Chapter 1041

Momonosuke tells Yamato that Zunesha has briefly spoken with him and arrived to lend its strength to the fight. Stirred, Yamato calls the boy the one destined to usher in the world's dawn his father foresaw, but Momonosuke confesses that Oden ripped the most vital pages from his journal, the record of what he and Roger discovered on Laugh Tale. Doubting he matches his father's wisdom and dreading the perils beyond Wano, he admits he would rather keep the borders shut than throw them open, and asks Yamato whether that makes him a coward. On the castle's third floor, Fukurokuju collapses from the flames, freeing Raizo and handing him victory; Jinbe finds him, and Raizo warns that their preparations are nearly ready.

In the second-floor treasury, Orochi grows restless and demands the masked musician prove she is no ghost, only for the ceiling to bury him. Pinned, he cannot transform, because a Seastone nail was slipped into him while he watched her play. When she notes that his beloved "Moon Princess" was also her father's favorite, Hiyori reveals herself, explaining the mask spared her from smiling for him. Down in the basement Izou cuts down the agent Maha but falls with him; the wounded Guernika takes a Den Den Mushi call relaying the Five Elders' command to kill Luffy at once, even mid-battle with Kaidou. Unseen, a recovered X Drake stalks the agent. Elsewhere Franky snatches the falling Zoro, and Nami, sheltering with Tama and Marco, deduces from the tremor that Law has beaten Big Mom.

On the roof, Kaidou senses the same shockwave and realizes Big Mom is down, recalling their first meeting back when he sailed under Rocks; he is said to have joined that crew at fifteen. Slipping into his Naki Jogo mood, he weeps that they had only just allied to chase One Piece together. Luffy answers by shifting into Gear 4 Snakeman and battering the Emperor with Gomu Gomu no Hydra, declaring that Kaidou's dreams left Wano's people starving and that he will spend his last strength making sure the man never returns to the country.