Chapter 1096

The Nobles spell out their hunt: thirteen ultra-rare quarry, a hundred and fifty rare ones, bonuses for clean kills, and lavish rewards for whoever wins. The captives get an hour to scatter. Far off, Kong rings a vacationing Garp and pushes him toward Hachinosu without saying why, but the instant Roger's name comes up, Garp commits. The Rocks crew, however, has already sailed.

On God Valley, Ivankov stirs the prisoners, warning that the promise of release after three weeks is a lie meant to draw out the sport. A shark fish-man frees him from his chains, and Ginny names two of the contest prizes as their ticket off the island. One is a Zoan dragon fruit named Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu; the other is the paw-based Nikyu Nikyu no Mi. Both sit at the island's center. Skilled in theft and broadcasting, Ginny has already leaked the scheme outside. Kuma volunteers as the decoy, trusting his tough body. When the pirate crews ambush the Marines and a full battle erupts, Ivankov and Kuma claim both fruits, but Linlin smashes Ivankov aside and snatches the dragon one. He shouts for Kuma to eat the remaining fruit and survive.

The hunt at God Valley begins, and Ginny debuts a Den Den Mushi worn as an earpiece, a first in the canon, using it to leak the contest details. Garp's reluctance vanishes once Roger is reported nearby, and once Garp's Marines, Roger's crew, and the Rocks Pirates all make landfall, the God Valley Incident erupts. Former membership in the Rocks crew is confirmed for both Streusen and Gloriosa, and outside of Chapter 0, Shiki surfaces in the main canon for the very first time.

The moment Kuma swallows the paw fruit, Saturn confronts him, insisting a Buccaneer exists only to live and die enslaved. Kuma defies him, vowing to follow Nika's example and shield the weak, which Saturn cites as the very reason his people must be wiped out. Kuma, Ivankov, Ginny, and over five hundred others somehow escape to the Sorbet Kingdom, hiding in the church Kuma's parents once kept. Ivankov later departs alone, while Ginny stays on to live alongside Kuma.

The cover, by PN UCP, shows Zoro sulking after losing musical chairs to chihuahuas. Ivankov credits Morgans with burying the incident's details, reporting only Garp's exploits and so birthing his legend. The chapter establishes that both Ginny and Kuma had lived in slavery since the age of four. Trivia flags inconsistencies in Roger's look here versus Film: Red and Chapter 957, and notes that the pairing of the fish-themed dragon fruit and the paw fruit, of which Kuma's group could keep only the latter, may nod to a passage from the Mencius about choosing between fish and bear's paw. A printing error labeled Garling as "Saint Garland," corrected in the electronic Japanese release but kept in VIZ's English version.