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Chapter 707: Block B

Arc: Dressrosa · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2013-03-25

Summary

The first round of Block B — a 138-man battle royale in the Corrida Colosseum — erupts. Fighters immediately form a team, an alliance orchestrated by Dagama “the Tactician” of the Kingdom of Prodence, whose plan is to protect his king while thinning the ring: “Fighting King” Elizabello II can deliver a “King Punch” so devastating it could “sink one of the Four Emperors,” but it requires a full hour of concentration and can be thrown only once per battle. Among the alliance’s hired muscle is Tank Lepanto, Commander of the Dressrosa Self-Defense Forces — who preaches that money rules everything (“Forget ambitious dreams. I’d rather reach down… and pick up the gold at my feet”) — and the mercenary Bellamy “the Hyena,” who has traded his old “new age” dreams to fight for cold gold. Fighters knocked out of the ring fall into seawater stocked with a pack of vicious fighting fish — “Hell within the ring! Hell outside the ring!” The chapter parades Block B’s standouts: the treacherous duo Abdullah & Jeet; the fish-man karate master Hack (who fights even unarmed, invoking his “good friend Jimbei… the hope of our people”); the long-legged Blue Gilly of the Longleg People, a Jiaokungdo artist whose unpredictable kicks the others can’t track; and a skull-caped swordsman, the former gladiator Ricky, whose terrifying power and shield-less style the veteran gladiators half-remember but cannot name. From the Competitor Viewing Section, the rookie “Man-Eater” Bartolomeo and “White Knight” Cavendish size up the field and the bounty posters of the Worst Generation (and note that Burgess hid his face here). Finally, an ancient, hulking gladiator greets Luffy by asking after Garp — then reveals Garp “nearly killed me years ago,” and that his hatred now “extend[s] to at least three generations.”

New reveals

• Block B of the tournament is a 138-man battle royale (caption, p. 3); forming alliances is explicitly a valid, un-forbidden strategy.
• Dagama “the Tactician,” of the Kingdom of Prodence, orchestrates a protective alliance; he serves King Elizabello II and intends the Flame-Flame Fruit prize to “come to Prodence” (p. 3).
• Elizabello II — “King of Prodence, the Fighting King” — wields the “King Punch,” a treasured-heirloom blow “devastating enough to sink one of the Four Emperors,” but it needs a full hour of concentration/warm-up and can be unleashed only once in any battle (pp. 3–5).
• Tank Lepanto, Commander of the Dressrosa Self-Defense Forces, fights for the alliance as a paid mercenary (“Money dictates everything in the world, Bellamy”), exposing that a Dressrosa officer is aiding another country’s tactician for gold (pp. 5–6).
• Bellamy returns post-Jaya as a money-driven mercenary, using his Bane Bane no Mi spring powers (“Spring… Death-Knock!!”), having abandoned his “new age” idealism (pp. 6–7).
• The seawater moat outside the ring is stocked with a pack of fighting fish — disqualification by ring-out means being mauled (pp. 7–8).
• Abdullah & Jeet — a treacherous duo who backstab allies (“This is what happens when you turn your back on me”) (p. 9).
• Hack — a fish-man Fish-Man Karate / Fish-Man Jiu-Jitsu master (“Hundredth-Degree Hack”), techniques include the “Four Thousand-Brick Fist”; he fights for goodwill “through the trading of fists” and reveres Jimbei as “the hope of our people” (pp. 10–11).
• Blue Gilly — “from the Longleg People,” a Jiaokungdo martial artist whose enormous legs strike unpredictably (“whips of steel”); first on-page member of the Longleg Tribe (pp. 11–13).
• Ricky — captioned “(Former) Gladiator Ricky,” a skull-caped swordsman who fights with a sword and no shield and is “ridiculously powerful”; long-time gladiators feel they’ve “seen him before… but never seen him” and can’t recall his name (pp. 13–15).
• Bartolomeo (“Man-Eater Bartolomeo”) is clearly shown, in the Competitor Viewing Section, scanning Worst-Generation bounty posters; it is noted that “as you saw with Burgess, it’s possible to hide your face here” (p. 16).
• An aged, hulking gladiator recognizes Luffy as Garp’s grandson, says Garp “nearly killed me years ago,” and declares his hatred “would extend to at least three generations” (p. 17). (Unnamed on this page; near-certainly the roster entrant Don Chin Jao introduced in Ch. 704 — see inference note below.)

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Luffy (as “Lucy”; in viewing area), Bellamy, Dagama, Elizabello II, Tank Lepanto, Abdullah, Jeet, Hack, Blue Gilly, King Riku, Bartolomeo, Cavendish, Chin Jao (the aged Garp-grudge gladiator — inference), Jesus Burgess (referenced — hid his face here), Jinbei (referenced by Hack as “the hope of our people”), Garp (mentioned)
• Races / groups: Fish-Men (Hack), Longleg Tribe (Blue Gilly), Beautiful Pirates (Cavendish), Blackbeard Pirates (Burgess reference), Chin Jao Family, Eleven Supernovas (Worst-Generation bounty posters), Four Emperors (Yonko) (the King Punch yardstick)
• Locations: Corrida Colosseum, Dressrosa, Prodence (the Kingdom of Prodence — Elizabello II/Dagama’s country; mentioned)
• Devil Fruits: Bane Bane no Mi (Bellamy, “Death-Knock”), Mera Mera no Mi (the prize Dagama wants for Prodence)

Notable panels

• Pages 1–2 — Title color spread, “OVERDRIVE ONE PIECE.” Luffy, chained and gripping a wooden/iron gladiator club, soars beside a galleon in the clouds amid a flight of flamingos. Decorative; flamingo motif is thematically apt for the Doflamingo (Donquixote = flamingo) arc but reads as a stylistic flourish, not a plotted tell.
• Page 4 — Elizabello II splash, caption “King of Prodence, the Fighting King — Elizabello II.”
• Page 6 — Tank Lepanto reveal, caption “Commander of the Dressrosa Self-Defense Forces — Tank Lepanto.”
• Page 8 — The fighting-fish moat: “A pack of little fighting fish!! …No one leaves unharmed! This is the Corrida Coliseum!!!”
• Page 11 — Hack reveal, caption “Fish-Man Karate Master, Fish-Man Jiu-Jitsu — Hundredth-Degree Hack.”
• Page 12 — Blue Gilly splash, caption “From the Longleg People, Jiaokungdo Martial Artist — Blue Gilly.”
• Page 14 — Ricky reveal, caption “(Former) Gladiator Ricky” — a skull-caped swordsman.
• Page 16 — Bartolomeo reveal in the Competitor Viewing Section, caption “Man-Eater Bartolomeo.”
• Page 17 — The aged gladiator’s three-generation Garp grudge, directed at Luffy.
• Page 18 — SBS Question Corner (Vol. 71 SBS): Caesar’s birthday April 9th, Monet’s August 27th; and a confirmation that the freelance writer “Absa” from Ch. 700 is Absalom, alive after the Paramount War, using the Clear-Clear Fruit to get scoops — with a teaser that Doflamingo “mentioned something about Moria meeting a strange fate.” (Flag for SBS cross-link refresh.)
• Page 19 — Title page of the following chapter (708, “Coliseum of Scoundrels”) with the cover-story installment “Caribou’s New World Keeheehee, Vol. 27 — ‘The hag’s dead grandson was meat-pie-loving Commander Gaburu.’”

Open questions raised

• Will Dagama’s alliance hold long enough for Elizabello II to charge the King Punch — and who disrupts the one-hour window?
• Who is Ricky, why do veteran gladiators half-remember a shield-less fighter of his power yet cannot name him, and why does his amnesia mirror Kyros’s?
• Whom did Garp “nearly kill,” and why does this old gladiator’s hatred now fall on Luffy — what is the grudge’s origin in Garp’s Marine past?
• Why is a Dressrosa Self-Defense Forces commander (Tank Lepanto) selling his services to a foreign tactician — what does that say about Dressrosa’s loyalties under the surface?
• What was Moria’s “strange fate” that Doflamingo alluded to (SBS, p. 18)?