"Whitebeard, your brother is like this, are you happy that he's loyal, or are you laughing that he can't see the situation clearly?", Rosse's words continued, throwing the fire onto Whitebeard.
"GURARARARA! Oden is my brother, I respect his choice," Whitebeard, holding his naginata, let out a bold laugh.
He would not be swayed by Rosse's words. In this matter, he was still standing on Kozuki Oden's side.
If they couldn't get rid of him this time, then so be it.
Whether as a man or as a pirate, one must have his own bottom line. That had always been Whitebeard's creed.
"Stupid!", Golden Lion snorted coldly, folding his arms and staring icily at Kozuki Oden, "Idiot, if you don't want to fight now, I'll turn my head and leave immediately."
The situation now was obvious. Rosse was taking all the people of the Flower Capital as hostages, betting that they wouldn't dare start a fight here.
Kaido wanted to fight. Kozuki Oden was hesitating. Whitebeard was following Kozuki Oden's thinking.
Under these circumstances, Golden Lion wanted to just start the fight.
But once Rosse laid things out in words, if he took the initiative to start now, Kozuki Oden might actually end up on the other side.
His relationship with Whitebeard wasn't that good, and he had no connection with Kozuki Oden.
To be honest, back when they fought at sea, that bastard Kozuki Oden had killed quite a number of his crew.
Given the situation now, there was no way he could entrust his back to Kozuki Oden.
With that kind of idiocy, no wonder Rosse wanted to target him first.
"This… give me a little time, let me think it through," Kozuki Oden's face was tangled, painfully scratching his head.
He knew this was the best chance to kill Rosse.
Four against one, the advantage was theirs.
But if it meant sacrificing the Flower Capital, he still wasn't willing.
Now all he could hope for was that, seeing these people gathered here, the others could run farther away, and not gather around out of curiosity.
But in reality, because of this standoff, many people had already surrounded them.
Even more, many samurai had spontaneously stood behind Kozuki Oden, glaring at Rosse with fierce eyes.
Even if they had never seen Rosse before, just looking at how Kozuki Oden and Kaido treated him like a mortal enemy, they knew Rosse was the current Daimyo of Suzugo, and also the executioner who killed hundreds of thousands of people in Wano.
"Think my ass, f*ck!", Golden Lion cursed, his face full of frustration.
In his heart, he thought this was the perfect chance to get rid of Rosse.
But to his surprise, it was wasted by Kozuki Oden.
"You dumb fu*ck, don't you know? If today he dares use these people to threaten you into not fighting, tomorrow he'll dare threaten you to commit sui*ide?", Golden Lion roared angrily.
"But… if he really swears to forever leave Wano, I'd honestly be willing to commit sui*ide," Kozuki Oden scratched his head and said.
Right now, he really had no solution.
He wanted to resist the World Government, but he also didn't want Wano to suffer heavy losses. For a moment, he was stuck.
Mainly, Rosse hadn't started killing yet, and was still acting calm, which gave Kozuki Oden an illusion.
Rosse's threats might be real, but surely he wouldn't really slaughter the people of the Flower Capital.
That was one reason Kozuki Oden didn't want to start a battle here.
He was certain their lineup could take Rosse down.
But since they could take him down, then there was no need to rush. Calming Rosse down, preventing him from going crazy and killing innocents in the Flower Capital, that was the top priority.
"Really willing to kill y*urself? I don't dare believe you. You already killed y*urself once, and look at you, still alive and fine," Rosse mocked, acting like he wasn't in a hurry at all.
It looked like he should have been the anxious one, but he really wasn't.
His confidence wasn't the tens of thousands of people tied up, it was his own strength.
So what if there were four? Even if they all attacked together, with his strength, he wouldn't necessarily lose.
SS-class and S-class looked like just one rank apart, but the gap in strength was significant.
"Pfft! Living like a pathetic coward," Golden Lion sneered, staring at Kozuki Oden with contempt.
Before he came, he had heard about things here. Especially hearing about Kozuki Oden's idiotic fake sui*cide plan, he had nearly laughed out loud.
'Ridiculous. Debts disappear when you die? Since when is there such a good thing?'
'Who are we? Pirates!'
'Who are our enemies? The World Government!'
'What kind of bullshit "debts vanish when you die"? Didn't you see how many people the World Government killed just to find Roger's suspicious offspring?'
At this very moment, Golden Lion even felt like turning around and leaving.
With a teammate like this, there was no future, only death.
"If you truly withdraw from Wano and swear never again to harm anyone from Wano, I'll kill m*yself in front of you!"
But Kozuki Oden didn't seem to notice Rosse's mockery. Instead, he gave a solemn promise.
This time, he really intended to follow through. If Rosse was willing to leave Wano and guarantee never to invade again, then giving his life was nothing.
Compared to Wano itself, not just him, even wagering the entire Kozuki family's lives would be worth it.
When these words fell, the whole street went completely silent.
Everyone stared at Kozuki Oden in disbelief, eyes full of shock.
Going this far?
"Lord Oden!"
But compared to Golden Lion and Kaido's "look at this fool" expressions, the people of Wano reacted completely differently.
Almost all the samurai and civilians were moved to tears, shouting Kozuki Oden's name.
They had never understood why he danced naked. But knowing that each time Kozuki Oden danced, Kaido released 100 hostages, they might have already cried themselves to death.
The people of Wano were that pure.
So pure that Kaido couldn't stand it anymore.
Looking at Kozuki Oden's foolishness, Kaido lost all hope. Holding his kanabo, he shouted to Rosse:
"Oi! I'll help you keep them all here! Wano, give me 30 percent, how about it?", Kaido didn't like working with fools.
Since Kozuki Oden was this stupid, then he could only turn to Rosse.
'What bullshit about swearing then killing y*urself, pure idiocy.'
'Damn! If I really swear, would you actually kill y*urself?'
'And even if you did, even if Rosse kept his word not to return, couldn't he just send someone else?'
Without Kozuki Oden, Wano was like a toothless old woman. Any big pirate could bully it, let alone the World Government filled with elites.
Wasn't this just like before, when he promised Kozuki Oden he'd release 100 people each time, but every time he released 100, he captured 500 more to be miners?
A partnership like that had no future.
Better to play along with Rosse, act as the World Government's proxy, and wipe out all the other pirates.
Dong!
Kaido's kanabo struck the ground, as he glared at Kozuki Oden and the others.
As long as Rosse accepted his terms, he would swing without hesitation and smash Kozuki Oden.
No one was angrier than him.
He had managed Wano just fine, only for this idiot Kozuki Oden to ruin it all.
Kaido could swear to it.
With Kozuki Oden's sorry excuse of strength, there was no way he could beat Rosse.
If they didn't strike a deal with Rosse today, then without another word, he'd turn around and retreat with his men.
The fewer losses, the better, that was still a win.
A fight doomed to be lost wasn't worth fighting.
At worst, he'd give up Wano.
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