Kozuki Oden? What a Purebred Idiot

Kozuki Oden stopped his ridiculous dance.

He gasped for breath. His broad chest heaved violently.

His two thick, hairy legs were covered in half-dried black mud. Mud dripped from the edges of his loincloth, thudding onto the fine sand of Kuri Beach with muffled splats.

The large crowd of Wano samurai around them fell utterly silent. Only heavy breathing and the distant sound of waves crashing against the reefs remained.

Oden lowered his head.

His messy black hair covered most of his face. His callused hands gripped the hilts of the swords at his waist so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Clang—"

Two famous blades were drawn from their scabbards at the same time. The screech of metal scraping against metal pierced the beach's dead silence.

The purple demonic blade Enma. The white Ame no Habakiri.

Oden bent his knees. He crossed the two long blades before him, assuming the two-sword stance he was most skilled with. Across dozens of meters, the sharp tips pointed straight at Rektol on the bow of the steel warship.

"I'm Kozuki Oden!"

Oden threw back his head and roared. His voice echoed across the beach, thick with a nasal twang.

"Wano will open its borders sooner or later! Come at me if you have a problem! Don't hurt the people here!"

He ground his back teeth together. Both hands clenched the sword hilts, blue veins bulging across the backs of them.

Purple Ryuo wrapped around the blades along his arms. Enma greedily siphoned away his Haki, and a dangerous radiance glimmered along the blade.

Rektol stood at the bow.

His military boots rested on the Fine Steel railing. The sea breeze blew his black coat backward.

He looked down at the man below who had assumed a desperate stance. The wave of nausea in his stomach subsided, turning into nothing but disdain.

A cold laugh escaped Rektol's throat.

"Open its borders?"

He rested one hand on his knee. His voice was not loud, yet it reached every ear on the beach clearly.

"You abandoned your sick father. You threw the entire country to Kurozumi Orochi. Then you ran off to play pirate."

"Your people are slaves in the quarries. Every day, they eat poisonous leftovers. They can't even get a sip of clean water."

He stared at Oden's flushed, blood-engorged face.

"When you came back, you didn't draw your sword and kill Orochi. Instead, you foolishly believed the enemy's lies, stripped naked, and danced here for five years."

Rektol straightened up. He spat into the churning seawater below.

"Everyone called you Fool Prince, and you really started thinking you were some kind of savior."

"What Kozuki Oden? What a purebred idiot."

Those words were like a poison-coated steel nail, driving straight into Oden's heart.

The muscles in Oden's face spasmed violently.

His eyes reddened instantly, blood vessels crawling across the whites. He bit down hard on his lower lip until his teeth broke the skin, and the taste of rust spread through his mouth.

The humiliation, unwillingness, and self-deception of the past five years had been stripped bare before everyone by this three-year-old brat. Not even a scrap of fig leaf remained.

"AAARGH!"

Oden let out the desperate howl of a beast driven into a corner.

His legs slammed into the ground.

His feet dug a huge crater into Kuri Beach. Sand flew in all directions as his entire body shot toward the steel warship like a cannonball.

The two famous blades carved deadly trajectories through the air. His black Armament Haki was driven to its limit, even spilling beyond the blades and forming black-red lightning that exploded in midair.

Oden Two-Sword Style: Gun Wave!

A gigantic cross-shaped slash thundered forward.

The slash cleaved a deep trench across the surface of the sea. Seawater rolled to both sides, exposing the black reefs below.

Carrying enough terrifying force to sever a mountain peak, it shot straight toward Rektol's face.

Rektol did not draw his sword.

He did not even spare the menacing slash a glance.

The heart in the left side of his chest beat steadily. But the second heart in the right side erupted in an instant with a roar like a war drum.

"Boom!"

The dull thud of his heartbeat drowned out the thunderous waves.

Rektol raised his left hand.

His five fingers spread wide, his palm facing Oden and the cross-shaped slash rushing up from below.

He pressed down lightly.

Hundredfold Gravity Field.

The air let out a strained wail. Centered on Rektol's palm, an invisible web of gravity crashed down.

There was no stalemate.

The enormous cross-shaped slash shattered the instant it touched the gravity field, like tofu smashing into a steel plate.

It collapsed in midair, breaking into countless tiny, chaotic streams of air that stirred white foam across the sea.

The gravity field continued unabated, slamming down onto Kozuki Oden.

Oden's charging body suddenly halted.

It was as though a mountain forged from pig iron had crashed down on his head. The bones throughout his body cracked and popped.

"Bang!"

Oden's knees smashed into the flagstones behind the beach.

The hard paving stones shattered beneath his kneecaps. Shards pierced his flesh, and blood instantly stained the ground red.

He tried to stand.

But the hundredfold gravity pressed down on his spine. His upper body bent forward uncontrollably, and his cheek was forced against the dirt-and-sand-covered ground.

His wrists trembled violently. Enma and Ame no Habakiri were braced against the flagstones, their blades bending into a dangerous arc beneath the pressure and emitting an ear-grating metallic screech.

Oden gasped for breath.

His lungs filled with nothing but dust mixed with the smell of blood. The gravity crushed his organs, and his heart pounded as if it were about to explode.

The capillaries beneath his skin burst one after another. Fine beads of blood seeped out, dyeing the mud on his legs dark red.

The surrounding samurai stared in shock.

Kin'emon and Denjiro of the Nine Red Scabbards drew their swords and tried to rush over to help.

After taking only two steps, they were caught by the edge of the gravity field.

The two of them were flattened onto the beach at the same time. Their chests pressed into the sand, their internal organs feeling as if they had been struck by a heavy hammer. They could not even muster the strength to raise their heads.

"Release Lord Oden!" Kin'emon shouted, his gums bleeding from how hard he clenched his teeth.

Rektol did not even look at them.

He maintained his downward-pressing posture, coldly looking down at Oden on the ground.

Oden's ears rang.

Humiliation burned through his veins like lava, scorching away his reason.

"Cough!"

Oden opened his mouth and coughed up a large mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of his organs. The blood sprayed across the flagstones, steaming.

He clenched his teeth so hard that a small piece broke off their edge.

I can't die here. I absolutely can't die here.

He was unwilling to accept this.

Oden abandoned his defense.

He forcibly burned his life force. The qi and blood in his body were squeezed completely dry, transforming into pure destructive power.

Black Armament Haki erupted from his body, instantly covering him from head to toe. Even his loincloth was dyed black, as though he had put on a layer of heavy armor.

Ryuo crazily wrapped around the two famous blades.

"AAAAAAARGH!"

Oden let out a roar that tore at his vocal cords.

Under the hundredfold gravity, he forcibly pulled his bent knees out of the rubble. His thigh muscles had exceeded their limits, splitting open in long bloody gashes.

He straightened his body.

The paving stones beneath his feet collapsed completely, forming a two-meter-deep crater.

Borrowing this power born from staking everything on survival, Oden suddenly leaped into the air.

He charged straight at Rektol on the warship.

His two swords carved a cross through the air. His Haki was compressed to its absolute limit, warping space beneath its force.

Togen Totsuka!

This was his strongest attack—the killing blow that had once knocked Kaido from his throne.

The gale dried the mud and water on Oden's face. Carrying the resolve to die, he poured all his strength into this attack.

Rektol stood at the bow.

He watched Oden leap up with his life on the line, his face showing no change in expression.

He withdrew his left hand.

Turning around, he casually reached to the side with his right hand.

From the waist of a terrified pirate underling beside him, he drew an ordinary standard-issue samurai sword.