Slashes Dancing on the Roof! Finale - Zoro vs. Ryuma

Inside Hogback's laboratory, Zoro and Ryuma trade blow for blow with neither able to break through, every strike answered by an equal counter. Their exchanges tear the room apart and force both fighters up onto the rooftop. Watching from below as Franky shields the wounded Brook, the skeleton grasps that Ryuma had never once gone all out against him. The roof gives way and crashes to the ground, and Zoro finally lands a finishing technique that engulfs his opponent in flames.

Backtracking five minutes, the duel runs through Ryuma's air-cutting Aubade Coup Droit and thrust attacks against Zoro's two-sword counters and a Demon Magma Bear, all blocked. Franky carves an escape route with Weapons Left to carry Brook clear. On the roof the two stay locked even with little room to move, until Ryuma's Arrow Notch Slash badly wounds Zoro just before the samurai is set ablaze. Beaten, Ryuma concedes and tosses Shusui to Zoro, honoring its long line of owners. As Ryuma burns away, Brook's shadow rushes back to him at last, letting the skeleton stand in daylight again.

The episode covers chapters 466 and 467. It earned a 7.8 rating and ranked sixth that week. Zoro tells the departed swordsman he wishes they could have crossed paths while Ryuma still lived, and agrees to let the result of their bout go unspoken. Subplots advance as Usopp races off to share news of his win over Perona, Oars smashes through armored zombies sent to corral him, and an exhausted Luffy keeps getting flattened by the Doppelman as Moria boasts of arriving reinforcements. An audio quirk: Zoro's eyecatcher omits his theme, though Nami's plays normally.