Chapter 946

Gripping the fallen Queen by his throat, Big Mom whirls him overhead and screams for her shiruko, then launches him across the chamber. His hurtling body wrecks the rig that had been holding Kid and Killer, spilling the two swordsmen free of the water, while Queen himself reverts to human shape in defeat. In the wreckage, Kawamatsu's cell is torn open. Babanuki orders his frightened men to wait on Kaido rather than provoke the Emperor, only for them to report that every Smart Tanishi has fallen silent.

The blackout is no accident. Caribou, Raizo recalls, had worked out that each Tanishi relays through a central Boss Tanishi, and choking that one creature would strand all of Udon's transmissions. Having spent time imprisoned there, Caribou knew exactly where to strike, and with the hub now smothered, Raizo turns his attention to freeing Kawamatsu.

Lured by its scent, Big Mom finally opens Queen's pot and, finding it hollow, sinks into a gloomy stupor. Luffy carelessly mutters that he too wanted seconds, exposing himself as the one who devoured everything, and she erupts. Her strike drives him and Hyogoro toward the ring's rim, where one more hit would detonate their collars. Certain his companion must not perish, Luffy rips both collars away in a single desperate motion before they can burst.

Big Mom, it turns out, had craved the soup as a gift for the people of Okobore Town who once treated her kindly, not as a treat for her own appetite, and Luffy's theft of it enrages her further. Some beast men beg to help slay the pair in trade for their own survival, and she answers by pelting them with a rock. It is implied Luffy has now used advanced Armament Haki. Rather than let Luffy flee afterward, Hyogoro stakes his own life on the pirate's growth, ordering him to stand guard so the battle itself becomes Haki training. The cover request, from PN Hachimitsu Nameko, shows Kin'emon and O-Tsuru enjoying a street date led by a fox and its foxfire.