Chapter 637

The enemy crew is astonished that Luffy can wound their reinforced captain at all. Hody rams a Fish-Man Karate palm into Luffy's head, but the rubber body simply absorbs it, and Luffy coats his forehead, fist, and legs in Armament Haki to deliver one crushing blow after another, slipping a Yabusame volley with Observation Haki before hurling Hody into the plaza's rock wall. The crowd stares in disbelief at his strength.

Then the plaza falls dark. Noah is pressing against the island's bubble, and a rupture would tear away part of the island itself. Wadatsumi drops from above and pleads with Decken to halt the ship, only for Decken to answer coldly that nothing he throws can ever be stopped, so his subordinate must be cast aside for the cause. As the bubble starts to fail, the citizens notice Shirahoshi has vanished. She reappears high overhead, placed so the ship will swerve off course, and spreads her arms to beg Decken to take only her life. Decken, who had secretly meant to betray them all along, throws a knife that strikes her below the shoulder. Hody quits the plaza to scale a trailing chain toward the ark, and when Sanji moves to pursue, Luffy chooses to go himself, gripping Sanji's leg with a piece of Bubbly Coral for the underwater chase.

Luffy and Hody finally trade blows in a serious duel, with Luffy folding Armament Haki into his everyday attacks for the first time. Noah reaches Gyoncorde Plaza carrying Decken aboard. For the first time, a character accurately pins down the source of Decken's ability as a Devil Fruit. The alliance between Decken and Hody collapses, turning the two into enemies. Shirahoshi gives herself up to lure the ark away and is wounded by Decken's knife.

On the cover, Dr. Kureha returns inside her castle, which has since been converted into a hospital, while the Isshi-20 have taken on eighty more doctors to grow into the hundred-strong Isshi-100. Jinbe's quick deduction, that air must linger somewhere within the flooded ship because Decken wields a Devil Fruit, sets up Luffy's plan to do battle aboard Noah.