Chapters · Four Emperors (Yonko) › Zou

Chapter 814: Let's Go See the Cat Viper

Arc: Zou · Saga: Four Emperors (Yonko) · Released: 2016-01-25

Summary

In the Whale Forest of Zou, the Straw Hats absorb the morning’s bad news: Sanji and Caesar are gone, abducted by Capone Bege’s group, and the wounded Pekoms has been left behind in mink care. A fanged mink leader (“Boss”) sends Wanda and Carrot to guide the crew, not wanting the day-side minks to worry. Reading Sanji’s note, the crew first thinks he is “getting married” and will bring a new wife/crewmate home — until Brook explains the gravity: Sanji’s bride is the daughter of an Emperor (Big Mom), so honoring it would put them under the Big Mom Pirates, and Sanji wrote the letter precisely so they could not stop him. Robin recognizes the family name Vinsmoke; Brook traces the family from North Blue to East Blue to the New World. Zoro reframes the danger geopolitically — by destroying Caesar’s SAD lab on Punk Hazard and Doflamingo’s SMILE factory on Dressrosa, they have severed Kaido’s artificial-Zoan supply, so an imminent clash with Kaido (whose man Jack wrecked Zou) is now stacked on top of the Big Mom conflict. The crew rides up to the Guardians’ Dwelling beneath the giant whale-shaped tree, where Treetop Pedro, the Jaguar-Mink leader of the Whale Forest Guardians, welcomes them and notes Bepo’s group awaits atop the trees. Chopper goes to treat the recovering Pekoms; Luffy bursts in on the bathing Cat Viper (Nekomamushi), King of the Night — a carefree cat-mink who lost his left paw to Jack yet vows “one day I will repay this debt.” Pekoms, awake, confirms Sanji “can’t escape the wedding now” and delivers the bombshell: the Vinsmoke Family is famous in the underworld — “a family of killers.”

New reveals

• Sanji and Caesar are gone — both taken when Capone Bege’s group struck; the note caption renders Caesar as “Cedar” but it is Caesar Clown (page 2). Pekoms was shot and left behind but survived (pages 2, 17).
• Reading Sanji’s letter, the crew first assumes he is getting married and will return with a wife / “new crew member” (page 4); Nami is unconvinced (“Not necessarily…”).
• Sanji’s bride is “the daughter of an Emperor” — meaning the crew “would be working under the Big Mom Pirates” (page 5). Sanji rejected the idea on the spot yet still left a letter, which Nami/Robin read as proof he was convinced he had to go and deliberately freed the crew of any obligation to stop him (pages 5–6).
• “Vinsmoke” — Robin: “I know I’ve heard that name before!!” (page 6). Brook: it’s Sanji’s family — dad, mom, or siblings — once of the North Blue, then the East Blue, “and are now in the New World” (page 6).
• Zoro’s SMILE-chain logic: Punk Hazard (Caesar’s SAD) → Dressrosa (Doflamingo’s SMILE factory) → Kaido the buyer; having wrecked both, the Straw Hats are “set up for an imminent confrontation with Kaido of the Four Emperors” (pages 7–8). Kaido also “has his sights on Kin’emon’s group” (page 8).
• Guardians’ Dwelling, Whale Forest — a giant whale-shaped tree (“Whale Tree”) over a temple-like settlement, also wrecked by Jack’s attack (pages 10–11). See Destruction of Zou.
• Treetop Pedro — title card: “LEADER OF THE WHALE FOREST GUARDIANS (JAGUAR MINK) — TREETOP PEDRO” (page 12). He directs the crew that Bepo’s group is waiting atop the trees (page 12).
• Nekomamushi / the Cat Viper, the King of the Night, is shown in person (pages 14–16) — a huge, fluffy, lasagna-loving cat-mink who lost his left paw in Jack’s attack, refuses doctors’ bed-rest, calls himself “a man who loves his freedom,” and vows: “One day I will repay this debt!!” (page 15).
• Pekoms is awake and recovering; his “power helped me avoid half the damage” from Bege (turtle-shell hardening). He confirms Sanji “can’t escape the wedding now,” names the wedding’s two parties — “our Mama” (Big Mom) and “the father of the Vinsmoke Family” — and reveals the Vinsmoke Family is a famous underworld clan: “a family of killers!!!” (pages 17).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Straw Hats (present): Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro, Usopp, Franky, Brook, Chopper — Straw Hat Pirates
• Minks (present): Wanda (dog mink, guide), Carrot (Mink) (rabbit mink), Pedro (Treetop Pedro, jaguar mink, Whale Forest Guardian leader — title-card intro p. 12), Nekomamushi (the Cat Viper, King of the Night — shown pp. 14–16), and an unnamed fanged mink leader (“Boss”); a mink doctor scolds the Cat Viper — Minks
• Pekoms (lion mink, Big Mom Pirates) — awake, recovering, source of the Vinsmoke reveal — Pekoms
• Heart Pirates: Bepo’s group, waiting atop the trees — Heart Pirates
• Absent / discussed: Sanji (left for the arranged marriage), Caesar Clown (gone with Sanji’s abductors)
• Mentioned, not shown: Big Mom (“our Mama”; mother of Sanji’s bride; arranged the wedding), the head of the Vinsmoke (Sanji’s father, unnamed/unshown), Capone Bege (“damn that Bege!”; abducted Sanji, shot Pekoms — Firetank Pirates), Kaido (the Emperor the crew is now set against — Animal Kingdom Pirates), Jack (wrecked Zou), Doflamingo (SMILE-chain diagram — Donquixote Pirates), Kin’emon (Kaido “has his sights on” his group), Law (“the reason we’re aligned with Traffy is for the fight ahead”), Duke Dogstorm (the King of the Day, “the other guy” Luffy wants to meet)
• Locations: Zou, Whale Forest (Guardians’ Dwelling, the Whale Tree), Mokomo Dukedom

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title splash (B/W). Cover-story serial caption: “DECKS OF THE WORLD, 500-MILLION-MAN ARC, VOL. 8: ‘DRUM KINGDOM — NEW DESIGN FOR THE SOLDIERS’ HELMETS’” — Brook reads a newspaper in the Drum Kingdom amid soldiers in redesigned helmets. Cover-story serial — route to cover-tracker.
• Page 3 — Brook’s “image song” for the Cat Viper (“The Cat Viper is a lonely fellow♪…”), revealed to be wishful fiction (“Not really… It’s an ‘image song.’”).
• Page 7 — Zoro’s SMILE supply-chain diagram: Kaido ← Dressrosa (Doflamingo) ← Punk Hazard, labelled SMILE / SAD.
• Page 10 — Full-page establishing shot: the Whale Tree and Guardians’ Dwelling of the Whale Forest, minks cheering the arriving Straw Hats (“Garchu!!”).
• Page 12 — Treetop Pedro title-card reveal (Jaguar Mink, Whale Forest Guardian leader).
• Pages 14–16 — Cat Viper / Nekomamushi introduced: bathing, singing “Meow-meow,” missing his left paw, dodging Chopper’s needle.
• Page 17 — Cliffhanger: Pekoms — “The Vinsmoke Family is… well, to put it bluntly… a family of killers!!!”
• Page 18 — SBS Question Corner (Volume 80): confirms the Cat Viper image-song was penned/sung by Chōko, wife of Brook’s voice actor Chō; and a fan’s tally of each Straw Hat’s verbal “smackdowns” across Vols 1–80 (#1 Usopp 458, #2 Nami 295, #3 Zolo 263, #4 Sanji 246, #5 Chopper 124, #6 Luffy 112, #7 Franky 92, #8 Robin 16, #9 Brook 15; bonus Buggy 57, Vivi 40). Route to SBS archivist (Vol-80 cross-link).

Open questions raised

• Who exactly are the Vinsmokes, and why does Robin half-remember the name? Why is Sanji — a sea cook who hates his lineage — heir to a “family of killers”?
• Who is the head of the Vinsmoke Family (Sanji’s father), and what deal did he strike with Big Mom to arrange this marriage?
• Can the crew reach Sanji without provoking the Big Mom Pirates — and can they survive a simultaneous confrontation with Kaido?
• What is the shared history of the Cat Viper (Night) and Duke Dogstorm (Day) that the dual monarchy implies?
• How will the wounded Pekoms repay his “debt” to the Straw Hats?