Mr. Bushido

The battle resumes right after Zoro flings a building toward his opponent. Still gnawing at the lesson his old teacher Koushirou once gave about whether a blade can or cannot slice steel, the swordsman clings to the wrong idea: that pure muscle and will are all he needs. Mr. 1 reduces the airborne structure to nothing using Atomic Spar, and Zoro vaults through the wreckage to engage him directly. Quick cuts open the exchange, a spin lands a blow on the jaw, a returning kick gets parried, and a follow-up rocks the assassin's head again. With Gazami Dori from the Three Sword Style, Zoro launches Mr. 1 upward, yet his foe touches down without a scratch.

Each fighter remarks on how stubborn the other is. Mr. 1 then cautions the swordsman to view him as an assassin rather than a fellow blade-user, sprouting circular blades that spin along both forearms. Their next collision sends sparks flying where the whirling edges meet Zoro's swords. The assassin slashes a savage line across Zoro's chest, rams a strike into his belly, and throws him into a pillar. When Zoro tries to rise, Mr. 1 questions his resolve and finishes with Spar Break, which carves through both the swordsman and the column at his back.

Sure the job is done, Mr. 1 turns to leave just as the building, robbed of its support, collapses toward Zoro. Defying all odds, the swordsman climbs to his feet, none of the plunging rubble having touched him. He did not evade the stones, he reflects; he simply knew none would land on him. Sensing a sword beneath a nearby rock, Zoro takes it up and starts to feel how everything nearby seems to breathe, passing his edge through a tree branch that stays whole. The teacher's words finally make sense. Mr. 1 charges with Atomic Spurt, certain of the kill, but Zoro answers with a freshly forged move, Shishi Sonson, the iai draw of his One Sword Style, splitting the assassin's metal body apart and winning the fight.

Zoro at last manages to cut through steel and brings down Mr. 1. For the very first time, he turns to a technique of the One Sword Style. On the cover, the series shows a mermaid in the flesh for the very first time, the species having only ever been named earlier, back in Chapter 69.

The cover advances the Hatchan's Sea-Floor Stroll serial, with Hatchan stunned as the young mermaid Camie and the starfish Pappag, the Sea Boar's intended meal, break free. Koushirou is seen in flashback. The installment falls inside the Arabasta Arc.