One Piece Chapter 703

Cover

Color Spread: Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Nami, Chopper and Brook are on a wrecked boat and are surrounded by sharks. The caption reads “We’ll send an SOS to the world”.

Storyline

The lowly member of the Donquixote Doflamingo gang, who had previously deceived the blind man in the casino, explains how it is that Ace’s fire fruit is in the hands of his captain. He thinks that the same Devil Fruit can never exist twice at the same time. However, when the Devil Fruit user dies, it apparently grows back somewhere in the world. His captain, in the utmost secrecy, was able to take possession of this Devil Fruit. The impostor puzzles over why his captain is offering such a powerful Devil Fruit as the prize of the tournament that takes place in the Corrida Colosseum.

Luffy decides that no one should get the Fire Fruit, since he himself has already eaten a Devil Fruit and Franky refuses it. Franky says that they should go to the Coliseum to take this chance, but keeps in the back of his mind that this could be a trap on Doflamingo’s part.

Zoro is still chasing after the thief of his shuusui. Sanji is close on his heels, but loses sight of Zoro when he spots a dancer named Violet. She stands in front of him the next moment and enchants Sanji with a kiss. This was really just a diversion to hide from the cops who are chasing her for stabbing her husband. Furthermore, Violet asks Sanji for the favor of accompanying her to the next town and killing a man for her.

Outside the Corrida Colosseum: Franky and Luffy have arrived. They watch a live, one-legged toy soldier escape the cops by entering the Corrida Colosseum. He explains that neither cops nor navy can capture criminals in the coliseum – after all, the law of “Donquixote Family” applies.

Luffy wants to sign up for the tournament. Before he can even pronounce his real name, Franky beats him. He is registered for the tournament under the name “Lucy” with the starting number “0556”.

In the “waiting room”: Spartan, one of the tournament participants, is not at all pleased about Luffy’s appearance and attacks him. However, Luffy dodges the blow, holds him by the arm and throws him to the ground. With a laugh on his face, he shouts that he is happy to meet the contestants.

Miscellaneous

• The caption “We’ll send an SOS to the world” is a reference to the song “Message in the bottle” by The Police.
• “Lucy”(ルｰシｰ Rūshī) is a pun and a reference to Muten-Roshi (武天老師, Muten Rōshi) from Dragon Dall, as Lucy and Roshi sound very similar in Japanese. Last but not least, Luffy also dresses up like Master Roshi. Another possible connection is that just like Luffy, Muten Roshi also participated in a tournament under an assumed name and with the help of a disguise.
• The starting number “0556” is a nested allusion to Luffy’s birthday (05/5) on the one hand and on the other hand the number sequence 56 can be read as “gomu” if you read the “6” in the Kun reading as “mu” and not “roku”, which is the Japanese word for “rubber” and in this respect a reference to Luffy’s devil powers.