An alright albeit short chapter this time. Zoro fulfilling the expectations he had of ninja Raizo is funny. Hitetsu and Toko remind us that the Fire Festival is a day that honors the dead and brings back their spirits to the mortal realm, also that Hiyori is free and by herself right now.
If it's 4000 to one, always bet on Queen. Back on Cipher Pol watch, we're told 5k more fodder have been lost - minus 3k for the Beast Pirates and minus 2k for the samurai since chapter 1003. The alliance came in outnumbered 6-to-1 so these losses are unsustainable. Queen's antics and Chopper's doctoring made a mere 4k Pleasures and Waiters in the main hall switch sides to boost the alliance to 7k, leaving the enemy down to 20 thousand. Since the enemy started with 30 thousand, we're only a third of the way there! With 2 samurai lost for every 3 Beast pirates, the alliance only bought themselves time and is still on track to lose, giving weight to Tama's announcement that will flip the powerhouse Gifters.
Mage Nami finally gets her magical wand, the 10th nakama Cotton. Zeus explains that BM wringing out his soul for Hera to consume left him in a leaky state where he could posses another object like how homies are created, fortunately the climatact was inside Hera's mouth. Zeus says nothing about losing part of his soul or being weakened, so it's fair to assume Hera got tingles eating only charged cloud. The result is an unimaginable power up starting with Zeus extending and transforming into a morning star, more or less what Napoleon does going from a hat to a sword long enough to bisect the Sunny.
While I love that Nami has physical combat options now, this feature isn't so good on a non-haki user as Ulti takes that bagua like a champ not dropping Tama. Credit to Usopp for the save. Nami summons cloud Zeus again, revealing any product of the climatact is just an extension of Zeus now. Nami strikes, Ulti dodges, and Zeus with the autoaim finishes the job reminiscent of Big Mom's Indra. The most impressive part was that Zeus went beyond any weapon and acted like Nami's second brain. He evaluated Ulti's condition, came up with the plan, Nami followed suit with Zeus delivering the hits.
Thirty-six chapters into the raid, the first two dominoes fall. A big embarrassing announcement by Bao Huang that Ulti and Page One are L-O-S-E-R-S is the story equivalent of calling the fight. The Tobiroppo look roughed up and stunned as they've now lost half of their forces including traitor X-Drake. While it's true that Ulti was defeated in base form and never unleashed the Ulti Meteor, she got spanked by Yamato, Oven'd by Big Mom, now downed by upgraded Nami to suggest even Oda is tired of punishing the pachy. Page One, I assume, just got his neck snapped. Oof. While it's hard to call their victories well earned, Nami and Usopp's group struggle against opponents who outclassed them was refreshing and having some non-traditional fights in the mix adds to the charm of Onigashima's chaotic war.
Thank you Sanji for believing in miracles. Amusing that these two were actually the first ones to win.
Tama's epic announcement is that One Piece....is on break next week. Chapter ends with what could be the largest non-CoC haki clash in the series. The attitude on Kaido to go hybrid right away and bring that ass whoopin' to Yamato. Does another Yonko kid have Conqueror's? Is Yamato using hybrid to match this Kaido? Yamato is determined to take a Yonko beating for captain Luffy, and somehow survive and sail out of Wano. There is no question this is the strongest nakama candidate by far in the New World saga. But a lot can change between now and the end of Wano as a character imitating the thoughts and desires of Oden becomes self-realized.
