On the cover page, three naughty little moneys made a mess of Nami's nice, clean laundry! Zoro-nky speaks no evil, Sanji-mian hears no evil, and Luffy-anzee sees no evil. Luffy-anzee isn't even properly doing the seiza, so he isn't sorry at all! He's doing the Nika pose! So...what does this symbolize? Well...I guess the Strawhats are in a real big mess, given current events! Or...something like that! Maybe it's symbolic that each of them still has something that's holding them back? Or maybe a monkey is just a monkey, and I'm overthinking things.
Usopp...can SENSE that Luffy's in trouble! He has...the FORCE! Or...he's a Newtype (we do see a bit of a Newtype Flash near his nose)! Or..it's his Observation Haki flaring up again. It only happens once a decade or so, but every once in a while, Usopp gets to show off his sensory powers.
They managed to completely thaw out Shuri/Gunko, but she's still unconscious. I'm still curious who's side she'll actually be on once she wakes up.
"Don't worry, I don't have any body heat!" I have to admire Brook's dedication to the Skull Jokes, even in the most dire of situations.
Hajrudin, Gerd, and Chopper finally reconnect with most of the other Strawhats! By crash landing RIGHT INTO injured Loki. Loki just can't catch a break. But, with Gerd and Chopper here, Loki should get patched up a little quicker, at the very least.
"THAT MAN is likely at the heart of this" THAT MAN strikes again! I guess, in this case, Jarul might be referring to Imu. So...it's possible that Jarul knows that Imu exists?! Maybe? Depending on how you interpret this translation. But, either way....it seems like Jarul might know a little more than he let on.
We get confirmation that these swords ARE feeding on life force. So, it's not poison, per se. So, once they get "charged up", I wonder if they can do something special? And thinking about it...these swords are acting a bit like Enma, aren't they? Draining the life energy and Haki from around them to power themselves up. Hmmm....
Also....Imu knows about Ace and Sabo?! Okay....that's a little strange, given how "living in the past" Imu's been presented so far. What with the whole referring to Luffy as "Joyboy" thing. I guess the idea MIGHT be that the swords are ALSO absorbing Luffy's memories, or something, letting Imu catch up quick? I guess he could have just read the Marine's dossier on him, since he is a known pirate, and all, but I feel like that'd be a weird thing for Imu to do?
ANOTHER flashback! Oda just can't help himself in this arc, can he? Basically, Shanks tried to talk Loki out of fighting the World Government until "the right time". So, Shanks knows stuff about whatever is "destined" to happen. And yeah, Shanks already told Jarul and Loki about there being a King of the World. So, they kinda-sorta knew Imu already existed. Well, that was a quick little mystery solved!
"If the World has a King, then what role do the Five Elders serve?" You know....fair question, Nami! That's actually a interesting thing to bring up.
Also, Chopper CAN understand Ragnir, so hopefully the reindeer and the hammer-squirrel have a longer conversation so we can clear a few things up, later. Although, Robin seems to have the same idea, by using Chopper to translate Biblo at the Library, so we might have a whole animal round-table discussion during the epilogue of Elbaph. (Man...just imagine if Ragnir and Biblo have beef with each other. Like they're the animal versions of Zoro and Sanji's rivalry, or something. This could be interesting.)
And, yes, Ragnir, humans are just plain WEIRD in this world. Ragnir trying to work out how human genetics work is kind of funny.
And from the way Imu talks....I guess he doesn't have total control over what weapon he pulls out of his Omen? He doesn't seem to get to choose, and he's surprised by the blade he pulls out, so there isn't a predetermined order or anything. I guess it's randomized or something, I dunno. Maybe it's up to the "will of the swords" themselves?
We're flashing over to Zoro's fight with Sommers. And he's feeling a little talky today! We get confirmation that all of Imu's weapons ARE the 19 Weapons laid to rest around the Empty Throne. That was a cool fan-theory, and I'm glad it got confirmed! So, we've got Tohu, Vohu/Bohu, Nemesis, Longinus, Stigma, Muramasa, Gram...along with Fragarach and Xingtian that got introduced this chapter, and some of the others that have already been mentioned. I appreciate the LORE! Even though, this is just ANOTHER list of Swords that Oda's going to have to spend the rest of the manga filling out. We still don't even have a complete list of all 12 Supreme Blades, and now we got a list of 19 more famous swords to figure out.
I guess Gram is specifically the weapon of the House of Shepard. And Longinus is the weapon of the House of Rimoshifu. So, that implies that all 19 original Celestial Dragon families have a sword specifically associated with their lineages. Which makes sense, since those Swords used to belong to their ancestors. But, MAN....Oda is just chumming the waters for future SBS questions with all of this exposition, isn't he?
And at the last minute, who should save Luffy but....SCOPPER! He's already pretty wounded, so...this kind of has death flags flying high all over it. But...I just don't feel like Scopper dies, here. Despite...everything being against him. So, we'll see what happens. I guess Scopper's going to be stalling for time until Loki (and maybe even Luffy) recover to fight Imu.
AND...there's a break next week. C'MON! We JUST got back from a break! Ah...fine....whatever! I'm going to need time to compile a list of these 19 swords and their associated royal Houses, anyway.
go easy on him
