One Piece - Chapter 974 [manga]

[marvelB]

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That time is upon us once more! Credit goes to AP's Redon and co. for the info:

-Chapter title is "Onward to Onigashima!!" Ministory involves Gotti saving Chiffon from the marines.

-The chapter finally returns to the present time! And as soon as we do, a major bomb is dropped: We discover the identity of the traitor to the Kouzuki clan: KANJUROU THE SHOWER!!! At the same time the traitor exposes himself to the scabbards, Orochi reveals the man's background to Kaidou: It seems that Kanjurou is, in reality, a branch member of the Kurozumi clan! He was born into a theater troupe and devoted himself to the stage.... but when his family was discovered to be part of the clan of "daimyo killers", he suffered persecution from the masses, and his own parents were killed onstage! From that point onward, Kanjurou closed off his heart to the world, and only lived on through "acting".

-Eventually, he was sought out by Orochi's group, who told him they took care of the people who murdered his parents. They then tasked him to spy on the Kouzuki clan as the next stage of their revenge plot. As he grew up as an actor, he was able to perform this task masterfully, and continuously fed Orochi intel.... even after leaping 20 years to the future. Curiously, Kaidou, upon hearing this story from Orochi, asks the shogun to hold off on executing the time travelers right away, as he has a question he wanted to ask the Kouzuki clan remnants for twenty years....

-Back to the scabbards, after Kanjurou reveals himself as a mole, Kinemon finds it hard to believe, as the traitor in question had even joined them in the boiling execution. Kan explains that it was all part of his act, as he closed off his heart since childhood..... so he held no resentment towards the enemy clan he devoted himself to. Furthermore, he was always searching for a place to die, so he had no problem following the Kouzuki clan into death, which made him the perfect spy for Orochi! Having had enough of Kanjurou's treachery, Kinemon slices his head off! However, it turns out the man he beheaded was actually a clone made from ink! The REAL Kan joined the enemy pirates who came to ambush the samurai..... and what's more, he captured Momonosuke!!!

-However, not all hope is lost for the samurai, as the cavalry arrives in the form of the supernova trio of LUFFY, LAW, AND KID.....!!!!

Images

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[Hoodspirit]

urgh, the spoiler feels so anti-climatic compared to the build up.
It's not even the SHP-crew who is leading the charge but Luffy and 2 side-characters.

Kanjuro just 'acting' and not caring about dying, yeah, that's nothing.

Really hope the spoilers didn't do the chapter justice and it will be way better.

[marvelB]

So the traitor is finally revealed.... y'know, in retrospect, it makes sense for Kanjurou to be the one since he kinda stood out the least among the Scabbards (Denjirou was crossed out of that list as soon as he was revealed to be Kyoushirou). Also, it seems he was hiding his real skill with his DF until now (and to think I felt sorry for that badly-drawn dragon of his at Zou... ).

BTW, something interesting to point out about this twist: It's possible that it may be a reference to the Shimabara Rebellion. Long story short, the leader of the rebellion, Amakusa Shiro, was apparently betrayed by a painter named Yamada Emosaku, who was in reality a double agent for the Tokugawa Shogunate. Pretty interesting history reference there if that's really the case!

[Hoodspirit]

Interesting detail, but I don't see any real similarity between the Shimabara Rebellion an the current situation.

[Hakai]

Not too surprised by this either. He was one of, if not the most likely one to be the traitor.

I'm far more excited about the sabaody trio being together again.

[marvelB]

Originally Posted by Hoodspirit

Interesting detail, but I don't see any real similarity between the Shimabara Rebellion an the current situation.

You mean aside from a rebellion against the shogunate being foiled by a spy who just so happened to be an artist? Kan may have been revealed to be an actor, but we already knew for some time that he had an art-based DF ability. Pretty strange coincidence, if you ask me....

[Kanon]

Kanjurou's name was the one that came up the most often when people discussed the traitor with plenty of clues supporting it, so yeah, can't say I'm shocked. What bothers me more is that the traitor turned out to be someone nobody cares about since he barely got any screentime.

At least that's out of the way and the long awaited battle can begin. Unless next week is another flashback showing how everyone survived and how Luffy convinced Kid to join them.

[Homura7]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Kanjurou's name was the one that came up the most often when people discussed the traitor with plenty of clues supporting it, so yeah, can't say I'm shocked. What bothers me more is that the traitor turned out to be someone nobody cares about since he barely got any screentime.

That's the point. Out of the 9 Scabbards, Kanjuro was the most shallow of them. He hadn't shown anything outstanding that would put him on par with the other eight. Now we have learned about his background and motivations, and that he actually isn't a horrible artist, Kanjuro has earned a lot of points, as he's been revealed to be more than meet the eye, a con artist with so much personality.

It's because of him Zou was ravaged, Kinemon got separated from Momo in Dressrosa, exposed the Crescent Moon Rebellion secret scheme which lead to the death of Yasue...

Without us realizing, behind the scenes this man Kanjuro was actually doing terrible things. Kinemon is so full of rage right now, and wait for when Denjiro finds out.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Knighto

That's the point. Out of the 9 Scabbards, Kanjuro was the most shallow of them. He hadn't shown anything outstanding that would put him on par with the other eight. Now we have learned about his background and motivations, and that he actually isn't a horrible artist, Kanjuro has earned a lot of points, as he's been revealed to be more than meet the eye, a con artist with so much personality.

Kanjurou as a character does improve a lot with this, but my problem is that there's no emotional pay-off for the reader. A really well written betrayal should leave the reader feeling betrayed as well.

[ri0]

Lol, I was just about to ask for a thread to discuss the identity of the traitor.
When re-reading the Wano-Arc I found a detail in chapter 920 that seemed a little bit fishy to me: Directly after the time travel while everyone else was still sorting themselves out, Kajurou already sent his drawing flying. Could have been for intel gathering, but now I think we know for sure he gave of informations to Orochi.
Plus he was one of the few people that knew Raizo was on Zou, to which Kaido sent Jack with a whole army, while leaving Kanjurou just in Doflamingo's hands seemed a little bit out of relation.
And as he was the 2nd scabard to be introduced, while having the least backstory, my guess was that it could be covered once his betrayal was made public. Damn, was a little bit too late

[Kanon]

Raizo's location being revealed to Kaido was probably the strongest non-meta evidence. And now that you've mentioned it, his DF is really good for sending out information.

[OH&S]

Quite glad with the way things have been unfolding in these past few chapters with Oden's death, the revelation of Denjioru=Kyoushirou=Witching Hour Boy (though it was kinda obvious; quite literally no one else it could have been); and now the revelation of the traitor.

It looks like people were correct with their analyses that Kanjurou was the the traitor (something I've been reading for a while now):

Spoilers

Spoiler for Evidence for Traitor's Identity

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Now with the Sabaody trio forming a united front, its time for the counterattack!

[MAX_COLA_POWER!]

If only MHA was this fast at identifying spies and traitors on the good guy side. But yeah, counter attack time!, I wonder where would be a good spot to end the third act since they all seem very cliff-hanger like.

[Kanon]

Read it. There was a bit at the beginning of the chapter explaining that Denjiro always had Hiyori carry a pocket of fake blood on her so he could fake her death in case Orochi's obsession with her became too dangerous. He had prepared for everything.

The Scabbards think more with their hearts than with their brains. The flashback established they knew there was a spy among them since twenty years ago, yet they made all these plans without even trying to uncover his identity because they couldn't bear the thought of one of them being a traitor after all they went through. Good thing Denjiro was there to save their asses, because it's obviously thanks to him the whole plan didn't go up in smoke.

Kanjurou claimed he bore no ill will toward the Scabbards, but he sure looked evil and pretty happy about his actions after he revealed his identity.

[marvelB]

Well, a translation's out, but it's not a very good one. One glaring error I noticed straight away was Orochi/Higurashi telling the younger Kan that they were the one who killed his parents, when it was actually his parent's killers who they disposed of. Yep, gonna wait for the official TL once again to clarify the dialogue.... '

Originally Posted by Knighto

Kinemon is so full of rage right now, and wait for when Denjiro finds out.

Will he get so pissed that his face turns back to normal?

Though, speaking of those who are still oblivious, I can't imagine Nekomamushi being too happy either when he finds out one of his close companions was a traitor. Though, while we're on that note, I wonder if he managed to convince Marco and the other WB remnants to join him? I don't think they have to worry about Weevil for a while since he's busy being hunted down by the marines....

[mickbis]

I'm curious about one thing...
Kid mention about a lot of Samurai and ship of the opposite port..
is that the rebel?

The 3 supernova is real HYPE tho
better than I expected

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by mickbis

I'm curious about one thing...
Kid mention about a lot of Samurai and ship of the opposite port..
is that the rebel?

Well, yes. All of this was done to fool Orochi and Kanjurou, all the rebels are fine. Luffy and the rest are only there to save the Scabbards, who were the only ones out of the loop.

[Zolton]

I wonder if Denjiro knows that Kanjuro is the traitor. Being so close to Orochi, he probably does.
Kinda weird place to reveal it, but at least that's out of the way now. We are going to Onigashima finally knowing who's friend and who's foe. And the auction trio is together again at last!

[mickbis]

Denjiro probably heard about the traitor existence from Orochi and it maybe easy to deduct that one of the time traveller is the traitor who keep feeding Orochi with infomation after 20 years of experience beside Orochi.

[Kaz_]

Finally...from the look of their faces, its less talk and more action from now on.