One Piece Chapter 736: Elite Officer Diamante

The Corrida Colosseum final match begins under a roar from the crowd. The announcer declares that the four champions from each block have gathered, as well as Mr. Diamante, and that the prize waiting for the winner is the Mera Mera no Mi, a Devil Fruit of the strongest Logia class. The crowd cheers Diamante-sama while also hurling hatred at Rebecca, shouting for her to drop dead. Bartolomeo laughs that the fruit will be his, while someone identifies one entrant as Jesus Burgess of the Blackbeard Pirate crew. From the side, a suspicious observer wonders that if this man is not Lucy, then who he really is.

The result of D-block still poisons the start of the final. Spectators shout that the match must not begin and demand that Rebecca be removed from the ring, insisting D-block needs a redo and refusing to recognize the insane result of the previous battle. One angry group charges into the arena, yelling that there is no way they could have lost to a little girl like Rebecca and ordering her to face them now. Others urge them to take her down. Rebecca stays silent, watching the fury approach while Sabo stands nearby in the Lucy disguise. The colosseum is supposed to begin its final, but the crowd's hatred turns into a direct attack on her.

Before the mob can ruin the show, Diamante steps in. He says that not knowing when to give up is shameful and that results are results, then commands everyone to stop ruining his show. The charging men complain that they are not bulls and ask what he is doing, while Diamante tells them to aim well. His black cloak spreads out around him like a theatrical curtain. The attackers rush him anyway, and he answers all at once, striking them with sharp, sudden force while standing at the center of the ring. The message is simple: Diamante controls this stage, and even the crowd's anger must move according to his performance.

Diamante explains the trick behind his cloak. He is a "Flag Man" who ate the Hira Hira no Mi; anything he touches becomes floppy and fluttery. Although his mantle flaps with a light "hira hira" sound, he reveals that it is actually made of steel. The fighters hear the lock of his attack, and then Diamante unleashes "Corrida Glaive," sending his hardened, fluttering mantle crashing through the intruders. Bodies fly as the impossible cloth behaves like a weaponized sheet of metal. The power is both strange and cruelly practical: Diamante can make solid material wave like a flag, then turn that same softness into a sweeping blow.

The final match grows more dangerous as Diamante reveals the real rules. Fighting fish of a fitting caliber for the finals have been released, and the announcer warns the contestants to retreat. These fish can leap from the water, are especially sensitive to the smell of blood, and are not the same class of creatures the audience saw before. One fish launches through the arena and slams toward the fighters with terrifying speed. The tournament is no longer only a battle between five contestants. The ring itself has become a hunting ground, with boss-class fish circling and charging for the prize and the blood in the air.

The announcer explains that until now the crowd has seen a different class of fighting fish, but these creatures can even reach the fighters inside the ring. They are needless, cruel, and ill-tempered, with no regard for the rules. The fish are bosses taken from each school, and on the back of one of them rests the true prize of the tournament: the Mera Mera no Mi. The sight changes the shape of the final. It is not enough to defeat the other contestants. Whoever wants Ace's former Devil Fruit must survive the ring, the fish, and the chaos, then steal the fruit and remain the last one standing.

Diamante, formally introduced as the Donquixote Family elite officer and hero of the Corrida Colosseum, lays down the tournament's simple rule. The champion will be the one who steals the prize away and manages to be the last person standing in the ring. His announcement turns the final into a five-person battle royale, with the Mera Mera no Mi moving on the back of a fighting fish and the contestants forced to fight each other while chasing it. The crowd roars as the conditions are made plain: this is not a clean duel, but a death match complete with intruding fighting fish.

At long last, the final match begins. The camera-like focus tightens on the five participants: Jesus Burgess, Bartolomeo, Sabo under the name Lucy, Rebecca, and Diamante. The announcer calls it a rumble for the Devil Fruit, a death match complete with intruding fighting fish, and asks who the Mera Mera no Mi will go to. Then the gong sounds. In the newly prepared ring, the contestants move into the opening moments of battle while the fish churn around them. The tournament has reached the moment everyone was waiting for, but the prize is now surrounded by enough danger to make even standing still risky.

The scene cuts from the colosseum to the lower section in front of the palace ramparts. Luffy's group has reached a lower entrance, but Violet warns that this is not yet the entrance to the palace; they must not be spotted by the gate guards, and there is another secret entrance nearby. If they attract attention and officers are summoned, they will be stopped before reaching Doflamingo, especially if Pica appears. Luffy, hidden in a carp disguise, starts to yell "Gomu Gomu no," but the others panic because his disguise has drawn attention. A guard sees him and asks, "Who's this carp?" and the stealth plan immediately begins to collapse.

Luffy abandons stealth and solves the problem in the most direct way possible. As the guards ask what is wrong with the carp and whether it is a pufferfish, he shouts "Giganto... Pistol!!!" and inflates a massive fist that smashes through the front route. Violet sees that the way is clear and decides the fastest path now is through the front, even though it exposes them. Zoro asks whether they can take off, and she tells him to do as he likes because what is done is done. The group barrels forward, leaving cracked stone and stunned guards behind, while someone begins to realize what the commotion means.

A report reaches the palace: there are intruders at the front rampart entrance, and the intruder is Straw Hat Luffy. In the Hall of Suits, the announcement lands while Doflamingo, Fujitora, Law, and King Riku listen. At the same time, in the colosseum final, the fighting fish leaps and Lucy dodges it with his trademark ability, confirming to observers that the fighter in the ring moves like Lucy. Doflamingo reacts with confusion. If Straw Hat is posing as Lucy in the colosseum, then how can Straw Hat Luffy also be attacking the palace entrance? The deception around Sabo's identity begins to crack.

Doflamingo's confusion sharpens as the reports contradict each other. The palace guards identify the intruders as Straw Hat Luffy along with Pirate Hunter Zoro and Violet-sama, while another voice insists that Straw Hat is currently posing as Lucy and fighting in the colosseum. The location is Rampart B-2, in front of the Great Mess Hall, and there is no mistaking the intruders. Doflamingo hears that Luffy is both at the palace and supposedly in the tournament, then demands to know who the hell is in the colosseum right now. The split between Luffy and the new Lucy becomes impossible for him to ignore.

The lift between the commerce port and the palace is currently going up, and Lao G is riding it as an unexpected officer threat. The Toy Soldier and his allies are struck in the moving lift as Lao G reveals himself as a Donquixote Family Diamante Army officer. He complains that the captain is there and attacks with sharp old-man speed, knocking bodies aside while the lift rises. The sudden appearance of an officer inside the route upward means the rebels' path is not clear at all. Soldier-san, who had hijacked the lift to reach the palace, now has to protect the ascent against one of Diamante's own fighters.

Lao G explains, with his absurd laugh, that he was ordered to protect the entrance to the toy house. He stood guard at the entrance to the port and then got on the lift again, only to realize that riding in the lift as an officer may have been the wrong move. Even so, he refuses to let the intruders reach the palace. He flips through the battlefield, strikes, and taunts the enemies as fools while the Toy Soldier and the Tontatta struggle to stay on the route upward. The scene keeps the comedy of Lao G's timing while preserving the danger: an elite officer is blocking the rebellion's lift route.

At Rampart B-1, Luffy's group breaks through in full view. A giant stone shape erupts from the wall and the guards scream that an elite officer is attacking. Luffy asks what it is, Zoro realizes it is Pica, and Violet says they are done for as the rock monster rises in front of them. Pica's enormous stone form tears through the rampart, while the group keeps running left through the cleared path. The guards are no longer even following them, but the way is not safe: the route to Doflamingo has opened only because Pica himself has appeared, turning the palace into a moving battlefield of stone.

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