Chapters · Four Emperors (Yonko) › Wano Country

Chapter 1024: So-and-So

Arc: Wano Country · Saga: Four Emperors (Yonko) · Released: 2021-09-26

Summary

On the lower floors of the Skull Dome, the alliance reels as Big Mom’s Conqueror’s Haki ripples knock soldiers unconscious while she fights Kid and Law elsewhere on the floor; Usopp (“Usohachi the Sibling-Hunter”) boasts to rally morale, Nami can’t reach Momonosuke and Shinobu, the third floor becomes a sea of fire (Robin’s fight with Black Maria), and Brook (“Baron Corpse”) escapes the flames as enemies pour toward the performance floor. On the rooftop, Yamato and Kaido trade blows — Yamato’s “Nari-Kabura Arrow” against Kaido’s kanabo — and Kaido demands to know if Yamato is responsible for “the ogre princess running wild.” The chapter then flashes back to Yamato’s childhood: Kaido locked the chained, starving child in a “sacred cave” alongside vicious Wano swordsmen, throwing in swords and a single meal “enough for one” to make them kill each other (and her) — secretly intending to let them all starve. Instead the samurai refused to fight, gave their food to the child, called themselves “So-and-So,” recognized the child who styled herself “Kozuki Oden,” and handed Yamato Oden’s voyage journal — which speaks of a great battle 20 years in the future. Realizing Kaido meant for them to die, the swordsmen broke the cave open rather than waste away, prompting young Yamato to declare “I’m not alone!!” In the present, an emboldened Yamato declares she now has people who accept and believe in her; Kaido retorts that “life isn’t a series of simple questions with simple answers” and unleashes “Thunder Bagua.”

New reveals

• Yamato’s origin story. As a child, Kaido chained the young Yamato in a dark “sacred cave” and imprisoned her with captured Wano swordsmen, throwing down swords “enough for one” and a single meal — engineering a fight to the death over food in which “the son of Kaido, his killer” would be killed first.
• Kaido’s true intent. Kaido never meant to free anyone — he meant the prisoners (and Yamato) to starve to death in the cave. The samurai realize Kaido means to let them all starve.
• The samurai’s mercy. The starving swordsmen refused to fight over the meal — “A samurai does not feel hunger” — and fed it to the child. Their leader, when asked his name, says: “What name does a fallen samurai need…? Just call me So-and-So.”
• How Yamato got Oden’s journal. The imprisoned samurai, who knew and loved Oden (“That man was beloved to all of us”), gave the child Yamato Oden’s voyage journal (“Oden’s Travels”) — the source of Yamato’s identification with Oden and knowledge of the future battle.
• The cave breakout. Rather than waste to death, the swordsmen broke open the sacred cave (“We would never bend the knee to him anyway!!”), prompting young Yamato to declare “I’m not alone!!” — explaining “the ogre princess running wild.”
• Present-day combat. Kaido answers Yamato’s idealism (“Wano’s freedom?!”) with “Because life isn’t a series of simple questions with simple answers!! You naive child!!!” and finishes with Thunder Bagua.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Yamato, Kaido, Usopp (as “Usohachi the Sibling-Hunter”), Nami, Franky, Brook (as “Baron Corpse”), Otama, Komachiyo, So-and-So (flashback samurai — new), and the imprisoned Wano swordsmen.
• Mentioned / referenced: Kozuki Oden, Momonosuke, Shinobu, Big Mom (fighting elsewhere on the floor), Zoro & Sanji (“fighting the lead performers”), Nico Robin & Black Maria (“Robin was going to burn up”), Jinbei (called for help), Kid Pirates (fourth floor), the Tobi Roppo.
• Locations: Onigashima, Skull Dome (rooftop, second/third/fourth floors, Right-Brain Tower, performance floor), the “sacred cave” (flashback), Wano Country.
• Techniques: “Nari-Kabura Arrow” (Yamato), “Vajra” / “Thunder Bagua” (Kaido).

Notable panels

• Page 1: Title page. Soldiers collapse under Big Mom’s Conqueror’s-Haki ripples; Usopp boasts as “Usohachi the Sibling-Hunter.”
• Page 3: Brook (“Baron Corpse”) bursts out of the burning third floor — “Well, too bad, I’ve already been cremated!!”
• Page 5: Skull Dome exterior — Brook’s giant skull illusion pushing back the Beasts; cut to the rooftop and the “Nari-Kabura Arrow.”
• Pages 9–15: Extended flashback — the young chained Yamato starving in the dark “sacred cave”; the samurai feeding her; “So-and-So” naming himself; the gift of Oden’s journal; the cave breakout.
• Page 13, panel: “What name does a fallen samurai need…? Just call me So-and-So.” (the chapter’s title beat).
• Page 17: Full-page Kaido (dragon form) unleashing “Thunder Bagua” on Yamato — dramatic splash.

Open questions raised

• Who exactly is “So-and-So,” and did he and the other imprisoned swordsmen survive the cave breakout? (The chapter implies they expected not to live to see the future battle.)
• Where in Onigashima/Wano is the “sacred cave,” and why is it called sacred?
• Did the breakout decades ago connect to “the ogre princess running wild for the past week” in the present?