I think we’ve reached the end of volume 115 with this one. I had kinda hoped the end-of-book cliffhanger for this one would be the turn for the worse that kicks off the secret final stage of the battle (come on, Reversi Loki), but it’s much more in Oda’s style to call it on this kind of rallying moment instead. Unfortunately, you can feel the story getting compressed and squeezed to fit the story into the book here.

That said, I like that we found time for one last scene with the kids at the start of the chapter. They all discovered inner strength they would never have known during their abduction, and it brings things full circle to show them enraptured with the warriors’ strength as they defend the homeland. It’s also actually really funny to cut between Kashii struggling to attack a friend and Broggy taking out petty grievances as he fights. Zoro’s attack is unexpectedly brutal as well.

A giant with a D. name is a pretty wild thing to drop randomly into these opening pages. From the presentation of it, my gut says this might be more of a translation.transliteration quirk from a wrestler name like so many other giants, but I don’t know the wrestling scene well enough to confirm.

And then we get to the Chopper scene, which to be honest just raises more questions about home Reversi works. The first thing we learn is that Zoro’s group is wrong about fatal blows being the only way, because Chopper saved that guy without coming close to killing him. Does that mean what Zoro is doing will turn out ineffective? And what do we see leaving that giant’s body as he’s hit? A piece of Imu’s essence, or an actual demon from whatever underworld the tiles flip into? Are these entities that need hosts to survive the real world? Perhaps Imu is able to act as a conduit for them, or keeps a few on hand inside himself, which is how he was able to turn Rocks without the tile flip. This has the feeling of pivotal info dropped in a kinda throwaway way, so I’ll be keeping a pin in it.

The shift to the Strawhat group at the library is where I can feel Oda stepping on the gas just a little. I don’t mind Killingham not getting a multi-chapter 1v1 or anything like that, but I expected a tiny bit more back and forth. The method to stop his regeneration is very fun though. We love a belligerent severed head. We’ve been able to see for a while that healing also fixes clothes, but it’s a great touch that separated as he is, Killingham’s helmet has repaired fully without his head in it.

I got a good chuckle out of Nami telling off Luffy and Loki. As much as Loki claims not to care, he visibly hesitates at her tirade and only lashes out at Luffy. Ragnir comforting Luffy is for sure something we’ll all be sick of seeing as a reaction image within the month, but it’s incredibly charming as a one-off.

Buuuuut if Killingham’s defeat was a little glossed over, Brook and Usopp’s scene is where Oda fully puts his foot to the floor. This is a sequence that needed at least a couple more pages. Brook’s been run through! Can’t you just picture the scene where he’s shocked to have taken a fatal blow except whoops, he’s already dead? There’s the outline of the Usopp scene everyone’s been waiting for in here, but it lacks weight without seeing him actually get beat first. You need to see a guy try, fail, then raise the question of what drives him to keep getting back up even though it’s hopeless before you drop lines like this. Like damn, I’ll take it over nothing – Usopp not getting to live up to the spirit of Elbaph was starting to become a real worry, especially after the live action Little Garden provided a timely reminder of how important that moment would be. I just can’t help wondering what could have been cut to give this bit the breathing room it deserves.

Aside: does Gunko/Imu use Saturn’s death glare thing against Brook here? Glad we haven’t forgotten that was a thing, even if it’s still not clear how it works, except that it’s a gesture as well as a look this time.

And I will say, Imu’s final move using Usopp’s own explosives against him is a smarter use of immortality than we’ve been shown up to this point. Being the one to say ‘fire’ when he hesitates is a power move as well. (And props to Usopp for being able to survive his own attack, considering what it does to Gunko’s body.)

For all that’s had to be missed here, I’m truly keen to see what fighting Imu/Gunko is supposed to look like given the current size differences. A big deal is being made that it’s the first time these two are meeting, more than 200 chapters after Imu’s introduction, but I’m keeping my head because I’m sure it’ll be made into twice as big a deal when they meet again without Imu using a proxy. That’s the for real one. This is practice. Whatever the battle looks like, it’s pretty clear that Luffy will be going in highly motivated (see, he does still care about people getting hurt when he’s in Nika mode, there were just a lot of distractions for that one Vegapunk scene) so Imu is going to have to show off some counterplay fast and hard. My money remains on Reversi Loki, but actually can you imagine a Reversi Luffy instead? The odds aren’t great, but with Oda you can never be too sure what to expect. See you all next week for the start of a new volume.