Chapter 256

A flashback shows Gan Fall, then Skypiea's God, visiting the Shandia to propose an alliance, only for Wyper to reject any truce that does not restore their stolen homeland. When Gan Fall refuses to hand over a hundred innocent Skypieans as the price of peace, the talk collapses and Wyper attacks. Watching nearby, Raki recalls how the infant Aisa always wept whenever trouble brewed in the village, and Aisa's mother Isa likens Wyper to a demon at the heart of every conflict.

In the present, Wyper rallies the Shandia for a fresh assault, declaring he will not slow for fallen comrades and that anyone unwilling to step over the wounded should stay behind. At God's Shrine, Enel tallies the survival game at eighty-one fighters: his fifty soldiers plus four others against twenty Shandia, four Straw Hats already in the forest, and three aboard the Merry. He predicts only five will remain after three hours. The Shandia charge in but are instantly snared by Shura's invisible string clouds in the Trial of String.

Wyper alone slips past the string clouds, and when Shura hurls his heat javelin from the air, Wyper deliberately lets the lance pierce him to free both hands. He seizes the priest and presses a reject dial to his chest, a weapon ten times stronger than an impact dial, blasting Shura unconscious in a spray of blood while the recoil tears at Wyper's own shoulder. The narration drops the survival count to eighty. The chapter also hints the baby Aisa possesses an early sense for danger, a seed of her later ability. The cover unveils Wapol's new alloy, Wapometal.