Chapters · Dressrosa › Dressrosa

Chapter 742: Ever At Your Side

Arc: Dressrosa · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2014-03-10

Summary

A flashback delivers the full, tragic legend of Kyros. A violent criminal who chained himself inside the coliseum, he is defeated by a masked, mysterious fighter named “Ricky” — secretly King Riku himself — and reformed by the king’s mercy, rising one year later to Captain of the Dressrosan Riku Royal Army. He falls in love with the king’s eldest daughter Scarlet; King Riku fakes her death and strips her royalty so the two may marry, and they raise a daughter, Rebecca. Ten years ago Doflamingo seizes Dressrosa, frames the king, and demands Kyros’s allegiance; when Kyros cuts off his own leg to attack, Sugar turns him into a one-legged toy and erases him from all memory — explaining the forgotten coliseum legend and revealing the Thunder Soldier as Kyros. Scarlet, fleeing to their promised “Red Flower Field,” is gunned down by the mind-wiped royal army, and the toy Kyros cannot even hold her. In the present, Usopp’s allies force a Tatababasco grape on Sugar, and the sight of Usopp’s terrified face makes her faint — poised to undo her curse.

New reveals

• Kyros’s origin. A criminal “beast” who shut himself in the coliseum cage for nine years; after losing to the masked fighter “Ricky,” the king tells him “you can find meaning in using your strength to protect the lives of others,” and one year later Kyros is Captain of the Dressrosan Riku Royal Army (caption: KYROS, AGE 25).
• “Ricky” = King Riku. The mysterious meteoric coliseum fighter whose record Kyros broke was the king fighting incognito (“Why did you participate without telling me, King Riku?”).
• The Riku princesses. Scarlet (First Princess, age 16) and Viola (Second Princess / sister, age 10) are King Riku’s daughters; Viola is the present-day Violet (“Lady Viola,” p. 14).
• Scarlet × Kyros. Scarlet, who first reviles Kyros as a murderer, falls in love with him; King Riku stages her death by “fever,” declares her “no longer royalty,” and lets a commoner ex-criminal marry his daughter.
• Rebecca’s parentage. Kyros and Scarlet’s daughter is Rebecca — Kyros is her father, Scarlet her mother, King Riku her grandfather, Violet her aunt.
• The coup, ten years ago. Doflamingo’s pirates take Dressrosa, frame King Riku for burning his own town, cuff Kyros in sea-prism stone, and demand he join: “There’s a new king in town… and the old royal family must die!!!”
• Kyros → toy. Kyros severs his own leg to escape the cuffs and strike Doflamingo; Sugar touches him, turning him into a one-legged toy and erasing him from everyone’s memory — even King Riku says “the name is unfamiliar.”
• Thunder Soldier = Kyros. The present-day one-legged toy soldier is Kyros; “no one knows my name.” This is the answer to the forgotten coliseum statue.
• Scarlet’s death. Fleeing to the “Red Flower Field,” Scarlet is shot down by the memory-wiped royal army; the toy Kyros “cannot even feel the warmth leave your dying body.”
• Sugar faints. A Tatababasco-filled grape plus Usopp’s terror-face drops Sugar unconscious at the chapter’s end (“She passed out!!!”).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Kyros · Scarlet · King Riku (alias “Ricky”) · Rebecca · Viola · Doflamingo · Sugar · Trebol · Usopp · Nico Robin · Cavendish · Bartolomeo · Thunder Soldier · Jesus Burgess (referenced — “Burgess’s attacks”)
• Locations: Dressrosa · Corrida Colosseum · the Red Flower Field, the House of Toys, the underground port, the Officers’ Tower (sub-locations of Dressrosa)
• Groups: Donquixote Pirates · Straw Hat Pirates · the Dressrosan Riku Royal Army · Dwarves (Tontatta)
• Devil Fruits / lore: Hobi Hobi no Mi (Sugar’s toy/memory-erasure power, shown by effect) · Living Toys of Dressrosa · Sea-Prism Stone (the cuffs that nullify Kyros)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title-page reader-request splash: “Robin reads a story to napping alpacas” (request by Maru-chan from Tochigi). Decorative O-Robi corner art, not a foreshadowing color spread.
• Pages 2–3 — Kyros’s coliseum record and his reform by King Riku; caption “Captain of the Dressrosan Riku Royal Army — KYROS (AGE 25).”
• Page 4 — Caption panels introduce Scarlet (Princess of Dressrosa, age 16) and Viola (Second Princess, age 10).
• Page 7 — Baby Rebecca named; Kyros: “I am ever at your side!!” (the chapter title).
• Page 10 — “He sacrificed his own leg!!!” — Kyros severs his own leg to escape the sea-prism cuffs.
• Page 11 — “My body is now a toy” — Kyros transformed; King Riku no longer knows his name.
• Page 13 — The toy Kyros cannot hold the dying Scarlet (“these tin arms of mine”).
• Pages 18–19 — Sugar gags on the Tatababasco grape and faints at the sight of Usopp’s terror-face; “To be continued in One Piece Vol. 75!” (final chapter of Volume 74).

Open questions raised

• Now that the Thunder Soldier is revealed as Kyros, what is his plan against Doflamingo, and will Rebecca learn the truth of her parentage?
• Will Sugar’s faint actually undo every toy and restore the wiped memories across Dressrosa?
• Does King Riku still live, and what became of the Riku family after the coup?
• The lie Kyros (as the toy soldier) tells Rebecca — that he killed her mother — sets up an eventual reckoning.