I Will Surpass You

Even detonated far overhead, the bomb's shockwave knocks most of the warring soldiers off their feet, Tashigi and Usopp among them. Only Vivi and the Straw Hats witness Pell's sacrifice. Moments later Usopp and Chopper see the rebel and royal forces rise and resume a war that no longer has any point. Tashigi tries to step in but a fellow Marine pulls her clear, and Vivi screams from above for the fighting to stop, her voice never reaching the men below. Moved, Nami begs her crewmates to help separate the armies and save whoever they can.

Inside the Tomb of the Kings the final clash rages on. Crocodile cannot fathom where Luffy keeps drawing strength from with the poison already in his system, and the rookie keeps exploiting the sand fruit's weakness to strike his intangible body. Enraged, Crocodile bares a second blade from his prosthetic and demands to know if Luffy even understands whom he faces; Luffy answers that he does not care and will surpass him. He kicks the Warlord aloft, endures a ground-shattering Sables: Pesado, then inflates and spins himself skyward with explosive force. Their last techniques collide, and Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Storm tears straight through Crocodile's Desert la Spada, hammering the veteran up through the bedrock and out over the plaza before Luffy drops back into the tomb, victorious at last.

The chapter's defining moment is Luffy finally defeating Crocodile with the Gomu Gomu no Storm, while the armies fight on in ignorance of Pell's noble end and the crew and Marines scramble to pull the two sides apart as Vivi's cries go unheard. The cover concludes Hatchan's takoyaki saga, with a freed Camie reuniting with Pappag while the bewildered Macro Pirates insist they kept their bargain.