The outer perimeter of Wano Country was an absolute graveyard for the uninitiated. The sky above was a swirling vortex of purple-rimmed storm clouds, and the ocean below crashed against the sheer, vertical rock walls of the isolated nation with the force of continuous tectonic detonations. Massive, jagged reefs broke through the white-capped foam like the teeth of an ancient sea monster, obliterating the natural currents into a chaotic, unpredictable maze of rushing water.
Cutting through this watery hell was a single, small motorized skiff. At the helm stood Norwell D. Giovanni, his blonde hair whipping violently in the salt-sprayed gale. His upper body was still tightly bound in fresh medical linens, but his eyes were locked onto the terrifying aquatic landscape ahead with absolute, unyielding focus.
He didn't have a map. He didn't have a log pose tuned to this specific island. What he did have, however, was the pristine, flawless meta-knowledge of his past life.
"The standard entry requires giant koi fish to drag a vessel up the vertical waterfall," Giovanni muttered to himself, his fingers twisting the throttle of the dial-powered engine with micro-millimeter precision. "And the only other entrance is the underground port controlled directly by Kaido and that sniveling bastard Orochi. I don't have an invitation to either."
A massive, rogue wave slammed against the starboard side of the skiff, threatening to flip the small metal craft entirely into the air. Giovanni didn't even blink. He shifted his weight, utilizing his advanced physical balance to force the hull back down into the water, violently steering through a narrow, razor-thin gap between two colossal stone spires. He memorized the precise layout of the outer reefs from the stories he had read, dodging the hidden sandbars and sudden undertows that had claimed thousands of pirate ships throughout history.
Giovanni finally got a koi fish. And using rope he had on him tied it to it. Having the koi drag him upward.
Then, the true gatekeeper of Wano materialized through the dense sea fog.
Directly ahead, the entire ocean seemed to violently cave inward. A colossal, roaring whirlpool. A massive, swirling vortex of absolute kinetic destruction was spinning at the base of the great waterfall. The vacuum generated by the vortex was so immense that it literally sucked the surrounding air down into the abyss, creating a localized gravity well that trapped any vessel unfortunate enough to enter its radius.
The skiff's engine let out a high-pitched, agonizing scream of mechanical failure as the outer currents of the whirlpool caught the hull. The metal plates began to violently groan and splinter under the immense rotational pressure.
"Alright, boat," Giovanni said, a wild, completely fearless grin breaking across his face as he let go of the steering column. "You did your job. I'll take it from here."
He waited for the exact millisecond the skiff reached the absolute apex of a rising wave right at the rim of the vortex. Before the water could drag the craft down into the dark abyss, Giovanni detonated upward.
BOOM!
His heavy boots shattered the wooden floorboards of the skiff as he launched himself hundreds of feet into the open air. Left behind, the small motorized boat was instantly swallowed by the roaring whirlpool, snapped in two like a fragile toothpick.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Mid-air, Giovanni executed a rapid series of violent, sound-barrier-breaking kicks against the empty atmosphere. Sky Walk! Every single stride generated a visible, white ring of compressed air beneath his boots, propelling his body vertically up the massive, roaring face of the Wano waterfall. He defied gravity entirely, scaling the hundreds of feet of sheer cliffside on foot, bursting through the thick, heavy mist of the upper plateau, and landing flawlessly on the solid, rocky soil of Wano Country.
He had officially breached the borders, but the air felt entirely wrong. The spiritual atmosphere of Wano was thick with an oppressive, suffocating weight. The unmistakable, toxic residue of Kaido's presence.
Giovanni didn't waste a single moment to catch his breath. His gut was screaming at him that the cosmic clock was ticking down to zero. He lowered his stance, his fingers lightly brushing the golden hilt of Ace, and exploded into a full, unrestricted sprint.
SONIC BOOM!
The earth beneath his heels violently fractured as Giovanni transformed into a literal streak of golden and crimson light. He tore through the outer wastes of Kuri at a velocity that defied human biology. He was moving so fast that his physical form completely vanished from the material plane, leaving behind nothing but a violent, concussive vacuum wave that tore up the dead grass and shattered loose stones along the path.
He blasted through the desolate, impoverished villages of Udon and the industrial factory sectors. It was the dead of night, and the oppressed, starving citizens of Wano were huddled inside their fragile, dilapidated shacks.
FWOOSH!
"Huh?! What was that?!" a patrolling Orochi samurai gasped, his hand instantly flying to the hilt of his katana as a sudden, violent, and freezing gale-force breeze swept through the dark dirt road of the district. The sheer kinetic draft violently blew away the guard's paper lantern and rattled the sliding wooden doors of the entire street.
The guard spun around frantically, shining his dim torch into the darkness, but the road was completely empty. Giovanni had already crossed three miles of territory before the sound of his initial footstep could even register in the guard's ears.
He finally reached the massive, towering wooden gates that separated the desolate waste districts from the pristine capital. Giovanni skidded to a temporary halt, his boots carving deep furrows into the dirt. He paused, his brow furrowing as he looked up at the massive structure.
It was completely unguarded. The heavy iron-reinforced gates were thrown wide open, and the standard military watchtowers were entirely devoid of Orochi's soldiers.
"No guards... no patrols," Giovanni whispered, a cold sweat breaking out across the back of his neck as a terrible realization settled into his chest. "The closer I get to the center, the emptier it gets. The entire population of this damn country has been drained into one specific spot."
He accelerated again, his golden eyes burning with a desperate, frantic energy as he rocketed toward the glowing silhouette of the Flower Capital.
Giovanni burst into the grand execution plaza of the Flower Capital like a falling meteor, his boots sliding through the thick layers of ash and debris. The moment he cleared the final residential archway, a blinding, monstrous wave of pure heat slammed directly into his face, accompanied by the heavy, sickening scent of boiling oil and scorched flesh.
The scene before him was a literal living nightmare pulled straight from the historical records of his past life.
At the absolute center of the massive plaza stood a colossal, iron cauldron. Beneath it, a raging mountain of flames roared with demonic intensity, heating the ocean of dark oil inside the pot to a temperature that could dissolve steel.
And inside that boiling hell stood Kozuki Oden.
The legendary samurai's skin was completely blistered, charred to a horrific, unblemished black. His massive, muscular frame was strained to its absolute biological limits, every single vein in his body bulging violently against his flesh as he stood waist-deep in the liquid fire. Yet, despite the unimaginable, reality-shattering agony tearing through his nervous system, Oden's face was locked into a magnificent, unyielding grimace.
With both of his massive, blistered arms hoisted toward the heavens, Oden was single-handedly supporting a colossal wooden plank. And resting atop that plank, weeping uncontrollably, were his nine loyal vassals. The Red Scabbards.
The surrounding crowd of thousands of Wano citizens was completely frozen in terror, their faces covered in tears, their hands pressed against their mouths to muffle their sobs. Up on the pristine, elevated royal balcony, Kurozumi Orochi was laughing hysterically, a twisted, pathetic expression of pure malice on his face. And standing at the edge of the cauldron, looking down at the dying samurai with a cold, unreadable expression of respect and brutality, was the Governor-General of the Beast Pirates. Kaido.
Giovanni's heart dropped into the absolute pit of his stomach. His fingers trembled against the guard of Ace.
"Damn it..." Giovanni hissed through his grit teeth, a wave of profound, suffocating helplessness washing over his soul. "I'm late. The hour is already up."
Inside the cauldron, Kozuki Oden slowly tilted his head back, his dark eyes scanning the weeping faces of his beloved retainers one final time. He let out a deep, booming laugh that cut cleanly through the crackle of the flames, his voice carrying the absolute, unshakeable weight of a man who had conquered his own destiny.
"Live... my loyal samurai!" Oden roared, his voice echoing off the very mountains of Wano. "Fulfill my dream! Open the borders of this isolated nation! Bring the dawn to the world!"
With a final, monumental explosion of physical strength that defied the laws of death, Oden's charred muscles flexed one last time. He violently hurled the massive wooden board with all his might, launching the nine Red Scabbards far out of the execution plaza, sending them flying over the high stone walls of the capital.
"Run!" Oden yelled, his final command piercing the night.
"Master Oden!!!" Kin'emon screamed in absolute agony as the retainers hit the ground running, tears streaming down their faces as they fled into the darkness, pursued by a chaotic wave of shouting Orochi soldiers.
The execution square completely erupted into pure, unadulterated chaos. Citizens were screaming, guards were clattering their weapons, and through the thick, black smoke, Kaido slowly stepped forward. The massive Oni raised a heavy, black flintlock pistol, pointing it directly at the forehead of the smiling, victorious samurai who had survived the Hour of Legend.
BANG.
Oden's body slowly, gracefully slid backward, sinking completely into the bubbling ocean of oil with a triumphant, eternal smile carved into his face.
Kaido lowered his smoking pistol, his expression grim and completely devoid of joy. He turned his back on the cauldron, his cold, draconic eyes instantly shifting toward the northern horizon where Kuri lay. He knew the job was only half-finished. To completely secure his iron grip on Wano, the entire Kozuki bloodline had to be systematically erased from the face of the earth. He needed to fly to Kuri immediately, incinerate Oden's castle, and slaughter Kozuki Toki, Momonosuke, and Hiyori.
The massive Oni's body began to violently distort, blue scales starting to ripple across his shoulders as he prepared to transform into his colossal azure dragon form.
SWIIIISH!
Without a single breath of warning, a blinding, catastrophic streak of black and red Conqueror's Haki lightning violently cleaved through the thick execution smoke. Giovanni launched himself from the shadows of the plaza, executing a ferocious, supersonic sneak attack aimed directly at the side of Kaido's exposed neck. The air itself shrieked in protest as Ace cut a line of absolute execution through the dark.
Kaido's advanced Observation Haki and raw, battlefield-born instincts flared violently.
With a deep, guttural grunt, the massive Governor-General violently tilted his torso backward by a fraction of an inch. The razor-sharp edge of Giovanni's Supreme Grade blade missed Kaido's throat by a mere millimeter, instead slicing cleanly through a dozen stray strands of the pirates long, black hair, sending them fluttering into the flames below.
Giovanni landed flawlessly on the shattered stone pavement directly in front of the massive pirate, his boots skidding through the ash before snapping tight. He instantly raised Ace, leveling the pristine, dark-patterned steel directly at the center of Kaido's massive chest. His golden eyes were burning with a feral, unyielding intensity that completely matched the dark aura of the plaza.
Kaido slowly straightened his massive bulk, his towering, twelve-foot frame casting a colossal, suffocating shadow completely over the young blonde intruder. He rested his massive, spike-studded kanabo, Hassaikai, loosely over his right shoulder, his eyes narrowing into dangerous, razor-sharp slits as he glares down at Giovanni.
"Who the hell are you, brat?" Kaido rumbled, his voice like a low, vibrating earthquake that caused the loose stones on the ground to chatter. "You don't smell like the pathetic, honor-bound samurai of this country. And that sword... that aura... you carry the distinct reek of the New World sea."
Giovanni took a single, heavy step forward, his own Conqueror's Haki exploding from his body in a massive, visible wave of dark purple energy that violently slammed against Kaido's oppressive spiritual pressure, creating a localized gridlock of black lightning between them.
"The name is Norwell D. Giovanni," the young pirate declared, his voice carrying an absolute, unshakeable register of authority as he tightened his grip on Roger's steel. "And I don't give a damn about your global empire, Kaido. But I am standing right here, right now... and I won't let you step a single foot near that northern castle. I won't let you get to them."
Kaido stared at him for a long, silent moment before a wide, terrifying, and thoroughly bloodthirsty grin slowly split across his massive face. "Norwell D. Giovanni... The Calamity from Red-Hair's crew. You've got a lot of nerve running into my backyard alone, rookie. Let us see if your sword can back up that kingly mouth!"
---
Meanwhile, down at the stormy, white-capped outer borders of Wano Country, a distinct, heavily armored Whitebeard Pirates vanguard vessel was violently cutting through the thick sea mist. The ship tossed dramatically against the treacherous reefs, its heavy timbers groaning under the pressure of the chaotic currents.
Standing at the front bow of the ship, holding onto the rigging lines, were four of the most legendary division commanders of the Whitebeard fleet: "Phoenix" Marco, Diamond Jozu, Vista of the Flower Swords, and Izo.
Marco leaned over the railing, his lazy eyes scanning the sheer, vertical rock walls of the waterfall ahead before turning his head toward the elegant, kimono-clad sniper standing beside him.
"The water out here is an absolute nightmare, yare yare," Marco said, a serious, sharp register entering his tone. "Since you're a native of this country, Izo, you're the only one who understands the secret pathways of these currents. You're going to have to lead the ship through this entry. Don't let Jozu's heavy ass sink us before we even hit the shore."
Izo drew his twin flintlock pistols, his expression completely grim and filled with an intense, underlying dread as he looked up at the storm clouds hanging over his homeland. "Understood, Marco. Keep the sails tight! If we hit that eastern reef, the hull will split instantly!"
Marco's arms suddenly erupted into a brilliant, swirling vortex of blue and yellow flames of regeneration, his physical limbs transforming into the magnificent wings of the Mythical Phoenix. He looked toward the interior of the island, his Observation Haki picking up the distant, cataclysmic vibrations of a massive Conqueror's Haki clash originating from the Flower Capital.
"I've got an incredibly bad feeling about that brat's hunch," Marco declared, his fiery wings beating the air with a thunderous roar. "That spiritual weight over the mountains... it's already burning. I'm going to head on ahead and scout the capital!"
With a massive launch, the Phoenix rocketed up into the stormy skies, transforming into a brilliant streak of blue fire that sped directly toward the heart of Wano.
---
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