Highlights
- One Piece chapter 1096 delivers on fans' expectations with a phenomenal flashback to the events in God Valley, providing insight into Kuma's escape and the Native Hunting Games.
- The Native Hunting Games happen every 3 years and involve killing the island's population, with the targets, or "rabbits," being marked for points. Rare races like Kuma are highly valued in this competition.
- The arrival of the Rocks Pirates and Roger Pirates on God Valley sets the stage for an intense battle, as Roger reveals a connection to Rocks. Kuma manages to save 500 people using his hands of liberation.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for chapter 1096 of One Piece, "Kumachi," by Eiichiro Oda, translated by Stephen Paul, and lettered by Vanessa Satone, now available in English from MangaPlus.
One Piece chapter 1096 is, quite easily, one of the very best chapters of the year and it certainly lived up to all expectations that fans had for it in many ways. Fans expected this flashback to give them a glimpse of the events taking place in God Valley and that is precisely what happened in OP 1096. This chapter was phenomenal from start to finish and it shocked the fans with how breathtaking this event truly was.
One Piece: Oda Reveals The Legendary Marines In God Valley
Oda shows the Legendary Marines in God Valley in One Piece 1096.
It also provided some insight as to what happened in God Valley and gave hands an idea of how Kuma managed to escape from the place. All things considered, One Piece chapter 1096 was absolutely sensational and things will most certainly only heat up from here onwards.
The Native Hunting Games In God Valley Begin
As expected, the Native Hunting Games in God Valley finally kicked off in One Piece chapter 1096. These games, as mentioned in the previous chapter, only happen once every 3 years and lead to the utter population cleansing of a particular island that is unaffiliated with the World Government. The island is then absorbed into the World Government, likely under new authority and rule. It appears that the targets, that is, the people of the island are marked as "rabbits" during this hunt. Whoever kills the most rabbits gets the most points and, thus, wins. There are some rabbits that possess more value than others and these are the likes of the exotic and rare races that they released on the island. The likes of the Buccaneer child, Kuma, and many others, would be considered rare.
The Celestial Dragons were seen going all in and the chapter and quite a lot of them had gained many points already. For instance, Saint Garling Figarland had already killed two of the rare rabbits, giving him 10,000 points, keeping in mind that he had a 10,000-point deduction at the start of the competition. As the Native Hunting Games went on, it was also revealed in the chapter that the rewards for the games were absolutely incredible. Ginny, who appears to be great at espionage and intel gathering, revealed that the rewards for this year's competition are two incredibly powerful Devil Fruits. One Devil Fruit is among the strongest to ever exist and it turns the eater into an azure dragon. The other one allows the user to blast anything away to different islands of the world. Most of these Devil Fruits would help them escape from God Valley and, thus, the group targeted these types of fruits from the get-go.
The Arrival of Monsters in God Valley
One Piece chapter 1096 was always going to focus on the God Valley Incident as well and the perpetrator for the God Valley Incident turned out to be none other than Ginny herself. Using her incredible skills, she leaked the info to the outside world and, this led the Rocks Pirates, along with many other powerful pirate crews, to come to God Valley in search of these powerful Devil Fruits. It appears that these prize Devil Fruits might actually have been taken from the Pirate Island itself. This was confirmed when Garp was about to be sent to the island.
Kong mentioned that he needed Garp in God Valley, not mentioning why, because he knew that he would not protect the Celestial Dragons at any cost. However, hearing that Roger was going to be on the island, Garp wasted no time in rushing towards the island as soon as possible. Meanwhile, fans also got to see the Rocks Pirates go to God Valley to raid these powerful fruits. Rocks, unfortunately, was not seen in the chapter, however, his voice was certainly heard for the very first time. The entire cast of the Rocks Pirates was seen and it included many big-name pirates. Whitebeard was seen right at the front and on his shoulder, fans got to see Stussy. Next to him were Shiki, Linlin, Streusen, Kaido, Gloriosa, Captain John, Ochoku, and even Silver Axe.
Kuma Uses Hands of Liberation
With the arrival of the Rocks Pirates in God Valley, fans knew that things were about to get heated and, moments later, the Roger Pirates arrived as well. Fans saw Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban heading into battle in full swing. It appears that Roger has some sort of a past against Rocks. He mentioned feeling awful about something that happened one year ago. Perhaps, Roger was defeated by Rocks or something else happened on the Pirate Island at some point in the past. Roger certainly does have a history with Rocks.
Regardless, it is very interesting to see a much younger version of Roger here. He looks like the spitting image of Ace and he also carries the straw hat on his back at this point in the story. At the same time, Garp and his Navy group also arrived on the island and, unfortunately, the rest of the God Valley Incident was completely off-screened, as expected.
That said, the big prized Devil Fruits, which were at the center of the story here, were shown by Oda in great detail. Among all the chaos, Ivankov and Kuma managed to get a hand on these Devil Fruits. Ivankov had the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryuu in his hand, however, Big Mom got there just in time and took the fruit from him. She also attempted to take Kuma's Devil Fruit from him, however, he managed to eat that just in time and gained its powers.
Surprisingly, Saturn stood in front of Kuma and knocked him down. Kuma mentioned that he wants to become just like Nika and this connects back to the lower that was exposed to him as a child. In the future at some point, when Bonney is born, he also mentions to her that he wants to be just like Nika and fans get to see where this dream originated from in this chapter, which is nothing short of beautiful.
That is the last that fans see of God Valley in One Piece chapter 1096. However, later on, it is revealed that Kuma actually managed to save 500 people with his hands of liberation in God Valley on that day. The events of the island were completely obscured and Garp ended up receiving all the credit. Using his paws, Kuma transported himself and many other people to different islands in the world. For himself and his friends, he chose Sorbet Kingdom and that is where Kuma, Ginny, and Ivankov are seen towards the end of One Piece chapter 1096.
Ivankov, having a great sense of freedom in his mind, leaves on his expedition, promising to meet Kuma again one day in the future. Meanwhile, Kuma and Ginny stay on the island and start a new life for themselves, working hard to earn money and afford quality food that, for the first time in their lives, fills their tummies. This flashback is only going to get more exciting as a story continues and fans absolutely cannot get enough of it. Thankfully, there is no break next week and One Piece will most certainly continue with incredible moments like the ones that fans witnessed in this chapter.