Video version: https://youtu.be/RHI5OGykCao

Cover

On the cover, Yamato’s cover story at last comes to an end after 44 chapters, having begun all the way during the late stages of Egghead. While some might assume this was the longest cover story ever, it is, in fact, not. The From the Decks of the World cover story was 48 chapters long, the Stories of the Self-Proclaimed Straw Hat Grand Fleet was 46 chapters long, and even for individual characters, Caribou’s Kehihihihi in the New World was 46 chapters long, so Child of Oni Yamato’s Golden Harvest Surrogate Pilgrimage only comes in as the 4th longest cover story in the series.

On the cover itself, Yamato stands proudly in front of the Flower Capital’s shogun castle, with a skewer of Oden in hand, which Momonosuke behind is partaking in as well. Yamato also now wears a cape with the moon, the symbol of the Kouzuki (or “Moonlight”) clan, resembling Oden a little bit more in his latter years. He exclaims “Esteemed Luffy-dono, today too the Wano Country is at peace de gozaru”. As clearly seen, this expression doesn’t exactly sound natural coming from Yamato, sounding a lot like a fancy samurai much like how Kin’emon speaks, after he and the other Scabbards were educated by Yasuie to become more dignified, which can be noted in things such as using the suffix “-dono” to refer to Luffy, akin to the English “sir”, or the “de gozaru”, an archaic samurai form of the common “gozaimasu” used in Japanese. Needless to say, Yamato has fully embraced the weeb life.

The more interesting factoid though is that Yamato isn’t really leaving Wano for the moment being as some had speculated might happen. And aside form Ulti and Page One, the latter of which isn’t even visible on this cover, it doesn’t seem like anyone else is joining the posse for the moment being as well. So we’ll have to see if Yamato is to remain as a character of Wano forevermore or if something in the future will move the entire group, Momonosuke and Zunesha included. Speaking of Ulti though, we can see Kin’emon looking suspiciously at her, in a “have I seen you somewhere before” kind of way, funnily enough.

Mapping out the Chaos

We get a simplified map of God Valley, which helps us better orient ourselves with all the chaos going on. At the center is of course the titular Valley, which is where Shakky was being held, which cuts across the island from the north-western side to the south-eastern side. From the west came the Roger Pirates, entering into the valley from the top side, while from the east came the Rocks Pirates, entering the valley from the lower side, with the Marines pursuing them from the South. On the other hand, however, Xebec went around on the side of the mountain on the north as he was instead looking for Eris and Teach while all the other Rocks were busy going after Shakky. There it seems he came up against Garling, who appeared to be on the north-western entrance to the Valley right next to the treasure cache, as he was likely guarding it from pirates to ensure they didn’t steal them from the Celestial Dragons, particularly as many would’ve been meant for him if he was going to emerge as the Champion. As we will see later though, for being quite the champion, Garling couldn’t quite stand up to Xebec, which is why the treasures were left unguarded. It does seem though from what we see later in the chapter that there are two treasure storage warehouses, listed as number one and two. In the first one is where the devil fruits are found, where on the other one all the gold and treasures are found instead, being located right behind the “game stage” (ゲームステージ), what served as the stage for presenting the tournament. Judging by their location, it would seem the second storage warehouse is the one indicated here on the map, whereas the first one with the devil fruits is slightly more in land.

The Roger Pirates are seemingly now trying to retreat with Shakky in hand and trying to take what remaining treasures they can before they can escape. They seemingly tell the rest of the crew to move their ship to the south-west, or on the side of the mountain, perhaps to keep it away from enemy fire. Rayleigh runs with Shakky in his arms, because Sommers had hit her in the leg last chapter so she must be struggling to walk. Other pirates want to lay claim to her but they are stopped by Spencer and Mille Paine, as well as Shiki, who doesn’t want his Shakky-chwan to get hurt. Whitebeard also decides to move the focus to the treasures instead of Shakky because he too believes it’s the best for her, and so he and Ganzui press forward.

Big Mom and Kaidou

Within the first warehouse, we see once again play out the scene we saw in Kuma’s flashback, where he and Ivankov attain two devil fruits. Linlin interrupts by grabbing the Uo Uo no Mi (Fish Fish Fruit), Model: Seiryuu, while Kuma manages to escape eating the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi (Paw Paw Fruit). We get a brief cut away, in which we see that Ivankov seemingly escaped as well, though we aren’t quite told how he was able to before regrouing with Kuma. Still, Linlin rejoices as she decides to give this fruit to Katakuri so that her crew can become quite powerful in the future. This is a bit of a timeline plot hole though, because according to the Vivre Cards, Katakuri ate the Mochi Mochi no Mi at age 5 43 years ago. That was in 1481, five years before the God Valley Incident in 1486, so Katakuri should already have a fruit. Now, it’s not the first time that Oda has introduced something in a vivre card that turned out to be an error, such as Caesar Clown’s age being listed as 40, only to later retcon it to 55 since otherwise Caesar could not have been a member of MADS, so I’m assuming he’ll just change it to Katakuri having eaten the Mochi Mochi no Mi sometime after the God Valley Incident.

Still, dragon Katakuri does not come to pass, as Kaidou comes in and knocks Linlin straight in the face, all to attain the fruit for himself. Linlin is enraged, clashing with Kaidou and causing a large explosion with some haki lightning. This does reframe quite a bit of what Big Mom described us of this event in Chapter 999, however: “I still think of you like a little brother!! On the day Rocks fell into ruin at God Valley, I gave you that mythical model of the Uo Uo no Mi!! You owe me for life, Kaidou!!!”. Her line of “I gave you that fruit” though can also be more appropriately translated as “I let you have that fruit”, as Big Mom was basically saving face and acting like it’s only thanks to her that Kaidou got the fruit and he needs to pay her back for stealing it. Particularly as in 907 Big Mom asked to have Luffy before Kaidou by telling him “And let’s not forget, you still owe me big time, Kaidou.” to which he replied “That was in the past!!” but she remarked “But it’s a lifelong debt…”. Again, we were clarified in 999 that this was the fruit that Kaidou ate, so it seems that Big Mom was bitter enough about this moment that she kept nagging Kaidou about this debt for the rest of their lives.

At the same time, the Rocks Pirates continue to struggle at the island center. On the right, what seems to be Stussy is shooting at some opponents. On the left, Barbel is fighting against someone with a hammer. And at the center, Kyou is getting beaten up by a certain someone… someone who actually looks a lot like Marco the Phoenix??? Now, Marco was very much alive at this time, but he was still only 7 years old, as he is 45 after all. So this likely isn’t him, but it does sure look a lot like him. So is this another case of Nepo Piece, with this being a pirate who happened to be the father of Marco? Or is it really just another pineapple-looking fellow?

Meanwhile, Garp is running with seemingly Bogard by his side, who is holding a den den mushi in his hand so that Garp can talk with Sengoku. He questions Sengoku on the Genocide Tournament, but Sengoku insists that anyone inquiring into it has been eliminated by the Celestial Dragons. It would seem that Garp indeed wasn’t aware of the details of the Genocide Tournament, and when he said the “Celestial Dragons’ School Trip”, he didn’t realize the extent of what it is they intended to do. This means that Garp wasn’t aware or complicit to these things, and many Marines likely aren’t either, with the existence of these tournaments being a myth to most like Whitebeard mentioned, but of course we do know that Garp would still remain in the Marines nonetheless, so there’s a lot you can still argue in that reagrd. Sengoku did tell us in 957 though that the Celestial Dragons wanted to get rid of Garp in one way or another but weren’t able because after God Valley he became such a foundational stone for the public image of the Marines as the “Hero of the Marines” that they just couldn’t get rid of him.

Immortals and Perennials

On Xebec’s side instead, the situation looks quite grim. He has been able to locate and rescue Eris and Teach, but all the other members of the Davy Clan have instead been domi reversi’d. Xebec also exclaims that “these guys won’t die”, and as we see, he injured Garling, basically cutting off part of his head, but it simply regenerates as Garling appears to have immortality. This is a clarification I had been waiting for quite a long while because it helps us distinguish the powers that Imu can confer. On one hand there is the power of immortality (or “fujimi”, 不死身, immortality, invulnerability), where their bodies continuously regenerate. We’ve seen this power applied to the Five Elder Planets, and several of the God Knights, such as Gunko, Sommers, Maffey, and now Garling.

However, separately, there’s also the power of Perennial Youth, which while not mentioned directly to those we’ve seen exhibit it (unlike “immortality” which was directly used as a term to refer to them), it is clearly very evident by the fact that they don’t age across the decades. This was seen in Nerona Imu, who has seemingly been alive since the Void Century, in the Five Elder Planets, who retained the same appearance for several decades, such as Saturn looking the same here in God Valley or 200 years ago during the Iron Giant Incident, and finally Gunko, who also looks just as young as now all those decades later, and clearly must’ve been alive around less than a century or so since she knew Brook when she was little, someone who is currently 90 years old. However, as we see here Garling is immortal, but he is not perennially youthful, as he did age across the past decades. Similarly, Sommers was likely already immortal here too just like Maffey but he too did age up to the present. So this clearly distinguishes that immortality and perennial youth as different powers despite having some overlap.

Perennial youth itself is likely connected to the Perennial Youth Operation (不老手術, furou shujutsu), the ultimate ability of the Ope Ope no Mi, where the user can sacrifice their entire lifespan to make someone perennially youthful. Ivankov already very clearly implied that’s what Imu used to be perennially youthful, but I wonder if the immortality is part of this power or if the immortality is a completely seperate ability. Particularly, I wonder if the perennial youth that the Gorosei and Gunko have isn’t one that was manually conferred to all of them every time with the Ope Ope no Mi, particularly as the fruit had been lost and passing hands in the recent decades as seen in Law’s flashback, so it would’ve been weird if the Government had monopolized it for so long. To me it could make sense that by making a pact with Imu, those with the “mark” can attain part of Imu’s powers, such as attaining immortality and, in the case of a select few, being extended perennial youth as well, though it seems Imu is only willing to do this with an even more incredibly select few individuals, with Gunko being the only non-Gorosei we’ve seen with this power. This also makes me wonder now that Garling was promoted if he too wil be conferred perennial youth, as he wouldn’t make that great of a ruler if he died of old age in a decade or so.

This however also makes me wonder who Imu’s other powers can extend to, as we see later that Imu is able to take over Saturn’s body as well just like he did with Gunko, but again these are two who have been granted the perennial youth as well. Though at this time on God Valley, Gunko was also present and Imu instead chose to take over Saturn’s body. This could also explain how Gunko’s arrow-like powers resemble the same arrow that Imu used to kill Cobra.

What’s interesting about the immortality and perennial youth is that these also seem to extend to those affected by domi reversi. We saw that when Imu blew up Brogy’s hand, the domi reversi allowed him to regenerate it. And Imu even stated that “in exchange for a fixed lifespan, you will recieve an immortal body”, which seems to suggest those affected by domi reversi end up attaining both immortality and perennial youth, but how is this the case and how does it differ from what we’ve seen in other celestial dragons? How come Garling does not get the perennial youth, but those affected by domi reversi do? Is domi reversi something Imu only intends to gather fighters quickly and then kills them off or are they meant to remain servants for eternity?

Lulusia

Eitherway, Eris is confused by seeing the members of the clan she joined turning like that, referring to the large guy with the straw hat some celestial dragons thought could be a buccaneer as “oyaji”, or “pops”, and the other large lady as “baba”, or “granny”. It’s possible thus that these could be Xebec’s own parents, which is interesting as the father seems to carry a straw hat as we’ve pointed out before, though definitely a bit different than Roger’s here. Interestingly, Xebec tells Eris that “If anyone bearing the name Davy were to be caught, they’d be made to suffer pain so unbearable that it would make even hell feel tame by comparison”. The way this is worded in Japanese makes it simply sound like those of the Davy clan would be tortured by the Government, but I wonder if perhaps he means this more literally that those of the Davy clan have more sensitivity to pain. Particularly as Teach mentioned that he absorbs pain more than normal people, which many attributed to his fruit, but while he did say “my body absorbs all pain and that pain is amplified in the process” in the context of his fruit, it’s still possible it could be a trait of his unique body. I am perhaps looking too much into this and Xebec only meant it as them being persecuted by the Government, but it’s worth at least keeping it in mind. It’s also worth noting that Eris claims “I understand really well what the fate of this clan is”, which adds more to the mystery.

Speaking of Eris, she however feels that she needs to prove she can run away on her own, and she doesn’t want to burden Xebec either, so the two instead make the promise of meeting one day again… on Lulusia of all places. I wonder if this really is just a random destination for them to meet again at, particularly since Lulusia is close to Mary Geoise and the Red Line on the side of Paradise, practically the complete opposite end from somewhere like the West Blue, or if there is some deeper purpose for them meeting there? After all, as we were told Xebec would end up supposedly losing his life on this island, while Teach would grow up in Shade Port until he’d ask to join the Whitebeard Pirates 28 years ago, some 10 years after this incident, later claiming that he joined that ship because he wanted to find the Yami Yami no Mi somewhere out there in the world. It would seem that at that point his mother already died, so I wonder if she even survived this incident to begin with or if she died later down the line, but I’d imagine she died not long after this, perhaps not even reaching Lulusia, which would leave Teach as an orphan and suffering across his childhood, crying to the moon just like we saw Oda draw him. Again, I do have to wonder if Whitebeard did know that Teach was Xebec’s son, and if Lulusia bears any further significance here. Perhaps by coincidence, or by fate, a future subordinate of Blackbeard, Peachbeard, would raid Lulusia many years later before he was stopped by the Revolutionaries, and Ace had also looked for Blackbeard in Lulusia as well.

As Eris and Teach run away though, Teach looks back at this father and will remember his efforts here. And we see a very clear parallel between Dragon running away with a baby Shanks and Eris running away with a baby Teach, two different figures who would oppose each other in the future as two of the most key pivotal players, one helping give rise to Luffy to bring the Dawn and the other one wishing to usurp Imu’s control. One of them would even further scar the other one, interlocking their fates for long to come.

God Descends

Meanwhile, the Rocks Pirates locate the treasures in the first storage behind the game stage, and we see Ganzui trying to take the treasure too but he is stopped by Gabin. We know that poor Ganzui will in fact not make it out of this incident, so I wonder who he’ll die to. It is also among these treasures that Shanks will be hidden inside of a chest, so I wonder just when Dragon will get the chance to hide him in one of them.

We see Saturn standing on a hill pondering to himself, thinking about Kuma which indicates that the meeting between the two has already taken place. Kuma likely got away with his powers, moving to another side of the island to help the others. He gets a mental phone call from Imu however, who asks if Rocks is dead, but on the contrary, it seems things are only getting more out of hand for the Government, as Saturn worries all these events could give rise to new threats, as evidently seen in the rise of Roger and the survival of both Shanks and Teach. Imu repies to this by insisting that they can’t let it happen.

We briefly cut away to see Kuma rescuing several of the slaves on God Valley with his powers. As we were told, Kuma was able to save about 500 people from the incident, even though we don’t know how fortunate the other 100,000 rabbits on the island really ended up being, particularly as the entire island vanished. After this, supposedly, Kuma would also leave with Ginny and Ivankov, and we don’t know if this has happened yet, but Ivankov mentioned being curious what happened on the island by reading the newspaper so maybe they got a slight glimpse before deciding to dip.

As after all, a massive black lightning bolt hits the island. The cracking of the thunder, seen through the sound effect “biri biri” (ビリビリ) extends to the entire island, where Roger, Garp, and Xebec all notice it.

Cutting away from a moment though, we see Petermoo, joined by Seagull, Ganryu, and Yui, referring to Roger as “okashira” (お頭), which means “boss” or “chief”. This is the same unique term that Shanks’s crew uses to address him, and also what the Giant Warrior Pirates use to address Dorry and Brogy, so I can imagine that Roger probably passed on this term to Shanks and it’s why he would use it with his crew in the future instead of “captain”.

Meanwhile Xebec has defeated Garling once again, off-screening him in such a fashion that even his son would be proud, but he also was forced to raise his hand against his own clan, given what he said and the bloodied hand with a chain on it on the ground, having had to quite brutally fight back against the very parents who raised him. He is however joined by Whitebeard, who is willing to help him out because Xebec always pays his tab. This is more significant than it seems, as Marco claimed in 909 that Whitebeard never paid the tab because he was always sending money back to his hometown of Sphinx, and I wonder if at this time back then he was already funneling money back to them. Kaidou also joins them, now fully transformed as a dragon. Some people debated all the way back during Wano that the fruit actually would begin as a koi fish and then transform into a dragon when fully awakened or whatnot, but clearly as we see here the fruit lets Kaidou transform right from the getgo. As we’ve mentioned before, the reason it’s classified as a fish is simply because the word for dragon, ryu, is already used for the dinosaur line of fruits, since ryu can also mean “saur”. Eitherway, this sets the stage for the real God Valley Incident we were told so much about, where Roger and Garp would teamp up against the Rocks and take Xebec down once and for all.

That is, of course, the version of history we were told about. But reality was different, as clearly this wasn’t a mere battle on both sides, but a veritable God Valley Battle Royale. As one fourth key player joined the ring: King Imu. Possessing Saturn’s body, to the point of emerging from the top of his gyuki body like a triangular shape very reminiscent of the usual form we’ve seen so many times, as we expected Imu directly takes the stage on the God Valley battlefield. It makes sense that this part of God Valley was one that even Sengoku could not speak of, and the part of the incident that no one would be allowed to talk about.

This does make me wonder though how many of the current parties actually got to see Imu and how many were even aware of who this entity is. At the very least, Xebec clearly knows who this is, claiming that this is “the World”. And as we know, so too would his son’s ultimate objective be one and the same: “the World”.