Tsuru Repays the Favour

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In Wano's poisoned wasteland, Basil Hawkins blocks Luffy and Zoro while Tama lies feverish on Koma-chiyo. Hawkins speaks like a warning rather than a threat: "If you're on vacation here, I would advise you to leave." He asks whether they know who actually controls the country from the shadows. Luffy, true to form, shouts the answer he knows he is not supposed to say: "I came here to kick that emperor's ass!! It's Kaidou, right?!" Zoro immediately reminds him, "Kin'emon told us not to say that..." Luffy tries to cover it badly: "I was lying!! I actually don't know, either!!" Hawkins keeps reading his cards and says the probability of Luffy being alive at the end of the month is 19 percent. The confrontation begins with the enemy already measuring their survival.

Zoro notices the sword at Luffy's waist and asks, "By the way, where did you get that sword?" When Luffy explains that it is supposed to be world-renowned, Zoro recognizes the weight of what he is hearing and wants to hold it for a second. Luffy refuses, serious in his own way, and says he really has the aura of a world-renowned sword. Before Zoro can examine Nidai Kitetsu, Hawkins' men charge. Luffy yells, "Get 'em!" and the enemies answer, "Come at me, you bastaaards!!" Zoro reaches for the blade anyway, but Luffy throws away the sheath and dives into the fight barehanded, declaring, "Nah, it'll be fine. I'm gonna cut them-gozaru!! Gomu Gomu no...!!" Zoro snaps, "Don't throw the sheath away!!!"

Luffy does not cut anyone at all. He swings with his usual strength and shouts "Pistol!!!" while smashing an enemy with a punch, prompting Zoro to point out, "You just used your pistol punch!!!" The battlefield becomes chaotic at once. A lizard-like mount lunges with a hiss of "Shaaaa!!" and even tries to bite Luffy, who complains, "Even that lizard is trying to bite me." He grabs the creature in the middle of the motion, flips the attack against the enemy, and rides the momentum through the soldiers. Someone yells, "You bastard!!" as Luffy is dragged into the messy fight. The page makes clear that Luffy carrying a legendary sword does not mean he has become a swordsman; he is still fighting with instinct, fists, and reckless improvisation.

Hawkins enters the fight with a strange technique rather than a direct charge. Straw rustles around him, and when the lizard attacks, Hawkins uses a sword-like straw construct and calls, "Warabide Sword!!!" The weapon pierces the beast with a "Pierce!!" and a cry of "Gyaooooh!!" Luffy stares at the blade as it moves with an unnatural, slithering life and asks, "What's up with that sword!?" He also realizes the lizard was struck because of the movement around him: "...It was my fault that the lizard got...!!" Hawkins' technique introduces something different from ordinary swordplay. His weapon acts like straw given shape and intent, and the fight shifts from Wano-style blades to Devil Fruit strangeness.

The exchange turns brutal in an instant. Zoro cuts down one of Hawkins' men, while Luffy and Koma-chiyo crash through the attackers with Tama still in danger nearby. Hawkins calmly observes, "As expected of you...!!" even as his own subordinate takes the damage. Then the strange rule behind his power reveals itself: the injury does not remain with Hawkins. A straw doll is expelled, and Hawkins says, "Life-minus..." before the damage lands elsewhere. Zoro launches himself in with a hard slash, and Luffy reacts with a shocked "Wow...!" as the battlefield seems to answer Hawkins' cards rather than normal cause and effect. The enemy is not simply durable; he is moving harm away from himself through prepared substitutes.

Hawkins explains what happened. His straw men represent his subordinates, and his Straw-Straw Fruit lets him hold those clones inside himself. If there are ten of them, he can die ten times; it means he remains undamaged while others pay the price. Luffy and Zoro look on as Hawkins decides not to fight them plainly. "I'm not honourable enough to simply fight two of the Worst Generation head-on!!" he says. Instead, he begins his game: "Now... let's start our little game, shall we...?! We'll start with my straw man's card." Something swells out of him, a huge straw figure emerging behind his body, and the watching enemies cry that something has come out of him. Hawkins turns the fight into divination, sacrifice, and pursuit.

Hawkins draws a card and announces, "The Fool card in reverse." He calls it his friendly fire card and curses his luck, explaining that the cards can be risky, though some give an individual the ability to surpass their limits. The bad draw immediately throws his own side into confusion: his subordinates attack each other with screams of "Uwaa aaah!!" and "Haaa aaahh!!" While Hawkins apologizes that he will draw a good card next time, Koma-chiyo suddenly bolts. Luffy and Zoro both stare after the lion-dog as it trembles and runs, barking "Woof!! Woof!!" Luffy yells, "What the hell are they doing!?" and another voice cries, "Heeeeey!! What are you doing, dog!?" The escape begins not from planning, but from Koma-chiyo's urgency to save Tama.

Koma-chiyo races away with Luffy, Zoro, and Tama, and Hawkins' men shout, "They're escaping!!" and "Hawkins-san!!" Hawkins draws again, telling himself not to get flustered because he has drawn a good card. Zoro realizes why the dog suddenly ran: Tama's fever is insane, and Koma-chiyo understood that she had to be taken to help. The card is revealed as "The Hierophant Card... in reverse...!!" Hawkins laughs, "Kyo kyo kyo," and names it clearly: "This is the card of pursuit!!!" A giant straw figure surges after them across the wasteland. Zoro tells Luffy to protect the kid and says, "I'll take care of this guy!!!" as the chase becomes a fight fought at speed.

The straw monster bears down on them, but Zoro turns to meet it. He names his attack "Tora... Samon!!!" and cuts into the huge pursuing figure while Luffy and Koma-chiyo keep Tama moving. Hawkins' subordinates panic over whether they should keep chasing him, and the straw creature shrieks. The fight is not one-sided: nails suddenly shoot out from the straw body, and Zoro notices too late, "Nails!?" He shields Tama as the projectiles rake him, and Luffy cries, "Zoro!!" Zoro takes the injury with blood running down his face, but he still counters, furious: "Nnngh... you bastard!!!" The page shows Zoro prioritizing Tama's safety over his own body, buying time for the escape even while wounded.

Hawkins explains the meaning of the card: "The Hierophant Card. It's a support card. This means someone is going to help them escape." His reading proves correct almost immediately. Koma-chiyo carries the group away, and a woman bows with surprise and admiration, saying, "Oh my goodness, you two are very strong samurai...!!" and "I can't believe you were able to fight off Hawkins...!!" She introduces herself: "Earlier, I was saved by Sir Green. My name is Tsuru." Zoro and Luffy realize Tama has been hidden in Koma-chiyo's tail the whole time, and Tsuru recognizes her: "I may be overstepping my boundaries, but... that child... isn't she O-Tama-chan from Amigasa Village...?" When she hears Tama drank river water, she tells them to bring the girl to her tea house instead of searching for a doctor.

Tsuru corrects their plan. They are not simply going to drink tea while Tama suffers; Tsuru says she will boil a medicinal herb that is effective against the river's poison and give it to her. She offers to tend Zoro's wounds as well, calling him Sir Green, and Luffy smiles in relief: "I see!! Thank you very much... for helping us!!" The scene moves to Wano Country, Kuri, Okobore Town, the town of leftovers. Around Tsuru's tea house, the poverty of the town is obvious, but one man immediately focuses on O-Kiku, begging, "Let me help you out..." and "Let me make you my wife!" He promises she will never have to work again and will eat delicious food from the farm every day, revealing how hunger and status twist even ordinary advances here.

Inside Okobore Town, O-Kiku rejects the attention with calm firmness. "I don't want any of this shop's food!!" she says, and then adds, "My social standing is different from yours. If you aren't going to place an order, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The man boasting at her is not an ordinary customer. He declares, "Hey, haven't you heard of me? I'm the yokozuna from the capital!!" and says that the dumplings, tea, and everything in the shop are made with leftovers. Then he announces himself fully: "I'm Wano Country's strongest sumo wrestler, Urashima!!!" O-Kiku remains composed before him, visually elegant and unbowed, while Urashima's size and entitlement fill the street outside the small tea house.

As Koma-chiyo arrives, O-Kiku sees Tsuru and cries, "Ah! O-Tsuru-san!!" Urashima mutters, "Tch... that nuisance is..." while someone shouts, "O-Kiku-chaaaaan!!" and asks for "some jyagan grass" to be boiled. Tsuru holds Tama and explains the emergency: "O-Tama-chan drank the river's poison!!" O-Kiku is horrified, and Tsuru says, "That's terrible! I'll go make it immediately!" The chapter then cuts away to a mountain, where Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin notice the strangers below. One asks, "Aren't those... the Straw Hats!?" Another suggests calling them over before they cause trouble, but Bepo warns, "You stand out too much, Bepo!" The Heart Pirates realize the Worst Generation has a presence in Wano as well, while a silent figure watches from above.

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