One Piece Chapter 922: Beasts Pirates Governor-General: Kaido

No description for this page.

The group at the ruins of Oden Castle stares at the sky in disbelief. Luffy asks, "What the hell is that!?" and then, as the shape becomes clear, "Kaidou is a dragon!?" Kin'emon confirms the terrible truth: "...That's right. That thing you see in front of you is Kaidou..." The revelation lands in pieces around the group: "So that's...!?" and "He's able to...!! Transform into a dragon!!!" Far below, the enormous dragon coils above Wano, blotting the sky and making the whole country feel suddenly smaller. Luffy, Law, O-Kiku, Sanji, Nami, Brook, Chopper, and the others can only watch as Kaidou's true scale and nature are forced directly in front of them.

The sight of Kaidou's dragon form strikes Momonosuke especially hard. He clutches himself and groans, "Uvvnnngh..." while Kin'emon cries, "Lord Momonosuke!" and Shinobu asks, "Huh!? Lord Momonosuke?" O-Kiku identifies the form plainly: "That's... a dragon?" Luffy notices where Kaidou is heading and says, "...Over there is... Okobore Town!!" Kin'emon says he will explain later why Kaidou can become one of those detestable dragons, but Law cuts through the shock with the immediate problem: "Why did he come to Kuri so suddenly!?" He admits the truth: "Straw Hat-ya, Zoro-ya, and myself were exposed!!" Kin'emon explodes, "What the hell did you do, Law!?" Law says, "...!! My apologies, Kin'emon." Luffy is blamed too, and Nami says, "Ah... it was definitely Luffy's fault, then."

Law explains how their secrecy collapsed. Kaidou is making weapons in Wano and had an underground partnership with Doflamingo and Caesar to produce artificial Devil Fruits known as SMILEs. The Straw Hats and Law were responsible for destroying the production factories on Punk Hazard and Dressrosa, and for sending Doflamingo, the buyer, to rot in jail. Law sums it up grimly: "Mine and Straw Hat's heads." Kaidou is after the people who picked this fight. Law warns that if they are exposed any further, the enemy will know that all of the Straw Hat crew and the Heart Pirates are here, and "there'll be a huge manhunt to take us out!!" Luffy does not hesitate. He shouts, "Don't go after him. I'll go!!!" while Law tells him to think carefully.

Law tries to hold the plan together. "We were the only ones discovered," he says, so the plan is still fine if the damage can be contained. But he also knows Luffy's temperament: "I want to just turn a blind eye to this, but... Straw Hat-ya has already bonded with the people of this country. If he is blinded by his emotions and acts recklessly, our plan will be over." If they cannot gather enough people by the day of the final battle, the alliance itself will have no point. Law decides, "...So let me go and figure this out." Behind him, the group is left with a simple command: "You guys must not be seen!!!" Sanji, watching Luffy disappear during the short separation, curses, "Dammit, Luffy!" and asks, "What the hell did he do in the few hours that we were apart...?"

Kaidou sweeps over Wano, passing from Bakura Town toward Okobore Town while the people below panic. Someone tells O-Tsuru, "You need to run away, O-Tsuru!!" while the town cries that it is going to be destroyed. The Atamayama thieves retreat into the forest because fighting Kaidou is pointless. Rumors say a strong thief has been hiding deep in the forests of Kuri: Shutenmaru. In Bakura Town, people shout, "Master Kaidou is here!!" and someone wonders if Kaidou has come personally because of Shutenmaru, even to execute him. Shutenmaru himself lies wounded after the clash with Jack, muttering under his breath as the dragon looms over the settlement.

Kaidou recognizes Shutenmaru and says, "I... remember you..." but his mind is not fixed on the past for long. He laughs through hiccups: "Fu hihihi!!! Hicc... But that's enough about the past!!" Then he offers Shutenmaru a brutal pardon: "If you become my subordinate, hicc... I'll forgive you for your crimes... hicc!!" Shutenmaru looks up at him and asks whether Kaidou is drunk. Others answer the obvious: "He's totally drunk!!" Kaidou angrily denies it, shouting, "I ain't drunk!!! Hicc~" The scene makes Kaidou more dangerous, not less: he is intoxicated, enormous, and capable of turning a political threat into a catastrophe on impulse.

Jack struggles to restrain the disaster. He calls, "Master Jack!!" and tells Kaidou, "I'm trying to stop your bleeding, so please don't move!!" He admits, "I thought it was weird that he would suddenly appear in Kuri...!!" The reason is terrifying: the residents of Okobore Town are the factory's workforce, so if Kaidou gets drunk and goes on a careless rampage, Kuri will be completely decimated. Jack tries to prepare for battle because they will not be able to escape in time, while Kaidou's massive body drops closer and closer. The threat is not a calculated attack yet; it is the possibility that Kaidou, drunk and annoyed, will destroy an entire region simply by acting carelessly.

Luffy and Law race toward the crisis. Luffy calls, "Tra-guy!!" and Law snaps back, "Straw Hat-ya!! Do you think those guys in Okobore Town will be all right?" Luffy says, "You fool...!! Think about the current situation. It's because you wanted to do something good!" but his urgency is personal as well: O-Tsuru is in danger. He shouts, "You must head back. I will go save Tsuru!!!" and apologizes to Kin'emon, admitting he cannot believe Tsuru did not marry someone else to protect herself even after twenty years. Kaidou glances downward, and Hawkins steps in with a calculation: "General Kaidou!!! If you are looking for Straw Hat Luffy and Trafalgar Law... they're at the ruins of Oden Castle!!" Someone identifies Hawkins as a Headliner.

Hawkins deliberately redirects Kaidou's rampage. He announces, "They're at the ruins of Oden Castle!!" Kaidou asks if that is true, and Hawkins answers that he lied so Kaidou would stop his rampage. But he also knows how useful the lie is: rumors have recently spread about a suspicious light seen from the top of the mountain, and if that rumor is feeding Orochi's fears, then the destruction of those ruins "will allow us to kill two birds with one stone." Kaidou turns from Okobore Town toward the ruins. The page shows Hawkins choosing damage control over truth: saving the town from immediate destruction by pointing Kaidou toward the alliance's hiding place.

Kaidou reaches the view of Oden Castle's ruins and snarls, "Did you say they're at Oden Castle...!? Hicc~" He recognizes the place as the spot where the ones who took away his SMILEs have fled and calls it nostalgic, "a good place to hide." Seeing the wanted posters for "Pirates Law and Straw Hat," he calls Law and Luffy "rookies!!!" and "those detestable...!!" He refuses to let them escape. The memory of the ruined castle stirs Shutenmaru as well, who murmurs, "At the ruins of Oden Castle...?" Kaidou's attention has shifted completely, and his anger is now focused on the same mountain where the alliance and Kozuki survivors were hiding only moments earlier.

The group at the ruins sees Kaidou turning toward them. Someone says, "Huh?" and then panic breaks out. Chopper asks, "Did he notice us!?" while another voice says, "There's no way he'd notice from that distance...!!" The answer comes immediately: "Is he coming this way!?" and then, "No way!!" Koma-chiyo barks in alarm as someone yells, "Run for it!!" Kaidou's dragon head lowers toward the ruins, and the gathered allies realize there is no time to argue. In the final panel, his attack is named: "Heat Breath!" The page holds the moment just before disaster, with the dragon's mouth opening and every ally still within the target zone.

Kaidou's Heat Breath strikes the ruins of Oden Castle. The blast tears across the mountain in a single second, exploding the place where the alliance had just been gathered. Shutenmaru, watching from below, recognizes the target and mutters, "Oden Castle...!! That bastard..." Others are stunned by the speed and scale of the destruction: "In a single second..." and "It wasn't even close to enough to get him sober..." Kaidou's attack is careless, drunken, and devastating all at once. The ruined castle, already a symbol of twenty years of loss, is blown apart again before the eyes of everyone who still carries Oden's will.

Luffy sees the explosion and snaps. With blood and rage on his face, he launches himself at Kaidou before Law can stop him. Law calls, "Straw Hat-ya!?" and others look up in shock as Luffy closes the distance. Luffy begins, "Gomu Gomu no...!!" and drives a gigantic haki-hardened fist into Kaidou's dragon head: "Elephant...!! Gun!!!" The blow lands in the middle of Kaidou's face, interrupting the dragon's rampage with pure fury. The attack is not tactical. It is Luffy's immediate answer to the destruction of the place where his friends and allies may have been standing.

No description for this page.