Chapter 756: The Fourth Step

Arc: Dressrosa · Saga: Dressrosa · Released:

Summary

A 17th-anniversary color spread opens the chapter. On the King’s Plateau (“Flower Hill”), the now-freed Viola uses her All-Seeing Eye to scry into Doflamingo’s palace and finds the captive Tontatta princess Mansherry in a small room behind the chapel; Kin’emon and the newly-active samurai Kanjuro are with “God Usopp” amid a horde of citizens scaling the cliffs. As Team Rebecca & Robin ascend, Gladius bombards them from below with his “Pop-Pop Fruit”; Robin shields them with Diez Fleurs and hands Rebecca the key to the flower field. Viola spots toys on the third step — Sugar has woken, and at the new palace she rages that she will re-toy the country, starting with the long-nosed Usopp. Team Luffy (Luffy, Law, Cavendish, and the “soldier” Kyros) battle “immortal” toy soldiers that reform even when pierced; Robin, Rebecca and the dwarves fall in to join them. The group splits: Rebecca races ahead with the key to the flower field on the fourth step to free Mansherry, while the others hold off Gladius. Rebecca reaches the field alone — where Diamante is lazily waiting. “So it’s you…”

New reveals

• Kanjuro is active in the present on the plateau and introduces himself (“I am Kanjuro the samurai”); his ability to make crude drawings (the “Spring Sparrow”) is shown on-page, though Kin’emon says he’ll “explain later.”
• Sugar has regained consciousness at the new palace — Usopp’s “special facial jack-in-the-box attack” only knocked her out, and the threat of her re-toying everyone (especially the long-nosed Usopp, into a “Headcracker doll”) is back.
• The plateau is defended by “immortal” jack-in-the-box toy soldiers that reassemble even after Luffy and Cavendish blow holes through them.
• Diamante is waiting at the 4th-step flower field, setting up his confrontation with Rebecca — the man whose taunts implied first-hand knowledge of her mother Scarlett’s death.
• A key to the flower field is the prop driving the climb’s final stretch (Robin → Rebecca).
• SBS (Vol 75, p. 20): Dellinger is a man (age 16), picked up by the Donquixote Family as a baby and raised as a girl by Giolla; the photo-snail Koala used in ch 747 is a visual Den Den Mushi (cam-snail vs. pro-snail).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

(None resolve outright this chapter — the Sugar/Kyros/Rebecca threads continue toward their Dressrosa payoffs.)

Mentions / appearances

• Plateau / climb: Usopp (“God Usopp”), Kin’emon, Kanjuro, Viola, King Riku, the Tontatta dwarves (Leo and others).
• Team Rebecca & Robin: Rebecca, Nico Robin, dwarves; attacked by Gladius.
• Team Luffy: Luffy, Trafalgar Law (“Traffy”), Cavendish (and his horse Farul), the “soldier” Kyros.
• Enemy side: Sugar (at the new palace), Diamante (4th-step flower field), Doflamingo (the “young master,” referenced), the immortal toy soldiers.
• Captive: Mansherry (located in the palace via Viola’s scrying), Scarlett (in the dwarves’ flashback).
• SBS: Dellinger, Giolla, Koala.

Notable panels

• Pp. 1–2 — Color spread: the full Straw Hat crew posed in a clothing-shop/dressing theme, captioned “The 17th anniversary.” Decorative anniversary art (not catalogued as a foreshadowing color-spread).
• P. 3 — Viola’s All-Seeing Eye scrying through the palace (“you can look into the palace from here?!”).
• P. 7 — Flashback: the dwarves’ memories of Lady Scarlet’s kindness (she let them touch/eat the fruit; comforted them in the “punishment room”).
• P. 9 — Gladius revealed as the bombardier (“It’s da Pop-Pop Fruit!!”); Robin’s “Diez Fleurs.”
• P. 13 — Luffy’s “Gum-Gum Jet Pistol” vs. the toy soldiers crushing Farul.
• P. 15 — the toy soldiers reform — “…immortal?!!”
• P. 19 — Splash: Diamante revealed standing in the flower field, sword drawn, facing Rebecca — “So it’s you…”
• P. 20 — SBS Question Corner (Vol 75): Dellinger is male; visual Den Den Mushi explained.
• P. 21 — the next chapter’s title page (“Chapter 757: Trump Card”) with the cover-story banner “The Solitary Journey of Jimbei, First Son of the Sea, Vol. 6” — captured at the tail; that cover story belongs to ch 757, not 756.

Open questions raised

• What exactly is the “Spring Sparrow,” and what is the nature of Kanjuro’s drawing ability? (Kin’emon defers the explanation.)
• Can the climbers reach Sugar before she fully recovers and re-toys the kingdom?
• How will Rebecca fare against Diamante, the man tied to her mother’s death — and will her father Kyros arrive in time?
• How are the immortal toy soldiers stopped if they cannot be destroyed?