One Piece’s latest few chapters have moved from the present of the Wano Country arc to better flesh out the story of Kozuki Oden and the final days before his death. These flashbacks have been showing off Oden’s travels with Whitebeard and Gold Roger’s crews, but it’s been a rough state of affairs for Wano while Oden has been traveling around. The latest few chapters have seen Oden react to how much Wano has changed for the worst in the years since his absence, and the latest one brings this one step forward with Oden’s full rebellion.
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Although the Akazaya Nine have been established as the vassals to Oden rebelling against Shogun Orochi and Kaido in the present, one of the allies has been outside of this group but still a crucial addition. The shinobi Shinobu has been a key player in the arc thus far (such as when she saved the Straw Hats from Kaido’s attack), and Chapter 970 revealed why she joined Oden’s rebellion in the first place.
Chapter 970 of the series sees Oden and the Akazaya Nine storm Orochi and Kaido’s forces as they erupt in a major battle, but on the way there they are joined by a young and sturdy ninja who pledges her loyalty. She saves Oden from being shot by a sniper, and she says she was serving under Shogun Sukiyaki. Oden only remembers her as a child, so seeing the young adult ninja in front of him was a surprise for sure.
Shinobu mentions how she’s been serving the castle for years in the hopes that the Kozuki Clan would rise to power again, but the Fukurokujo and Kozuki Ninja groups ended up pledging their loyalty to Orochi. Since she’s been dreaming of serving Oden as Shogun someday, she could no longer work at the castle with the rest of her ninja group.
The rest of the group, including Oden, tried to get her to go against this decision as they all know they are liking marching towards their deaths with this battle, but Shinobu refuses to relent. Oden and the Akazaya Nine are eventually captured, but Oden manages to save Shinobu by this fate by claiming that she’s no vassal of his.
So while she’s chosen to fight by their side, all Shinobu can do from then on is watch as the rest of Oden’s forces are sentenced to death. What do you think of Shinobu joining Oden’s rebellion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 90 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold.
