"Like we'd give an answer to a mongrel like you!"
This was getting old.
"I'm trying to be nice about this.....but it's clear that this isn't working," I replied aloofly.
Everyone within the room immediately began shifting uncomfortably as I said that. The ninjas were about to make a move on me when I immediately let out my bloodlust.
They all immediately froze where they stood as sweat poured out of their skin. I added a bit of Conqueror's Haki to my bloodlust to make it even harder to move at the moment.
"Now.....I won't say it again, where is Oden?"
Orochi squirmed and squealed before he replied.
"I don't know! I just know that he doesn't live far off from the Capital!"
Looking into Orochi's emotions, I could tell that he was telling the truth.
'Looks like I'll have to do this myself..'
I slowly removed my bloodlust before leaving the castle. I left the same way I came in, through the door.
By then everyone already knew that they didn't have the power to stop me. However, just as I was leaving the facility, I did hear Orochi say something rather interesting.
"Get that bastard Kaidou on the line! Tell him that it's an emergency! Also, find the identity of that bastard as well! I'll skin him alive!"
I ignored everything else after and quietly walked down the streets of the capital. Since Orochi was next to useless, the next move was going to have to be asking around for his whereabouts.
It was nighttime so it was hard to find any passersby's, but I also had a plan for that as well.
There were plenty of bars and brothels that happened to be open at the moment. The only thing that I had to keep an eye out for was the temptation.
So, I made my first stop at the tavern, and sure enough; there were plenty of individuals that had happened to be enjoying their drinks.
I walked towards the bar before grabbing a seat and asking for something to drink.
The bartender was looking at me with a rather weary gaze.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"You're not from around here, are you?" The Bartender asked.
"Nope, I'm just a passerby who's looking for someone.."
"Who might that individual be?" The bartender asked curiously.
"Kozuki Oden, the former Lord of Wano."
The bartender's face immediately contorted to an expression of disgust and hatred.
"Why do you want that useless piece of garbage?"
"Just wanted to pay an old friend a visit, that's all."
"He's your friend? Are you as useless as him as well?" The bartender hissed angrily.
"You have quite some hatred for him, what did he do for you to hate him?" I asked curiously.
The bartender's grip on the plate that he had been holding tightened as he looked at the floor.
"He was supposed to liberate us....instead this piece of trash stands outside and dances around naked, making a fool of himself. He's been doing this for months since he came here, that bastard!" The bartender's voice was laced with hatred as tears slowly began forming in his eyes.
"Something happen before this?" I asked softly.
"My wife....she was sent to those factories that bastard Orochi had helped those pirates build. She never made it back..." The bartender choked as he tried to stop himself from crying.
Orochi had already began to enslave the local citizens of Wano. If my sense of time was accurate, then Oden should have already stormed the capital and tried to kill him initially. Only to be stopped by that guy who had been using the barrier-barrier fruit before Luffy's biggest fan had been able to get.
Then he was blackmailed by Orochi to dance around the capital naked. Under the promise that he would be leaving the country after five years. That was a lie, he ended up facing Kaidou, only to be killed in battle.
Fortunately, this was about three or four years into the future, meaning that it was possible to prevent that from happening. However, that was only under the condition that Oden was willing to accept my help.
"Well, do you know where he lives?" I asked the bartender.
He immediately wiped his tears before restabilizing his breathing. I gave himself some time before he started talking again.
"I heard some rumors that he had been living on a hill that happened to be nearby a town, but the rumors only come from the ronin that happen to be nearby. There's no clear indication that he actually lives there," The bartender confessed.
"That's more than enough for me," I finished my drink before leaving the payment with a hefty tip, "I'm sorry to hear about your wife."
The bartender gratefully took the money before nodding in my fleeting direction.
With that, I vanished into the darkness.
I was still able to see clearly through the night. So I immediately went about looking for a nearby hill that looked habitable. In the distance, I heard shouts and commands coming from numerous soldiers as they left the Lord's castle to enter the capital town.
"Find him! Do not engage, he's too strong for all of us!"
I guess Orochi had already snitched on me to Kaidou. Funny thing was that Kaidou wasn't going to be able to do jack shit about me, unless he got stronger.
Walking through the woods, I spread my Observation Haki as far as possible to sense any living organisms that happened to be nearby. However, other than the natural animals that happened to live in the habitat, there wasn't any signs of Oden or his family.
'Maybe he lives farther than here'
I immediately spread my wings and began flying about. My Observation Haki scouring and looking for any presence of human life. For a while, there wasn't any signs of human presence, until I spotted something interesting.
A singular human presence was resting on a tree, there wasn't any movement that had indicated he was on the hunt for an animal. However, it didn't look like he had his guard was down completely.
'Maybe he knows...'
Landing next to the tree. I looked up and landed my gaze on the man.
He had a rather fairly built appearance, but on his face was a red mask that covered his entire face.
"Hey, you mind telling me where Oden's at?"
The man immediately jumped before landing on his head. He took a bit to get back up on his feet before taking a stance and looking at me wearily. At least I assumed because I still couldn't see the man's face.
"W-who the hell are you?!" The man asked.
"Just a man who's looking for Oden, have you seen him?"
"If you take this direction all the way, you should be able to see his house not too far from here," the masked man replied.
"Thanks,"
I didn't waste anytime and immediately took to the skies, and headed to the direction that he had pointed to me before.
It didn't take me long to finally see a hill not too far, and there was strong indication of human life there as well.
I landed right before the gates. I didn't want to enter the house at this time because it was too late, so I decided that I was going to wait until morning.
Let me know what y'all think!!!
Love y'all!!!
Morning finally arrived, and I walked up to the gates of the house before I started knocking.
I didn't hear much from within the house at first, but soon, I heard footsteps making their way towards the gate. Promptly after, the gates groaned as they slowly opened, only to find a .....boy? I think it was one of Oden's retainers; the guy who looked like a girl.
"Hello?"
"I'm here to meet Oden, you mind taking me to him?"
Although it wasn't my first time meeting Oden's retainers, it was my first time meeting him in particular. I don't think that I'd seen him when we first landed on Wano, but I could have been wrong.
Anyway, I slowly followed him into the house, finally stopping in a room at the very end of the corridor.
Opening it, I found Oden and Toki playing around with Momonosuke and Hiyori, the two children had grown quite a bit. However, they all froze and looked at me when I entered the room.
Oden's smile widened as he turned to look at me.
"Pipsqueak!! It's been a while!!!!" Oden immediately set Hiyori down and lunged at me with his arms wide open.
I stepped to the side and let him run through the doors that the retainer had just closed. Leaving a human sized imprint as a result, the children laughed at the sudden turn of events. However, Toki was far from amused, her brow furrowed at the sight of Oden running through the door. Then it furrowed further when she turned to look at me, almost as if she wasn't happy at the sight of me.
After Oden calmed down and had finally sat down, he had the family leave the room so that we could talk in private, and boy we had a lot to talk about. At least that was what I had believed anyway. Toki came in with a tray of drinks so that we could drink while we talked.
"What brings you here, Pipsqueak? Aren't you supposed to be with Whitebeard?"
"Actually, I was on my way to meet Whitebeard, he just happened to be near Wano. So I figured that I may as well visit."
"That's good to hear! I'm happy to see that he's still alive and kicking! As you can see, we're doing pretty well for ourselves back here as well!"
"Well?" I asked almost humorously.
Looking at Oden, he was wearing nothing but rags. The outfit that he had on was patched with different patches. Even Toki and the kids had the same kind of outfits on, clearly indicating that they were deep in poverty.
"Doesn't look like that to me, it looks to me that you're getting scammed, and you don't even know it," I replied.
"You got it all wrong, Pipsqueak! Orochi said that all he needed was five years so that he could leave Wano!" Oden laughed confidently.
"And you believed him?" I asked.
"The people of Wano value their honor! There's no way that Orochi would stoop so low as to break his word!"
"How sure are you that he isn't going to? Did he give you some form of leverage for assurance?" I asked back.
"No, but he promised!" Oden laughed it off casually.
I was beginning to get frustrated with him, he clearly knew that Orochi was oppressing the people of Wano, but showed no signs of distrusting him whenever it came to promises.
"What happens if he doesn't honor his promise?" I asked.
Oden stopped at his tracks and thought about it for a while, it was obvious that he hadn't thought that far ahead.
"Listen, Orochi isn't going to uphold his part of the promise. He's not going to leave Wano just because he promised. If there's any time to attack Orochi and kill him, it's probably now."
At this point of time, I heard multiple people crowding near the doorsteps. Probably trying to eavesdrop on our conversation, I could practically hear them whisper at each other to shut up.
"There's no way, he gave me his word! A man's word is his honor!" Oden remarked stubbornly.
"What good is a man's honor if he doesn't have any to begin with?" I asked, "Judging from all that has been happening, its clear that the man is a crafty individual. So what makes you think he'd actually follow through with it?"
"If he doesn't, I'll kill him anyway!" Oden huffed before chugging down a cup of sake.
"Kill him? With all that military power that he's been gathering, are you sure you can?" I asked him.
"Bah! What's it to you anyway?! There's no need for you to intervene in Wano's affairs!" Oden remarked angrily.
"Do you wish to save Wano?" I asked calmly.
"I'm saving Wano as we speak!" Oden snapped.
"No, you're not, if anything; I think you're killing Wano by your inaction," I replied aloofly.
"He's holding hostages!!! What am I to do when he has my people in ropes and chains?!" Oden asked furiously.
"He's working with Pirates, the Beast Pirates at that, what the fuck makes you think that those were the only hostages he held?" I asked coldly.
"What if he kills them then? Are you going to pay Wano back for the lives lost?!" Oden roared.
At this point of time, Oden had been getting more and more worked up about this topic. I could feel his concern for the people of Wano, he just didn't know how to go about saving it.
If only he could see that Orochi had been taking Oden for a fool, this conversation would have lost any meaning of happening.
"Your inaction is going to only fuel further death and oppression. You might as well rip the bandage off early and work on the damages that had happened after," I replied consoling him.
Oden drunk some more booze before recomposing himself.
"I don't want to cause a war that can be avoided. This is the best way we can go," Oden concluded.
"Are you sure that you won't regret this?" I replied vaguely.
I couldn't see his expression at that point of time, but I could feel that he was still conflicted over this issue.
"This could mean the end of your family, and this is the way you want to handle it?" I asked.
"No matter the situation, I am still the Lord of Wano. I believe that this is the best way to go about things," Oden affirmed.
"Well, since you are the Lord of Wano, get rid of Kaidou then;" I remarked.
"Orochi said that he needed Kaidou's help to get ready to leave Wano," Oden rejected.
"And the Weapon factories? Are they also to help Orochi leave Wano as well?" I asked.
Oden didn't say anything and kept on pouring himself a drink. I quietly sipped mine with my eyes closed. I was beginning to sense some soldiers making their way towards the manor.
"It seems that you have visitors," I remarked.
For the first time in a while, Oden looked up at me wearily.
"Don't worry, I'll handle them for you. It's the least that I can do for you," I remarked before slowly getting up, "I'm sure you already know how to contact me, if you're ever in need of help; Call."
With that, I walked towards the window before leaping towards the direction where the soldiers were coming from. Killing intent slowly leaking from my body.
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Love y'all!!!
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