Chapter 806: The Samurai of the Kaikasa Village

"I will not make a mistake! You must be Lord Ryoma! Shimotsuki Ryoma!"

The little old man in a turban rushed to Brooke. His tone was excited and shocked, but his expression was still as calm as a dead person.

Shimotsuki? Zoro's eyes moved.

Brooke waved his hands and explained: "I'm not, my name is Brooke, not Mr. Ryoma~ Yohohoho, although Ryoma and I are both corpses!"

Sanji was embarrassed, "Don't say something like that that will cause him to misunderstand!"

The old man danced with his hands and said with a stern face, "Twenty-two years ago, there was a pirate rebellion in Wano Country. The body of the sword god Ryuma buried in the Suzuho Cemetery was stolen. The whole country was in grief!"

"Look! There's a misunderstanding!"

"And what was stolen along with Lord Ryoma's body was the sword you used to slay dragons - the black sword Shusui, which later became the national treasure of Wano Country!" The old man stared at the sword on Brook's waist with a wooden face, "It's this one! I didn't expect that after 22 years, Lord Ryoma would personally bring back the national treasure..."

"I'm really not Ryoma!" Brook hurriedly explained, "As you said, Ryoma's body and this sword were stolen together - the pirate was called Gekko Moria! We fought him and encountered Ryoma who became a zombie, so we got this sword! That's all."

I thought this explanation was clear enough, but the old man still didn't believe it.

"How is that possible! Lord Longma, please don't joke..." As he said this, he pulled off his turban.

Luffy and Chopper pointed at each other at the same time and said in shock: "Brook?!"

"Don't act funny at this time!" Nami shot a tiny bolt of lightning at each of these two idiots to wake them up.

Under the cold moon, the little old man took off his headscarf, revealing a blue afro.

"You are me?!" Brooke was shocked.

Bang! Nami punched Brook on the head, and smoke came out of her black afro.

The old man had a stern face, but his eyes were filled with tears. He said earnestly, "I am sorry to disgrace you all. I am also the descendant of the Shimotsuki clan... It is said that if a warrior of the Shimotsuki clan has an afro, he is a peerless swordsman. Lord Ryoma had such an afro back then!"

What the hell is this! Ace and the others were speechless.

"However, Lord Longma thinks that the afro is inconvenient, so he wears his hair in a bun all year round..." the old man murmured.

So you are just making it up! Usopp suppressed his complaints.

Lin Qi smiled and said, "So you are also a rare swordsman?"

The old man had a stern face and said sadly, "How can I be worthy of the title of swordsman..."

"It seems there is a story!" Robin looked up at the moon, "There is moonlight and wine. Do you want to listen to it?"

Marco smiled and said, "It's a good opportunity to learn about the current situation in Wano Country from this local."

…

In this abandoned village, people cleared the ruins and built a bonfire.

Thundercloud Thor, Mjolnir, Sif, Hela, and Ace's Fire Cloud Roger floated above everyone's heads to block the wind.

Sanji followed Meili into the mirror that preserved Meili's true self, and fetched the ingredients from Meili's ship stored in the mirror world. Fire Cloud Susanoo spit flames at the firewood pile to help it burn, roasting the meat soup.

Lynch held Robin in his arms, and they lay together on Ymir's soft white cloud. Usopp followed suit, hugging his thundercloud Modi. Zoro untied his three swords and put them aside. Ace reached into the fire and fiddled with the firewood, while Luffy drooled at the aroma of the meat soup. Chopper held Meili on his head, and they blinked their big eyes at the old man, who was stroking the autumn water handed to him by Brook.

After listening to Zoro, Brook and others' explanations, the old man finally reluctantly accepted the cruel reality. Mr. Skull Afro is not Ryoma himself.

But this Qiu Shui is real. The old man drew the sword from its sheath and stroked the black blade with a stern face.

"By the way, I still don't know your name." Zoro crossed his arms and said, "You said before that you are also from the Shimotsuki clan?"

"I don't deserve it." The old man sighed with a straight face, "You can just call me Old Kang."

What a strange way of speaking... Nami and Chopper thought secretly.

"He's very interesting, isn't he?" Luffy turned back and said with a grin, "His face has no expression at all, just like a robot!"

"How can this be funny!" Before Nami could do anything, Ace flicked his finger on Luffy's head and said unhappily, "How rude!"

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Lao Kang said with a straight face and waved his hands. “I’ve been wandering around Wano Country for years, picking up garbage for a living. A few days ago, I accidentally ate a poisonous fruit, and that’s why I became a person with facial paralysis…”

Chopper raised his hand and said, "Facial paralysis? Let me help you take a look!"

Just as Lao Kang was about to refuse, Usopp smiled and said, "Don't worry, Chopper is a doctor! The best kind!"

"You guys..." Lao Kang was quite moved, but his face was still as wooden as a zombie. He finally sighed, "You are all pirates from the outer sea, right? Listen to my advice, this place is dangerous and full of dangers..." He looked around at the darkness and smiled bitterly, "In the past 20 years, many lives have been lost. After Ximei and Ling, now even Baiwu has become such a barren land. Such a place is really not a place to stay for long."

Marco said, "Why don't you leave?"

Lao Kang said: "When I am alive, I am a man of the country of harmony. When I die, I am a ghost of the country of harmony."

Franky was in awe. Brook looked at himself, touched his head and said, "Am I now also a demon from Wano Country?"

"Merry counts as one of them!" "Brook, you are at most a corpse of Wano Country." "Hahaha..."

Everyone laughed. Meili, who was suddenly called, rubbed her head in confusion.

The atmosphere on both sides is totally incompatible. Robin laughed, leaned on Lynch's arms, resting his head on the comfortable Ymir, took the meat soup brought by Sanji, tasted it, and tasted it. It tasted good, so he scooped a spoonful for Lynch.

Luffy picked up the meat soup and gulped it down without listening carefully to the conversation between Lao Kang and the others.

After drinking the hot soup, Lao Kang felt mixed emotions and was extremely moved. Unfortunately, his face was paralyzed and he had no tears to cry.

He tasted the meat soup carefully and carefully. Seeing that these pirates from the outer seas did not listen to his advice, he sighed and said, "If you have anything you want to know, just ask."

Ace said, "I want to know where this place is and how to get to Kuri's Braided Garage."

"Have you ever been to Wano Country?" Lao Kang was very surprised.

Zoro said: "I am more interested in the Shimotsuki you mentioned."

Brooke said, "Mr. Lao Kang mentioned Mr. Longma's tomb before, right? I wonder if you can tell us the location. I want to take Qiu Shui to pay homage."

"If you want to worship Ryoma, count me in," Zoro added.

"But I want to know..." Sanji bit his cigarette and looked at the surrounding wilderness in the middle of the night, "On the way here, I saw a lot of smoking buildings. Are they factories?"

Usopp clapped his hands together, "I only heard that Wano Country was a closed country of samurai, but I didn't expect there were so many factories!"

When he heard the word factory, Lao Kang's expression seemed to stiffen even more.

"Let me explain one by one..." The bonfire burned, and everyone listened to Lao Kang's story. Roger, the floating fire cloud above his head, tried hard to swallow the fire while everyone was not paying attention. Lao Kang used a branch to draw a rough map of Wano Country on the ground, and slowly said: "The six villages of Wano Country are Hakumai here, Suzuko to the north, Hime to the west of Suzuko, Kuri to the west, and Udon to the east of Kuri and west of Hakumai. The center surrounded by the five villages is the Flower Capital where the general of Wano Country is located... The village of Braliss you are looking for is probably on the south coast of Kuri..."

Flower Capital? Robin was a little surprised. This was the same name as the capital of the Flower Kingdom after it was renamed. What a coincidence.

Lynch stared at Lao Kang, thinking: Doflamingo died more than ten years ago, Dressrosa is safe and sound, but the original intention of the artificial devil fruit "Smile" is not Doflamingo, but the technology that Caesar stole from Vegapunk. Caesar is still alive, and Kaido also needs to create an army of people with special abilities, so the smile fruit will appear in a different form as a result... This Lao Kang is not laughing uncontrollably like in the comics, but has become a zombie-like paralyzed face. Is it because he ate a different version of the artificial devil fruit - a failure? Luffy never listens to other people's stories. After eating a belly full of hot soup, he patted his belly with satisfaction and jumped on Roger's back to sleep.

Lao Kang looked at these kind-hearted foreigners and simply gave a brief introduction to the situation in Wano Country.

Over the past twenty years, due to the officials' excessive taxation, the once beautiful Wano Country has gradually withered. Nozomi, Suzuho, ​​Hakumai... more and more villages and towns have become deserted, with no one living within a hundred miles...

"He didn't mention Kaido." Robin whispered to Lynch.

Obviously, Lao Kang did not mention Kaido, or Kaido's puppet, Orochi, the tyrant shogun of Wano Country, because he was worried that these people would go looking for trouble with Orochi and Kaido out of indignation... In Lao Kang's eyes, these people are all good people with good hearts, and they are just passers-by who met by chance. Lao Kang did not want to harm them because of his words.

Lao Kang marked the location of Jiulihei Village for Ace, and the location of the northern cemetery behind the bell for Brook and Zoro, and reminded them: "It is rumored that there is a monk soldier there who specializes in robbing people and taking their weapons. If you go there to worship, you need to be careful."

Zoro smiled and said, "It seems that guy has a lot of good swords in his hands?"

Lao Kang was speechless. I just wanted to remind you not to lose your knife! Why do you look like you want to rob that person?

Lao Kang marked the location of Flower City for them. Although he didn't want these good people to run into that bastard Orochi, given the fame of Flower City, they would sooner or later become famous in Wano Country, so he might as well take the opportunity to remind them that if they go to Flower City, they must be careful about their whereabouts and never reveal their identity as outer sea people.

"This is a closed-door country, and people from outside the country are easily recognized." Lao Kang reminded, "If you enter the Flower Capital, you'd better change into local Wano Country clothes..."

"Kimono?" Usopp and others were quite interested.

Lao Kang deliberately ignored Sanji's question and just said that the factories he wanted to inquire about were just ordinary quarrying and sword forging places. The swords of Wano Country are famous all over the world, so naturally no one would doubt its existence.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

In a deserted village, by a fire, some people were sleeping, while others were listening to Lao Kang chattering about the good old days of Wano Country, and then more and more people fell asleep.

Lao Kang didn't take it seriously. He stared blankly at the flame that was getting smaller and smaller, with a stern face, talking to himself.

Suddenly, the bonfire ignited higher with a "boom". Lao Kang looked aside and saw Ace reaching into the fire and poking at it. He asked casually, "Why didn't you mention Kaido at all?"

"Okay Ace, don't scare him." Marco said with his eyes closed, resting his head on Susanoo, and changed to a comfortable position.

Ace shrugged, "Okay."

Old Kang was stunned.

Over there, on the Ymir cloud that looked like a double bed, Robin leaned on Lynch's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Among the scattered past events that Lao Kang told me, I always felt that... there was someone's shadow that he deliberately omitted..."

Lin Qiqi said: "You can hear that? The nerds who like to sort out historical documents are different..."

Robin patted him on the chest gently.

Lynch smiled slightly. The figure that Robin noticed lingering in the mouth of Lao Kang - the former Daimyo Shimotsuki Kangie - was obviously Kozuki Oden.

The night became quiet, with only the crackling sound of the fire left, and I didn't know it was already dawn in the east.

Bathed in the dim light of the morning sun, Lao Kang took out a piece of paper from his pocket. On the crumpled paper was a pattern code that only the people of Wano could understand.

This is a piece of paper that appeared between villages a month ago.

Like other samurai who were determined to overthrow Orochi and Kaido and still believed that the Kozuki family would return, Lao Kang also followed the instructions of the code to look for them - but found nothing. The samurai who gathered from all over the place with the same piece of paper did not see the "Red Scabbards" who inherited the will of the Kozuki family. Instead, because their whereabouts were exposed, they were arrested by the people sent by Orochi and Kaido, and some were imprisoned or executed.

Lao Kang held the paper tightly and sighed deeply. Nineteen years seemed like a dream... It was time to wake up from this dream.

…

Zoro opened his eyes, "You seem to always be secretly looking at me, do you know why?"

Lao Kang said with a straight face, "I'm sorry, it's just that... your appearance reminds me of a brother of the same clan. He..."

"Why, is that a samurai?" Zoro stood up, stretched, and strapped on three swords.

It was already dawn and everyone woke up one after another. Luffy had his head resting on Fire Cloud Roger and his feet hanging on Thunder Cloud Mjolnir. He was stretched like noodles and finally fell down with a plop. He rubbed his eyes sleepily.

Lynch and Robin sat on Ymir, looking at the rising sun in the distance. These two really have a good relationship. Zoro chuckled and heard Lao Kang sighing in the back: "That's right. The samurai... Ushimaru, he was once the best swordsman in this country."

"Oh?" Zoro was no longer sleepy when he heard the name of the greatest swordsman.

Chopper looked around, "Where's Sanji?"

Meili said, "He said he wanted to go to the nearby river to see if there were any local fish that could be used as ingredients to make breakfast for everyone."

"No need to eat breakfast!" Ace jumped up, "Let's go to Braille Village now. Or Marco and I can go by ourselves."

"Why don't we go together?" Usopp suggested.

"By the river?" Lao Kang's face - well, his eyes - changed drastically, and he hurriedly looked for the nearest river. "Oh no, we must not drink the river water or the poisonous fish here..."

"Poisonous fish?" Franky and others looked at each other.

"By the way! I haven't checked your facial paralysis yet!" Chopper chased after him, "Stop!"

Lynch and Robin jumped off the thundercloud and said, "Let's go. There seems to be something exciting ahead."

Lively? Nami originally thought that Lynch was talking about Sanji, Lao Kang and Chopper who were chasing after them, but suddenly her mind heard something, "So many people... are rushing over here!"

"Let's go and take a look!" Luffy took the lead and ran.

"Don't run around!" Zoro chased after him, and he didn't know if there were pulleys under his feet or something, but he turned on the spot.

"You are the one who should stop running around!" Franky and Usopp brought Zoro back.

"A bunch of idiots!" Nami held her forehead with her hand and followed.

"Hehehe..." Robin and Lynch walked behind with smiles on their faces. The young people were lively and full of energy.

Not long after they walked out, more energetic people appeared - a few hundred meters ahead of Luffy and the others, several people wearing kimonos and holding long swords, covered in blood, fled towards this side in a panic and weakness, and behind them followed a large group of pirates wearing neat leather armor and wearing bull horn decorations on their heads.

"Are they Kaido's men?" Sanji jumped over from somewhere.

Usopp turned his head and asked, "Why do you look so grim?"

Sanji's face was livid, bloodshot eyes were spreading, and he bit his cigarette and said, "Because I have encountered the most disgusting thing in my life... Those factories discharged waste water, poisoning the soil, rivers, plants, fish... I will never tolerate the waste of food! Hey, Franky!" He turned his head and said, "Do you want to go and take a look together? Lao Kang just told the truth, those factories are not places to forge swords, but illegal factories that manufacture weapons."

"Oh? Weapon manufacturing?" Franky's eyes sparkled and he rubbed his fists. "I have to go and see it!"

Sanji picked up Usopp and ran away, shouting before leaving: "Luffy, is it okay for me to leave this to you?"

"Hehe." Luffy made an OK gesture.

"Why do you want to take me with you?!" Usopp was tearfully carried along by Sanji. Together with Franky, they formed a team to settle accounts with those black-hearted factories. Sanji's voice could be heard faintly: "Nonsense, your invisibility ability makes it easier to sneak in..."

On this side, several injured warriors who were originally running towards them suddenly changed direction and fled towards the dilapidated forest on the side of the road.

The dinosaur-headed man leading the group of people chasing behind shouted, "Samurai from the Weikasa Village, you have nowhere to escape—huh?"

The dinosaur head suddenly noticed the group of people in the distance. Seeing Marco, Luffy and Ace in the front, his face became even gloomier. And when he saw Lynch, who stood out from the crowd and was chatting with the woman next to him, his face suddenly turned pale.

Derek? Lynch recognized the boy.

(End of this chapter)