Chapter 987 is titled "The Brocade of Loyal Retainers".
Cover Page
Color Spread: The Straw Hat Pirates with pugs.
On the bottom left, the text reads "We're gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist".
Short Summary
The Nine Red Scabbards manage to pierce their weapons through Kaido's skin with their Ryuo, and all-out war breaks out in the Skull Dome as the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance's forces mobilize. While Luffy confronts Big Mom, Kaido emerges from the attack with minor wounds and flies to the roof of the dome in his dragon form. The Scabbards follow him up, and face off with him under the light of the full moon. The Mink Tribe forces then join the Scabbards, and they along with Inuarashi and Nekomamushi begin activating their Sulong forms.
Long Summary
As Kaido is forced off of the Performance Stage by the Nine Red Scabbards, he remembers Kozuki Oden giving him his lone scar 20 years ago, and then recalls Oden's execution where the samurai enabled his retainers to escape and warned Kaido not to underestimate Wano's samurai. Kin'emon manages to plunge his sword into Kaido's body, and the other Scabbards are able to quickly follow suit. The scar Kaido got from Oden begins throbbing, and the Emperor begins screaming in pain as he realizes the Scabbards are using Oden's Ryuo.
After a long fall, the Scabbards and Kaido crash into the ground, leaving a large crater. The Beasts Pirates nearby quickly rush to attack, but Hyogoro's forces stand in their way as they cast aside their pirate disguises. As Big Mom looks on at the incident, Yamato goes with Luffy to the scene to help finish Kaido off. However, Ulti finds Yamato again and attacks her with a spiked club, which Yamato parries with her kanabo. Ulti says she will have revenge for Yamato's attack against her and wonders why Yamato would do something like that; Yamato replies that this is the day where she will fully become Kozuki Oden, which only confuses Ulti. The Beasts Pirates then call out to Yamato to inform her of the attack on Kaido, but Yamato bluntly states that she is not on their side anymore and she intends to let her father die.
Big Mom then comes running toward Luffy, and when she does, Nami and Carrot quickly take the opportunity to respectively use the Clima-Tact and Electro to free themselves from the homies restraining them. Luffy is not pleased to see Big Mom due to being busy, and she states that she came here just to kill him. Meanwhile, Kaido emerges from the floor with several stab wounds, but is not much worse for wear. He notes that Orochi's paranoid ideas ended up being reality, with the Scabbards having been able to operate under the shadow of the Straw Hat Pirates. He says that pirates will betray them, though, and that the forces that the samurai have worked to gather will abandon them once it is clear they will lose, with Luffy already having lost to him once. However, Kin'emon denounces Kaido's words as slander, saying that Luffy will one day stand at the pinnacle of the seas and no matter what happens, he will remain and achieve the promise of daybreak coming back to Wano.
Back on the Performance Floor, Big Mom asks Luffy why he came here, being incredulous that he seriously intends to take on Kaido. To his allies' surprise, Luffy denies it, but then instead says that he came to defeat all of his enemies here in an all-out war. Big Mom and Queen quickly laugh at this, but Queen is then alerted to thousands of samurai invading through the rear entrance. These forces include the Rasetsu Town prisoners, Udon prisoners, the Heart Pirates, and even Marco and Perospero approaching the entrance. Queen orders all of the Beasts Pirates to grab their weapons, proclaiming that the party is over. Kaido then shouts out from behind the stage, saying he accepts Luffy's challenge. He proceeds to fly to the roof of the Skull Dome in his dragon form, and as the Scabbards hold onto his body to follow him up, Luffy tells Kin'emon he will catch up with them later. Kaido faces off with the Scabbards on the Dome Roof, saying he has sobered up and that a battle in open space is best, just like their last one, although now Oden is dead. However, Nekomamushi replies that there is another difference between that day and now, as since they anticipated Kaido intending to fight outdoors, they have brought the forces of the Mink Tribe with them. Nekomamushi then gazes at the full moon, beginning to activate Sulong.
Quick References
Chapter Notes
- The chapter's title is possibly a reference to Chūshingura (忠臣蔵, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers?), a fictionalized account of an event in which forty-seven rōnin avenged their master's death. The chapter title replaces "treasury" (蔵?) with "brocade" (錦?), the same kanji symbol used in Kin'emon's (錦えもん?) name.
- The Scabbards manage to wound Kaido.
- Hyogoro and the disguised samurai start fighting the Beasts Pirates.
- Yamato engages Ulti in combat.
- Yamato also declares herself to now be an enemy of the Beasts Pirates.
- Nami and Carrot free themselves from Big Mom's Homies.
- Big Mom confronts Luffy again.
- Marco and Perospero arrive at Onigashima together.
- After he is informed of the situation regarding the strength of the enemy forces, Queen gives the orders for the Beasts Pirates to mobilize in full force.
- Kaido transforms into his dragon form and flies away with the Scabbards, taking his fight with them outside his castle at the summit of the Skull Dome.
- The Mink Tribe joins the Scabbards, and Nekomamushi sees a full moon.
Characters
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