Countdown: 52 hours and 35 minutes.
Wano Country, deep within the Earth's core.
It is not the Earth's core in a physical sense, but rather the core of desire and obsession.
Momonosuke, leading the Nine Red Scabbards and a squad of Super Soldier Company, stood before an incomprehensible sight: inside the volcano, there was no magma, no rocks, only countless enormous blooming flowers.
Each petal of those flowers is playing a different dream:
--A farmer dreamed that he owned ten thousand acres of fertile land, with grain piled up like mountains.
--A samurai dreamed of becoming a general, revered by thousands.
--A child dreamed that his parents never died in the war and that his family was happy.
--Even Kin'emon dreamed that he successfully married Tsuru, Denjiro dreamed that Wano Country opened its borders twenty years ahead of schedule.
Each Flower Capital absorbs the dreamer's life force, transforming it into the power to sustain the dream. The flower stems extend from the ground into unseen depths, pulsating like blood vessels, transporting the life force that has been drained away.
"The entire Wano Country..." Kawamatsu's voice trembled, "... everyone has been dragged into a dream."
"It's not just humans." Inuarashi stared at one of the flowers—in which a yokai from Wano Country was dreaming of becoming a god—"even non-human beings are involved."
Kikunojo drew his sword. "These demonic flowers must be destroyed!"
"Wait," Denjiro stopped him. "Didn't you notice? If you destroy the flowers, the dream will shatter, but the dreamer will also die because their life force is suddenly cut off."
"What's even more terrifying is this," Kin'emon, pointing to the depths of the sea of flowers.
There, countless flower stems converge, weaving into a giant floral cocoon. The cocoon is translucent, and one can vaguely see a sleeping figure within—
Kozuki Hiyori.
Princess Wano Country, Momonosuke sister, had her eyes closed and her expression serene, as if she were having the most beautiful dream. But countless threads of light extended from her body, connecting each demon flower and maintaining the entire dream network.
"Her Highness is the 'core nexus' of the dream," Denjiro analyzed. "If the demon flower is forcibly destroyed, the nexus will collapse, and Her Highness's soul will also..."
"Dissipate," Momonosuke replied, his voice hoarse.
A difficult choice.
To save the nation, he sacrificed his sister.
He tried to save his sister, but watched helplessly as his people died in their dreams.
"Is there a way to have the best of both worlds?" asked the Cat Viper —he had already come from Zou to provide support.
"Theoretically, it's possible to sever all connections between the flower stems and the princess simultaneously, instantly healing her soul damage," answered Yu Qin, the medical officer of the Super Soldier Company, scanning the flower cocoon. "But it requires microsecond-level precision, and... energy capable of instantly healing soul wounds."
"That kind of energy..."
" The Light of the Sun," Yu Qin said heavily, "But Captain Rena is already..."
When Rena's name was mentioned, everyone fell silent.
"Then let's use another method!" Momonosuke clenched his fists. "I am the Shogun of Wano Country! I must protect everyone! Including my sister! Including the people!"
" Momonosuke..." The Nine Red Scabbards were moved.
Just then, Zoro's voice came through the communicator—he was still on his way to Wano Country:
" Momonosuke, listen to me. The core of the Demon Flower isn't its blossoms, but 'desire itself.' As long as there are people who yearn to dream, the Demon Flower will continue to be reborn."
"Then what should we do? Make everyone give up on their dreams?" Kin'emon asked.
"No. Let dreams become reality." Zoro's voice was firm. "The Demon Flower exploits the fragility of 'illusory fulfillment of desires.' But if desires can be fulfilled in reality, dreams lose their appeal."
"But that takes time," Denjiro said. "And that's exactly what we lack most right now."
Momonosuke stared at his older sister inside the flower cocoon.
He remembered Hiyori's gentle smile, how she faked her death for twenty years to protect him, and her tears when they reunited.
"Sister..." he whispered, "Would you trade the lives of everyone in Wano Country for your own dream?"
Of course not.
Hiyori always puts others before herself.
so...
"I understand." Momonosuke raised his head, his eyes hardening with resolve. "My sister chose to sacrifice herself to save everyone."
"But I won't allow it."
He walked forward, towards the sea of flowers.
" Momonosuke! What are you doing?!" The Nine Red Scabbards tried to stop them, but were pushed away by an invisible force.
Momonosuke's body began to glow.
It wasn't ordinary light, but light shaped like a dragon.
The Artificial Devil Fruit he ate—the one created by Vegapunk using Kaido's Lineage Factor —underwent a fundamental evolution at this moment, catalyzed by his ultimate determination and will to sacrifice.
" Dr. Vegapunk said... this Devil Fruit is a 'failure' because it lacks Kaido's 'will'."
Momonosuke's body began to swell, and scales emerged from under his skin, but they were no longer the pink, childish dragon scales; instead, they were platinum-gold scales that shimmered with Sparks.
"But the professor also said... the essence of Devil Fruit is 'a vessel for rules'."
His body transformed completely into a dragon, but it was a dragon Kaido's —longer, more divine, with horns like a crown and whiskers like ribbons of light.
"And rules... can be reshaped by 'beliefs'."
The platinum dragon hovered above the sea of flowers, its voice booming like a bell.
"I, Kozuki Momonosuke, in the name of the Shogun of Wano Country— "
"With the bloodline of the Kozuki Clan, passed down for eight hundred years—"
"Bearing the 'Dragon's Rules' in this very body--"
"Announcement--"
He opened his dragon mouth, but what he spewed out was not flames, but light.
Pure platinum-gold light, like the sun, like Sparks, like all warmth and hope.
Sunlight spills across the sea of flowers.
The demonic flowers began to tremble and wither. Dreams shattered one after another, but in the instant of shattering, light enveloped the dreamers, healing their life force that had been drained.
"I use my 'Dragon Power' as the energy to heal my people."
Momonosuke's voice began to weaken:
"I will give my life... in exchange for everyone's awakening."
"No--!" The Nine Red Scabbards tried to rush forward, but were blocked by the light.
"This is my choice as shogun." Momonosuke's voice remained firm. "My sister sacrificed twenty years for me. Now, it's my turn to do it for her, for Wano Country— "
"To sacrifice once."
The sea of flowers began to wither on a large scale.
One by one, the citizens of Wano Country awoke, looking at each other and around them in bewilderment, and then—they saw the platinum dragon in the sky gradually becoming transparent.
"That's... Momonosuke?"
"General!"
He is... disappearing!
The people knelt, wept, and prayed.
However, Momonosuke's dragon form had become so transparent that it was almost invisible.
The Kozuki Hiyori within the flower cocoon suddenly opened their eyes.
She saw her younger brother disappearing.
"Momo... nosuke..."
She struggled to get up, but the cocoon's restraints were too strong.
"Sister," Momonosuke's last voice came, gentle like a child's, "This time... it's my turn to protect you."
"You must live well... and become the true sun of Wano Country..."
The words had barely left his mouth.
The platinum dragon vanished completely, turning into countless specks of light.
The light entered the bodies of every citizen, healing all their wounds, and even the hidden ailments from years of hard work disappeared.
But Momonosuke disappeared.
" Momonosuke --!!!" The Nine Red Scabbards cried out in heart-wrenching despair.
Kozuki Hiyori broke free of her cocoon, knelt on the ground, and wept uncontrollably.
Deep within the sea of flowers, with Momonosuke's sacrifice, the demon flower's "supply of desire" was severed, exposing its core—
It was a huge, bewitching purple flower, with a fourth Balance Field Fragment floating at its center.
But a person was standing around the flower.
Or rather, a phantom formed from countless desires and obsessions.
That was Kozuki Oden.
Once again.
But this time, Oden's eyes were not fixed on the gray starlight, but on a greedy purple flame.
"The demon flower is using Oden's image..." Denjiro gritted his teeth.
"Because he represents Wano Country's greatest 'unfulfilled desire'." Zoro's voice came through the communicator; he had already arrived at the crater. "The dream of opening the country, the continuation of the family, a peaceful future—these were all desires that Oden was unable to fulfill until his death."
Purple Oden spoke, his voice echoing the desires of countless people:
Why should we wake them up?
[In the dream, everything came true. Wano Country opened its doors, the Kozuki Family was revived, there was no war, no suffering.]
Why bring them back to this harsh reality?
Kawamatsu roared, "Because it's fake!"
[Even false happiness is better than real suffering!] Purple Oden roared, [Look at reality! Lady Toki is dead! Oden is dead! Momonosuke is dead too! What is there to cherish in such a reality?!]
"But it is precisely because of their sacrifice that we must move forward." Inuarashi stepped forward, his Sulong form gleaming in purple light. "If we hide forever in our dreams because we are afraid of pain, then what is the meaning of their sacrifice?"
The Cat Viper added, "Meow! Oden taught us wasn't to run away, but to face it!"
Purple Oden fell silent.
His body began to become unstable, and countless voices emanated from within him:
I want money!
I want power!
I want love!
I want my family to come back to life!
The noise of desire.
Zoro landed in a sea of flowers, drawing all three swords simultaneously:
"You all step back."
"Leave this guy to me."
He walked towards the purple-robed Oden.
With each step he took, a patch of the surrounding demonic flowers withered.
Because Zoro's "desire" was too pure and too sharp, the demon flower could not absorb it and could only be cut off.
"What are your desires?" Purple Oden asked. " The World's Greatest Swordsman? To Transcendence Hawk Eyes? The Demon Flower Capital can give you all those desires. In the dream, you are already the strongest."
Zoro stopped in his tracks.
"That's right, I want to become the World's Greatest Swordsman."
"But that's not something you can achieve just by dreaming."
He raised the Wado Ichimonji:
"It was through repeated failures, injuries, and getting back up to keep going that we were able to achieve this."
"If I become the strongest in my dreams--"
He grinned, revealing a wild smile:
"--So when I wake up, won't I have far fewer opponents to fight?"
Purple Oden was stunned.
This logic...
"Moreover," Zoro's eyes sharpened, "My desire to be the 'strongest' is not for vanity, nor for power."
"It was for a promise."
"A promise to Kuina."
"A promise to Luffy."
"My promise to myself."
"Those promises only have meaning if they are fulfilled in reality. What's the point of fulfilling them in dreams?"
He stepped forward, and all three swords slashed out simultaneously!
Three-Sword Style: Purgatory Oni Giri!
The slash tore through the air, not aimed at the purple-clad Oden's body, but at the discordant noises of desire within him!
--Sever the greedy desire to "I want money"!
--Sever the vanity of "I want power"!
--Sever the dependence on "I want love"!
--Sever the escapism of "I want my family back!"
Every cut strikes at the very root of desire.
Purple Oden let out a painful roar as his body began to disintegrate.
But during the collapse, he finally asked:
[Then... what about your desire for 'opening Wano Country to the world'? Don't you care?]
Zoro sheathed his sword.
"Care."
"So--"
He looked at Kozuki Hiyori kneeling on the ground, at the weeping Nine Red Scabbards, and at the bewildered citizens of Wano Country outside the volcano:
"--I will use my sword to cut through all obstacles that hinder the founding of the nation."
In reality.
The purple Oden vanished completely.
The core flower of the demonic flower began to wither.
The fourth Balance Field Fragment slowly drifted down.
Zoro reached out and caught it.
But as soon as he got his hands on the fragment, he felt a wave of dizziness.
The fragments were showing him a picture:
--Behind the Gate of the Void, Allen's figure was so transparent that he was almost invisible.
--The platinum and dark purple light in his left and right eyes were merging, turning into a strange grayish-gold color.
He raised his head, looking in Zoro's direction, his lips moving slightly.
There was no sound, but Zoro understood lip reading:
"We're just one Key away."
"Be careful... the truth about Laugh Tale... will break your will."
The screen disappeared.
Zoro gripped the shard tightly and looked westward—in the direction of Laugh Tale.
Countdown update: 46 hours and 15 minutes.
Fourth stop, success.
But the price was the sacrifice of Momonosuke.
And a warning that Allen was about to reach his limit.
Outside the volcano Wano Country.
Kozuki Hiyori knelt on the ground, cradling the last spark of light her brother had left behind—a tiny dragon scale, warm and seemingly still beating.
The Nine Red Scabbards surrounded her, silently shedding tears.
The people gathered around, looking at their new general and at the scale in his hand.
Hiyori raised her head and wiped away her tears.
She stood up and said in a voice that everyone could hear:
" Momonosuke... my younger brother... gave his life to save the future of Wano Country."
"From this moment forward, I, Kozuki Hiyori, will assume the role of Shogun of Wano Country— "
She gripped the dragon scale tightly; the scale merged into her palm, forming a platinum-gold dragon pattern on her forehead.
"--Inheriting Momonosuke's will."
"Let the Wano Country truly open its doors."
"Let everyone's dreams--"
She looked up at the sky, in the direction where Momonosuke disappeared:
"--To achieve this in reality."
The people knelt down and shouted in unison:
"General--!"
And in dimensions they cannot see.
Momonosuke's "existence" has not completely disappeared.
His consciousness was captured by the Balance Field Fragment, turning into a wisp of light that drifted towards the direction of the Gate of the Void.
It drifted towards where Allen was.
It seems to be saying:
"I'm counting on you next."
Behind the Gate of the Void.
Allen reached out and caught the faint light.
He infused his glimmer of light into his own Sparks.
Then, she continued weaving with her head down.
His figure appeared slightly more solid than before.
The price was that the wounds in his soul that had just healed reopened.
But he didn't care.
"Just one last step..."