Chapter 764: White Monster

Arc: Dressrosa · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2014-09-22 (Entire chapter is the flashback “The Story of the Man Named Corazon,” ~13 years before the present.)

Summary

The Corazon flashback continues. Corazon (Donquixote Rocinante) drops his act in front of young Law: he can speak, has hidden it from everyone — including his brother Doflamingo — and wields the Calm-Calm Fruit to seal them in a soundproof bubble. He reveals he is Doflamingo’s younger brother and exists to stop “Dofy’s” rampage, names Vergo as “the previous Corazon” and one of the Family’s four officers, and tells Law that his secret “D.” name marks him as one of “the People of the D” — known in history’s dark corners as the enemies of the gods. Law threatens to expose him to Doflamingo, then quietly decides to stay silent (squaring a two-year-old debt for stabbing Corazon). As Marine Vice Admiral Tsuru closes in, Corazon abducts Law — leaving the note “Went to go cure Law’s disease” — and the flashback reveals Corazon is in fact an undercover Marine reporting to Admiral Sengoku, while Vergo is shown enlisting in the Marines and requesting a G-5 transfer. We see Flevance, the White Town, and learn Law suffers terminal White Lead Disease; for six months Corazon drags him hospital to hospital, every door slammed in fear of the “white monster,” until Corazon — weeping — realizes he has come to care for the doomed boy. The chapter ends with Doflamingo’s transponder snail: “Corazon, it’s me.”

New reveals

• Corazon is not mute. “I never indicated to anyone that I couldn’t talk. They just interpreted it that way on their own.” He has fooled Doflamingo and the whole Family for years (p. 3).
• Calm-Calm Fruit (Nagi Nagi no Mi). Corazon is a “Silentman” who raises invisible soundproof walls — no outside noise enters, no inside sound escapes (p. 4). His chronic “accidents” (catching fire, tripping) are real clumsiness, not the fruit.
• Corazon = Doflamingo’s younger brother, whose stated purpose is “to stop my brother Dofy’s rampage” (p. 5).
• The Family’s four officers include Corazon, plus Vergo, “the previous Corazon” — a powerful man on a separate top-secret mission even the officers don’t understand (p. 7).
• The “D.” lore. Law carries “the secret name of D” — “the People of the D,” the “fateful few.” Children are scolded “you’ll be gobbled up by a D”; in the world’s dark history the D. are “the enemies of the gods,” a people whose philosophy pits them against the gods — possibly the destruction of this world, with the Celestial Dragons as the “gods” (pp. 7–9).
• Corazon is an undercover Marine — nameplate “Commander Don Quixote Rocinante” — reporting to Admiral Sengoku at Navy HQ; he requests leave for a “personal matter” (pp. 13–14).
• Vergo is a Donquixote mole inside the Marines. Young Vergo enlists, is “on the fast track upward in the year since [his] enlistment,” and asks Sengoku to transfer him to G-5; he wears a “MARINE” jacket with the Donquixote smiley on the back and has the “fried egg” mark on his cheek (p. 14).
• Flevance, the White Town, is Law’s homeland, destroyed; Law has White Lead Disease (Amber Lead Syndrome), believed contagious. The World Government “exterminated” Flevance and the world demands the survivors be finished off (pp. 6, 15–17).
• Law’s debt squared. Two years earlier Law stabbed Corazon, who stayed silent; Law decides to keep Corazon’s secret so they are “even” (p. 11).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Corazon (Donquixote Rocinante / “Cora”), Trafalgar Law (child), Doflamingo (voice on the snail), Vergo (young, enlisting), Sengoku (Admiral, Navy HQ), Baby 5, Buffalo, Tsuru (named — Marine from HQ; crane silhouette), Law’s father (unnamed Flevance doctor, flashback p. 6).
• Locations: Flevance (the White Town), Marine Headquarters (Navy HQ), G-5 (Vergo’s requested posting).
• Groups / fruits: Donquixote Pirates, Donquixote, Marines, Calm-Calm Fruit, Amber Lead Syndrome, Celestial Dragons.
• Cover serial: “The Solitary Journey of Jimbei, First Son of the Sea” (Vol. 13 caption appears on the Ch. 765 splash, p. 21).

Notable panels

• Pages 1–2: Title page — “White Monster.” Whimsical title illustration of Chopper as a giant white snow-beast with Luffy/Nami/Zoro/Usopp fishing (“Beware of the Pirates!”). (b/w in digital — decorative, not a foreshadowing color spread.) cover serial art also present this volume run (Jimbei).
• Page 4: Corazon reveals the Calm-Calm Fruit — the soundproof bubble around himself and Law.
• Page 6: Flashback-within-flashback — the Flevance massacre; Law’s father begs for his sons; child Law swears to survive and hunt down the killers.
• Pages 8–9: Big-type panel — ”…THE ENEMIES OF THE GODS.” The D-lore dump.
• Page 14: Reveal panels — nameplate “Commander Don Quixote Rocinante” at Navy HQ; “NAVY HQ ADMIRAL SENGOKU” eating crackers; “MY NAME IS VERGO, SIR!!!” entering Sengoku’s office.
• Page 15: Establishing splash — “THE WHITE TOWN, FLEVANCE.”
• Pages 16–18: The six-month hospital-rejection montage; Law branded the contagious “white monster”; survivors of Flevance hunted.
• Page 19: Corazon weeps over Law — “The pain was all yours… you poor boy!!!”; cliffhanger snail: “CORAZON, IT’S ME.”
• Page 20: SBS Question Corner (Oda on Kohei Horikoshi / My Hero Academia) — flag for SBS specialist.

Open questions raised

• What does Doflamingo want when he calls Corazon at the cliffhanger — does he suspect anything?
• How far back does Sengoku’s plant of Corazon inside the Donquixote Family go, and what is the “report” Sengoku awaits?
• What exactly is Vergo’s “top-secret mission” separate from the Family?
• Is there truly no cure for White Lead Disease — and how does this set up the role of the “Ultimate Devil Fruit”?
• The full meaning of “the enemies of the gods” — who are the gods, and what is the D’s world-ending philosophy? (→ Will of D, Void Century and Ancient Kingdom)