Chapter 1030: Echoing the Impermanence of All Things

Within the Cave Chamber, Apoo has paused his scuffle with Drake to lay out a scheme: because neither man genuinely belongs to either camp, they should wait for the wider battle to settle, then strike down whoever survives and seize the prize. He openly tags Drake as a probable Marine yet shrugs it off as immaterial, and when Drake balks at the notion of trust, Apoo replies that trust was never part of it; the opening is simply too uncommon to waste. Beside them, a trio of the Numbers sits eating, namely Fuga, Zanki, and Inbi.

On the stairs, the group lugging a battered Komachiyo hears a shriek and catches sight of Kin'emon's lower half darting around and crying for help. With no ears, the legs cannot register Usopp, so Nami fixes that by inking a crescent moon onto them. The legs then lead everyone toward Kikunojo, who is in grave shape. In the attic, the swordsman's torso deduces that Law never reattached his body cleanly on Punk Hazard, which is why Kaidou cleaved him in two so easily. He overhears a dying Kanjuro answering Orochi over a Smart Tanishi; at Orochi's command, Kanjuro paints a burning specter called Kazenbo, then slumps once more.

Forced by circumstance, Law and Kid choose to spend their awakened abilities. As Big Mom drives Kid down toward the Live Floor, Law sheathes his blade in a shrunken field, K-ROOM, drives it into her, and lets fly a Shock Wille that ravages her insides until blood runs. Kid follows by branding Big Mom magnetic with Assign, dragging a huge swath of the fortress inward to bury her from every direction as the two warp away. Both stress they awakened long ago and treat the move as a last resort, given the stamina it burns. Apoo's offer reaches Drake and the three Numbers present, Usopp's party peels off to reach Kiku, and Orochi, sheltering as he waits on Fukurokuju, orders the final Kazenbo strike. Yamato, meanwhile, locks onto a two-story weapons vault below the castle.

The chapter's title quotes the opening line of the Heike Monogatari, the sentence in which the bell of Gion Shoja sounds the impermanence of all things. PN Ebi's cover request shows Brook treading carefully past a marching line of army ants. This installment falls within the Wano Country Arc.