Law adapting on the fly isn’t a new thing by now but especially in this fight it’s contrasted by the fact that Kid’s general approach to battle is just to brute force everything...which is kind of necessary with Big Mom, but Law finding a way to nullify her ability and prevent her from regaining strength is extremely necessary, too.

Keep still, my fluttering heart. Keep still within your cage, lest you set us all ablaze.

WHAT A CHAPTER! I promised @purplehairedwonder to use a lot of exclamation marks, and that will be done with gusto!!

Just… go and read it, nothing I do or say here will do it enough justice.

But I’ll try my best!

Some info from the cover story: so it was Big Mom herself who defeated Niji and Yonji. Good for them, not being taken out by mere scrubs.

Very nice panel layout, with both crews framing Big Mom from each side, terrified for their sake.

But their captains aren’t afraid!

Nice captainy resolve, at first mistaken for stuttering.

R-room? Someone will probably make a proper scientific medical explanation at some point, I’ll just hug all these feelings…

…of being inspired by your parental figure and sob in this here corner, okay?

PURE BEAUTY!

Look at Law’s movement! Look at the memento of Monet in his rendering of Misery! Look at the indistinct lines of Big Mom; the pure force of the attack on her! Look at the stability and clearness of Kid!

It’s just ..art.

Tag yourself, I’m the blobhead in the bottom left corner.

But was that it for Kanjuro? We’ll see, I’m sure.

And some updates from the interior! I like Big Mom’s speech being showed in the same form Oda normally uses for thought bubbles: she is silenced, after all, so her words are as audible as thoughts to others.

No no no no no no no.

You’ll be fine, Zoro?

Komurasaki wearing the mask again. She’s also amazingly stable in a crumbling castle, with Orochi being tossed this way and that.

Interesting that Big Mom didn’t know if the One Piece is real. And that’s the big difference between the yonko and Luffy. Luffy’s belief is cast in iron: he knows it’s real and won’t stop before he finds it or dies. But Big Mom and Kaido both stopped: they were both comfortable as emperors, dreaming of a future where they might find the One Piece, but not bothering to work for it.

And thanks to Law’s silence, the capital didn’t know what almost hit them that night. They could keep on wishing for a while, about a country without Kaido and Orochi.

Do you think she’s dead? Hard to say. I don’t think the fall or the explosion would be enough on its own, but she has been fighting for a few days now, first against Kaido and then against the captains.

Here, have a whole page of celebration. Because they are worth it.