Sanji's Dream

No description for this page.

The church falls quiet after Sanji's blow. Absalom lies broken among the rubble, wheezing "Uugh...!!" while Sanji stands over him in silence. The zombies cry, "Absalom-sama..." and Nami remains unconscious nearby. Absalom, battered but not beaten in spirit, gasps, "Haa... There's a connection... between you and me...!?" Sanji answers with cold fury: "...That's right. You are the man... who took away one of my dreams." The fight is no longer only about rescuing Nami from a forced wedding. Sanji is facing the person who stole a power he once wanted more than almost anything.

Absalom struggles to remember, muttering, "...Haa... Grrr... I don't remember it." Sanji says there must be some kind of mistake, because he and Absalom met for the first time today. Absalom answers by preparing the hidden bazookas in his arms: "Haa... Haa...!! I'll blow you away...!! With this... 'Hands of the Deceased'!!!" Sanji recognizes the trick immediately and orders, "Take them off...!!!" Absalom is shocked, but Sanji says he already told him to take off the bazookas he is hiding. If Nami gets hurt because of Absalom's careless destruction, Sanji will not stop until Absalom's original form is no longer recognizable.

Absalom refuses to believe Sanji can know his tricks. "...Humph!! There's no way that guy knows!!!" he thinks, but Sanji kicks through the attack and sends the hidden bazookas flying. Sanji repeats, "I told you...!! To take those off!!!" and then drives Absalom into the floor with another brutal strike. The zombies can only stare as Absalom is hammered into the wreckage. Sanji's anger is precise rather than wild. Every time Absalom tries to rely on invisibility or hidden weapons, Sanji exposes the trick and punishes him for putting Nami in danger.

The zombies cry, "What!? A bazooka suddenly appeared!!" Sanji, calmer now, says, "...Well, that's about it. It's a kind of attack you would think of." He explains Absalom's power clearly: aside from making his own body invisible, the things he touches can also be hidden. "That's your ability...!! The 'Suke Suke Fruit's' invisible man." A note explains that suke means transparent. Absalom freezes and asks, "How is this possible...!!? Who are you...!?" Sanji answers, "The things you can do, I know all of them...!!" This is not a guess. Sanji knows the fruit because he once studied it with desperate attention.

Sanji reveals the source of his knowledge. When he was little, he opened the big illustrated book of Devil Fruits. He says he was not really interested in all the nonsense about curses of the ocean, but there was one fruit that moved his heart. Even if eating it meant being cursed, he wanted to try it. Since only one of each Devil Fruit exists in the world, the dream would be crushed if someone else found the fruit first. Sanji points at Absalom and roars, "That's why you, the one that ate the 'Suke Suke Fruit,' are the one who crushed one of my dreams!!!!" The zombies scream that he is furious, and Sanji shouts the dream plainly: he wanted, at least once, to become an invisible man.

Sanji admits exactly what he would have done with invisibility. "I went after my dream!!" he says. If it had happened, what then? "If I could peep on... no, no, I would try to do a lot of things." The zombies understand the problem immediately: "His head is filled with peeping on the women's bathroom!!!" Sanji tries to dress it up, insisting that peeping would not be useful in any way to other people, but Absalom is not interested in listening. He explodes at the sudden connection between them: "Just when I thought it was something, you spout some stupid connection!!! Illogical and stupid!!! You perverted bastard!!!" Sanji answers that he will not forgive Absalom for dragging Nami into this.

Sanji shuts the conversation down with another kick, shouting, "I don't want to hear that from you!!! The same goes for you~~!!!" Absalom is blasted backward, then Sanji adds that the blame cuts both ways. Absalom, thrown across the church, decides to turn Sanji's grudge back on him: "Understood! I will turn this sudden grudge and connection back at you!!" He lunges again, still refusing to release Nami or acknowledge his own wrongdoing. The fight becomes a ridiculous mirror of two perverts accusing each other, but Sanji's rage is sharper because Absalom used his power to violate and endanger Nami and Robin.

Absalom reveals the body Hogback built for him. He says it is not just the jaw of a lion: he has the skin of an elephant and the condensed 300-kilogram muscular strength of a bear and gorilla, all by the hand of Dr. Hogback. In addition to the Suke Suke Fruit's ability, Absalom boasts that he is equipped with state-of-the-art strength and calls his body a unique and ultimate wild piece of art. The zombies agree that he is right. Sanji answers with one sentence that cuts through every grotesque enhancement: "But you still peeped~~!!!" Then he kicks Absalom again, proving that no amount of stitched muscle makes Absalom worthy of respect.

Absalom admits Sanji's kicks are no ordinary blows, because they are smashing a body far tougher than a normal human body. Still, he insists that the last laugh will be his. He tells Sanji to taste the ability he wanted, then disappears: "Fuh... Have a taste of this ability you wanted..." Sanji immediately understands the danger. He says that at the time Absalom disappeared along with Nami, they could not follow him anymore. Absalom's plan is clear: he intends to make Nami invisible too. Sanji grabs Nami and shouts, "I'm not giving her up!!!" while Absalom promises to teach him the power of the "mystery man."

Absalom vanishes and attacks under the title of the "Hand of the Mystery Man!!!" Sanji is struck and thrown while Absalom gloats from invisibility: "Grrrr... Oh, for that woman's sake... You want to be a human sacrifice...!? Fufu, then try and protect her." Sanji staggers but keeps hold of Nami until Absalom's invisible attack tears her away. He apologizes, "Sorry!!! ...Nami-san...!!!" as Nami's body falls and Absalom laughs, "Wahaha, so you let go!! You couldn't bet on your life!!!" The invisible enemy has turned the rescue into a hostage fight, forcing Sanji to defend someone he cannot allow to be scratched.

Sanji kneels near Nami and bleeds onto the floor, whispering, "Forgive me... Hah... my blood." He says, "I cannot let it soil that snow-white dress..." Absalom asks whether Sanji still wants to sneak around as an invisible man, but Sanji's dream has changed in that instant. "I no longer care. If I never become invisible anymore... I will peep on my own." The zombies scream, "You are still going to peep!!?" Sanji, still furious, tells Absalom that if he is made of various beasts, he can make a very good minced meat out of him. Absalom grabs him and snarls that he will not let go, but Sanji's resolve has already shifted from fantasy to vengeance.

Absalom tries to crush Sanji with "Extra Crushing Death!!!" while Nami lies nearby and the zombies scream his name. The massive blow detonates in the center of the church with a huge crash, but Sanji's own fury answers through the impact. He hears Absalom's insults, sees Nami unconscious in the wedding dress, and remembers the women's bath and the beast bride remark. Absalom sneers that a beast bride is enough for a beast, but Sanji's counterstrike tears through the explosion. The page becomes a mass of impact lines and shattered stone as Sanji's kick overwhelms Absalom's finishing move.

Inside the mast mansion, Perona flees through her own room, shouting, "Wait~~!!!" while Usopp chases after her. She curses him: "Dammit, he is still following me!!! If it wasn't for him, I could beat the other pirates!! Negative nose bastard!!!" Usopp runs after her just as angrily, yelling that if it were not for her, he could beat that "horo horo woman," and he calls for Kumashi to hurry and finish her off. Perona screams back for Kumashi not to come, while Usopp yells for the "horo horo woman" to wait. Both are terrified and furious, each convinced the other is the obstacle ruining their plans.

Kumashi charges in to protect Perona, roaring, "...!! Don't you dare... touch Perona-sama...!!!" and slams straight into Usopp with a heavy "Bohyun!!" The impact sends Usopp flying through the hallway, screaming "Gyah!!!" and then tumbling again with "Uwah!!!" as Kumashi rolls and bounces after him. Usopp and Kumashi crash through debris and around the corridor in a chaotic chase, with Usopp flailing while Perona tries to keep away from the one opponent her ghosts cannot defeat. The fight in Perona's room has become less a duel and more a frantic pursuit through the mansion's upper halls.

Usopp realizes Kumashi is too fast, shouting, "That damned stuffed doll is fast. He's powerful!!! Even though he can't reach the zipper on his back!!" Kumashi attacks with "Hissatsu! Flame Ball!!!" but Usopp dodges and the attack works against the zombie. Smoke bursts out as Kumashi cries, "Uoh!! It worked!!!" and Usopp laughs, "Gyahaha, as I thought, zombies are zombies." Oil is spilling nearby, and Usopp realizes the situation is now under his control. He taunts Kumashi: "The Pyoi can't come over here technique!!! You can't get over here anymore!!!" and then crows that with this, he has no enemies and no longer has a weak image. His confidence rises far faster than the danger has disappeared.

Usopp turns away from Kumashi and resumes hunting Perona, saying, "Well, well, now it's time for me to go... and punish that weaker-than-me Horo Horo woman... Where did she..." He follows his "negative nose" and declares, "I'm right here, Negative Nose!!" But then he hears her voice from somewhere impossible: outside the window. Usopp looks up in disbelief, saying this place is really high, and sees Perona floating in midair with ghosts around her. She looks down at him and snaps, "Don't look down on the ghost princess, you fool!!" Usopp panics, asking why she is flying and why she does not simply control ghosts. Perona replies that she just made a plan to finish him off, and as long as she defeats him, the others will be powerless.

No description for this page.