WARNING: The following contains spoilers for One Piece, Chapter #1007 by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul and Vanessa Satone, available in English now from Viz Media.
The Performance Hall has been arguably the most chaotic location during One Piece's Onigashima Raid Arc, and it's only become more of a ravenous battlefield since Queen spread his Ice Oni virus. Things look bleak for all involved as the virus keeps spreading to both the Beast Pirates and the Wano samurai. But against the odds, the Straw Hats' resident Doctor, Chopper, not only launches his cure, but he also earns some surprising allies in the process.
Chapter #1007 picks up where #1006 left off, with Hyogoro asking the other Yakuza to end his life. After defeating all the remaining samurai who pledged their loyalty to Kaido, Hyogoro is now spent. If he remains unchecked for much longer, he will become a full Ice Oni and attack the other Yakuza or Wano samurai. The Yakuza are struggling to commit the deed, but they know in their hearts it must be done.
As our funky All-Star Queen mocks the afflicted Beast Pirates when they plead for help, it's clear he has no respect for the Pleasures and Waiters, the two lower-tier factions that make up the Beast Pirates.
Pleasures are the Pirates who failed to synergize with the artificial devil fruits, SMILES, and are now stuck perpetually laughing forever, while Waiters are the remaining Beast Pirates still waiting for more shipments of SMILES so that they can become gifters. However, after Luffy destroyed Punk Hazard and defeated the SMILE broker Doflamingo, there aren't any more SMILES being produced, so the Waiters have lost any opportunity to get stronger.
Queen sees these two factions as nothing more than benchwarmers in an otherwise All-Star pirate fleet. Using them to spread the Ice Oni virus is the only thing they're still good for. He even goes so far as to mock the remaining samurai and pirates waiting for Chopper to finish the cure.
With such a small dosage of antibodies he stole from Apoo, Chopper will never be able to rapidly create enough of the cure to save everyone in the Performance Hall in time. Therefore, the Brachiosaurus Zoan type is convinced that the "raccoon dog" will only make enough to save himself and then escape. However, anyone who knows Chopper knows that he will never abandon someone in need of medical attention. To that end, he jumps in the way of Hyogoro's execution and pops a pill into the old Yakuza boss's mouth.
To the surprise of everyone, Chopper and his Mink Tribe medical assistants then wheel out a cannon. It fires a wide mist that disperses throughout the Performance Hall and causes the Ice Onis' frozen bodies to chip away. Chopper knew he could never produce enough vaccines so quickly, so instead, he used the antibodies to create an entirely new virus -- one that could spread fast enough to counteract the thousands afflicted by the virus.
Queen tries to shoot Chopper down and surprisingly, it's the Beast Pirates who jump in and save him. The newly cured Beast Pirates pledge their loyalty to the one who saved them and are ready to fight back against the commander who had nearly killed them. Marco holds Queen in place, encouraging the "raccoon dog" that it's time he shows Queen a doctor's might. Chopper does so while correcting everyone in the Performance Hall that he is not a raccoon dog, but a reindeer. This leads to a hilarious set of reaction panels as samurai, Beast Pirates, X-Drake, and Marco are surprised to have gotten Chopper's species wrong.
This step away from the rooftop bout currently taking place between Kaido, Big Mom, Luffy, Zoro, Law, Kidd, and Killer is a great opportunity to spotlight many of the Straw Hats who have been so overlooked. Chopper has come through countless times when it comes to saving his friends -- medically or otherwise -- so giving him another chance to show what makes him such a great medical officer is exactly what the doctor ordered.
