One Piece may have finally revealed one of the biggest mysteries about Bartholomew Kuma and his decison to save the Straw Hats at Sabaody.

One Piece has finally explained a big mystery about its time-skip, one that has lingered in the community since Sabaody. The latest chapter finally reveals how Kuma knew exactly where to send each of the Straw Hats at Sabaody, with many of the Straw Hats’ time-skip destinations making a reappearance, albeit in the most unexpected way possible.

Chapter 1099 of One Piece continues Bartholomew Kuma’s tragic backstory, which reveals that Kuma visited many of the islands he sent the Straw Hats to during the time-skip in search of a cure for Bonney’s disease. Kuma visits Torino Kingdom, Kuraigana Island, Karakuri Island, the Boin Archipelago, Tequila Wolf, and even the sky island, Weatheria. Despite being a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, this revelation suggests that Kuma’s choice of where to send each of the Straw Hats was more than a happy accident and may have involved some consideration than assumed, based off the information he had on each of the crew members.

Kuma Likely Visited Every Straw Hat’s Time-Skip Destination

Created by Eiichiro Oda

Most notably, Kuma doesn’t visit Amazon Lily, Namakura Island and Kamabakka Kingdom in chapter 1099 – which is where he sent Luffy, Brook, and Sanji. Assuming Kuma hopped from island to island, he likely stopped at these islands briefly, and it seems he would have needed to know the rough location of every island in order to send the Straw Hats off in the right direction.

That said, while Kuma certainly put some thought into his decision to save the Straw Hats, fate seems to have played an important role regardless. Even though Zoro was sent to Kuraigana Island, it is hard to say for sure that Kuma knew Mihawk would be there. Another excellent example is Kuma’s choice to send Luffy to Amazon Lilly, which also seems rather random at first glance, but worked out for the best in the end, with Rayleigh eventually finding his way to Luffy. Fortunately, Kuma’s flashback seems far from over, so perhaps the islands missing from chapter 1099 will make a reappearance.

Nonetheless, Kuma’s flashback has proven to be full of surprises and the callback to the events of Sabaody and the time-skip was certainly an unexpected but pleasant one in that regard. Moreover, the latest chapter highlights Oda’s ability to weave complex interconnected webs through the smallest of details, which further exemplifies the beauty of One Piece.

One Piece is available from Manga Plus and Viz Media.