Chapters · Fish-Man Island › Fish-Man Island

Chapter 643: Phantom

Arc: Fish-Man Island · Saga: Fish-Man Island · Released:

Summary

The battle around Conchcorde Plaza continues as the Straw Hats clear out the lower ranks of the New Fish-Man Pirates. Nico Robin frees the captured human slaves (telling them to thank Jimbei, not her) and snaps her fish-man attackers with Cuerpo Fleurs and a Double Clutch. Brook, caught and crowed over by a sword-shattering fish-man, reveals the true power of the Yomi-Yomi no Mi he uncovered during the timeskip: he is a living soul, his music can rock and pull in the souls of others (even showing them illusions), and his soul-charged slashes carry the chill of the dead — finishing his foe with the freezing blade of his Longarm-forged cane sword, Soul Solid. Usopp, no longer the boy who only bluffs, springs the traps he has actually set. Meanwhile Noah plummets toward Fish-Man Island once more (Decken’s doing), and the air tank declares an island-wide evacuation. Commandeering the broadcast, Prince Fukaboshi begs the whole kingdom — and Luffy — to save them, then broadcasts Hody Jones’ true nature: the New Fish-Man Pirates suffered nothing at human hands; their hatred is purely inherited and hollow — Hody is “entirely empty,” a monster created by hatred itself.

New reveals

• Brook’s soul is his power. Over the last two years he discovered the real meaning of the Revive-Revive Fruit: having died once, his soul returned from the land of the dead and is now visible to others and exists in the world of the living. His music “rocks the souls of others,” draws them into his world, and can show them illusions; the cost is an enormous expenditure of soul-energy “almost that of a living body.” (pp. 7-8)
• He cannot be cut. “You cannot say that your attacks cut me to the bone… so long as my bones do not take a single scratch.” His skeletal body is untouched by a stab through it. (p. 9)
• Soul Solid named. Brook’s hidden cane blade was forged by the Longarm clan and is named “Soul Solid”; any slash adorned with his soul brings the “chill of the dead” — a freezing blade. (p. 9)
• Fukaboshi reveals Hody’s true nature to the entire kingdom: Hody and the New Fish-Man Pirates were never personally wronged by humans (“NOTHING” happened to them); they live in fear that their ancestors’ hatred will be forgotten and hope the humans are all evil so their holy war is justified — “monsters created by hatred.” Hody is “entirely empty… there is no substance within him,” his hatred “void of any kind of experience and will.” (pp. 17-19)
• Noah falls again. The ancient ship has lost its momentum and is dropping straight back toward Fish-Man Island; the island is about to be crushed and the bubble to burst. An island-wide evacuation is broadcast from the air tank, and Fukaboshi commandeers the same line to plead with Luffy. (pp. 12-16)
• Usopp’s growth. “In the past, I’d have told a huge whopper… but now, I actually make it happen!!” — he has already set all his traps before the fight begins. (pp. 11)

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters (shown): Brook, Nico Robin, Usopp, Fukaboshi, Hammond
• Characters (heard / mentioned): Luffy (his voice on the broadcast — “I don’t care about all that, just do it!!”), King Neptune (reported “on the edge of the square with his Majesty”), Hody Jones (his “true nature” described, not present in person), Jinbei (Robin credits him for freeing the slaves), Shirahoshi (asked after), Vander Decken IX (“Is it Decken again?!”)
• Groups / crews: New Fish-Man Pirates, Straw Hat Pirates, the Neptune-Army border guards, the freed human slaves
• Ships: Noah
• Fruits / powers: Yomi-Yomi no Mi (Soul Solid, Camouflage Carpet)
• Races / groups: Longarm Tribe (forged Brook’s cane sword)
• Locations: Fish-Man Island, Conchcorde Plaza (the “square”), the air tank above Fish-Man Island
• Tech: Den Den Mushi (the air tank’s transponder snail broadcasts island-wide)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Chapter title page. The B&W art doubles as the cover-serial header: “Decks of the World, Vol. 26: ‘The Monkey Mountain Alliance seeks Nakrowa, Island of Dreams.’” .
• Page 3 — Robin revealed as the one who freed the slaves: “I can’t turn down a request from a handsome man… If you want to thank anyone, it should be Jimbei.”
• Page 5 — Robin’s Double Clutch snaps her fish-man attackers; the freed slaves rally.
• Page 8 — Brook’s soul monologue, ending on “…my soul!!” — the chapter’s title beat (“Phantom”).
• Page 9 — “Soul Solid!!!” the freezing blade; the cane forged by the Longarm clan; “the chill of the dead.”
• Pages 12-14 — Noah falling toward the island; air-tank emergency-evacuation broadcast; “the bubble’s gonna burst!!”
• Pages 16-19 — Fukaboshi commandeers the broadcast to plead with Luffy and reveal Hody’s true nature; the “NOTHING” panel (p. 19).
• Page 20 — SBS Question Corner (volume-final): Oda draws the navy officers as children — Garp, Sengoku, Borsalino (Kizaru), Sakazuki (Akainu), Kuzan (Aokiji). (External SBS canon — route to the SBS archivist; does not assert “Kuzan” as on-page main-story canon.)

Open questions raised

• Can Luffy actually stop Noah from crushing Fish-Man Island, with the whole kingdom’s fate handed to him?
• If “nothing” was done to them, what made Hody and his crew so monstrously powerful — what is the “great power given by fate” Fukaboshi alludes to? (cf. Energy Steroids)
• Where is Shirahoshi, and is she safe amid the falling ark?