The Bloodline of Royalty

D-Block begins under open hatred. As Rebecca enters the Corrida Colosseum ring, the audience screams, "Go to hell, Rebecca!!" "That woman's blood is tainted!!" and "Today's gonna be the day of your execution!!" Another voice spits, "Malice rains down upon this girl..." The crowd ties her to the Riku royal family, shouting, "You're the shame of Dressrosa!!!" and "Let's show our grudge against that arson-happy old man by setting fire to his grandkid!!" Rebecca stands with her shield and sword while the insults rain down. Someone says, "If she's just his grandchild then who cares!!" and another answers, "That doesn't matter!! It's got nothing to do with her!!" but the hate overwhelms any defense.

Luffy, watching from the prison dorms, reacts to the crowd's cruelty. When someone says it does not matter what a person's grandfather did, Luffy agrees, "...Ahh you're right about that..." A fighter keeps arguing that if they take Rebecca's head, they might be seen as heroes in the country. Others laugh that she is cute now and even more of a heel than Bartolomeo was in B-Block. A note explains that a heel is someone who plays the villain in pro wrestling. Then a new presence approaches the entrance. The crowd notices, "Eh!? Who's that at the entrance...?" and an elegant foot steps forward as a voice declares, "It's time to end this!!!"

Cavendish enters on his white horse, changing the entire atmosphere. Rebecca calls him out for his manners: "You're truly guests with terrible manners!! This is intolerable!!" Cavendish presents himself in a full theatrical charge, and the announcement names him "Pirate Cavendish of the White Horse." He says, "You should all be ashamed!" as his horse rears and the crowd erupts. The announcer declares that the captain of the "Beautiful Pirate Crew," Cavendish of the White Horse, has made an appearance. Women in the stands scream, "Ca... Cavendish-sama!!!" The page deliberately contrasts Rebecca's lonely entrance with Cavendish's glamorous one: the same crowd that wanted blood immediately melts into admiration.

The spectators lose control over Cavendish's beauty. One says, "He's so... beautiful... ahh!" while another yells, "Hey get a grip already!" A fan begs, "Cavendish-sama! Take down this girl for us!" and someone remembers that the beauty who heated up the world three years ago looks strong. Cavendish refuses the crowd's cruelty. He tells them, "Shut up, all of you!!!" and says he does not know what grudge they hold against Rebecca, who is still so young yet would face death and stand in the ring. Then he condemns them directly: those who will not risk their own lives have no position from which to shower her with jeers. If they want her dead that badly, they should pick up arms and enter the ring themselves.

Cavendish continues speaking from horseback, explaining why he despises the tournament even though he entered it. "In this world, the voices of those without resolve are nothing but noise," he says, adding that the life of a warrior is not to be shown for amusement. Rebecca quietly catches his words with "Gatcha," and the crowd is left startled. Luffy, impressed despite himself, shouts, "Wow, you really said it, cabbage! Maybe you're not so bad after all!! But I still hate you." Cavendish answers the crowd with formal thanks to Farul, but Luffy's blunt praise from the prison dorms makes the moment stranger. The page reframes Cavendish: vain and dramatic, but capable of real contempt for cowardly spectators.

Cavendish immediately becomes the crowd's beloved hero. The audience shouts, "Cavendish!!" "Cavendish-sama!" "What a great person!" and even, "We don't even care about Rebecca anymore!! We're cheering for you!!" Someone marvels that he took on a storm of boos and repainted it into cheers. Cavendish basks in the attention, saying, "I'm so popular!! I couldn't be happier!" and adds that it has been three long years. Luffy asks whether he is happy now, but another fighter gets the point more clearly: the audience is inherently selfish, and they are fickle to a maddening degree. Cavendish looks sharp again in the final panel, the charm and resentment both still alive under the applause.

Rebecca thanks Cavendish: "Thank you very much..." He answers with unexpected softness, "...Ahh don't worry about it. The truth is that I was just mad... but I do feel for you... so forget about it, because we're enemies now." Then he asks her to stick up for him, already thinking about publicity. He imagines the post-match interview: "It'll be like 'Good afternoon, superstar!' 'A superstar? Me? Fluffu' or something like that," and hopes the incident makes it into an article. The announcer says everyone has assembled despite the mess, and with one participant defaulted D-Block is down to 137 fighters. Finally, the opening bell rings: "So finally, here's the opening bell!!!"

D-Block explodes into motion. Fighters roar across the ring, brandishing swords, shields, axes, and spears. The announcer calls it "a battle royale between powerful combatants!!" Familiar names and commands cut through the noise: "Hey head-chopper! Show us what you have got, Suleimani!" "Cavendish-sama!" "Orlumbus! Go get 'em!!" and "Drop dead, Rebecca!" A fighter named Orlumbus bellows through the charge, while Rebecca lowers herself and thinks, "Watch me now, Soldier-san!!" The page is the first true clash of the block. Cavendish has stolen the crowd, but Rebecca's private audience is still only Soldier, and her purpose is to prove she can fight for him.

The scene shifts from the colosseum to Dressrosa's Flower Fields. Leo, the Tontatta warriors, Franky, Robin, and the others gather before the board of the operation. Leo announces that the Yellow Kabu and Pink Bee Brigade have arrived from Green Bit, and Kabu salutes him: "Well met, Leo!!" Leo says the legendary heroes have arrived too. The assembled Tontatta roar, "Uoohhhhhh!!!" Kyros's statue and the Riku royal cause loom over the meeting as someone declares, "This battle really began 10 years ago!!" The plan is broader than saving the dwarves: they fight to reclaim the honor of the Riku royalty, regretfully forced to abdicate, as well as their own freedom, and they have spent a year preparing these battle plans.

In Dressrosa's Acacia district, Zoro is being led through the streets by Wicca. She tells him, "Zoro-land... we need to turn 'left' soon." Zoro answers, "You think I don't know left from right?" and she reminds him that left is the side where he does not have any swords on his waist. The conversation is comic, but the information is serious. Wicca identifies the attacker targeting the Sunny-Go as a female officer in the Donquixote Family, Jora, whose ability artistically steals away opponents' ability to fight. She explains that they only know the names, faces, and powers of officers and above because the Dressrosa army was annihilated by just three individuals ten years ago. The strongest officers were Trebol, Diamante, and Pica.

Sanji's group catches up in Acacia, calling, "Ohh!! Zoro-dono!! Zoro-dono, we're over here, that we are!" Zoro recognizes them and asks how old Wicca is; she says she is twenty-seven. Kin'emon wonders why they look so friendly with each other, and Zoro identifies them as Curly-Browland and Top-Knotland. Sanji immediately wants to save Nami, but Kin'emon says they should remain there to inform Luffy of the situation. Then Violet gives the crucial update: "Your ship has been taken by Jora, from our crew. They're heading for Green Bit!!" Sanji collapses into melodrama, shouting, "Black Leg!! Uooohh my beloved Violet-chan!" while Kin'emon warns he is going to end up passionately stabbed. Violet's message redirects the group from city search to the Sunny.

On the waters off Dressrosa, the Sunny-Go has become part of Jora's bizarre art. Brook stands in the center of the transformed ship, singing, "Yohohoho my music and the ocean have made fabulous art!! Yeah!!" Jora laughs with him, saying, "Ohohoho you sure said it!!" Nami and Chopper are horrified. Chopper asks why Brook is acting so strangely and whether he has betrayed them, while Nami shouts, "Stop the ship!! You can't really mean to go to Green Bit!!" Jora explains that Law will be surprised because he asked someone to pick up Caesar, but instead of the Straw Hats, it will be her. Brook, apparently enthralled by art, lets the hijacking continue.

Brook leans fully into performance, telling Chopper, "Bone-kichi!! Can you really call yourself a swordsman!?" He says his eyes have finally been opened and that he is an artist: his reason for living is to produce great works, even though he is already dead. Jora praises the passion, saying commoners could never understand it. Then Brook names the piece "Dying Art!!" while Nami and Chopper beg, "Save us..." and "How wonderful, Jora-san," trapped in the distortion. Brook claims that life itself is the greatest art and says that in ten more minutes the noisy children will become part of the art too. Jora is moved: "I'm so filled with emotion!! I've perfectly depicted the tragedy that befell Dressrosa!!"

Jora brings the threat to a deadline: "At which point your lives will end!!!" Brook suddenly asks with theatrical courtesy, "How truly magnificent!! Please allow me to provide some musical accompaniment!!" Jora, delighted, asks whether Soul King would really be so kind. Brook requests his violin and bow: "Could you please return my violin and bow to me!! I'd like my violin, Jora-san!" She gives them back and tells him, "Here you go! Show me what you've got, brotha!!" Chopper, near fainting, mutters, "Ahh I'm losing consciousness... I don't wanna die." The page keeps the trick hidden just long enough: Brook appears to be indulging Jora's art, but he has maneuvered her into returning his weapon.

Brook reveals the deception. After Jora returns the violin and bow, he says, "My violin bow is in fact a cane sword... Got it, got it. Now play something good." Jora asks whether he has already made the cut, and Brook answers, "Of course! I've already made the cut." He names the technique "Painter's Song... Hitoyogiri!!!" and slashes through Jora before she can react. She screams "Gyahhh!!" while the transformed ship and captives recoil. A note explains the pun in Hitoyogiri, but Brook's meaning is simple: he never lost control. He says, "Because my eyes... are just empty sockets!!! I'm sorry. I guess I don't really have an eye for art." Nami and Chopper cry, "Brook!!!"

The scene moves to Green Bit, where Law, Doflamingo, and Admiral Fujitora face one another amid the wreckage. Doflamingo begins explaining old history: "Way back then... it's a story that goes back 800 years, Law." Twenty kings from twenty countries gathered at the center of the world and formed one massive organization, the present-day World Government. Those kings became the "Creators" and moved their families to the holy land of Mariejois. Even now their descendants reign over the world as the Tenryubito. Doflamingo adds that only the Nefertari family of Alabasta declined that opportunity, leaving the organization as nineteen families instead of twenty. The lesson is not abstract; he is preparing to explain where his own family fits.

Doflamingo, battered but still smiling, asks Law whether he understands where the story is going. In short, he says, 800 years ago the royal families of those nineteen countries departed, and naturally new kings were elected in each country. New royal families were born. In the case of Dressrosa, the new royalty was the Riku clan. Then Doflamingo reveals the missing half of the history: the "Creators," the ones who set out for the holy land at Mariejois, were the Donquixote clan. The final panel brands it as "Lineage with the devil's charisma" and lands on Doflamingo's grin. The chapter's title becomes literal: Dressrosa's current tyrant is not just an invader but the descendant of its original royal line.

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