Monster

In the burning kitchen, Chopper stands battered and breathing hard, one heavy fist still clenched. The floor is broken, smoke rolls across the room, and Kumadori's hair lashes around him like living ropes. Chopper says only "...!!" through exhausted breaths. Kumadori's hair drops from the ceiling in thick strands, and he roars, "Yoyoi!!" Then he declares, "Showing mercy to others shall not happen when the lion is very angry!!!" The scene makes the danger clear: Chopper is already wounded from the failed transformations, and Kumadori is no longer treating the fight like a performance.

Chopper tries to calculate his last chance while Kumadori attacks. He thinks, "The second Rumble Ball is like a gamble... There's only a one-in-seven chance that I can transform into 'Arm Point'!!" If he can reach Arm Point, he believes, "I can hit him with my strongest technique! That'll be my only chance!!" Kumadori strikes again with "Shish Kebab!!!" and Chopper is battered across the room, crying, "Oowah!!" He calls out "Arm Point!!" again and again, but the transformations refuse to obey. One form after another comes out wrong, and each mistake leaves him more exposed to Kumadori's attacks.

Chopper's body is reaching its limit. He pants, "Haa!! Haa..." and thinks, "This isn't it either!! Why can't I do it!? My body's at its limit, too...!! I gotta get into 'Arm Point' somehow..." Kumadori keeps striking, and Chopper finally feels the form arrive: "Oowah!! I got it!! When did I get it!?" He realizes, "...!! I'm betting everything on this one hit...!!!" He gathers himself for "Kokutei" while Kumadori answers with "Shishi Shigan!!!" The page holds the clash at the edge of impact: Chopper has the right form at last, but only one real chance to use it.

At the last instant, Chopper thinks, "If I retreat now... I won't get another chance!!" Kumadori hardens himself with "Tekkai Gou!!!" and Chopper drives in with "Kokutei"... then releases "Roseo Metel!!!" The note identifies it as "Cherry Blossom Snowstorm." The hoof strike explodes into Kumadori with enough force to blow through his iron body stance. Kumadori's eyes widen with "Nu!?" as the impact bursts across the kitchen. For one moment, Chopper's gamble works: he reaches Arm Point, commits everything to the blow, and overwhelms Kumadori's defense.

Kumadori collapses backward under the strike, and Chopper, shaking, thinks, "Collapse!!!" He looks down at his own battered body and the ruined kitchen, believing, "This is my strongest attack!!!" Kumadori lies still amid the smoke and debris. Chopper whispers, "Goodness..." and then, "Goodness gracious!!!" The room quiets for the first time in the fight. Kumadori's staff lies near him, the air thick with flames and dust, while Chopper stands over the aftermath of his desperate Arm Point attack and hopes the battle is finally over.

The victory lasts only a breath. Kumadori's mouth opens, and he says, "Yet no longer..." Chopper stiffens. Kumadori rises again with a massive roar: "Gar-rar-rah!!!" He charges through the kitchen and slams Chopper, who cries, "Gugh!!!" Kumadori shouts, "Yet no longer can I hold back!!! I shall thunder unto thee, roar of the lion~~~!!! Yoyoyoyo!!!" Chopper is knocked away, and the fight turns worse than before. His strongest attack has failed to finish Kumadori, and now Kumadori's rage is fully unleashed.

Kumadori's hair whips through the room, and he follows with "Rankyaku!!" then "Renge!!!" with the note "Lotus Flower." Chopper is caught in the storm of hair, kicks, and impacts, unable to mount a counterattack. He thinks, "This isn't good... I don't have any strength left for a counterattack...!!!" Far away in another room, voices call through the chaos: "Chopper...!!" and "Chopper, what have you done!!?" But Chopper has no strength to answer. The fight has passed the point where his normal courage and tactics are enough.

As Kumadori attacks, Chopper remembers the warning from Drum Island. In memory, someone says, "Don't think you can get out of this by just saying you don't remember!! You're lucky that you didn't kill anyone." They remind him, "While you were asleep, everyone in the country was in a panic about that night...!!" and, "You almost destroyed an entire village!!" The old doctor tells him, "I don't care if you like to experiment as much as your parent, but things like that should only be done after careful consideration!!" Chopper apologizes, "I'm sorry, Doctorine. I won't ever do it again. Please don't kick me out!" She answers, "Don't be silly. Just let your body heal." Back in the present, Kumadori uses "Seimei Kikan" and "Kami Shibari!!!" while Chopper's mind returns to the forbidden result of too many Rumble Balls.

Kumadori closes in for the kill. Chopper is bound and helpless as Kumadori cries, "Don't cry!! Ah, don't you cry, for if you cry, your manly fame would cry as well!!!" Chopper understands: "He's gonna kill me." Kumadori turns the execution into another poem: "'Tis not like a twilight evening of a mountain village where evening cicadas chirp...!! A mortal journeys to hell's cauldron upon knowing everything and is fully prepared...!!" He raises the attack, saying, "Accept this--!! Here, here, here, the crimson; The willow leaves that slashed as a tribute to you... As I wished for your return one day, we're crimson!!" Then he names it "Yana Gin Jou!!!" with the note "To receive the willow."

Chopper thinks of Robin, and the name alone pushes him beyond fear: "Robin..." Kumadori's attack slams into him with a huge impact, blasting through the kitchen. But Chopper tears free from the "Kami Shibari." Kumadori gasps, "...!!? Nu... He escaped my 'Kami Shibari'!!" Chopper reaches for the forbidden answer. He thinks, "No one will come into this room...!! Then at least do this...!! Hopefully... If I'm gonna die anyway..." The Rumble Ball appears in his hand, and he swallows it. The choice is not heroic control; it is desperation. Chopper chooses the monster because the alternative is failing Robin.

The result is immediate and terrifying. Chopper thinks, "I used three Rumble Balls... Then I lost consciousness... and then..." The memory continues: "You could say... the devil fruit went on a rampage. Never step into that territory again... It was as though you were... Excessive power that destroys both friends and foes, even your own body. A real monster!!" In the present, the kitchen fills with smoke as a gigantic black silhouette rises above Kumadori. It is Chopper, but stretched into a towering beast, his hat tiny against the monstrous body. Kumadori stares upward in shock: "!!?"

Outside the tower, Franky crawls onto solid ground, exhausted and bleeding. He mutters, "I'm supposed to be... super this week... but it's taking much longer than I expected. Shit..." Then he looks at the key in his hand: "But, oh well... At least I've got the key." The tag reads "Number 4, huh?" Franky remembers the key situation: "If I remember correctly, the swordsman and the long-nose wanted No. 2. This guy had #4. He had #3. Which means the last one... Who could have the number 2 key is that secretary woman! I should hurry up. I'll go help them!!" His fight has given him a key, but not the one Zoro and Sogeking need.

In Kalifa's room, water and bubbles cover the floor. Nami rises from the foam with a long "Whoooooo..." and then crawls out of the bath area, dripping and breathing hard. She mutters "Haa..." and "...ugh!" as she pulls herself forward. The room is still filled with Kalifa's strange bubbles and the slick effect of the Devil Fruit. Nami has survived the trap, but the page makes her condition clear: she is not entering the fight fresh. She is dragging herself back into it because the key and Robin's rescue leave no room to stay down.

Kalifa watches from the bath and smiles. "Hohoho... I thought you didn't have much time. Didn't I hear you say, 'I won't let you get away'? Or did I mishear it?" Nami answers, "... Don't make fun of me!!! I won't forgive you...!!" Kalifa invites her calmly: "... Then, please come at me. You don't have to wait. Our match already begun long ago." Nami notices the disadvantage: "I'm amazed to see a DF user bathing in front of her enemy... With half of your body immersed, you should be powerless...!!!" Kalifa answers, "So, my defense is full of holes; is that what you're trying to say? Don't worry about that. The same goes for you -- being powerless. Excuse me for a moment."

Nami discovers what Kalifa's power has done to her. She stands over the scattered weapons and cries, "What'd you do to me!!?" Kalifa smiles, treating the mystery as part of the match: "Isn't solving those mysteries part of the fun in fighting DF users?" Nami remembers Sanji's condition and thinks, "She's definitely the one who changed Sanji-kun like that...!! I've gotta be careful...!! Or my stepping into this fight will be for nothing!!" Then she feels her strength returning: "...!? My strength is gradually coming back...!!" Nami grips the Clima-Tact and says, "I'll show you the power of the perfect Clima Tact...!! It's a big mistake to dismiss me as an ordinary 'cute beauty'!!"

Nami begins her counterattack. "...!! I can move my legs again," she realizes. Kalifa steps away with a soft "shf shf," and Nami raises the Clima-Tact: "Here I come... Thunder Charge!!!" She follows with "Swing Arm!!!" and the weapon snaps through the room with a "fwp." Kalifa dodges, but Nami's expression sharpens. The attack is not just a direct strike; it is preparation. Nami is rebuilding the tempo of the fight, charging the weapon and testing the room after being weakened by Kalifa's bubbles.

Kalifa observes the Clima-Tact with interest: "... That's an amazing weapon." Nami has already set the trap. She says, "A cloud? I couldn't possibly have just been lying there, doing nothing, right?" The charged cloud cracks above Kalifa as Nami calls "Thunder Ball!!" and then unleashes "Thunderbolt Tempo!!!" Lightning tears through the room, filling the page with a massive flash and an explosive "!!?" Kalifa is caught in the storm of Nami's weather science. The chapter closes with Nami proving that even after Kalifa's Devil Fruit weakened her, she still had time to prepare a real counterattack.

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