Last seen in One Piece, the character was in poor condition on the ground. Typical of mangaka Eiichiro Oda, he left fans uncertain whether he survived the fight. He has now reappeared in the manga.
Warning, spoiler: In this article, we discuss the events in manga chapter 1117.
Which character is it about? The character who has not been seen since his last duel is X Drake. He last fought against Basil Hawkins. Both are part of the worst generation of pirates. This group also includes Monkey D. Luffy and Trafalgar Law. However, in Wano Country, Drake and Hawkins had to face each other as enemies.
The fate of both opponents remained unclear. Hawkins looked into the future and found out that his chance of survival for the fight was 1%. However, both opponents appeared to have sustained serious injuries. Since Eiichiro Oda rarely resolves a death, it remained unclear whether one of them survived.
Meanwhile, One Piece is currently in the Egghead arc:
Drake switches from pirate to marine
Where has he appeared now? In chapter 1117, the injured SWORD unit was seen in the hospital. Marine soldier Kujaku mentioned that the “captain would recover quickly, but he needs his space.” Shortly thereafter, X Drake is seen lying in a hospital bed listening to Vegapunk’s message.
Hawkins was correct in assuming that X Drake belongs to the marine. He is the captain of the SWORD unit, a secret special unit of the marine. By the way, Oda revealed that they pursue normal hobbies.
Could Drake become important again? In the grand finale of One Piece, all threads will likely converge. All factions like the pirates, the marine, and the revolutionary army may face each other. It could lead to a great showdown with only one winner.
The SWORD unit could play a crucial role in this. It may be that the special unit even joins Luffy and his friends:
- X Drake indirectly fought alongside the Straw Hat pirates in the Wano Country arc.
- The SWORD unit is only operating under the command of the marine. It consists of marine soldiers who have withdrawn from the actual structure. Therefore, they could act independently in the grand finale.
- Corby, a member of the SWORD unit, is a long-time friend of Luffy. This means there is a high chance that he will support the Straw Hat pirates, even though he is a marine soldier.
Unfortunately, we currently do not know the status of SWORD member Monkey D. Garp. He was last seen bleeding on the ground, pierced by an ice spike. Therefore, we did not include the strong fighter in our ranking of the strongest characters without a devil fruit: One Piece: The 5 strongest fighters without a devil fruit in the ranking
