Chapter 343

Pinned by carpenter gunfire, Robin and her bear-masked companion fling a cloak skyward, and once it drops both of them are gone, baffling the firing crew. The acrobatic woman in the musketeer guise keeps hopping through the air, her spiked lash still falling on the workers below. Within the executive office, the two intruders state plainly that they answer to Cipher Pol No. 9. One lifts a hand smeared with blood to show Paulie that every shipwright in their path has already fallen, then demands both the papers and the man's life.

The vanished duo move down a shadowed hall, and the bear-masked agent steps directly into Iceburg's chamber using the door-conjuring power of his Devil Fruit, the Doa Doa no Mi. He fires on the startled president while Robin recoils.

The agent spells out the scheme. Iceburg was kept breathing only so blame could later fall on the Straw Hats, and the prize CP9 wants is the Pluton design said to have passed into Paulie's keeping. Seeing Robin aligned with these killers, Iceburg understands the pirates are blameless. She is instructed to end his life as soon as the document is in hand. Far off, Luffy stays jammed between two structures across Water 7, unable to free himself.

Expecting a lightly guarded gate, Zoro, Nami, and Chopper clear the outer wall only to face a swarm of carpenters. The cover, drawn from the Gedatsu hot-spring side story, finally confirms that Pell lived through the bomb left by Crocodile during the Arabasta story. Inside the building, decoys made to resemble Kaku and Lucci slump in defeat, seeding the impersonation reveal still to come.