One Piece Chapter 726: The Riku Clan

In the basement of the colosseum, defeated fighters keep crashing down into the hidden pit. They fall one after another, crying "Gyahhh!!" as dust and broken toys scatter beneath them. Someone groans, "Oh, oh... They keep falling, one after the other...!!!" Cavendish cries, "Ah...!! Gramps!! Big bro too!!!" while other fallen warriors cough and struggle to rise. A giant asks the question everyone is thinking: "Uhh, shit *cough cough*! What the hell is this!!? A mountain of garbage and toys!!?" One of the trapped men warns, "You should move from there. Others will be falling." The pit is not merely a disposal chamber; it is a hidden dumping ground where defeated gladiators, discarded toys, and the truth of Dressrosa are gathered out of sight.

The fallen fighters begin recognizing one another in the underground chamber. Former gladiator Ricky looks up and says, "Such a massive scrapheap would exist... to think that in this country's underground..." Dressrosa squad captain Tank Lepanto stares at him and says, "Yer... I mean... you are...!!" Ricky replies, "I just have this nagging feeling... If I'm wrong... then please forgive me, but..." The realization spreads through the crowd: "King Riku... aren't you...?" and then "King Riku!?" Someone protests, "King Riku!? Don't be stupid... Isn't he dead...!?" Another laughs bitterly, "Shihaha, Dressrosa's... last king... I heard he just went mad." The pit has thrown together the country's discarded people, and among them is the former king everyone thought was gone.

Riku Doldo III confirms the truth with exhausted dignity: "...Indeed, I am. But you should no longer call me 'king'. Squad captain Tank." Tank cries out, "King Riku!!! Thank goodness you're alive...!!!" Riku answers that after falling to such depths within the earth, there is no use hiding anymore. The page identifies him as Former King of Dressrosa: Riku Doldo III, Rebecca's grandfather. Riku says, "I'm merely an old man at this point. An old man with naught but a grandchild I could not save... and my deep crimes." When someone asks whether he is alive after all, Riku answers, "No need to say it... I'm already aware...!!" and admits, "The truth is, I am now far too Doflamingo's... It's been far too long!!" His survival is not triumphant; it is burdened by guilt.

The trapped fighters react to Riku's presence. Elizabello II says, "You're protecting Viola for me, right?" and tells him, "It must have been a painful decision! I would never doubt a man as virtuous as yourself." Someone says, "No, compared to yours, it was nothing...!" Then the crowd realizes, "Hey, what the hell!? So you were King Riku all along!!!" Another voice calls him "the king of prodense," and Elizabello embraces him with emotion: "This brings back memories!! You aided my country during hard times all too often!! Glad to see you alive!!" Yet the larger political damage remains. Elizabello says that ever since Riku vanished, the balance among surrounding countries has been thrown off and there has been nothing but war: "It's gotten to be a real pain...!!"

Elizabello explains how Doflamingo's underground dealings have warped the region. "There's someone who's been drumming up the wars from behind the scenes, and doing quite well for himself as a result...!!" he says. "He keeps selling weapons to these warring nations!!" Doflamingo's underworld alias is named plainly: "Hiya haya it's the broker, 'Joker'!! That's Doflamingo's underworld alias." The problem is that no one knows where the weapons are being made and stored. Elizabello says that in the wars of fair Kano Country, Joker has provided weapons to their enemies. Sai connects the suffering of his homeland to the fallen king before him: "King Riku! Your strange actions led to Doflamingo becoming king... and thanks to that, neighboring countries are facing untold hardship!!!" He says the Happou Navy under orders from the king of Kano has come to stop the secret weapons trade.

Dagama defends the old king's reputation, shouting, "Shut your mouth! Dagama!!" and then insists, "But now, the name King Riku... in our country's past, Dressrosa was surely a great benefactor..." Elizabello agrees: "You're right, Elizabello-sama!!" The argument becomes heated when someone says that those who do not know the truth of the incident ten years ago should not speak about the character of their king. "Those who know nothing of the tragedy of that day will not speak to the character of our king!!!" Tank admits, "King Riku, I too... was a soldier in your army." Others join: "Me too." "I, as well... King Riku!!" The revelation changes the room. What first looked like a heap of defeated fighters becomes a place full of people who still remember Riku's honor.

The discarded toys suddenly begin moving. Fighters cry out, "Uwahh!! What the!!? The toys are moving!!" and "I thought they were all dead and broken!!?" The room freezes as toy soldiers, broken figures, and strange mechanical bodies bow toward Riku. Someone says, "These former soldiers of Dressrosa... Even some of the toys are bowing down..." Another asks, "What's going on here...?" and admits, "I thought this king Riku was hated by his countrymen..." The sight overturns the official history. If even the toys, the people most erased by Doflamingo's system, bow to Riku, then the hatred for the former king cannot be the whole truth. Riku stands silent in the middle of the pit while the hidden citizens of Dressrosa acknowledge him.

Outside the fighters' argument, one of the investigators notes that with a pitfall this large, the basement must hold other secrets and says, "Understood. Continue your investigation." Back below, another body drops into the hidden chamber with a heavy impact. Sai and the others shout, "Sai!!" and "Big bro!" as the fallen fighter lands among the discarded toys. Someone asks, "Ohh!? Wha-wha-what's going on now!?" The constant falling of fighters keeps exposing the scale of Doflamingo's hidden system. Every defeat in the colosseum feeds more people into the same secret place, and the underground chamber grows more crowded with witnesses to the truth.

A grinning toy tells the trapped fighters, "Behehe, right, right. It's over, so no need to worry anymore." The toy lays out the rules of their new prison: "'Cause humans no harm." "Obey all orders from the family." "You fighters are all power types." "Follow those rules and don't forget them." The instruction is blunt: "And head to the factory and the port!! Just go straight and exit through that door..." One fallen fighter panics, "What now!? Work hard, now!! I can't control my own body!! I can't disobey his orders!!" Another cries, "Has happened to me!!?" Their bodies move against their wills. The toys are not only victims but instruments in a system that turns people into obedient labor.

In the colosseum prisoner gladiator lodging, the captives cheer for Rebecca: "Go...!! Rebecca!!!" and one shouts, "Oi!! Nevermind cabbage for now, Rebecca! Show 'em how it's done!!" Luffy, disguised as Lucy, watches the cages and says, "Looking at you guys... that's not really true, huh!!" He had thought Dressrosa looked like a fun, happy country, but the imprisoned gladiators explain the divide: "What you saw was the bright and shining world of the winners." Doflamingo has split people into subservient winners and rebellious losers, just like a world government. "The losers who stray from the system are treated like garbage," one says, and if garbage stays hidden in the shadows, then the country keeps its bright image. Luffy recognizes the same rotten structure that shaped his own childhood.

Luffy says the hidden prison sounds like "the place where I grew up..." while another captive points out, "The garbage is here." The guide tells them, "Let's go treasure-hunting!" and warns, "Once you open your eyes, you'll start to be ill at ease here... and we feel that there's an even greater darkness at play... You should be careful as well..." The door clacks shut behind them. Luffy startles, "Ehh!? Hmm?" and a chained prisoner lunges or shouts from behind the bars with a long scream. The atmosphere shifts from tournament excitement to a deeper underground horror. Luffy is being shown that Dressrosa's smiling surface is maintained by the constant disposal of people who no longer fit Doflamingo's order.

At the Flower Fields, Riku Royal Fighters' Rebellion HQ, Leo begins a long account of the Tontatta tribe. "This is a tale of long ago... Our Tontatta tribe... without a country of its own, set out to sea in search of resources." They were often discovered by big humans and brought to the verge of extinction. Then the king of neighboring Dressrosa, whose name was Donquixote, suggested a pact: in exchange for "a bit of labor," he would grant them resources and safety. That arrangement continued until 900 years ago, the worst time in the Tontatta tribe's history. The page frames the present rebellion as the result of a very old wound, not simply a recent betrayal.

Leo explains that the Tontatta were truly treated like demons. Unknown to everyone, they were forced to labor deep underground while the big humans on the surface lived in luxury from the wealth the dwarves produced. Then came "the age of slavery." The texts that remain from that time describe the cruelty of the royal family. Then, in the void century, an unknown event occurred, and 800 years ago a new king of Dressrosa was born: King Riku. The course the new king chose was "atonement." He learned of the unimaginable labor the dwarves had endured for centuries underground, wept, and offered what people remember as a sincere apology. His reign began by facing a sin that was older than himself.

King Riku declared that the dwarves could take all they needed to live and would no longer have to labor. To keep the citizens from blaming or hunting them, he told the people the work was done by "fairies," and the legend of the fairies took root in Dressrosa. Under the kindly Riku clan, the country was not the richest, but it became a splendid one filled with smiles. Unnoticed, the Tontatta ancestors praised the kind-hearted Riku king and turned the land into a verdant paradise, where beautiful flowers bloomed throughout. The explanation redefines Dressrosa's beauty: it was not only the result of royal goodness, but also the hidden gratitude and labor of the Tontatta.

The peaceful bond lasted for 800 years between the Tontatta Kingdom and generation after generation of the Riku royal family. Then, after 900 years had passed, the descendant of the Donquixote line, Doflamingo, returned. Leo says that already, starting with his daughter Mansherry, 500 of their tribesmen have fallen to Doflamingo's evil ways. Doflamingo intends to repeat the truly evil history of long ago. The Tontatta answer with resolve: "We won't let history repeat itself!!!" and "That's right!! Today we fight!!!" The Donquixote homecoming has brought nothing but woe for both Dressrosa and the Tontatta, but the dwarves refuse to let the old slavery begin again.

Usopp listens to the story and reacts dramatically: "Ohhhh!! That Riku king sure was a great guy, being so kind to a bunch of little bug people." The Tontatta object at once: "Who are you calling bugs!!" and still cry, "Usso-land!!" and "Uohh, just as expected!!!" Robin notes that although the people of the country despise King Riku, the female gladiator in the colosseum was booed and called "the granddaughter of King Riku." The toy soldier explains the hidden truth: ten years ago, King Riku lost the people's trust in a single awful night. Doflamingo tried to eradicate the Riku clan, but the soldier took Rebecca, who shares Riku's royal blood, under his wing. To the bitter end, the king tried to protect the country, but the citizens do not know the truth behind it.

The toy soldier speaks of Rebecca with restrained pain. He says they ran for years, but in the end they were caught. Rebecca now endures the public's scorn in the colosseum, while Soldier-san is always brave. He says, "If it means protecting King Riku's honor and Rebecca's life... I don't care when or where I die!! I'm staking it all on this fight!!!" He remembers that he could not protect Rebecca's mother and says the child may no longer remember him after his transformation into a toy. Then he reveals the truth behind his devotion: "But I am... Rebecca's father." Rebecca, still fighting in the arena and bearing that blood and destiny, remains unaware that the toy who protected her is her own father.

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