A slow but nice chapter as some threads begin to pay off (didnt need to see the scabbards escaping the execution again). Good to see Cracker back in action, the exclamation point "!" replaced with his hair and a spark is funny. Brulee merely guessing the Germa are in Chocotown but not confirming it continues the mystery silhouette game for another week.
Back to protect his hoe: Denjiro returns as Pimp Of The Year. Last seen cutting off Orochi's head in 909, he returns over a year later to...cut off Orochi's head. A sweet moment with "20 years" of build up, I preferred Orochi nailed to the floor like Tonoyasu to the cross and dying by his own fire. Cute that it was one of the wishes on the lanterns coming true, but you can never be certain with Orochi. I do like serpent Orochi and dragon Kaido on fire in the same chapter, the loss of his 8th head tying in nicely to Kaido's 8th defeat looking imminent.
If nothing else, Denjiro sure knows how to pick his fights.
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It's not even his final form (unless it is). Kaido does on his own take on Magellan's Venom Demon/Enel's Amaru/Yamato's Kagamiyama, covering his little skyscraper body with a giant elemental avatar dwarfing Luffy and melting Onigashima's horn just to show how potent it is. I see where King got his inspiration. This being the attack Kaido choose to confront Luffy's godly punch might as well be a finisher because it covers so many bases:
The flames that roasted Oden (gunshot to the head aside) now became a death challenge Luffy must overcome.
Kaido one ups the Oden living inside of his head by showing he can take the heat too.
An Onigashima-sized fist and even bigger bright flaming dragon, the citizens following their laterns to the sky can't possibly ignore the sky battle anymore.
Luffy must show his finest application of the Ryou + AdCoC he learned in Wano by punching Kaido without melting his hand.
Fake Joy Boy harnessing the power of fire and even naming his attack Flaming Drum Dragon is an outright mockery of the real flame-haired Sun God with the drumming heartbeat.
Make some room Zoro, this god is punching Kaido straight to Hell. Bajrang/Monkey King Gun, a reference to Hanuman who could also size shift, would be a sick name for a finishing move that embodies the power of G5. Luffy is suffering so much to land this one punch that even if it were to fail, he would likely try again. It must be some punch. Perhaps the drawn out clash and multiple flashbacks don't conclude this. At the very least, I expect a location change as we enter a brief final phase.
