"Ah? You really heard about this?", After hearing Kanjuro's words, Raizo's eyes went wide.
'Heard my ass…'
'Is he really this stupid, or just pretending?'
Seeing the fury burning in Raizo's eyes, Kanjuro couldn't help cursing inwardly.
He said that much, and Raizo just believed it?
He only wanted to get their stories straight so they wouldn't slip up later.
But who could have guessed. He barely said the beginning, and Raizo already swallowed it whole.
After knowing him for so long, Kanjuro knew these people were easy to fool, but this was too easy.
Even while mocking him in his heart, Kanjuro's mouth didn't slow, "Yes, remember how I was gone for a while? My informant told me. But I'm not sure this is really true…"
Before Kanjuro could even finish, Raizo cut him off harshly, "Bullshit, how could this kind of thing be fake? It's definitely that bitch! Ever since Lord Oden brought her back, I knew she was no good. Looks just like some cheap courtesan. If it weren't for Lord Oden, she'd be nothing but a wh*re everyone had ridden!"
"That's… not really appropriate to say, is it…", Kanjuro opened his mouth, staring blankly at Raizo's tirade.
'Lady Toki hasn't really done anything, so why so furious?'
Kanjuro even suspected Toki always had her hardships, maybe she was forced by Rosse, and deep down she still cared for Oden.
He was framing her only because of his position, not much else.
"You don't know. That sl—ut always had that high-and-mighty look. I couldn't stand her from the start. What's so special? Just because Lord Oden slept with her? Pah!", Raizo had never had a shred of goodwill toward Toki.
When Oden left Wano to go to Laugh Tale, they had to drag Toki and Momonosuke around in hiding.
If it had only been Momo, Raizo was confident he could've easily dodged Orochi's pursuit.
But Toki was too big a target, too weak, and he couldn't just carry her everywhere. That slowed their escape down immensely.
Many of his close friends died in that chase.
Because of Oden, he had never said much, nor blamed Toki too harshly. At that time, she was still considered one of them.
But now, meeting the enemy and being the first to betray? After all the protection, just wasted? That made Raizo even angrier.
His comrades' lives, fed to the dogs.
Fueled by resentment, Raizo began venting about the past.
"If it weren't for Toki, we wouldn't have lost so many. Every time our position got exposed, it was because she slowed us down."
Back then, Kanjuro was there too.
Listening to Raizo rant, Kanjuro just laughed inwardly.
The truth was, their position had been exposed because he leaked it.
Of course he wouldn't say that. Now that Toki was taking the blame, this was perfect.
Thinking that, Kanjuro even put on a show of sudden realization, "Wait, if you mention the past like that, could it be… Lady Toki was connected to Kaido all along?"
"Ah? Impossible, right? She'd have no reason to link with Orochi and them," Raizo hesitated.
"Think about it!"
Kanjuro said excitedly, "If Toki was never on our side to begin with, doesn't everything make sense?"
"Ah? But wasn't she someone Lord Oden picked up overseas? A descendant of the Amatsuki family?", Raizo asked, confused.
"You believe everything she says? At first, she was being chased, then Oden swooped in and saved her like some hero. But who knows her real background? And the Amatsuki clan was wiped out back in the Golden era. How could anyone have survived overseas?", Kanjuro scolded like teaching a fool.
"Yeah! That makes sense!", Raizo nodded, but then frowned, "Wait, then why does she know so much about Wano?"
"That just proves she was Orochi's spy from the very start. Maybe back then he already had ties to Kaido, knew Oden was sailing out, and set up this whole play ahead of time."
Kanjuro twisted the truth a bit, speaking with more and more passion:
"Look, when we were in Wano, no intel ever leaked. But the moment Lord Oden came back, left her and the young lord behind, and went off alone. Suddenly Orochi knew everything about us. How could that be coincidence?"
"Yeah… that's way too much of a coincidence," Raizo said gravely.
Seeing Raizo nodding along, Kanjuro got even more fired up.
There was no "coincidence." The truth was, back then Kozuki Sukiyaki was still alive, and there was no need to stir trouble.
After Orochi seized power, of course he wanted to clean out Kozuki loyalists.
Directly killing Toki and Momonosuke would've been risky for him, with his shaky rule.
It was smarter to cut off Kozuki's wings first, then slowly strangle the clan.
And keeping Toki and Momo alive gave Oden a weakness to exploit.
Otherwise, with Kanjuro secretly leaking intel, there's no way the Kozuki heirs would've survived.
"So the truth is only one!"
Kanjuro grinned wide, eyes blazing, and declared solemnly:
"Lady Toki's real name should be Kurozumi Toki!"
"Ah?"
That line didn't just shock Raizo.
Even thousands of meters away, lying in Rosse's arms and eavesdropping through his senses, Toki herself was stunned.
She had expected Kanjuro to slander her, but never that he'd turn her into "Kurozumi Toki."
'Is that necessary?'
'Wano is already in ruins, and they still have to fight among themselves?'
'Fight and fight until everyone's dead, is that satisfying?"
Toki lifted her head in a daze, feeling like even the sky over Wano was gray.
Now she even wondered if she was just making trouble for herself.
Especially when she saw through Rosse's senses Raizo's furious but convinced face.
He clearly believed it.
If Raizo believed, the rest wouldn't be far behind.
'Eight hundred years ago, Wano wasn't like this.'
'Are these idiots really the same species as me?'
For the first time, Toki felt this doubt.
She had been struggling desperately to make Wano dignified again.
Even if it perished in the end, at least it could burn bright one last time.
But these people? They couldn't be saved at all.
Can't be saved, simply can't be saved.
For the first time, Toki felt the urge to just give up.
Now she honestly thought about just leaning into Rosse's arms, shamelessly becoming some courtesan.
Wano, the Kozuki clan, there was no saving them.
It wasn't that she wasn't trying. It was that her allies were dead weight.
[T/N: Understandable.]
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