The hospital corridor was extremely noisy. When a large-scale emergency occurred, no matter how well-prepared the hospital usually was, the concern and complaints of the families, along with the pained cries of the patients, made the place unbearably chaotic.
At times like this, it all came down to who could shout louder. Speaking gently simply meant no one could hear you.
"Chanseeeey~!"
Chansey's roar came from one side, and a Chansey carrying a hammer as large as itself cleared a path through the corridor, quieting the noisy crowd.
Although a nurse wielding a hammer was quite a bizarre sight, here it actually seemed very reasonable. Pirates stationed in other regions who were injured would also be brought here depending on the severity of their wounds.
The rules outside were looser than inside Onigashima. If emotions got out of control, then Chansey might very well use physical methods to help them calm down.
As for whether it would scare people, the hammer had already been painted pink, with a red cross on it too. It wasn't scary at all.
Amid the noise, there was still some order. Though it all looked a bit chaotic, everything inside the Pokémon Center was running in an orderly fashion.
The complaints of the injured varied.
Some were thankful they hadn't been home at the time, some regretted the things left behind in their houses, some comforted the wounded, but they all shared one thing in common: they cursed the one who had set the fire.
That included Momonosuke as well. After all, he had vanished for twenty years already, why not disappear forever? Whether he exists or not makes no difference at all to Wano Country.
These people felt no nostalgia for Momonosuke. They only thought he had shattered their peaceful and happy lives. Hotei had successfully shifted the residents' negative emotions this way.
Under his narrative, no one believed the incident was due to Shinsengumi's incompetence. They all thought it was Momonosuke's appearance that had caused it.
But in Denjiro's ears, these words were unbearably harsh.
Through his inquiries, Denjiro already knew what had happened in Kuri. He hadn't expected Kanjuro and Kin'emon, just to escape Wano Country smoothly, to actually go so far as to set a fire.
In today's Wano Country, loyalty to the Kozuki family was already scarce, or rather, loyalty to Kozuki Momonosuke. To them, the words of a brat who had run away for twenty years were nothing more than empty, high-sounding words.
Even without this incident, it was already extremely difficult for Momonosuke to win people's hearts, let alone now, after causing something like this.
But for Denjiro, the trouble didn't end there. As for Momonosuke, there was nothing he could change. Right now, he could barely protect even himself.
Denjiro had come here to treat the wounds on his hands at Kozuki Hiyori's instruction. But that didn't mean she won't hold him accountable for what had happened earlier.
What Denjiro had done had already made Kozuki Hiyori lose her trust in him. When he came here, Kawamatsu and Kikunojo accompanied him, but in the blink of an eye, their figures had vanished, replaced by Greninja.
Although Greninja was nominally the leader of Hiyori's Oniwabanshu, and the Oniwabanshu were her direct armed force, the organization's leader being essentially her chief bodyguard—
In addition to ensuring the Shogun's safety, they also secretly carried out the elimination of dissidents. In theory, they were the people the Shogun could rely on most.
But Greninja is different. Apart from commanding a large number of Kōga-ryū ninjas, his own status within the palace is quite transcendent.
Because Arceus had ordered him to temporarily follow Kozuki Hiyori's orders, Greninja was helping her deal with some matters.
Kozuki Hiyori knew this too. Whatever she asked Greninja to do, he wouldn't refuse, but it was the same as having surveillance cameras installed in her bedroom. It only left her feeling deeply uncomfortable.
So she would never normally take the initiative to ask Greninja for anything, yet now she had actually contacted him. That clearly meant her retainers had become difficult for her to trust.
And it wasn't just Denjiro. Kikunojo and Kawamatsu were implicated as well.
"Why are you here?"
"Of course, it's your Shogun's request. She's very concerned about your health and insisted that I check whether you're receiving proper treatment. She also wants you to rest well and not worry about anything else, your duties will be taken over by others."
"You should understand what those words mean, right?"
"I used to think you were a smart man, but I didn't expect you to act foolishly at a time like this."
Although these retainers never held much real power, at most they were able to command a few people in the palace and obtain information early. Now, Kozuki Hiyori had stripped Denjiro of even that authority.
Unlike Momonosuke, who had vanished for twenty years, Denjiro had been by her side for twenty years. She still remembered old ties; though she no longer trusted him, she hadn't taken further measures against him.
"What exactly do you people want to do?"
"Such naïve words aren't worth answering. Small fry like you aren't worth our effort. Instead of asking me, why don't you guess what your Lady Shogun wants to do right now?
Don't say I didn't warn you. Your Shogun made it clear that if you show any unusual behavior, I'm to eliminate you on the spot."
A small Water Shuriken grazed past Denjiro's forehead, sending a few strands of hair fluttering down.
"Come on, those little wounds have already delayed you long enough. Your Lady Shogun has prepared a fine room for you to spend your retirement in."
"What about Inuarashi and Nekomamushi?"
Denjiro didn't know that Raizo had failed to escape. The only ones he worried about were Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, who had been captured together with Momonosuke.
"Wait for your Shogun. Whatever she wants to tell you, she'll tell you herself."
"...."
At least Denjiro still had doctors to treat his wounds. Raizo, on the other hand, was only given a rough bandaging before being tossed into the Udon Quarry. Not long after, Momonosuke became his cellmate.
Other than that, Kozuki Hiyori made no further moves. It seemed she was waiting for something. As for Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, their treatment differed due to their race.
The Minks had autonomy, though this authority still rested within the framework of the Beasts Pirates' rules. If something happened, it was handled internally by their own people.
Within Wano Country, there was no Mink autonomous region. Most Minks preferred living on Zou Island. To them, Wano was nothing more than a tourist site; at most they had a special "embassy."
If Setsuna were here, matters like this would usually be handed directly to her. But now she wasn't around, and Zeraora was also on Zou Island today.
In the end, they had no choice but to find a respected Mink with enough authority to handle the situation.
And aside from Setsuna, the only one left was Hitsugisukan.
Not long ago, in the hot springs of Hakumai, Hitsugisukan was enjoying his retirement, with Kuzan, who was also retired,sharing experiences with him.
Hitsugisukan had never met Kuzan in the past, but in just half an hour, the two had become sworn brothers.
They reached a special kind of agreement—working is too exhausting, and retiring to take it easy is truly wonderful.
But just as Hitsugisukan had finished saying how relaxed things had been lately, trouble arrived.
"This isn't… this isn't a hospital, nor a fire department. How could trouble come up here too?"
There are mysterious rules in the world, and some things are just too strange. Particularly in usually busy departments, there are certain taboos. Mentioning how relaxed things are in those places might just lead to working overtime until dawn.
When Hitsugisukan arrived, he still had curlers in his hair. He had just been styling it, and if he took them out now, all those hours would have gone to waste, so he simply brought them along.
"You two… Inuarashi, Nekomamushi? Weren't you supposed to be missing?"
With his extraordinary memory, Hitsugisukan still remembered them. Back then, even Setsuna hadn't known where they'd gone, and in the end had no choice but to declare them missing.
"What exactly did you do?"
Queen's muscle relaxant had worn off. Inuarashi was fine, quietly sitting to the side, but Nekomamushi had a pair of handcuffs on him, with Pedro keeping watch nearby.
In the original timeline, Pedro had been one of Nekomamushi's subordinates because he lived in Whale Forest. But things were different now, because of the age difference, the Nekomamushi who had been sent into the future by Kozuki Toki didn't even know Pedro.
"Senior Hitsugisukan, the two of them…"
Carrot hopped up onto a nearby stool, grabbed Hitsugisukan's horns with both hands, and whispered softly into his ear: "The two of them somehow suddenly appeared in Kuri, then attacked Meowna and Wolff."
The size differences among Minks were obvious. There were small ones like Carrot, and big ones like Hitsugisukan. At his age, it was already difficult for him to bend down.
"Both the kids are okay, right?"
"They're fine, but I heard that one called Nekomamushi never got along with the duchess before. If the duchess finds out…"
Listening to Carrot's report, Hitsugisukan felt his headache growing worse. He had finally retired, yet he still had to deal with such troublesome matters.
"Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, do you even realize what you've done?"
"We only wanted to protect our lord's child. Duke Hitsugisukan, why are you here? Why are there so many Minks here? Isn't this place occupied by the Beasts Pirates?"
"Protecting your lord's child? That's your excuse for trying to harm children of your own kin?!"
Hearing Inuarashi's justification, Hitsugisukan was furious. The Minks were already few in number. At any time, the rights of their own people came before those of outsiders, and even more so when the children in question were the duke's own offspring.
Inuarashi and Nekomamushi's reasoning was utterly unacceptable to him.
"Duke Hitsugisukan, doesn't Zou Island have a brotherly oath with the Kozuki family?"
"So in your eyes, the children of a brother's family matter more than your own family's children?"
Hitsugisukan was about to give them a stern scolding, but then a loud elephant's trumpet reached his ears.
Apart from Zunesha, no other elephant could make such a sound. And that sound meant only one thing. The true master had returned.
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