Oden's Beloved Sword

Brook carries Nico Robin through the burning castle while the fire-spirit threat spreads. Brook asks, "What's the big idea, Izo?" and someone warns, "They're on the move!" Izo answers that it is a pain to fly Brook and Robin around while injured, and Robin apologizes, saying the announcement "about the giant yokai made me feel uneasy!!" She wonders, "Where did a thing like that come from?!" The yokai's trail is already setting the structure ablaze. Someone says, "The castle's on fire," while Izo urges them, "Try not get too sidetracked--yo!" Below, trapped fighters panic because the samurai are blocking the way out. They shout, "Fetch the cannon!!" and "We'll be burned alive if we don't get to that floor!!"

In the second basement, Scratchmen Apoo keeps chasing Yamato. Apoo complains, "Apoo, you don't know when to quit..." while Yamato snaps, "I told you, I'm busy! Quit following me!!" Fuga, one of the Numbers, lumbers after them and pleads, "Young master, please hear me out!!" The sight of the giant sends nearby fighters into panic, and they shout, "Woah!! It's one of the Numbers!!" Fuga cries "Fuga!!" and Yamato recognizes him, calling up from below, "Fuga! I know it's been a while, but I'm in a hurry!!" The page keeps Yamato moving toward the armory, with Apoo still opportunistically trailing behind and Fuga unexpectedly rejoining Yamato's path.

Yamato and Fuga burst down into the second floor as a warning spreads: "The flame yokai is heading for the lower levels of the castle!!" Yamato lands hard and cries, "Huh?" while bystanders think she fell onto a cushion. The soft landing is actually hair, prompting startled cries of "Hair?!" and "Fuga?" Brook and Robin are nearby, still trying to escape, and Brook warns, "They're coming!!" He starts to say there is "No choice but to fl--" before the shadow of the enormous flame yokai appears behind them. Robin turns and asks, "What in the world is that?!" The page connects Yamato's route, Robin and Brook's escape, and Kazenbo's descent into the same burning corridor.

The giant flame yokai continues sinking through the castle, sending people falling and screaming, "Aaaargh!!" Fighters shout that they do not know what it is after, only that "it keeps going down!!" Someone identifies it as the flame yokai from the announcement and panics, "It's huuuuge!!" Yamato pants from the chase and watches the burning mass pass directly through walls, realizing that normal barriers will not stop it. She asks, "And it passes through walls?!" then repeats, "What the heck is that?!" The page emphasizes that Kazenbo is not simply spreading fire on one floor; it is moving downward through Onigashima like a living disaster.

A small map marks Yamato's route from the second basement toward the armory, and Yamato understands the danger at once: "This is bad! If it keeps going, it'll set off an explosion mid-air!! The whole island will be gone!!" She turns to the Number and says, "Fuga! I need your help with something!" Elsewhere, Brook and Robin realize the CP0 agents are beyond the wall of flames and decide to hurry before they are pursued again. Apoo gleefully photographs CP0, laughing "Apapapapa!!" and planning a scoop: "Lapdogs of the celestial dragons spotted in Kaido's castle!!" He thinks he might sell the story to Morgans, but a CP0 agent warns that after losing their middle-man Doflamingo, the government now deals directly with pirates, and says Apoo should have kept his mouth shut.

CP0 strikes Apoo with overwhelming speed, knocking him down with a heavy blow while he cries out in pain. X Drake steps in, and one of the masked agents reveals that CP0 already knows his real allegiance: "I hope you didn't assume that your true allegiance would remain a secret to CP0? X Drake." Drake does not deny it. Instead, he challenges them and says that if they already know who he is, he is dying to hear their excuse for being in Kaido's castle. The agent answers coldly, "We're just... handling pest control!!" The exchange turns CP0's secrecy into open hostility and pulls Drake fully into their confrontation.

Apoo recovers and lashes back at the masked agents, furious that they attacked him. He complains that the government assassins really hurt him and pants through the pain. CP0 notices he is still alive, while Drake makes clear that he is not an easy target either: "I can use Armament Haki, you dumbass. These guys aren't getting off that easy!!" Apoo turns on Drake too, shouting that he knew Drake was a Marine. Drake tells him to "Cram it" and asks whether they are doing this or not. Apoo agrees because CP0 picked a fight with him, though Drake points out that Apoo started it by provoking them with his photographs and scoop-chasing.

The fight against CP0 widens as one of the Numbers crashes into the masked agents' path. Apoo and Drake are now effectively opposing the government agents together, even if their motives are completely different. The CP0 agents remain composed and say their enemies "will get what’s coming to them!!" while the Number roars into the battle. The chapter then cuts away to the exterior fight between Zoro and King. Outside Onigashima, King in pteranodon form dominates the air while Zoro is flung through the sky and rubble, setting up a different kind of problem: Zoro has to fight an opponent who can stay out of reach and strike from above.

Outside, Zoro watches King do something grotesque with his pteranodon body, pulling his head and crest backward like a stretched weapon. Zoro stares and asks whether that thing is supposed to be pulled back like that. King releases the tension in two beats, building the attack with "Tem..." and then firing with "Pura!!!" The sudden snap launches a high-speed projectile-like strike at Zoro. The page is full of impact lines and startled punctuation, making the attack feel less like a normal flying slash and more like a bizarre prehistoric mechanism. Zoro has little time to react as King's strange anatomy becomes another weapon in the fight.

King's released attack hits with the force of a beam, accompanied by "Udon!!" Zoro is blasted back and grunts, "Ugh!!" He admits, "I couldn't block it!! It's like a beam!!" King answers with deadpan absurdity, explaining, "Just like prehistoric times... That's how pteranodons hunted their prey!!" The explanation does not help Zoro at all, but it makes clear that King treats the technique as a natural part of his ancient zoan form. Zoro, hurt and still falling through the wreckage outside the island, has to accept that King's abilities are stranger than ordinary swordsmanship or a simple flying dinosaur transformation.

Zoro crashes through debris and curses, "Dammit...!!" while panting. He asks, "Is that so?!" and answers King's flying pressure with his own long-range sword attack, "360 Caliber Phoenix!!" The slash tears toward King, but Zoro realizes he still cannot control the terms of the fight. He thinks, "If I can't find a way to reach him, I'm just wasting my energy!!" When he tries to reason through King's body, he jokes bitterly, "I suppose pteranodons flew with fire on their backs too?" King flatly rejects that, saying, "No. Get your story straight!!" The page keeps the tone both dangerous and absurd: Zoro is bleeding and thinking tactically, while King's ancient-zoan explanations remain impossible.

Zoro decides he has to knock King out of the sky before he runs out of steam, thinking, "That bastard's talking down to me...!! I've gotta knock him outta the sky before I run out of steam!" He prepares a three-sword style technique and unleashes "Kalasutra: Great Dragon Twister!!" The cyclone-like slash surges upward and seems powerful enough to catch King, but Zoro is stunned when King blocks it with his wings. Zoro reacts with "!?" and then realizes, "He's blocking... with his wings?!" The attack shows Zoro escalating, but it also reveals that King's defense is not limited to Haki or swordplay; his wings themselves can withstand a major three-sword style technique.

Zoro tries to compare King's durability to dinosaurs and says, "So dinosaurs are basically like dragons... Big lizards with tough hides!!" King replies, "You're not wrong, but I'm on another level!!" He then shifts from aerial combat into direct sword fighting, saying he will give Zoro a chance and use his blade instead. King adds, "You're not the only one that craves a good duel!!" The two clash at close range. Zoro studies him carefully and notices that after all of his attacks, "not a drop of blood" has been drawn. He realizes the flames on King's back are still burning and that King still has movable wings in this form, meaning they are not just for show and that he can still fly with them. Zoro thought those features came from King's Devil Fruit, but he now doubts that explanation.

King and Zoro continue clashing violently, with King's wings and blade forcing Zoro backward. Zoro asks himself whether King has Fish-Man or giant blood, then rejects the idea: "No, it's probably a race I've never heard of." King asks, "I don't think... I can win..." only in the sense that Zoro's thoughts are broken across the panels as he realizes he cannot win "without knowing what he is!!" The fight is interrupted when Zoro hears an unexpected sound. He pants, then asks, "What's that sound...?" and recognizes it in disbelief: "A shamisen?! No way!!" At the same moment, Enma begins reacting, ringing with a sharp "Shing!!" and drawing Zoro's attention away from King.

Enma suddenly flares with force and drains Zoro's arm, making him scream "Aaaargh!!" and shout, "Enma...?" The scene cuts to the dome interior treasure repository, where Orochi hears the same music. He is confused because they are in a war zone and asks, "What kind of trick is this?" The music seems to come from the next room, and Orochi mutters that a shamisen here is absurd. He orders the door to "Slide..." open and sees a bright, elegant room beyond. Still frightened, he asks whether it is an enemy and whether they tracked him down. The page links Enma's reaction to the sound of the shamisen and shifts the chapter from Zoro's battle into Orochi's hidden encounter.

Inside the treasure repository, Orochi sees Komurasaki seated with a shamisen. He cries out, "Komurasaki?!" and cannot believe she is before him. He asks, "God... am I dreaming?! Or did I pass to the other side?!" and babbles that he could not get her out of his head. Overwhelmed, he says, "If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up!!" Komurasaki answers with perfect composure, "Likewise, my lord. All I want... is for us to spend the rest of our lives together!!" The page ends the chapter on her calm smile and Orochi's stunned devotion, bringing the long-dead courtesan identity back into the raid as a trap-like apparition.

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