"Kiku, don't worry about me!"
Though Ashura Doji's face was covered in blood, he used the last of his strength to shout at Kiku, determined to see their mission to open Wano's borders completed.
"Bastard, just die already!"
The sight instantly enraged Queen. He viciously whipped his tail, sending a tremendous force crashing into Ashura Doji.
"Cough!"
Ashura Doji spat out a mouthful of blood and fell silent, his body limp. Queen glanced at him for a moment before casually tossing him aside. He then swung the massive mechanical claw on his tail toward Kiku and the samurai beside her. The giant pincer tore through the air with a terrifying force, arcs of black lightning crackling around it as it aimed for the ship laden with explosives.
"Lingering Snow Scythes!"
Tears streamed down Kiku's face, but as she watched Queen's attack descend, she gritted her teeth. With a furious cry, she drew the meito at her waist and unleashed a massive, crescent-shaped wave of slashing energy.
Boom!
The mechanical claw and Kiku's slash collided in an instant. A powerful shockwave erupted from the point of impact, splitting the very sky in two. On one side was Kiku's immense blue slash, and on the other, Queen's surging black lightning.
"As long as I'm here, you will never succeed!" Queen roared. He poured more power into his tail, causing the black lightning to grow even more ferocious. In a flash, it shattered Kiku's attack. Without pausing, Queen swung his right mechanical arm, its claws aiming straight for Kiku.
As one of the three All-Stars of the Beasts Pirates, with a bounty of 1,330,000,000 Beri, Queen's strength was far beyond what Kiku could handle. His mechanical arm had been modified; its fingers could extend like cables, tipped with sharp claws perfect for grabbing, binding, and piercing his enemies. Queen intended to capture Kiku right then and there.
But Kiku was prepared.
"You'll never understand, Queen. We are willing to sacrifice our lives to open Wano's borders." Her voice was soft, her expression grave. "Just as Lord Oden did..."
She took a sharp step forward, positioning herself beside the ship. Bringing her sword up before her chest, she braced herself and met the incoming mechanical claws head-on.
Bang!
As the sound of the impact rang out, a strange smile appeared on Kiku's face. Queen's eyes widened as he finally understood her intention. She was using the force of his own attack to push the entire ship over the cliff's edge.
Rumble!
Struck by Queen's immense power, the vessel began to slide rapidly, grinding against the ground and carving a deep trench in the earth. In moments, the entire ship reached the precipice.
"Lord Oden!" Kiku whispered, her eyes seeing a vision of him in the distance. A look of peaceful release spread across her face. "I'm coming to see you..."
Then, she and the ship plunged into the abyss.
"Damn you! You won't detonate those explosives!" Queen's face twisted in panic. The mechanical claw, having lost its target, whipped around and shot down into the chasm, desperately trying to catch Kiku.
"Queen, go to hell!"
In his haste, Queen had momentarily ignored the other samurai, whose strength he considered negligible. Seeing Kiku fall, their faces filled not with despair, but with triumphant smiles. With a collective shout, they lit the small bundles of explosives they carried and charged him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions rocked the cliffside as more than a dozen samurai made a suicidal charge. The air filled with the scent of fire and smoke. Obscured by the blasts, Queen lost sight of Kiku completely. The samurai were consumed by the explosions, their bodies turned to a bloody mist, but they died without regret. They died with the hope of success burning in their hearts, for the grand ideal of opening Wano's borders.
"Cough!"
As the smoke cleared, Queen's figure reappeared. He coughed, but he was completely unharmed; the explosions had failed to even scratch him. His face, however, was a mask of pure panic. He scrambled to the edge of the cliff and stretched his long neck, peering desperately into the depths below. But from a height of several thousand meters, he could see nothing.
Far below, on the surface of the sea, Kiku stood on the deck of one of over a dozen ships, all packed with explosives. In her right hand, a lit taper burned slowly.
"Lord Oden, Kiku is here!" she cried out softly, then tossed the taper onto the deck. She closed her eyes, her mind filled with memories of the happy times she had spent with Oden.
BOOM!
The moment the taper landed, the gunpowder ignited, and a pillar of fire shot toward the sky. The initial blast scattered countless embers across the other ships, lighting fuse after fuse. A chain reaction of explosions began, turning the entire sea into a fiery inferno.
RUMBLE!
Kiku's form vanished within the roaring flames. From the moment she decided to jump, she had no intention of returning.
"If a sacrifice is needed to open Wano's borders, then let my blood be the fuel. It will make this flame of hope burn even brighter!" she thought in her final moments.
The cataclysmic explosions expanded the air, pressing against the massive cliffs that encircled Wano Country. The pressure built into an unbelievably powerful shockwave that slammed into the rock wall.
BANG!
A sound that shook the heavens and the earth echoed across the land.
Crack!
A faint fracturing sound came from deep within the cliffs. It started small, then grew louder and louder until it became the deafening roar of a complete collapse.
RUMBLE!
The colossal cliffs seemed to be squeezed by an invisible force, shattering and crumbling into the sea. The sound reached Queen's ears, and he collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated.
"It's over... It's all over!" he muttered, his expression one of helpless despair. "Kaido will never forgive me for this!"
The sound of the collapse intensified, triggering a violent earthquake. The entire region of Kuri began to visibly shake. The tremors spread outward, moving inexorably across all of Wano.
"They... they did it!"
Yamato, who was rushing toward the port, felt the ground shake and was overcome with joy. She knew this meant Ashura Doji and Kiku had succeeded.
"As Oden, I have opened the borders of Wano!" she roared at the sky, her heart pounding with a surge of triumphant emotion.
Behind her, Ryuuto and the others felt the violent shaking and stared in astonishment.
"Don't tell me... the cliffs surrounding Wano are collapsing?" An incredible thought surfaced in Ryuuto's mind. "Was this Yamato's plan all along?" He looked at the woman before him with a new sense of awe. Van Augur and Jean Bart didn't know the specifics, but the terrifying tremor told them something monumental was happening.
"What's going on?"
Kaido was still at the ruins of Oden Castle, brooding over his worsening relationship with Yamato when the massive earthquake struck. Recalling a recent report from Queen, he instantly understood what had happened.
"YAMATO!"
Kaido shot to his feet, his furious roar echoing through the air. A look of terror crossed his face; knowing what he knew, he understood the true horror of this event.
ROAR!
Transforming into his azure dragon form, Kaido let out another enraged bellow and shot toward the port. The sky churned with storms and crackled with lightning, a testament to his boundless fury.
Meanwhile, in the Shogun's castle in the Flower Capital, Kurozumi Orochi was enjoying the graceful dance of Komurasaki. Beside him, Denjiro, with his purple hair, gritted his teeth, seemingly holding back some great emotion. Suddenly, a massive tremor shook the entire castle, sending roof tiles raining down.
"What's happening? Go see what's going on!" Orochi shrieked, thinking Kaido had arrived unannounced. Terrified, he scrambled to hide under a table while ordering Denjiro to investigate. Komurasaki—who was in fact Oden's daughter, Kozuki Hiyori, the most beautiful woman in Wano—also looked around in alarm.
Denjiro immediately dashed outside. Since Yamato hadn't informed him of the plan, he was just as confused as everyone else. He leaped onto the roof to get a better view.
"The tremors seem to be coming from the coast!" he quickly deduced. He still needed to see for himself what had happened. He vanished in a blur, speeding toward the source of the shaking. As an undercover agent of the Akazaya Nine within Orochi's inner circle, Denjiro was well-informed. One look at the coast would be enough for him to piece together the truth.
In Leftovers Town, Hancock and her group were caught off guard by the sudden earthquake. The towering factory smokestacks began to topple, aiming right for the town's buildings below. Without hesitation, Hancock, Vivi, and the others sprang into action, refusing to let the citizens be crushed before their very eyes.
Hancock kicked off the air, her pink cheongsam fluttering around her. Vivi slapped her waist, instantly forming a thick fist of sake. Nami swung her Sorcery Clima-Tact, sending a golden bolt of lightning into the sky. Burgess just laughed and charged forward, swinging his powerful right fist.
Bang!
Hancock's kick struck a falling smokestack. With a sharp crack, the massive structure was petrified and shattered into countless pieces of stone. Vivi's giant sake fist, coated in Armament Haki, turned black as obsidian and smashed into another.
"Thunder Strike!" Nami shouted, and the golden lightning bolt lanced down, obliterating a third smokestack.
Boom!
With several more concussive impacts, the rest of the smokestacks were destroyed in mid-air by the group's combined attacks before they could hit the ground.
"We're alive?"
"Thank you! Thank you for saving us!"
The townspeople who had been too slow to escape fell to their knees, bowing their heads in gratitude toward Hancock and the others. Without them, they would have all been killed. O-Tama watched them with eyes full of worship, imagining that one day she would be as strong as them. She would become the greatest kunoichi in all of Wano.
Tenguyama Hitetsu observed the group closely. "As expected of the crew of an Emperor—the Ryuuto Pirates. Their power is truly immense," he thought to himself.
O-Tsuru, Kin'emon's beloved and Kiku's dear friend, watched with tears streaming down her face. She knew about Yamato's plan. Feeling the immense tremor shaking all of Kuri, she knew they had succeeded.
As the collapse continued, massive chunks of Wano's cliffs fell into the ocean, creating enormous waves. With the cliffs at the port gone, the sea water that had been trapped between Wano and the outer wall began to recede at an astonishing rate.
RUMBLE!
Before long, the entire cliff wall at the port had vanished. The chain reaction caused nearly all the cliffs around Kuri to collapse as well. Suddenly, about a tenth of Wano was no longer imprisoned by the stone walls. The waters receded completely, transforming Wano into a massive, land-based nation.
The tremors and the monumental changes quickly reached every corner of the country—Kuri, the Flower Capital, Ringo, Udon, Hakumai, Shiromai, and even Onigashima. Everyone could see that Wano itself had been fundamentally altered. And deep beneath the sea, a powerful presence seemed to be slowly awakening.
Thus, the borders of Wano were opened.
Not far from Wano's new coastline, a colossal figure walked slowly through the sea. An ancient, strange voice was echoing in its mind. It was Zunesha, sentenced to walk the seas for eternity. The voice was archaic and obscure, like a call from a forgotten era, and it urged Zunesha onward.
And so, in the middle of the vast, empty ocean, Zunesha swung its massive trunk and let out a resounding cry. It lifted one of its titanic legs and slowly began to change its direction.
Splash!
As its colossal foot stomped down, the sea churned with mighty waves.