Chapter 746: The Whole Story
Out of consideration for protecting their own country, the shogun of the Tokugawa family at that time had also agreed to this pact. They knew that if the World Government truly wanted to deal with Wano Country, they would have found a way; they could not let Wano be destroyed in the flames of war. Thus, the pact was made. From that day onward, Wano Country cut off all communication with the outside world, decreed a law prohibiting its citizens from going to sea, refused all trade and exchange, and buried itself in self-sufficiency on its own land.
In that era, there were not yet so many pirates on the seas of the New World, and the world's technological power was equally backward. So, after Wano Country closed its borders, no further information about the Poneglyphs leaked out. Wano not only preserved the Poneglyphs but also sheltered the Kozuki family for several hundred years.
As time passed, the events of the blank century gradually faded from public view as the World Government exerted its influence. The outside world changed with each passing day, but Wano Country remained stagnant, still stuck in the form of a feudal society… The people of Wano had grown accustomed to the closed country, but the Tokugawa family generation after generation upheld the pact with the World Government. Only those who inherited the position of shogun could know the truth behind the isolation.
Within the Kozuki family, the ability to read and write ancient texts was passed down through the generations. They knew that their clan were the ones who inscribed history, but they gradually forgot the protection the Tokugawa family had given them. However, as a daimyo family of Wano, they always obeyed the shogun's orders and had no particular opinion on the policy of isolation.
That was until the Kozuki family produced a head like Oden…
Kozuki Oden was a man of great curiosity. From a young age, he was very interested in what lay beyond the sea, but his understanding of the outside world at that time was limited to the Mink Tribe from Zou. The Mink Tribe living on Zou, for some reason, had always considered themselves retainers of the Kozuki family and treated them with great respect. In turn, the Kozuki family regarded the Mink Tribe as brotherly kin and treated them with courtesy.
Every time the Mink Tribe from Zou came to visit, it was the most exciting time for Kozuki Oden. Although the Mink Tribe of Zou were not a race that frequently interacted with the outside world, they were not bound by a ban on going to sea. There were always some Minks who sailed out, and the information about the outside world they brought back was eventually relayed to Kozuki Oden.
But at this time, Kozuki Oden had not yet thought of going to sea to see for himself. After all, he was the daimyo of Kuri in Wano, a feudal lord responsible for the people under his rule.
That was until… the day he met two men!
It was a romantic spring. Kozuki Oden encountered two "outside sea" people who had appeared in Kuri to view the cherry blossoms. Beneath the beautiful scene of falling cherry blossoms, these two men sat cross-legged on the ground, holding large sake bowls and drinking heartily. These two men were one called Whitebeard and the other called Gol D. Roger!
That day was the turning point for everything. When Kozuki Oden was drawn to these two bold men of the sea, sat down to drink with them, and listened to them recount their adventures and exploits on the sea, he for the first time conceived the idea of wanting to go to sea and see for himself.
What happened later was somewhat interesting. When he returned and announced his desire to go to sea, all his retainers were stunned! Although his retainers strongly advised against it, Kozuki Oden remained firm in his decision. Finally, forced by circumstances, a group of warriors from Zou among his retainers chose to accompany him to sea.
Initially, Kozuki Oden boarded Whitebeard's ship. However, when he went to the shore to wait at the agreed time with Whitebeard, the ship that came to pick him up turned out to be Roger's ship! Kozuki Oden was thus snatched away by Roger…
But the experiences that followed made Kozuki Oden regret nothing about boarding the wrong ship. In fact, he was glad he had boarded Roger's ship. During his journey of adventure, Kozuki Oden witnessed all kinds of scenery, all kinds of climates and islands, and also all kinds of countries. Then, he discovered the differences between his own country, Wano, and other nations…
Influenced by the Pirate King Roger, Kozuki Oden deeply felt that there was a problem with his country: while the outside world had developed various technologies, his own country remained in an agricultural era, with no development whatsoever for hundreds of years. Especially after he reached the Final Island with Roger and returned to Wano, Kozuki Oden changed completely…
He began to try to spread his ideas, to try to open Wano's borders. Of course, at this time, Kozuki Oden had not thought of achieving this overnight, so he first influenced only his own retainers and close associates.
However, with Roger's surrender and death, and the entire sea entering the Great Pirate Era because of his words, Wano was inevitably affected. More and more outsiders set foot in the closed Wano, and more and more pirates raided Wano. The closed-off people of Wano were thus subjected to external shocks. Their proud samurai and ninjas sometimes fell to weak pirates from outside, simply because the pirates had guns and cannons!
This change left the people of Wano somewhat at a loss, not understanding what was happening. This was a time when people's minds began to change. Gradually, Kozuki Oden's ideas of opening the country became known to more people, were accepted, and began to spread.
When the current shogun, Tokugawa Kiki, noticed this situation, he immediately knew there was trouble! From his position as shogun, Kozuki Oden's ideas were very dangerous. This was not only about the ruling status of the Tokugawa shogun family but also about the pact between Wano and the World Government.
The Kozuki family had forgotten the Tokugawa family's protection, but the Tokugawa family had not forgotten the reason for their isolation. So Tokugawa Kiki summoned Kozuki Oden and gave him a severe reprimand!
However, this was the spark that ignited the entire incident. Kozuki Oden did not believe he was wrong. Even after Tokugawa Kiki told him the truth of the past, he still thought so. He retorted to Tokugawa Kiki that burying one's head in the sand like an ostrich was useless; it was an escape! Furthermore, he even regarded the pact of the past as a conspiracy of the World Government, believing that because of this pact, Wano had missed many opportunities for development and was continuously weakening. When outsiders had already started using pistols and cannons, Wano's samurai were still fighting with swords. When outsiders had thoroughly researched Devil Fruits, the people of Wano still regarded them as sorcery. If this continued, Wano would one day collapse under the World Government's conspiracy!
The two inevitably argued over this. After returning, Kozuki Oden continued to spread his ideas as he pleased, while Tokugawa Kiki, burning with anger at the time, began to think of sanctioning the Kozuki family.
Although Tokugawa Kiki later reflected and felt that Kozuki Oden had a point—that the pact of the past might indeed be a slow-boiling frog conspiracy by the World Government—but… but Tokugawa Kiki could not take that risk with Kozuki Oden. He was the shogun of Wano; his first priority was to protect his country! Not to get hot-headed and risk angering the World Government by opening the borders together with Kozuki Oden.
Even the Pirate King Roger, who had deeply influenced you, died at the hands of the World Government. So what use is it for you to tell me this!?
When he realized that Kozuki Oden's actions had already endangered the entire Wano Country, Tokugawa Kiki knew he could wait no longer. He decided to impose sanctions on the Kozuki family. After all, the Poneglyphs were in the hands of the Tokugawa family; Tokugawa Kiki had not violated the original intentions of his ancestors.
Actually, at first, Tokugawa Kiki was only targeting Kozuki Oden himself. But when he began to mobilize the army, he suddenly discovered that Kozuki Oden's influence had grown to the point where it affected half of Wano's daimyo! Because of the closed country, Wano remained in a feudal society with low productivity, so even the shogun could not afford to maintain too large an army. To gather a large force, he had to conscript troops from other daimyo's domains. But when half of the daimyo remained neutral and even spoke up to plead for Kozuki Oden, Tokugawa Kiki became even angrier.
And just at this time, the Beast Pirates, who had been raiding Wano, suddenly came knocking, promising not only to stop harassing Wano but also to lend troops to Tokugawa Kiki to help him subdue the Kozuki family. However, they had one condition: that Kozuki Oden himself be handed over to Kaido for disposal, because Kaido wanted to ask Kozuki Oden some questions.
Tokugawa Kiki did not think too much about it at the time. He felt that this would solve the problem of the Beast Pirates' raids on Wano while achieving his own goals—why not do it? In the end, he gritted his teeth and agreed to the deal.
Thus, the subsequent events unfolded. Even though Kozuki Oden had made many friends during his travels with Roger, and many of them came to help the Kozuki family, with the help of the Beast Pirates, Tokugawa Kiki successfully suppressed the Kozuki family's resistance and captured Kozuki Oden.
As for the heir of the Kozuki family escaping under the protection of his retainers, Tokugawa Kiki chose to turn a blind eye. He had originally only intended to imprison Kozuki Oden for a while.
However, he never expected that after Kaido took Kozuki Oden away from him, news of Kozuki Oden's death came a few days later! Tokugawa Kiki had always believed that Kaido only wanted to use Kozuki Oden to inquire about the Pirate King Roger's great treasure. Tokugawa Kiki had no objection to that, but he absolutely did not expect Kaido to end up killing Kozuki Oden!
This was not what had been agreed upon!
When Tokugawa Kiki angrily confronted Kaido about this matter, he discovered that one should never reason with a madman! Kaido completely ignored his status as the shogun of Wano, directly drove him out, and after the incident was over, not only did he not withdraw his troops, but he temporarily stationed the Beast Pirates in Kuri, Wano, occupying the Kozuki family's territory.
It was only at this point that Tokugawa Kiki realized that Kaido had never intended to cooperate with him from the start. He had only used this opportunity to move against the Kozuki family; he was looking for something left behind by the Kozuki family!
Anxious, Tokugawa Kiki realized that things had spiraled out of control. It was easy to invite a god but hard to send one away. He wanted to expel the Beast Pirates but lacked the strength.
However, just then, he saw an opportunity and a hope. So he maintained a superficial relationship with the Beast Pirates while taking the opportunity to bring the captured Ace, Izo, and Fujitora back to the capital.
Only another Emperor could counterbalance an Emperor! That was Tokugawa Kiki's thought at the time.
Later, as expected, the Whitebeard Pirates and the Dragon Hunter Pirates sent people to rescue them.
Wano's strongest samurai, Mogami Yoshimori, was Tokugawa Kiki's trusted confidant. He also understood Wano's current predicament of external threats and internal troubles, so he spared no effort in cooperating with Tokugawa Kiki, treating Ace and the others well. This was also why Ace and the others could still live like landlords in prison.
Of course, leaving was impossible, because Mogami Yoshimori wanted to invite the people from the two pirate crews to meet Tokugawa Kiki, who wanted to use their strength to drive out the Beast Pirates.
Just as Mogami Yoshimori went to invite them, Tokugawa Kiki discovered that someone had infiltrated his Tenshukaku, and the intruder was Queen the Plague of the Beast Pirates. Tokugawa Kiki thought carefully and concluded that Kaido had probably not found what he was looking for in the Kozuki family's territory, so he had turned his attention to the shogun himself, wanting to see if it might be here.
Then…
Then Tokugawa Kiki made the riskiest decision of his life. He made a rubbing of the three Poneglyphs preserved by the Tokugawa family and had one of his shadow warriors take this rubbing and stay in his room.
When Queen the Plague found this shadow warrior, who looked exactly like Tokugawa Kiki, the shadow warrior was pretending to look at the rubbing, as instructed by Tokugawa Kiki.
What happened next is known to all. Queen the Plague stabbed the shadow warrior and stole the rubbing.
However, as he leaped out of the window, the shadow warrior detonated a bomb he had hidden in his chest! The explosion not only alerted the guards of the capital but also allowed Ian and the others, who had come to rescue, to discover Queen the Plague's trail. Thus, as Tokugawa Kiki had envisioned, they tracked him all the way.
With Kozuki Oden dead, a single rubbing could no longer be interpreted by anyone, but it could be used to pit the Whitebeard Pirates and the Dragon Hunter Pirates against the Beast Pirates!
And even if Queen the Plague was not caught and successfully brought the rubbing back to the Beast Pirates, then Kaido, having found what he wanted, might also leave Wano…
To resolve the crisis in his country, Tokugawa Kiki did not hesitate to violate the pact his ancestors had made with the World Government, allowing the content of the Poneglyphs to leak out for the first time. However, when speaking with the Five Elders, he would never admit to this, which is why he said that Queen the Plague had found nothing.
Although he said that the old man had lost the pride of a samurai, was he himself any different? But in the face of Wano's safety, these things no longer mattered…
In Wano, this shogun, Tokugawa Kiki, might not have known that his scheme would ultimately cause things to continue deviating from the track!
Because he did not know that within the Dragon Hunter Pirates, there was still someone who could decipher ancient texts…