Chapter 561

Chapter 561 is titled "Luffy vs. Mihawk".

Cover Page
Straw Hats and Animals: Luffy helps a monkey with a broken arm out by picking bananas for it.

Short Summary
Luffy tries to run past Mihawk, but is halted and forced back by the mighty swordsman, who cuts the gigantic frozen wave created by Aokiji in half. Meanwhile, Crocodile turns down Doflamingo's offer, and sends Buggy flying towards Luffy with a sandstorm. Luffy, however, uses Buggy as a human shield. Buggy manages to dodge, but his bomb is deflected by Mihawk, giving Luffy an opportunity to escape. Mihawk pursues him, but is stopped by Vista. With the battle entering its final phase, Sengoku orders the cancellation of the Den Den Mushi signals, and Sentomaru appears with an army of Pacifista.

Long Summary
Although Mihawk stands before him, Luffy knows he has no time to fight Mihawk, and bursts past him with his super-human speed. However, Mihawk, peering through the crowd, manages to pinpoint Luffy, and swings his blade forward, launching a spiral stream that slashes Luffy, but ignores all others between the two. After sending Luffy careening into a wall, Mihawk pursues him, attempting to impale him. However, two Newkama soldiers get in the way of Mihawk, who brushes them aside with little effort. Luffy attempts to attack Mihawk again, but realizing that the Shichibukai would slice his arm off, halts his attack at the last moment, instead choosing to run away. Mihawk comments that Luffy was unusually composed as he slices horizontally at the rubber man. Although Luffy dodges it, the attack slices the remaining frozen wave in two, causing the upper half to come crashing down on Marineford.

Across the battlefield, Crocodile turns down Doflamingo's offer, saying that Doflamingo is not at his level, and that instead Doflamingo could be his underling. Doflamingo laughs at how he thought Crocodile would be rational, the latter stating that if he was, he would not have come to Marineford in the first place. He then performs Sables, attempting to blow Doflamingo away. The attack is not confined to Doflamingo, though, as Buggy is accidentally sucked into the vortex as well.



As Luffy and Mihawk continue their battle, the latter notes on how Luffy is moving away from the execution platform. In a move of desperation, Luffy grabs onto Buggy and uses him as a shield against Mihawk's attack. Although Buggy is angry at Luffy, Luffy continues to use him as a shield. Getting fed up, Buggy launches a Special Muggy Ball at Mihawk, who casually deflects it with his blade, causing it to explode in Buggy's face. Luffy, having finally gotten a break, dashes back towards the platform. Seeing that Mihawk was going to attack Luffy again, Marco calls over Whitebeard's fifth division commander, Vista, to interfere and hold Mihawk back. When Mihawk recognizes him, Vista is happy to hear that Mihawk had heard of him; Mihawk replies by saying that only a fool would not have heard of him. As Luffy continues to make his way towards the platform, Mihawk comments on how he has the strange ability to make anyone around him an ally, an ability that is the most dangerous in the world.

The battle continues to rage on, as the onlookers at Sabaody Archipelago watch on in horror. As the civilians begin to realize that Ace is to be executed early, Sengoku demands that the feed be cut off, so that the civilians would not lose faith in the Marines, as such a tragedy would be too much for them to witness. Sengoku justifies his actions by saying that all they needed to say to the world after the battle was over would be one word: "Victory".

Suddenly, more battleships begin to appear from behind. As the pirates note that they are not allies, Whitebeard, Luffy, and Ivankov recognize those on board: Sentomaru has arrived at the battle, backed up by an army of at least nine Pacifista. The battle has gone on for an hour and a half, and it is about to enter its final phase.

Chapter Notes

 * Luffy displays an ability to predict an opponent's move as he foresaw what would have happened to his arms if he had attacked Mihawk.
 * Vista, Whitebeard's Fifth Division Commander, is introduced.
 * Sentomaru and an army of Pacifista arrive at the battle.

Characters
1: first introduction

2: first apparition

Anime Episode

 * Episode 470 (p.2-17)

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