WARNING: The following contains spoilers for One Piece, Chapter #992 by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul, and Vanessa Satone, available in English now from Viz Media.
In Chapter #993 of One Piece, the fight continues between The Nine Red Scabbards and "The Strongest Creature" Kaido, with the Scabbards pulling out a surprising move learned from a former Whitebeard and Roger pirate, Kozuki Oden, against the villain.
The fight starts with a beautiful double-page spread of the Scabbards and Kaido rushing towards each other, separated by a horizontal panel layout. The Scabbards all dive in to attack, but the dragon Kaido counters with a violent roar of thunder and lightning. Nekomamushi is the first to get a hit in as he slashes at Kaido, volleying the massive dragon towards the kappa, Kawamatsu, who performs a double rotational sword slash.
What's great about this fight scene is what is missing from it -- something that was so ever-present in the previous chapters of One Piece -- and that's dialogue. Talking over the fight would break apart the action, losing all momentum and urgency, so Eiichiro Oda keeps the dialogue restricted to simply the attack names of the Scabbard's different techniques.
All of the Scabbard attacks damage and cut Kaido -- to his own disbelief, as Kaido has made a hobby out of attempted suicide because of his inability to receive wounds. His first introduction features him falling 10,000 meters from the sky down to the ground, after all. But the Scabbards have been successfully damaging him this entire time, not unlike their former master, Oden.
Just as Kaido is about to unleash another fiery breath attack, the ninja, Raizo, jumps in. Raizo uses one of his ninjutsu techniques to summon a scroll that captures the flames inside. Raizo wraps the scroll around Kaido and then releases its technique, causing Kaido to be damaged by his own attack.
In a mini flashback, Oden is trying to get his retainers to learn his two-sword style, but Kin'emon and the rest are disinterested. His wife, Toki, explains to Oden that the Scabbards' love and respect for him would cause them to fight amongst themselves to see who would be his foremost disciple if they learned his fighting style. But to our surprise in the present, we find Kin'emon, Ashura Doji, Denjiro, and Inuarashi all standing in Oden's two-sword style stance with one sword raised horizontally and the other lowered horizontally.
We can sense the fear in Kaido, as the only other person who had ever damaged him to this extent was Oden, all those years ago. Desperate and angry, the four retainers all attack at once, unleashing the same attack that Oden used to give Kaido his chest scar in the past, the "Paradise Totsuka" technique. The fact that the retainers went so far as to even teach themselves their master's fighting style in secret speaks to the impact that Kozuki Oden had on their lives.
Oda's bread and butter, when it comes to drawing manga, is his ability to depict massive chaotic scenes of multiple characters interacting without ever making a page feel cluttered or messy. He's able to balance multiple characters on a page or panel at a single time, letting those personalities carry whatever situation they've gotten themselves in. This is proven by the last few chapters of One Piece as the Straw Hats invade Onigashima, get discovered, fight dozens of Beast Pirates, and even gain a new ally. And yet, despite its chaos, nothing ever gets lost in moving from one plot point to the next. However, with this latest chapter, Oda proves he can also let action alone carry a scene just as easily as dialogue.
