WARNING: The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter #1016 by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul and Vanessa Satone, available in English now from Viz Media.
As the individual stories of Luffy, Yamato and Momonosuke continue progressing in One Piece's Onigashima Raid, one has been coming off as more of a whimpered deflation -- that of Nami and Usopp's. After running into Big Mom, the Yonko took out the Tobiroppo that was chasing after them -- Ulti -- and then consumed Zeus, though the impact was lessened by us never really feeling for the homie in the first place. Luckily, Chapter #1016 returns some much-needed agency and relevance to Nami and Usopp, as well as builds the jobbed-out villains of this arc back up.
The last chapter of One Piece revealed that Zeus had somehow escaped death and transferred into Nami's Climate Baton. Now, it's revealed through Zeus that Nami using the Weather Balls just before Hera consumed Zeus is what transferred the cloud's consciousness into Nami's trademark weapon. It's a bit of an absurd leap in logic, but when has One Piece ever not been absurd?
As Nami, Usopp and O-Tama reach the Guest Parlor -- just above the Performance Hall where their voices can reach all of the controlled Gifters -- they encounter one of the Marys. Having seen Momonosuke vanish after Kaido's attack through the eyes of the Frog Mary, this young Mary decides to break the enemies' spirits by announcing the future shogun's death. But just before the trio can stop her, Usopp is struck with a fearsome headbutt by Ulti.
The Pachycephalosaurus Devil Fruit hybrid survived the electrifying triple attack by Big Mom's three homies, although, by this point, she's barely hanging on. Despite this, the rage she feels is on full display as she holds O-Tama by the throat. The Tobiroppo sees the young kunoichi as the reason for the Gifters' sudden betrayal, as well as Pay-Pay being defeated by the manipulated Big Mom.
Once O-Tama begins to cry out in pain Nami strikes Ulti with her Baton, which molds into a mace due to Zeus's power. Zeus picks up that Ulti is running out of steam and another lightning strike could knock her out, but Nami is reluctant to use such a strong attack as there's a risk it'll hit O-Tama as well.
Luckily, Usopp saves her, launching a Green Star on Ulti just when we thought he was out for good. His Sargosso causes a multitude of vegetation to spring forth from the seed, separating O-Tama from Ulti's grasp.
Just before Zeus emerges from Nami's Climate Baton for a lightning blast, though, the storm cloud suggests Nami give him a new name. However, when the navigator offers the unintimidating name, "Fluff," the cloud immediately rescinds his offer and does the job himself: "I am the Mighty Zeus! Right arm of Nami! Prepare for pain!"
Nami slams down with a lightning blast but Ulti dodges out of the way. Luckily for the navigator, Zeus can bend and turns himself around to chase after the Pachycephalosaurus hybrid. Ulti collapses with a puff of smoke surrounding her, leaving the young Mary to unknowingly announce that both she and Page-One have been defeated via the Mary speakers across Onigashima. When Usopp picks up on this, he uses another green star to trap the Mary so she can be used as their loudspeaker instead.
Chapter #1016 of One Piece allows Nami to finally be cool again. It also gives Ulti a more fitting defeat at the hand of a Straw Hat. Having said that, this fight still could have been expanded upon into more than a single chapter; plus, Nami only uses her thunderbolt attacks despite having an entire weather arsenal at her disposal. Still, with O-Tama's orders now able to reach all of the Gifters through Onigashima, this development could change the entire tide of the war.
KEEP READING: One Piece Chapter #1016 Recap & Spoilers: It's Me, Otama
