Chapter 403: An Excellent Opportunity! The Soaring Dragon and the Liberator of Udon Prison

At the top of a tower at the highest point of the Flower Capital.

The night wind was biting cold, brushing against the towering eaves.

Alone, Tatsuya quietly dissolved into the deep shadows beneath the eaves.

Suddenly, he felt a slight tremor ripple through the ground beneath his feet.

Tatsuya slowly raised his head, his Sharingan, hidden beneath his bamboo hat, gleaming with an eerie red light in the darkness.

His gaze pierced through the layers of the night sky, locking onto the azure dragon whose body was as massive as a mountain.

“Roar—!”

Accompanied by an earth-shattering roar of fury, the massive azure dragon churned through the sea of clouds.

The violent air currents tore through the thick clouds above the Flower Capital. Kaido burst through the sea of clouds at extreme speed, rushing toward the open sea without looking back.

The howling wind whipped up the hem of Tatsuya’s trench coat. Watching Kaido’s massive silhouette rapidly disappear into the horizon, the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.

No matter what sudden reason had drawn away this raging monster,

for the Straw Hat Alliance, this was absolutely an unrepeatable, golden opportunity.

With its strongest fighter gone, Wano Country had naturally entered its most vulnerable state—a perfect “power vacuum.”

Tatsuya pulled a small, specially-made Den Den Mushi from his coat and directly dialed Luffy, who was in Kuri.

“Luffy, it’s Tatsuya.”

The Den Den Mushi vividly mimicked Tatsuya’s cold expression.

“Kaido just left Wano Country and headed for the open sea.”

“Take advantage of this time. Let loose and run wild.”

…

Meanwhile, in the undercurrent-surging Underworld of the Flower Capital,

Denjiro, clacking in his wooden geta, quickly returned to his yakuza headquarters.

Dismissing his peripheral subordinates, he sat alone in the dimly lit room.

At this moment, his heart was still in a state of extreme excitement, and his hands trembled slightly as he held his sake cup.

After enduring humiliation for twenty years, playing the role of a loyal hound by Orochi’s side, the Kozuki Clan had finally welcomed a true game-changer in this endless darkness.

To complete the task assigned by Princess Hiyori, Kyoshiro did not delay for a single moment.

He immediately summoned his confidants, gathering overnight all the Underworld bosses who controlled the Flower Capital’s black market network.

In front of the ferocious Underworld bosses, Kyoshiro resumed his lazy yet dangerous posture.

He narrowed his thin eyes, coldly issuing the highest-level order:

“Spread the word. Mobilize every courtesan, merchant, beggar, and scout in the Flower Capital!”

“Search for the Straw Hats 24/7 and from every angle, especially the whereabouts of that mysterious ronin in the bamboo hat whose strength is unfathomable.”

“At the slightest sign of movement, report to me immediately!”

“Yes, Boss!”

The bosses answered in unison and quickly dispersed into every corner of the Flower Capital, instantly spreading a massive underground intelligence network.

…

The next morning, in the dilapidated Okobore Town of Kuri.

Upon receiving Tatsuya’s message, Kin’emon trembled with excitement. Two streams of hot tears flowed down his rough cheeks as he clenched his fists tightly and roared to the heavens:

“This is truly heaven’s will! Lord Tatsuya has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us!”

“Since the monster Kaido is not here, I shall go and contact our rebel comrades scattered across the land!”

However, as he unfolded an old map of Wano Country on the wooden table, the excitement on his face was gradually replaced by a look of difficulty.

Knitting his brows, he let out a long sigh.

Although the timing was perfect, they currently faced a fatal shortcoming:

They lacked the rank-and-file samurai forces capable of charging the front lines and opposing the Beasts Pirates.

“Kin’emon, what’s wrong?” Luffy asked, leaning in curiously while chewing on a piece of roasted meat.

Kin’emon pointed to a heavily marked area on the map and explained with a heavy expression:

“Lord Luffy, the vast majority of those rebels who swore to follow the Kozuki Clan to the death were stripped of their freedom after their defeat.”

“They were treated as slave laborers and imprisoned in Wano Country’s most brutal purgatory—the ‘Udon Prisoner Mines’—where they are tortured day and night.”

Hearing that not only were many samurai imprisoned there, but also many innocent civilians forced to do grueling hard labor, Luffy stopped chewing.

He swallowed his food, grinned, and his eyes flashed with a confident light:

“Since everyone is there, doesn’t that make things simple?”

“We just have to rush over, smash that prison to pieces, and then everyone can come out and help us, right?”

…

The Udon Prisoner Mines in the wasteland.

Yellow dust swirled in the air, which was thick with the sour stench of despair and sweat.

The towering, sturdy walls were lined with dense rows of heavy artillery, their barrels pointing menacingly downward.

Inside the mines, countless ragged, emaciated, elderly, and infirm prisoners wore heavy shackles.

Under the merciless whips of the Beasts Pirates’ guards, they stumbled as they carried massive square blocks of stone.

From time to time, someone would collapse from exhaustion, only to receive an even more brutal beating.

Deep within this heavily guarded prison, even the once-famous Supernova ‘Eustass Kid’, who had been ruthlessly defeated by Kaido, was imprisoned.

As well as the once-majestic Kawamatsu, one of the Akazaya Nine.

Just yesterday, because Kaido had suddenly gone berserk, transforming into an azure dragon without warning to seek revenge in Totto Land,

Queen the Plague, the Lead Performer who was originally stationed in Udon and responsible for suppressing this purgatory, received an urgent order.

He had to immediately rush back to the Onigashima headquarters to quell the panic within the Beasts Pirates and redeploy defensive forces.

This sudden turn of events left the Chief Warden of Udon Prison, the Gifter Warden Babanuki, and a few other Headliners as the highest-ranking commanders remaining.

However, Warden Babanuki, sitting high on the warden’s platform, was not worried at all.

With a massive elephant head growing out of his chest, he leaned back comfortably in his chair, stuffing his face with high-grade desserts brought by his subordinates.

As he chewed, he looked down at the prisoners carrying stones like ants below, letting out bursts of contemptuous laughter.

In his eyes, with the prison’s impregnable, towering walls,

and the ‘Excite Bullets’ that could infect anyone with a terminal illness upon exploding, this quarry was practically an iron fortress.

Even without a Lead Performer present, absolutely no one could breach it from the outside.

In the center of the quarry, an elderly samurai finally exhausted his very last ounce of strength.

Clutching a heavy stone, his knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily onto the dusty ground.

“Old man, stop playing dead! Get up and work!”

A guard raised a spiked whip and lashed it fiercely across the old samurai’s back, leaving a bloody welt.

The old samurai coughed violently, but he could no longer stand up.

Warden Babanuki glanced over indifferently from the warden’s platform and casually waved his hand:

“Drag that useless piece of trash away and execute him. Don’t let him get in the way of the others.”

“Yes, Chief Warden!”

Several guards drew their cutlasses with sinister grins and strode toward the fallen old samurai.

Just as Warden Babanuki was about to order the execution of the exhausted old samurai,

“Creeeak—”

A sound of twisting metal suddenly echoed from the multi-ton solid iron gate at the perimeter of the quarry.

Immediately after, the entire ground of Udon began to tremble slightly, as if a minor earthquake were occurring.

All the Beasts Pirates’ guards were startled by this sudden disturbance.

They stopped lashing their whips and turned their heads in astonishment toward the gate.

Under everyone’s gaze, a deep fist imprint suddenly caved inward right in the center of the giant iron gate, which was said to be impervious even to heavy artillery.

The thick steel surrounding the fist imprint cracked like a spiderweb, letting out an overwhelmed shriek.

“BOOM!!!”

In the next second, accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion,

the heavy, solid iron gate was blasted directly into flying scrap metal by an overwhelmingly violent, monstrous force.

Massive metal fragments flew everywhere amidst the wind, blasting deep craters into the surrounding walls.

Billowing smoke and dust rose into the sky like a small mushroom cloud, obscuring the sunlight.

Under the incredibly shocked and horrified gazes of all the prisoners and guards, the dust gradually settled.

A figure, not particularly tall, stepped over the iron wreckage on the ground and slowly walked into everyone’s view.

Luffy held down the Straw Hat on his head with one hand, his expression cold and stern.

Behind him, Zoro, Sanji, and the others lined up, striding into this living hell with an undisguised, majestic battle intent.

Luffy stopped and slowly raised his head.

He took a deep breath, and then, his incredibly resonant voice echoed across the entire quarry:

“I am Monkey D. Luffy!”

“From today on, this prison is taken over by us, the Straw Hat Pirates!”

Luffy suddenly clenched his fists, his knuckles popping with a crisp crack, his sharp gaze piercing straight toward Warden Babanuki on the high platform:

“If you don’t want to be sent flying… then all of you, get the hell out of here!”