The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter 1047, "The Sky Over the Capital," by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul, and Vanessa Satone, available in English from Viz Media.
One Piece Chapter 1047 is officially out and, as expected, Eiichiro Oda has once again delivered an incredibly cathartic installment in the series. With chapter 1046 ending on a very shocking note where Luffy used his Devil Fruit powers to grab ahold of a lightning bolt to attack Kaido, fans fully expected this week's chapter to continue the fight and head closer to the climax of the battle. While this chapter didn't have as much action as the last few big Luffy versus Kaido ones, it certainly was one of the more densely packed ones and covered quite a lot of events at once, including a flashback sequence.
With a look back on Momonosuke from 20 years ago, to the people of Flower Capital concluding the Fire Festival, and Luffy versus Kaido raging on, this week's One Piece chapter covered quite a lot of things at the same time at a breakneck pace and delivered yet again.
Momonosuke's Flashback
One of the biggest plot points in the Onigashima Raid section of the Wano Country arc right now is concerning the future Shogun of the country, Momonosuke. While Luffy continues to fight Kaido, Momonosuke has burdens of his own to carry as the entire island of Onigashima is hurtling towards the Flower Capital slowly and, what's worse, now slowly crumbling as the Yonko is on his last legs. It is quite clear that, along with Luffy's fight, this is the biggest concern in the arc at the moment. After all, Orochi's Kazenbo has already fallen, as has the Yonko Big Mom. All of Kaido's subordinates are down and the fire in the castle has been put out as well. All that's left now is for Luffy to defeat Kaido and Momonosuke to stop Onigashima from falling.
Surprisingly enough, Oda gave fans a deeper look into Momonosuke's life from 20 years ago – the day Kozuki Oden was executed. In a brilliant fashion, Oda once again highlighted that despite being the Shogun of the country, Momonosuke is still just an eight-year-old child who can only carry so much weight on his small shoulders. Yet, with an entire country relying on him, Momonosuke can't help but chase his father's shadow and emulate him in trying to be the leader that everyone can depend on. Despite being too young to endure the burden of the Kozuki, Momonosuke stepped up and jumped 20 years into the future to raise the clan once again.
Luffy Vs. Kaido Rages On
Easily the most action-heavy part of the chapter followed right after and picked up from where Chapter 1046 left off. By hurling the lightning towards Kaido, Luffy's clash against the Yonko continued. Despite being on his last legs, Kaido was able to match Luffy in battle, which was nothing short of surprising. It must be noted that not only is he fighting Luffy, but he's also carrying an entire island using his Devil Fruit power, which just goes to show how immense a fighter he truly is.
Luffy's Gear 5th, although powerful in its own right, was seen struggling against Kaido, especially when the Yonko used his "Destroyer of Death: Thunder Bagua technique." However, the most important bit from the chapter came when Kaido talked about Haki. According to him, while Luffy's Devil Fruit is certainly impressive, it isn't going to make him the strongest. At the end of the day, Haki conquers all and Luffy will have to take his Haki to the greatest level to become that powerful. At the same time, fans also found out that Roger truly never had a Devil Fruit power and just conquered the seas with Haki alone.
The Climax of the Onigashima Raid
Right from the very first Act of Wano, it was quite apparent that the Fire Festival was going to play a key role in the arc moving forward. With Act 2, it was established that the lanterns would eventually fly above the Flower Capital and illuminate the skies as a means to pay tribute to the dead. In One Piece chapter 1047, fans finally saw the people of the Flower Capital light up the skies with their lanterns and while this might seem like just regular plot progression, it could actually end up having massive significance in the next few chapters of the story with plot points concerning either Momonosuke or Luffy.
As the Fire Festival comes to a close, the climax of Wano looms over the arc. By the time the sun rises, Kaido has to have lost the battle against Luffy as the dawn will hold great symbolic meaning as well. At the same time, all the samurai on Onigashima look ready to put an end to the raid as well. With the fire already put out, the samurai are now awaiting their fate as Luffy vs Kaido continues.
As always, Oda's chapter was once again packed to the brim with a ton of content, however, the very best of the chapter came at the end, when Luffy used what appears to be his ultimate Gear 5 technique. By using the rubbery power of the Nika fruit, Luffy created a fist the size of Onigashima itself and coated it with high-level Armament and Conqueror's Haki. Planning to end things in a single hit, Luffy ordered Momonosuke to move Onigashima out of his way so Kaido could be dealt with once and for all. Of course, whether this will be possible to pull off or not remains to be seen. For now, Luffy seems to have readied his final attack as the chapter closed on an incredible cliffhanger. It is now Momonosuke's time to shine and move Onigashima out of Luffy's way so that Kaido can finally be taken out.