Great chapter. All the set pieces are coming together. That went by way too fast.
Nice to see Page One & Ulti show resilience and return to their antics. Nobody mentions these two have any special ability to recover or regenerate damage, dinosaurs are just really tough so they'll keep getting back up like Oven in WCI. Page One had his big spino jaw (almost) dislocated and Ulti is coughing blood mid-sentence. 4 Trigrams is still 50% of Kaido's power and not to be underestimated. More interesting is the implication is that Ulti has been clubbed by her captain. As if to rub in, next page we get Yamato handling the Elephant Gun that busted Page One, matching Luffy's power and speed, pushing Luffy to use something that blows up the place. Not sure why Luffy is so eager to punch a non-hostile individual. I think the point of that scene was to show that nothing less than Gear 4th will hurt this girl, which takes me back to the idea of how the F6 were expecting to capture this monster.
Kaido and his main men all the take the big stage. Amazing shot. Now I understand why Jack is bullied, they're all just jealous! Anybody with a death wish please step forward and save Momo now. Jinbe pushed back Big Mom, rescued Luffy from Akainu, and he's telling bust-a-rhymes Robin he wants none of that. I just have to laugh at how Luffy and Kid may still be rampaging below but Kaido comes out with his martini glass and decides to make his big speech anyway. The New Onigashima Project/Initiative...sounds like a scheme to artificially elevate the real estate values of this dark desolate wasteland of an island. I would like to think the reason Big Mom needs to hear this announcement is that the BMP are getting their own castle in Onigashima as part of the alliance, but these guys don't even know about the secret waterfall. Real estate it is.
That reunion between the Scabbards & Marco, Neko and Izo. Kiku's face is my face. Law hyped up those swirling Onigashima currents and his Polar Tang's ability to bypass them so much only for Neko and Marco to accomplish the same thing but much faster. It looks like this snowy area is Onigashima's "Winter Gate" where X-Drake was looking for Kaido back in Chapter 793. Izo always had a more feminine get up than Kiku, so how does he always manage to look so manly and badass?? I also like how Izo grew by another meter just to eliminate that ridiculous height gap there was between him and Kiku. Hey! Who said you can't have a growth spurt in your 40s? Neko is sporting a new gun arm, Izo brings the double pistols, it's about time the gunman show the swordsman how it's really done. Marco goes investigate a shadow in the water, most likely Perospero making his way over. It's probably just a reason to delay Marco a bit so the 9 Scabbards can have their epic panel. Later Marco flies in fashionably late to all of Onigashima's surprise as he kicks somebody in the face.
Kaido's alcoholism and suicidal tendencies explained...his daughter is a worshiper of Oden. And another one of Ace's girlfriends. Just like the Mongol Kaidu, Kaido is stuck with a warrior daughter. She looks fairly human like Kaido and Hatcha, but those horns raise questions about Black Maria. There was a Yamato-like figure watching Oden's execution, but it was not a clearly a child instead taller than the adults. "Child" Yamato must at minimum be in her 30s. It's a bit puzzling that Kaido and Yamato are on the same page with the "son" thing, considering Kaido beat her up the first time she proclaimed she wanted to be Oden. My idea is Kaido originally wanted a son and named this girl Yamato, when she started pretending to be masculine like Oden he was pleased in a sense and stopped beating her up for his cosplaying his enemy. She loves Oden and samurai, but fights with a club with her father's technique so she's not completely rebellious at least until today. But this is just a lazy way for Kaido to deal with what he was given, if he was really desperate for a son then he'd try and try again like the 85-children Charlotte family. The Odabox factually introduces Yamato as Kaido's biological daughter, the narrative is not leaving it up for debate to the readers so I won't challenge it either.
Finally, the "Bible" the chapter title refers to turns out to be the holy book of Oden. Oden's journey and experiences, his extensive knowledge gained of the outside world spanning over a decade, the secrets of One Piece all in one little journal. Not Toki, not Hiyori, not the Scabbards, not Yasu, it's Yamato who found this thing and kept it secret. All that manpower Kaido wasted searching for the Scabbards when his own daughter was the key to becoming Pirate King. This is ten times worse than Franky's blue prints of Pluton, Kaido will kill that girl should this secret slip out. The World Government would be forced to invade if a little spy told them the information Kaido and BM obtained. When Yamato said she's been waiting for Luffy for a very long time, it's easy to conclude this is from meeting Ace 4 years ago, but with knowledge all things Oden then Yamato could be well aware of the Joyboy prophecy made by Sharly and the sea kings. Now I want to see Yamato meet the Scabbards, Oden's son Momo, Zoro weilding Enma, to see how much of a fangirl she really is.
Unfortunately, we're looking at a schedule like this: 984 --> Oda Break --> 985 --> Break (All of Jump) --> 986. Ideas we were past the pandemic were premature. Most likely, we got 3 chapters in a row because the staff managed to build up an extra chapter during the break weeks. We return to bi-monthly One Piece, we'll see. Kaido and his top men are all gathered, Big Mom and the Sanjihats are on their way to the hall, the Scabbards are reunited, Samurai are entering the hall, Momo ready for execution. The hype is real! I could see the war breaking out as soon as next chapter, but alas, these breaks hit me like a bucket of cold water.
