Chapter 255

—

When Raki was screaming, Amon had something better to do.

Which was to pay a visit to the road poneglyph that Kaido possessed. 

There were four road Poneglyphs in this world. One of them was previously in the now destroyed Wholecake Island, another in Zou, and another in Onigashima. There was another one, it was in Fishman Island before, but it’s been stolen by someone—who Amon suspected to be either Shanks or Dragon.

Except for that, Amon already had all the other three Road Poneglyph. But only Big Mom’s one was in person because he absorbed her territory, while the other two were only copied in two large papers. 

He had simply gone there to take a stroll in a boring night and stealthily copied the entire thing—it all took a simple 3 seconds in total.

But now, he had another of the real things as well.

After he went to the chamber where the huge boulder that is the Road Poneglyph was kept, he simply stared at the texture for a few seconds before touching it and teleporting far, far from Wano… no, he went far from the entire planet as a whole.

In a matter of seconds, Amon traversed through the vacuum of space and reached Moon-1, where the ancient Skypieans used to live.

“Welcome, boss!!”

An Automata, looking like Shortmotor, welcomed Amon immediately as Amon ignored it and walked into his private chamber with the Poneglyph over his shoulders.

“Open the secret tunnel-572.”

Amon said and without even anyone doing anything, a circular tunnel opened below him, big enough for the Poneglyph to enter, as Amon fell in the gap.

Moon… was Amon’s safe haven.

—★—

“Yo!” Raki waved her hand from afar as she ran to the Sins who had gathered in one place after clearing the leftovers. “You guys are done?"

As she closed the distance, the sins gave her a blank stare while Wyper stared at her new golden eyes for a whole minute. 

“...Tch.” He grumbled and looked the other way.

Tsumi on the other hand blinked rapidly at Raki’s eyes. “Owwh, did Kami-sama give you Kaido’s powers? Is that why he didn't send you with us… Wow, I want another fruit too..."

Raki raised her head in the air with a proud smile. "As if he'd give you one, hmph."

"Of course not." Yona nodded gracefully with her right hand in the air in a Buddhist pose. "Kami's sister deserves more."

Tsumi sighed with a depressed expression while Raki turned her head to search for someone else.

"Hm, where Yamato at?"

Wyper turned his gaze to the far right with his arms crossed. "She's not really in the best state of mind. I don't think you should go there now-"

"Yaaamaatoo!!"

Interrupting his words, Raki ran to the spot immediately.

"..."

...At least she didn't seem like a clone. That was good, right?

Right...

—★—

Raki jumped on Yamato's shoulders after she reached her.

"Are you still crying?"

"Oh, Raki." Yamato turned her head to the right to meet Raki's head resting on her shoulders. "I am fine, don't worry."

Yamato's cheeks were strained with two dry lines of tears, but she was smiling now.

Hancock simply stood tall on the side, staring at the two of them, while Yamato sat on a boulder. 

Yamato observed Raki's head and her shoulders, her arms around the former's body. "Uh… why are you hugging me?"

That was strange. Raki didn't hate her anymore, but they weren't really so intimate.

"I am just trying to be nice, just shut up for a moment."

Yamato sighed and nodded with a smile. Well, not as if this felt bad.

"Thanks." She said as her head slowly lowered to her chest. "But, can you stop squeezing my breasts please?"

"Nooo-"

Raki's voice caught in her mouth as lightning blitzed in front of them and Amon's figure materialised out of thin air.

His red eyes first landed on the two hugging girls before lowering to Raki's hands.

He only sighed before his size grew, his large hand picking the girl up, before throwing her in the sky like a ball.

"...." Yamato and Hancock stared at the sky with dry expressions.

"It's fine," Amon turned to them, his size decreasing as he dusted off his palms. "She's been sent to the Flower Capital, we should go there too."

—★—

In the capital of Wano, the Shogun Palace was in chaos.

Kumorasaki, aka Kozuki Hiyori, had come running to Shogun Orochi to warrant search for a lost object, her family heirloom—as she put it.

Apparently, a lightning bolt had suddenly plunged into her room, onto the spot where her dead father's sword was, before disappearing along with the aforementioned sword.

Shogun Orochi adored Komurasaki, so when she came running to him with tears covering her face, he couldn't hold back his thumping heart from sending  Orochi's Oniwabanshu, aka his personal guards, from going to look for it.

However, Kumorasaki when she calmed down, refused to give them the accurate descriptions of the sword, and so all the Oniwabanshu were now surrounding her in the room, waiting for her to speak.

'What was I thinking coming here to Orochi…' Hiyori grimaced in her mind. 'I can't tell them the descriptions of the sword, they'd realise it's Ame no Habikiri.'

She really should have listened to Denjiro…

"What's wrong Kumorasaki-chan?" Orochi asked worriedly. "Can you perhaps not remember the details? It's understandable since it's such an old sword."

Samurais of the current Wano weren't allowed to carry swords with them–unless they worked directly under Orochi. That's why keeping swords of dead Samurais as family heirlooms was a norm now, so Orochi didn't suspect much.

Hiyori started to cry again, in the hope to buy some time to brew an idea to get out of this situation. "Uhuhu, sniff… I don't even remember how my parents looked, that sword was the only memorial I had of them. Uhuhu…"

At her crocodile tears, Orochi's face melted. "Aww, don't cry Kumprasaki-chan, please?? I will do something-"

He couldn't do anything before something crashed into their palace and obliterated the roof before falling on the floor beside them.

"Ugh, what a bastard." An unknown voice of a female said. "Squeezing boobs cure depression. But then again, how would he know that, he's a guy. Tch."

The room was covered in dust and the Oniwabanshu had taken a position in front of Orochi. 

From within the dust, they saw a large tail dance in the air before the figure who had just spoken stood up while scratching her neck.

The dust slowly cleared... and all of their hearts dropped.

"K-Kaido?!?!"

Orochi was the first to react as he saw the female figure covered in blue draconic scales with part of her left torso and arm covered with red fish scales. Although it was a female body instead of male, she even had the large tail of Kaido. The only way she looked different was her two horns, while Kaido had four. But of course, that was so measly of a detail that they didn't even care to notice.

"What Kaido?!" The draconic female grumbled as two wings popped up from behind her. "My name's Raki, the strongest woman in the world!" She threw her arm in triumph.

That also wasn't the final nail. The final nail was the right side of her abdomen. There was no scar. The scar that Oden left wasn't there... Orochi's eyes stopped there for a moment before his voice took on an angry tone. 

"That's not Kaido! She scared us all!"

He was about to order an execution before Kumorasaki stuttered.

"T-those swords!" She cried. "Those are fathe- I mean, Oden's sword!" 

That caught everyone's attention, along with Orochi… as they looked at the swords on the woman's waist.

She had changed her words at the last moment, but Orochi's quick mind had caught her words.

'Father…'

He looked at the sword he was very familiar with with keen eyes. They were Oden's two blades, Enma and Ame no Hibikiri.

'Is one of them the heirloom Kumorasaki was talking about?'

He decided to give that a thought later, but first.

"Kill that woman!"

He immediately yelled out just as the Oniwabanshu ran at the woman at full speed, using all their Jutsus at the same time.

"Oh, give me a break."—Was all they heard before 3 more heads, two more wings, and two more tails, appeared around the female's body—each wielding a sword.

Then, with a swift motion, the dragon spun her 15 swords at once.

...In a second, the palace of Shogun Orochi was cut into a million pieces, from the highest floor to the lowest, as blood flowed around the slowly crumbling palace like a crown.

Before all of it collapsed.

—★—

"See? I never threw her randomly. It's all been part of my plan." 

Amon boasted to the Sins as they gathered around the destroyed palace.

"Yeah, right."

Amon shrugged at Wyper's dry statement.

It was really a part of his plan. It was quite funny to observe too, a source of entertainment—if he had to be honest.

But there's no time for further entertainment right now. So he had to get serious here.

"Either way, it looks like the people around us are scared," Amon said as he looked around with a serious expression. 

People were everywhere in the capital, surrounding the destroyed palace. Some were happy, some were scared that this would make Kaido angry. While some were frightened at the source of it all, and the strangers standing ahead of them.

Then the Hybrid Raki slowly came out of the destroyed building with an unconscious blue-haired woman in her hand, who didn't even have a strain of blood he might add, as she noticed Amon staring.

She grumbled for a second but still walked over to him.

"Can you heal her?"

"She's fine, no need for healing." He said. "Why did you save her though?" 

At Amon's words, she shrugged. "She had yelled that these two swords are her father's, so I thought you'd want her alive. I don't know, kill her if you wish."

Raki slowly placed the girl on the ground before standing up. 

Amon shrugged. "Eh, ask 'Oden' here. That's her daughter after all."

"Huh?" Yamato blinked. "Who? What?"

Amon pointed at Hiyori. "That's Kozuki Hiyori."

"Oh… OHH?!" Yamato immediately dropped on her knees to check on Hiyori.

Amon then turned to Raki. "Oi, transform back. You are scaring the others."

The civilians behind them had backed off to hide behind other buildings, some even pissed their pants while others simply went unconscious in stop.

"Your fault you threw me so far." She complained before her body started to return to normal.

Amon ignored her and went to the crouching Yamato. He whispered something to her that Raki couldn't hear even with her enhanced senses. Yamato went silent hearing his words and only after what felt like minutes, she nodded with a small smile before saying.

"I trust you."

Raki was confused for a moment before Amon rose in the air with Hiyori on his arm, who he had woken up with a bolt of lightning.

"Everyone, both Kaido and Orochi have been killed by the black-haired girl below me." He pointed at Raki just when murmur started from all the hidden citizens. "You can send someone to check on Onigashima if you have the balls, but I believe Kaido not arriving even when Orochi is dead should be enough proof."

He let the words hang in the air before he continued. "As the black-haired girl's leader, I am here to tell you something important. The woman you see in my hands, the girl you know as Komurasaki, is none other than Kozuki Oden's own daughter, Kozuki Hiyori."

The whispers from before immediately turned to shouts. Angry shouts.

Amon cleared his throat which made the sky rumble. "I don't fucking care if she's a whore or not. I, as the lone ruler of the entire sky of the world, declare Wano as my territory and the girl on my hand, Kozuki Hiyori, as the new Shogun of this country."

Then, the crowd went silent again as the sky darkened over Amon's head and lightning danced on the dark clouds to form two bright red eyes.

"You want to challenge my decree? You want to stand against it? You want to fight, try to free yourself now that Kaido is finally dead? Then step forward." 

The bright eyes in the sky flashed before a bolt fell on the destroyed Shogun Palace, causing it to catch a fire. 

Amon smiled with his back facing the fire. "I hope I am clear."

—★—

["Y-yes, Fleet Admiral, Wano has been c-claimed by Sky Emperor!"]

Sengoku sat on his chair with a large frown as he listened to the recording of a spy in Wano.

["Fleet Admiral! I-I am being forced to send this recording, the Sky Emperor is forcing me to- AUGHH!!"]

The sound of a throat being slit sounded out before the recording ended.

That wasn't really surprising. Amon would never allow knowledge he doesn't want others to know to go out. That's always been the case.

"Here we thought he would be a bit calm after his base's been destroyed." Garp grumbled from a seat beside.

"Instead he's hunting down Emperors just 3 days after." Sengoku finished with a deep sigh.

Amon had a number of 80 thousand soldiers, but 50 thousand of them were destroyed with Skypiea. Now he only had 30 thousand spread around the world in the Wingless Valkyries. However, from the rate he was moving, the number of his army would not only be restored but would even surpass the previous number in a matter of weeks.

"From what I know of Kaido's soldiers…" Sengoku trailed off. "They aren't the most loyal. They would change sides the moment they realise another stronger force is here–which is Amon, for now. Fortunately, as I said, they wouldn't be as loyal. His previous army was a cult if anything. They would have done anything as long as it was his order. But the new ones would be hesitant, wary, scared to do anything dangerous."

Garp grumbled at Sengoku's words. "You are forgetting his army doesn't matter. Did he bring his army to the War?"

Sengoku went silent as the realisation hit him.

"No, my bad…"

Garp clenched his jaws and nodded. "It's fine, not every day do we encounter situations where… a person alone is an army."

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Author's Note: There'll be regular chapters from now on again.