The Leaders

The voice that called Vivi's name belongs to Koza, who is shaken to find Chaka, Cobra, and the royal soldiers crushed beneath Crocodile's hand. The sight of the so-called national hero standing beside Miss All Sunday snaps the picture into focus, and he asks Vivi who took the kingdom's rain. Crocodile claims responsibility himself, savoring how he danced Koza and both armies across his palm. Cobra urges Koza to tune out the gloating and go stop any more senseless death. With Chaka warning that Alubarna has under thirty minutes left, Koza bolts, but Vivi blocks him. Her reasoning is blunt: were the rebels warned of the bomb, the chaos would only deepen, the war would grind on, and not a single life would be spared that way. Crocodile applauds her judgment, then steps in to strike Koza down, and a badly wounded Chaka throws himself in the way to take the blow. As long as breath remains in him, Chaka vows, he will keep fighting; Crocodile names that foolishness. While Chaka offers to pin the Warlord back, Koza flashes back to boyhood training under him.

Word arrives that the rebels have nearly reached the palace from the north. Vivi and Koza order the baffled royal troops to lift white flags in surrender, Koza intending to tell the rebels the whole struggle was for nothing. The rebels appear and find the royal army, Koza among them, waving the flags. As Koza moves to declare the fight finished, gunfire from behind drops him, the shooters being Baroque Works agents masquerading as royal soldiers. Reading it as fresh treachery, the rebels surge into the attack.

Macro, Gyaro, and Tansui debut on the cover. Koza faces Crocodile and grasps both the situation and the Warlord's real aim. He talks the royal army into surrendering, only to be shot from behind by Baroque Works members hidden among them. Taking it as renewed betrayal, the rebels resume fighting.

The cover advances Hatchan's Sea-Floor Stroll, exposing the lurking spy as the fish-man Macro, who captains his own crew. Pell and Toto are shown in flashback. The chapter forms part of the Arabasta Arc.