One Piece Chapter 961: The Mountain god Incident

One Piece chapter 961 was officially released today in the weekly Shonen Jump issue. It’s an earlier release than the usual Monday schedule, but a break is expected next week.

The title of this chapter is “The Mountain god Incident”. It confirms many speculations about the chapter revolving around Oden. The last part of the chapter also introduces a young Orochi in an unexpected state. Here is a brief summary of the chapter.

The Search for Lola Continues

The cover page shows Vito and Gotti of the Fire Tank Pirates still in Dressrosa. They witnessed some guys laying on the ground with huge kiss marks that resembles Lola’s lips. One of the guys Vito was holding points to the right which may mean that the attacker was in that direction.

Some other men in the background are running towards the opposite direction. This attacker could indeed be Lola. Although when I saw attack I actually mean Lola may he forcing some men to marry her. In Thriller Bark, Lola seems desperate to get married & she is even willing to force someone to it.

This search for Lola began after the Whole Cake Island arc. It is the 24th cover story as a side story on the title page of each One Piece chapter. After successfully escaping Totto land, it became the Fire Tank pirate’s next quest to reunite the twins Chiffon and Lola.

Kinemon tries to save Tsuro.

As was anticipated, the mountain god did attack the capital of Wano. The size of the giant boar makes it easy to swallow whole houses with people still inside. A man came to Kinemon in search for the white pig. It was one of the men who captured the creature.

He came to Kinemon with the intent of retrieving the pig and returning it to its parent. He also told Kinemon that they kidnapped Tsuro in exchange for the pig. Along the way however, the mountain god intercepted them and swallowed Tsuro with two of his friends.

This enrages Kinemon. He threw the white pig, took a stance and charged towards the mountain god. Denjiro tried to stop him but to no avail. Kinemon holds himself responsible for what happened to Tsuro and was willing to sacrifice his life in return.

Oden Saves the Capital

Oden took the white pig to provoke the mountain god to attack him. Then with his two-sword style hi split the giant boar in half. This not only stopped the mountain god’s rampage, but also saved those who have been swallowed.

Miraculously, no one died in that incident. Those who have been swallowed were returned to their families, and Kinemon and Tsuro were reunited as well. The capital was saved, but still sustained damage to a total of a quarter of the whole capital.

Oden is Disowned and Banished from the Capital

Right after the incident, the assistant of shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki arrived with a letter to Oden. The assistant feels bad to deliver the letter in such a time. The letter states that Oden is being disowned and banished from the capital.

This did not bring any remorse to Oden, but gladness and pride. He said that it means that the shogun and the capital cannot contain his greatness. He left the capital and headed towards Hakumai. Kinemon and Denjiro who feels greatly indebted to Oden started following him.

Yasuie’s Servant Orochi

Oden, accompanied by his new henchmen, came to Yasuie, the daimyo of Hakumai. They were greeted by none other than Orochi, who was introduced as Yasuie’s new servant. This turned out to be another major twist as Orochi’s present character is far from this humble servant.

This raised some interesting speculations. There are many possibilities as to how he became the villain in Oden’s story. The villains in One Piece usually have a sad backstory. We can expect the same with Orochi. But that’s a story for another day.

NOTE: For more One Piece-related stories, readers may route here.
Image credits:Viz Media/ Funimation/ Onepiece.fandom

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