"Kin'emon, Kanjuro, Raizo, Kiku."
As he stared at this group of old acquaintances who had supposedly been "buried" twenty years ago, Shutenmaru's expression looked as awful as if he had seen a ghost.
Beside these four former colleagues, whose appearances and ages were exactly the same as twenty years ago, stood an eight-year-old brat.
Shutenmaru recognized him as Kozuki Oden's son, Momonosuke, but twenty years had passed and he had not grown at all.
"This..."
Faced with such a bizarre sight, Shutenmaru even forgot about his sentence reduction and merely muttered:
"That legend was real?"
"The ghosts of the Kozuki Clan... really came back?"
Twenty years ago, before her death, Lady Toki had left behind a prophetic verse claiming that Kaido would be defeated by nine samurai twenty years later.
And after Oden Castle was burned down, the Beasts Pirates had found no bodies of Momonosuke, Kin'emon, or the others inside the castle, as though they had vanished from that airtight encirclement into thin air.
Prophecy and miracle together gave rise to a mysterious legend.
Although the Beasts Pirates did everything they could to control public opinion, a terrifying rumor still spread among the few who knew the truth:
One day in Sea Calendar 1522, the missing ghosts of the Kozuki Clan would return to the world, defeat Kaido, and avenge their grievances.
Shutenmaru had originally believed that legend, because Lady Toki had been a woman with mysterious powers.
But later, Shutenmaru stopped believing it.
Because Kaido had already died at sea in 1519, and by 1522 Wano Country had already taken great strides into a moderately prosperous society. Who would still believe such superstitious nonsense?
But now, the "ghosts of the Kozuki Clan" had truly come.
"Ghosts?"
"No, no, no."
Kin'emon hurriedly shook his head and carefully explained:
"Lady