At the gate of the Kozuki residence, the air was thick with blood, the wind carrying a metallic, rusty stench. The once-imposing gate had become a nauseating display.
Kozuki Oden's limbs had been cut off, his whole body like a cicada pupa, bound and hung on the gate.
Kaido, on the other hand, sat cross-legged nearby with a sake gourd in hand, drinking casually as if it were none of his business.
Although Oden had lost his limbs, at their level, even using Armament-coated teeth as weapons was something ordinary fighters couldn't resist.
So, from the moment Kozuki Oden was captured, Kaido had been walking at his side.
Rosse hadn't even brought it up yet, but Kaido had already volunteered to take the task on.
The person he hated most wasn't Rosse.
Survival of the fittest: if you lose, you accept it.
The one he hated most was Kozuki Oden.
He had no real ability himself, yet he ran around provoking people he shouldn't, and ruined the fruits of Kaido's years of effort.
"Why aren't you wailing today? Say something, cry out a few times," Kaido took a long swig of sake and looked at the hung Kozuki Oden like he was watching a spectacle.
From Ringo to Kuri, the cleansing of the area had already begun.
That was a truly ruthless person.
Where he walked, if anyone showed even a hint of hostility, the whole family would be killed.
At that scene, not even Kozuki Oden, Kaido himself was stunned.
'Damn, is that the Marine?'
Regarding killing, Kaido found himself like a raw recruit, neither matching the World Government nor the Marine.
By today, Kuri had been slaughtered almost clean.
However, Kaido had found an opportunity to release those Kozuki retainers.
This wasn't his idea; he was following Rosse's orders.
He knew exactly what kind of people those retainers were.
Kaido immediately saw Rosse's intention: throw a bunch of idiots into the enemy camp so they'd reliably drag things down.
This incident taught him a lesson.
Opponent can be godlike, but fear pig-like teammates more.
And compared to that group of retainers, Kozuki Oden as a pig teammate was almost good.
Kaido couldn't imagine how messy things would be once those people defected to Whitebeard.
The key point: from Kaido's understanding of Whitebeard, Whitebeard probably wouldn't just ignore them.
After all, those were Oden's people, and Whitebeard abandoning Oden and fleeing was a fact.
Once the news of Oden's death spread today, even if those people overstepped, Whitebeard would likely choose tolerance.
That Whitebeard guy wasn't someone who handled big matters decisively.
Kaido gulped down his drink, used Observation Haki to check that no one else was around, and then casually shared his recent analysis with Oden.
Killing is simple.
But killing the heart, murdering the will, that was the goal.
Death is easy.
But before death, Kaido wanted to vent the resentment of the years of ruined efforts on Oden.
'You don't just ruin someone and then expect death to absolve you.'
"Damn you! You bastards!", Oden's voice was hoarse; he hadn't eaten properly for days.
Every day he drank Kaido's piss and ate Kaido's shit. [T/N: EWW!]
Every extra second alive was torture.
But sadly, this is the downside of being strong.
Even if he wanted to die, it wouldn't be so easy.
Especially with Kaido at his side, Kaido was at full strength; Oden could find no chance to kill himself.
"Hah, you've got only a few insults; you've got so little backbone."
Kaido scoffed, but seeing Oden finally react, he felt somewhat satisfied.
He'd heard there was an even harsher main course coming later, he was curious what it would be.
And that main course was about to arrive.
Kaido watched the interior of the residence with interest; in that direction, Toki was being held by Rosse as they walked over.
At this time, Oden hadn't put his Observation Haki out.
Since more and more people in Kuri kept dying, when his Observation Haki could only pick up wails and tragedies, he no longer dared to spread it outward.
But to keep Oden somewhat steady, Kaido arranged daily reserved spectacles, turning the gate into an execution ground and putting on a hundred-man execution show.
Even with his eyes closed, Oden could hear the sounds.
Only when Rosse and Toki reached Oden did he notice their arrival.
"You adulterer and wh*re!", Oden gnawed his teeth, eyes bloodshot, staring at Toki.
In his mind, Toki was the mastermind of all this.
If she hadn't informed, maybe he could have hidden well, and Rosse might not have targeted Wano.
"Kozuki Oden, you should be grateful for this. If you weren't stupid enough to throw her away, I wouldn't have been able to make her cooperate willingly," Rosse smiled as he tightened the cold-looking Toki in his arms.
This wasn't about forcing Toki to cooperate.
If he hadn't been the one holding her, he really feared Toki might have stabbed Oden.
Over the past days Toki had completely turned dark, especially in her attitude toward the Kozuki clan's people.
Rosse suspected Toki had developed an anti-stupidity disease—whenever she met idiots, she wanted to kill them.
"Hmph! You took Hiyori away just to force that stupid w*man into submission?", Oden said coldly.
"You're the idiot! Your whole family are idiots!", Toki suddenly lost her restraint and launched a torrent of abuse at Oden, "You think you hid well? Idiot! On the first day he came, you were already found out."
"I don't know what Observation Haki feels like, but you should know better than I do. If you can't do it yourself, why assume others can't?"
"Pfft!"
As Oden looked stupefied at the words, Kaido snorted and laughed, adding mockingly, "That's true. Before they came, I came to take a look. Even I knew you were hiding in that mansion's basement. Who did you think you were fooling?"
"And you don't think your hiding was good, that Wano people would obey you? When you first returned you were running around like you owned the place."
"You betrayed us?", Oden's heart was in turmoil, but he still glared at Kaido, unwilling to admit his own fault.
"Idiot!"
Kaido laughed and cursed, "Zephyr and Moria came to Wano earlier than you and never left; they didn't leave Wano, your every move was seen by them. Even when you were preparing to return to Wano and your retainers contacted you, Moria was eavesdropping at the Kozuki residence."
He'd known long ago that Zephyr and Moria didn't leave.
But that Moria had used his Devil Fruit ability to eavesdrop in person, Kaido only recently heard that from Moria.
That bastard now looked at him like a prisoner, taunting him with words Kaido wanted to spit back.
If not for Rosse's overwhelming strength making him completely give up, Kaido would have already dealt with that bastard long ago.
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