"Madam, your husband did endure humiliation and save many people over the past five years, but now Kaido has fully spread his wings. Whatever he wants to do from now on, no one can stop him. Won't that instead lead to an even greater disaster?"
"As for what my husband was truly thinking, I do not know entirely either." Toki first shook her head, but then voiced her own guess.
It was largely the same as Yasuie Shimotsuki's explanation: "Oden is our country's strongest samurai since Ryuma. At present, not a single samurai in the country can last three exchanges against him. But even Oden is helpless against Kaido's strength. Faced with such a powerful enemy, what use would it be to gather those people together? It would only be sending them to their deaths for nothing."
"Calling in more reinforcements might kill more pirates, but as long as Kaido himself cannot be defeated, it carries little meaning."
"Orochi's deal was indeed a delaying tactic, but the people who were saved were truly saved. And over these five years, Oden did not merely dance in the streets. He was tempering his heart! That humiliation and endurance were like a whetstone, making his conviction and strength ever sharper. Didn't you just say so yourself, little brother? This time, he nearly dealt Kaido a devastating blow!"
Charlotte Mousse's heart stirred at that. It was true—just like King Goujian of Yue in ancient China on Earth, who slept on brushwood and licked gall to steel himself, enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens—genuinely enduring humiliation and bearing burdens, not merely making excuses for cowardice—could strengthen one's resolve. And five years ago, in the plot of "One Piece," Oden had merely fought humanoid Kaido to a draw. His performance had indeed been inferior to this