Chapter 154: Inside Kuri Castle
At the sound of the panicked intelligence officer shouting, every yakuza family in the room shot to their feet, shocked.
"There’s another powerhouse? You’re saying Ashura Jakun is in Bakura Town?!"
Fukujin Kishoten had thought Jakun was stationed with the army in the southern district. To hear he’d appeared all the way out west in Bakura Town meant one thing—Kuri Castle was nearly surrounded.
Meanwhile, Brook and Charlotte Linlin had just arrived near Kuri Castle from the east, coming from Amigasa Village. Using a Den Den Mushi, they got word that Redfield had been clashing with Kuri for days in the north’s Okobore Town. With the shortage of samurai, casualties had already piled up.
The mercenaries—who were few to begin with—were now even fewer. Discontent was spreading like wildfire. These down-on-their-luck samurai were grumbling that there weren’t enough soldiers to even dream of breaking Kuri Castle. Some were already ready to throw in the towel and focus on saving their own skins.
In the south, Newgate had gathered a couple hundred bandits, encircling the southern gate. To the west, Golden Lion Shiki had cut off Bakura Town’s food supply, bringing Jakun and over a hundred men along. They floated a small mountain to block the western gate entirely.
"The situation’s bad, gentlemen. The Wano Shogunate somehow pulled together a force of heavy hitters to pin us in. Our only option now is to split up and save ourselves," Kishoten said coolly.
For him, abandoning a city wasn’t unfamiliar. He’d done it a couple of times before. These families couldn’t possibly surrender to the Shogunate—every one of them had been exiled, outlawed, or driven here after falling afoul of the government’s judgment.
"Sigh... guess we’ve got no choice. Who knows how much we’ll lose this time—but survival comes first."
Hattori Hachizō let out a bitter sigh. It felt like the Shogunate cracked down on Kuri every few years, crushing its growth, looting its wealth, and reducing its cities to rubble.
Kuri had been trapped in a cycle of endless rebuilding, always barely keeping enough footing to let these scattered families survive.
In the past, their fallback had been to retreat toward Bakura Town. Now, both routes were blocked—and worse, the west had Ashura Jakun and some unknown sorcerer. Breaking through wasn’t an option.