#chapter 1030

Like, y’know, you ask your man to die for you

And he does back Kid up and how. I mean, it works for both of them. Then Kid demands that Law uses his powers to get him out of the falling girders and metal stuff he’s attracted to Big Mom and which collapse on top of her.

And Law does.

And Law asks a pretty pertinent question, especially considering they’re meant to be using their powers in tandem

The official release is a little softer, and I know it’s official, but they leave out a lot of nuance at time. Anyway:

And maybe it’s better in the official release, but Kid’s still basically: you share your powers, and let me know about them ‘n all, and I’ll keep my info to myself, thanks. Ugh. I mean, I know they’re both pirates, and Law isn’t any nicer a lot of the time, but sometimes I don’t get this ship (even though I generally like it).

I think Law’s face above is surprise at Big Mom stirring rather than at Kid’s words, and I love the way he ends up sitting once he gets his breath back (kind of. He’s still panting). He has the best yoga poses. Anyway. So. The Robin side of the story.

Let's just go ahead and talk about Law and Kidd now,

(part one is on my blog, and I just talked mostly about Kinemon and Kanjuro)

We start off with Kidd getting hit by Big Mom's Ikoku Sovereignty and not to be completely biased her, this just showcased to me how absolutely strong Zoro was on the roof when he took both Big Mom's and Kaido's Sovereignty and held it off for a few moments.

Now enough of that... Kidd getting hit by the Sovereignty sends us back to a flashback (as it often does) where Kidd and Law (probably moments before this) discuss their devil fruit awakenings. Very... casually.

Kidd asks Law if he can "awaken his abilities" and apparently, yeah, he can.

I knew that Kidd and Law had to get some sort of power-up since Luffy got Conquerors coating, and since they definitely can't get I was wondering what they would get... I wasn't expecting this to be honest. I knew it would come up somehow, ever since Doflamingo showed us his awakening, but I'm not sure I like the way it was revealed.

It seemed to casual? As a flashback, and a normal conversation too. Just a simple "can you do this" and "yeah sure, it's a lil hard tho." I wouldn't call it an ass-pull because it's definitely something they need at this stage of the show, and I think I understand Kidd having it more than Law. Kidd we haven't actually seen too much, certainly not as desperate as this (you could argue up on the roof versus Kaido and Big Mom but that was at the beginning of battle, and so to pull out a "last minute act" wouldn't make sense). Of course I won't argue with this, because we've seen the strawhats pull out moves from out of nowhere midbattle, I just hoped the reveal wouldn't have been this anticlimactic. (and I mean them revealing that they can use it)

The powers on the other hand...

I absolutely loved Law's power, where he could stab Big Mom and then affect her insides with the incision of the blade. Kroom was the name of the move, and I can't wait to see that animated.

Kidd on the other hand...

I really liked the idea of him making big mom some sort of magnet and drawing all the steel boards, and other iron in the area to her and creating this big crash (because now we see that he can affect other people's bodies too, rather than drawing everything to himself, which is actually really cool and new) BUT it just wasn't a very interesting (for lack of better words) finishing blow (for this chapter, I definitely don't think BM is over yet, it would be too easy). Because in the end it's just "let me crush her with a lot of metal again" so I wasn't too impressed by that, personally...

Oh, wow. Law drew blood from her. That’s actually really impressive.

Drake and Apoo not out of the game is fun

And, genius, Oda. I did not think of this. Kinemon’s detached lower half

lets us know that this dude is still alive too:

As does Apoo also being alive, but more importantly:

O-Kiku, my beloved. BUT what I really like are our two sexy geriatric dudes (though mere whippersnappers on the OP timeline) here:

Marco, looking fine there, man. And Izou’s doing alright (blasting away). Guess Marco got his strength back a few chapters ago. And well, if Kawamatsu’s your thing.

Of course Kanjuro (his character is fascinating. Like the emptiest of vessels is the evilest of conductors?) decides to just send everything to a burning hell in a hand basket (at Orochi’s behest).

BUT

I really love Marco above (oh, and Yamato runs through the castle like a pretty fox wolf), but come on KidLaw Nation!

Now, y’all know that I’m MarcoLaw, first and foremost, and I’m also strongly ZoLaw, but right now Oda is playing into KidLaw lando, and I’m not adverse to it.

Also, it was Law’s sloppy workmanship that saved Kin’emon. Ah, so our perfectionist head canons (one I don’t really share, but I can see where it comes from), aren’t always backed up by the official release (surprise). Guess he might have been a bit tired after the events of Punk Hazard. (Edit in: it has been pointed out that Kin is either shifting the blame here from himself or the Strawhats :-))

And let’s not forget these scary dudes on the move:

Although Brook and Robin have their own brand of fear too. Wonder why the colour of the arrow changes to grey. Anyway. That’s my arrow over CP0′s heads. Not part of the scans.

BUT BUT BUT Marco is absolutely fine. And Killer copped a beating last chapter only for this to happen:

BUT never fear, because Law and Kid 

Okay, so things might change with translation, but I have a one piece crack fic where Law, Luffy, Robin and Marco are the deluxe vehicles of a devil-fruit driver public transport company. Law’s special ride is called the Roomy room de la (v)room (v)room.

Now, I’m only reading on scans, so it might change, and there also might be kana significance to Law’s new attack, which is called Kroom!

It is probably kana for Chrome in Dutch and maybe relates to chromium complexes that are found in some analgesics. Law’s Mes (blade/knife/scalpel) technique is Dutch too and the Dutch influenced modern medicine and language in Japan a fair bit. I could be wrong, but am running with it for now.

However, my google searches also brought up two anaesthetists, one called Kroom (Scottish) and one called Froom, and funnily enough, Froom was one of two doctors who suggested a “Novel local anaesthetic analgesic technique for tongue-tie”.  A surgery that is most often performed on infants and toddlers, fitting for Big Mom, especially in the way Law pierced her and the attack affected her (speech patterns).

Anyway, my point is, aside from all that, Law’s next attack could be called Broom! It’s where Kikoku turns into a broomstick and Law flies away on her. 

We know that the attack called MUSHroom! already gave him his hat. 

Of course when he and Kid get married (no, I don’t write that type of fic, but just run with it), they’ll both be under the effect of the Groom! manoeuvre. 

I’m sure it works better in the Japanese. I’ll edit the story link in once this is posted. (done).

Just editing in: @txorao had the following to say

that ‘small room’, operating internally, I guess, and manipulating things that way is a way to explain the attack name, if ‘k’ means small. Just using deepl I’m getting kleiner Raum for small room. And I’m not saying deepl is the expert!

Latest chapters have again reinforced for me that Law’s kinda fond of his life, although he’s not afraid to give it up for his cause, like ‘em all.

Kinda reminds me of his refusal to Doflamingo here, although the situation was different:

I know that Dressrosa was cathartic, but I’ll still bet that he preferred to live over dying before he set foot on its soil.