Chapter 99

When Luffy is about to be beheaded by Buggy, he claims as his last words that he will be the next pirate king and smiles while accepting his fate. This makes a big impression on Smoker who remembers Roger's execution at the same place, 22 years ago.

Zoro and Sanji fight the pirates in order to reach their captain. However, a storm arrives to Loguetown. When Buggy's sword touches Luffy's neck, they are struck by lightning. Luffy, being made of rubber is not affected by the lightning. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji run to their ship before they can be caught by the Marines.

Luffy Died

Buggy shouts that Luffy has upset him and therefore, he needs to be executed. He orders his pirates to create chaos in Loguetown for those who dare interfere. Luffy unaware that he is the one that's going to be executed tells Buggy that it's the first time he will see a real execution. Buggy tells the townspeople that they will see the live execution of Monkey D. Luffy.

Meanwhile, Nami tells Usopp that a storm is headed to the island and that it is more important than Luffy's execution.

Back at the Straw Hats' ship, Mohji and Richie prepare to set fire at the ship has a backup plan if Luffy and his crew tries to escape.

The Marines are not sure what to do, as the pirates are fighting each other. Smoker tells the marines to let them fight each other; that way, they will have the strength to capture both Alvida and Buggy as soon as they cut Luffy's head off.

Back at the platform, Luffy tells Buggy to let him go; however, Buggy states that if somebody tries to help Luffy, they will execute them. Luffy shouts that he will become the Pirate King shocking everybody present at the execution platform. Buggy is about to cut Luffy's head off when Zoro and Sanji show up to save Luffy. Smoker and Tashigi are surprised to hear that Pirate Hunter Zoro belongs in the same crew of Luffy. Zoro and Sanji start fighting the Buggy and Alvida Alliance to quickly destroy the stake of the platform. Luffy, apparently saying his last words to his crew because he will not survive the execution, smiles and accepts his fate. Shocked, Smoker recalls Gold Roger's execution 22 years ago.

Suddenly, lightning strikes Buggy when he was about to kill Luffy. With the execution platform now destroyed, Luffy stands up and recognizes that he is indeed a lucky man. Everybody at the platform are confused about what just happened. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji quickly run for it knowing the marines are surrounding the area.

Smoker asks Tashigi if she has ever seen somebody laugh at the execution platform knowing they will die. He remembers Gold Roger being the only one laughing right before his death. Realizing Luffy is escaping, he orders the first unit to take care of them, however, their gunpowder is wet because of the sudden storm, leaving the port free for them to escape. Smoker in anger decide to capture Luffy even if it's the last thing he can do.

Mission 80

Yor wakes up in a daze and quickly freaks out after her mishap with Loid after drinking the previous night, wondering how she can show her face to the family. Loid gives Anya breakfast and reminds her to get dressed as she has a playdate at the zoo with Becky. Becky arrives shortly after and attempts to chat with Loid before leaving with Martha and Anya. After the three leave, Loid spots Yor creeping into the living room and greets her.

Loid remarks to Yor that she slept in and thinks about how she drank heavily last night. He hopes it must have meant that she had a good time but fears she may have been drinking away her dissatisfaction with him. On the other hand, Yor believes Loid is griping about her oversleeping and concludes that she should have a gripe too. Loid asks Yor to tell him any concerns she has with their life at home, making her think he is griping about her not having any. Yor goes for a vague statement and says she has gripes about everything, despairing Loid.

As Yor shouts to Loid that she is dissatisfied with their life together, Yuri bursts through the door for a visit and is shocked by what he hears. Yor is surprised by Yuri's sudden appearance and brings up his recent shoulder injury from a truck accident that he claims to have already healed. Yuri turns his attention to Loid and reminds him of his threat to execute him if he makes Yor cry, but instead says he will be very upset. Yor tells Yuri that is not the case but cannot say she wants their marriage to look "normal." Yuri tells Yor to divorce Loid, but Yor refuses.

Seeing that she still wants to continue their fake marriage, Loid looks to resolve things and asks Yor how long she had this grievance, and she answers it was since yesterday. Loid is shocked and tries to remember why she is griping, even considering that her co-workers learned his true identity as a spy and told her. Yuri demands that Loid apologize, to which he complies. However, due to their miscommunication, Yor wants to gripe but confuses Loid while Yuri yells at him. Yor tells Yuri to stay out of their marital affairs, shocking the young man.

While Yuri deflates to the couch in devastation, Loid decides to wrap up the conversation before Yor accidentally says something to expose their marriage to the SSS agent. The phone rings to answer this problem. Yor picks it up and tells Loid it is a call for him from the hospital. On the phone, Loid receives an emergency call and code indicating a serious incident and he tells the others that he has to go. Before he leaves, Yor takes the opportunity to gripe at Loid for leaving the family for work, using one of Sharon's gripes.

Yor hopes she convinced Yuri that they look like a normal, married couple, but Yuri suspects Loid of cheating due to his sudden departure and decides to tail him. Yuri convinces Yor to join while she, still a little drunk, wants to look for an even bigger gripe. While the siblings try to stay unnoticed while tailing Loid, they have long been spotted by him. As Yuri gives Yor stealth tips (which she is all too aware of), he sees the Lieutenant signaling for an emergency summons. Yuri quickly makes an excuse before rushing off, surprising Yor and Loid. Yor follows Loid to the hospital and concludes that he is not cheating, and as she sobers up, realizes that having gripes is not good and heads home.

In the hospital, Fiona reports to Loid that they have an "extreme level 3 situation." She explains that WISE HQ found a mole they have been locating, but they had already gone underground by the time they got discovered. Among the top secret documents the mole stole was a coded map indicating areas of activity by WISE agents in Ostania, including that of Operation Strix. At the same time, the SSS Boss announces to Yuri and the other agents at their HQ about the return of their agent from Westalis. He orders them to cooperate with the agent's division to secure them once they cross the border and not to let the pursuing WISE interfere.

Atlas

Far to the west, farther than any mortal eye can perceive, stands a lonely figure. Upon his broad shoulders rests the weight of the heavens, and, some say, the totality of existence itself. His name is Atlas, and he is the celestial axis upon which all of creation revolves.

But his burden is not an honorable one, nor a symbol of triumph. Instead, it is a sentence handed down by mighty Zeus and the gods of Olympus, in retribution for Atlas taking up arms against the gods during the Titanomachy - the last great war between god and titan.

Atlas, said to be the wisest of the titans, led them into battle against Olympus at the behest of Cronus, greatest of their number. But despite Atlas' wisdom, and their strength of arms, the titans lost their war, and their freedom with it.

The surviving titans were cast down into Tartarus and bound in the darkness. All save Atlas, who was condemned to stand in the west and uphold the heavens on his back forevermore.

There was a cruel irony in this punishment. Atlas, some whisper, was the first great explorer of the heavens; a celestial cartographer second to none. It was he who gave mankind the wisdom to read the stars, and know the names of the patterns that stretched across the night sky. And now he is condemned to bear the weight of that which he once gloried in.

Or at least, he was. But now the world trembles as existence itself threatens to come undone, thanks to the foolishness of the gods. Olympus might have a new king, but their arrogance is undimmed. It is an arrogance that Atlas knows all too well. And as the gods war upon one another once more, he finds himself questioning the nature of his great burden.

What, he wonders, might happen if he were to simply...set it aside, once and for all?

Pressure

As the episode begins, Sandy and SpongeBob are peacefully watching the clouds. SpongeBob spies one cloud that looks like a flower, but Sandy points out they all look like flowers all the time. While they relax, they discuss hypothetically climbing the nearby Coral Cliff, until they each casually mention that they would obviously win anyway, due to their respective land and sea-based abilities. They decide to have a race and Sandy takes a head start. Despite his efforts to catch up, SpongeBob loses and challenges Sandy to another race to the Krusty Krab, taking the same head start as Sandy and winning.

Upset at SpongeBob's victory, Sandy boasts of the superiority of land creatures to sea creatures, listing the many skills and abilities that she claims sea creatures lack. SpongeBob, joined by Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs, point out things that Sandy cannot do, such as breathing underwater. She then decides to tear off her suit and shatter her helmet. Soon enough, the strain proves too much, and Sandy is forced to use a pickle jar as a makeshift air helmet.

To settle the issue, Sandy challenges the group to the reverse: going up on dry land for one minute, which they declare an easy feat. Once they reach the shore of the local island, they lose confidence. Unwilling to let her win, they resolve to charge up to the surface and end up finding the land enjoyable. They even take the time to chat up a pair of native seagulls.

After the minute passes, Sandy lets go of her pride and heads up herself to congratulate the group. To her horror, she discovers her friends being chased and mauled by the seagulls and attacks the birds (calling them rats with wings) to save them.

With the five friends back on the ocean floor, the two sides come to the realization that everyone, sea and land creature alike, is good at something, even if no one is good at everything. SpongeBob and Sandy apologize to each other (SpongeBob for making Sandy a laughingstock, and Sandy for daring the others into going onto dry land), and the group gives a cheer in honor of feeling sorry for themselves. Meanwhile, the now defeated and plucked seagulls, in a sorry state of their own, halfheartedly join in the cheer as the episode closes.

Chapter 1

Cloudless hung the sky, darkened at the edge of perpetual twilight since the Eye of Ra was dimmed. No wind stirred the jungle canopy. No rain washed the leaves or filled the drying rivers. Fields of corn hung limp, withered with thirst. The Mayan Jungle was dying.

Torchlit, the courtyard was filled with mortals. They gathered in desperate prayer at the foot of a white stone pyramid. Cresting the stairs that climbed the exterior stood Chaac, God of Rain, axe in hand that he might cleave the sky and wash the land once again. Jaw set, body poised, Chaac drew back, muscles tight, and swung his axe in a mighty arc. Air was cleft and thunder rumbled in its wake, but the heavens remained whole and no rain came forth. The mortals grew silent.

"Do not despair," Chaac implored from atop the pyramid.

"We are dying, Mighty Chaac," croaked a voice from the crowd.

"Rain!" cried another, "We need rain!"

""I will not cease until the sky opens again!" Chaac promised.

"And if the sky refuses to answer?" came a voice, strong and hard, from beyond the crowd.

Peering, eyes narrowed, Chaac sought the source of the voice. "Who speaks, to doubt me so?"

A towering figure, broad of shoulder, face concealed beneath a Greek war helmet, save the curled lip, passed through the crowd of mortals as a shark through the sea. "It is Ares, God of War."

"Ares?" Chaac straightened. "You are far from home. Why have you come?"

Booted feet set upon the pyramid stairs, ringing metal against stone with each step. "Anubis, the spineless mongrel, flees my vengeance. The murder of my father, Zeus, is on his hands. To this place have I tracked him."

Warily, Chaac eyed the God of War as he reached the pyramid's apex. "Anubis was here, but has gone. After a battle with Camazotz, he was severely injured. I tended his wounds before he journeyed West, across the ocean."

"Tended his wounds, you say?" said Ares.

"I did," replied Chaac.

Ares tore the Rain God's axe from his grip and brutally buried the blade into Chaac's chest. "To aid my enemy is to be my enemy," Ares growled. Stunned, the mortals below collectively gasped.

As Chaac fell, the face of his beloved came to mind. The woman he loved, the wife of his brother, their affair relinquished so long ago. "To see your face... one last time..." Tears slipped from his eyes.

Finally, then, the sky was rent and sweet cold rain cascaded on the mortals below. Ares wrenched the axe free from the slain God and stood before them.

"Ares!" They cried. "You have saved us!"

"Ares," said the God of War to himself. His own name bitter to the taste.

Diary of Koby-Meppo

Vol.15 : "Obstruction of Bombardment Obstruction"

コビメッポ奮闘日記vol.15「砲撃阻止阻止」

Oda Eiichiro

Was toiling over a manuscript on the day of a deadline. That's when a Star Wars calendar arrived from a reader. POWER UP!!!! THANK YOU!!!

締切に追われる原稿当日。スターウォーズのカレンダーが読者から届いた。パワーUP!!!ありがとうっ!!!

Chapter 100