Chapter 939

Stunned that Hiyori is Momonosuke's sister, Zoro's outburst confirms to her that her brother lives. Reassured he is an ally of the returning Kouzuki, Hiyori explains how Momonosuke was sent twenty years into the future. She recalls the night her parents died and her brother vanished, when she lost the will to live, doubting his promise to return. Asked why she stayed behind, she reveals it was to preserve the Kouzuki bloodline should the plan fail.

The retainer Kawamatsu had smuggled her from the burning castle by digging into a water channel and swimming her to safety, slowly coaxing her out of her grief before they parted when she was thirteen. Zoro tells her Inuarashi and Nekomamushi are alive, which overjoys her, and she names the final three of the Nine Red Scabbards as Kawamatsu, Denjiro, and Ashura Doji.

In the capital's Rasetsu District, Orochi's forces cage the Kouzuki allies for public display. Fukurokuju gloats over their exposure, dismissing the prisoners' claims that the crescent symbol is meaningless, since the accompanying messages prove their guilt. Onlookers are stunned by how many citizens secretly opposed the shogun, and the captives are made an example of.

Back in the mines, Madilloman vows to end Luffy and Hyougoro quickly with Seastone bullets, but Luffy guides Hyougoro to dodge by ducking and leaping, even predicting the attacks. As Luffy keeps failing to project Armament Haki from his palm, Hyougoro realizes the foreigners' Haki is the same will samurai use to harden their blades. He charges Alpacaman and fells him with a powerful shockwave, the exact technique Luffy wants, and Luffy asks the old man to teach him.

Hiyori was kept from the future to safeguard the Kouzuki bloodline, and Kawamatsu is confirmed as her rescuer from Oden Castle. All nine members of the Nine Red Scabbards are now accounted for, and the Heart Pirates are shown imprisoned in the Rasetsu District. Hyougoro reveals that what outsiders call Haki, Wano knows as a samurai's will, and he demonstrates the advanced ranged technique. The title puns on a proverb about an old horse knowing the way, swapping in the leopard, whose Japanese reading nods to Hyougoro. The cover gag shows a spider crab cutting Jinbe's hair underwater.