Luffy and the Gladiator of Fate - Rebecca

Block D is held back a quarter hour while crews patch the damage Luffy and Chinjao left behind. Still wearing his Lucy disguise, the rubber pirate tries to exit quietly, only for Cavendish to lash out at him with Durandal. Luffy slips every blow, eventually wrenching the blade away, while a star-struck Bartolomeo fumes that anyone would dare try to kill his hero.

When a noble gladiator sneers about the failure to rescue Ace, Bartolomeo pins the man to the wall and proclaims that this pirate is destined to rule the seas. Chinjao, his pointed skull restored, tries to bow his thanks and accidentally cracks the floor, which Luffy misreads as a fresh challenge. He bolts, trailed by Cavendish, Bartolomeo, and Chinjao's relatives, until Rebecca pulls him out of sight and treats him to food.

A flashback fills in Bartolomeo's devotion: two years earlier at Loguetown he watched a lightning bolt shatter Buggy's execution platform and spare Luffy, an omen that pushed him to track every headline about the Straw Hats and eventually launch the Barto Club. In the present, Luffy spots Jesus Burgess reporting to Blackbeard by Den Den Mushi, and openly vows the Titanic Captain will never claim the Mera Mera no Mi for his crew.

Sharing a meal, Rebecca opens up about her childhood. She recalls telling her starving mother she was hungry, then the memory of finding her mother dead. Convict gladiators reveal they were thrown into the arena for defying the Donquixote Family and can only earn freedom by winning a thousand bouts. Hearing this, Rebecca declares she will take the tournament and end Doflamingo's life.

The adaptation reworks several manga beats. Luffy weaves through Cavendish's swings before snatching the sword here, rather than catching it instantly. During Bartolomeo's flashback he orders defeated soldiers dumped in water instead of discarding a severed finger, and he merely menaces the heckler's tongue before pummeling him rather than stabbing it. Rebecca's hunger flashback is also lengthened, adding her mother's reply and the shock of seeing the corpse. Scarlett makes her debut. The episode carries a rating of 9.2 and ranked third for its week.