The Flower Capital was a city of celebration. Cherry blossom petals drifted through the streets, music drifted from geisha houses, and the citizens drank and laughed, unaware that their history was ending.
They didn't see the army because there was no army.
There were just six figures walking down the main street.
Kaido led the way. He didn't run, he didn't shout. He simply walked, his massive Kanabo dragging against the stone pavement, creating a trail of sparks and a grinding sound that cut through the music like a knife.
Citizens stopped. Music died. The crowd parted, pressing themselves against the walls, trembling instinctively. Humans have a primal sense for predators, and a twenty-foot-tall Oni was the apex.
"Is that... a monster?" a child whispered.
"Hush!" his mother hissed, covering his mouth.
Ren walked beside Kaido, his heart pounding. This was it. The coup.
To his right, Itachi Uchiha walked with his hands in his cloak, his Sharingan deactivated, looking like a weary traveler. To his left, Hidan was grinning at the women, winking and making inappropriate comments about Jashin rituals. Behind them, Kakuzu was eyeing the architecture, likely calculating the value of the gold leaf on the roofs.
And dragged behind them all was Orochi.
"Please!" Orochi whimpered, his face scraped and bloody. "Don't take me to the castle like this! The Oniwabanshu... they will see!"
"Shut up," Kaido grunted.
They reached the massive stairs leading to the Shogun's Castle—the heartbeat of Wano.
Blocking the gate were fifty ninja. They wore dark blue shozoku and masks. Standing in front of them was a man with an elongated head and long earlobes that stretched to his chest.
Fukurokuju. Captain of the Orochi Oniwabanshu.
Fukurokuju looked at the group. He looked at the bound Orochi. He looked at the giant Kaido.
"Release Lord Orochi," Fukurokuju commanded, though his voice lacked conviction. He was a pragmatist. He saw the power difference immediately.
"Fukurokuju!" Orochi screamed. "Kill them! Use the ninja arts! Save me!"
Kaido stopped. He rested his club on the ground, cracking the stone.
"Are you the guard dog?" Kaido asked, looking down at the ninja leader.
"I am the protector of the Shogun," Fukurokuju replied carefully.
"There is no Shogun," Kaido stated. He kicked Orochi forward. The "future Shogun" rolled down the steps, landing at Fukurokuju's feet. "There is only this worm. And me."
Fukurokuju looked at Orochi, who was crying and begging. Then he looked at Kaido, whose sheer presence was emitting a low-level Conqueror's Haki that made the weaker ninja foam at the mouth and collapse.
Ren stepped forward.
"Fukurokuju," Ren said. "You served the Kozuki because they were strong. You switched to Orochi because Higurashi gave him power. Now, Higurashi is dead. Orochi is a slave."
Ren gestured to the Akatsuki behind him.
"We are the Beast Pirates. We are taking this country. You can die with the worm, or you can serve the Dragon."
Fukurokuju was silent. His eyes darted to Itachi, then to Hidan, then back to Kaido. He was calculating the odds.
"Ninpo..." Fukurokuju whispered.
Suddenly, five ninja vanished in puffs of smoke, reappearing behind Ren and Kaido with kunai drawn.
"Raizo! Don't!" Fukurokuju shouted.
But it was too late. The loyalists among the ninja attacked.
Clang.
The kunai aimed at Kaido snapped against his skin.
The kunai aimed at Ren was stopped.
Itachi stood behind Ren, holding the ninja's wrist. Itachi didn't look at the attacker. He just squeezed.
CRACK.
The ninja screamed as his wrist was pulverized.
"You have chosen... poorly," Itachi whispered.
"Tsukuyomi."
Itachi made eye contact with the three nearest attackers. instantly, they collapsed, their eyes rolling back into their heads, foaming at the mouth. To them, they had just experienced three days of torture in a single second.
The remaining ninja froze.
Kaido didn't even turn around. He just looked at Fukurokuju.
"Well?" Kaido asked.
Fukurokuju dropped to his knees. He placed his forehead on the stone ground.
"The Oniwabanshu..." Fukurokuju announced loudly, "pledges allegiance to the Beast Pirates."
Orochi gasped. "Fukurokuju! You traitor!"
Fukurokuju didn't look up. "I serve the strongest. That is the way of the ninja."
Kaido grinned. "Good answer."
The Throne Room.
The doors to the great hall were thrown open.
Ren walked in, overwhelmed by the opulence. Gold dragons were painted on the walls. The floor was polished wood. And at the end of the hall sat the Shogun's throne.
Kaido walked up the steps. He turned around and sat down. The throne creaked under his weight. He was too big for it, looking like a monster squeezing into a child's chair, but the image was powerful.
"From today," Kaido declared, his voice echoing in the empty hall, "Wano is a weapons factory. Ren!"
"Here."
"Get the factories running. I want gunpowder. I want steel. I want ships."
"Understood," Ren said. "But first... the gold."
Kakuzu stepped forward. "I have located the treasury. It is substantial. However, the currency is strictly Gold and Silver, not Berries. We will need to launder it through the black market to buy modern technology."
"Do it," Kaido waved his hand dismissively.
Ren looked at the map of Wano spread out on a table.
"Captain," Ren said solemnly. "We have the castle. We have the ninja. But we have a problem."
"Oden," Kaido said, the grin fading into a look of serious anticipation.
"He's coming," Ren said. "Yasuie sent the warning. Oden is gathering the Nine Red Scabbards. They will be here in two days, maybe less."
"Let them come," Kaido growled, clutching his armrest. "I want to fight him."
"You will," Ren promised. "But we need to ensure we win. Oden isn't just a strong pirate. He wields Enma. He can cut you."
Kaido touched the spot on his chest where, in another timeline, he would bear a scar. "Cut me?"
"Yes. And if we fight him fair and square in the open field... we might lose."
Ren wasn't lying. Current Kaido was younger. He wasn't the invincible 'World's Strongest Creature' yet. He was strong, but Oden was in his prime, fresh from voyaging with Roger.
"I don't need tricks," Kaido bristled.
"It's not a trick," Ren said smoothly. "It's a battlefield advantage. We choose the ground. We choose the terms."
Ren pointed to the map, specifically to the Udon region.
"We lure him here. The wasteland. Deidara can mine the field with explosives beneath the ground. Hidan can act as the vanguard to tire them out because he can't be killed. Itachi will use Genjutsu to disrupt their coordination."
Ren looked Kaido in the eye.
"You get your one-on-one with Oden. But the Scabbards? My crew will slaughter them."
Kaido considered this. He wanted a duel, but he also wanted to win. He looked at the motley crew he had assembled.
"Fine," Kaido agreed. "We turn Udon into a graveyard."
The Dungeon.
Later that night, Ren went down to the castle dungeons.
The air was damp and smelled of mold.
In the deepest cell, a man sat in chains. He wasn't Orochi. He was older, frail, with a doll-maker's mask lying next to him.
Kozuki Sukiyaki. The former Shogun.
He was alive. Barely. Orochi hadn't killed him yet, keeping him alive to force him to reveal the secret of the Poneglyph and the location of Pluton.
Ren stood outside the bars.
"Who... are you?" Sukiyaki rasped.
"My name is Ren," the boy said. "I'm the one who removed Orochi."
Sukiyaki's eyes lit up with hope. "You... you saved Wano?"
Ren paused. He looked at the old man.
"No," Ren said softly. "I just changed the management."
Ren unlocked the cell door.
"You are free to go, Sukiyaki-san. Go to the port. Take a boat. Leave Wano and never come back."
"Leave?" Sukiyaki stood up shakily. "I must find my son! I must tell Oden—"
"If you find Oden," Ren interrupted, his voice cold, "you will distract him. You will make him weak. If you love your country, vanish. Let your son fight his own war."
It was a cruelty, but a necessary one. Ren couldn't have the former Shogun rallying the people against Kaido right now. But he couldn't bring himself to kill the old man either. It was his one act of mercy in this dark timeline.
Sukiyaki looked at Ren, seeing the darkness in the boy's eyes. He nodded slowly.
"May the spirits forgive you," Sukiyaki whispered. He shuffled past Ren, into the shadows.
Ren watched him go.
"They won't," Ren murmured.
He turned around. Itachi was leaning against the wall, watching him.
"You let him go," Itachi noted.
"He's not a threat," Ren lied.
"He is the legitimate ruler," Itachi corrected. "In the ninja world, leaving a loose end like that is fatal."
"This isn't the ninja world," Ren said, walking past Itachi. "And besides... I need someone to tell the story when we're gone."
Ren climbed the stairs, back to the surface.
The moon was high. Deidara was flying overhead on a clay owl, dropping C3 bombs into the surrounding forests to create a perimeter. Kakuzu was arguing with Fukurokuju about the ninja payroll. Hidan was sharpening his scythe on a priceless statue.
Ren looked South, toward Kuri.
He could feel it. A storm of Haki approaching.
Oden was coming.
[System Alert]
[Countdown to Oden: 24 Hours.]
[Prepare for the Night Parade.]