Chapter 329: Whitebeard Takes Action (1/2)
Chapter 328: Whitebeard Takes Action
The timeline rewound to ten days earlier.
When the ship carrying Hiyori Kozuki docked for the night, it silently slipped away. Kawamatsu and Kawamatsu, who had long been prepared, protected Hiyori Kozuki and led the samurai loyal to Kawamatsu away from Kaido's fleet.
Kaido's fleet was so vast that their departure went completely unnoticed. Kaido did not discover they were gone until the following morning.
Kawamatsu had hidden himself deeply. Although he was Kurozumi Orochi's guard, Kaido did not have much of an impression of him. The Beasts Pirates generally only thought he had some skill and could exchange a few moves with the Tobiroppo.
But no one really knew his true level or combat strength.
By relying on this, Kawamatsu had continuously gathered like-minded people under his command using Kurozumi Orochi as cover.
Only after they could survive—and live well—could they speak of pledging loyalty to the Kozuki Family.
Once they had secured good lives under Orochi's rule, the core members of the Kozuki Family hidden beneath Orochi's authority gradually grew in number.
It was laughable. Orochi had originally used this very trick of replacing one thing with another to take Oden Kozuki's place as the shogun of Wano Country, while Kawamatsu had learned from him and used the same method to help the Kozuki Family restore their nation. It truly seemed like fate.
But then they ran into all sorts of problems. The weather of the Grand Line was their greatest enemy. Their helmsman had always traveled alongside Kaido's massive fleet, so it had not seemed like much before. But once they left, the Grand Line's weather nearly tortured them to death. Still, they briefly took on the work of pirates. After robbing a merchant ship, they