The Shogun and the Courtesan

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In the Flower Capital's Orochi Castle, the banquet continues beneath music and falling petals. The air is loud with cries of "Drink! Sing! It's a banquet!" Orochi asks, "Please, Komurasaki!" and the masked musician begins to play. The shamisen rings out with "strum strum," and the guests immediately recognize the tune. One man shouts, "Whoa! It's that song!" while another sighs at its feeling: "I can't help but sigh! What tone!" Orochi is delighted, declaring, "Yes! This song... It pleases me!" The courtesan's song fills the room while the shogun drinks and laughs.

As the song continues, someone wonders why the musician wears a mask, and another voice says, "I wonder... whenever sister plays this song." Elsewhere in the castle, Robin stands surrounded by the Orochi Oniwabanshu. They tell her, "We will ask you only once. Answer us." The threat is clear: "If you speak true, you will die a painless death. If you lie, excruciating torture awaits you." Fukurokuju and his ninja demand, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Robin has one chance to survive the interrogation.

Robin answers without panic: "Ox-Three Boy." She claims, "I'm tracking the flow of money inside the Flower Capital." Fukurokuju calls it "a prudent answer" and orders the others to catch her. The ninja strike, but the Robin they seize collapses into petals and limbs with a "shwpp!!" It was not her real body. One of the ninja says, "Ox-Three Boy just appeared in the capital!" while another realizes the answer is complete. Robin has used the truth of a current event as a shield, buying herself the moment she needs to escape.

The captured Robin bursts apart, leaving the Oniwabanshu staring at empty air. They cry, "Huh?!" and "What the--?!" as the pieces vanish. Some ask whether it was "a ninja?!" or "a spirit?!" The real Robin slips away down the corridor, relieved: "That was close... I'm glad I made a clone just in case." The ninja do not care whether it was ninjutsu or fairy magic; they know her real body should be somewhere nearby. Their order rings through the castle: "Find her!"

Robin races through the roof area and calls her allies: "O-Nami! Shinobu! Bonekichi! I'm sorry! They found me! I've confirmed at least 11 ninjas inside the castle!" Inside the roof, Nami and Shinobu receive the message with Brook nearby. Shinobu says they are Robin's bodyguards and asks her to confirm her location. Robin answers that she is inside the castle in the roof, while Brook, from inside the castle well, panics that they have found O-Robi. Shinobu warns the others not to disturb Orochi, because the shogun is in the middle of his banquet, and tells them the problem is only one rat for now.

Robin slips back toward the banquet, thinking, "Hide a leaf in the forest, as they say. I can't escape now. There is much I have left to do!" When she returns, the guests greet her as the newcomer O-Robi and ask, "Where did you go? Come here!" Orochi leers at her and says, "Gufufu! Do you also wish to become my consort?" Robin apologizes for being late and says there are many things she wishes to discuss. The other women tease Orochi and Komurasaki, calling Komurasaki lovely but mean, while one says, "I don't suppose you've heard of Komurasaki's other side, Lord Orochi. Her good looks let her get away with everything!"

Orochi notices Robin's hesitation and asks, "Hm? Is something the matter, O-Robi?" Robin starts to ask about Onigashima but stops herself. Komurasaki is formally introduced as the courtesan, and Orochi says she came from Kyoshiro's brothel. A guest praises Kyoshiro for taking such good care of her. Komurasaki speaks sharply when women are discussed like property: "Don't speak of women as dogs or pets. 'People are flowers,' if your water was pure, yours would bloom well, too." The men laugh it off, and one jokes that he is jealous of Orochi but too afraid of Komurasaki's other side to get involved with her.

The banquet talk turns to violence in the capital. Kyoshiro boasts that yakuza family comes before social rank, asking what they would do if they came home to find their child beaten to a pulp. Orochi praises him, saying, "Your chivalry is admirable, boss." Kyoshiro answers that the enemy must always be crushed with overwhelming strength, flattened so they may never rise again. Orochi then grows serious and warns the room not to look lightly upon the situation: an outsider has snuck into the capital. Even if they are ghosts, he insists, the threat must be taken seriously.

Orochi demands the men's attention: "Listen up, men! Now that you are here, allow me to speak!" This year marks twenty years since the death of Oden Kozuki, and Orochi says Oden's wife's prophecy of revenge still lives on. He asks whether they remember Oden's retainers, the Nine Red Sheaths, and their extraordinary strength. While some guests mutter, "Here he goes again..." Orochi insists their leader, Kinemon, is a man to send heads rolling. He believes that twenty years later they have begun their revenge in Wano, slowly but surely coming for his head.

The guests try to calm Orochi by saying they have already buried countless followers of Oden and that Kaido has already taken care of the Kozuki. They point out that in Kuri, the yokozuna and Jack's men were attacked, and in the capital the soba seller, a ronin, even attacked yakuza at a lodge. Orochi believes all of it may have occurred under Kinemon's instructions. Kyoshiro says he would love nothing more than to cross swords with Kinemon or any of his samurai, and that he would cut him to bits with one stroke and lay him before the shogun. But Komurasaki quietly thinks that the Kozuki bloodline has not yet run dry, because Momonosuke is still alive and his body has not been found.

Komurasaki judges Orochi clearly: he appears to believe these legends to a fault, but his underlings do not, and she cannot blame them. Outside, people wonder what Orochi has to fear when Kaido is on his side, saying no human can kill that monster. Inside the banquet hall, the guests struggle not to laugh. "Pppffft!! How much of a coward are you?!" someone thinks, while another panics, "No! I wanna laugh, but if I do, they'll kill me!" Then laughter breaks out anyway. Orochi roars, "Who is that?! Please! Just get out of here!" and asks, "Is someone... laughing at me?!" The culprit is O-Toko, who laughs helplessly while apologizing that everyone is making fun of the lord.

O-Toko cannot stop laughing. "Ahaha haha! I can't stop! I'm so sorry! Ahahahaha! I know I'm not supposed to, but..." Komurasaki calls out, "O-Toko!" while people shout that the courtesan's kamuro must be stopped. Orochi's humiliation turns into rage. "How unpleasant. I am shogun. Are you saying I am afraid of the last words of a woman 20 years ago?" He draws his blade as voices cry, "Kyaaah! No! Stop!" and "My lord! She's still a child!" Komurasaki steps between them and commands, "Stop this!" Kyoshiro warns her to keep her mouth shut, but she refuses to let Orochi cut down the child.

Orochi charges at O-Toko, screaming, "You dare laugh at me, you brat?!" The room begs him to spare her: "That girl laughs at everything! She doesn't mean any harm by it!" and "My lord! She's a child! Mercy!" Komurasaki raises her hand and slaps Orochi across the face before the blade can fall. The whole banquet freezes. The shogun is struck in front of everyone, and silence replaces the laughter.

The hall erupts in horror. People scream, "Courtesan! What have you done?!" and ask if she is serious. Others order, "Apologize, Komurasaki! Grind your head into the floor! Grovel!" Orochi, stunned and furious, reminds her, "Oi, Komurasaki... I... I was going to make you my wife..." Komurasaki refuses. She says, "I... I refuse. I refuse to bow to anyone! If I believe I am in the right, I shall not yield a single step!" She stands straight before the shogun instead of kneeling.

Orochi's rage explodes into his monstrous many-headed form, the banquet collapsing into chaos around him. He bellows, "Komurasaki!" while people scream, "Lord Orochi! We're in the castle!" and "This is now a bloodbath!" At the same time, the search for Robin continues: someone shouts, "We found her!" and "Don't let her escape!" O-Toko runs through the hall, laughing and calling, "O-Toko! This way!" A voice recognizes a woman from the soba shop. Komurasaki does not retreat. She tells Orochi, "If you wish for a weak woman, then, by all means, kill me and toss me aside! A whore like you has no right to talk of warrior heritage. I am a warrior's daughter! I shall not live on my knees!" The chapter ends with the palace in an uproar.

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