Chapters · Summit War › Amazon Lily

Chapter 522: Fatal Illness

Arc: Amazon Lily · Saga: Summit War · Released: —

Summary

On his last night at Amazon Lily before Boa Hancock is to ferry him to Sabaody, Luffy entertains and is mobbed by the man-curious Kuja women. Reading a rare newspaper, he learns from the elder “Bean Hag” — Grandma Nyon — that Hancock is one of the Seven Warlords and captain of the Kuja Pirates, and, far worse, that his brother “Fire Fist” Portgaz D. Ace has been captured by the newly-appointed Warlord Blackbeard and is to be publicly executed in six days at Marineford to draw out the Whitebeard Pirates. Nyon maps the route — Ace is held in Impel Down, reachable fast only by a Navy battleship riding the Gates of Justice current — and checking Ace’s shrunken Vivre Card, Luffy resolves to abandon the reunion with his crew and break in to save Ace. He begs Hancock for passage, only to find she has collapsed of a mysterious “fatal” illness; she rises anyway and agrees to take him “wherever you wish.” The chapter’s punchline: the empress’s incurable, deadly affliction is lovesickness — she has fallen for Luffy.

New reveals

• Boa Hancock is a Warlord and captain of the Kuja Pirates. She became empress and captain 11 years ago; the people of “Central” put an 80,000,000 bounty on her, then named her one of the Seven Warlords out of fear after a single expedition. She is “now in danger of losing that title” (she refused a Warlord summons) (pp. 6, 13).
• Ace’s public execution is announced. Whitebeard’s “powerful underling” Portgaz D. Ace (VIZ on-page spelling) will be executed in six days in an open square in the city of Marineford, a town governed by Navy HQ. The Seven Warlords and Navy HQ are joining forces to fight the Whitebeard Pirates; the WG expects Whitebeard to come (pp. 7-9).
• Blackbeard captured Ace and is now a Warlord. “Some pirate called Blackbeard… captured ‘Fire Fist’ Ace… and was recently made one of the Seven Warlords” (p. 8) — pays the seat-succession seeds from the Thriller Bark arc.
• World geography / Gates of Justice current network. A special swirling current only World-Government ships may use connects the three Gates-of-Justice facilities — Marine HQ (Marineford), Impel Down, and Enies Lobby — speeding travel between them; pirate ships must detour around it. Pirate ship to Ace = one week; Navy battleship = four days (pp. 10-11). Ace is held in Impel Down.
• “Marineford” is named on-page as the city governed by Navy Headquarters and the site of the execution scaffold (pp. 9, 13) — first legible on-page use of the proper name for the Navy-HQ town.
• Grandma Nyon (the “Bean Hag”) is a former Kuja who survived the empresses’ fatal illness by fleeing the island; the previous two empresses both died of it (p. 17).
• Hancock’s illness is Lovesickness. The “fatal” disease that struck her down — and killed the previous empresses, who “died standing for love” — is being in love (with Luffy). “Love is always a hurricane!!” (p. 19).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Luffy (appears; full name “Monkey D. Luffy” spoken by Nyon, p. 17), Boa Hancock (appears — collapsed/bedridden then standing), Grandma Nyon (appears — major exposition role), Marguerite (appears), Genista (appears, named p. 14 — first appearance), Hancock’s two sisters / the Gorgon Sisters (shown at the bedside, pp. 15-19 — unnamed in this chapter), Portgaz D. Ace (referenced — not on-page), Blackbeard (referenced), Whitebeard (referenced).
• Locations: Amazon Lily (Kuja Castle, p. 14), Sabaody Archipelago, Marineford, Impel Down, Enies Lobby, Marijoa, Red Line, Calm Belt (all on the p. 10 map).
• Crews / groups: Straw Hat Pirates, Kuja Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates, Marines, Kuja, Seven Warlords of the Sea, CP9 (cover story).
• Items / lore: Ace’s Vivre Card, Vivre Card, Gates of Justice. Food: “Neptunian Penne Gorgonzola,” an Amazon Lily specialty (p. 3).

Notable panels

• p. 1 — Title page “Fatal Illness.” Cover story: CP9’s Independent Report, Vol. 28: “Defending Our Hometown” — B/W silhouette of CP9 (in beast/disguised forms, incl. a giraffe motif) above masked attackers.
• p. 3 — Luffy eats “Neptunian Penne Gorgonzola”; Kuja women charge him to touch/poke the first man they’ve seen.
• p. 10 — Key geography map: the underside of the Red Line — Marijoa atop, with Navy HQ (Marineford), Sabaody Archipelago, Enies Lobby, the Great Prison Impel Down and the Calm Belt arranged around the Gates-of-Justice swirling current; “Amazon Lily — current location.”
• p. 12 — Luffy pictures his eight scattered crewmates (silhouettes) as he resolves to leave them and go save Ace alone.
• p. 19 — DOOM panels: the reveal that the Snake Princess’s fatal illness is lovesickness; “Love is always a hurricane!!”

Open questions raised

• Will Hancock — a Warlord who refused the summons — really sail Luffy into the Navy’s war on a battleship?
• Can Luffy break into Impel Down, the “most intense security the prison can devise,” in time?
• What is the nature of Hancock’s “emotional scars” the sisters invoke (p. 18), and why do Kuja empresses die of lovesickness?
• Will Whitebeard go to war to rescue Ace, and what does the WG gain by baiting him?