20 Years

Luffy's giant fist hangs over Onigashima as he shouts, "Move Onigashima out the way!!" The margin calls this "Momo's answer!!" Yamato, seeing the scale of the attack, warns, "Luffy, wait!! That can't be done!" Momo struggles under the island and remembers the voices that entrusted the future to him: "It's not... to revive the Kozuki clan in the future!! I know you will find a way..." He roars while trying to produce flame clouds and move the island. The page makes Momo's task immediate and impossible-looking: Luffy can strike Kaido only if Momo finally lives up to the twenty-year hope placed in him.

Kaido and Luffy face each other in the sky beneath the enormous fist. Kaido looks up and accepts the challenge: "Very well. I'll take this one head on." Luffy, still poised above the island, smiles when Kaido says, "Have you heard, Straw Hat?" He begins invoking the past: "This country's hero... burned to death... 20 years ago!!" The page sets Kaido's final answer to Luffy's giant punch as both physical and ideological. Rather than dodge, he chooses to meet it directly while using Oden's execution and Wano's two decades of suffering to frame the clash.

Kaido transforms his dragon body into a blazing form and declares, "Flaming Drum Dragon!!" A note explains that the kanji means "great blazing dragon torch" and that it sounds like "Kane Daiko," the flaming drum from a classic rakugo tale. Kaido says that Wano has been a lawless land since Oden died and that the people waited all this time for their "saviors" to show up. Luffy tells him, "Don't worry, it's okay to let go. I assure you, I won't run!" and trusts that his right hand will not crash down on the capital because he is going to vaporize Kaido. The page raises both attacks to apocalyptic size.

Luffy remembers Hyogoro teaching him how to strike without touching, explaining that what he calls "Haki" is known as "Ryuo" in Wano. He winds up "Gomu Gomu no..." and says, "Like I'll let that happen!" while Kaido prepares "Rising Dragon... Blazing Bagua!!" The two attacks meet at a distance: Luffy calls out "Bajrang Gun!!" while Kaido's burning dragon form surges upward. A note ties Bajrang to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god and potential inspiration for Sun Wukong. The page makes Luffy's final blow an advanced Haki attack rather than a simple giant fist, using Hyogoro's Wano lesson as the key.

As the sky battle continues, the scene cuts through the collapsing island and the memories of Wano's people. Someone cries, "Oh no!! Kin!! Kiku!!" while Luffy says, "I didn't mean to drop you!!" Below, allies beg, "Sir Straw Hat, we're counting on you!!" and "Take Kaido down!! Finish him for good!!" A wounded man pleads, "Please be alive!! Don't go dying on me now!!" Momo pants as he struggles to move the island, knowing the nightmare will not end unless Kaido is driven from the land. The memory then turns to Oden's execution, with people shouting "Oden-sama!!" and Kaido's retainers trying to prevent any survivor from escaping.

The flashback returns to the night Oden's retainers fled. People scream "Run!!" and "Don't look back!!" while others cry "Oden-sama!!" A gunshot rings out with a huge "Bang!!!" as Toki stands with tears in her eyes. Kaido and Orochi realize the fugitives intend to safeguard Oden's heir, Momonosuke. Orochi says there is only one place those samurai would go, Kuri, while Kaido notes that Oden has a son and says he will deal with him himself. This page records the moment the persecution of the Kozuki line becomes policy: Momo is not just a survivor, he is the target both tyrants know they must erase.

Kaido's forces and Orochi's men hunt down the Kozuki. Someone begs, "Please have mercy!! Stop hunting the Kozuki clan!!" but the order is to move, attack, and shoot any "vermin" that dares defy the shogun. People are cut down while crying out in pain, and Oden Castle burns as a report says, "What of Oden's wife? She was confirmed dead in Bakura Town. No one else was seen fleeing the ruins of Oden Castle." The announcement concludes, "The Kozuki line is officially dead!!" The page shows the regime trying to turn a massacre into certainty: if the heirs and retainers are gone, Wano can be forced to accept the lie that resistance is over.

Orochi publicly demands that the daimyo choose: "Will you help us usher in a new Wano? Or will you try to wage war?" The daimyo answer that it is a stupid question with an obvious answer. Representatives from Kibi, Hakumai, Ringo, and Udon refuse to recognize a shogun who is not a Kozuki and declare it their duty to avenge Oden. The warriors charge against Kaido's dragon form, but the image of Kaido towering above them shows how unequal the war is. The page condenses the last organized resistance of Wano's regional lords: loyalty to Oden survives, but it is crushed beneath Kaido's overwhelming power.

The doomed rebellion is swept away by Kaido's dragon fire and force. Orochi laughs, "Gufufu hahaha!!" and sneers, "Muhaha!! Weaklings!! It would be an insult to call any of you samurai!!" As survivors hide and flee, one says, "Damn it!! If only that fool didn't have Kaido backing him...!!" Another warns them to be quiet because Orochi has ears everywhere and Kaido's forces will find them. The page captures the bitter shift from open defiance to fear. Everyone knows Orochi alone would not have ruled them, but Kaido's backing makes even speaking that truth dangerous.

Wano is transformed into an industrial prison. Orochi orders his men to track down every able-bodied young man and bring them in, while smokestacks rise across the country and someone declares, "This entire country will become our weapons factory!!" Workers are beaten and chained while families cry, "Daddy!!!" and beg, "Wait! Please don't take him!!" The land dries out beneath factory pollution: people ask why the river has gone dark, say there is no more drinking water, and cry that the crops will not grow and there is nothing left to eat. The page shows Wano's suffering as deliberate policy: people, water, farmland, and labor are all consumed for weapons.

Orochi's rule grinds the country down further. Guards tell workers, "If you can still breathe, you can still work!!" and warn them not to count on miracles, because the borders are staying closed. The citizens try to endure by believing in Toki's words, saying it will be a long winter. Orochi and his followers mock starving people who ate the leftovers of defective SMILE fruits, calling them gluttonous fools. They decide to make the rest of Ebisu Town follow suit, and say the victims' beliefs will stay empty while their loved ones keel over, because they will be able to do nothing except grin brightly and never stop laughing. The page defines the cruelty behind Wano's forced laughter.

In the present, the burning Orochi lunges at Hiyori and calls her "Komurasaki," coughing, "Curse you!!" He roars, "Gufuhaha!! I'm taking you with me!! You shouldn't have underestimated the wrath of the Kurozumi clan!!" Hiyori screams as the flaming Yamata no Orochi form coils through the room. Orochi promises, "I'll be seeing you in hell," and raves about drinking together down there, while Hiyori remains pinned in the wreckage. A new presence notices that things are getting out of hand. The page folds the flashback's oppression back into the present: Orochi's whole regime may be collapsing, but his last instinct is still to drag Oden's daughter into death with him.

The chapter ends by answering the cries of Wano's past and present at once. In the Flower Capital, lanterns rise with wishes such as "Free us from this hell," "Give me a sip of clear water," and "Please make Orochi disappear." Orochi lunges toward Hiyori, but Denjiro appears and cuts him down, sending Hiyori's scream across the page. At the same time, Luffy and Kaido's final clash fills the sky while Momo tries to move Onigashima beneath them. The caption says, "The present hears the cries of the past!!" The page aligns Denjiro's sword, the citizens' lantern wishes, Momo's struggle, and Luffy's Bajrang Gun into one answer to twenty years of suffering.

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