It had been just over a week since their arrival in Wano. Finally, an audience with the Shogun had been granted, and Kanata was traveling alone toward the Flower Capital.
Lord Yasuie had been frantic, scurrying across the regions to handle various crises, and though he was originally meant to accompany her, he had been pulled away at the last moment. Since he had already headed to the Capital days prior, Kanata made the final leg of the journey on her own.
She did not expect to be met at the gates by a circle of unsheathed katanas and the murderous glares of the Shogun's guard.
"It really is her!" one samurai roared.
"This woman laid hands on Lord Sukiyaki! Slay the assassin!!"
Kanata looked at the sea of hostile faces, her expression remaining a mask of cold indifference. She ignored the lower-ranking samurai and turned her gaze toward the command center, where Yasuie stood with a grim expression.
"Would you mind explaining what this is about?" Kanata asked.
"Silence, murderer! How dare you speak—!"
"Quiet!" Yasuie barked, silencing his subordinate. He looked at Kanata, his eyes searching hers for a truth he didn't want to find. "Kanata... do you truly have no memory of yesterday?"
"I have been in Hakumai for the past week. I have no idea what has happened here in the Capital."
"It happened just yesterday," Yasuie said, his voice heavy.
The Shogun of Wano, Kozuki Sukiyaki, had been assassinated. It was a brazen act committed in broad daylight with dozens of witnesses. Yasuie pulled out a sketch—a wanted poster produced by the witnesses.
On the paper was a face identical to Kanata's. The hilt of the sword was different, but a weapon could be changed in seconds. To the people of Wano, there was no doubt.
"Someone with my face killed the Shogun?" Kanata mused.
"Indeed. The assassin vanished into thin air the moment the deed was done. We searched the city, but it was as if she had turned into mist."
"Lord Yasuie, why do we hesitate?!" a samurai screamed. "She is standing right before us! Arrest her now!"
Kanata let out a soft sigh. A matching face wasn't proof of guilt—at least, not to her. She knew of at least one other person in the world who shared her features. But Octavia? Her mother always wore a mask. She wouldn't go out of her way to reveal her face just to kill an old man in a closed country.
"Kanata... did you truly do this?" Yasuie asked again.
"If I say no, will anyone here believe me?"
Yasuie wavered, his personal trust in her clashing with the overwhelming evidence. But the samurai around him were already beyond reason. Kanata realized she had been led into a carefully prepared snare.
She needed to get out. If she was captured, she'd be executed before she could find the truth. She had to break the perimeter and outrun the Oniwabanshu waiting in the shadows.
Who would gain from this? she wondered. Oden is a fool, but he doesn't have the stomach for this kind of conspiracy. And his retainers wouldn't act without him.
"I'm leaving," Kanata declared. "Stay out of my way."
"You... you won't surrender?" Yasuie asked.
"I'm used to being blamed for things I didn't do. But my head has grown too valuable to hand over to a mob."
The samurai of Wano were a legendary force, a military so fierce even the World Government hesitated to provoke them. However, as the first wave lunged forward, Kanata found the reality didn't match the legend.
She manifested a spear of ice, coating it in the dark, shimmering purple of her Haki. With every swing, a dozen samurai were sent flying, their blades shattered and their armor frosted over. During the joint training two years ago, she had seen that the average samurai was a capable warrior. But against a monster of the New World, numbers were an illusion.
"Impossible! She's just one girl! Why can't we stop her?!"
Kanata moved like a winter gale. She wasn't trying to kill; she had no reason to take more lives in a country she respected. She simply incapacitated them, moving with surgical precision until she broke into the open.
She sprinted back toward Hakumai. If the news had reached the Capital yesterday, messengers were already at every port. Her crew was strong, but in a country turned against them, anything could happen.
Another disaster, she thought bitterly. I suppose I truly did inherit my father's luck.
***
At the same time, a different storm was brewing in Hakumai.
The army meant to besiege the Twilight Pirates had gathered at the Flower Capital, but since Kanata had already dismantled that force, the only warriors left to confront Zen and the others were the local samurai and Oden's retainers.
Kin'emon and the others stood at the docks, their faces twisted in grief and fury.
"Master Zen... this is a dark day," Kin'emon said, his hand on his hilt.
"What is the meaning of this, Kin'emon?" Zen asked, his spear leveled.
"Lord Sukiyaki has been murdered. The witnesses... they all say it was Kanata."
"Assassination?!" Zen roared, his fur bristling. "Nonsense! We have been training in the yard all day yesterday! She hasn't left our sight!"
"The witnesses do not lie, Zen! There is no room for excuses!"
Zen realized logic would not prevail here. While he kept Kin'emon's focus, Gloriosa was already on a miniature Transponder Snail, speaking to Kanata.
"The situation is dire," Gloriosa whispered. "How soon can you get here?"
『It will take me some time from the Capital. Evacuate everyone to Mogura Port immediately. We can no longer stay in Wano.』
"And the false charge?"
『There's no time for a trial. I want to know who framed me, but we'll let Oden figure that out later. Get to the ship.』
Gloriosa hung up and turned to the crew. "All hands, listen up! We are withdrawing! Head for Mogura Port! NOW!!"
The Twilight Pirates moved with practiced efficiency, grabbing their gear and breaking for the harbor. Kin'emon and the Red Scabbards drew their blades, unable to let the "accomplices" escape.
"You cannot leave! This is an affront to the honor of Wano!" Kin'emon shouted.
"I once served the Kozuki family," Zen said, his Haki flaring as he stepped between the samurai and his retreating comrades. "But now, I serve Kanata. And my gut tells me something is very wrong here."
Gloriosa looked back as she ran. "Zen! Come on!"
"I'll hold the rear! You won't make it to the port if you're being harried by the whole region!" Zen shouted back. He leveled his spear at his former friends. "I'm not dying today, Nyon! I still have to see Feiyun in a wedding dress! Tell me... she doesn't have a boyfriend, does she?!"
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!" Gloriosa screamed, her voice cracking with stress as she disappeared toward the harbor.
Kaye ran alongside her, her hand gripping the shaft of her scythe. They moved through the outskirts of the town, checking their flank—but they were so focused on the pursuit from behind that they didn't see the mountain standing in their path.
"GYAAAAAH!!"
The forward scouts of the crew were suddenly swept aside, sent hurtling backward by a massive, invisible pressure.
Gloriosa skidded to a halt, her eyes widening as she saw the figure blocking the road.
"Sorry about this, boys. But Kin'emon and the others have been good to us. When a country's in mourning, a man's gotta help out his friends."
The man was a giant, standing over six meters tall. He had long blonde hair and a build like a fortress, but his most striking feature was the magnificent white mustache curved across his lip.
"Whitebeard" Edward Newgate.
Gloriosa felt a cold sweat break across her skin. "Of all the times for a legend to appear..."
"Gloriosa..." Newgate mused, his eyes settling on her. "It's been a long time since I've seen that face."
They had once sailed under the same flag, but that era was dead. In the New World, old friendships meant nothing if the ships were different. Both warriors leveled their weapons, the air beginning to hum with the weight of their Haki.
"Don't get in our way, Newgate," Gloriosa warned. "We are leaving this island."
"I can't let you do that. You work for that girl, don't you? Where is she?"
"She was meant to have an audience with the Shogun today. She is at the Capital."
"Hah! Kill the man and then go for a visit? That's some nerve."
"Kanata did not kill him," Gloriosa hissed. "If you're judging by a face alone, there are others who fit the description."
"Octavia?" Newgate scowled at the mention of the name. "No. That woman doesn't do 'assassinations.' If she wants someone dead, she walks through the front door and takes their head."
"Precisely."
As they spoke, Newgate kept one eye on the children behind Gloriosa. He wasn't the type to slaughter the weak, but his presence was an immovable wall. His crew—young but already formidable—stood ready behind him.
"I'll hold him," Gloriosa whispered to her subordinates. "Kaye, handle the others."
"Understood," Kaye said, pulling her hood low.
She stepped forward, her scythe's chain rattling. Marco, a young apprentice with a tuft of blonde hair, stepped out to meet her. He smirked, clearly seeing her as just a child.
"You aren't going anywhere, yoi!"
"Move."
Marco lunged, intending to restrain her, but Kaye moved with a speed he hadn't anticipated. She drove a soaring dropkick directly into his face.
"Gugh—!!"
Marco spun through the air, crashing into the dirt. A woman with a fur-lined hat—Whitey Bay—stepped in, drawing a Haki-clad pistol to parry Kaye's follow-up scythe swing.
"Whew... quite the sting for a little thing, yoi," Marco groaned, wiping blood from his nose. Suddenly, a blue flame erupted across his face, and his bruises vanished instantly. Marco was the user of the Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Phoenix. Standard injuries were meaningless to him.
"You're pretty good for a kid," Marco said, his arms transforming into blue flaming wings. "My turn, yoi!"
"So noisy..." Kaye muttered.
Marco dived, but Kaye didn't dodge. She leapt into his path and shifted into her Hybrid Form. Her body surged in size, and her hair turned into a nest of writhing serpents.
Marco and Whitey Bay froze as the girl's eyes began to glow with a terrifying, ancient light.
"W-what is this?!" Marco stammered as a grey, stony texture began to spread from his fingertips.
The Phoenix could heal wounds, but it could not heal the curse of the Gorgon. Marco panicked as his arm began to turn into solid rock.
"I can't... I can't move it, yoi!"
Kaye's gaze shifted to Whitey Bay, breaking the connection to Marco and halting his petrification. Marco scrambled back, his arm still a heavy, useless piece of stone.
"Is he okay?!" Bay shouted, leveling her gun. "Marco, heal it!"
"I... I can't, yoi! It isn't a wound... it's just stone!" Marco was on the verge of tears, staring at his grey limb.
Whitey Bay's expression hardened. She realized they weren't dealing with a normal child.
Meanwhile, the battle between Newgate and Gloriosa wasn't even a contest.
Newgate's strikes, even held back, were so dense with Haki that Gloriosa's defense was buckling. She used her Observation Haki to predict his movements, but Newgate was a master of the same craft, and his raw speed allowed him to strike even where she knew he would.
"Gugh... you've only gotten stronger, Newgate!"
"Are you finished?" Newgate asked, his tone surprisingly calm. "I have no interest in killing you. I'll just wait for Kin'emon to arrive."
He glanced toward Marco, concerned by the boy's distress. He was about to step in when a sudden, bone-chilling shiver ran down his spine.
"Don't look away," Gloriosa whispered.
"What—?"
Newgate didn't finish the sentence. Every instinct he possessed screamed a warning.
BOOM!!
A silver spear slammed into his naginata, the resulting shockwave of Haki clearing the clouds for miles.
"So... the Captain finally arrives," Newgate grunted, his feet digging into the earth to hold his ground.
"It seems you've been 'caring' for my crew, Whitebeard," Kanata said, her voice dropping to a dangerous chill.
She had covered the distance from the Capital in record time. Seeing Newgate standing over a wounded Gloriosa, she hadn't hesitated. She pulled Gloriosa back, handing her to a subordinate.
"He's one of the legends," Kanata noted, stepping forward to face the giant.
"So I've heard. And I've heard plenty about you, too, Witch."
Kanata looked him in the eye. "Tell me... does my face look familiar to you?"
Newgate didn't answer. He simply scowled, his grip on his weapon tightening. That silence was all the confirmation she needed.
"Another one," Kanata whispered. "Shiki, Linlin, and now you. You all see the same thing. You all look at me and see Octavia."
"What's your point?" Newgate asked.
"My point is that I'm tired of the comparison. It seems the only way to get out of my mother's shadow is to bury everyone who remembers her. You former Rocks members really are a nuisance."
Newgate's eyes narrowed. "Watch your mouth, brat!"
"I'm finished talking. I have a crew to save and a ship to launch."
Kanata leveled her black spear, her Haki turning a deep, royal purple. Newgate roared and raised his naginata high.
The two monsters clashed, and for a moment, the world went silent as the very atmosphere of Wano began to shatter.
***
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