Summary:
Robin, Brook, and the CP0 agents rendezvous with Yamato, Apoo, Drake, and Fuga and witness Kanjuro Kazenbo heading down into the fortress’s basement. Yamato enlists the help of Fugu to try and stop Kazenbo, while Apoo and Drake team up to fight the CP0 agents.
Meanwhile, Zoro has had no success in injuring King and tries hard to find out the nature of the star. Zoro then suddenly hears a shamisen being played nearby, as does Orochi, who enters the room to find what appears to be Hiyori playing, dressed as “Komurasaki”.
Now in his full phoenix form, Marco carries Izou to the top of the castle, though Marco is upset that Izou would ask him to do such a thing when he is quite injured himself. Izou apologizes and says that the announcement of the “fire yokai” worried him. Elsewhere, the samurai prevent the Beasts Pirates from escaping, leading them to try to shoot through the cannons.
On the second floor, Fuga continues to pursue Yamato, who reveals that he actually knows him. Scratchmen Apoo continues to try to bond with Yamato while X Drake tries to stop him. Suddenly, Brook and Robin fall out of a hole in the ceiling and land on Fugo’s head. The two CP0 members try to chase after them, but both are caught by Kanjuro’s Kazenbo and engulfed in flames. Yamato sees that he has the power to move through walls and quickly realizes that he is heading for the armory, causing the island to explode in mid-air. With that in mind, he asks Fugu for something, which Number happily agrees to.
After taking off Fugo’s head, Brook and Robin once again run away from CP0, who have recovered from their burns. Guernica notices Apoo taking pictures of them, and the pirate states that he could share his new story about the World Noble’s “lapdogs” running around Onigashima and making deals with Kaida after losing their “middleman” Doflamingo. Guernica tells Apo that he should have stayed quiet before stabbing him with Shigan and knocking him to the ground. Drake is surprised by this turn of events when the agent informs Drake that CP0 knows of his true allegiance. Drake questions why they are on the island, but Guernica says that “inconvenient truths” are to be erased. Just then, Apoo recovers and uses Boom on the agent’s face, knocking him back. Apoo stands up as he reveals that he used Busoshoku Haki to protect himself while also stating that his belief that Drake was secretly a Marine was correct. Drake shakes it off and asks if Apoo will fight CP0 with him and he agrees.
Outside the castle, Zora’s fight with King continues. In his full pteranodon form, King grabs the crest and pulls his head back, retracting his beak as well. In a move called Tempuraudon, he shoots his head at Zoro, who fails to block it, likening it to a laser beam. King tells Zoro that this is how pteranodons hunted their prey. Still, Zoro gets up and fires a Sanbyakuroku Pound Ho at King, who easily dodges. King starts raining fire as Zoro tries to dodge and asks if the pteranodons had fire coming from their backs, to which King flatly replies that they don’t, angering Zoro. Desperate to finish off King before he runs out of energy, Zoro unleashes Kojuko: O Tatsumaki, which traps King, but King blocks it with his wings as the twister dissipates.
Zoro tells King that he considers dinosaurs and dragons to be the same: large, thick-skinned lizards. King tells him that he’s not wrong, but he considers himself on a different level. As he transforms back into his human form, he throws his sword at Zoro and says that he’s giving him a chance and that he too enjoys a good fight. Zoro notes in his head how neither attack caused King to drip any blood, and even though he has moveable wings in his human form, he has yet to see him use them. He also now knows that the fire on his back is not from his Devil Fruit, and deduces that it is from a race he has never met before. When he is overpowered and thrown into a rock, Zoro realizes that he will never be able to defeat him unless he finds out what kind of creature he is.
As he lies on the ground breathing heavily, Zoro hears the Shamisen being played, which confuses him, and Enma starts drawing his Haki again. In the Treasure Repository where Orochi is hiding, Shamisen also hears from the next room and a sound follows. Arriving at the room, Kozuki is delighted to see Hiyori in her “Komurasaki” identity. Believing that his beloved oiran has returned to him, he approaches her in the hope that she is not dreaming when “Komurasaki” tells him that she wants to spend the rest of her life with him.