One Piece Chapter 1040: Falling on Deaf Ears

The chapter resumes at the current location as Kid's "Damned Punk" continues firing. Big Mom is blasted by the electromagnetic cannon while the recoil and impact tear through the live floor. A caption shouts "Damned Punk unleashed!!" and Big Mom laughs or cries out under the pressure, but she does not vanish from the attack. Kid smirks at the force of his shot, while the battlefield below buckles and cracks. Big Mom, still conscious despite being hammered by Kid's beam and Law's prior attack, snarls, "You damn brats!" The page keeps the focus on the same clash from the previous chapter: Big Mom is being forced downward, but her durability makes it unclear whether even this combined finishing sequence will be enough.

The crews panic when Big Mom is still not blown away. They shout, "Wha?! She wasn't blown away?!" and "That's not enough to put her down?!" Others see that Kid and Law are already at their limit and yell, "You've gotta be kidding me!! She's taking it!!" Big Mom turns the fear back on everyone with Soul Pocus. She says, "I'll let you choose your fate... When this attack is done tickling me, you can either give me 50 years from your lifespans... Or you can live on as my slaves!!" Her mouth opens wide over the words "Life or... Slave!!" and a fighter realizes, "Crap! She's using Soul Pocus!!" The page shows that Big Mom's threat is not only physical; she is trying to regain control by weaponizing terror itself.

Big Mom's Soul Pocus reaches the nearby crews, and fighters scream, "Gyaaah!! She's stealing our lifespans too!!" Kid's men yell, "Boss!! Maybe we should fall back!!" and others stare at Big Mom's continuing strength, saying, "What a monster!!" and "She doesn't look like she's anywhere near death's door!!" They beg their captain, "Captain!! We've gotta get outta here!!" but Law tells them, "You guys go ahead." Big Mom's face fills the side of the page as she is still fighting through the cannon blast and the crater. The scene shows why Soul Pocus normally works: everyone around her is afraid enough to lose lifespan, except the two captains who are too committed, angry, or exhausted to give her the fear she needs.

Kid and Law refuse to be intimidated. Kid asks, "You think the last gasps... of an old windbag scare me?!" while Law activates "R-Room!" and says Big Mom's death screeches are doing his ears in. The crowd realizes, "Their souls aren't coming out!!" and wonders whether Big Mom's power is failing because "She's an Emperor, and they're not scared at all?!" Kid curses her, "Damn Emperor! You just don't know when to quit!! I'm sending you packing straight to hell!!" Misery tries to rescue Big Mom, crying, "Hold on tight, Mama!! I'll save you!!" but Law prepares to handle the homie and says he will do it like the man who saved his life. The page ties Law's silencing move to Corazon's legacy and makes fearlessness the counter to Big Mom's soul theft.

Law throws a silent room over Big Mom and the battlefield. The attack lands with "Silence!!" and someone realizes, "Huh?! There's no noise!!" Another voice explains, "This technique cancels out every sound you make!!" Big Mom tries to shout, "What the hell?! My voice...!!" but no sound reaches the outside. Her homies call for her, and Misery says, "I can't hear you..." while Big Mom's own "Mama!!" calls are swallowed. Kid, seeing the opening, says, "Have another...!!" and fires "Damned Punk!!" again. The page turns the chapter title into the mechanism of victory: Big Mom's commands, screams, and Soul Pocus are falling on deaf ears because Law has sealed them in silence.

Big Mom continues falling through the wreckage as Kid's cannon forces her down and Law's silence keeps her from calling for help. Her homies shout "Mama!!" and Big Mom calls, "Prometheus!! Hera!! What are you doing?! Come help me!!" but the silence means her orders do not reach them. In the basement armory, Yamato watches the chaos and asks why the attack did not make any noise. Big Mom crashes past the frozen bombs and rubble, still desperate for her homies to save her, but the scene makes clear that Law has separated her from the sound-based command structure she depends on. She is physically falling and strategically isolated at the same time.

Yamato realizes that "Nothing I touch makes a sound!!" as Big Mom and the attack pass through the armory. Big Mom pleads for the fall to stop, shouting, "Wahhh!! Stop that!! You'll set off the other bombs!!" The silent impact continues, and the bombs or black explosive masses streak downward while Yamato reacts in alarm. In another corner, Orochi's burning form is still nearby, with voices calling "Orochi..." and "...sama..." The page links two disasters: Big Mom's silent descent through the armory threatens the frozen explosives, and Orochi's fire-driven survival thread remains tangled in the same basement crisis. Law's silence makes the scene eerie because destruction is happening without the expected roar.

Big Mom falls through the sky and debris while the bombs descend with her. She complains that this is all their fault and coughs as the hole Law carved stretches below Onigashima. In her thoughts, she turns on Roger: "Are you listening, Roger?! Why did you have to go and say all that?!" She rages that the whole world bought into "The Great Pirate Era?!" and says their time was up, so it did not affect them, but all the brats came flooding in looking for their chance to shine and the old generation was left to deal with it. She also asks, "The least you could've done was tell us about the One Piece before you croaked!! It is real, right?!" The page turns her defeat into a generational grievance against Roger's final words.

Big Mom keeps falling and wonders what the One Piece is and where it is, asking whether this country holds some of the answers. She curses in frustration and then addresses Kid and Law directly: "Kid!! Law!! I'll never forgive you for this...!!" She warns them, "You better not think... this is enough to kill me!!" The explosion below Wano finally erupts, and the live floor battle is declared over. A box announces "Emperor Big Mom vs. The New Generation" and then "Victors: Eustass 'Captain' Kid and 'The Surgeon of Death,' Trafalgar Law!!" The blast and silence leave Big Mom buried below while the official narration confirms the result: one Emperor has been defeated by the two supernova captains.

Kid and Law stand battered and bleeding as the battlefield realizes what happened. Fighters scream, "They defeated Big Mom!!" and the crowd explodes with shock: "This is huge!! This is really huge!!" Kid's and Law's crews rush toward them, shouting "Captain!!" and "Boss!!" The two victors are still barely conscious, panting after spending everything they had, but the page lets the scale of their achievement land across Onigashima. Big Mom was not simply pushed back or delayed; the live floor witnesses understand that an Emperor has fallen. Their victory shifts the raid's morale and proves that the new generation can genuinely overthrow the old monsters.

The chapter closes by moving from the live floor victory to Yamato and Momonosuke beneath Onigashima. Yamato greets him, "Oh! Yamato!!" and Momonosuke notices the damage, asking, "Why is there a hole here?! Is that the basement?!" Yamato says she is glad he is okay and explains that one of the bombs just went off, but thankfully she was able to freeze the others before the whole armory blew. Momonosuke tells her he has a lot on his plate and asks her to listen because "Zunesha is... getting pretty close now!!" Yamato is shocked and asks whether he means the elephant Oden mentioned in his journal. Momonosuke confirms that Zunesha committed a serious crime 800 years ago, back when it was Joyboy's companion.

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