Some of the conflicts will get settled in the new chapter. As Sanji, Luffy, and Jinbe make their way to the third floor, Sanji is captured by Black Maria. He is the only one that gets trapped in her trickery. Luffy makes his way through as reinforcements arrive and get across. When Zoro is fighting to capture Apoo for the antidote, he notices that O-Kiku’s arm fell through the sky. This enrages Zoro, and a strong attack follows, slicing through Apoo. Zoro gets the antidote. Chopper figures out how to cure others, and he pledges to save everyone. As a result, Queen sends out an attack towards Chopper, where Zoro intervenes. Marco arrives at the main battlefield and asks if they need help. At that moment, an earthquake severs through the island.
Brook speculates that it was Zoro’s will that brought an Earthquake. Yamato says that Kaido’s Roar brings such rumble in the ground. But it is revealed that Kaido is back to his dragon form, and he intends to take the Onigashima Castle Island to the Flower Capital.
Discussion
Some of this was obviously going to happen. Apoo and Zoro are comparable fighters, but when Zoro saw that the Samurai on top of the roof is losing, he gets more intense, throwing everything at Apoo. Queen planned to give the antidote to a strong individual so that his game causes maximum damage. However, with Chopper’s expertise and the acquired antidote, the icy virus is going to die out. Instead, Queen and Zoro may be the next to engage each other in a duel. Sanji was captured by the irresistible Black Maria and got separated from the other two. Many escape to the fourth floor, and it only brings them closer to the roof. In all that, the final bit in the spoilers is the craziest. An earthquake is created as Kaido is powering up to do something unprecedented, presumably never done in this series. It seems like Kaido wants to take Onigashima to the Flower Capital. For that, the Yonko transforms into his dragon form, and we can speculate that Kaido would lift the whole island and take it to the capital. Another possibility is that he wants to destroy the island and move his base of operation to the capital like he previously mentioned. Big Mom was rushing towards Kaido so she could have a role in this. The confirmed bit is that the final battle will move to the Flower Capital as Kaido wants. According to the Mangaplus site, the official release for One Piece Chapter 997 is 30 November 2020 at midnight JST. It’s gonna take some time for the chapter to release, and till then, we can only speculate on these early released details. Still, Kaido defeated all the scabbards after their initial stand, and he wants to move his plans forward. We know that Kiado is very powerful, but no individual in this series has been shown to lift entire castles to another position. It could just mean that Kaido will move the scabbards to the fire festival in the flower capital and make an example of them in front of the people. While Luffy and others have a new problem and they rush to rescue the Samurai. All in All, a great chapter is ready for next week.
