I Love Oden

According to Kin'emon, the keep called Oden Castle actually bore the name Kuri Castle, the nickname springing from how dearly the region prized Oden. Born to shogun Kouzuki Sukiyaki, Oden had been driven out of the Flower Capital after one too many savage fights. In Kuri, then a region with no law where bandit crews preyed on one another, he sought out its deadliest figure, Ashura Doji, and beat him. From there Oden corralled the outlaws, turned them into honest workers, set them to building settlements, and erected Paradise Farm so everyone could share wholesome food. Word of this reached Sukiyaki, who granted his twenty-year-old son the rank of Daimyo over Kuri. Meanwhile, a stranded Zoro finds a wharf and hitches a ride, and on a Kuri shore Inuarashi remembers Oden calling Wano too cramped. As children, he and Nekomamushi had drifted in and met scorn from everyone except Oden, the one man who protected them and whom both Whitebeard and Roger grew to respect.

The Straw Hats' spirits sink as Kin'emon describes what befell Oden during the takeover two decades back. Once Oden had been hauled to the capital and put to death, a band of escapees slipped away, among them Kin'emon, Kiku, Raizo, Kanjuro, both minks Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, and one further samurai, though Orochi's men seized the two minks, leaving the rest to push on and guard Momonosuke. Kaidou, having foreseen the move, had already set the castle ablaze. Breaking inside, the group found Momonosuke together with Hiyori, his little sister, and Toki, his mother. Said to have come from the distant past, Toki disclosed that her Toki Toki no Mi could carry people forward in time. Resolving to perish there, she launched Kin'emon, Momonosuke, Kanjuro, Raizo, and Kiku two decades ahead once Kin'emon swore to fulfill Oden's dream of opening the borders. They surfaced amid the ruined castle, discovered graves marked with their own names, and roamed a poisoned land, yet still found supporters who had awaited the family's promised return. Kiku remained to spy while the others went seafaring to recruit, only to be wrecked near Zou, separated from Raizo, and carried on to Dressrosa and Punk Hazard, where Kin'emon crossed paths with the Straw Hats and assembled the alliance.

The chapter expands Oden's backstory, covering his banishment, his civilizing of a lawless Kuri, and his first meetings with Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, whose rivalry only ignited after he died. Momonosuke is revealed to have a sister, Hiyori, and his mother's name is given as Kouzuki Toki, reputedly born ages ago and able, through her Toki Toki no Mi, to leap ahead in time. Kin'emon mentions that Wano's loyal supporters wear a crescent moon symbol on their ankles. With Kaidou now residing on Onigashima, a coalition of ninja, pirates, minks, and samurai plans a covert raid rather than open battle, timed for the Fire Festival night two weeks away, to bring down the shogun.