Chapter 523

Bewildered by her urge to obey Luffy without a second thought, Hancock turns to Nyon for answers. The elder names the feeling as love and recounts a grim pattern: empresses before her who fell for outsiders yet refused to leave Amazon Lily perished from the ache of separation. Surviving means going with Luffy, so Hancock must depart her homeland. Nyon adds that honoring her duty among the Seven Warlords would both shield the island and aid the boy she cares for.

Meanwhile, the Marines brace for conflict. Sengoku learns Hancock is bound for headquarters and notes she makes the sixth Warlord to answer the call, with only Jinbe refusing, already locked in Impel Down for his fierce objection to the war. Reports pile in: Kizaru has hauled in five hundred pirates from Sabaody, and the twenty-three vessels shadowing Whitebeard have all gone silent at once. Sengoku orders the prison reinforced against any rescue of Ace, while Garp visits his grandson's cell to confirm the condemned man still has fight in him.

Hancock accepts her feelings and leaves Amazon Lily in her sisters' hands, sailing for Impel Down aboard Momonga's ship with Luffy concealed beneath her robe. The chapter then cuts to several crewmates flung across the seas. Nami wakes on Weatheria, a sky island devoted to weather research, where a man named Haredas shows off a Wind Knot. Franky finds himself in the snowbound mechanical land of Baldimore, the birthplace of Vegapunk, where a dog-shaped weapon mistakes him for prey. Sanji is stranded on Momoiro Island and flees a swarm of Okama demanding he join their ranks, a place he dubs Hell.

The cover continues CP9's Independent Report at volume 29, showing a still-crippled Spandam taking a Den Den Mushi call from his hospital bed. The chapter marks the start of the scattering arc that disperses the crew. The kingdom chasing Sanji, Kamabakka, derives its name from a Japanese term mocking effeminate men, which the translation glosses as "full of transvestites." Silhouettes of Whitebeard, Marco, and Jozu hint at the brewing storm.