"BASTARD!"
Smack!
Kozuki Oden's eyes were bloodshot. Listening to Amatsuki Toki's harsh words one after another, he finally couldn't hold it in.
His swinging palm landed heavily on Amatsuki Toki's face.
The tremendous impact directly knocked her down to the floor. Her entire pale cheek swelled up red.
But she didn't react to it at all, as if the one struck wasn't her. She only climbed back up coldly, staring straight at the enraged Kozuki Oden.
"Make a choice. Or are you just a coward who only dares to hit me?"
The Kozuki clan had thought from the start only of shrinking back, taking one strike from Rosse, then waiting for the storm to pass.
She, too, had once naively believed this.
But with Rosse's real arrival, and after these days of contact, Amatsuki Toki clearly realized one problem.
No amount of hiding could possibly let the Kozuki clan get through this.
The way Rosse looked at them. It wasn't only the mocking gaze of someone playing with a toy, but also the contempt of someone looking at the already-dead.
From beginning to end, there was never any possibility for the Kozuki clan to survive by bowing their heads.
This had already been decided the day Kozuki Oden left the Holy Land.
"Are you crazy? Why betray us? Where do you get the face to make me choose? Everything could have passed already!", Kozuki Oden gnashed his teeth, his body trembling with rage.
He had already personally sent Hiyori away, why was he still being forced like this now?
Clearly, he had already sent away that god of plague.
It wasn't that he was truly afraid of Rosse. After all, in a one-on-one, he didn't actually fear Rosse.
But this was never about just fighting.
He could run, the Kozuki clan could run, but where could Wano run?
With the number of powerhouses in the Holy Land, wiping out Wano would be like playing a game.
Wano was his root. Originally, there was still some room for reconciliation. Now all of it had been ruined by Amatsuki Toki.
"Passed already?", Amatsuki Toki sneered, her gaze full of ridicule:
"Letting your daughter be taken away, letting your wife be humiliated, while you shrink in the back, this is what you call passed?"
"All sacrifices are already made, all for the sake of Wano."
Kozuki Oden said irritably, "And besides, I just don't get it. If you hadn't gone to him yourself, how would all this even have happened?"
Right now, he was furious and vexed. Since Amatsuki Toki had already spoken this way, he couldn't keep hoping for luck anymore.
That Rosse had learned he wasn't dead, yet hadn't come storming the Kozuki clan already, was beyond his expectations.
In his thinking, Rosse should have rushed straight here to demand accountability.
That he hadn't come yet meant he'd probably come soon.
"You're wondering why he hasn't come yet, aren't you?", Amatsuki Toki's mocking voice rang out, "I told him the Kozuki clan had its own trump card. So, to be safe, he contacted the Holy Land right in front of me. I'd guess in just a few days, large numbers of powerhouses will be arriving in Wano."
"I think you really are insane."
BANG!
Kozuki Oden couldn't stand it anymore. He kicked Amatsuki Toki hard.
Her body flew sideways, smashing through the wooden wall, landing outside in the courtyard.
"Cough! Cough!...", Amatsuki Toki coughed up blood, struggling to get up, but the severe pain all over her body made her movements terribly slow.
At this moment, her heart was already filled with bleakness.
This was the only method she could think of.
Only by giving Kozuki Oden a fierce dose of medicine could she rouse in him the resolve to fight to the death.
Against the massive World Government, the Kozuki clan had no way to live.
Since they were doomed to die anyway, why not drag Rosse and the others down with them?
Even if she could take just one enemy with them in death, it was better than dying on her knees.
"My lady!", Outside the door, Denjiro and the others, seeing Amatsuki Toki's miserable state, hurried to help her up.
From the way she had entered the mansion earlier, they had guessed what must have happened. Kozuki Oden's anger was understandable.
But they hadn't expected Amatsuki Toki would be beaten so badly.
"No one is allowed to help her!", Kozuki Oden gritted his teeth, his face murderous as he walked out of the house.
If not for the sake of past ties, right now he'd want to kill this woman with a single kick.
This was a moment of life and death for the Kozuki clan.
That Amatsuki Toki didn't try to weather the crisis together was one thing, but she had even passed information to the enemy.
For what she had done, if it were anyone else, he'd have killed them a hundred times over already.
"This...", Kawamatsu, Kin'emon, and Denjiro looked at one another, but since this was Kozuki Oden's decision, they didn't dare disobey and only stepped back.
"Toki, today I finally see your true face. Selfishness is your true color. The whole of Wano will be ruined by you, are you satisfied now?", Kozuki Oden said coldly.
"Say what you want. If you don't want Wano dragged down, then fight back with all your might," Amatsuki Toki sneered.
'Wano dragged down?'
'What a colossal joke.'
She had once worried about this, but later, after thinking it through, she knew it was just needless anxiety.
If the Kozuki clan was toyed to death by Rosse, there was no way Wano could come out well.
Whether ruled by Kaido or taken over by Rosse, the future would be equally disastrous.
Since death was certain either way, then better to fight once.
"Stubborn fool. He only wants you because of that face and status of yours, right? If those are ruined, I don't believe he'll still value you," Kozuki Oden's tone was icy as he suddenly drew Ame-no-Habakiri.
What Amatsuki Toki had done had already crossed his bottom line.
He would not forgive. He could not forgive.
Ame-no-Habakiri slashed out like a violent storm, the air currents it raised cutting across Amatsuki Toki's face like blades, stinging sharply.
Shhrrk!
With the sound of blood spraying, Amatsuki Toki's flawless face instantly bore dozens of wounds, deep and shallow.
In but a moment, her once delicate pale features had become a bloody blur, like a hideous crimson demon.
Witnessing her being completely disfigured, Kin'emon and the others were dumbstruck, their faces filled with shock.
Yet Amatsuki Toki, now disfigured, showed no change in expression. She was calm, as though facing something utterly ordinary.
Though Kozuki Oden's actions pained her, this had been her choice.
She would rather die bearing the name of traitor than watch Wano sink silently into oblivion.
"Is that all?", Amatsuki Toki's voice was frighteningly flat. Her lifeless eyes, in Kozuki Oden's view, shone with biting mockery.
"There's more! Of course there's more!", Kozuki Oden's teeth were grinding to pieces. Even in this state, she still wouldn't change.
'What? Am I, Kozuki Oden, really inferior to that Celestial Dragon?'
'Fine. Very fine.'
'Since that is the case, then don't blame me for being rude.'
"Kin'emon, strip her naked and throw her out onto the street!"
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