One Piece Vol 29
The fighting is still tedious, but the threads are drawing together on the backstory of Shandora, making this volume more interesting overall.
Volume 29
265
Nami is trying out the newly repaired waver, which she loves.
She comments on how fast it is, and Pagaya agrees, saying that it is powered by a jet dial, a type of dial thought to have been extinct for hundreds of years.
Pagaya and Conis had planned to guide all the Strawhats back to the outskirts of Skypiea where they are hiding out, but since the crew has been split up, they have no choice but to go on ahead to the planned meeting-place.
Nami hopes the others are all right. The four of them combined ought to be more than a match for any enemy, but…
Aisa says there are no groups of four on the island. She can't sense any combination higher than two.
Nami recognizes that Aisa has the same mantra that Enel and the shinkan can use. Aisa says she was born with it.
Conis says they ran into Aisa when her waver had broken down and she was about to be attacked by a sky-fish. Nami asks what on earth she was trying to accomplish, but Aisa says she just couldn't sit still and do nothing, not when Laki and the others were in trouble.
Luffy is still stumbling around in a weird dark cave. He wants to hurry up and rejoin the others and find the city of gold. Stew made with gold is extra-delicious -- he learned that in the bar when he was a kid. (What WERE Shanks' crew telling that poor child.)
In the forest, Zoro is sick of the giant south bird following him around. (It's hoping he might have more food to share.)
The narration reminds us that two hours into the battle, 25 remain in the fight. One hour until Enel's prediction that 5 will remain standing at the end of three hours is put to the test.
A Shandian challenges Enel, and is easily defeated. The count is down to 24.
Elsewhere, Robin finally manages to draw Yama far enough away from the ruins that she feels free to fight with no holds barred.
"Too late. Even if you repent, I won't forgive you now!"
(I would not want Robin that coldly furious with me. EVER.)
Telling him it's time he grasped the weight of the history he destroyed, she takes him down swiftly and without mercy.
She tells him that the ruins he smashed were a priceless treasure. "History always repeats itself, but people can never return to the past. But I suppose you wouldn't understand that."
(Oh, Robin. ;_;)
Using her power, she tosses Yama off a mountain and breaks his back for good measure. Then she dusts off her hands and walks away.
"How awful." (ひどい事するわ - the same thing she said about the other heavenly warrior she defeated.)
(Damn, I love Robin, but she is freaking scary.)
266
Robin finds her way to the ruins of Shandora at the base of the giant beanstalk. She says that this should be the center of Shandora, but it looks completely different from the old map.
After some exploration, she comes to the conclusion that something is definitely not right.
The perspective pulls back far enough for us to see, for the first time, that there are ruins in the clouds half-way up the giant beanstalk.
Meanwhile, Chopper finally climbs high enough on the beanstalk to reach the next cloud level, and discovers the ruins above.
He is terrified to discover yet another shinkan, Ohm, and his "pet dog."
Ohm comments that Chopper is the third one today to reach his level. That Gedatsu, so careless (ukkari). Not that he really minds that Chopper defeated him; the way he sees it, Chopper did the world a favor.
Chopper stumbles over the fallen body of a Shandian. Ohm says he was the one who cut him down.
Ohm "reflects" on the folly of the human struggle for happiness. He has concluded that the only way to save the poor, suffering creatures is to kill them all and put them out of their misery.
He offers to "save" Chopper.
In the forest below, Laki finds the badly wounded Kamakiri.
(He took one million volts, and he's still ALIVE? What does it take to kill someone in the One Piece world? On second thought, don't answer that.)
Kamakiri begs her to find Wiper and stop him from throwing his life away in vain. Enel is invincible.
Laki leaves Aisa's bag of vearth with Kamakiri and goes after Wiper. (Presumably, like the hat Luffy left with Nami on Drum Island, a symbolic promise to return.)
As Laki races after Kamakiri, she reflects on the terror of Enel's "goro-goro no mi" powers (goro-goro: the sound of thunder). His ability falls under the most powerful of all devil fruit types, the logia type (kanji: 自然系, shizen-kei, "natural-type").
(FINALLY. Now we officially know the names and classes of all three types of devil fruits: Zoan, Paramecia and Logia. It appears that "logia" is loosely drawn from the Greek "logos," word, reason, or story -- here, perhaps element or essence. Logia-type devil fruit users are those who have the ability to transform their entire body into an essential element, and to dissolve and re-form their shape at will, so that attacks simply pass through their bodies, leaving them unharmed. Smoker, Ace and Crocodile are all logia users.)
Elsewhere in the forest, Zoro has managed to make his way back to the place where he started. ("Maybe it just looks similar?" Oh, Zoro.)
Having had enough, the south bird spies Zoro's bag and tries to fly off with it, thinking that it might contain more food. Zoro, clinging to his bag, is carried through the air. (I love the south bird's thought bubbles. Bentou!)
In the cave, Luffy is getting totally fed up with not being able to find his way out. He punches the wall in an attempt to break through, and is startled when the move seems to touch off an earthquake.
Chopper is desperately, but vainly, trying to escape Ohm's attack.
Ohm tells Chopper that he is facing the Iron Trial. Chance of survival: 0%.
267
(This is the first of a series of chapters with musical names -- here, "March.")
Nami is attempting to physically restrain Aisa from rushing off to save her friends.
Their interaction is SO adorable, maybe because at heart they're so alike.
"You're just a kid."
"I'm a warrior!"
"Yeah, yeah. Warrior kid."
"!!!!"
"Glare all you want, you don't scare me."
The crew aboard the Merry appear not to have noticed the GIANT SNAKE, until it starts butting its head against the ship.
(That snake totally just wants to play. Just look at its face!)
Inside the cave, Luffy is getting more and more peevish. He kicks the wall.
The snake writhes in pain.
As the snake thrashes about, Nami jumps on her waver and flees toward the forest. Aisa is clinging to her waist.
Pagaya and Conis are left behind on the Merry, where Sanji and Usopp are still lying unconscious.
A Shandian and a heavenly warrior are fighting in the forest when the snake comes crashing through, hot on Nami's tail. One of them recognizes the snake as "the lord of the sky" (空の主, sora no nushi).
(Interesting title. The sea monster that lived off the coast of Luffy's island was known as the "lord of the coast," using that same title, nushi.)
Nami and Aisa belatedly realize that they're lost in the forest.
Above, the south bird is flying by when the giant snake attacks.
Thinking that the snake might take Zoro as bait, the bird promptly drops him. (The south bird's thought-balloon logic KILLS me.)
Meanwhile, Wiper is racing up the beanstalk toward his goal, Enel's shrine.
(It's clearer in this picture that there is another level of clouds beyond the mid-level where the raised ruins are, into which the beanstalk disappears high above.)
At the mid-level ruins, three warriors meet: Wiper, Ohm (and his dog), and Gan Fall.
Gan Fall tells Wiper there's no point in continuing to ascend. He's just been to Enel's shrine, and found it burned and in ruins, his servants lying dead, with no sign of Enel himself. Enel presumably burnt the place himself, knowing it was no longer needed as a base.
Zoro, dropped by the south bird, crashes into the middle of the confrontation.
The giant snake (with Luffy inside it!) hurtles up the beanstalk, and joins the fray.
The five-way battle is on.
268
The battle between Ohm, Gan Fall, Zoro, Wiper and the snake begins.
Ohm proudly announces that he is called the "Sky Breeder," because he is no ordinary animal trainer - he has trained Holly to walk on two legs and use boxing techniques.
Gan Fall keeps demanding to know what Enel and his agents are planning, but Ohm tells him he wouldn't understand the "lofty mind of god."
At the base of the beanstalk, Robin is digging through the ruins. (Hee, those creepy hands come in useful when you're doing excavation work.)
She has concluded that a portion of the ruins must have sunk deeper into the island-cloud, and is digging down to find it.
In the midst of the battle, Zoro spots Chopper's bloody body. When he runs toward him, he hits something like barbed wire. Ohm calls it his "iron-cloud." It is part of the Iron Trial.
The material has the weight of cloud, but the hardness of iron, and is generated by Milky Dials. The whole area is booby-trapped with them; they spring out if you step in the wrong place.
Seeing Chopper's injuries, Zoro is enraged.
In the ruins, Robin discovers something amazing.
Nami is headed toward the giant beanstalk, with the heavenly warriors right on her tail. She is baffled by the "goats," until Aisa tells her that they are heavenly warriors.
Robin is gazing in wonder at the ruins of the city of gold, Shandora.
(I love the perspective here, with Robin a mere speck against the grand scope of the ruins.)
269
Left alone on the Merry with Sanji and Usopp's unconscious bodies, Pagaya and Conis have successfully navigated the ship to the planned reunion point.
They are nervous but determined to guard the ship until the others return. (Pagaya blows the horn on his waver continually to cheer them up.)
Conis is doing her best to nurse the injured men.
Aw, Pagaya hoping that the others are all OK. "I'm sorry Sky Island is like this" [こんな空島ですいません] - both funny, because of his speech quirk, and poignant, because he's genuinely ashamed.
Montage of those who have fallen in the battle so far, as the survivors race toward the beanstalk and the upper level.
Enel just sits by and laughs, telling them to go ahead and destroy each other on the upper level. God's predictions are infallible.
In the battle raging above, Gan Fall pleads with Wiper to stop, but Wiper just taunts him, saying he and Enel are the same.
(He mocks Gan Fall's use of "wagahai," evidently not considering him worthy of that respectful/aristocratic title.)
LOL Pierre's face as he narrowly dodges the mouth of the rampaging snake.
Poor Luffy is being tossed this way and that inside the snake (he still thinks it's a cave).
As Zoro is facing off with Ohm and his dog, the surviving Shandians and heavenly warriors arrive to join the battle.
Luffy tries to dig his way out of the "cave" with a rock, which only makes the snake laugh (apparently it's ticklish).
Nami and Aisa show up (to the equal horror of Zoro and Wiper).
Gan Fall, riding on Pierre, swoops in to pick up the waver with Nami and Aisa -- which works great until the snake swallows all four of them.
(LOL, Zoro and Wiper's faces.)
Momentarily distracted, both Zoro and Wiper are beaten unconscious by Ohm and his dog.
270
Ohm counts 10 people and 2 "critters" （2匹) still standing. He encloses them all in a sort of barbed-wire cage.
Zoro and Wiper are back on their feet.
From outside the cage, Laki approaches, pleading with Wiper not to throw his life away by attacking Enel.
Enel shows up right behind her.
(Aw, I like how frantic Wiper gets when he's yelling at Aisa or warning Laki to leave -- for all his rough ways, he's extremely protective of his own.)
When Laki tries to attack Enel, Enel takes her out with his million-volt attack.
(Did she sacrifice herself on purpose in order to illustrate to Wiper that Enel couldn't be killed?)
Enel mocks Wiper ("Do try not to die, if you can") and disappears.
Wiper and Zoro turn their attention to the snake, but Ohm orders his dog to attack.
(LOL, when he's telling the dog to hit them, his command is "o-te" (お手) - literally "hand," the traditional way of telling a dog to "shake".)
The count is down to 6 people, two critters.
Inside the snake's stomach, Gan Fall, Pierre, Nami and Aisa try to regroup and figure out where they are. They still have the waver.
Aisa belatedly figures out who Gan Fall is. ("Kami! I will eliminate you!" Nami: "Will you please stop that?")
Gan Fall wonders whether they could "punch through" the stomach, but when Nami tells him that's suicidal because it will just make the snake thrash around, he says he was only joking.
"Well, duh! I'd like to see the idiot stupid enough to try that!"
Luffy shows up. (LOL)
"Hey, what are you guys doing in this mystery cave?"
271
Cover: random picture of Vivi yay! (Aw, and the camel too.)
With great difficulty, Nami explains to Luffy that they've all been swallowed by a snake.
(LOL Gan Fall and Aisa's reactions. Gan Fall: "You're the CAPTAIN? What is this world coming to.")
Nami reacts negatively to Luffy's suggestion that they just look for the business end of the snake so they can get pooped out.
Nami: "I'd rather be DISSOLVED!"
Gan Fall: "My, blue sea women are ferocious."
Aisa: "Nami's scary."
Nami and the others realize, to their utter horror, that Luffy was the one making the snake go crazy all along by rampaging around inside it. (Gan Fall's eyes!)
The snake starts thrashing around again, this time because Wiper is attacking from the outside.
Zoro is still fighting Ohm. No matter how often he dodges, Ohm can always sense his position.
Ohm's "iron sword" has the ability to assume many forms (a whip, a wall, a fork, etc) because it is made of iron-cloud. (He typically prefaces the names of his attacks with "eisen", German for "iron".)
I almost didn't catch Zoro tossing aside his goggles to don the black bandana.
Ohm (like many people) wrongly assumes that Zoro is the leader of the Strawhats (要 = key figure, linchpin).
Zoro is finally able to defeat Ohm by upgrading his 36-pound cannon to a 108-pound cannon.
272
New cover arc, YAY! (Gee, I wonder who could have pulled a dine n' dash?)
In the ruins, Robin is shocked to discover what appears to be an informal inscription written in Poneglyphs. She had thought that no one knew how to use Poneglyphs apart from the ancient civilization that created them.
"With the true intention (locked) in the heart, shut your mouth. We are the people who weave history, together with the echo of the great bell tower." (真意を心に 口を閉ざせ 我らは歴史を 紡ぐ者 大鐘楼の 響きと共に.)
She recalls that Norland's diary spoke of a giant golden bell in the city of gold.
Robin reflects further: all the books in the city (what city?) were burned, and its history eradicated. (町の書物の類は全て燃やされていた、都市の歴史は絶やされていた.)
But now it appears that that the Poneglyphs were transported to this city. There is no doubt -- this city did battle with the "hostile will" (敵意, in quotes - incidentally, "true intention" above is 真意, literally "true will").
Shandora fought to preserve the Poneglyphs, and was destroyed.
Robin speculates that the Poneglyphs might be with the great bell tower, but there is no sign of the bell tower in the place where it ought to be, in the midst of the four altars. (The beanstalk happens to be located in that very spot.)
She notices what looks like fresh cart-tracks -- something was hauled away, and recently.
Enel shows up, smugly boasting that he was able to find what all the previous fools overlooked.
He's impressed -- it took them months of searching to find what she was able to locate so quickly with her archaeological training and knowledge of the language.
He says she's a few years too late to find the gold she's looking for. (Robin had apparently forgotten about the gold; she only now notices that there is no gold to be seen, and realizes that Enel took it.)
She asks if he also has the golden bell, but Enel appears puzzled, and Robin realizes he has no idea what she's talking about.
Robin wonders if the bell and its bell-tower never came to the sky, but Enel says it must have - he connects it with the legend of the "singing voice" that rang out over the island when it arrived in the sky.
Enel is delighted by the idea -- as soon as the game is over, in eight minutes, he'll search for the bell.
(Robin carefully does not mention the Poneglyphs she's hoping to find along with the bell-tower.)
But first, he has to deal with some useless garbage along the coast.
On the Merry, Su is having a fit (neither Pagaya nor Conis can figure out what's wrong).
A badly injured man crawls up to the ship (he turns out to be one of the heavenly warriors that Enel enslaved, one of those who formerly served Gan Fall).
He begs them to warn Angel Island - Enel's plan is to return the whole of Skypiea to the Blue-Sea world. Their entire civilization will be destroyed, and all the people living in the sky (I assume he means the White-White Sea?) will die.
Enel himself intends to escape in an ark dubbed the "Maxim."
Hearing a rumble, Pagaya shoves Conis off the cliff and into the water just before a pillar of light strikes him and the heavenly warrior.
Zoro is still fighting in the cage.
When the dog attacks, he frantically screams "WAIT!" and is startled when the dog does exactly that. (Apparently it will obey anyone's commands. It's a very obedient dog, Ohm said so himself!)
Zoro: "Hit yourself in the head and knock yourself unconscious." (He does.)
They are all startled when a bolt of lightning passes through the beanstalk.
Down below, Robin is shocked to recognize Enel as a logia devil fruit user.
The upper ruins begin to crumble, bringing everyone down to Enel's level. Zoro grabs Chopper. Wiper and the snake scramble to find a way down.
At the shoreline, Conis (fighting back tears) leaves Usopp and Sanji in Su's care while she runs to warn the other inhabitants of Skypiea.
273
Cover arc: ACE! (I'm looking forward to this. I never read these volumes before, so this cover arc is new to me.)
Inside the snake, Nami is trying to make plans to escape on the waver, but when she fires the engine, Luffy and Aisa get knocked backwards. Gan Fall calls to Pierre to go back and save them. He and Nami are free-falling from the snake's mouth.
Down below, Robin marvels at the ruins that are falling from the sky. She's mildly surprised when Zoro crawls out from under a mass of rock. ("Oh, Swordsman-san, did you fall too?")
Nami and Gan Fall land safely on the clouds below.
Gan Fall tells Nami to trust Pierre. "He's a bird you can count on when the chips are down… or, er, a horse…" (やる時はやる、鳥であったり、馬であったり…)
All of them (including Wiper) are stunned to find themselves standing in the midst of the ruins of the lost city of Shandora.
Even the snake seems happy and excited. He's looking around as if searching for something. Then he starts crying, and wailing. (Aw, *spoiler*! ;__;)
Enel, puzzled and irritated, knocks the "lord of the sky" out with his lightning bolt.
Wiper and Zoro are horrified, thinking that Nami and Aisa are still in the snake, but Nami startles Zoro by turning up alive and well.
(Robin: "Oh, navigator-san, what are you doing here?" Robin's calm reactions are like a non-stop comedy routine.)
Nami says she's fine, but Luffy is still in there. (LOL Nami and Zoro yelling at each other for no reason. "What's HE doing in there?" "How should I know? He is, that's all!")
Wiper spots Enel, and attacks him in a rage (Enel dodges easily).
Enel says it's time for the finale. With three minutes to go until the three-hour deadline he specified, there are five remaining… no, six.
(The six: Enel himself, Zoro, Wiper, Gan Fall, Robin and Nami. Nami [who is hugging Chopper's unconscious body] was hoping he hadn't noticed her.)
When asked which of them is going to disappear, the four fighters among them are unanimous: Enel's out. (Poor Nami, I think she actually thought they were going to pick her.)
274
Gan Fall flashes back to the day Enel attacked and expelled him from power.
On Angel Beach (present day), a bunch of little kids are talking about the "bad guys" who used to live there (a father and daughter - they were great villains who helped some blue-sky criminals, their fathers told them so).
One of the little kids says he's never seen his father; he was a heavenly warrior, and his mother keeps promising that he'll come back some day.
Meanwhile, Conis is still racing back to deliver the bad news.
Enel is facing down his four challengers: Gan Fall, Wiper, Zoro and Robin.
Gan Fall demands to know what Enel is planning, and Enel tells him: his dream is to return to "Fairy Vearth" (the kanji indicate "unlimited great earth", i.e. the earth below).
He says that Gan Fall's former warriors are already dead. They rebelled and attacked him when they learned of his plan to destroy Skypiea.
Gan Fall flashes back once again on Enel taking his warriors and casting him aside.
Enel zaps Gan Fall with 20 million volts.
Zoro identifies Enel as a devil fruit user, and Robin guesses (correctly) that he ate the goro-goro fruit, the only devil fruit power said to be unbeatable - the power of lightning.
Enel says that his prediction came true: there are now exactly 5 survivors in the game.
He says that he intends to take the four of them along as his new servants. The ones who were defeated in the game weren't worthy to ruler over the country of his dreams.
When Robin tries to distract him with talk of the bell, he tells her he already knows where the bell must be and zaps her with his power.
("I hate calculating women.")
275
Zoro catches Robin's unconscious body. He glares at Enel - it's not chivalrous to hurt a woman.
Zoro and Wiper both try to attack Enel, but are easily turned back.
Nami is stunned by the scale of Enel's power - just like real lightning, it moves at the speed of light and causes the heavens to rumble.
Enel electrocutes Zoro. Crushing him underfoot, he says that humans grovel to gods because they fear death above all things. It's an instinctive response.
Wiper jumps onto Enel and holds on. Enel asks if he's suicidal, but then is puzzled when he starts to feel weak.
Wiper asks Enel if he's ever heard of kairouseki. Zoro remembers that kairouseki is the material that weakens devil fruit users. Wiper had it built into his "shooter." (Katakana, shuutaa. Not sure what this is. The dial in his glove, maybe? His skates? Something he's wearing, anyway, since he threw his gun away in order to grab Enel.)
Wiper uses his Reject dial, knowing that it will probably kill him along with Enel.
The words that Robin saw written on the stone ("We are the ones who weave history") appear narrative-style over the fallen bodies of the Shandians.
Flashback to the village elder speaking to a group of children (Wiper and his friends, with Laki looking on in hiding).
The village elder is explaining to them that Shandora was nearly destroyed defending the Poneglyphs 800 years before. ("There were many sacrifices" - flash to the skulls on sticks that Luffy and his group passed on the Crow-maru.) It is their duty, as direct descendants, to continue to protect the ruins of the city and the Poneglyphs. Even though the ruins of the city were stolen from them along with their homeland 400 years before, and they now live in the sky.
He tells them that they must never allow the light of Shandora to be extinguished.
The battle cry of Wiper and his friends: "Light the flame of Shandora!"
(Oooh, this vaguely patriotic gibberish is suddenly a lot more meaningful. The "light" of Shandora preserves the history that was lost to the "darkness" during the Void Century.)
Back in the present, they think that Enel has been defeated (Wiper is still standing, barely), until his body convulses. He has the ability to shock his own heart back into beating.
Enel: "It isn't that people fear God. Fear IS God."
Volume 29
265
Nami is trying out the newly repaired waver, which she loves.
She comments on how fast it is, and Pagaya agrees, saying that it is powered by a jet dial, a type of dial thought to have been extinct for hundreds of years.
Pagaya and Conis had planned to guide all the Strawhats back to the outskirts of Skypiea where they are hiding out, but since the crew has been split up, they have no choice but to go on ahead to the planned meeting-place.
Nami hopes the others are all right. The four of them combined ought to be more than a match for any enemy, but…
Aisa says there are no groups of four on the island. She can't sense any combination higher than two.
Nami recognizes that Aisa has the same mantra that Enel and the shinkan can use. Aisa says she was born with it.
Conis says they ran into Aisa when her waver had broken down and she was about to be attacked by a sky-fish. Nami asks what on earth she was trying to accomplish, but Aisa says she just couldn't sit still and do nothing, not when Laki and the others were in trouble.
Luffy is still stumbling around in a weird dark cave. He wants to hurry up and rejoin the others and find the city of gold. Stew made with gold is extra-delicious -- he learned that in the bar when he was a kid. (What WERE Shanks' crew telling that poor child.)
In the forest, Zoro is sick of the giant south bird following him around. (It's hoping he might have more food to share.)
The narration reminds us that two hours into the battle, 25 remain in the fight. One hour until Enel's prediction that 5 will remain standing at the end of three hours is put to the test.
A Shandian challenges Enel, and is easily defeated. The count is down to 24.
Elsewhere, Robin finally manages to draw Yama far enough away from the ruins that she feels free to fight with no holds barred.
"Too late. Even if you repent, I won't forgive you now!"
(I would not want Robin that coldly furious with me. EVER.)
Telling him it's time he grasped the weight of the history he destroyed, she takes him down swiftly and without mercy.
She tells him that the ruins he smashed were a priceless treasure. "History always repeats itself, but people can never return to the past. But I suppose you wouldn't understand that."
(Oh, Robin. ;_;)
Using her power, she tosses Yama off a mountain and breaks his back for good measure. Then she dusts off her hands and walks away.
"How awful." (ひどい事するわ - the same thing she said about the other heavenly warrior she defeated.)
(Damn, I love Robin, but she is freaking scary.)
266
Robin finds her way to the ruins of Shandora at the base of the giant beanstalk. She says that this should be the center of Shandora, but it looks completely different from the old map.
After some exploration, she comes to the conclusion that something is definitely not right.
The perspective pulls back far enough for us to see, for the first time, that there are ruins in the clouds half-way up the giant beanstalk.
Meanwhile, Chopper finally climbs high enough on the beanstalk to reach the next cloud level, and discovers the ruins above.
He is terrified to discover yet another shinkan, Ohm, and his "pet dog."
Ohm comments that Chopper is the third one today to reach his level. That Gedatsu, so careless (ukkari). Not that he really minds that Chopper defeated him; the way he sees it, Chopper did the world a favor.
Chopper stumbles over the fallen body of a Shandian. Ohm says he was the one who cut him down.
Ohm "reflects" on the folly of the human struggle for happiness. He has concluded that the only way to save the poor, suffering creatures is to kill them all and put them out of their misery.
He offers to "save" Chopper.
In the forest below, Laki finds the badly wounded Kamakiri.
(He took one million volts, and he's still ALIVE? What does it take to kill someone in the One Piece world? On second thought, don't answer that.)
Kamakiri begs her to find Wiper and stop him from throwing his life away in vain. Enel is invincible.
Laki leaves Aisa's bag of vearth with Kamakiri and goes after Wiper. (Presumably, like the hat Luffy left with Nami on Drum Island, a symbolic promise to return.)
As Laki races after Kamakiri, she reflects on the terror of Enel's "goro-goro no mi" powers (goro-goro: the sound of thunder). His ability falls under the most powerful of all devil fruit types, the logia type (kanji: 自然系, shizen-kei, "natural-type").
(FINALLY. Now we officially know the names and classes of all three types of devil fruits: Zoan, Paramecia and Logia. It appears that "logia" is loosely drawn from the Greek "logos," word, reason, or story -- here, perhaps element or essence. Logia-type devil fruit users are those who have the ability to transform their entire body into an essential element, and to dissolve and re-form their shape at will, so that attacks simply pass through their bodies, leaving them unharmed. Smoker, Ace and Crocodile are all logia users.)
Elsewhere in the forest, Zoro has managed to make his way back to the place where he started. ("Maybe it just looks similar?" Oh, Zoro.)
Having had enough, the south bird spies Zoro's bag and tries to fly off with it, thinking that it might contain more food. Zoro, clinging to his bag, is carried through the air. (I love the south bird's thought bubbles. Bentou!)
In the cave, Luffy is getting totally fed up with not being able to find his way out. He punches the wall in an attempt to break through, and is startled when the move seems to touch off an earthquake.
Chopper is desperately, but vainly, trying to escape Ohm's attack.
Ohm tells Chopper that he is facing the Iron Trial. Chance of survival: 0%.
267
(This is the first of a series of chapters with musical names -- here, "March.")
Nami is attempting to physically restrain Aisa from rushing off to save her friends.
Their interaction is SO adorable, maybe because at heart they're so alike.
"You're just a kid."
"I'm a warrior!"
"Yeah, yeah. Warrior kid."
"!!!!"
"Glare all you want, you don't scare me."
The crew aboard the Merry appear not to have noticed the GIANT SNAKE, until it starts butting its head against the ship.
(That snake totally just wants to play. Just look at its face!)
Inside the cave, Luffy is getting more and more peevish. He kicks the wall.
The snake writhes in pain.
As the snake thrashes about, Nami jumps on her waver and flees toward the forest. Aisa is clinging to her waist.
Pagaya and Conis are left behind on the Merry, where Sanji and Usopp are still lying unconscious.
A Shandian and a heavenly warrior are fighting in the forest when the snake comes crashing through, hot on Nami's tail. One of them recognizes the snake as "the lord of the sky" (空の主, sora no nushi).
(Interesting title. The sea monster that lived off the coast of Luffy's island was known as the "lord of the coast," using that same title, nushi.)
Nami and Aisa belatedly realize that they're lost in the forest.
Above, the south bird is flying by when the giant snake attacks.
Thinking that the snake might take Zoro as bait, the bird promptly drops him. (The south bird's thought-balloon logic KILLS me.)
Meanwhile, Wiper is racing up the beanstalk toward his goal, Enel's shrine.
(It's clearer in this picture that there is another level of clouds beyond the mid-level where the raised ruins are, into which the beanstalk disappears high above.)
At the mid-level ruins, three warriors meet: Wiper, Ohm (and his dog), and Gan Fall.
Gan Fall tells Wiper there's no point in continuing to ascend. He's just been to Enel's shrine, and found it burned and in ruins, his servants lying dead, with no sign of Enel himself. Enel presumably burnt the place himself, knowing it was no longer needed as a base.
Zoro, dropped by the south bird, crashes into the middle of the confrontation.
The giant snake (with Luffy inside it!) hurtles up the beanstalk, and joins the fray.
The five-way battle is on.
268
The battle between Ohm, Gan Fall, Zoro, Wiper and the snake begins.
Ohm proudly announces that he is called the "Sky Breeder," because he is no ordinary animal trainer - he has trained Holly to walk on two legs and use boxing techniques.
Gan Fall keeps demanding to know what Enel and his agents are planning, but Ohm tells him he wouldn't understand the "lofty mind of god."
At the base of the beanstalk, Robin is digging through the ruins. (Hee, those creepy hands come in useful when you're doing excavation work.)
She has concluded that a portion of the ruins must have sunk deeper into the island-cloud, and is digging down to find it.
In the midst of the battle, Zoro spots Chopper's bloody body. When he runs toward him, he hits something like barbed wire. Ohm calls it his "iron-cloud." It is part of the Iron Trial.
The material has the weight of cloud, but the hardness of iron, and is generated by Milky Dials. The whole area is booby-trapped with them; they spring out if you step in the wrong place.
Seeing Chopper's injuries, Zoro is enraged.
In the ruins, Robin discovers something amazing.
Nami is headed toward the giant beanstalk, with the heavenly warriors right on her tail. She is baffled by the "goats," until Aisa tells her that they are heavenly warriors.
Robin is gazing in wonder at the ruins of the city of gold, Shandora.
(I love the perspective here, with Robin a mere speck against the grand scope of the ruins.)
269
Left alone on the Merry with Sanji and Usopp's unconscious bodies, Pagaya and Conis have successfully navigated the ship to the planned reunion point.
They are nervous but determined to guard the ship until the others return. (Pagaya blows the horn on his waver continually to cheer them up.)
Conis is doing her best to nurse the injured men.
Aw, Pagaya hoping that the others are all OK. "I'm sorry Sky Island is like this" [こんな空島ですいません] - both funny, because of his speech quirk, and poignant, because he's genuinely ashamed.
Montage of those who have fallen in the battle so far, as the survivors race toward the beanstalk and the upper level.
Enel just sits by and laughs, telling them to go ahead and destroy each other on the upper level. God's predictions are infallible.
In the battle raging above, Gan Fall pleads with Wiper to stop, but Wiper just taunts him, saying he and Enel are the same.
(He mocks Gan Fall's use of "wagahai," evidently not considering him worthy of that respectful/aristocratic title.)
LOL Pierre's face as he narrowly dodges the mouth of the rampaging snake.
Poor Luffy is being tossed this way and that inside the snake (he still thinks it's a cave).
As Zoro is facing off with Ohm and his dog, the surviving Shandians and heavenly warriors arrive to join the battle.
Luffy tries to dig his way out of the "cave" with a rock, which only makes the snake laugh (apparently it's ticklish).
Nami and Aisa show up (to the equal horror of Zoro and Wiper).
Gan Fall, riding on Pierre, swoops in to pick up the waver with Nami and Aisa -- which works great until the snake swallows all four of them.
(LOL, Zoro and Wiper's faces.)
Momentarily distracted, both Zoro and Wiper are beaten unconscious by Ohm and his dog.
270
Ohm counts 10 people and 2 "critters" （2匹) still standing. He encloses them all in a sort of barbed-wire cage.
Zoro and Wiper are back on their feet.
From outside the cage, Laki approaches, pleading with Wiper not to throw his life away by attacking Enel.
Enel shows up right behind her.
(Aw, I like how frantic Wiper gets when he's yelling at Aisa or warning Laki to leave -- for all his rough ways, he's extremely protective of his own.)
When Laki tries to attack Enel, Enel takes her out with his million-volt attack.
(Did she sacrifice herself on purpose in order to illustrate to Wiper that Enel couldn't be killed?)
Enel mocks Wiper ("Do try not to die, if you can") and disappears.
Wiper and Zoro turn their attention to the snake, but Ohm orders his dog to attack.
(LOL, when he's telling the dog to hit them, his command is "o-te" (お手) - literally "hand," the traditional way of telling a dog to "shake".)
The count is down to 6 people, two critters.
Inside the snake's stomach, Gan Fall, Pierre, Nami and Aisa try to regroup and figure out where they are. They still have the waver.
Aisa belatedly figures out who Gan Fall is. ("Kami! I will eliminate you!" Nami: "Will you please stop that?")
Gan Fall wonders whether they could "punch through" the stomach, but when Nami tells him that's suicidal because it will just make the snake thrash around, he says he was only joking.
"Well, duh! I'd like to see the idiot stupid enough to try that!"
Luffy shows up. (LOL)
"Hey, what are you guys doing in this mystery cave?"
271
Cover: random picture of Vivi yay! (Aw, and the camel too.)
With great difficulty, Nami explains to Luffy that they've all been swallowed by a snake.
(LOL Gan Fall and Aisa's reactions. Gan Fall: "You're the CAPTAIN? What is this world coming to.")
Nami reacts negatively to Luffy's suggestion that they just look for the business end of the snake so they can get pooped out.
Nami: "I'd rather be DISSOLVED!"
Gan Fall: "My, blue sea women are ferocious."
Aisa: "Nami's scary."
Nami and the others realize, to their utter horror, that Luffy was the one making the snake go crazy all along by rampaging around inside it. (Gan Fall's eyes!)
The snake starts thrashing around again, this time because Wiper is attacking from the outside.
Zoro is still fighting Ohm. No matter how often he dodges, Ohm can always sense his position.
Ohm's "iron sword" has the ability to assume many forms (a whip, a wall, a fork, etc) because it is made of iron-cloud. (He typically prefaces the names of his attacks with "eisen", German for "iron".)
I almost didn't catch Zoro tossing aside his goggles to don the black bandana.
Ohm (like many people) wrongly assumes that Zoro is the leader of the Strawhats (要 = key figure, linchpin).
Zoro is finally able to defeat Ohm by upgrading his 36-pound cannon to a 108-pound cannon.
272
New cover arc, YAY! (Gee, I wonder who could have pulled a dine n' dash?)
In the ruins, Robin is shocked to discover what appears to be an informal inscription written in Poneglyphs. She had thought that no one knew how to use Poneglyphs apart from the ancient civilization that created them.
"With the true intention (locked) in the heart, shut your mouth. We are the people who weave history, together with the echo of the great bell tower." (真意を心に 口を閉ざせ 我らは歴史を 紡ぐ者 大鐘楼の 響きと共に.)
She recalls that Norland's diary spoke of a giant golden bell in the city of gold.
Robin reflects further: all the books in the city (what city?) were burned, and its history eradicated. (町の書物の類は全て燃やされていた、都市の歴史は絶やされていた.)
But now it appears that that the Poneglyphs were transported to this city. There is no doubt -- this city did battle with the "hostile will" (敵意, in quotes - incidentally, "true intention" above is 真意, literally "true will").
Shandora fought to preserve the Poneglyphs, and was destroyed.
Robin speculates that the Poneglyphs might be with the great bell tower, but there is no sign of the bell tower in the place where it ought to be, in the midst of the four altars. (The beanstalk happens to be located in that very spot.)
She notices what looks like fresh cart-tracks -- something was hauled away, and recently.
Enel shows up, smugly boasting that he was able to find what all the previous fools overlooked.
He's impressed -- it took them months of searching to find what she was able to locate so quickly with her archaeological training and knowledge of the language.
He says she's a few years too late to find the gold she's looking for. (Robin had apparently forgotten about the gold; she only now notices that there is no gold to be seen, and realizes that Enel took it.)
She asks if he also has the golden bell, but Enel appears puzzled, and Robin realizes he has no idea what she's talking about.
Robin wonders if the bell and its bell-tower never came to the sky, but Enel says it must have - he connects it with the legend of the "singing voice" that rang out over the island when it arrived in the sky.
Enel is delighted by the idea -- as soon as the game is over, in eight minutes, he'll search for the bell.
(Robin carefully does not mention the Poneglyphs she's hoping to find along with the bell-tower.)
But first, he has to deal with some useless garbage along the coast.
On the Merry, Su is having a fit (neither Pagaya nor Conis can figure out what's wrong).
A badly injured man crawls up to the ship (he turns out to be one of the heavenly warriors that Enel enslaved, one of those who formerly served Gan Fall).
He begs them to warn Angel Island - Enel's plan is to return the whole of Skypiea to the Blue-Sea world. Their entire civilization will be destroyed, and all the people living in the sky (I assume he means the White-White Sea?) will die.
Enel himself intends to escape in an ark dubbed the "Maxim."
Hearing a rumble, Pagaya shoves Conis off the cliff and into the water just before a pillar of light strikes him and the heavenly warrior.
Zoro is still fighting in the cage.
When the dog attacks, he frantically screams "WAIT!" and is startled when the dog does exactly that. (Apparently it will obey anyone's commands. It's a very obedient dog, Ohm said so himself!)
Zoro: "Hit yourself in the head and knock yourself unconscious." (He does.)
They are all startled when a bolt of lightning passes through the beanstalk.
Down below, Robin is shocked to recognize Enel as a logia devil fruit user.
The upper ruins begin to crumble, bringing everyone down to Enel's level. Zoro grabs Chopper. Wiper and the snake scramble to find a way down.
At the shoreline, Conis (fighting back tears) leaves Usopp and Sanji in Su's care while she runs to warn the other inhabitants of Skypiea.
273
Cover arc: ACE! (I'm looking forward to this. I never read these volumes before, so this cover arc is new to me.)
Inside the snake, Nami is trying to make plans to escape on the waver, but when she fires the engine, Luffy and Aisa get knocked backwards. Gan Fall calls to Pierre to go back and save them. He and Nami are free-falling from the snake's mouth.
Down below, Robin marvels at the ruins that are falling from the sky. She's mildly surprised when Zoro crawls out from under a mass of rock. ("Oh, Swordsman-san, did you fall too?")
Nami and Gan Fall land safely on the clouds below.
Gan Fall tells Nami to trust Pierre. "He's a bird you can count on when the chips are down… or, er, a horse…" (やる時はやる、鳥であったり、馬であったり…)
All of them (including Wiper) are stunned to find themselves standing in the midst of the ruins of the lost city of Shandora.
Even the snake seems happy and excited. He's looking around as if searching for something. Then he starts crying, and wailing. (Aw, *spoiler*! ;__;)
Enel, puzzled and irritated, knocks the "lord of the sky" out with his lightning bolt.
Wiper and Zoro are horrified, thinking that Nami and Aisa are still in the snake, but Nami startles Zoro by turning up alive and well.
(Robin: "Oh, navigator-san, what are you doing here?" Robin's calm reactions are like a non-stop comedy routine.)
Nami says she's fine, but Luffy is still in there. (LOL Nami and Zoro yelling at each other for no reason. "What's HE doing in there?" "How should I know? He is, that's all!")
Wiper spots Enel, and attacks him in a rage (Enel dodges easily).
Enel says it's time for the finale. With three minutes to go until the three-hour deadline he specified, there are five remaining… no, six.
(The six: Enel himself, Zoro, Wiper, Gan Fall, Robin and Nami. Nami [who is hugging Chopper's unconscious body] was hoping he hadn't noticed her.)
When asked which of them is going to disappear, the four fighters among them are unanimous: Enel's out. (Poor Nami, I think she actually thought they were going to pick her.)
274
Gan Fall flashes back to the day Enel attacked and expelled him from power.
On Angel Beach (present day), a bunch of little kids are talking about the "bad guys" who used to live there (a father and daughter - they were great villains who helped some blue-sky criminals, their fathers told them so).
One of the little kids says he's never seen his father; he was a heavenly warrior, and his mother keeps promising that he'll come back some day.
Meanwhile, Conis is still racing back to deliver the bad news.
Enel is facing down his four challengers: Gan Fall, Wiper, Zoro and Robin.
Gan Fall demands to know what Enel is planning, and Enel tells him: his dream is to return to "Fairy Vearth" (the kanji indicate "unlimited great earth", i.e. the earth below).
He says that Gan Fall's former warriors are already dead. They rebelled and attacked him when they learned of his plan to destroy Skypiea.
Gan Fall flashes back once again on Enel taking his warriors and casting him aside.
Enel zaps Gan Fall with 20 million volts.
Zoro identifies Enel as a devil fruit user, and Robin guesses (correctly) that he ate the goro-goro fruit, the only devil fruit power said to be unbeatable - the power of lightning.
Enel says that his prediction came true: there are now exactly 5 survivors in the game.
He says that he intends to take the four of them along as his new servants. The ones who were defeated in the game weren't worthy to ruler over the country of his dreams.
When Robin tries to distract him with talk of the bell, he tells her he already knows where the bell must be and zaps her with his power.
("I hate calculating women.")
275
Zoro catches Robin's unconscious body. He glares at Enel - it's not chivalrous to hurt a woman.
Zoro and Wiper both try to attack Enel, but are easily turned back.
Nami is stunned by the scale of Enel's power - just like real lightning, it moves at the speed of light and causes the heavens to rumble.
Enel electrocutes Zoro. Crushing him underfoot, he says that humans grovel to gods because they fear death above all things. It's an instinctive response.
Wiper jumps onto Enel and holds on. Enel asks if he's suicidal, but then is puzzled when he starts to feel weak.
Wiper asks Enel if he's ever heard of kairouseki. Zoro remembers that kairouseki is the material that weakens devil fruit users. Wiper had it built into his "shooter." (Katakana, shuutaa. Not sure what this is. The dial in his glove, maybe? His skates? Something he's wearing, anyway, since he threw his gun away in order to grab Enel.)
Wiper uses his Reject dial, knowing that it will probably kill him along with Enel.
The words that Robin saw written on the stone ("We are the ones who weave history") appear narrative-style over the fallen bodies of the Shandians.
Flashback to the village elder speaking to a group of children (Wiper and his friends, with Laki looking on in hiding).
The village elder is explaining to them that Shandora was nearly destroyed defending the Poneglyphs 800 years before. ("There were many sacrifices" - flash to the skulls on sticks that Luffy and his group passed on the Crow-maru.) It is their duty, as direct descendants, to continue to protect the ruins of the city and the Poneglyphs. Even though the ruins of the city were stolen from them along with their homeland 400 years before, and they now live in the sky.
He tells them that they must never allow the light of Shandora to be extinguished.
The battle cry of Wiper and his friends: "Light the flame of Shandora!"
(Oooh, this vaguely patriotic gibberish is suddenly a lot more meaningful. The "light" of Shandora preserves the history that was lost to the "darkness" during the Void Century.)
Back in the present, they think that Enel has been defeated (Wiper is still standing, barely), until his body convulses. He has the ability to shock his own heart back into beating.
Enel: "It isn't that people fear God. Fear IS God."