"One, two, three—run for it?"
Hyogoro froze in place, then grabbed Nekomamushi's arm and shouted,
"Nekomamushi, what nonsense are you saying? Don't forget—we're samurai! Even if we know we'll lose, my honor would never allow me to run!"
"Hah! So that's what a samurai is? Just a bunch of useless fools. I'll start by turning this brat into an appetizer!"
Barbaruk suddenly lunged from the crowd.
He had hidden himself during the charge, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Though he often acted like a fool, as the warden, he knew danger when he saw it.
He scanned the group and locked onto the youngest one—the one casually sipping from a wine gourd.
"Kid, you've only got yourself to blame for standing out. Now die!"
Barbaruk roared with a twisted grin.
His massive elephant trunk surged with Armament Haki, swinging down like an iron whip with a thunderous whoosh toward Luo Yu.
BOOM!
A deep, resounding impact echoed across the battlefield.
Everyone froze.
The trunk, crashing down with the force of a mountain, was stopped inches from Luo Yu by a translucent thousand-armed figure.
A glowing image of Kannon shimmered around Luo Yu's body.
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi tensed instantly, shouting:
"Run! Now!"
Run?
Hyogoro, the kappa, and the other prisoners were stunned.
Wasn't this the moment to charge?
Why were they running before even fighting?
But before they could process it—
Luo Yu suddenly looked up, and an indescribable aura exploded from him like a volcanic eruption.
BOOM!
A tangible wave of Conqueror's Haki burst forth, crashing like a tidal wave.
Barbaruk, who had been just steps away, felt as if a mountain had slammed into him. His eyes bulged, and he coughed up blood as he was launched like a cannonball.
He crashed into the guards behind him, sending dozens flying.
The remaining hundreds of guards, seeing the overwhelming wave of Haki descending upon them, panicked and fled in terror.
It was like a tsunami.
Hyogoro, the kappa, and the others were stunned.
They felt as if they were drowning in a storm surge, unable to breathe.
Now they understood why Nekomamushi and Inuarashi had shouted for them to run.
Recalling their earlier warning, they didn't hesitate any longer. They turned and bolted after the two retainers.
"You bastard! You said you'd count to three—where was the count?"
"I did count to three… in my head!"
Nekomamushi shouted without looking back.
Hyogoro stumbled at the reply, nearly falling flat.
But there was no time to argue. With death chasing at their heels, he pushed his body to the limit and ran for his life.
He couldn't help but glance back.
And what he saw stunned him.
The massive wave of Conqueror's Haki crashed into Udon's main gate like a towering tsunami.
BOOM!
A colossal shockwave, like a Category 12 hurricane, swept across the entire quarry.
Even those who had fled far were thrown off their feet by the blast.
No one knew how much time passed before the dust finally settled.
Hyogoro and the others, exhausted and sprawled a kilometer away, struggled to their feet and looked back.
Their eyes widened in disbelief.
It was destroyed.
The supposedly indestructible steel gates of Udon had been blown apart, leaving a gaping hole.
The twin gates, each dozens of meters tall, lay shattered on the ground.
The once-flat quarry was now a wasteland—everything within a kilometer of Luo Yu had been obliterated.
Hundreds of guards lay unconscious, bloodied and broken.
Barbaruk, the warden, was embedded in a cliffside, eyes rolled back, completely unconscious.
One strike. That was all it took.
The entire Udon guard force was annihilated.
The gates of Udon were shattered.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, no one would have believed it.
They turned to the lone figure still standing, sipping from his wine gourd.
Everyone swallowed hard.
Now they understood why Nekomamushi and Inuarashi had abandoned all samurai pride and told them to run.
After that strike, what did samurai pride even mean?
Beyond the broken gates lay long-lost freedom.
Hyogoro's mind raced with a thought so absurd it had been buried for decades.
He grabbed Nekomamushi and Inuarashi by the arms, eyes burning with hope.
"Nekomamushi, Inuarashi—tell me. Has Lord Oden's prophecy come true? After all these years, has someone finally come to open Wano's borders?"
"Tell me—is he Kozuki Momonosuke?"
PFFT!
Luo Yu spat out his drink.
He stared at Hyogoro, utterly baffled.
What kind of logic was that?
He had come to Wano hoping to run into Momonosuke.
After all, in his past life, he'd spent years chanting "Momonosuke must die."
He had to follow through at least a little.
But clearly, he'd arrived too early.
Rolling his eyes at the misunderstanding, Luo Yu suddenly narrowed his gaze and looked into the distance.
"Nekomamushi, Inuarashi—I'll leave this to you. Don't forget our agreement."
With those words, Luo Yu vanished into thin air.
Like a ghost, he disappeared without a trace.
Hyogoro was left even more stunned, his urgency growing.
The prisoners and the kappa were no less shaken.
Feeling the weight of everyone's stares, Nekomamushi and Inuarashi exchanged glances and sighed.
"Boss Hyogoro," Nekomamushi said with a wry smile,
"We'd love to say he's Lord Momonosuke… but does Momonosuke look that good?"
"Besides, when people see Lord Momonosuke, don't they usually want to punch him? Did you feel that way when you saw this guy?"