Chapters · Alabasta › Alabasta

Chapter 207: Nightmare

Arc: Alabasta · Saga: Alabasta · Released:

Summary

The Alabasta climax detonates. At the palace square, the poisoned Luffy is on his knees, struggling to move while Crocodile gloats that “it’s getting harder to move, isn’t it?” — yet Luffy laughs and refuses to concede that everything his friends have done “was in vain” (pp. 2-3). Atop the Alubarna clock tower, Mr. 7 and Ms. Father’s Day fire Baroque Works’ false-flag cannon: the shell — branded with the BW winged skull-and-bones emblem — launches toward the packed central square as the countdown ticks down from six seconds (pp. 4-7). With the crew’s air-route lost (Usopp shot Pell down last chapter), Tony Tony Chopper flings himself toward the falling bomb at Vivi’s coordination, but it is Pell — recovered, in giant falcon-Zoan form — who slashes between the two bombers (”…Slasher!!”, “you missed!!”) and catches the bomb himself (pp. 8-11). Pell roars skyward, climbing as high as he can with the device, and detonates it harmlessly far above the city (“It’s another… beautiful day,” pp. 12-15). The square is saved; the armies and the rebels live. Crocodile, watching the distant blast, declares “It’s over” and turns to a downed Luffy and Chopper (p. 12). But Pell is alive — battered and smoking, he crashes back down into the city (“What? You’re alive?”, p. 16). Crocodile then reveals the twist: the bomb carried a backup self-detonation timer — “if anything should prevent my people from firing the cannon… the bomb is set to self-detonate” — and the damage will be catastrophic regardless (“I’d hoped to fire it into the center of the square,” pp. 17-18). The chapter ends on the dawning horror that the bomb-on-a-timer was going to explode anyway, as the city’s fate hangs over the survivors.

New reveals

• The false-flag cannon fires from the clock tower, and the shell is branded with the Baroque Works winged-skull emblem — confirming on-page that the “civil-war trigger” device is BW-manufactured (pp. 4-6). Pays off the branded-cannonball prop-tell.
• Pell intercepts the falling bomb in falcon-Zoan form and carries it skyward, detonating it high above Alubarna to spare the square (pp. 8-15). This is the arc-finale sacrifice the Crocodile 430 Cannonball Three-Mile-Crater Palace-Square Massacre Plot seed predicted.
• Crocodile rigged a backup self-detonation timer into the bomb — “the bomb is set to self-detonate. It’s just a few seconds more…” — revealing the meticulous double-redundancy of his plan (pp. 17-18). First on-page tell that the device was a timed bomb, not merely a fired projectile.
• Pell survives the blast. Though the airborne detonation should have killed him, he crashes back into the city alive (battered, smoking) — “What? You’re alive?” (p. 16). His extreme durability (Zoan + “Alabasta’s Greatest Warrior”) is canonized at the survives-a-point-blank-bomb tier.
• Crocodile believes the duel is won (“It’s over,” p. 12) before Luffy has actually fallen — narrative misdirection set up for the next chapter’s reversal.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

Luffy · Crocodile · Pell · Vivi · Tony Tony Chopper · Nami · Sanji · Zoro (mentioned — “they shot Zolo!”) · Usopp · Mr. 7 · Ms. Father’s Day · Nefertari Cobra (Crocodile’s address: “King Cobra”) · Hatchan (cover) · Alubarna · Alabasta · Tori Tori no Mi, Model Falcon · Suna Suna no Mi · Baroque Works · Sand-Sand Band

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title splash + cover-story serial: Hachi’s Walk on the Seafloor, Vol. 22: “The Mermaid-Selling Macro.” Hachi (Hatchan) aboard a fish-headed paddle-wheel vessel under a pirate flag on the sea surface, with a small mermaid and a ghost-jellyfish creature in the water — the ongoing Hachi cover serial (pre-Arlong-arc backstory, here introducing the Macro pirates / mermaid-sellers).
• Page 2-3 — Luffy on his knees, poison-struck, still laughing; Crocodile gloats “you can yap all you want, but it’s getting harder to move, isn’t it?” and “a pup like you is simply no match for a real pirate.”
• Page 4 — The cannon fires from the clock tower; the shell is clearly branded with the Baroque Works winged skull-and-bones emblem (“WOOOOO… FSSST… SNAP!! KLANK”).
• Page 6-7 — Countdown plates (“SIX SECONDS TO EXPLOSION” → “FIVE SECONDS”); “they shot Zolo!”; the bomb arcs over the city.
• Page 8-11 — Chopper hurls toward the bomb (“throw me with all your might, Chopper!”); Pell in falcon form slashes between Mr. 7 and Ms. Father’s Day (”…Slasher!!”, “you missed!!”, “ribbit, ribbit, too bad!!”) and catches the bomb, then climbs skyward (“Run back!!”, “one second left”).
• Page 12 — Crocodile’s “It’s over” pose amid the rubble + a wide establishing shot of the Alubarna palace mesa with its gated city walls; downed Luffy and Chopper at his feet.
• Page 14-15 — Pell, in falcon form clutching the bomb high above the city: “It’s another… beautiful day.” The bomb detonates harmlessly in the sky (“RAAAAH”); the people below (“did it work?!”).
• Page 16 — Pell crashes back down alive, smoking and battered (“What? You’re alive?”); Chopper: “what just fell on me?!”; the crew gathers.
• Page 17-18 — Crocodile’s reveal monologue: the bomb had a self-detonation timer (“if anything should prevent my people from firing the cannon… the bomb is set to self-detonate”); Nami’s horror — “the bomb is on a timer!! It’s going to explode anyway!!”
• Page 20 — SBS column (Question Corner). Notable canon: Oda confirms Ms. Golden Week’s powers are NOT a Devil Fruit — they derive from “the power of suggestion” (colors that make people feel nervous/weak). Also: Baroque Works members vacationed (separately) at the Snow Festival in Hokkaido; a “Marimo/Moss head” reader gag.

Open questions raised

• The bomb is on a self-detonation timer and was “going to explode anyway” — how is the square actually saved, and was Pell’s sky-detonation enough, or is a second device live?
• How does Luffy, poisoned and seemingly beaten, turn the Crocodile duel around after Crocodile has already declared “it’s over”?
• Is Pell’s survival permanent, or is he gravely wounded? (He is shown alive but badly hurt.)
• What is the Macro pirates / mermaid-selling thread teased in the Hachi cover serial?