaped high into the air. Black-and-red Supreme King (Haoshoku) lightning suddenly erupted from both sword blades as he struck down at Kaido with the speed of a falling meteor.
"Heh! You're trying to play dirty by jumping me from the start?!"
Kaido's eyes also filled with arrogant, primal excitement. He tightened his grip on his kanabo, planting his feet firmly. His right arm made a massive, apocalyptic swing upward, and black-and-red Haoshoku lightning violently erupted from the spiked club with the surge of raw kinetic power.
"Togen Shirataki!!" (Paradise Waterfall)
"Thunder Bagua!!"
The Haki-drenched twin swords descended from the sky like the wrath of the gods, and Kaido's Haki-drenched kanabo met them violently from below.
CLAAAAAANG!!!!
Their Supreme Grade weapons collided in mid-air. An apocalyptic shockwave of black-and-red Haki lightning tore through the sky, violently splitting the clouds above Port Itachi. The sheer kinetic impact cratered the earth beneath them, yet both of their faces were etched with manic, excited smiles at having finally met a truly worthy opponent.
"CAN YOU TAKE ME OUT TO SEA?!" Oden roared over the sound of the exploding Haki.
"What?!" Kaido grunted, genuinely confused by the sheer absurdity of the question mid-clash.
Sensing the sheer, overwhelming physical pressure of Oden's descending swords and the very real possibility of being physically overwhelmed in his base form, Kaido decisively activated his Mythical Zoan transformation.
He shifted instantly into his hulking, scaled Human-Beast form, unleashing an even stronger, devastating burst of Haki and draconic power, and violently struck Kozuki Oden flying against the tide of his own attack.
Kozuki Oden's powerful body was sent rocketing backward through the air. He crashed heavily into the small hill he had just run down from, creating a massive, deep crater as smoke and dust rose everywhere.
"You bastard!!"
Kaido put away his combat stance, angrily propping his kanabo onto the charred wooden challenge ring, the sheer weight of it creating a shallow dent. Two thick streams of white, hot air puffed angrily from his draconic nostrils as he glared at the dust cloud, asking with profound annoyance, "What the hell did you suddenly just ask me?!"
"Hahahahahaha!!"
From deep within the settling smoke on the small hill, Kozuki Oden's loud, booming laughter rang out. The Daimyo stepped out of the crater, dusting off his kimono, completely unharmed by the devastating strike.
"I was just politely asking! Do you know navigation?! If you do, can you let me board your ship and take me out to sea with you?!"
Kaido's scaly mouth couldn't help but twitch violently in disbelief. He stared at the dancing fool.
"Who the hell are you?" Kaido simply asked, resting his club on his shoulder. "Why the hell do you want to go out to sea so badly?"
Kozuki Oden's face showed a joyful, utterly unrestrained smile.
"My name is Kozuki Oden! I'm completely fed up with the rigid, suffocating rules of this country! I want to leave this closed-off rock! I want to go on a grand adventure in the outside world!"
"So... you are Kozuki Oden?"
Kaido narrowed his reptilian eyes, beginning to seriously, analytically examine this bizarre man who seemingly only wanted to go out to sea.
According to the highly detailed political intelligence provided by the Kurozumi family, the absolute strongest samurai in all of Wano Country right now was undeniably this man named Kozuki Oden. Besides his martial prowess, he was also the sole, legitimate candidate for the next Shogun.
"If I remember my history correctly, 'Kozuki' seems to be the royal family name of this entire country," Kaido stated slowly, taking a step forward. "Looking at your current age and the swords at your waist, you are most likely the crown prince of this nation."
Kaido scoffed, a dark, cynical look crossing his face. "As the sole heir to the country... why do you want to go out to sea so desperately? Don't you even want to bear the responsibilities of protecting your own nation?"
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