One Piece Chapter 997: "Flames" (Official Release)

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Friday the thread will be updated with fan translations for chapter and on Sunday the official release will be out.

Break this week

Link to Official Release: Viz, Mangaplus

Spoilers could potentially be discussed in this thread, also try not to derail this thread.

 

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Bump Spoilers out

 

[Voltairee]

DAMNNNN

 

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A great, great chapter. Don't want to hear anymore "Zoro wank is toxic", "he has no 7-A+ scaling"

Zoro one shot a guy who one shot a guy who's got 7-A+ durability, says it all. Zoro did what Hybrid X Drake couldn't. Zoro actually blocking a Calamity. And his rage for Kaido is forever being fueled each chapter.

I'm guessing ambition is being translated weirdly and it means haki, not sure. Brook really thinks Zoro can create earthquakes with his haki? Kinda weird but loving the zoro hype.

And Kaido having more abilities, I love it. What exactly do we consider cloud manipulation anyways? Also this is a massive, massive lifting strength feat for Kaido. And Kaido moving the battlefield to The flower capital I wonder if a new legend will be created.

 

[UchihaSlayer96]

Yoooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Kaido creating massive clouds and moving the battlefield not only will it look absolutely epic, it'll probably also result in great calcs!!!

I could not be more happy with the Zoro hype!! I mean, beating Apoo (finally) and even blocking an attack from Queen, yeah.........amazing.
And if it wasn't clear before, it's definitely clear now, the intention is certainly for Zoro to go on and join the fight against Kaido.

Chopper and Marco putting in work too, honestly, I can't wait. The road to 1000 keeps getting better and better, and MUCH MUCH more hype!

 

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Bump, Raw Scans and the full spoiler summary are out.

 

[Voltairee]

HE ONESHOTTED APOO WITH JUST ITTORYUU WTF MAN

 

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Zoro really one shot every member of Kid's pirate alliance, the only one left being Kid.

 

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We finally get to see the feat of Kaido lifting Onigashima; for starters what type of Ability would this be considered? Telekinesis? Either way this has to at least be a Class T feat or higher. Wonder if attack potency can be determined.

Also Zoro outright saying he's going to behead Kaido, who would've thought

 

[Wrath_Of_Itachi]

Damn, that Kaido feat could give some nice results.

 

[Wrath_Of_Itachi]

Is there a size for the Island?

 

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Not officially, some people have tried getting a result before based on the sky split, I think the issue with those calcs were timeframe but that shouldn't be an issue here.

So maybe someone's already calc'd the island size.

 

[CinCameron20]

Tbf, it's not fair for Apoo being "one-shot" being an incredibly massive prop for Zoro (I mean, he was fighting Drake at that moment). Weapon-users in this series tend to incap their enemy upon a direct hit, but to Zoro's credit, I saw no visible use of Hardening, so his AP and Durability can scale to Apoo and Hybrid Drake (Both being 7-A+ scaling =/> Base Luffy's Dura). So 7-A+ Zoro, finally.

• Also, let me remind people that the number of swords Zoro is using does not matter, especially since his ITTORYU strikes tend to be his strongest (outside of air-slices and Asura). If I see the "Ittoryu being 1/3 Santoryu AP" argument again, oml.

Things are looking bad for Sanji. He is definitely in a Kalifa situation, but I'm hoping he is willing to take down Black Maria for the sake of his friends... Please don't make the same mistake twice.

Kaido lifting Onigashima may be Elemental manipulation via his shown powers. Even if we low-balled the size of the island to, say 2.5km radius (and treated it like a sphere), it would still result in probably High 7-A PE, and the KE would be significantly higher. Easily 6-C with the mass. Also, yeah, probably Class T lifting. I could be wrong, though.

 

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Weapon-users in this series tend to incap their enemy upon a direct hit

Nah that's just Zoro. Zoro one shot him, that's how it's treated. You can't dismiss the scaling from someone one shotting people because he does it all the time.

Plus Zoro cut the Tonfa which was blocking X Drake and clearly supposed to be a higher durability than Apoo like you said last chapter was cut in half.

All this really means is Enraged/Serious Zoro >> Nitoryu Zoro (the one fighting Apoo last chapter). It's stupid that Zoro didn't get serious previously, but, we knew this already since the entire time he could have pulled out Santoryu, it was Oda stalling for time.

Also, let me remind people that the number of swords Zoro is using does not matter, especially since his ITTORYU strikes tend to be his strongest (outside of air-slices and Asura). If I see the "Ittoryu being 1/3 Santoryu AP" argument again, oml.

Not going to argue a direct 1/3 dawg but it's literally stated by Zoro himself multiple times he's weaker without all three swords, his ittoryu is not stronger than Santoryu.

 

[Lgamer099_99]

Personal prevision: Zoro will reach Kaido thanks to Marco (who asked if he can help) who will take on King and Sanji who will take on Queen.

 

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Personal prevision: Zoro will reach Kaido thanks to Marco (who asked if he can help) who will take on King and Sanji who will take on Queen.

You're right, it's not in the spoiler chat yet but Zoro says this literally before Marco appears: "I've fallen behind... wish I could just fly up there... I don't think any other route would work"

 

[Lgamer099_99]

Does someone still think that Zoro won't fight Kaido alongside Luffy after this chapter? Lmao.

 

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We'll have to wait and see, Big Mom is now up there and honestly I don't see her randomly turning on Kaido rn when she's no different than when she tried last time.

All I know is Zoro's fighting Kaido, and we probably gonna see him riding Marco in a chapter or so.

 

[CinCameron20]

@Eminiteable - Zoro only ever stated his weakness with a single blade back in Syrup Village (And implied in Arlong Park, granted he was severely wounded). He honed his abilities by the time he reached Whiskey Peak and beyond.

Again, Apoo was having to defend against both Zoro and Drake. He was only defeated while being pressured by Drake, and Zoro coming in for the kill. It's not a massive deterrent for Apoo or Drake's abilities.

• This is not me saying Zoro =/< Apoo/Drake. I firmly believe Zoro and Sanji are currently above them by varying degrees, but it's not like Zoro is a full leap ahead of them (inb4 Asura pop)

 

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Zoro : "I came here to kill/behead the world strongest Kaido"

Fodder 1 : What is that ?
Fodder 2 : An earthquake is happening due to his (Zoro) wrath!
Fodder 3 : I can't stand!!!
Brook : Haki ? Haoushoku (Conqueror) ?? Zoro-san what you did ? you are a dangerous man!
Robin : I understand Zoro .. i also saw that, the thing that fell out from the hole up ...
Robin : The arm of Okiku-chan!!!

Obviously Zoro didn't cause that earthquake, that was Kaido. But:
Idk yet if they're just assuming because the ground shakes immediately as Zoro says his little speech that it's conqueor's, or coincidentally Zoro actually used conqueor's as the same time the earthquake started and Brook and others sensed it & also assumed it was what was causing the earthquake.

Might become clearer with the full release

 

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Yes, and it doesn't need to be rementioned, he states there's a direct difference in power between using Three Swords and Santoryu, he states he's at his weakest with one sword.

Later we directly see in the series it isn't the case that Zoro isn't weaker; against Mr. 1 he said he wouldn't take his attacks anymore which is why he only needs one sword. Against Orhm when using either ittoryu or Nitoryu he was either equal or being overpowerd, Santoryu one shot. Hell a really recent fight showed Zoro needed Santoryu for Killer, if Ittoryu was stronger than Nitoryu he would have used it and if Ittoryu was stronger than Santoryu, again, he wouldnt have needed a third weapon.

Again, Apoo was having to defend against both Zoro and Drake. He was only defeated while being pressured by Drake, and Zoro coming in for the kill. It's not a massive deterrent for Apoo or Drake's abilities.

Yes, he was. He was only defeated once Zoro saw Kiku's arm and got serious. Drake didn't do anything, he's in literal shock. Like if Drake wasn't there Zoro would still have cut through the Tonfa and then Apoo and all the same would have been one shot. Maybe you could argue it allowed Zoro to cleanly hit him? Since Apoo was running away everytime Zoro used a named attack previously, but either way the scaling would be a one shot difference.

Not taking anything away from Drake and Apoo, since they both have scaling and their own feats to comfortably put them in 7-A+ range.

 

[Lgamer099_99]

Please no...

 

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Sorry for the confusion, that Interview is fake.

 

[CinCameron20]

I'm not denying Zoro's supremacy in skill with the Santroyu, but using cases like Ohm being one-shot is a little strange when considering it's comparing Zoro's 36 pound canon to his 108 pound canon, which would obviously be stronger since it's 3 of the former being fired off at once.

Each style has its benefits and deterrents. None are necessarily better than the other. Zoro defeated Ryuma with Ittoryu despite stalemating with Nitoryu. Zoro's Shi-shi Son Song was capable of damaging Mr. 1 and could possibly break Kaku's Tekkai (granted, some Haki involved). Zoro switches between 1-3 swords depending on the attacks he is using and he has always won via a massive direct hit at the end of each fight whether it be 1, 2, or 3 swords.

@Eminiteable - What do you mean Drake didn't do anything? We see Apoo being pushed back while defending against Drake's dual-wielding before Zoro slipped in and cut him down. Sure, you could argue Apoo's only defense would be evasion against that attack, but keep in mind he was not able to put up any proper defense against Zoro due to the fact he was giving all of his focus to Drake at the moment.

• Though I will say this bumps Zoro easily into the top 4 Supernova, questionably behind Law and Kid. But this is mostly because the lack of feats for Kid and Urouge, who both fought against Cracker (theoretically for Kid)

Hopefully someone has gotten the scale of Onigashima since it's a pretty simple feat to calculate... until you realize there's also a storm to scale too. Gotta find the values of making the storm-clouds and lifting (PE and KE) the entire island, and i'm confident that it is easily 6-C or higher (Unless Onigashima ends up only having a 1km radius lol).

 

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Each style has its benefits and deterrents. None are necessarily better than the other. Zoro defeated Ryuma with Ittoryu despite stalemating with Nitoryu. Zoro's Shi-shi Son Song was capable of damaging Mr. 1 and could possibly break Kaku's Tekkai (granted, some Haki involved). Zoro switches between 1-3 swords depending on the attacks he is using and he has always won via a massive direct hit at the end of each fight whether it be 1, 2, or 3 swords.

And it's important when scaling to go case by case and come to understand why sometimes Ittoryu performed better; Zoro defeated Ryuma with Ittoryu with a flame attack which burned away Ryuma's corpse, it wasn't because Zoro's ittoryu with this attack had far greater AP. You already answered the shishi sonson stuff for me, it's due to haki; there's no reason to not assume Zoro could have one shot Mr. 1 with Rashomon or any Santoryu attack if Zoro at the time had fully mastered said Haki & again with Kaku shishi sonson is specifically an attack intended to cut through steel, that's what it was used for but the overall attacking power of it was stalemated by Kaku before it could hit.

Each style has its benefits and deterrents. None are necessarily better than the other.

That's great and all, but, in terms of AP which is what we use to scale it is indeed Santoryu > Nitoryu > Ittoryu, and even the select cases of the pre-timeskip where Ittoryu & Nitoryu could perform better (Shishi Sonson & Rashomon) is no longer a case in the Post-timeskip since Zoro in FMI & PH showed his complete mastery of cutting steel. So yes, some are necessarily better. And it's important to remember this statement from Zoro "there's a difference between using three swords and using Three Sword Style" this is highlighting that Zoro's Styles aren't just Zoro using three sword but rather somehow something far stronger, for whatever reason Zoro in the show is able to be drastically stronger just by putting a third sword in his mouth and that simply is how it is.

Sure, you could argue Apoo's only defense would be evasion against that attack, but keep in mind he was not able to put up any proper defense against Zoro due to the fact he was giving all of his focus to Drake at the moment.

Actually, no for two reasons: Apoo's defences were up against Drake and Zoro attacked Apoo from the same direction Apoo was facing & Drake was attacking from. His defences were already up because he was defending against X Drake. And, Apoo already realised his natural defenses (armament haki) clearly wouldn't be enough considering he brought out those Tonfa's to avoid direct contact (and is seemingly using armament on them based off last chapter), yet, Zoro cut through those Tonfa's which he was using to defend from and Apoo himself; no matter what way you look at it Apoo's guard was still up and Zoro cut through Apoo's primary defense.

Hopefully someone has gotten the scale of Onigashima since it's a pretty simple feat to calculate... until you realize there's also a storm to scale too. Gotta find the values of making the storm-clouds and lifting (PE and KE) the entire island, and i'm confident that it is easily 6-C or higher (Unless Onigashima ends up only having a 1km radius lol).

Excited to see what results you find.

 

[CinCameron20]

@Eminiteable - We can agree to disagree, but I will say that Apoo having his focus entirely on Drake should be taken into consideration as a reason for Zoro NOT being massively above him.

Also, we need someone to do a calculation on that Kaido feat. The angle we see the island at doesn't let us properly scale how much was uprooted from below sea-level, and the height the island was lifted is probably going to have to be low-balled since we don't have a straight view.

 

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Might be best to wait for next chapter then, could give a better perspective on the island.

 

[Gitagon]

Time for Zoro to open his other eye and to reveal insane Conquerers and maybe some high-tier Observation like Enel or Fujitora or Katakuri.

 

[Js250476]

I will say that last panel of Kaido is absolutely amazing and hype I’m super excited to see what happens next in the next few chapters

 

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Bump fan translations

 

[Js250476]

 

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Whoever translated it as "cut down" and added "obviously" trying to purposefully add in ambiguity cause they disagree with the implications the chapter briught forward.

 

[Wrath_Of_Itachi]

Someone should calc the Island size so we can calc this feat.

 

[Maxnumb231]

marco is literally not worried about the rest of kaido's crew... And it seems kaido has more statements being the "strongest" pirate out of all yonkos

 

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marco is literally not worried about the rest of kaido's crew... And it seems kaido has more statements being the "strongest" pirate out of all yonkos

Not disagreeing with him being the strongest, but, I think this is more so supposed to be a comparison between Kid and Luffy; Kid's first mate refers to Kaido as the strongest while Luffy's (according to the Japanese) refers to Kaido as the strongest in a mocking tone.

 

[CinCameron20]

Since Marco's most likely going to fight King as a means to allow Zoro to enter through the hole in the dome, I would not be surprised at this point if Zoro got up to Kaido first, but if that's the case--he'll obviously be taken down very quickly.

Not to disrespect Zoro, but him being capable to hold his own 1v1 against Kaido at this point in the story seems laughable, even if he somehow surpassed G4 Luffy pre-Udon. At best, I can see Kaido giving him some respect.

I was expecting/hoping for Jinbe to run into Queen or King, but since King might be taken by Marco (Which is a shame because I wanted King to showcase his abilities in taking out another notable character. I don't see him beating Marco with their DF abilities clashing), and now Jinbe is about to reach floor 4, it seems unlikely that Queen will turn his attention to the inside of the tower. Still wondering what Who's Who and Hawkins are doing.

 

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We'll see Cin, although Kid and Luffy are now on the fourth floor and I doubt we will get Zoro getting to the top next chapter, personally I think they're all in a good position to get to the top at around the same time.

But we'll definitely see if Zoro is capable of fighting Kaido soon, personally for me it was never about the fact Zoro showed he was the only one capable, rather, there was a strong narrative for it; Zoro still has a lot of mystery in his full power for him to be able to fight against Kaido though, his training with Enma, him not using Santoryu yet, Asura never being used in the time-skip.

 

[CinCameron20]

Even back in Dressrosa vs Pica (who is still his hardest fight, sadly), he only got serious for the finale, so we don't have anything to compare him to back then, and now he's stronger. Zoro's power is weird to talk about, but I feel like ranting about it. We all know Luffy is stronger than Zoro, but not by any known or implied value. We never got to see a situation where Zoro is struggling (at least beyond a mid-diff situation) so the gap between the two is very blurry. Take into consideration that Zoro defeated Pica quite handily upon utilizing Sanzen Sekkai + Haki... Cool. But then you got Luffy going even with people like Doffy (who is frequently shown capable of easily one-shotting characters near or above Vergo's level like Sanji/Smoker and Law).

That means Dressrosa Zoro is in some weird sub-tier where there's a massive gap and we have no clue where he is. And it's even more ambiguous in Wano since he got even stronger via training. At worst, he's slightly stronger than the Tobi Roppo members. At best (imo), he's probably going to be a notable threat to someone like Queen. In b4 we get a panel of Zoro cutting deeply into Kaido and causing him to spew blood from his mouth and nose. I'll be confused.

 

[PsychoWarper]

This Chapter was awesome and so HYPED!

Loved the Zoro stuff and he was badass as always, thought we where getting Zoro conquers haki for a sec but he admitted it "wasnt him" so nothing to say he cant which is great, the scene also gave Zoro some nice feats. Personally I dont think anyone in current Wano can take on Kaido in a straight 1v1 besides Mama and Marco for any sort of length of time, I do however think Zoro will be an important piece in the fight against Kaido especially due to Enma.

Kaido himself was badass as well and is really showing out for the Yonko while getting a great feat. Something id like to mention is how Yamato talks about her Father's abilities, she says "Dragons... they can generate flame clouds which enable them to fly." and the way she says it and refers to Dragons doesn't really make it seem like its a fruit imo. While I wasn't sold (And am still not 100%) for awhile on the theory im starting to think there may be some potential in the idea that Kaido isn't a Human or a DF user but instead an actual Dragon who simply has the ability to transform into a human form, if such was true it could explain stuff like whys he's referred to as a Creature (Oda foreshadowing?) and more specifically being referred to as the "Strongest Creature on Land, Air or Sea" which with a DF seems weird but if he's actually a Dragon its not as weird and it would also explain the whole "If Kaido really wanted to die then why didn't he just drown himself (Now I think that goes against his character him not being a DF user could also be a explanation). Now obviously this isn't solid proof at all and nothing is confirmed, but the same could be said about Kaido being a fruit user, since afaik its never actually confirmed by anyone that he was and was just assumed (For legitimate reasons) that it was a fruit (If im wrong please correct me).

 

[PsychoWarper]

In b4 we get a panel of Zoro cutting deeply into Kaido and causing him to spew blood from his mouth and nose. I'll be confused.

Tbf to this if that happened id be willing to bet money it would be Enma doing the slashing and Enma already has its own special abilities and feats (Like hurting Kaido giving him a permanent scar).