The Everlasting One Piece Readlong: Vol. 10-12
Welcome back to the Everlasting One Piece Readalong. If you’re just joining us, you can find previous adventures in our readalong tag. This week, we’re tackling the fourth omnibus collection, containing Volume 10, 11, and 12, which contains the resolution to the Arlong Park arc and begins one of the longest arcs in the series to date, Alabasta/Baroque Works.
Volume 10-12 Overview
It’s the final confrontation with Arlong! We get to see Luffy get the maddest he’s ever gotten at a villain! And finally the Straw Hats embark on their greatest adventure yet: the Grand Line.
The Adventure Continues…
Luffy bulldozes his way through henchmen to land a punch on Arlong. For the first time, we see Luffy get furious because someone has hurt Nami. Luffy never stopped considering her part of his crew. Now he’s going to take apart anyone who played a part in her misery.
Arlong doesn’t believe humans can stand against him. His crew mounts a defense: Hachi calls on one of their toughest warriors. This turns out to be Momoo, who Luffy and Sanji met on the way to Arlong Park. They recognize each other, but Momoo doesn’t want any part of them. He’s more scared of Arlong’s wrath, though, and attacks.
Luffy anchors his feet in the concrete, grabs Momoo and uses his Gum Gum Windmill attack to weaponize the sea cow. He takes out numerous members of Arlong’s crew and sends Momoo flying into the air (poor Momoo). After this, Arlong’s top crew members — Hachi, Kuroobi, and Choo—step onto the field.
Side Story Alert!
We’re finally getting a new one; it starts in Chapter 83! We get to see Coby, one of Luffy’s friends, hard at work in his new role in the Navy. Helmeppo, the son of Captain Morgan, has also joined up. What adventures await?
Back to the action!
Luffy’s dramatic spin leaves him stuck. He can’t avoid the ink attack from Hachi and ends up blinded. Hachi tries to crush Luffy with a huge stone, but he’s foiled by Sanji’s powerful kick. Luffy cheers Sanji on, even as Sanji laments Luffy’s lack of strategic forethought.
Usopp tries to yank Luffy out as Sanji takes on Kuroobi and Zoro challenges Hachi to battle to distract him from Usopp. Alas, Luffy stretches out instead of coming unstuck.. Then Usopp accidentally lets Luffy go, and like a rubberband, Luffy rebounds back and rams into Choo. The physical comedy of this chapter is excellent: funny and ridiculous in equal measure, with the tension of the battle bubbling under the surface. Choo targets Usopp. Usopp, of course, runs out of the compound.
Arlong finally steps back into the fray after Luffy’s punch. Luffy tries to attack again, but Arlong easily avoids it. Since Arlong is part swordfish, he easily cuts the concrete around Luffy’s feet and tosses Luffy in the water.
Sanji and Zoro are on their own. Meanwhile, Yosaku and Johnny know that Luffy can’t survive much longer and attempt to run to save him, but Genzo stops them, pointing out that they’re too injured. Instead, he and Nojiko decide to help. They head toward the water where Luffy is trapped.
Zoro is fighting with only one sword, because two of his swords were destroyed in the battle with Mihawk. He’s still injured from that fight, too. When he collapses, Sanji is distracted from his own battle and Kuroobi punches Sanji so hard he flies out of the compound. Zoro rallies, because he has a dream to fulfill and he doesn’t plan to die at the hands of these pirates. Yosaku and Johnny lend Zoro their swords to help.
Hachi has six swords and believes that even with three, Zoro is no match for him. But Hachi is no match for Zoro’s understanding of subtle swordsmanship, something that Zoro makes clear Hachi doesn’t have. As Hachi is defeated, Kuroobi attempts to take Zoro out, but he’s cut off by Sanji, who has returned to battle!
To save Luffy, Sanji dives into the water, planning to kick Luffy’s concrete prison into pieces. Then he sees Genzo and Nojiko. They’re attempting to free Luffy, but nothing is working. Finally, they realize they need to use Luffy’s skills to help him breathe. Nojiko stretches Luffy’s head to the surface so Genzo can do compressions. Sanji wants to help them, but Kuroobi follows him.
Kuroobi is more powerful underwater: his attacks are harder and his confidence is high as he outlines all the bad things he’s going to do to Sanji’s friends and how Sanji won’t be able to stop him. But Sanji, thinking quickly, breathes air into Kuroobi’s gills so Sanji can reach the surface.
Kuroobi’s confidence lasts until Sanji begins to land devastating kick after kick. Sanji’s fury at being goaded lends him the strength he needs to defeat Kuroobi thoroughly and deliver a sassy comeback at the end. Arlong is furious that two of his high-ranking crew members have been defeated by humans. But one remains: Choo.
Elsewhere on the island, Usopp is playing dead. He’s terrified, but as he lays there he starts to realize how hard everyone else fights. He knows he can’t bear to face his crew if he cheats. So he stands and challenges Choo again. This is a big turning point for Usopp: he’s scared, but he’s not going to back down from a fight. That way he can stand proudly beside his friends. Choo is physically powerful, but Usopp is clever and full of trickery. What he lacks in physical power he makes up for in how he uses his brain. When Choo gets the jump on him, Usopp quickly launches a Deadly Fire Star attack using grog…because it’s flammable. While Choo exits the fight to put himself with water, Usopp follows up his fire attack with several more, winning the battle!
At Arlong Park, Arlong has easily defeated Zoro and Sanji. Nami arrives to kill Arlong, but Arlong laughs. He gives her a choice: rejoin his crew and draw maps, or the village dies. Don’t, and everyone dies. Nami is resolute: she and the Coco Village townspeople are tired of being oppressed.
Suddenly, there’s a geyser of water in the distance…Luffy has finally woken up. Zoro guards the water while Sanji goes to try to break the concrete Luffy is trapped in, but then Hachi speaks! He’s not out of the fight!
Hachi dives in after Sanji as Arlong takes out his frustration on an injured Zoro. Arlong comments on Zoro’s wounds and Zoro says that if he had laid still, the wounds wouldn’t have opened. Arlong agrees, but Zoro, of course, didn’t mean himself. As Sanji prepares to free Luffy, Nojiko jumps in front of them to take the brunt of Hachi’s attack, which never comes…he’s knocked out as all the wounds Zoro inflicted reopen.
Luffy is freed! When he flies out of the water he immediately launches himself at Arlong with a flurry of attacks. The final battle has begun!
Arlong is tough opponent and he comes with the superhuman strength of a shark! Arlong’s belief in his superiority is unshakeable. Luffy is different: he admits there are things he doesn’t know how to do. He knows he can’t go on by himself. Arlong believes his own personal physical strength will always serve him.
After Luffy avoids being chomped, he punches Arlong so hard his teeth shatter. But Arlong has the ability to regrow his teeth, and grows two extra pairs to attack Luffy with. After going back and forth with the upper hand, Arlong retreats to the water, where he can unleash his brutal dart attack. Luffy manages to dodge, but it’s clear that Arlong has gained ground. His friends and crew tell him to retreat, but Luffy refuses.
Arlong retrieves his shark saw, which puts Luffy at a continued disadvantage. As he and Arlong fight, Luffy ends up thrown into the main building of the headquarters and lands in the chart room. Arlong corners him, and explains that the room belongs to Nami, and she’ll make maps for him until he and his crew can take over the world. Arlong callously asks Luffy if he believes Luffy can use Nami better—and becomes Arlong’s first and last mistake.
Arlong may have given Nami material things, but he still kept her locked in a tiny room, forcing her to make maps. It’s been so long since Nami’s had people who truly cared about her and not what she could do for them. Luffy destroys the room, throwing out the desks and the shelves and all the maps Arlong forced Nami to make over the years. As Arlong prepares to stop him, Luffy furiously launches his Gum Gum Battle Axe attack, and brings it down on Arlong, and the building itself. The force of his attack cracks the walls and the whole structure collapses, with Luffy and Arlong still inside.
As the dust clears, Luffy appears, and tells Nami that she’s part of his crew now. The subtext is clear. It’s not her skill for maps or money he values, but herself entire. Arlong Park has fallen and the people on the island are free.
Predictably, the Navy men who robbed Nami are still around. They appear and demand Luffy and his crew surrender. This doesn’t go over well with the Straw Hats. Nami forces their leader, Colonel Nezumi, to give all Arlong’s money to the villagers so they can rebuild and return the money he stole from her, too.
Colonel Nezumi, beaten and humiliated, calls the Navy headquarters to report Luffy. This is the first glimpse we get of one of Oda’s funny and fascinating pieces of worldbuilding: the transponder snails, which allow communication over long distances as well as a version of document scanning using the snail’s eyes. Nezumi sends a picture of Luffy and demands a high bounty because of how dangerous he is.
While the Straw Hats heal and celebrate, Nami is with a tattoo artist, considering her past. Nami requests that her tattoo be altered into something brand new…
The next day, when the Straw Hats are leaving, the villagers wait to say goodbye to Nami, who instead chooses to run and catch the ship as it leaves to avoid long goodbyes. She runs through the crowd and lands on the Going Merry. The villagers, who wanted to thank her, watch as all their wallets and money fall out onto the deck. Nami is many things, but she’s still, at heart, a thief.
As the ship sails away, Genzo is handed the picture of the tattoo Nami received: a combination of a tangerine and a pinwheel. And as the Straw Hats depart with Nami on board, Genzo remembers a long time ago, when he stuck a pinwheel in his hat to make baby Nami smile…
We’ve reached a turning point: in the rest of the world, the Straw Hats actions have provoked a response. The Navy sets its sights on Luffy; his sudden rise can’t be allowed to stand. Back in Luffy’s hometown, the villagers muse over Luffy finally living his dream. Also, in an undisclosed location, Mihawk visits Red-Haired Shanks and his crew with Luffy’s wanted poster….
Finally, Luffy has a small, tight-knit crew and he’s bested all the strongest pirates in the East Blue. The Straw Hats decide it’s time to go to the Grand Line. Before they begin, they stop for supplies at Roguetown, the place where Gold Roger was executed so many years before.
In Roguetown, Zoro sees someone who so closely represents his childhood friend, Kuina, he’s thrown off. He escapes meeting her and goes to replace his swords, instead, but the shop owner doesn’t take him seriously. Then, the woman Zoro was avoiding rushes in and starts gushing over Zoro’s last remaining sword. Her dream is to collect all the swords in possession of people using them to earn money, like bounty hunters and pirates. She knows a lot about swords, and as they browse, she finds a sword named Kitetsu III, and tells Zoro it’s very good. The shop owner doesn’t want to sell it to Zoro, though, because of its curse.
Zoro takes this as a challenge. He throws the sword into the air and puts his arm out, but the sword spins around his arm harmlessly. The shopkeeper and the woman are aghast, but the shopkeeper recognizes that Zoro is a true swordsman. He allows him to have the Kitetsu III and the shop’s nicest sword for free.
Elsewhere on the island, the woman who helped Zoro choose his sword is identified by her co-workers as Tashigi, a member of the Navy, as they wonder where she is.
Luffy is, as always, busy getting into trouble. He climbs the execution scaffold in the square. Before the Navy can force him down, someone calls to him. It’s a mysterious woman, who knows Luffy, even though he doesn’t remember her. She reveals herself as Alvida, the first pirate Luffy ever met, who has been transformed through the Slip Slip Fruit.
Devil Fruit Alert!
The Slip Slip Fruit provides its user with protection: physical or weaponized attacks “slip” off the person’s skin, keeping them from being injured. The downside of this fruit is that the character that eats it, Alvida, becomes extremely thin because her weight “slipped off”. The optics of this are bad: the idea that any excess weight is as harmful as attacks/weapons is troubling. This also plays into one of Oda’s weaknesses: body diversity among his female characters starts bad and stays bad for quite awhile.
Back to the Action!
Alvida has teamed up with Buggy, who reveals himself as his crew traps Luffy on the scaffold in order to exact their revenge.
The Navy alerts the local captain that pirates are causing a ruckus, and we meet Smoker, Tashigi’s boss. Meanwhile, the other Straw Hats meet up with their bundles of stuff only to discover that Luffy has managed to get himself in trouble again.
Nami and Usopp head to the ship while Zoro and Sanji attempt to save Luffy from Buggy’s plans to behead him. Nami tells Usopp that the weather is about to grow stormy, and they need to get to the ship so they have an exit route. The Navy, watching the pirates from the wings, plan to attack once Luffy has been executed. Zoro and Sanji rush to Luffy’s defense as Luffy shouts his apology to them, laughing, before a massive lightning strike flashes down, leaving Buggy crisped and Luffy perfectly fine.
Smoker is floored, because he’s seen a pirate laugh in the face of death just once before…when Gold Roger was executed 22 years before. He swears he won’t let the Straw Hats escape and orders they be stopped.
Buggy’s just as furious about Luffy avoiding execution as Smoker is about Luffy getting away. But Buggy sent a crew member, Mohji, ahead to set fire to Luffy’s ship to prevent any long term escape. When he and his crew attempt to go after Luffy, they’re stopped by sentient smoke and captured…Smoker’s using a devil fruit power on them!
Devil Fruit Alert!
It now becomes clear that a reason people are a little afraid of Smoker is because he ate the Plume Plume Fruit. The fruit gives him the ability to transform his body into smoke and manipulate the density of the plumes to use as restraints and weapons, or to avoid attacks.
Unfortunately for Buggy, Mohji’s attempts to set the ship on fire failed due to the rain. Nami and Usopp manage to distract him long enough to climb aboard, but Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro are still in route to port. They’re stopped by Tashigi, who challenges Zoro—she doesn’t believe he has a right to his swords, because he’s a pirate.
Luffy and Sanji continue on as Zoro and Tashigi fight, but Luffy’s caught by Smoker, who uses his Devil Fruit power to stop Luffy in his tracks. Smoker’s confused about why Luffy’s bounty is so high, given that he’s very easy to take down. But Smoker is stopped by a mysterious figure, who he calls Dragon. Dragon attacks Smoker and the Navy, allowing Luffy, the rest of the Straw Hats, and Buggy’s crew to get away. Both the Navy and Buggy’s crew fume over Luffy’s escape, and both set out to follow them: to the Grand Line.
After narrowing avoiding capture, the Straw Hats are ready for their Grand Line adventure. Nami realizes that the geography means they have to take a canal flowing up a mountain to get into the Grand Line. After a rough encounter with giant sea monsters, Luffy manages to point them true, and they’re off! Their excitement turns to terror, though, as they come down the side of the mountain to find a giant whale in their path! Luffy tries to get it to move with the ship’s cannon, but that fails to work, leaving them on a crash course. Going Merry’s masthead is the first casualty of the Grand Line, and Luffy gets so angry that he punches the whale in the eye. The whale retaliates by swallowing the ship whole—crew included—except for Luffy, who is abandoned outside!
And in one of the weirdest turns in One Piece so far, as Luffy panics and the whale prepares to dive, he notices that the whale has a trap door, leading to a maze of hallways. And the rest of the Straw Hats, on the inside, discover an entire ocean and an island where someone lives….
The man living on the island is Crocus, and he protects the whale, Laboon, from people who are hunting him to feed their village: Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday. After Luffy reunites with the rest of the Straw Hats and Crocus has restrained Laboon’s attackers, he tells them all about Laboon’s past and why he haunts the the entrance to the Grand Line. Years before, Laboon followed some pirates on their journey. When they left to travel the world, planning to circle around and return to Laboon, they asked Crocus to keep on eye on him. Crocus agreed, but the pirates never returned and fifty years passed.
Crocus helps the Straw Hats exit Laboon back into the ocean where they toss Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 overboard. Crocus explains that he installed everything in Laboon so he could take care of him. Laboon didn’t react well when he Crocus told him his pirate friends were never coming back. But Laboon still believes they’ll come back, so he waits, butting his head against the land, and crying.
The Straw Hats think the story is sad, but Luffy doesn’t offer an opinion. Before they realize, Luffy has broken off Going Merry’s mast and attacked Laboon with it, picking a fight! Laboon is tough, but so is Luffy, and he declares their fight a draw and them formal rivals. Luffy promises Laboon he’ll be back for a rematch. To keep Laboon from hurting himself via ramming, Luffy paints his (very badly drawn) Jolly Roger on Laboon’s nose as proof of their agreement and tells Laboon not to ruin it.
Crocus teaches Nami about getting around the Grand Line, and how they need a special compass known as a Log Pose. They don’t have one of these, until Luffy presents the one Ms, Wednesday and Mr. 9 dropped on their ship. Of course, it takes five seconds for Luffy and Sanji to break it, but Crocus gives Nami one with directions. Each island they stop at has it own magnetic field, and they have to let the Log Pose record it before it will point to the next island. Whatever path they choose will eventually lead them to the very last island that only Gold Roger and his crew discovered.
Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 watch the Straw Hats from afar, furious they lost their Log Pose. They’re forced to ask Luffy and his crew to take them aboard and back to their island, Whiskey Peak. Luffy agrees, even though they tried to hurt Laboon and are viewed suspiciously, especially by Zoro.
After a battle with the weird navigational quirks and weather of the Grand Line, the Straw Hats and their guests arrive at Whiskey Peak. Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 depart the ship by diving into the ocean. But soon, the Straw Hats forget about them, because the people of Whiskey Peak love pirates and throw a huge party when Luffy and his crew arrive, plying everyone with food and drink until they pass out.
Of course, then they reveal themselves as frauds, luring pirates into their town to steal from them, and Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 are a part of their group, having plotted to deliver them to the island to make up for not killing Laboon. When they discover that Luffy is worth 30 million berries, they’re thrilled. But it’s too bad for them: Zoro didn’t fall for it. He calls them by name: Baroque Works, a group of crooks and bounty hunters who trick people so they can rip them off. He knows them because they tried to recruit him.
Zoro is itching to give his new swords a try and defending his crew is the perfect excuse, so he gladly hops into battle. He beats one after another, until he takes down one of Baroque Works strongest fighters, Ms. Monday. Baroque Works believes that the Navy mistakenly labeled the wrong person worth 30 million berries, because Zoro has taken out one of their best, and barely looks bothered….
Takeaways
Whew! The Straw Hats were busy in this volume and finally reached the Grand Line. This collection contains some of the best emotional moments from the first 100 chapters of One Piece, and a lot of them cement the Straw Hats not only as a solid team, but good friends. This collection also contains a lot of world building! The most interesting bits this time were the foreshadowing details about Luffy’s future as well as the past where it concerns Gold Roger…is there a connection between them? Who was the man who saved Luffy in Roguetown? How will the Straw Hats escape Baroque Works? All this in more in future columns!
Next Time!
We’ll be diving into the fifth omnibus, containing Volumes 13, 14, and 15, and we’ll get to see how the Straw Hats handle being double-crossed!
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