The Past that He Let Go of - Vinsmoke Sanji

Nami orders Kingbaum and the homies to scatter so she can face Cracker on her own. Her Thunderbreed Tempo lands on two Biscuit Soldiers, but the lightning merely scorches their bodies. The soldiers swarm and pin her, and Cracker, puzzled by how far the Straw Hats will go for Sanji, knocks her weapon away and lays Pretzel against her throat. Before the blade can end her, Luffy crashes in with Gear 2 and a punch that sends Cracker tumbling, at last facing the Sweet Commander head-on.

In Germa, Sanji's kick to Niji's jaw is undone when Ichiji reminds him that fighting back could cost Zeff his life. Niji pounces on the pause, ramming an electrified knee and fist into his brother and dropping him while the three jeer at his loyalty to Cosette. Sanji then sinks into recollections of his childhood.

The flashback begins with Judge declaring that his children had been engineered into mighty, emotionless commanders who would have to train to awaken their gifts. Tested by leaping from a tall balcony, the four others, Ichiji, Niji, Yonji, and Reiju, alight with ease while a frightened Sanji freezes and fails. He trails his siblings in every trial, nearly drowning during an ocean swim, and in sword practice his blade shatters before Niji thrashes him so brutally that soldiers must drag him away. His brothers and sister begin tormenting him, Reiju joining against her will, and an aide reports that the boy bears no enhancements whatsoever. Finding Sanji feeding a rat, Judge accuses him of mimicking his dead mother and destroys a painting, one that showed both his wife and his son, before staging a funeral that declares the boy killed in an accident, all while secretly locking him in a dungeon behind an iron mask and commanding everyone to behave as though he had never lived.

The adaptation adds Nami's lone delaying clash with Cracker, Luffy reaching her just in time, and Sanji igniting Diable Jambe just before Niji's warning. It also depicts Judge wrecking the portrait of his wife and son as he berates Sanji, with a partial glimpse of Sanji's mother. The scene of Reiju explaining her laughter is shifted to an earlier point than in the manga, and Niji debuts new techniques here.