Chapter 994

Using his Foxfire technique, Kin'emon seals Kikunojo's cut-off arm, and the searing heat lets her rise again. Kaidou voices approval of that kind of samurai spirit, saying it reminds him of what drew Roger and Whitebeard to such fighters. He shifts back to human shape and remarks that people are refined not by the march of progress but by dying; when he asks if the retainers are prepared to end the duel, Kin'emon shoots back that perishing at his hands would strip them of all honor. Down in the castle, Luffy, Sanji, and Jinbe make the first floor, only to meet two fresh Shinuchi, Fourtricks and Hamlet, whose SMILE fruits leave a chicken sprouting from one's back and a giraffe as the other's head; Sanji and Jinbe swat them aside, disgusted by the absurd animal placement.

High above, the frost sickness Queen unleashed keeps claiming victims across the Live Floor, sparing not even his own Pleasures. When they demand why he doomed them, he sneers that it finally gives them a use beyond grinning. As the samurai on both sides swat at the demons, Hyougoro spots that Omasa has been struck. Omasa readies to end his own life rather than harm his comrades, but Hyougoro halts him, telling him to hold on for a cure and to accept a dignified death only if one never comes. Chopper concedes he cannot brew and hand out a remedy to every victim during the melee, yet he figures the disease's maker must be nearby carrying an antidote worth seizing and copying.

When Robin asks what becomes of the untreated, Queen cackles that anyone struck has roughly sixty minutes left before dying. Even Apoo is sickened by the weapon and moves to flee, but Queen shoves the one existing cure onto him and vows to kill him if it is ever pried loose. Queen then declares a fresh contest: the whole floor may pursue Apoo for the vial, and should he stay uncaught for the hour, he survives while the rest perish. Chopper dispatches Zoro to wrestle the cure away as samurai and pirates alike lunge for it, and Apoo damns Queen for the trap.

Over in the tower on the right side of the brain, Sasaki insists Yamato cannot slip away and that their orders stand until Momonosuke is dead. Yamato promises to save both the boy and Shinobu, disclosing that he stood present twenty years earlier at Oden's execution and wept at Shinobu's speech and the tale of Oden's life. Unmoved by Sasaki's gunfire, he admits he once rushed to Kuri Castle yet could do nothing for Momonosuke, then blasts a pirate aside, gives his name, and declares himself ready to die for the boy. This installment ends the Bege cover serial, whose closing panel shows the Fire Tank ship still trailed by a Marine vessel.