A Volatile Situation - The Dog and the Cat and the Samurai!

Morning light catches Robin, Franky, and Brook off guard, having slept clear through until daybreak. A freshly inked tiger near Ryunosuke gives away that the two swordsmen, Kin'emon and Kanjuro, have already landed. The trio understands the peril at once, since the minks watched their homeland burn when Jack's crew hunted the ninja Raizo and razed everything searching for him. They take off to head the pair off before any word about him sets things ablaze. Atop a high tower, Bariete pounds a bell and cries out that warriors have arrived.

Both mink camps surge into motion. Climbing onto a crocodile-boar mount inside his fortress, Inuarashi orders Shishilian to gather the rest behind him, then gallops toward the capital. Nekomamushi leads the Guardians out at a sprint, warning that this is no minor affair. A passing Guardian's remark wakes Nami, who can barely jostle a groggy Luffy alert. Among the trees, Momonosuke bursts from hiding and throws himself into a reunion with his father and Kanjuro.

The factions flood the streets, retainers desperate to keep the rulers apart. The effort collapses when Shishilian spots Nekomamushi and gasps, the noise spinning both kings around to lock eyes. They advance on one another as the bewildered swordsmen watch from nearby, and the arriving crew tackles the samurai behind a heap of rubble, begging them to slip back to the Sunny rather than fan the flames.

Inuarashi and Nekomamushi tear into each other, taunting the limbs each one lost. Their memories surface: Jack cleaving the duke's leg when he refused to surrender Raizo's whereabouts, and the cat king daring his captors to strike while they menaced his bound, fallen comrades. Resolved to end it for good, the two drive blade against spear. Wrenching loose from Usopp, Kin'emon strides into view to halt them, Momonosuke and Kanjuro right at his heels.

Naming the Wano house he serves and announcing his hunt for the ninja, Kin'emon stuns the minks, who all sink down weeping and declare Raizo unharmed. Nekomamushi describes a friendship with the Kouzuki reaching back many years, a bond they would protect even at the cost of their whole civilization, and the words move the crew to tears. The adaptation inserts the trio noticing the tiger sketch, Shishilian rallying his fellow Musketeers, and Luffy's group rising as the Guardians depart. In the source both leaders spot one another the instant their paths cross, while here the duke nearly passes unseen until Shishilian's reaction betrays him. The episode falls within the Zou Arc.