After being tempered by the Summit War and witnessing Whitebeard's fall, Ace had already come to understand that impulsiveness was not a good thing.
Moreover, when he saw the living, breathing Roger behind the iron bars, looking at him with a gentle smile, he could not help freezing in place.
The flames lingering in his palm quietly faded away.
Thinking carefully, his impression of Roger had always come from other people pointing fingers, from criticism and condemnation, all of it negative.
Yet he had never personally tried to search for the truth, nor had he ever truly understood this "Pirate King," this man whose blood flowed in his veins.
After a moment of silence, Ace slowly walked over to Garp's side and sat down cross-legged.
The distance and wariness in his expression gradually faded.
In the end, he let go of his prejudice and resentment, wanting to properly understand this father he had never met.
When Cain and Uta entered the light sphere invisibly and saw the three of them chatting happily, both of them froze.
"Wouldn't it be a bit inappropriate if we cut in now?" Cain asked softly.
Uta nodded.
She had heard about Ace and Roger's past from Cain before, and seeing this father and son finally set aside their grudges and talk properly, a trace of longing unexpectedly rose in her heart.
When would she be able to have a proper conversation with Shanks?
Just as the three of them were talking about the division commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, Roger suddenly sighed with emotion about Kozuki Oden.
Those words made Uta suddenly pause. She turned to Cain and said,
"Speaking of Kozuki Oden, something seems to have happened on Yamato's side."
Cain glanced at the three of them chatting and laughing, unwilling to disturb them too much.
He took Uta's hand and turned toward the light sphere where Yamato was.
The moment they stepped inside, an angry roar slammed into their ears.
"THUNDER BAGUA!"
As soon as the words fell, Kozuki Oden, who had been dancing naked in public in the Flower Capital, was struck hard by the kanabo in Yamato's hands.
His entire body flew straight backward.
The sight left Cain and Uta frozen in place yet again, their faces full of shock.
What's going on?
Yamato had always admired Kozuki Oden more than anyone.
Even though Cain's previous words had shaken her heart, that should not have reduced her worship of him by much.
So why had she suddenly attacked him now?
This scene was completely different from the other light spheres.
Cain and Uta had no time to think too much and immediately appeared beside Yamato, quickly asking what had happened.
It turned out that when Yamato first woke up inside this light sphere, she discovered that she had somehow returned to Wano.
While she was still stunned, she saw Kozuki Oden dancing in the square, looking miserable and ridiculous.
She instantly remembered everything Cain had told her about Oden before.
With a stubborn feeling pent up in her chest, she only wanted to step forward and ask him clearly.
She wanted to personally confirm that the Kozuki Oden in her heart was not as unbearable as Cain had described.
But no matter how Yamato questioned him or called out to him, Oden never said a word.
He simply continued dancing that humiliating, ridiculous dance on his own, as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.
"Say something!"
Yamato clenched her fists, her voice suddenly rising, filled with urgent questioning.
"I've already heard about it! Kaido and Orochi forced you to do this, didn't they?"
"They made you dance this humiliating dance in exchange for the safety of those hundreds of hostages, and they promised you that they'd leave Wano after five years?"
"But they're lying to you! Those hostages won't be saved, Wano won't be returned, and every single part of this is a lie!"
"There's still time now… as long as you tell everyone the truth! These people won't laugh at you anymore. Countless followers will immediately stand up and join you in defeating Kaido!"
Yamato shouted anxiously, suddenly raising her hand and pointing toward the gathered citizens around them, her eyes still holding the last trace of expectation.
"A promise…"
Oden's throat moved, and he spoke in a low voice.
"Sorry. For the sake of that promise…"
As he said that, he turned toward the surrounding people and shouted loudly.
"EVERYONE, DON'T LISTEN TO THIS GIRL'S NONSENSE! THERE IS NO SO-CALLED PROMISE, AND NO ONE FORCED ME! I'M DANCING BECAUSE I WANT TO!"
He deliberately puffed out his chest, allowing the mud on his body to slide down.
Yet his eyes avoided Yamato's gaze as he repeated to the crowd,
"I'm the one who wants to dance. It has nothing to do with anyone else! Don't be misled by false rumors!"
"A promise?"
Yamato staggered back a step, as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world.
Cain's words were once again proven true.
In her heart, the image of Kozuki Oden instantly fell by a large margin.
"You're actually talking about promises with pirates? What credibility do pirates have? What kind of man is Kaido? He's an invader who stole Wano!"
"He isn't a pirate like Whitebeard or Roger. How could you be naïve enough to believe his nonsense?"
Yamato's voice cracked with urgency, each word stabbing toward Oden.
"I've already told you the truth, so why are you still dancing? The five years they gave you aren't mercy at all! Those five years won't bring even the slightest bit of hope! Those hostages will be silenced by them sooner or later, and you won't escape death either!"
"By then, all of Wano will become their weapons factory."
She took half a step forward, her eyes filled with grief and questioning.
"Instead of throwing away all your dignity here and enduring humiliation just to survive, why don't you seek help from outside? Whitebeard, Roger—which one of them wasn't your companion back then? You clearly had a path forward, so why did you choose the stupidest, most hopeless one?"
Oden abruptly raised his eyes.
His throat moved, but in the end, he only slowly shook his head.
"You don't understand… It's enough for me alone to suffer this humiliation. If I resist, if even more people are hurt…"
"After all… as long as they haven't personally admitted it, there's still hope."
Hearing those words, Yamato felt her mind roar.
The things Cain had once said now matched everything before her, one after another.
"Kozuki Oden was too foolish."
Foolish enough to believe pirates.
Foolish enough to think he could save Wano by relying only on himself.
Foolish enough to think that if he submitted, the enemy would make concessions.
'So Cain had been right.'
What she had been obsessed with had never been Kozuki Oden as a person, but the spirit she could see in him.
And the Kozuki Oden standing here now did not possess that spirit.
"I don't understand?"
Yamato laughed mockingly at herself.
Her eyes reddened instantly, and she raised a hand to wipe away the tears rushing out.
Her voice tore out in a broken roar.
"YOU'RE RIGHT! I DON'T UNDERSTAND! I READ YOUR JOURNAL OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL EVERY WORD WAS CARVED INTO MY BONES! I WAS BORN AS 'KAIDO'S DAUGHTER,' BUT FROM BEGINNING TO END, I LIVED UNDER THE NAME 'KOZUKI ODEN'!"
"I resisted his imprisonment again and again. I was beaten black and blue again and again. Even with explosive shackles on my wrists, I never backed down. All of it was because I believed in you! I believed in every word written in your journal! I believed in the 'path of freedom' you taught me!"
"But now?"
She trembled as she pointed toward Oden's mud-covered, naked body.
Her voice suddenly sank like ice, and the burning worship that had once filled her eyes completely turned into cold scrutiny.
"I've seen you with my own eyes. You can't even protect your own dignity. You don't even have the courage to resist! How am I supposed to believe those grand words weren't just lies you told yourself?"
"I finally understand!"
Her voice abruptly rose, carrying the decisiveness of someone burning every bridge behind her.
"The one I admired was never you, Kozuki Oden! It was only the spiritual illusion in that journal—the fearless, reckless, untamed spirit that would burn everything for freedom!"
"I treated that light as if it were your entire being, but I forgot that an illusion is still only an illusion. And you are nothing more than a coward who doesn't even dare resist, who can only trade his dignity for a hollow hope!"
Tears kept sliding down her cheeks.
The teachings of the samurai in the cave echoed again and again in her mind.
Yamato sniffed, her voice filled with painful mockery.
"I truly feel sorry for 'so-and-so' and the others! They were just like me, so obsessed with that so-called spirit of yours that they forgot you were never as great as they imagined!"
"KOZUKI ODEN DIED LONG AGO!"
She suddenly drew her kanabo, lightning crackling around her body. Her eyes were filled with bone-deep disgust and complete severance.
"From the moment you bowed your head to Kaido, he was already dead! What stands here now is nothing more than a speck of dust left from his final glory!"
"THUNDER BAGUA!"