Chapter 631

Despair drives Vander Decken IX to tears once Shirahoshi makes clear she does not love him, and he even shears off part of his own hair before snapping at his crew for trying to console him. Because Luffy keeps deflecting every weapon hurled toward the princess, Decken abandons that approach and lands on something far more destructive, a scheme built around breaking something completely apart. Elsewhere, the people of Gyoverly Hills are stunned by how swiftly the sea beasts overran Neptune's soldiers, and the Minister of the Left mourns that Otohime's dream of joining the Levely had nearly been realized before everything fell apart, praying for a miracle as the execution is set one hour away.

Sealing the citizens out so the killing can proceed without interruption, the pirate crew blocks every path into the plaza. Neptune waits to die on the very platform where his queen was once murdered. His overdose of Energy Steroids has not killed Hody Jones but bloated him into a hulking, white-haired brute, and when a desperate soldier charges with dynamite, a single Water Shot launches the man clear across the island near Mermaid Cove. Then the three princes arrive, demolish the sea beasts in one rush, and brace against Hody's officers while Jinbe and Shirahoshi speed in atop Megalo.

Fukaboshi brands the enemy pirates the weakest fighters on the island, declaring the people have already left their hatred of humans behind and put their names to the peace petition, so no vengeance-soaked crew will be allowed to seize the kingdom. Ryuboshi refuses to believe the royal army could fall so quickly, and Manboshi affirms their choice of a future shared with humanity. The princes then erase every sea beast except Surume in a single sweep.

Crocus and Laboon reappear for the first time since the timeskip, with Crocus sharing a drink beside a stranger later identified as Scopper Gaban of Elbaph on the cover. The royal soldiers and both Ministers were beaten by the sea beasts unaided. Hody emerges from his overdose grossly muscular, bleach-haired, and far stronger. The princes' fighting art, Merman Gujutsu, debuts here, and this is the second consecutive chapter in which no Straw Hat appears in the present following the timeskip.