The Kurozumi Plot

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Oden's voyage continues, and the world keeps expanding before him. He learns that the world is made up of four regular seas and one long one, and he marvels, "And apparently it's as round as a marble! How wondrous!" Sitting with Toki, he compares the map to tiny Wano and asks, "So this is how small Wano is compared to the rest of the world, huh..." When he asks where she was born, Toki says she does not know; her parents always said their homeland was Wano, but she has nowhere else to go back to. Oden worries that the ship will not venture near Wano for some time. Toki smiles and tells him, "That's okay! When I'm with you, I feel like I've already reached my destination."

On Whitebeard's ship, Inuarashi drags Nekomamushi back while shouting, "Get back here, you stupid cat!" and someone asks where Lord Oden has gone. The ship suddenly breaks into action: "It's the Marines! Run!" Whitebeard had sworn enemies too, and the crew explains that even if they fight the Marines, more will come to take their place because the Marines are part of an organization that spans the whole world. Toki is stunned that her country is still free. Whitebeard tells Oden to judge the world for himself as they continue traveling, while others wonder if the enemy team has crazy people of its own.

In the second year of Oden's voyage, Toki gives birth aboard the Moby Dick. The crew shouts, "He's born!" and celebrates, "Hogya! Hogya!" Oden looks at his son and says that a name conveying invincibility would be better. Others throw out food-themed suggestions like "Tamago!" "Kombu!" "Chikuwa!" and "Tsukune!" but Oden raises the baby proudly and declares his name: "Kozuki Momonosuke!" As wanted posters spread for Oden abroad, Toki asks whether he should return to Wano soon for her and Momonosuke's sake. Oden says he has not yet found the answer he is looking for, and Toki agrees they will be fine. The crew notes that newspapers still never carry information about Wano, leaving Kinemon and the others unreachable.

As Whitebeard's crew grows, the idea of divisions is born. Someone asks, "You're appointing division captains?" and Whitebeard says they now have so many people that they will split into five divisions. Oden is assigned the second division, though he protests, "Er, I don't really want-- I mean..." and Whitebeard simply tells him, "Do it!" In another port, a desperate child begs, "Please! I don't have anywhere else to go!" Whitebeard takes him in as "another orphan," while Oden continues chasing his own answer. Even after seeing islands, battles, and strange phenomena, he thinks, "I still feel that I haven't seen enough! I haven't the slightest clue how to bring this adventure of mine to an end."

Meanwhile in Wano, something serious enough to call the daimyo of every village to the Flower Capital is happening. Lord Sukiyaki is deathly ill. He says that he would like Oden to continue after him as the next shogun, but since Oden is not currently in Wano, he will appoint a regent until Oden returns. The man he chooses is Orochi Kurozumi, whom Oden had doted on like a younger brother. The room erupts in shock: "Orochi?! Why are you--" and someone asks if he is like a younger brother to Oden. The appointment gives Orochi a legitimate step toward power.

Orochi performs humility before the gathered lords. He says, "Humbly accept this gracious opportunity to clear the maligned Kurozumi name." For being given such a chance, he claims he will remain indebted to Lord Sukiyaki and Lord Oden for as long as he lives. He says he will use his little capability "to prepare the throne for Oden's ascension" and swears, "I swear to serve as a mere puppet till the day Lord Oden returns!" When asked why he kept his Kurozumi identity secret, he apologizes. But in private, his apology becomes something darker, repeated under his breath as he grins: "I apologize..."

Orochi remembers the night his path changed. In the rain, an old woman cracked with laughter and told him, "I see it... I see the future!" She foretold, "You... will be shogun!" Orochi panicked and shouted, "Don't scare me like that, old lady! Who even are you?!" but her words lodged in him. The promise of the shogunate became the beginning of his ambition, not as a distant dream, but as something she claimed was waiting for him.

The old woman asks if Orochi knows his grandfather's story. She says his grandfather did not commit an ordinary crime: he was killed by the Kozuki clan. The previous Kozuki shogun had no heir, so the five daimyo families that served the Kozuki grew restless. The old woman explains that those at the top rewrite the law as they see fit and that crimes cease to be crimes. The daimyo families wondered who the next shogun would be and each prepared quietly to take the throne. Orochi's grandfather made his preparations in secret.

The old woman describes the Kurozumi plot's failure. Preparations were made to poison every last one of the crafty daimyo standing in the way, and one after another the shogun's rivals complained of internal strife and disappeared. The sight worried the shogun, and eventually he fell ill too. The plan was nearly complete when the world itself came within reach, but then Sukiyaki Kozuki was born as an heir. The old woman curses Sukiyaki because the Kurozumi were unable to take over Wano once the plan was revealed. She tells Orochi that his grandfather was forced to commit hara-kiri and that his house was disbanded, its lands, castle, and status stolen.

The old woman keeps pressing Orochi's grievance. She says the Kurozumi name was slandered by the people, and his family was forced into the street with nothing. She asks, "So who is to blame for the destitute life you now lead?! Whose fault is it?!" Orochi answers with rage: "Sukiyaki Kozuki! The one of ill birth!" The old woman tells him that if Sukiyaki had not been born, Orochi would have been shogun one day. When Orochi asks if she is a Kurozumi, she says it does not matter who she is; she has been abroad for many years, labored long and hard, and has returned with the means to help him seize power.

The old woman shows Orochi the power of the Clone-Clone Fruit, the Mane-Mane no Mi. She tells him, "Look at my face," then changes her own face into another person's, making Orochi cry, "Whaaa?! That's my face!" She promises, "If you heed my words... I will give you power. Enough power to become shogun yourself!" A second elder tells Orochi to gather money and produce weapons, because the artisans of Wano are skilled and that talent can forge formidable support. Orochi answers, "I'll do whatever it takes!"

Orochi begins moving through Wano under the guise of helplessness. In Hakumai, he introduces himself as a sickly orphan whose family died, and Yasuie lets him work there. Later, after the treasury's money vanishes, Yasuie wonders whether it is coincidence, but Orochi has already gone. In Kuri, he tells Oden, "I could never ask Lord Yasuie, to whom I owe so much, for money, but..." and Oden immediately says he understands. Then Orochi returns again and again, begging, "Please! Give me some money!" He promises to pay it back each time, draining help from both Yasuie and Oden while hiding his true purpose.

Oden even asks Sukiyaki to keep Orochi at the castle, saying, "He works well, and can even make medicine. He's like my little brother." Sukiyaki agrees, and Orochi steps directly into the seat he had been seeking. As Sukiyaki weakens, he says, "If something untoward were to happen to me... Please, Orochi..." Orochi answers, "Yes, Lord Sukiyaki!" and thinks, "I've finally clawed my way up here!" Some time later, news of Lord Sukiyaki's death spreads throughout Wano, while Orochi and the old woman laugh together.

In the fourth year of Oden's voyage, the Whitebeard Pirates encounter a strange disturbance at sea. Fish are freaking out, and the crew wonders, "What the heck is this?!" and "Is this the sign of an impending catastrophe?!" Whitebeard says the creatures are running away from that island. A huge beast appears on shore, and Oden laughs that Hiyori and Momonosuke will be fine because "it's nothing." The crew is baffled by what kind of island could make even wild beasts run amok.

The answer arrives when Whitebeard's ship comes ashore on the other side of the island. The crew spots the birds and realizes another pirate crew has landed. A lookout shouts, "Captain Roger!" and reports that Whitebeard's ship is there. Roger, bored by the Marines, says, "Go summon Garp or Sengoku!! You lot are just boring me." He hears that the Whitebeard Pirates have come ashore and steps out with his crew. Shanks and Buggy react to seeing Whitebeard again, and Roger smiles: "Whitebeard, eh? It's been a while." He says they have just fought a battle and that he does not have much longer. This may be the last time they see each other, so Roger proposes, "Let's have a little fun, then! A battle to the death, because we're both so very alive!"

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