Chapters · Fish-Man Island › Fish-Man Island
Chapter 603: Keep That in Mind
This chapter's foreshadowing ledger — what it plants, what it pays off, and what debuts here. Locked seeds pay off beyond your ⚓ progress; tap one to reveal it anyway.
- Plants
- 4 seeds🌱 prop-tell🌱 chekhov-explicit🌱 prop-tell🌱 wardrobe-foreshadow
- Pays off
- 1 chainThe Real Tyrant Kuma Is Already Dead
- Firsts
- Bartholomew Kuma guarded the Thousand Sunny undamaged for the entire two-year timeskip as a programmed final mission
- Kuma was an executive of the Revolutionary Army and his personality/memory were to be fully erased by the time of the Paramount War
- Caribou is a Logia user whose swamp-body swallows victims; he and his brother Coribou infiltrated the fake Straw Hats to murder them
- Rayleigh-Roger first-meeting flashback: a young Roger wears a straw hat and invites Rayleigh to turn the world upside down
- 70% of all ships sink on the way to Fish-Man Island (Rayleigh's coating notes)
Arc: Fish-Man Island · Saga: Fish-Man Island · Released: 2010-10-25
Seam chapter: the Return-to-Sabaody business closes (fake-Straw-Hat cleanup, the Kuma backstory) and the Fish-Man Island arc opens (the coated Sunny dives undersea toward the island). Tagged by the dominant page-content: the descent + the Kuma reveal.
Summary
At Sabaody’s Grove 46 the murderous Logia brothers Caribou and Coribou are burying the captured fake “Big Bounty Straw Hats,” having infiltrated and slaughtered them; Caribou’s swamp-body devours anyone who attacks him (pp. 2-4). A Marine report reveals the real Straw Hats damaged two Pacifista and “made a complete recovery,” and that the Dark King Rayleigh blocked the Navy so even “Uncle Kizaru” could not reach them (p. 4). Watching the Sunny depart from Shakky’s, Rayleigh remembers his first meeting with a young, straw-hatted Gol D. Roger and muses that nothing is coincidence — Luffy has “grown into a man even more worthy of that hat” (pp. 5-6). The coated Thousand Sunny then dives beneath Sabaody toward Fish-Man Island; the crew marvels at the mangrove roots and learns the bubble’s mechanics from Rayleigh’s notes (“70% of all ships sink on their way to Fish-Man Island”), while a two-year-celibate Sanji nearly dies of a nosebleed (pp. 7-12). Franky finally tells the crew the truth: Bartholomew Kuma guarded the Sunny untouched for the whole two years, greeted Franky days ago (“I have been waiting for you / Mission… complete”), and — as a Revolutionary Army executive being converted by Vegapunk into a memoryless cyborg before the Paramount War — had himself programmed for one last mission to protect the ship until a Straw Hat returned (pp. 13-17). The chapter closes with Caribou and Coribou trailing the Sunny undersea: “I guess I’ll get to sail with them after all.”
New reveals
- Caribou (“Wet-Haired Caribou”) and his brother Coribou are pirate killers who joined the fake “Big Bounty Straw Hats” (captain: Black) only to murder them; Caribou is a Logia whose body becomes a swamp/bog that swallows attackers from the inside (pp. 2-3).
- The real Straw Hats severely damaged the same two Pacifista prototypes that cornered them two years ago, then escaped; the Marines call it “a complete recovery” (p. 4).
- Rayleigh (“the Dark King”) personally blocked the Navy at Sabaody — “not even Uncle Kizaru could get past him” — said by Sentomaru, who calls Kizaru his uncle (p. 4).
- Flashback: a young Gol D. Roger, wearing a straw hat, met Rayleigh (“This meeting is fate, Rayleigh! Let’s turn the world upside down together!”) (pp. 5-6).
- Rayleigh: “Maybe there’s no such thing as coincidence in this world. Maybe everything that happens is inevitable” — and Luffy has “grown into a man even more worthy of that hat” (p. 6).
- The coated Sunny descends toward Fish-Man Island; per Rayleigh’s notes the bubble stretches and self-heals like Sabaody’s bubbles, but 70% of all ships sink on their way to Fish-Man Island — multiple punctures, sea-beast fangs (a “Neptunian”), masts, or reefs will pop it (pp. 11-12).
- Sanji’s two years on the Island of Women left him with a near-lethal weakness for women (a bubble-popping nosebleed); seawater also weakens him (pp. 10-11).
- Hatchan was to guide the Sunny to the seafloor but was injured at Sabaody and returned to Fish-Man Island for treatment — “the same as Duval” (p. 13).
- Bartholomew Kuma guarded the Thousand Sunny untouched for the entire two-year timeskip; he greeted Franky days ago with “I have been waiting for you” and “Mission… complete,” the ship “without a scratch” (pp. 14-15).
- Kuma’s deal: he was an executive of the Revolutionary Army, whispered something to Rayleigh during the Marineford battle, was being turned into a cyborg guinea pig by the Navy, and by the Paramount War his personality and memory were to be completely erased; he had Dr. Vegapunk program one final mission — defend the Sunny until a Straw Hat returned (pp. 15-16).
- The protection is tied to the Revolutionary Army / Dragon connection — “Luffy’s dad is the leader of the rebels” (p. 16). Kuma is now an emotionless “human weapon” (p. 17).
Foreshadowing seeds planted
Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)
Mentions / appearances
- Characters (shown): Caribou (debut), Coribou (debut), Silvers Rayleigh, Shakky, Roger (youth flashback), Sentomaru, Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, Brook, Kuma (Franky’s recent-past flashback, pp. 14-15)
- Characters (referenced / mentioned): Kizaru (“Uncle Kizaru”), Hatchan (injured, returned to FMI), Duval (“same as Duval”), Vegapunk (Kuma’s modifier), Dragon (“leader of the rebels”), “Black” (fake-Straw-Hat captain — Demaro Black, named verbally only)
- Locations: Sabaody Archipelago (Grove 46), Fish-Man Island (destination)
- Ship: Thousand Sunny (coated)
- Groups / concepts: Revolutionary Army, Pacifista, Seven Warlords of the Sea, Marines, “Big Bounty Straw Hats” (fake crew)
- Devil Fruit: Caribou’s unnamed Logia swamp/bog power (pp. 2-3); Kuma’s Nikyu Nikyu no Mi (referenced)
Notable panels
- Page 1 — Title page / request cover (B&W, reader-request series): “Sanji and cute squirrels making pie together” by NSC Hayao. Not a color spread; a request art.
- Pages 2-3 — Caribou’s Logia self-defense: a Devil-Fruit user attacks him, “SPLAT,” and is swallowed into his body “from the inside” (GLOOP).
- Page 6 — Young Roger in a straw hat: “Let’s turn the world upside down together! I’m Roger!” — the hat-lineage visual tell.
- Pages 7-8 — Splash-scale view of the coated Sunny descending beneath Sabaody through the giant mangrove roots.
- Pages 14-15 — Kuma seated and bandaged beside the Sunny (“I have been waiting for you” / “Mission… complete”), the two-year guardian reveal.
- Page 17 — Closing beat: Caribou and Coribou spotting the Straw Hats “dead ahead”; “TO BE CONTINUED IN ONE PIECE, VOL. 62!”
Open questions raised
- What did Kuma whisper to Rayleigh, and what were his true intentions? (Zoro: “I hope someday I’ll cut out what Kuma was really thinking.”)
- How exactly was the Navy “blackmailing” Kuma into the conversion?
- Is the straw hat Roger wears the same hat that reached Luffy via Shanks?
- Will Caribou and Coribou catch the Straw Hats at Fish-Man Island?