1100 Chapters!! Yet another incredible milestone! Thank you to everybody who has stuck around all this time! Here’s to many more!

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwkW8K8BDZY

Deal with the Devil

As the chapter opens, we see Kizaru visiting Vegapunk at what would be Egghead. At this time, he still had his traditional hat, which if you don’t know, is known as a “borsalino hat”, hence the Admiral’s name. This look was based on Kunie Tanaka’s look in the classic Japanese comedy film Truckyarou, which features even the iconic glasses.

Kizaru complains how the island is really cold, much unlike Punk Hazard. This may be confusing given how Punk Hazard is half frozen, but you have to keep in mind that prior to the duel between Akainu and Aokiji two years ago, the island was originally a very vibrant and nature-filled island, though that was until Caesar ruined its ecosystem at this time 4 years ago.

As a small detail, you can also see Vegapunk’s head popping out of his speech bubble because it’s too big.

Present on the island is also X Drake, who is accompanying Kizaru on the mission. This is before he became an undercover pirate, but there’s actually a way bigger relevance to him being present here that finally explains a scene of foreshadowing that took place 15 years ago.

During Sabaody, Drake was confronted by a Pacifista, and he exclaimed “Vegapunk… in addition to Bartholomew Kuma’s body… you reproduced Kizaru’s ability as well…?!!” “I had no idea the “Pacifista” had developed this far…!!”. Drake had known about the Pacifista project, involving the cloning of Kuma, and Kizaru’s ability, because Drake was there when the Pacifista Project began during this chapter, finally explaining that bit of foreshadowing, which already told us that it was Vegapunk who cloned Kuma as well as replicated Kizaru’s laser devil fruit ability all those years ago.

Vegapunk then enters a call with St. Jaygarcia Saturn, in a special den den mushi that appears slightly larger than normal models, also featuring a special shell with spikes, like that of a seashell, so I wonder if it’s just a visual detail or this is a special model reserved for people like him.

Just as we had deduced last chapter, Saturn forced Kuma into an agreement, forcing him to become a Warlord and augment his body as a cyborg, which was not part of Vegapunk’s original plan. However, as most Warlords do not follow orders, Saturn demands for Kuma to abandon his sense of will and be fully controllable. This is why Kuma was famously known as the most obedient of the Warlords, always following each of their orders, which made Moria wonder what his true motives were, something we now finally know.

Vegapunk is indignated at this, something we saw a glimpse of when he talked with Bonney, explaining how he also was outraged at having to follow through with killing Kuma, but had no other choice to comply since it was Kuma’s wish, happy to make a very literal deal with the Devil with Saturn if he can save Bonney’s life. Just as we see later, Vegapunk made a promise to Kuma to never tell Bonney about this, because she was the reason why Kuma gave up his life.

We get an outlined timeline for the rest of the flashback as well, with Bonney’s treatment taking six months, which ends later within this year, still four years ago. Then, a year later, towards the end of three years ago and few months before the start of the series, Bonney would be fully cured and would be able to go out into the sunlight, letting her become healthy before the age of 10. As she would turn 10 with the turn of the next year, just as she said, she would set out to sea with Gyogyo and the others to become a pirate and escape from the Sorbet Kingdom. This explains why Akainu was so afraid when Bonney had escaped from the Government, because she was the only bargaining chip they had against Kuma.

This also finally explains why Bonney outlived her usefulness, as since Kuma lost all sense of will, they don’t need to keep her around anymore. Saturn was even willing to let Bonney go and not focus on her, claiming her to just be a little girl and perhaps in some way even honoring part of that original agreement.

On the other hand, Kuma’s modifications would take two years, going until the spring of 1522 two years ago when Kuma became a full robot and lost his sense of self right between Sabaody and Marineford. This is why he told Luffy that they would “not meet again”, not because Luffy was going to die, but because Kuma himself was going to.

Kuma however is imposed that he doesn’t meet Bonney after these six months, to ensure they don’t escape. This would explain why Bonney and Kuma did not meet in Sabaody despite the close range, but it does bring into question if Kuma was aware of Bonney’s pirating career yet, because if he did, he would have no reason to go through with fully dying yet, but I’m sure that will be explained by Oda soon enough.

Life at Egghead

Vegapunk then begins developing the Pacifista, but begins to express how he wishes there were several more of him that could help him, expressing that he wishes “a cat could lend him a hand”. This is a Japanese expression that essentially means having someone lending you a hand, which is the reason behind the Satellites having the kanji reading for “cat”. As a small detail too, some of these lines Vegapunk utters, are lifted word by word from the Egghead promotional video by Calliope Mori, which Oda expressed greatly admiring and liking.

Following, we see Kuma beginning to go through his treatement, and as a cool detail, the machine where he is being treated is the exact same that we saw in the brief flashback image of Kuma being modified all the way back in Marineford, showing a nice degree of consistency. The modifications on his shoulders are very similar to those shown in that panel too. And to top that off, Vegapunk’s outfit during this first encounter is also the same that Kuma depicted him in when we first caught a glimpse of him 15 years ago, with gloves and a striped shirt.

Across these panels we can also see what would be Egghead beginning to be built up, with cargo of materials arriving on the island to erect all the buildings. On the ship is the writing “Umit Cargo Ship”, and this is actually quite the deep reference, as it’s referring to Umit, one of the Emperors of the Underworld who attended Big Mom’s tea party. He is known as a shipping magnate, called the “Deep Ocean Current”, who provides materials all across the world. The symbol on the ship even resembles that of his hat.

We then also see Kuma, Bonney, Vegapunk, Sentoumaru, and Kizaru eating a giant pizza all together, which showcases to us how these people all became close together, only to fatefully end up fighting the Straw Hats side by side in Sabaody. Bonney’s expression when seeing pizza, her favorite food, is the same one Ginney had when seeing food. And in a nice touch, by the end of it, they all end up dancing to the tune of Nika, as they sing out the Drums of Liberation. This also explains why Sentoumaru saved Bonney and why Kizaru was struggling to hurt her.

Finally, six months pass and Bonney’s treatment concludes. Vegapunk still has his whole brain here, which makes sense as Bonney was shocked when Vegapunk cut his brain, as he only created Punk Records and the satellites after this, within the span of the past 2-3 years, since he already had his head cut off before the time Kuma became a full cyborg, when they have their talk about the soul and memories. Bonney asks if she can visit the island in the future again, which is ironic as next time she would come to want to kill Vegapunk.

They finally return to Sorbet, where Bonney reunites with Connie. We pointed out last chapter how Conney seemingly gave Bonney her iconic hat, but some pointed out the discrepancy of the hat having darker colors there compared to Bonney’s brighter hat. This however has been rectified with Conney now wearing a new hat with lighter colors that matches the hat Bonney would inherit.

The one who takes care of looking after Bonney, or rather looking that she doesn’t escape, is Cipher Pol 8 agent Alpha. Now you may be confused and think… isn’t this just Kalifa? She looks identical to her and is a Cipher Pol agent, but she can’t be her, because Kalifa would at this time be on an undercover mission in Water 7 as a secretary of Galley-La, and was part of CP9 anyway. So the obvious answer is that this is most likely Kalifa’s twin sister, which makes sense as both of their names are very similar, Kalifa and Alpha, a pattern that is even more obvious when written in Japanese. Though there’s also the possibility that she could be a clone like Stussy, but it’s hard to say, as Laskey, Kalifa’s father, could have easily have twin daughters that he both recruited into the Cipher Pol after himself.

Around the church we can also see some iron walls and fences being erected, essentially turning it into a prison of limited access to ensure that Bonney doesn’t escape.

But when you think about it, it actually makes so much sense how it is that Bonney escaped from the Government. Because think about it, if Bonney escaped while literally wearing Conney’s clothes, and has used this tactic to infiltrate places before… it makes perfect sense, she got past the Government guards by disguising as Conney, hat and all, and then set out to sea with Gyogyo and the others before the Government could realize, keeping the hat while on her journey as a memento of Conney. Considering how Kalifa was… not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was able to fool Alpha as well.

As a final farewell, Kuma tells Bonney “Thank you, Bonney, for being born and coming to see me”. This line is incredibly powerful, as it is actually written very similarly in Japanese to the first line that Kuma’s parents ever told him, “I’m glad you were born and came out to see us”, bringing his story full circle.

Former Warlords

We then get to see the reaction by all the different Warlords around the world to Kuma’s promotion. Sugar shows the news to Doflamingo, who expresses interest in Kuma, as the two would develop a strange relationship as Warlords, traveling together to Mary Geoise during Jaya and Doflamingo also explaining to Luffy and Ivankov during Marineford how Kuma was killed.

Robin informs Crocodile, who asks her if she has disposed of those that spotted their rain-making ship, referring to the Fool, the ship that used dance powder to cause civil unrest in Alabasta, as any witnesses of it would have to be disposed. Behind them, a bananawani can also be seen chilling. We also see Mihawk, Hancock, Koby and a very delusional Alvida, and Ace, now part of the Whitebeard Pirates, alongside Whitebeard, Marco, Jinbe, and Teach, the year prior to Teach killing Thatch and stealing his fruit. Interestingly, Saturn stated “The other day, thanks to a rookie called Ace, we are left with a vacant Warlord position”. It’s unclear what this is referring to, as it could refer to Ace having defeated a Warlord and thus leaving a position vacant, or it could also more simply refer to the time when Ace rejected the offer to become a Warlord, so Saturn could be frustrated they couldn’t fill it in with Ace. The wording in Japanese is quite vague, so it’s hard to say for sure.

To put it into perspective, here’s a quick timeline of the order in which of the current Warlords joined the system:

Around 1503, or around 21 years ago: Crocodile becomes a Warlord in his mid-20s, as part of his long plan towards Operation Utopia
1511, or around 13 years ago: Hancock is offered to become a Warlord and accepts to protect Amazon Lily
1513, or 11 years ago: Jinbe is offered to become a Warlord, and accepts to help liberate his crew and establish good relationships with Fishman Island
1514, or 10 years ago: Doflamingo blackmails the Government to become a Warlord in order to set up his plan later in the year of taking over Dress Rosa
1520, or 4 years ago: Ace is offered to become a Warlord, but turns the invitation down
1520, or 4 years ago: Kuma is forced to become a Warlord, its most recent one as of the start of the series
1522, or 2 years ago: Teach, and later Buggy become Warlords. Over the timeskip, Law and Weevil become Warlords too

The only ones we don’t know about are Mihawk, who evidently became a Warlord to be left alone, and Moria, who was interested in pillaging ships to build up his zombie crew. Knowing that Moria settled in the Florian Triangle 10 years ago and began gathering zombies without being bothered by the Government, I’d say it’s likely around that time when he became a Warlord.

Speaking of which, we also see Moria here, who is told the news by Perona. Moria develops an interest in finding out how Kuma’s powers work, which is an incredibly deep cut reference, as Perona would later be taken by surprise by Kuma’s powers, whereas Moria told him that he had learned and found out about how Kuma’s abilities work, with this chapter showing why he became interested to find out about them to begin with. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s crazy we’re finally understanding all these lines of dialogue from 15 years ago with this flashback.

And finally, we see Dragon, Sabo, Hack, and Koala, who are worried for Kuma and would end up rescuing him four years later when he would be turned into a slave after protecting the ship of the Straw Hats.

We conclude by switching back to Kuma, who is writing a letter to Bonney, one he seemingly delivers through the News Coo system. He is hunting down pirates on behalf of the Government, having wiped out a pirate ship in this panel, also claiming to be hunted down by his fame. We finally get a look at his ship, which is modeled after him, with a hull in the pattern of his hat and two massive bear ears. The front is in a shape similar to a cross, and the building on the ship appears to be modeled after his church. On the sail itself, and likely the flag, is the writing “Kuma” with a drawing of his face. This drawing was actually the drawing that Bonney made of Kuma, making this symbol an incredibly heartfelt detail.

Kuma at Goa Kingdom

Kuma however happens to stumble in the most unexpected of locations of all places, being Foosha Village in the Goa Kingdom, Luffy’s very own hometown, as we see him playing around with a tiger. Luffy here should be currently 15 years old as of 4 years ago, unless some months have passed since Kuma became a Warlord and we have entered the next year where Luffy would be 16.

But this does of course incur the question, what is Kuma doing here? Of course there’s the possibility that this is only meant as a quick detail and Kuma was just happening to pass by the island, but given the way the chapter dramatically ends, it does seem to be indicating that Kuma has a specific mission on the island, but… which?

The Grey Terminal Incident is a thing of the past, and there really aren’t any relevant figures on the island aside from Luffy, as I doubt that Kuma would really come after Dadan or something like that. His presence on the panel would seem to imply the idea that Kuma is somehow coming after Luffy, but why? Did the Government somehow cotton on the fact that the Nika fruit was lost on this island? Could Kuma have covered up for Luffy all this time, misleading the Government? Or is there something more to it?

It’s interesting to consider that Kuma knew that Luffy was Dragon’s son, despite other people like Ivankov or everyone else in the Revolutionary Army not knowing about it. Did Dragon confide to Kuma some time from father to father or did Kuma somehow found out during this time? But if that’s the case, why was he willing to take Luffy’s head at Thriller Bark until Zoro stopped him, or was that some type of bluff all along?

And it’s not limited at just that. There’s also the fact that as of Thriller Bark, Kuma was aware that Ace was Luffy’s brother, a fact that was otherwise unknown to anyone else but someone like Garp and any Government higher ups, but would they really have told him? How did he come to know all this stuff, and is it connected with his time in Luffy’s village?

We honestly don’t have enough details to say for sure, but I’m sure that the truth will come apparent to us by next week!