Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ) is a pirate and the main protagonist of One Piece. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, which are sometimes referred to as the "Luffy Pirates". He is currently one of eleven pirates who have been referred to as "The Eleven Supernovas".

Appearance
Luffy is renowned for wearing his trademark Straw Hat (from which he gets his nickname 'Straw Hat Luffy') which was given to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain Red-Haired Shanks. His outfit somewhat mimics Shanks' own outfit in that he wears short trousers (although his are much shorter than Shanks') and sandals. Luffy also wears a red vest and has a scar underneath his left eye (he got it in Chapter 1, to prove his courage to Shanks and his pirates) and short black hair.

Luffy, for some reason, has the same outfit over most of the series, as opposed to the rest of the crew. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like a winter coat on Drum Island or desert robes in Arabasta), but will switch back to his trademark vest and shorts after the adventures on that island are over. Notably, in Enies Lobby he wears black shorts because they had pockets in which he could carry meat, on the Thriller Bark Island he wears an orange vest and red shorts, and on the Sabaody Archipelago he wears a blue vest, In the most recent part of the anime (prior to the seperation) Luffy has been shown wearing a greenish blue vest with red shorts. He does, however, no matter where he is, wear his straw hat through absolutely everything though at the start, the hat was prone to getting knocked off his head easily forcing Luffy to either put it aside or have someone hold onto it during battles. Since then he has gotten a string strap for it, allowing the hat to hang from his neck during fights.

Eiichiro Oda has mentioned that Luffy mostly resembles a monkey (he sometimes even makes a monkey face). According to Oda, Luffy is represented by the color red, and smells like meat.

 Image:Luffy_in_his_youth.PNG|Luffy in his youth Image:LuffyStart.png|Luffy at the start of the storyline Image:Luffy_Current.png|Luffy as he currently appears in manga Image:LuffyUC.png|Luffy in his One Piece: Unlimited Cruise outfit

Personality
At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent; his apparent lack of intelligence is the source of his brave attitude towards life. Luffy can easily be amazed by the simplest things, such as hermit crabs, and can be confused by concepts such as that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He also has no knowledge of medicine, when Nami had a high fever he told her to eat cold food and later tried to make Zoro better (after battling Kuma) by pouring Sake onto him because Zoro likes sake. When attempting to think up a plan to get off of Amazon Lily, while he managed to make some logical sense of where to look, he is seen to strain himself and notes that he is going to feel sick from too much thinking. His simple mind actually saved himself against Hancock's powers because he mistook it for another beam, which brought out a fear of being slowed down though later it is shown he is simply immune to her powers. Because he views the world in a straightforward and simple manner, he occasionally is the only person who can see past events that have taken place and realize the true goal, yet at other times he can fall into the simplest of traps. He is, however, a genius when it comes to fighting, such as when he figured out how to defeat Crocodile's Devil Fruit power on the verge of death, how to use Soru from sight, and developed a number of effective counters to Enel's "Mantra" ability. He does have a habit of holding a grudge even in dire situations (such as calling Franky a "bastard" in the middle of his fight with Rob Lucci causing Franky to retort "Now's not the time to be mad at me"). When drawing him, Oda has said he tries to make Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels.

As a person with the middle initial D, Luffy shares the common trait of not fearing of death. He will often state that if he reaches his goal, that's fine, but if he dies on the way, that's fine too. He even smiled when he was nearly executed by Buggy the Clown in Loguetown, although he did have a look of shock and surprise in his eyes before this happened when Sanji and Zoro tried to rescue him. Luffy also has a habit of saying things with a lot more weight and (occasionally) wisdom than he realizes without even thinking or meaning to.

Luffy also has an extreme thirst for adventure, which he has stated is the main reason he wants to become the Pirate King, having the belief that the Pirate King would be the one on the entire ocean with the most freedom for adventuring. This adventurous nature also makes him tend to avoid taking 'the easy way out' at times, such as when he destroyed the Eternal Pose to Arabasta given to him by Robin(Miss All-Sunday at the time), stating that he did not want an enemy to decide his destination. He also has no intention of trying to learn what or where One Piece actually is until he finds it himself, and once stated he would quit being a pirate if his crew tried to find out, not wanting to 'go on a boring adventure'.

We are NOT asking him where the treasure is hidden!!! We're not even asking him whether there IS any treasure or not!! I'm not sure, but... ...everybody set out to sea, risking their lives to search for it!!! If you ask this old man anything about it here and now... Then I'll quit being a pirate! I don't want to go on a boring adventure like that!

— Luffy speaks out on learning what One Piece is from Rayleigh.

Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite which is another common "D" trait, as well as a strong belief in dreams. Like other D's so far, he also is a glutton, despite his skinny appearance: he especially loves meat and can eat a fish whole - bones included, because of this, a running gag is Luffy constantly stealing other peoples' food with his rubber arms, causing them to yell at him and sometimes hit him. Another running gag is his habit of being amazed of various abilities of villains often yelling out "AMAZING" with stars in his eyes and around his head. He also constantly insults his opponents by giving them degrading nicknames (such as calling Gecko Moria a "leek" or Enel "earlobes"). Luffy also seems to have a slight obsession when it comes to outfitting himself with full-body armors, and has a knack of wearing himself one whenever he gets the chance, but every armor that he manages to find and outfit himself with usually ends up destroyed either in a battle or by some other comedic scenario.

Luffy never kills any of the villains (no matter how cold-hearted they are); instead, he frequently sends the villain flying, knocking them out or until the point that they are almost near death. Oda explains that it's not a question of morality so much as a matter of punishing the villains for their crimes - he feels that killing the villains lets them off too lightly, whereas he considers letting them live to see their dreams be ruined a far more fitting punishment.

Another dominant trait of Luffy is his humble nature: he doesn't brag about the powerful foes he's defeated in the past, though he's not above about claiming that no one has ever beaten him in the past, - which is not true, having been defeated at least once by Ace, twice by Crocodile, once by Aokiji and once by Rob Lucci in the past and now by Magellan. Despite this, he remains humble despite having done outrageous acts like defeating Shichibukai-level pirates and issuing the order to burn down the World Government Flag back at Enies Lobby. When Franky pointed this out, Luffy only replied that it was nothing to get worked up over, for he and his crew were only there to take back a crew member who was taken from them. Over the series Luffy has become more mature and levelheaded, though he only shows this part of his personality when he and his friends are in dire situations or someone insults him, calling people like him and their beliefs foolish; other than that he still acts the same as he was at the start of the series.

Luffy calls every mixed-appearance creature he finds by whichever creature is its secondary (non-dominant) part. On Gaimon's island, the dog/chicken was referred to as a chicken when it was mostly a dog, the snake/rabbit a rabbit even though it was mostly snake and the pig/lion a lion even though it was mostly pig. This becomes a running gag: later when he meets Bananawani, he calls them bananas with crocodiles attached to them. Also, after seeing Pierre transform, he continued to refer to him as a "horse" instead of a bird. And related to this running gag, when on Longring Longland island, he called every animal by what he thought they resembled rather then the actual species they were.

Luffy is very loyal to his crewmates and other friends, and can lose his temper quickly if they are harmed in anyway. Luffy is willing to do drastic things to avenge and defend those dear to him, even if it means breaking a promise to his friends (such as striking Bellamy down for attacking Montblanc Cricket's crew even though promising Nami he would not pick a fight, and punching Tenryuubito Saint Charloss in the face for shooting Hatchan, despite promising not to defy the World Nobles). Aside from his own loyalty, Luffy also believes that all people should be loyal to their nakama, and if Luffy sees anyone betraying their own comrades, he would stand up for the victims (even if they are enemies). Notable examples of this are Captain Kuro killing his own crew, Don Krieg attacking Gin, and Boa Hancock petrifying her fellow Kuja tribe members. Luffy's apparent selflessness often inspires others to side with him as a result, notable among these people are Boa Hancock and Emporio Ivankov, who wouldn't have helped him anyway given their individual beliefs. He also shows respect for things that a person is willing to die for, be it a treasure or a secret, to the point of even fighting to protect that which the person would throw their lives away over. Also, as a bit of a running gag, Luffy, when talking about money, tells his crewmates to budget their money, only for them to react in return that it all goes towards to feeding him.

Crew
To find such loyal companions... your son is indeed amazing... Dragon.

-Bartholomew Kuma, commenting on Luffy and his crew Because he is the captain and recruited all the crew mates, Luffy cares tremendously for his crew. As far as captaincy to Luffy is concerned, he sees his other crewmates as equals in contrast to other pirate captains, who mostly sees theirs as subordinate underlings (his crew mostly calls him by name, rather than with an honorific or "Captain"). Much like his idol, Shanks, Luffy is the kind of benevolent pirate captain who doesn't seek to actively harm others unless they give him and his crew (or anyone he cares about) a very good reason to. Though during the Jaya arc he was willing to start a fight with Blackbeard. Luffy also has the rare ability to cheer up just about anyone with his idiotic antics, even pulling a smile every now and then from the serious Zoro and Robin. Usopp and Chopper, as the youngest of the crew, often join him in singing and fooling around. Brook, the newest member, also joins in with the three because of his fun-loving personality. Nami often scolds Luffy's airheaded-ness, but he never gets angry at her, even when she manipulates him. Zoro also sometimes gets impatient with Luffy, but respects him as his captain (and as a man). Robin is especially grateful to him for taking her in despite the risks it involved as well as for pursuing her all the way to Enies Lobby. He adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, dropping anything he's doing for a meal and liking it despite Sanji's claim that he puts considerably less effort into his food than for the women's meals.

He likes to make fun of other's imperfections and character traits, such as Zoro's bad sense of direction (though he is rarely better). Luffy also likes to comically imitate his crew members, and sometimes even himself; despite nearly dying from being frozen by Aokiji, he covered himself in flour and hopped while frozen in a pose to imitate the experience.

Friends
Luffy shares a strong relationship with Shanks, the pirate who saved his life ten years ago in his hometown, and looks up to him as his role model of an ideal pirate. Shanks and his crew are the ones Luffy proclaimed he would beat as they were leaving Luffy's hometown. Luffy will often defend his friend when others insult him and was relieved to hear from his grandfather that Shanks and his crew were okay. Part of Luffy's dream is to return the hat Shanks gave him when he becomes a great pirate.

Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Monkey D. Luffy", or simply "Straw Hat Luffy". Most people don't take his goal seriously, until they see his absurd strength. Mihawk and Blackbeard are one of the first who truly acknowledged his dream right at the start.

Luffy befriends most of the civilians he meets on his journey, who normally fear him for being a pirate but hold him in admiration by the time he moves on to the next adventure. He is especially quick to befriend people, often calling people whom he has known less then a day his friends and being willing to go as far as necessary for them.

While Coby, the first person Luffy met on his journey, acknowledges that as he is a Marine, they will inevitably have to fight, they consider each other friends, as Luffy helped Coby muster the courage necessary to become a Marine. Luffy is also good friends with Vivi, who was with them all throughout the Arabasta arc, and he even considers her an honorary nakama and Straw Hat crew member. Luffy also made a friendly rival in the whale Laboon. And, after painting the Straw Hat's jolly roger on Laboon's forehead, promised the two will finish their fight with each other the next time they meet.

As of recently, Luffy has also managed to befriend the Shichibukai Boa Hancock despite their previous attempts to kill him for seeing the marks on their backs, which were the marks of the Tenryuubito, proof that they were once slaves to them, and they would have died rather than show that mark to anyone. During a fight with her sisters, when the mark was about to be revealed, Luffy served in preventing everyone present from viewing it as a form of respect to his opponents, claiming that their secrets have nothing to do with their fight. This sparked up past memories in her, and revoking her decision to eliminate him. Upon further testing his selflessness, she reveals her past to him, and Luffy forgives her, showing that he only hates the Tenryuubito who did both of them wrong, earning her friendship and (without his knowledge) her love. He also has a very friendly relationship with the entire population of Amazon Lily, as it seems every single Kuja practically worships him, as they have never seen a man before, and for the fact that he is a friend of the empress. They even went as far as selling "touches and pokes" of Luffy for 20 gold pieces each. Most of them affectionately refers to him as "Luffy-sama".

In Impel Down he also befriended Ivankov who is currently helping Luffy to save Ace due to the fact that Iva happens to be one of Dragon's nakama and sees it as his duty to help Luffy. Before directly encountering him, however, Ivankov and all of his Okama followers were already aware of Luffy's status as not only a pirate but Impel Down's first-ever intruder through the Den Den Mushi surveillance systems within the Great Gaol, and has apparently unintentionally achieved a celebrity status within New Kama Land as a result

Enemies
Even the Marines started to take him more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan and several known pirates such as Captain Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong Fishman. A 30,000,000 bounty was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong and the Marines were cautious about Arlong's defeat because it had brought to questioned the worth of their units. This reward eventually becomes 100,000,000 after he defeated Crocodile, when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Shichibukai. After the invasion of Enies Lobby, where they declare war on the world government itself, the government raised the bounties of the entire crew; Luffy's was raised to 300,000,000.

His personality has left an imprint on a few of his rivals, with both Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid being left with respect for him after he boasted he will be the one to find One Piece. They departed on good terms and all three agreed to meet up again in the New World. Other rivals among the Eleven Supernovas are not so happy with Luffy, with Bonney claiming that she will finish them off herself if she ever meets them in the New World, upset with Luffy causing trouble for her and the others by forcing Kizaru to arrive.

During his voyage, Luffy has had a few meetings with the Marines, from the not too serious looking return of Ironfist Fullbody (whom Luffy met first by the Baratie) and Commodore Smoker of Loguetown, to Admiral Aokiji. While some are easy to defeat, Luffy has been unable to defeat Smoker or Aokiji due to their powerful Logia abilities, and has resorted to running away from Smoker when he encounters him.

Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Little Garden, Arabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well as making several powerful enemies, such as Crocodile, Eneru, Rob Lucci, and Gecko Moria, often inadvertently becoming an obstacle to their schemes, befriending one of their enemies, or being targeted by them, and then proceeding to fight against and defeat them. Some of Luffy's enemies, such as Alvida and Buggy the Clown seek revenge on him for defeating them.

After being completely defeated in the Sabaody Archipelago and failing to save a single crewmate from Bartholomew Kuma's repeling abilities, Luffy has sworn to defeat him, Sentoumaru and Admiral Kizaru.

Luffy also has a friendly to enemy relationship with Marshall D. Teach. When they first met in the Wild Cherry, they were rivals over some petty things over favorite foods. Blackbeard then gave Luffy a friendly speech over not to forfeit on dreams, despite Blackbeard's later attempt to capture Luffy for his high bounty. However, during the mass breakout attempt in Impel Down, when Luffy learned that the man is Blackbeard, the one responsible for Ace's capture and impending execution, Luffy flew into a rage and attacked. Though this led to them becoming enemies, Blackbeard continued to encourage Luffy to follow dreams, and he tried to hold off Magellan (if only for his own reasons).

Monkey D. Garp
Though the two of them get along fine, Luffy is utterly terrified of his grandfather Garp. This is due to the extreme training he was put through in his younger years in his bid to make Luffy a Marine, as well as Garp's tendency to punch Luffy to discipline him. Garp has high expectations for Luffy, but to Garp's dismay, Luffy does not share his grandfather's ideas on his future. . However, Garp respects Luffy as a great person, even if he is a pirate. He often brags about Luffy to his superior Sengoku, laughing whenever Luffy does something audacious and is prone to saying "That's my grandson after all." much to Sengoku's exasperation. When Sengoku is talking with Garp and Kuma, Garp says that Luffy isn't the type of person that brags about defeating someone of Moria's caliber, arguing that Bartholomew Kuma did not need to kill Luffy to keep Moria's defeat a secret.

Monkey D. Dragon
Luffy has only just recently discovered that Dragon the Revolutionary is his father, so the two have yet to talk to each other. In fact, their only meeting is where Dragon rescues Luffy from being captured by Smoker, and the only thing Luffy talks to him is when he asks "who's there?" while being pinned headfirst into the ground by Smoker. It is unclear whether he cares for his son's life, however Dragon saved Luffy in Loguetown and seems to expect great things from him, much like his grandfather. However, unlike Garp, Dragon seems content with letting him find his own place in the world, although he believes they will meet someday.

Portgas D. Ace
Ace and Luffy are close to each other. They grew up together back in their hometown and from time to time fought, with Ace always winning even after Luffy acquired his powers. Luffy displayed no grudge against Ace for always winning, but instead boasted that he could win now. In the one-off supplement Grand Line Times, the question of their different surnames was initially raised and the idea put forth that Ace and Luffy may be stepbrothers. Later it is revealed the different surnames was due to Ace simply choosing to use the name of his mother Portgas over Dragon's name. However, while they are loving brothers to each other, Luffy always makes Ace angry and worried by doing something reckless. As such, Ace readily believed Boa Hancock when she told him that Luffy broke in to the prison. Even near his death, Ace grew angry with Luffy's reckless infiltration into Impel Down, while the endangered Luffy was worried about Ace's safety so much he has even snuck in the world's greatest prison, lost 10 years of his life, and even risked his arms to attack Magellan.

Other
Though neither his mother nor his grandmother have been shown, in the Grand Line Times a "?" was left in the place of both Dragon and Garp's wives. Though Oda may not decide to ever state who the women in Luffy's family are this leaves the spot open to suggest they may be mentioned later. It is unknown how they may be related, but anyone carrying the Will of D may also be related to Luffy, such as Jaguar D. Saul, Marshall D. Teach and Gol D. Roger. As Portgas has been revealed to be Ace's mother, it is unknown if she is also Luffy's mother as well.

Abilities and Powers
One of the top three fighters of Straw Hats, Monkey D. Luffy has extraordinarily inhuman strength, enough to break through stone and shatter steel with his bare hands, and can move at super-human speed, eventually catching up to even the speed of weaker CP9 agents without the use of his Gears. Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods and he claimed he had a punch as powerful as a pistol even at seven years of age. However, it should be also noted that all of the known members of Luffy's family have superhuman strength. Luffy's greatest feat of strength is seen when he is trapped between two enormous buildings and escapes by pushing them away. He is also capable of amazing feats of agility and possesses great endurance and reflexes to match his strength and speed. In fact, on more than one occasion, Luffy was able to anticipate and counter attacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes. His strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions throughout the series, most noted of all in the Thriller Bark Arc when he manages to take in 100 shadows without passing out. This willpower even lets him survive far beyond what normal people are capable of, as demonstrated recently when he was poisoned very far beyond what a human is capable of surviving, only living on despite his critical condition through sheer willpower, and also shown when he survived through Emporio Ivankov's "Healing Hormones" ability, which even with a slim chance of surviving had not only survived the endeavor, but made a recovery in twenty hours when the healing procedure for those that do survive is two days.

Unlike Zoro or Sanji, Luffy's fighting style is freestyle and improvised; it follows no particular code of honor, and so if necessary he will attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack even if enemies have their backs turned on him or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields or even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy can also think on the spot, and come up with creative counterattacks against his enemies. He also appears to be intelligent enough to at least understand fundamental concepts, such as rubber being a natural insulator, which might be why he did not bother ducking out of the way of Eneru's lightning attacks as it would have been pointless to do so since he is immune to such attacks. He also is heavily influenced by any form of hypnotism and doesn't have the sense to turn away, such as Jango's hypnotism powers or Miss Goldenweek's Colors trap. Regardless, while easily noticeable as the least strategic member of his own crew, due to his tendency to simply barge in head-first into battle (often without any kind of battle plan or even any knowledge of his opponent's abilities), Luffy is a highly adaptive combatant. He is constantly coming up with ways to keep ahead of his foes, either by taking advantage of his own strength and Devil Fruit powers or utilizing the opponent's own strengths(along with their weaknesses) against them. This causes even warriors long considered unbeatable to have trouble keeping up.

Luffy also has the mysterious and uncanny ability to, while completely asleep, eat as if he were awake, even able to know when more food has been placed on the table. This is probably purely based on muscle memory since all Luffy does best is fighting and eating. Another running gag in the series is about Luffy is his inability to draw. In the start of the Arlong arc, imagining how a Fishman would be Luffy drew a fish with tentacle-like paws and an anthropomorphic fish with arms, legs and hair. Before the Straw Hats arrived at Water Seven, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like. This inability also extends to Jolly Rogers: the first Jolly Roger of the Straw Hat Pirates was a bad drawing designed by Luffy himself (he later used a similarly bad drawn version of his Jolly Roger as a promise marker on the face of Laboon) while also drawing a bad version of Foxy's flag after taking it from him in the Davy Back Fight arc. He also possess extraordinary jaw strength, as seen in the Buggy arc in the manga, where he had almost chewed through the metal bars of the cage Buggy put him in. He also managed to give Rob Lucci a small bite wound. He was also given incredibly dangerous training from his grandfather (thrown into a bottomless ravine, tied to a balloon, thrown into a forest at night, etc.) when he was a kid which supposedly led to his amazing ability to pull through anything.

Devil Fruit


Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi (lit. Rubber Rubber Fruit, Gum-Gum Fruit in the English dub), which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy's body becomes like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His fighting style is largely improvised, and heavily reliant on his Devil Fruit. It should be noted, Luffy can't automatically stretch his limbs (like superheroes with stretching powers, i.e: Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man) since his body acts more like a rubber band, thus has to throw some force into it in order for his limbs to stretch out.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also extremly durable and virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets), punches and electricity, either reflecting off his body harmlessly or being absorbed into him. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. However, he is still normally susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. He can not only use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim (although he brags about being able to swim well before he ate the Devil Fruit). Even though blunt objects do little damage to him, sharp blades or points can harm him and blunt attacks can also hurt Luffy if enough force is put into it, as well as nonphysical attacks like flames, explosions, freezing and dehydration.

Haki
Luffy has also begun to awaken "Haki" ability similar to one used by his hero Shanks. He has a variety of Haki called "Haoushoku", a style of Haki possessed in one in a million people and is said to be the "the king's disposition", This power first manifested itself when Luffy scared and made Motobaro, Duval's bison steed, faint. Thus far he has limited to no control over this ability, and does not seem to realize he has it, but will use it on instinct whenever it seems to be most needed, and can still use it even when extremely injured. He mostly uses it when his friends are in danger or when he truly cant use his own power to win.

Romance Dawn
Master Rayleigh, I was really surprised!! Over in the East Blue...! There was a kid who said the same things as Captain Roger...! Those words, that the captain once said...!

— Shanks to Rayleigh, talking about Luffy.

When Luffy was young he met a band of pirates led by a kindly pirate captain named Red-Haired Shanks. Luffy befriended that band of pirates and from that moment on wanted to become a pirate as well. Luffy stabbed himself under his eye to show that he was tough enough to join Shanks's crew. During a scene with Shanks and Higuma the Bear, a local mountain bandit that insulted Shanks and his crew, Luffy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit known as the Gomu Gomu no Mi and unwittingly turned himself into a rubber man/boy. Initially this situation affected Luffy badly as it meant he could never be able to swim again. This was a great weakness to anyone who would journey the seas as a pirate or otherwise. This however didn't deter Luffy's dream and Luffy was once again determined to become a pirate.

Later Luffy stood up to Higuma on behalf of shanks. He was easily defeated, however, and got caught up in a hostage situation. His captors were defeated by the Red-Haired Pirates, but the bandit leader Higuma had fled out to sea with Luffy. While out at sea, Higuma threw Luffy in the ocean, only to be attacked by a Sea King moments later while he was laughing at Luffy. Higuma was eaten, but Shanks managed to save Luffy, however the incident cost Shanks his left arm.. Shortly after, Shanks set sail along with his crew, but before leaving, he and Luffy promised each other that one day Luffy would surpass Shanks and become the Pirate King. Then Shanks left Luffy his straw hat as a parting gift, telling him to return it once he surpassed him.

After ten years of training, Luffy left his village on a small boat. He then waited out upon the open sea for the Lord of the Coast. With a rubber fist, he punched the Sea King in the face. With plans to create his own Jolly Roger and to get at least ten crew members, he then decided to begin his journey as a pirate and sailed on.

Luffy's first battles and crew mates
While sailing across the ocean, Luffy accidentally came across a whirlpool. To escape from it, Luffy hid inside a barrel as the whirlpool sucked his boat in. He and his barrel were recovered some time later by some pirates who were in service of Alvida. Luffy then came out from his barrel much to their surprise and met up with Koby. After defeating Alvida, Luffy was able to free Koby from his servitude and acquire a small boat. As he and Koby were sailing to the next island so that Koby can enlist in the Marines, Luffy decided to seek a bounty hunter who was imprisoned there. Luffy decided to ask the infamous pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro, to become the first of his crew.

Upon arrival in Shell Town, Luffy and Koby learned the truth about Zoro through Rika. With this in mind, Luffy decided to free Zoro from Captain Morgan and Helmeppo. With the promise of giving Zoro's swords back if he'd join Luffy's crew, Luffy went into the Marine Base and caught Morgan's wrath. After witnessing Zoro's unique fighting style, Luffy fought with Morgan in which he defeated the captain. The Marines seeing their corrupt leader finally defeated rejoiced and allowed Luffy and Zoro to go free. However as Luffy and Zoro were pirates, the Marines asked them to leave the island. As they were leaving, Commander Ripper asked about Koby's past. To help Koby fulfill his dream, Luffy pretended that they weren't friends and provoked koby into starting a brief fight between them. After Luffy beat Koby, Luffy and Zoro upon leaving were saluted by Koby and the Marines for their efforts. Luffy and Zoro then sailed onto their next destination.

While sailing, Luffy realized that neither he or Zoro knew how to navigate. With this, they decided to get a navigator for their crew. While pondering on this, Luffy decided to get them some food. Luffy spotted a bird named Pinky flying above and decided to catch it. Unfortunately, the bird instead caught him and flew away with Luffy in his beak. Luckily, the bird was shot at and Luffy was dropped in the middle of Orange Town. While in Orange Town, Luffy met up with Nami and asked her to become the navigator of his crew when he learned of her abilities. Nami was initially not thrilled at first at Luffy's offer and instead tricked him into being captured. Luffy was then sent before the captain of the pirates that had taken over the town, Buggy. Through some luck where in Zoro came to Luffy's rescue, Luffy and his companions were able to escape from Buggy. Unfortunately, Luffy had been locked in a cage and the three had learned that Buggy had eaten the Bara Bara no Mi, as well as zoro gaining a not-quite-lethal stab wound.

After escaping from the cage during some incidents with Shushu and Mohji, Luffy decided to battle against Buggy and his crew. Using one of Buggy's cannonballs against him, Luffy was able to take out most of Buggy's crew. With most of Buggy's crew defeated, Luffy and Zoro battled against Buggy and his second mate, Cabaji, respectively. During the battle, Luffy's hat got torn and Luffy learned of Buggy and Shanks serving together on the same pirate ship, later revealed to be gold roger's ship. With fierce determination for his treasure, Buggy decided to attack Nami also. Luckily during the fray however, Nami was able tie Buggy's body parts up so that Luffy could deliver the final blow.

After defeating Buggy, Luffy and his companions found themselves in a situation. Due to Luffy knocking out the village chief, Boodle, the villagers got mad at them and decided to chase them. Luckily for Luffy and his companions, Shushu decided to repay his debt with Luffy by stopping the angry villagers. As Luffy and his companions decided to sail on to the next island, they were thanked by Boodle for all their hard work. Luffy, with his new navigator, Nami, then sailed on to the next destination.

Of Forest Guardians and Liars
After sailing for awhile and getting his hat restitched thanks to Nami, Luffy and his crew then went to an island in hopes of finding some food and possibly a new crew member. The island they came however was deserted and was apparently filled with all sorts of strange animals. As Luffy and Nami explored the forest, a mysterious voice called out to them. This voice threatened them with forest judgment unless they left the island. Luffy was then shot but was luckily saved thanks to his powers. Nami and Luffy then found that the shot came man with a large green afro in a box, Gaimon. After sorting out the misunderstandings, Gaimon, Luffy, and Nami talked about One Piece and the Grand Line. Gaimon then explained his predicament and his past. Luffy, learning about this, decided to help Gaimon. Luffy, with his powers, scaled the hill where Gaimon's treasure was supposedly located. However when he found the treasure boxes, Luffy revealed that they were unfortunately empty. Gaimon however, was grateful that he was able to learn the truth before he died. Afterwards, Luffy then decided to continue on his journey. As Luffy and his crew were leaving, Luffy asked Gaimon if could come along too. Gaimon replied however that couldn't join them as he had some responsibility for the animals on the island. With some thanks from Gaimon, Luffy then sailed off to the next island. In the anime, these series of events happened after Luffy and crew defeated Kuro.

Luffy and his crew then came upon Gecko Island. Upon landing, they met Usopp, the local troublemaker of Syrup Village. After some misunderstanding about coming to the island, Usopp told Luffy and his crew that they could get a ship from the owner of the large mansion in town. Luffy and his crew, following Usopp, then learned of Usopp's father and his relationship with the mansion's owner, Kaya. Later while talking with Usopp about his father on a cliff, Luffy and Usopp overheard a scheme to both kill kaya and steal her fortunes being discussed by the caretaker, Kurahadol, and Jango. They learned that the caretaker was actually Captain Kuro and he had planned for the past three years for this. Luffy, not liking this, revealed himself to Kuro and Jango, and accidentally got hypnotized by Jango. Luffy then fell off the cliff. Luckily, because of his rubber body, Luffy was able to survive.

Later upon learning that no one would believe Usopp, Luffy and his crew decided to help Usopp defend his village. They then set a trap for Kuro's crew at the coast where Kuro and Jango discussed their plans. Early the next day however, they suddenly realized that the pirates would attack from the other coast. Luffy realizing this, asked Usopp for directions and dashed ahead. Unfortunately, Luffy misinterpreted on where to go and ended up going back to the village. Luffy, along with Zoro, were then luckily able to find the right coast and give Nami and Usopp a hand.

In the midst of the battle, Luffy accidentally got hypnotized by Jango again. Luckily, this was a good thing as Luffy was able to beat most of the pirates. Just as Luffy was about to crush the pirates with the figurehead of Kuro's ship, he was hypnotized once again and fell asleep. Luffy was then awoken by Nami and got one of Jango's rings lodged at the back of his head. In the anime, this scene was altered so Luffy instead caught it in his mouth. Luffy then seeing Usopp's determination to save Kaya and his village, decided to fight Kuro who gotten there. In the midst of the fight with Kuro, he and the caretaker discussed briefly on what a pirate was. With firm belief, Luffy boldly told Kuro that Usopp was better than him. After witnessing Kuro's ability and the slaughter of some of Kuro's own crew, Luffy defeated Kuro. Luffy then threw an unconscious Kuro back to his crew and told them to remember him.

Later, after everything settled down, Luffy and his crew were given a ship for helping save Kaya. The ship, the Going Merry, impressed Luffy a lot. Luffy and his crew then saw Usopp rolling down the hill with a large backpack. They then offered Usopp a place on the crew for which Usopp accepted. Luffy, his crew, and his new crewmate, Usopp, then sailed off on their new ship.

A Floating Restaurant and A War between Pirate Captains
While sailing on the Going Merry, Luffy decided to draw his Jolly Roger. His drawing however was bad which everyone onboard commented about. Usopp fortunately drew a better version of Luffy's design. With this, Luffy's crew decided to paint it on the sails. After painting, Luffy decided to try practicing cannon firing. Usopp helped Luffy with this and they were able to shoot a nearby island. Later, as Luffy and his crew were discussing who they should get next, somebody had climbed aboard the ship and called out to them.

After a brief bout with Luffy, Johnny, the one who had climbed aboard, revealed that he came aboard to get at people who fired at him and Yosaku while they were on the nearby island. Luffy and Usopp, realizing their mistake, asked for forgiveness. As they were talking, Nami explained that Yosaku was suffering from scurvy. Luffy and Usopp luckily helped Yosaku gain some strength back by giving him some lemon juice. Seeing this, it was mutually agreed amongst Luffy's crew that they need a chef to supply them during their long voyage. Johnny, grateful for their help, told Luffy where he could get a chef. With this info, Luffy and crew then sailed to the sailing restaurant, Baratie.

Upon arrival in Baratie, Luffy and his crew unfortunately met up with the Marine Lieutenant, Ironfist Fullbody. With orders from Fullbody, his men shot a cannonball at Luffy and his crew. Luffy luckily diverted it away with his Fuusen technique. Unfortunately, he redirected the shot to the restaurant ship. For damaging the ship, Luffy was brought before the restaurant's owner, Zeff. Since Luffy had no money at the time to repay for the damages done, Zeff asked Luffy to repay by working in the restaurant for one year. Luffy, not wanting to wait for one year, tried to negotiate with Zeff. Unfortunately the negotiations didn't go so well and the two of them ended up creating and falling through a hole in the restaurant. The two then landed in between an argument between the second head chef, Sanji, and Fullbody. Luffy then learned that a prisoner from Fullbody had suddenly escaped. This pirate, Gin, demanded food through force. He was however instead denied and kicked out. As Gin was crawling outside due to lack of food, Luffy witnessed Sanji give him some food despite having no money. Luffy upon witnessing this, declared that he had found a good chef for his crew.

Luffy then asked Sanji to join his crew. Sanji in response refused Luffy's offer. Luffy however refused Sanji's refusal and insisted that the chef should join his crew. As the two argued, Gin interrupted and warned Luffy not to go to the Grand Line. Later after Gin left, Luffy was put to work. Only making things more difficult in the kitchen, Luffy was told to take some orders from the customers. Upon leaving the kitchen, Luffy was surprised to see the rest rest of his crew relaxing. This agrivated Luffy and thus he tried to dirty Zoro's drink with his booger. This scheme however failed as Zoro easily saw through this plow and in retaliation, shoves the tainted water down Luffy's throat. Luffy then witnessed Sanji's more womanizing side and brief argument between him and Zeff. Afterwards, Luffy was sent back to work.

Two days later, Luffy witnessed a huge ship come to Baratie. The ship, the Dreadnaught Sabre, belonged to Don Krieg, the most feared East Blue Pirate and Gin's captain. Luffy then witness Krieg enter the restaurant and demand food. For this, Sanji complied. Unfortunately, the Don then demanded to take over the restaurant ship.

A lot of things happened afterwards. Luffy learned that the Going Merry was taken by Nami and witnessed the Dreadnaught Sabre get destroyed by Mihawk. After witnessing a fight between Zoro and Mihawk, Luffy told Usopp, Johnny, Yosaku, and Zoro to try to catch up with Nami. Luffy then decided to repay his debt to Zeff by fighting off Krieg's pirates. Luffy asked Zeff if this was acceptable. Zeff replied that it was and Luffy joined the chefs in the battle to protect the Baratie from Don Krieg.

During the battle, Luffy witnesses Sanji's amazing kicking ability. Then while receiving an attack from Don Krieg, Luffy accidentally hit Pearl. This caused the pirate to become scared at the sight of his own blood. Pearl then threatened to burn everyone including Luffy due to fear. Luckily, with the help of Sanji and one of Don Krieg's attacks redirected by Luffy's Gomu Gomu Bazooka, Pearl was knocked out. Suddenly, Luffy and the other battling chefs then saw Zeff get taken hostage by Gin.

Gin, trying to reason with everyone, told everyone, including Luffy, to back down from the fight. It was then Luffy saw Sanji's resolve to save Zeff's restaurant no matter what. Finding Sanji's reason stupid, Luffy tried to destroy the Baratie in order to stop the pirates from attacking. Luffy then explained to Sanji that he wasn't repaying Zeff at all by letting himself die. In the confusion, Gin suddenly stopped holding Zeff hostage and attacked Pearl. He then asked Don Krieg if he could kill Sanji himself. Luffy, seeing these events, claimed them as part of his plan to get Krieg's pirates confused. For this, Sanji simply replied that Luffy was a liar since it wasn't part of Luffy's original plan at all.

Witnessing Luffy's cockiness and unseriousness towards him and his crew, Don Krieg decided to fight Luffy. As the two pirate captains prepared to fight, Krieg also ordered Gin to get rid of Sanji. While Krieg was witnessing Gin and Sanji's fight, Luffy then attempted to attack while he was looking. Luffy however was stopped by a barrage of Krieg's spikes. For this Luffy insulted Krieg for insulting him. Luffy then witnessed Gin's inability to kill Sanji.

Angered by Gin's disobedience, Krieg decided to use his poison bomb, MH5. Luffy, in response to this, stole two gas masks from two of Krieg's men for Sanji and Gin. Before Luffy could steal one for himself, all of Krieg's men had dived in to the ocean. Luckily, Luffy was able to find one laying around. After the bomb was fired and the gas subsided, it was revealed that Gin had given his mask to Luffy. With this act by Krieg towards his own man, Luffy became enraged. Luffy then charged at Krieg and punched him directly in the face through a barrage of spikes and a coat of thorns. With this fighting spirit displayed before them, Zeff told Sanji to watch Luffy closely. The fight between the two captains then intensified as they argued over whose grave will the battlefield, the wreckage of Krieg's ship, will belong to.

With Luffy's performance before them, Krieg's crew started to wonder who exactly Luffy was. Krieg, on the other hand, thought otherwise and created his special spear to battle Luffy. With Krieg's spear's ability to create explosions on impact, Luffy was given a tough battle. Just when it looked like Luffy had succumbed to Krieg's spear, Luffy was able to get up. He then revealed that he was able to hit it five times as the tip of the spear crumbled. With his spear's power decreased by half, Krieg decided to fight against Luffy more furiously. Luffy's battle with Don Krieg raged on further as Luffy attempted to punch through Krieg's armor. Nothing apparently seemed to work.

A frustrated Luffy proceeds to send Krieg flying with a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka which actually cracked Krieg's armor. However just when it looked like Krieg had defeated Luffy with some bombs he threw at the last minute, Luffy was able to emerge from the blast and break through Krieg's armor with a second Gomu Gomu no Bazooka attack. With Don Krieg's armor destroyed, all seemed finally over. However, Krieg had one last trick up his sleeve. With a net, Krieg attempted to drag Luffy with him into the ocean. Luffy however dealt with with this tactic also. Using his legs, Luffy grabbed Kreig's face and slammed him onto the porch of the Baratie. With this Luffy defeated Don Krieg. However despite Luffy defeating Krieg, he still fell into the ocean, making it more of a stalemate. Luckily, Sanji then dove in after Luffy and thus saved him from drowning.

After awakening from being knocked out conscious by falling into the ocean, Luffy is told by Sanji of Gin's final words to Luffy. Seeing as his debt to Zeff was finally repaid, Luffy then once again tried to convince Sanji to join his crew. Though rejected once again by the chef, Luffy and Sanji talk about Sanji's dream of finding All Blue. After discussing about Sanji's dream for awhile, Luffy and Sanji decide to join the other chefs for a meal. During the meal, Zeff and the other chefs angered Sanji by saying the soup he made was bad. Luffy on the other hand, thought the soup was good and asked them why they acted as such. Zeff and the others then explained themselves to Luffy and asked him to take Sanji along with him. Luffy however, refused to take Sanji along unless he agreed to go by his own free will. Just as Luffy and the chefs were discussing, a half eaten Yosaku came barging into the restaurant.

After getting Yosaku out from the Panda Shark, Yosaku explained to Luffy that the others needed his abilities to deal with the situation with Nami. Just as Luffy and Yosaku were about to leave, Sanji decided to join Luffy's crew. After making some preparations, acquiring the Shimashima Shopping to travel on, and witnessing Sanji's farewell to Zeff and the other chefs, Luffy, Yosaku, and Luffy's new chef, Sanji, sailed on to where Nami was.

Faith in a Traitorous Navigator
As Luffy and those with him sailed off to where Nami was, Luffy was informed by Yosaku that Nami had headed to a place called Arlong Park. Yosaku explained to Luffy that Arlong Park was ruled by a Fishman named Arlong and due to him originally being under Jinbei, a Fishman Shichibukai, he was very strong compared to Don Krieg. Luffy however didn't pay much attention to what Yosaku was saying and instead attempted to draw some interpretations of what a Fishman would look like. Being unable to grasp the situation fully any further, Luffy then simply just stated that they'll understand it when they get there. With that, Luffy decided to join in a meal prepared by Sanji. As Luffy and company were enjoying the meal, a giant sea cow called Mohmoo appeared before them. Drawn by the smell of the food, the monster attacked them. The monster however was beaten off easily by Luffy and Sanji. With the monster subdued, Luffy and company decided to continue their meal. After finishing their meal, they hooked Mohmoo up to the ship and used him to travel on further to Arlong Park.

Eventually Luffy and company reached Commi Island where Arlong Park was located. However due to some unfortunate events, the Shimashima Shopping was hurled further into the island, through a forest, and onto Zoro. After recovering from the wreckage, Luffy was then informed by Zoro and further by Johnny about the current situation. To Luffy's disbelief, he was told that Usopp had been captured and then killed by Nami. Nami then suddenly showed up where Luffy and company were. With her on the scene, Luffy tried to reason with Nami to come back to his crew. Nami however refused Luffy's pleas and told him and the rest of his crew to get out before it is too late. Unable to reason any further, Luffy simply then decided to fall asleep in the middle of the road with the intention of not leaving the island without Nami. After awhile, Luffy woke up to find out that Usopp was alive and in actuality saved by Nami. Luffy and crew were then greeted by Nami's sister, Nojiko, who decided to tell them why Nami was with Arlong's crew. This she hoped would explain things to them so they could then leave.

Luffy however refused to listen to Nami's past as it would mean that he would then have to leave. With that in mind, Luffy alone left as Nojiko told about Nami's past to the rest of his crew. As Luffy wandered into Cocoyashi Village, he spies a peculiar sight. On top of a town officer, Genzo, leading some Marines, is a pinwheel. After awhile, Luffy suddenly noticed a commotion in town. Seeing Nami amongst the other people, Luffy offered to help. However much to his confusion, she once again told at him to leave and hurriedly left out of town leaving Luffy to ponder what exactly was happening. Later Luffy witnessed Nami stabbing herself where her tattoo on her shoulder was. He stopped her and was once again told to leave by a crying Nami. After much attempts however, Nami gave in and asked Luffy for help. With that Luffy placed his Straw Hat on her head and agreed to help her. With the rest of his crew, Luffy then barged into Arlong Park and called out for Arlong.

Within Arlong Park, Luffy and his crew began fighting against Arlong and the rest of his Fishmen. In the midst of the battle, the Octopus Fishman, Hatchan, called out for Mohmoo to aid in the fight. The monster at first was reluctant to fight against Luffy again but after some persuasion from Arlong, began attacking Luffy and his crew. As the monster came forward, Luffy embedded his feet in the ground and twisted his body abit. Then using his Devil Fruit powers and his strength, Luffy grabbed onto Mohmoo's horns and spun the monster off far away. As Luffy spun the creature, the majority of Arlong's Fishmen were all completely knocked out. While the attack was able to take out most of the Fishmen, it however left Luffy in a predicament. Because he had embedded his feet in the ground, Luffy had unintentionally made himself unable to move anywhere from the spot and in turn made himself vulnerable to Arlong and the remaining Fishmen. As Luffy's crew attempted to protect him from any of the Fishmen's attacks, Arlong suddenly came towards Luffy. The Fishman then suddenly pulled up the cement block that Luffy embedded himself in and decided to throw Luffy into the pool nearby, knowing full well that Luffy would be completely trapped underwater. Luffy immediately tried to stop Arlong before the Fishman could throw him in. His efforts were in vain however and Luffy was thrown into the water with the cement block encasing his feet by Arlong.

Unable to do anything but hold his breath, Luffy sank to the bottom of the pool as the rest of his crew were forced to deal with their Fishman opponents. Fortunately however, Genzo and Nojiko decided to dive in after Luffy in order to rescue him. Initially, they couldn't do anything to help Luffy because of the cement block. However through quick thinking, they were able to at least keep Luffy from drowning by pulling his head up to the surface. This way they could get the water out of Luffy's system as they figured out a way to free him from the block. After several incidental events with Luffy's crew, Sanji then dove into the water and broke the block encasing Luffy's feet. With his feet freed, Luffy's neck snapped back to normal and his body was catapulted into the air. With himself saved, Luffy immediately saved Zoro from Arlong and began pummeling the Fishman with several of his attacks. Arlong however merely got back up from the attacks and the battle between Luffy and Arlong began.

As the two began to battle each other, Arlong and Luffy started to debate the differences between their two species. Arlong, as he attacked, explained to Luffy that humans are completely inferior to Fishmen due to what they are incapable of doing. Luffy however countered by stating that he himself is incapable of doing certain things but he has friends who he can depend on for such problems. As the argument continued, Luffy was able to smash Arlong in the face and broke the Fishman's teeth. Arlong however rectified the situation by pulling out his broken set of teeth and grew a new one. The Fishman then pulled out two sets of his teeth and started attacking Luffy with them. Luffy fortunately managed to grab a nearby Fishman and use him as a shield. As Luffy witnessed this, he came up with a good idea. The next moment that Luffy got an oppurtunity, he kicked a set of teeth out of Arlong's mouth and began fighting with them in his mouth like Arlong. While Luffy then gets a good shot and bites Arlong with his own teeth, the attack however doesn't do much damage and Arlong countered instead by biting Luffy's arm. Fortunately however, Luffy slammed Arlong onto the ground before he could do any real damage.

As Luffy stood up to recover from that last attack from Arlong, he noticed that Arlong had dove into the pool nearby. Luffy then found himself dodging Arlong's high speed attacks using his nose like a spear. After several attacks, Fishman dove back to the water to repeat his barrage of attacks on Luffy. Luffy however decided to stand his ground and face Arlong head on. Through some inivated moves using his hands like a shield and a net, Luffy countered Arlong's attacks and kicked the Fishman in the chest onto the ground. This attack however angered the Fishman and Arlong began to attack Luffy more viciously. With Kiribachi, a massive sword with a saw for a blade, Arlong then chased Luffy up across Arlong Tower. The two then ended up in the highest room of the tower, the room where Nami was forced to draw maps for Arlong.

Within the room, Luffy was then explained by Arlong what the room was used for, and how Nami had been used for the last eight years to fulfill the Fishman's desires. Having learned a bit more of Nami's past and relationship with Arlong, Luffy became enraged. With this, Luffy broke Arlong's Kiribachi and started wrecking the room. Arlong angered by this, grabbed Luffy and bit him. Luffy however then countered by breaking Arlong's nose, stating that he didn't care if the Fishmen are so great or about charts, but that he now knew how to help Nami. Luffy then said that she hated being in the room and he was gonna destroy it for her. Luffy then stretched his leg high above the tower in order to destroy the room. As Luffy stretched, Arlong lunged at Luffy with a spinning bite attack and bit deep into Luffy. Despite this however, Luffy brought his leg down on Arlong and sent him straight to the bottom of tower through several floors of concrete. With that Luffy had defeated Arlong. That last attack however broke the stability of the entire tower and the whole thing collapsed with Luffy still inside it.

With Arlong and his gang defeated, and Arlong Park completely destroyed, Luffy rose from the wreckage and proclaimed Nami as one of his crew. With this, everyone began to celebrate. Their celebration however was momentarily stopped by the Marine Captain Nezumi who decided to take everything after Arlong was defeated. Fortunately however, the Marine was beaten up and sent packing away with his men. This action however proved to be a bit bad for Luffy as the Marine decided then to report Luffy in to his higher ups.

After the whole commotion at Arlong Park, Luffy was sent to Dr. Nako to heal his wounds along with the others who were injured. As Luffy watched the doctor restitch Zoro's wounds, the doctor gave Luffy the idea that his crew should have a doctor. For the next several days, Luffy and his crew then celebrated alongside the people of Commi Island over being finally freed from Arlong. As Luffy was looking for some more meat to eat in the party, he came across Genzo at Bellemere's grave. There, Luffy promised to Genzo that he would take care of Nami and not hurt her feelings.

After all the partying, Luffy and crew were ready to set sail once again. They thus bid their farewell to the villagers of Cocoyashi Village as well as Johnny and Yosaku. As Luffy and crew awaited for Nami to come aboard before they could set sail, they suddenly witnessed a peculiar a sight. Nami came running towards the Going Merry and told them to immediately raise the anchor. As Nami went through the villagers jumped on board the Going Merry, Luffy and the rest immediately realized that she had stolen the wallets of the villagers as she passed through. After this final hilarious incident, Luffy and his crew then set sail once again with Nami.

At Loguetown and up Reverse Mountain
As Luffy and crew sailed towards the Grand Line, they were startled by a wanted poster included within a newspaper bought by Nami. The wanted poster was of Luffy and included his first bounty of 30,000,000. Luffy had become the most wanted pirate in all of the East Blue. As Luffy's crew sailed on, the island where Loguetown was located came into sight. Wanting to see the place where Gold Roger was born and executed, and also to refresh the crew's supplies for the voyage ahead, Luffy and crew decided to dock in the place. Upon arriving there, Luffy decided to visit the scaffold where Gold Roger was executed.

As Luffy explored the scaffold, he was ambushed by Buggy and his crew, and a now skinny Alvida. Luffy was then all of a sudden trapped in a wooden restraint by Cabaji and sentenced to death by Buggy. With the execution being publicly shown atop the scaffold before all of the people of Loguetown, Luffy was asked by Buggy if he had any last words. To this Luffy shouted out that he will become the next Pirate King. As he stated this, Zoro and Sanji came to Luffy's rescue. However despite their efforts to get to their captain through Buggy's crew, they weren't fast enough. Considering his inescapable situation, Luffy merely smiled and said he was sorry as Buggy's sword came down. However just as Buggy's sword was about to decapitate Luffy, a lightning bolt suddenly struck the platform, shocking Buggy and freeing Luffy. As Luffy escaped with his crew, Smoker, a Marine Captain who was watching the whole spectacle, noted that the way Luffy was smiling was very similar to the way Gold Roger smiled before his death. As Luffy ran to his ship through the raging storm that appeared in Loguetown all of a sudden, Luffy met up with the very Marine, Smoker. Despite all his efforts Luffy was unable to fend off Smoker and was caught by the Marine. Just as Smoker was about to gain the upper hand on Luffy, Dragon, Luffy's father, stopped Smoker. A big gust of wind then came by and freed Luffy from Smoker.

Not knowing exactly what happened, Luffy continued escaping towards his ship. Back onboard the Going Merry with the rest of his crew, Luffy and his crew decided to enact a ritual before going into the Grand Line despite the ongoing storm. With their dreams proclaimed out load, Luffy and crew smashed a barrel with their feet and sailed off to the Grand Line. As Luffy and his crew sailed through the storm, they were explained by Nami that they needed to enter the Grand Line through an entrance in the Reverse Mountain. This rather indirect route puzzled most of Luffy's crew. Their questions however were soon answered when they found out that the Going Merry had accidentally veered into the Calm Belt. Having fortunately escaped from the Sea Kings dwelling there, Luffy and crew continued sailing through the storm and towards the Reverse Mountain.

Luffy and crew soon came upon the mountain and headed into the canal that was the entrance. Despite some tough maneuvering which was helped by Luffy using his Gomu Gomu no Fuusen technique to bounce the Going Merry away from the gate, the ship was able to go into the canal. Within the canal, Luffy and crew then rode it up to the top of the mountain. Reaching the top, Luffy and crew saw and entered into the Grand Line.

A Whale and a Spying Princess
As Luffy and his crew sailed down Reverse Mountain, they came to an unexpected surprise, a gigantic whale was in their way. Fortunately, Luffy was able to slow down the Going Merry before it could hit the whale by firing a cannon. However in the process, Luffy's favorite seat, the Going Merry's figurehead, was broken. Angered by this, Luffy punched the whale's eye to the shock of the rest of Luffy's crew. The whale in response to Luffy's attack shallowed the Going Merry. Fortunately Luffy was able to grab the whale's tooth and jump on to it's back before it could swallow him along with his ship and his crew. As Luffy desperately tried to persuade the whale to spit out his ship and his crew while on it's back, Luffy found a hatch on the whale's back leading into the very whale itself.

Unable to do anything else from the outside, Luffy entered the whale from the hatch. While inside the whale, Luffy accidentally bumped into two strangely dressed characters and into the whale's stomach as the whale began thrashing at the Red Line from the outside. Within the whale's stomach, Luffy was reunited with his crew and witnessed a scene between the two characters he bumped into earlier and an old man living in the whale. From the scene, Luffy learned that two characters, Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9, were planning to kill the whale for food and not even allow the old man, Crocus, to stand in their way. Seeing this and Crocus' attempts to save the whale, Luffy took out the two trouble makers. For doing this, Luffy and his crew were led out of the whale by Crocus.

As Luffy's crew and ship were led out through a canal in the whale and outside to nearby cape, Luffy and his crew were told about the whale's, Laboon, tale. From it, Luffy learned that Laboon had been waiting for over fifty years for some pirate friends of his who left him behind in the cape to circle the Grand Line. Luffy also learned that after Laboon heard in disbelief that the pirates might have abandon him, the whale was ramming the mountain itself in a futile attempt to reunite with them. Seeing Laboon's loyalty, Luffy decided to ease the whale's lonely pain, by ramming the Going Merry's mast into an open wound. Having caught the whale's attention, Luffy and the whale began to battle. In the middle of it however, Luffy told Laboon that they'd have to put on hold since he's planning to circle the Grand Line. With this statement, Luffy touched Laboon's feelings and the whale in response agreed. Having given hope once again to Laboon, Luffy painted a crudely drawn painting of his Jolly Roger on Laboon's scars as symbol of their pact to meet once again.

After rekindling Laboon's hopes once again, Luffy and the rest of his crew suddenly realized that their compass doesn't work. With that matter at hand, Luffy and the rest were then taught by Crocus about how the Grand Line works and how they needed a special compass called a Log Pose. Having discovered one of these compasses earlier after beating the two characters earlier, Luffy presented it to Nami but unfortunately broke while in a small scuffle with Sanji. Fortunately, Crocus had an extra one for Luffy and his crew to use. In the midst of what was happening, Luffy and his crew also encountered again the two characters who tried to kill Laboon. Learning that these two needed to report back to the company they working for, Luffy and the rest were requested by them to give them a ride back to their island of Whiskey Peak. Though a bit suspicious, upon learning that Whiskey Peak is on one of the paths that the Straw Hats needed to follow to travel the Grand Line anyway, Luffy and his crew took the two aboard and sailed towards Whiskey Peak, leaving Laboon with the promise of returning once again.

Upon arriving in Whiskey Peak, Luffy and his crew were in for a surprise. Though the two characters that they took aboard left before they could land, Luffy and his crew were welcomed graciously by the townspeople of Whiskey Peak. There, Luffy and his crew were treated as gods with a grand party. Luffy even ate more then the cooks could put out. Eventually, Luffy passed out from all the excitement of such a celebratory day. However when he awoke later that night, Luffy came to a shocking sight. Scattered everywhere before Luffy, were the beaten up bodies of the townspeople that served him and his crew.

Upon learning from one of them that they were defeated by Zoro, Luffy thought that Zoro beat had beat them up as an act of ungratefulness. Confronting Zoro, Luffy and his first crew mate collided into a battle that apparently nothing could deter them from. The two were so immersed in their battle against one another that they completely ignored and defeated two other characters in same scene, Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine, who were apparently distracting them for some reason. It was only however when Nami stepped in and interrupted their fight that the two calmed down to listen to reason.

Having been subdued, Luffy learned everything that happened while he was asleep. He also learned that one of the two strangely dressed characters that tried to kill Laboon before, Miss Wednesday, was actually Princess Nefertari Vivi of the kingdom of Arabasta in disguise. From her, Luffy learned that she, along with her pet duck Carue and loyal retainer Igaram, had infiltrated a secret criminal organization known as Baroque Works in order to learn the organization's reasons for meddling in their country's affairs. From Vivi also, Luffy and his crew not only learned of Baroque Works' scheme to take over Arabasta but also that the criminal organization was led by none other than the Royal Shichibukai, Crocodile. Having gotten involved in all this, Luffy and his crew decided to help Vivi by taking her and Carue to Arabasta while Igaram distracted Baroque Works with a disguise. However in the midst of this plan, Luffy and the rest witnessed Igaram's ship blow up and met the perpetrator of the crime, Miss All Sunday, Crocodile's partner and vice president of Baroque Works. Fortunately, apart from some tense formalities between them and her, Luffy and his crew didn't have to fight her as she let them go for her own reasons. Luffy and his crew were also warned by her of their next destination and even offered them an alternate route. Luffy however declined her offer despite protests from the rest of his crew.

Having survived from the ordeals of Whiskey Peak, and gaining a mission to help a princess, Luffy and his crew sailed forth Whiskey Peak to their next destination, Little Garden.

Adventure in a Prehistoric Land
Luffy and his crew eventually arrive in Little Garden. The jungle island fascinated Luffy not only because of the adventure it could provide, but also because it contained all sorts of prehistoric animals, which ranged from saber toothed lions to dinosaurs. From Vivi, who decided to travel with Luffy as he explored the place, Luffy learned about the reason the island was like this. The reason being that because of the Grand Line's unique environmental conditions, the islands within in develop much more differently than they normally would, and the very island they were on was still in the dinosaur era. As Luffy ventured around the island with Vivi and Carue, the three soon discovered something much larger than the dinosaurs on the island. In the midst of Luffy messing around with a Brontosaurus, he and his accompanying companions met a giant.

Meeting Dorry, Luffy and his companions were invited over to the giant's place. There, Luffy was treated to some dinosaur meat and got acquainted with Dorry. From the giant, Luffy learned that he was staying on Little Garden in order to settle an argument with another fellow giant, Brogy, in battle. As the matter was being discussed, the island's volcano erupted, signaling the next match between the giants. With it, Luffy saw a gigantic clash between two giant warriors that awed him. Eventually the match ended in a tie and thus Luffy continued talking with Dorry. Learning further about Little Garden's magnetic field from Dorry, Luffy also learned about two of his crew staying with Brogy. Just as things seemed going well at the moment, something suddenly shocked Luffy and those with him. A barrel of rum that Dorry was drinking exploded. Since the rum was taken from Luffy's ship and given to Dorry by Brogy, Luffy and his crew were suspected of sabotaging the barrel. With this, Luffy and Dorry got into a fight. Fortunately, Luffy was able to knock Dorry down during their fight. However with this sudden turn of events, Luffy started to suspect that his crew weren't the only ones in the island as neither they nor Brogy would do such a thing. But before Luffy and those with him could do anything else, the volcano erupted again and Dorry in response got up.

With the next match being signaled and knowing that the giants' fight was tainted by someone else, Luffy tried to convince Dorry to not go. Luffy's words however did not reach Dorry's ears due to the giant's pride and instead Luffy was pinned down by Dorry with the giant's home. Unable to get out of this predicament to help Dorry, Luffy suddenly encountered Usopp, who had wandered into Dorry's home. Reunited with his crew mate, Luffy and Vivi recounted what had just happened and were likewise filled in by Usopp. As Luffy was and his companions were figuring out what to do next, they heard the awful scream of Dorry being defeated by Brogy due to the tainted fight. Angered even more by this, Luffy was filled with more determination to find out who blasphemed the giants' fight. Luffy fortunately didn't have to wait long though to find out who it was, as two of the perpetrators of the crime, Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine, suddenly came before Luffy and his companions, bringing a beaten up Carue. Because of his current predicament, Luffy was unable to aid his companions and was hit with an explosive kick caused by Mr. 5's Bomu Bomu no Mi powers. Unable to protect Vivi from these Baroque Works agents, Luffy and the other two with him were left for dead.

As Luffy and the two with him were lying, they decided to get revenge for the atrocity caused by the Baroque Works agents. They eventually got back on their feet and charged immediately to where the Baroque Works agents were holding their friends. Seeing that their friends were being made into candles by Mr. 3's Doru Doru no Mi powers, Luffy engaged in a battle with the artist while his comrades battled with the the rest of the agents. Despite some complications from Mr. 3 and his partner, Miss Goldenweek, Luffy was able to free his captured friends with a little help from Usopp.

After finishing off Mr. 3, Luffy rejoined the rest of his crew to the marvelous relief. Due to the giants' weapons being worn out from one hundred years worth of fighting, Dorry was actually okay and had instead passed out from the wound inflicted. With everything done, Luffy and the rest went back to Dorry's place to treat his wounds. As Luffy and everyone were resting from the ordeal and wondering how to deal with the island's magnetic field, they were rejoined by Sanji, who brought with him some great news and stuff while everything else was happening. From Sanji, Luffy and the rest learned that not only did Sanji trick Crocodile into thinking they were all dead by pretending to be Mr. 3 via a Den Den Mushi call, but the cook also brought with him the solution to their current problem, an Eternal Pose to Arabasta. With the Eternal Pose, Luffy and crew bid their farewells to the giants and set off.

As Luffy and crew sailed off from Little Garden, they were provided by the giants with an act of gratitude. With help from the giants' strength, Luffy and crew were able to pass through a giant goldfish and sail on.

Adventure in a Doctorless Island
The crew eventually comes to a snow-covered land called Drum Island, which is renowned for their advances in medicine. This is fortunate as Nami had suddenly come down with a terrible sickness. There the current inhabitants try to scare away the crew until Vivi lowers her head with Luffy. The "leader" of the islanders, Dalton tells the villagers to take the crew to the nearest town. (However, Zoro and Carue stay behind) At the village, Dalton tells the crew about the "witch" of the island, Dr. Kureha, who is the only doctor left on the island. To make matters worse, there is no way to contact her as she lives on top of the mountain in the castle previously occupied by King Wapol. Hearing this, Luffy, along with Sanji, decides to carry Nami up the mountain to the castle.

On the way up, Sanji, Luffy, and Nami run into some Lapahn, which are man-eating rabbits. Sanji fights off the Lapahns as Luffy, carrying Nami, cannot attack or be hit at the risk of Nami being injured as well. Later, the Lapahns cause an avalanche, forcing Luffy and Sanji to escape downhill. Unfortunately, the group is about to run into a sharp and rocky cliff when Sanji rescues them by kicking them out of the way, but in the process Sanji is knocked unconscious. In the aftermath of the avalanche the village Usopp and Vivi are at is buried along with Wapol and his crew. Wapol survives and sets up the mountain with Chess and Kuromarimo. Back at the mountain, Luffy, now carrying Nami and Sanji, saves a buried Lapahn. Soon, Wapol catches up to Luffy, and attacks him after Luffy shows his back to them. Luffy unable to attack, runs away. However Chess and Kuromarimo catch up and are about to strike Luffy, when a large group Lapahns save him in repayment for Luffy saving one of them earlier.

When Luffy climbs the mountain and reaches the top, he nearly falls and is rescued by Chopper and taken in by Dr. Kureha. Later, Luffy and Sanji awaken and see Chopper for the first time, they try to cook and eat Chopper until Chopper transforms and punches them into the ground and flees. Later, Luffy asks Dr. Kureha to join them receiving a kick in the face from her and then they go through a series of shenanigans like being chased by Dr. Kureha. Suddenly, when Luffy and Sanji attempt to close a door, Chopper stops them because there is a bird's nest on it showing Luffy that Chopper is a good person, beginning Luffy mission to get Chopper on the crew.

Finally, Wapol arrives at the castle and begins arguing with Dr. Kureha when suddenly Luffy punches him. Luffy then chooses to go back inside and grab a coat before fighting. He borrows Nami's coat.(Later, Nami being Nami, charges him for ruining it.) Luffy coming back, uses Sanji's leg for extra force and rams into Wapol causing him to spit out Chopper and send Wapol flying into Robson sending the White Walkie flying. Wapol then uses his Baku Baku no Mi powers to turn into a house with cannons and fuse Chess and Kuromarimo into Chessmarimo.(which amazes Luffy) Wapol then shoots Dr. Hiluluk's flag but Luffy fixes it and lectures Wapol on pirates which inspires Chopper. Wapol shoots once again but Luffy protects the flag once more. Finally the fight begins and Chopper begins fighting Chessmarimo and Luffy fights Wapol. However, Luffy is distracted by Choppers fight(because of Choper's abilty to transform into seven different forms thanks to the Rumble Ball) letting Wapol escape into the castle. After Chopper wins, Luffy goes in and kicks a now thin Wapol who was harassing Nami. Wapol decides to open the weapons room and eat the weapons but Nami had stolen his one-of-a-kind key. Wapol is chased up to the top of the castle where he tries to attack using his special cannon, but fails due to the snow birds living in there. Wapol then tries to eat Luffy but is stopped so Wapol turns his tongue into a cannon for one final attack but Luffy dodges it and sends him flying getting him stuck in the roof. Luffy then, ignoring Wapol's pleas for mercy and empty promises and send him flying far away.

The Straw Hats regroup at the summit and Dalton thanks Luffy and Chopper. After some confusing talk, and a very dangerous chase, Chopper decides to go with Luffy and his crew. As Chopper leaves, Dr. Kureha initiates Hiluluk's finished research, a powder that makes pink colored snow fall. Chopper seeing it, starts crying.

The Straw Hats formally welcome Chopper to the crew and head to their planned destination, Arabasta.

Entering the Kingdom of Sand
With their new nakama, the Straw Hat pirates make their way to Arabasta. While still a few days away, Sanji questions Luffy over the disappearance of their food rations. After revealing he ate it, by accident, he is smacked by the angry cook. With no food, the crew resolved to fishing, with no bait (thanks to Luffy, again). To counter this, both Luffy and Usopp use Carue as bait, which doesn't go over well with Vivi (who smacks both their heads together). Soon after, they run across an undersea volcano, which they recognize from the steam out of the sea. To keep time, they cross it, and come out to find that Carue actually caught something: Mr. 2 Bon Clay.

After falling into the sea and being rescued, Mr. 2 offers to give them a show by displaying his ability of the Mane Mane no Mi. With this he copies almost all of the crew (Vivi was never touched, and Sanji was looking for food at the time). Mr. 2 made instant friends with Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper. However, his ship came looking for him, and he bid a sad farewell to his new friends. As he left, his name was revealed, much to the shock of the whole crew, especially Vivi (her father, King Cobra, was one of the faces Bon Clay could copy). As a result, Zoro suggested that they put on a double mark, consisting of an X on their left wrist, with a white bandage wrapped tightly over it (the X being a secret), so they could tell who was the fake.

Upon arriving at Arabasta, they stop at the shore near the town of Nanohana, where Luffy, still hungry, immediately rushes of to find food, only to get lost in the desert. He then finds a shack and bags he thinks contain food, only to be proven wrong as it's just filled with powder. He decides to burn the bags, at which the smoke becomes rain clouds, and rain starts pouring. The owner of the shack comes out and berates Luffy and tries to kill him, unsuccessfully. They soon make up and the man tells him about Dance Powder, which made the rain. Luffy dismisses it as Mystery Powder, and is offered food to keep his mouth shut. Luffy responds, saying that it doesn't matter, as he's a pirate.

Luffy, quickly finishing his food, is still hungry and wandering, until he spies Nanohana, and rushes off to find food. He eventually finds it, smashing two unsuspecting men with his Gomu Gomu no Rocket. He then proceeds to eat when one of the men confronts him: Captain Smoker. After a while, Luffy realizes who he is, and after stuffing what was left of the food in his mouth, runs off with Smoker hot on his tail, and the other man, Portgas D. Ace, right behind them. Luffy is them chased by the Marines and catches up with the rest of the gang and they're all now being chased. As the Marines surround them, Smoker is about to capture Luffy but Ace, revealing the powers of his Mera Mera no Mi. Luffy is surprised to see Ace, especially with his new Devil Fruit powers. Ace says he'll hold Smoker off, and tells the Straw Hats to escape. As they escape the Marines, the crew asks the connection between Ace and Luffy, to which Luffy replies he's his older brother. Smoker's and Ace's powers cancel each other out causing a huge explosion, and Ace escapes from Smoker. Smoker notes that Nefertari Vivi is among the Straw Hats, and is going on her own accord, meaning something is going on in the country. Luffy and Ace have time to catch up, after Luffy gets lost again. Ace reveals he's one of the Whitebeard Pirates and plans to make Whitebeard the Pirate King. He offers Luffy to join them, to which he declines saying he's going to be Pirate King and Whitebeard is just another person he has to beat. As the Going Merry sets off, Ace catches up with them and tells them to look after his younger brother. A group of Baroque Works Billions ships arrive, and Ace using a small scooter ship destroys them with his Mera Mera powers, before returning to the Going Merry. Ace reveals he's after a man named Blackbeard. Before sailing off, he gives Luffy a strange piece of paper so that they can meet again. The crew then lands and begins their journey to Yuba. As they reach land, Usopp is challenged be a Kung-Fu Dugong. It then challenges Luffy who easily defeats it. Vivi then explains that the dugongs becomes the apprentice of whoever defeats it. In the short time she explains this, Luffy finds he has 100 Kung-Fu Dugongs under his apprenticeship, shocking Usopp as to how he could defeat them so fast. After Chopper negotiates with 100 of them to leave with out them the crew sets out for Yuba. As they reach Yuba, they find that it is plagued with sandstorms and is deserted without a single rebel in sight. However, one shriveled up old man yells at the crew to get out and that the "foolish" rebels are no longer in the city. It is only until he notices Princess Vivi among the Straw Hats that he breaks down crying with happiness that the missing princess has been found and explains he is Toto whom she met several years ago, although due to drought and famine, he has lost a lot of weight. After seeing what has become of her old friend because of the drought, Vivi breaks down in tears. After apologizing for the initial way he acted, Toto begs Vivi to stop the rebellion that will occur. He explains that he and his son Kohza, met the King several years before during an earlier drought begging him to help them, although Kohza voiced out his anger at the seemingly lack of concern the King had. Toto was repentant, but the King told him not to worry about it as he has deep love for his home. The King promised them refuge in Alubarna, the capital until they can set up their own city. He got into a fight with a young Vivi, but the King didn't mind either, saying it is what kids do, and Kohza and Vivi made up anyway. Three years before recent events, the major drought occurred. Kohza pleaded for the King to use Dance Powder but he refused, saying in the long run it does more harm than good. However, a Baroque Works ship crashed near the town (which was orchestrated) and a member claimed that it was meant to be shipped to the King. Many of the people now believed that the King used Dance Powder over Alubarna so that he can receive the most rainfall, while the rest of the country dries up. The elders, in particular Toto disbelieved that the King would do such a thing, but Kohza and others refused to listen and decided to instigate a rebellion.

Toto explained that now the rebels have moved their base of operations to Katorea. Vivi promised to stop the rebellion. Luffy is inspired by the determination of Toto as he digs for water so he decides to assist him, although he seems to fill up Toto's hole as he digs on of his own, and is confused as to why the hole is filling up, declaring it a "Mystery Hole". When Luffy is tired, Toto takes him to his room, and manages to dig enough to find a small amount of water and puts it in a small barrel. However, despite experiencing drought, he gives the water barrel to Luffy. As they say farewell to Toto and depart Yuba, Vivi announces the missions is now to go to Katorea to try to dissuade the soldiers, but Luffy seeing the futility in such a mission told Vivi that he has decided to "quit". The rest of the crew are fed up by Luffy's seemingly childish behavior, reminding him they're going back for the sake of Vivi. However, Luffy says that is boring and tells Vivi that rather Crocodile should get his ass kicked, as he is the cause of the country's situation and as pirates, they probably wouldn't be able to do much about preventing the rebellion in which Crocodile still wouldn't stop if even the rebels do, and if anything, Vivi is the one that should go ahead. The rest of the Straw Hats are surprised by Luffy's insight on the entire situation. Luffy then tells Vivi that this really comes down to her not wanting anyone to die from the oncoming civil war in the country, and Luffy points out to her that in a battle where over a million will fight in Alubarna, with a Shichibukai pulling the strings with his own organization, wishing for no-one to die, stops being idealistic and becomes naive. Nami pleads for Luffy to consider Vivi's feelings, but even Sanji tells her to allow Luffy to continue his point. Vivi, is angered by Luffy's comment asking what is wrong with not wanting anyone to die, but Luffy replies death is a part of this world as anything else. Vivi angrily slaps Luffy for even mentioning such things, saying that the rebels and the Royal Army are not to blame and it's Crocodile's fault, but Luffy punches her back, asking why she needlessly risks her life. As Vivi pins Luffy down, Luffy replies even he is aware of the true situation and what the country needs most, and yet it is blind to her. However, Vivi takes no heed of what he's saying and takes out all her anger at Crocodile on Luffy. As he is being slapped, Luffy asks if risking her life is enough to save the country, and grabs her hands, but Vivi starts crying and replies she has nothing else to risk. Luffy shoves her and ask why she doesn't have the Straw Hats risk their lives as well: because they're nakama. Vivi is shocked, and completely breaks down in tears. Luffy points out she's crying so hard, and she's the one wishes to kill Crocodile the most. Luffy asks Vivi where Crocodile is.

Vivi tells the group that Crocodile's location is at Rainbase, north of Yuba. Meanwhile, Luffy denies Usopp the drink on the basis that they are supposed to use the water Toto spent all night to dig up sparingly. Vivi later thanks Luffy for giving her the support she needed to make her decision. Luffy replies after he kicks Crocodile's ass, she should feed him until he explodes. Vivi replies that it's a promise. Luffy yells that he gonna kick Crocodile's ass, while the others discuss the possibility of more Baroque Works agents, and whether they know who they are. Vivi decides that it's best to just head there, as Luffy thought, because they do not have time to think. When they enter Rainbase, Luffy and Usopp enter a bar and ask for water. However, when they realize Captain Smoker and Tashigi are in the bar as well, they spit out all the water they were drinking on their faces and make a run for it. Suddenly, all of the Straw Hats are being chased by the Marines. Once Vivi tells Luffy that Crocodile is within Rain Dinners, the Straw Hats split up to evade the Marines. Luffy is being personally chased by Smoker, and when Smoker tries to bind him with his White Vine move, Luffy uses Gomu Gomu no Fuusen to slip out of his hold. Finally, after giving the Marines the run, Luffy, along with Nami, Usopp and Zoro head on inside Rain Dinners.

Once inside, Luffy yells at Crocodile to come over here, only to being look by the people inside the casino. They then notice that Vivi isn't with them, so they call outher name as welll as Crocodile's name. Suddenly, Smoker arrives and pursued them. The security of the casino, the Koala Mercenaries, tried to stop them, but Luffy ran over them without even noticing them. The pursuit continues until they fall into a trap floor, which Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Smoker into a prison cell in which the bars are made of Kairoseki.

At their prison cell, they finally meet Crocodile who is waiting for Vivi to come. Luffy tried to fight him, but get weak when he touches the bars. Vivi finally arrive at Rain Dinners after being captured by Miss All Sunday. Vivi tried to kill Crocodile, but it was no use due to Crocodile's Suna Suna no Mi powers. He then begin exlaining his plan to his captives about how he managed to bring Arabasta to the brink of destruction and how he slowly eroding the people's trust in Nefertari Cobra and how his Operation Utopia cannot be stopped. He then challenges Vivi to free them by throwing the key of the cage into an aquarium pit full of Bananawani and one of the swallows the key. After that, he leaves the room, saying that Rain Dinners will self-destruct and everything inside the room will become part of Rainbase. He also reveals that he's the one who caused the sandstorms all over Arabasta, which makes Luffy very angry at him.

After Crocodile left the room, the underground base began to be fill with water and one of the Bananawani came out of the pit aquarium, with other following it. The enormous alligators knocked over Vivi. Vivi simply didn't have the strength to defeat them. All hope seems lost until the Den Den Mushi rings in. Crocodile answers it and hears the voice he once heard while trying to contact Mr. 3 at Little Garden. The voice called himself Mr. Prince. The captives hears the voice also and recognizes it as Sanji, rembering that the cook and Chopper are still outside and tell Sanji to save them as quickly as possible. But they heard a fight on the Den Den Mushi, thinking that Sanji has been beaten. Vivi tried to save her friends on her own, but Crocodile stops her, rendering her uncouscious. After that, he leaves the room for good, leaving his captives to a certain death.

Vivi regains conciousness and dodge the alligator's attacks, making him knock over the walls and finally breaking the door. She got out of the room and promises her friends to find help to liberate them. Meanwhile, the water keeps rising and everyone is getting desperate. Then, Nami had an idea to make the Bananawani so angry that it'll come destroying the prison cell. Everyone agreed to this idea and insult the enormous alligator. The Bananawani comes and tried to chop down the prison cell, but even the enormous alligator shattered its own teeth on the prison cell, leaving everyone more desperate than ever. Then Smoker tell the group about Miss All Sunday and her past and that her joining with Crocodile will cause a disaster that will envelop the entire world. The water arrives through the cell and everyone becomes more frightened and Luffy becomes more weaker. But, luckily, Sanji arrives just in time and rendered the enormous alligator uncouscious with a powerful kick. Luffy thanks Vivi for finding him.

But more Bananawani arrive and attempting to eat them. Smoker ask Sanji to defeat the third Bananawani because this alligator ate the key to the cage. Sanji managed to do so, but it spits out a strange ball in which coming out from inside the ball is Mr. 3. Seeing that Smoker, Vivi and the Straw Hat Pirates are trapped and that he has the key to free them, he decide to slower their chance of getting out by throwing the key far away, in which he does so. Then Usopp ask Sanji to force Mr. 3 into creating a duplicate of the key with this Doru Doru powers, in which he managed to do so after beating up Mr. 3. After Mr. 3 freed the crew and Smoker, Sanji dispatches him. Also, the Bananawani problem is quckly solved by Luffy, Zoro and Sanji beating all of them up (Luffy complains that he's not able to fight at full strength because the rising water), Vivi (comically) cries about the ease in which they beat all of them, and she couldn't fight even one of them, to which Usopp consoles that normal humans like her couldn't, but those three are just freakishly strong. They managed to escape the room in time before it collapses on them. When Smoker comes to from almost drowning, he demands to know why Zoro saved him. Zoro answered that it was Luffy's orders to rescue him, before he himself went unconscious from nearly drowning. To repay them for saving his life, Smoker allowed them just once to escape. But he warned that once they meet again, he'll capture them. Luffy tells Smoker that he likes him after all, which forces Smoker to threatening Luffy to go before he changes his mind. Vivi and the Straw Hat Pirates managed to find Chopper and Eyelashes aboard a giant crab named Scissors, who is a friend of Eyelashes. He agreed to let them ride him to go to Alubarna a lot faster. But before they could go to Alubarna, Crocodile tried to kidnap Vivi. But Luffy managed to save Vivi and decide to fight the leader of Baroque Works, telling his friends to go to Alubarna without him, in which they agreed. But he promised he'll meet them again at Alubarna.

Dueling A Shichibukai In A Sandy Battlefield
Miss All Sunday mentions that the Princess has escaped their clutches, to which Crocodile replies that their heading for Alubarna anyway, so she should call the other Agents to the capital. Crocodile and Luffy are finally set to duel each other. Luffy explains to Crocodile that even though Vivi is weak, she tries to save everyone by putting her life on the line. Crocodile laughs at this, saying that there are several silly pacifists, who like her, do not know the true way of battles, and asked if Luffy agreed. Indeed, the Straw Hat captain did agree, but because Vivi is his friend and doesn't want to see her in pain, he said he will fight for her even if it meant his death. Crocodile chides Luffy's reliances on others, and said that he himself has left several of those he worked with behind him and buried. Luffy simply replies that all he has just said makes him stupid, angering Crocodile enough to bite through his cigar. After Miss All Sunday laughs at this remark, and Crocodile threatens to kill her, she calmly states she's following the crew to Alubarna. Crocodile pulls out an hourglass, and says that he will humor Luffy for three minutes, but will finish him off once that time is up. Luffy attacks Crocodile, but discovers that he can't hit Crocodile due to his Suna Suna no Mi ability. Crocodile further iterates in a sand-based environment, his powers make him virtually invincible. Crocodile also shows off some attacks as well, one of which dries Luffy's arm out, but Luffy takes water from his small barrel to restore his strength. Crocodile thinks that his struggles are worthless, but Luffy states the drink that was given to him was dug by Toto, which motivates to continue fighting. Once the three minutes are up, Crocodile creates a sandstorm and sends it off to Yuba, where Toto is, and explains that he was the one who was sending storms there every day. Luffy yells for him to stop it but Crocodile impales him with his hook during his distress. Crcodile says that are several rookies like him in the Grand Line, but he should have really knew where he stood. Then, when he proves he's still alive, he leaves him in quicksand to die.

Luckily, Luffy is saved by Miss All-Sunday after Crocodile's departure who leaves Luffy in the hands of Pell, telling Pell that Luffy is responsible for the safe return of Vivi.

Rematch On The Royal Palace
The next day, with Pell's help, Luffy saves Vivi from falling to her death from Crocodile. Vivi observes the chaos the country was thrown in, and is disheartened to the fact that no-one will listen to her, but Luffy reassures her that he and Pell heard her just fine. Luffy flings himself back up to Crocodile manages to hit him and gives him a Gomu Gomu no Murakumo to knock him to the ground. He then reveals that he put water on his skin, squirting it out from the water barrel he has on his back, finding out his weakness from their last duel. Crocodile realizing this still sucks the water from his body with his powers, while Luffy rehydrates himself as he combines his rubber powers with his punches. But Crocodile uses his own sand powers to perform effective counters and almost makes Luffy lose the barrel. Crocodile mocks him on his desperate cling on to the barrel and remarks that nothing had really changed since their first fight. Luffy then decides to store all the water into his body, dubbing himself Water Luffy. Miss All Sunday laughs at how ridiculous he looks, and Crocodile charges at him, but it turns out the form was effective, as Luffy fires a Mizu Mizu Pistol drenching Crocodile in water, then knocking him away with a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka. While the fight continues, Miss All Sunday takes the nails painfully out of Cobra's body and cuffs him with her powers to force the King to reveal the location of the Poneglyph, and through it Pluton. Meanwhile, a furious Crocodile recovers and orders his partner to quickly depart. Soon, the Shichibukai reveals that his powers affect everything including inanimate objects and proceeds to dry out the entire garden of the Royal Palace, and anything connected to it, forcing Luffy to attempt to hang on to the walls. Unfortunately, Crocodile appears grabbing Luffy by the neck. He attempts to soak the Baroque Works leader but misses, and is dehydrated in response and left to die once again. Luckily, the water bubbles that Luffy fired fall back down on him re-hydrating him and narrowly saving his life. Thus Luffy goes on to pursue Crocodile. However, the wound from his chest opens, and Luffy feels unusually faint, falling unconscious.

Surpassing the Shichibukai and Farewell to a Nakama
Once Luffy wakes up, he charges again, and notices an open underground staircase realising Crocodile is likely to be there He finally found Crocodile, along with Miss All Sunday and Cobra at the Tomb of the Kings. Crocodile is enraged that Luffy has defied death yet again, and come at him. Luffy explains to Crocodile that despite his ambition, he has already taken the country from Vivi, and charges at him, even kicking and punching him in the face without water, due to being soaked in blood, which is also able to harden sand. Crocodile is now determined to end it once and for all, releasing the golden cover to reveal a poison hook.

Luffy fights him and gains the upper hand, but eventually gets struck by the hook and is poisoned. The poison starts to affect Luffy's body and he collapses. However, remembering Vivi and the pain Crocodile has caused her and her country, Luffy rises again, to Crocodile's frustration, and declares he can not defeat him. When Crocodile claims that it is just a bluff, Luffy declares he will be the next Pirate King. Crocodile laughs at this, reminding again that he merely a rookie who doesn't have the knowledge of the harshness of the sea, and if he had, he wouldn't say outrageous stuff like that. He then charges at Luffy with his hook, saying that the more one learns about the sea, the more you abandon your dreams. However, Luffy dodges Crocodile's attack and breaks his hook, saying he'll just surpass him first before giving Crocodile another onslaught of attacks. When Crocodile comes to, he releases a hidden knife in his hook. He calls Luffy a rookie who came from nowhere and asks if he knows who he is. Luffy dodges it and declares he doesn't care and that he'll surpass him before kicking Crocodile into the air. Crocodile declares he'll destroy the temple along with him, using his Sables Pesado and fires it at Luffy further decreasing the stability of the catacombs. But Luffy withstands it and breathes in a tremendous amount of air, twists himself and blows into the ground to launch him into the air for a final attack on Crocodile. As Crocodile uses Sables la Spada for a final attack, Luffy blasts through it launching his Gomu Gomu no Storm, delivering him punches with such force he penetrates the layer of pure bedrock and sends Crocodile flying until he lands into the town center. As Luffy lands, Cobra crawls to the victorious young pirate to thank him for defeating Crocodile, to which Luffy replies "No problem" and smiles. Luffy is later saved from Crocodile's poison by Nico Robin who gives him the antidote. Luffy manages to awaken enough to grab Robin and Cobra and carry them out before the tomb caves in.

Nefartari Cobra delivers Luffy on his back to the Straw Hats and tells them what happened. Finally, Igaram, Vivi's bodyguard who was thought dead since Whiskey Peak, shows up in Alubarna with Kappa, the beaten-up child from Nanohana, in his arms. He reveals the truth of Baroque Works' ploy to everyone. At last, Cobra himself informs both sides what whoever they rose their swords at and whoever they pointed their guns at no longer matters. Furthermore, while they cannot erase what happened from history but they can together rebuild the country. Rebels and Royal Guards alike were moved by his wise words, and the war officially ended. The Straw Hats, meanwhile, are spared by Tashigi's marine forces, who instead arrest Crocodile and strip him of Shichibukai rank, and are later led to the palace.

Luffy awakens after three days of sleep, demanding food immediately. Luffy and his crew are hailed as heroes in the palace for their efforts in saving the country, but it is kept secret on the outside. Bon Kurei suddenly calls the crew, telling the Straw Hats that he has saved their ship from the Marines and is protecting it for them. The Straw Hat crew gives Vivi a choice of coming with them if she wants to, and to make her decision by noon.

The Straw Hats and Bon Kurei's crew leave in the morning, but they get engaged in a battle with Marine Captain Hina the Black Cage. Bon Clay and his crew disguise themselves as the Straw Hats to draw their attention, giving them the opportunity to flee though Luffy yells he'll never forget them. In the end, Vivi chose not come with them, but came to wave them goodbye, holding her speech over a Den Den Mushi. Knowing that if they reply, they'll implicate Vivi as an accomplice to them, the Straw Hats silently sail, but respond back by showing her their friendship marks on their arms before leaving.

Jaya
After escaping the Marines near Arabasta, Luffy and the others are shocked to see Nico Robin, a.k.a. Miss All-Sunday from Baroque Works, on board their ship. However, Luffy allows her to stay, since she can't stay anywhere else due to Luffy defeating Crocodile and saving her from certain doom along with Cobra. Not long afterward, a massive ship falls down from the sky and into the sea, and Luffy decides to investigate it. On board, he finds a map of a place called Skypiea, an island in the sky. However, they are unable to obtain more information on this island, as the ship has now sunk completely. Luffy, along with Zoro and Sanji, dive into the sea with Usopp's diving suits, where they find nearly nothing of value, except for some broken plates, swords, and a strange contraption. Suddenly, the ship is raised, and filled with air. To top it off, a monkey-like person burst straight into the room where Luffy, Zoro and Sanji are sitting. Although Luffy and the stranger get along, the ship is eaten by a giant turtle.

Luckily, Zoro and Sanji got Luffy back onto the surface, neither of them having noticed the turtle until Usopp pointed it out for them. However, before Masira could extract his vengeance on the crew for intruding on his territory, everyone present (including the turtle) witnessed a horrifying sight: Massive silhouettes in the sky, which were presumably monsters. In fear, the Straw Hats escape, unintentionally letting Masira tag along, before they literally kick him overboard.

Robin managed to steal the Eternal Pose from Masira in which it indicates the direction to Jaya, which makes Luffy decide to go to Jaya. The crew hope to get information to how to get to Skypiea once arrived at Jaya.

When they finally arrive at the island of Jaya, at the port of Mock Town. Nami made Luffy and Zoro promise not to fight while searching for information to get to Skypiea in Mock Town. The group encounter several odd people, all of whom are members of the Blackbeard Pirates, until they end up at a hotel. There, they encounter Sarquiss of the Bellamy Pirates, who insults the group and even gives them some money to buy better clothes. They later end up in a bar, where they encounter Blackbeard himself, though they don't know who he is. After he leaves, Bellamy himself barges in looking for Luffy, claiming that he wants to test him to see if he's worthy of joining his "New Age" of pirates. However, when Nami asks the bartender for information about Skypiea, Bellamy rejects this notion immediately and the entire bar starts ridiculing the three.

In Bellamy's New Age, dreams will be worthless. He explains that so many people are focused on searching for dream treasures like the Gold City and One Piece that they ignore all of the real treasures around them. Bellamy attacks Luffy and Zoro while the other people in the bar throw objects at them, but despite Nami's urging, they refuse to fight back--this mirrors how Shanks and his crew didn't fight back against Higuma the Bear when he and his crew attacked them in Makino's bar.

After that, they are thrown out of the bar. Luffy, Zoro and Nami meet up with Blackbeard, who says that they made the right decision by refusing to fight, and that the dream of a man will never die. Luffy, Zoro and Nami return to their ship and Robin tells them that she has found someone who might help them get to Skypiea, a man by the name of Montblanc Cricket who lives in the other side of the island. Luffy and his crew set sail to the other side of Jaya. On their way, they meet Shoujou who thinks they killed his brother Masira. Despite Shoujou's sonic screams, Luffy and his crew manage to evade his attacks.

Meeting Cricket
Luffy and his friends arrived at Cricket's. While investigating his home, Cricket came out of the water and tried to drown Luffy, thinking he and his friends were robbers. Usopp managed to save him.

After the attack, Luffy tells him that he and his friends want to go to Skypiea and Cricket tells thm that the reason he went diving everyday is to prove that his ancestor, Montblanc Norland, wasn't the liar everyone thought he was and that Norland did found a city of Gold somewhere in Jaya.

After that, Cricket decided to help Luffy and his friends get to Skypiea.

The group made of Luffy and Chopper managed to find a South Bird, a bird capable of finding a Knock Up Stream, a powerful water stream that can send ships into Skypiea. But this South Bird sends Giant Mantis and bees to attack them to avoid being captured. But, at the end, the South Bird was successfully captured.

After Luffy and his friends captured the South Bird, they discovered that Cricket's home was robbed, the Going Merry broken and Cricket, Masira and Shoujou defeated. They learned that, during their absence, Bellamy arrived and stealed all of Cricket's gold. After that, Luffy decided, before going to Skypiea, to search for Bellamy and get the gold back to Cricket. During his search for Bellamy, Luffy managed to defeat the Giant Mantis who was giving him trouble earlier that day.

Luffy's revenge on Bellamy
Luffy managed to find Bellamy and tried to order him to get the gold back to Cricket. Bellamy refused and decided to fight against Luffy. After giving Luffy a hard time in battle and mocking him about the city of gold and the dream of others, Bellamy was finally defeated by Luffy with only a single punch. After that, Luffy takes the gold stolen by Bellamy and goes back to Cricket's home.

The morning comes and Luffy managed to arrive at Cricket's home and give the gold back to Cricket. After that, with the help of the South Bird, Luffy and his friends go to the Knock Up Stream aboard a newly modified Going Merry made by the Saruyama Alliance. During their travel, they are pursued by Blackbeard and his crew. The Blackbeard pirates tells them about Luffy and Zoro's new bounties. The Knock Up Stream managed to send Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates into Skypiea before they could get captured by the Blackbeard Pirates.

Skypiea
Thanks to the Knock Up Stream, Luffy and his friends arrived at Skypiea. But as soon as they arrived, they are attacked by a mysterious masked warrior who even gives Luffy a hard time. But, luckily, they were saved by a knight named Gan Fall. After he rescued them, Gan Fall decided to go.

Luffy and his friends pass through Heaven's Gate and arrived at the shore of Angel Island in which they meet Conis, an inhabitant of this island. While having fun, Luffy discovers, the hard way, that the White Sea has the same effect on him just like the Blue Sea.

After hearing that Nami has ventured into Upper Yard, a forbidden sacred place in which reside the god Eneru and his priests, Luffy decided to head out to "rescue Nami", but he makes it obvious that he simply wants to go to Upper Yard to explore and have an adventure. Unfortunately, he was stopped in his track by the White Berets, who tried to arrest them for illegally entering Angel Island. But Luffy easily defeated them.

After that, Luffy, Usopp and Sanji discovers that a giant shrimp has kidnapped the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates to Upper Yard. The 3 pirates decided to rescue them. After finding a ship that they can take them to Upper Yard, the Karasumaru, Luffy, Usopp and Sanji learned that Conis was responsible for calling the White Berets. She was about to be killed by Eneru's lightning, but she was saved by Gan Fall. Despite this show of Eneru's power, Luffy, Usopp and Sanji started their travel to Upper Yard.

Luffy, Usopp and Sanji travel through the Milky Road in which they avoided several deadly traps. After that, they entered the Ordeal of Balls, in which they encountered Satori, one of Eneru's priests. Satori gave them a hard time, especially since Satori possess an ability called Mantra. But, despite this, Luffy and his friends managed to defeat him.

After the battle, Luffy, Usopp and Sanji managed to rejoin their friends at the Sacrificial Altar along with Gan Fall, who came there to save Chopper from Shura. Later that night, Luffy and his friends had a great party along with the company of a pack of wolves. In the morning, the crew decided to split into 2 groups; one group will go search for the city of gold in Upper Yard, which revealed to be part of Jaya 400 years, while the other group will go out of Upper Yard. Luffy is part of the group to search for the city of gold.

Inside the stomach of a giant snake
Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, and Robin were searching for the city of gold in Upper Yard, until they are pursued by a gigantic snake, which force them to split up.

After that, Luffy encountered Wiper, the man who attacked him and his friends on their arrival in Skypiea, and the two began to fight. During their fight, the giant snake appears, interrupted their fight and eats Luffy. In the snake's stomach, Luffy sees tons of gold and ruins, but can't seem to find his way out, under the assumption that he's in a cave. Later, Gan Fall, his horse Pierre, Nami and Aisa joined Luffy inside the snake's stomach. Gan Fall and Nami managed to escape the snake, but accidentally left Luffy, Aisa, and Pierre behind. Later that day, Luffy, Aisa and Pierre managed to escape the snake. But, at the moment they escaped the snake, they noticed the destruction that Eneru has created. After a barely conscious Robin explains the situation, Aisa explains to Luffy that she can use her mantra to lead him to Eneru. Following Aisa's direction, Luffy decided to stop Eneru.

Against a powerful god
Luffy finally reaches Eneru and fights him. Eneru is completely stunned that his attacks have no effects on Luffy. Not only that, but Luffy can bypass his Logia ability and hurt him. After calming down, Eneru switches to a different mode of attack by heating up staff, teleporting around, and using his Mantra to predict his moves. Luffy seems to have the upper hand until Eneru attaches a large ball of gold to the rubber man's arm and knocks him off the ship back onto Upper Yard.

Luffy manages to recover in the ruins of Shandora and, along with Aisa and Pierre, runs towards the beanstalk with the gold ball still attached to his arm. Luffy is eventually met by Nami, who tried to convince him to leave, but he replies that he has to ring the bell so Montblanc Cricket and everyone else will know that the city of gold is in the sky. Using the Waver's full power, Nami and Luffy blast up the plant and are sent flying towards Eneru. However, Luffy pushes Nami onto a cloud and makes a detour into Eneru's attack's, the Raigoh.

Luffy swings the gold ball around to draw the electricity from the Raigoh into him and eventually breaks it apart. Despite Eneru unleashing his full power, Luffy sends him crashing into the bell sending a ring that could be heard everywhere. In Jaya, Luffy's shadow in the sky is seen by Cricket, Masira and Shoujou, which let them conclude that the city of gold is in the sky.

After Eneru's defeat, Luffy, his crew and the rest of the inhabitants of Skypiea had an enormous party at night. After the party, Luffy decided to take several bags full of gold. Once that was done, Luffy and his crew boarded the Going Merry and go out of Skypiea using the Clouds End door, thanks to Conis and her father Pagaya who thanked them for saving Skypiea from the tyranny of Eneru. link title

Three-Coin Showdown with the Foxy Pirates
Upon returning from Skypiea to the Blue Sea, Luffy and his crew had no time to rest as they encountered a giant wave created by some Sea Monkeys. After the brief incident, Luffy and his crew rested and assessed the good wealth they obtained from their Sky Island adventure. As Luffy discussed with his crew, they all agreed that they would use the treasure to help fix the travel-worn Going Merry and get a shipwright to help maintain it. After encountering the Sea Monkeys once again and a curious pirate ship with no sails or crew, Luffy and his crew reached the next island in their journey. As Luffy, along with Usopp and Chopper, decided to explore the island, they noticed that the animals and plant life were all very long in appearance.

As Luffy and his two companions explored the island more, they encountered a nomad named Tonjit who had been stuck on his stilts for 10 long years. After getting acquainted with the old man and reuniting him with his hoooooorse, Sherry, Luffy and his companions felt that they had done small accomplishment. However, in the midst of their enjoyment, Sherry was suddenly shot. Learning immediately that the shot was fired by the pirate, Foxy, who was nearby, Luffy momentarily engaged at this foe. Before Luffy could fight Foxy however, he was suddenly challenged to an official Davy Back Fight.

From Usopp, Luffy learned that this sudden challenge was a set of three games between pirate crews in which the crew members were at stake. Despite Usopp's warnings however and much to the dismay of the rest of his crew, Luffy accepted the challenge from Foxy and his crew to hold a Davy Back Fight on Longring Longland. What happened next was a festival-like event set up by Foxy's pirates in lieu of the Davy Back games. After the formalities of the beginning of the games, Luffy and his crew decided who would participate in which game. Taking the final and most climatic game, Combat, Luffy awaited for his turn as he watched the rest of his crew participate in the other games.

The first two games of the Davy Back Fight proved to be both surprising and emotional for Luffy and his crew. In the first game, Donut Race, they witnessed Foxy and his crew's cheating tricks, and Foxy's exploit of his Devil Fruit powers of the Noro Noro no Mi. Due to these, Luffy lost Chopper to Foxy. Fortunately, Luffy was able to win Chopper back as his crew won the second game, Groggy Ring, despite the gigantic odds stacked against them. After watching these two grueling games, Luffy was pumped up for his turn in the final game.

With the third game approaching, Luffy with the help from Usopp, decided to dress appropriately for the match. Donning an afro and boxing outfit, Luffy was ready to face against the sly Foxy aboard his ship, the Sexy Foxy. Throughout the whole match, Luffy was constantly tricked by his smarter opponent as they battled all around the ship. With Foxy's tricks and Devil Fruit powers, it seemed like Luffy would lose. Despite this, Luffy persevered to not lose one of his crew forever. In the climax of the battle, Luffy was able to thwart Foxy by using a mirror shard obtained from the battle to reflect Foxy's powers back to himself. Having slowed Foxy down, Luffy delivered the final blow and won the game.

After a lot of rest, Luffy wakes up being told he indeed did win the fight. Foxy comes to congratulate Luffy on how he fought in the match, giving a handshake gesture, then attempting to throw him overhead, forgetting his arm is rubber. As Luffy won, he gets to choose a crew member from the Foxy Pirates, but instead choose their flag, but as the sail is their flag, Luffy opts to "redesign" the flag, then give it back. Luffy's poorly drawn Jolly Roger is given to them, officially ending the Davy Back Fight. Although obviously grateful, Foxy vows revenge on Luffy for losing the match. The Straw Hats return to Tonjit giving him the Foxy Pirates' old flag as a sign of their defeat. Chopper uses it as a bandage for Sherry, the horse.

The Unstoppable Ice Admiral
After the incredibly intense Davy Back Fight, Tonjit invites the Straw Hats to his home to thank them for helping them, only to bump into a very tall man standing in front of his doorway and sleeping at the same time. When he wakes up and removes his sleeping mask, Robin falls to her knees and trembles. It turns out the man is Aokiji: One of the 3 Admirals in the Marines who are only subordinate to Sengoku himself. It also seems that he and Robin are already personally familiar with each other. Hearing this Luffy threatens to kick his ass with Usopp and Sanji holding him back. Aokiji notices Luffy and remarks on the resemblance between him and his grandfather but remarks he wasn't sure if it was their single-mindedness or simple-mindedness that makes them similar. Luffy freezes in shock at the mere mention of his grandfather. Aokiji informs them that he didn't come to attack Robin or the Straw Hats but merely to confirm Robin's whereabouts after the collapse of Baroque Works. Luffy threatened to kick his ass again, with the other Straw Hats holding back again, but after meeting him for a short time, they also found Aokiji's eccentric behavior, particularly his laziness, irritating. They even question if he's really an Admiral. Aokiji heard of Tonjit's dilemma and decides to help him, and walks to the ocean dipping his hand in it. Just as as a Sea King rears its ugly head, Aokiji uses the powers of the Hie Hie no Mi to freeze the entire ocean, including the Sea King. With that, Tonjit can now meet his long lost friends, and waved a final goodbye to the Straw Hats. Luffy and Aokiji are now on good terms, however the admiral revealed his true colors and decides they should all just die... Aokiji begins to tell the Straw Hats half-truths about Robin's past, and says she's a dangerous woman, cursing her as the child of demons. However, the Straw Hats refuse to listen to him. After much taunting from Aokiji, Robin angrily uses her powers to break him in two and fall into several ice particles. The Straw Hats decide to make a run for it, but Aokiji reforms himself, takes some grass and uses his powers to blow air and form his Ice Saber technique to attack Robin but it is blocked by Zoro's sword, while Sanji kicked it away, and Luffy gave a straight punch to Aokiji. However, the admiral grabbed Zoro's arm, Sanji's leg and used his ability to freeze Zoro, Sanji and Luffy simultaneously on the limbs they used to attack. Aokiji then turned his attention to Robin, then uses his Ice Time technique to freeze her completely. The admiral then informs the Straw Hats that there is a slim chance that Robin can saved, but while frozen Robin became brittle, so Aokiji attempted to smash her into pieces, only for Luffy to lean and grab Robin's body. Aokiji attempted to kill Robin again by stomping on her frozen body, but quick thinking from Usopp and Chopper allowed them to take Robin before he could do it, in the process hurting Luffy. They are ordered to return to the Going Merry to save Robin, while Zoro and Sanji prepared themselves to fight the admiral. However, Luffy also ordered them to return to ship, and wanted a one-on-one match with Aokiji, despite the seemingly likely risk it would be fatal.

Luffy was utterly overwhelmed by Aokiji's strength, while the admiral claimed his opponent is stronger than he expected. Luffy charged towards the Marine Admiral and dodges a punch from him to kick him into the air. Luffy then delivered Aokiji a Gomu Gomu no Storm but Aokiji simply reformed himself and used his Ice Time technique to completely freeze Luffy. After contemplating why Luffy would dare to fight him, Aokiji deduced that the pirate captain deceived him. By accepting a one-on-one match with him, Aokiji cannot go and harm any member of the Straw Hats, including Robin, but then again, Aokiji also considered that Luffy's stubbornness may have allowed him to believe he can win. However, he went on to tell Luffy (although he might not have heard it) that Nico Robin is a dangerous woman who will eventually wipe out the Straw Hats, and escape. He decided to spare Luffy's life because a favor his grandfather did for him, and thanked him for defeating Crocodile. He also remembered his message from Smoker but decided it was "something stupid [Smoker said]", and departed for Marine Headquarters. Zoro and Sanji returned to retrieve Luffy and return him to the Going Merry. After a day, Chopper confirmed both Luffy and Robin's hearts are beating making the defrosting a success. The next day, not only was Luffy in high spirits but he went as far as to joke about his brush with death by pouring flour on himself and emulating his frozen pose to humor Usopp and Chopper, much to Nami's chagrin. Robin also recovered to say a brief hello to the crew, but Nami advised her to rest some more, and as Luffy is exceptional, she also told Robin to ignore his antics.

Water 7: A Breaking Ship, a Breaking Crew


After sailing for a short while, they witness a frog doing a freestyle swim trying to stall a train moving in the ocean, with an odd girl and even odder elderly woman, who was always drinking. The girl introduced herself as Chimney with her pet rabbit (which she and it think it's a cat), Gonbe and her grandmother Kokoro.]Luffy told them who he is and declared he'll be the next Pirate King, which Kokoro liked. They explain that the train is called the Puffing Tom, and is a Sea Train, and also the frog, named Yokozuna is alive, but trains itself by constantly standing in the train's way, being a nuisance. Luffy then decided not to eat him, because he's a high-spirited animal, who works hard, and is determined. Kokoro tells them that they are approaching Water 7, where they can easily repair their ship, as it is home to the world's best shipwrights and carpenters, and to look for a man named Iceburg.

The Straw Hats were amazed at the architecture of Water 7, and found out that even the houses float. Luffy, with Nami and Usopp go in a group and Luffy carries the gold from their last raid in Skypiea. After going to a boat shop, they find out about Yagara Bulls, and travel on one to the market. After entering Zousen-jima, they find out that the gold is worth at least 300,000,000, and trade it in for cash in a merchant shop. They meet a man with a long rectangular nose named Kaku of the Galley-La Company. Despite his manner of speech, he reveals he's 23 years of age. To help the Straw Hats find Iceburg...by leaping off the cliff. They soon visited by Iceburg himself assisted by Kalifa, who both turns out to be the mayor of Water-7 and aware of who they are. He is also quite childish, even taking in a pet mouse he named Tyrannosaurus. Iceburg agreed to help them, even canceling all his meetings to do so. In between their meetings, they almost got robbed by a gang, were it not for Paulie of Galley-La Company. Paulie himself tried to take the money for himself.Rob Lucci prevented him from doing so. Kalifa tells them they are a gang of dismantlers known as the Franky Family, led by Franky himself, who's another story. Lucci's pet Hattori apparently spoke. Lucci berated Paulie for trying to steal their money due to his gambling debts, provoking a fight. Iceburg informs them they always duel other. After they stop fighting, Hattori "introduces" himself, and Nami figures Lucci is a ventriloquist. Paulie reveals he can never speak for himself as he mocks him. But he himself seems to be shy around women who wear skimpy clothing, and berates Nami for this, referring to her as a "shameless woman".

Luffy, Usopp and Nami are taken to the Shipyard. Kalifa tells them that Iceburg not only is the mayor of Water-7, but the leader of the Galley-La Company, and its greatest carpenter. He united the greatest shipwrights and carpenters into one group five years before. Luffy asks Iceburg to join his crew, to which he declines. Kaku returned from his diagnosis to tell Luffy and Nami that the Going Merry is irreparable. Luffy pleaded to repair the ship, and they have plenty of money to spend, but Paulie explained that the Merry has suffered a broken keel. As the keel is the most vital part of the ship, as the foundation to build everything around it, how it even made it to Water 7 through the Grand Line is amazing enough, he explained. Once the keel is broken, it cannot be replaced, otherwise it would be an entirely "new" ship. Thus, they cannot fix their ship. Luffy and Nami were upset about this, with Luffy pleading to remake the Going Merry. However, Lucci through Hattori explained that Merry cannot be remade if they had the blueprints or not, because it would use the wood it technically wasn't made from, the result would not be 'exactly the same ship as the one they traveled in. In fact doing so, will not make them feel that they are traveling in the same Going Merry. Iceburg said that the type of ship the Going Merry was wouldn't have lasted further on even if it wasn't broken. Luffy refused that Merry was truly irreparable, but Iceburg coldly stated with that sort of stubborness, he might as well sink with it. He also told them to return once they've decided on getting a new ship, and with the 300,000,000 they have, they easily buy the best they have to offer. As a scheming Government agent has a private conversation with Iceburg, Luffy and Nami discover they've been robbed and their bags of cash replaced. Luffy ran off and jumped off the cliff like Kaku did, but didn't reach as far as him, knocked his head and fell into the canal. Luckily, Zoro, Sanji and Chopper were searching for Usopp at the time, and Sanji brought him out. They are looking for the whereabouts of the Franky Family's base, and find a severely beaten up Usopp outside it. So Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Chopper enter the Franky House. After the four beat them up, severely for attacking Usopp, and destroy the house they contemplate what their next course of action is, as Franky took the money anyway, and the ship cannot be fixed. Luffy makes the difficult decision to abandon the Going Merry and get a new one.

As Usopp recovered back at the Going Merry, he is glad to see his friends around him, and lamented to Luffy that he couldn't get the money back to fix the ship. However, Luffy tells him that the ship is irreparable, so they just have to get a new one. Usopp didn't take the news too well, and initially thought Luffy was joking but saw he really meant to replace Merry, and Usopp became very angry at Luffy for his seemingly carefree attitude of what he was saying, as a large quarrel ensued between the two. To Usopp, the ship is a nakama as well, and not only shouldn't Luffy have taken the Galley-La advice to abandon it, he should be a better captain. However, Luffy replied to Usopp that the ship cannot ever be repaired or set sail, as it will sink, and although they're all taking the news hard, a ship is not worth them drowning. Usopp refused to believe the ship is broken, and persisted to fix it himself, despite his carpentry being poor. Luffy pointed out that that if the best carpenters in the world can't fix Merry, what makes him think that he can. Luffy pushed him to the ground to remind Usopp they're all having a hard time with the decision, and says if Usopp doesn't like it he can leave. Sanji kicked Luffy in the face, and knocked him across the room, to remind him not to say such harsh things, and Luffy tried to apologize, but Usopp felt that he meant it, then explained his feelings of inadequacy to the crew, and especially Luffy, and compared it with his decision to leave the Going Merry. Usopp concluded by announcing he's leaving the crew. Leaving the ship, he also announced he will duel with Luffy for the Going Merry.

Nami tried to reason with Luffy not to fight, and that Usopp didn't mean any of what was said, but Luffy replied it wouldn't get as far as it did if it wasn't serious. When Usopp arrived at the appointed time, Luffy ordered the crew not to come down, and let the two of them settle it. Luffy told Usopp that whatever happens next, he should be prepared, but Usopp simply replied that most of his opponents didn't know who he is, however, he himself has been with Luffy longer them and knows how he fights. Usopp surprisingly manages to give Luffy a hard time, like he said, and gains the upper hand, using eggs, spicy sauce, shuriken, and a Breath Dial he used without Luffy noticing due to the eggs, and fires his "Flame Star" to ignite an explosion. However, all the while, Luffy is thinking about their former friendship. As Luffy lies on the ground, he thinks of the good times he and Usopp had together. Luffy tries attack Usopp with Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun but Usopp fired his gunpowder to repel Luffy. Luffy manages to hit Usopp with Gomu Gomu no Pistol and tries to finish him with Bazooka but Usopp absorbs the attack with his Impact Dial, and fires it back at him, dislocating his own shoulder. It wasn't enough to stun Luffy for too long and the captain finished Usopp off with Gomu Gomu no Bullet, ending the duel. Luffy has won, and told Usopp he couldn't have won anyway, however, out of pity and respect to their former friendship, he told Usopp that he can have the Going Merry and orders everyone out by the following morning as they take their stuff. Luffy returns to the Going Merry, but realizes it was a Pyrrhic victory for him: In winning the duel, he had lost a valuable friend. While all the others were saddened by the loss of Usopp in their crew, Zoro said to Luffy he did the right thing. As the captain, he has to be decisive and stern. Luffy's tears start to roll down his eyes, with two Straw Hats gone (Robin is missing), and the ship broken.

An Assassination Attempt And A Conspiracy Unravels
Soon afterward, Nami tells Luffy and Sanji that an attempt on Iceburg's life was made. Luffy and Nami decide to head to Iceburg for him to tell them what happened, and use a Yagara Bull to travel across the canal. However, there is a lot of traffic, and Luffy is also challenged by the boss of the Franky Family, Franky who wants revenge for beating his "brothers and sisters" up in his absence and trashing their house. After quarreling for a short time with each other, Franky starts things by spitting fire out of his mouth. Luffy and Nami first thought he had a Devil Fruit ability, until he jumped into the water swam and attacked them by punching their boat. When Franky fires a Strong Right knocking Luffy back on a wall on the Dock 1 shipyard, he reveals he is a cyborg. Meanwhile, news spreads blaming the Straw Hat Pirates for the attempted assassination of Iceburg, when he reveals that Nico Robin was one of the assailants. The battle continues between Luffy and Franky, and the cyborg fires at the Straw Hat with Weapons Left, Luffy retaliates with Gomu Gomu no Muchi, but the Galley-La foremen interrupt the fight, convinced that the Straw Hats tried to kill Iceburg, and stepped in to exact revenge. Luffy tries to explain that the Straw Hats weren't involved in what happened to Iceburg but Paulie attacks him by putting him in a choke-hold with his rope. Lulu fires bullets at Luffy, but upon learning he has a Devil fruit ability, he kicks him away. Franky tries to attack them for interrupting his fight but he is quickly dispatched by Tilestone. Lucci also comes after Luffy and knocks him away onto the ship parts. Luffy asks why they are attacking him, and they explain that Iceburg identified Nico Robin as one of the assailants and blame them for trying to kill him. News spreads around the crowd, and they now hate them. Luffy tries to explain things them as they fight but they fall on deaf ears. Finally, Franky decides to fire his Coup de Vent blast, which Luffy evades and escapes the battle with Nami.

They escape to a building near Galley-La HQ, and Nami notes that the atmosphere has dropped, and the typography appears different. Luffy immediately attempts to ask Iceburg what happened and stretches towards the building. After evading those trying to capture him, he makes it to Iceburg's room. The mayor notes he is not here to kill him in the midst of all the chaos, and asks Luffy to see her one more time, and the Straw Hat replies it's impossible as they don't know where she is and leaves the room before the pursuers appear. After informing Nami that Iceburg said he definitely saw Robin, he still refuses to believe it. After they meet up with Zoro, they are forced to hide until Chopper and tells them that Robin has left them, and was involved with an attempt on Iceburg's life. Zoro decides that by nighttime, they need to find out after all the time they spent whether Robin is their friend or foe. Zoro deducts that Robin sounded like she is attempting to make their lives more difficult, and will return to Galley-La HQ to assassinate Iceburg. After much thinking, Luffy decides that they should return to the crime scene to find out what the truth about Nico Robin really is.

Luffy, Nami, Zoro and Chopper wait for Robin to arrive sitting on a tree branch while observing what is happening. Galley-La HQ is heavily guarded with carpenters, as Chopper watches through binoculars. Suddenly, chaos erupts within the building and Luffy escapes into the HQ. After getting stuck, he smashes into the third floor, getting stuck again, and seeing Paulie on the ground bleeding with two masked assailants in front of him. The two use a powerful kick called Rankyaku and subdue Luffy with metal hoops, and do the same with Paulie before taking off. As the two are trapped, Paulie admits a misunderstanding with Luffy and decides he needs his help to beat the assailants, who are really a team of secret agents known as Cipher Pol No. 9. Luffy uses his rubber ability to free himself and frees Paulie as well, after charging into the wrong room, Paulie shows him the right way, and he bursts through a wall, reuniting with the others, as Lucci, Kalifa, Blueno, and Kaku all now revealed to be CP9 members notice him, as well as Robin.

Luffy pleads with Robin to tell him whats going on, but she states she can't as she has darkness in her heart and prepares to escape. Luffy tries to go after her but is held back by Blueno who withstands his attacks using Tekkai, dodges them with his Kami-e, Soru and Geppou techniques, while Kaku and Kalifa both attack him with Rankyaku, slicing thorough the building. As Robin declares they will not see her again, and escapes through the window, despite the Straw Hats' plea, Luffy gives chase behind her, but Lucci grabs him by the head, preventing him from running after her, and resists his attacks with Tekkai, before throwing him to the side. He informs the Straw Hats that CP9 are secret agents dedicated to serving the World Government, and have trained their bodies from young ages to superhuman levels, and says for this reason they cannot compare to their strength. With the time set to burn the house down, Lucci decides to reveal his Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Leopard fruit, turning into a gigantic half-human, half leopard. Chopper tells the crew that out of the Zoan-type Devil Fruits, ones of carnivorous animals are the most bloodthristy, with Lucci reiterating that Zoan fruits are the greatest type for close combat. With the shipwrights arrivving to save Iceburg, Lucci uses his Rankyaku technique to slice the ceiling. Paulie puts Iceburg on his back and prepares to fight Lucci, but Luffy attacks him first, but Lucci defeats Luffy with a single Shigan piercing right through his abdomen, grabs his head and flings him out of the building.

Later, after Nami recovers and finds that Sanji managed to sneak aboard the Sea Train bound for Enies Lobby. She goes in search of Luffy in the old ruins of Water 7, with some help from Chimney, Nami finds Luffy wedged between two buildings. She calls him an idiot for messing around there, and goes on to tell the real reason Robin left (which Nami learned from Iceburg); That she left to save them from being targeted by the World Government, and give herself up to them. Upon hear hearing this, Luffy says he's glad to hear that and in a tremendous show of strength, pushes the buildings aside then jumps to Nami just as Aqua Laguna about to hit. The two along with Chopper and Zoro just barely avoid getting caught in the first wave though the second nearly catches them. Luckily they're rescued by Paulie and pulled to higher ground.

Route to Enies Lobby: Sea Train Chase
After recovering from nearly being drowned, Luffy asks for a boat to chase after Robin but Kokoro tells him its impossible due to the Aqua Laguna storm. However seeing that he is determined to rescue Robin no matter what, she leads him to a hidden area where a second prototype Sea Train is kept. Iceburg is already there, having anticipated what Luffy was going to do and readied the train for departure. Luffy stocks up on provisions before heading out but is confronted by the Franky Family who beg Luffy to take them along as their leader Franky was captured by the CP9 as well. Luffy agrees to let them come before boarding the Sea Train with the remaining Straw Hats and Kokoro and setting off. As they leave, the Franky Family hook their ship up to the train just as it about to connect to the tracks, which Kokoro reveals she won't be able to stop once that happens. Indeed the train grains tremendous speed once it hits the tracks but is enough to plow on through the storm. Later on it shown that more passengers, Chimney, her rabbit Gonbe, and the remnants of Galley-La (Paulie, Tilestone and Peeply Lulu) managed to stow away on the train as well. Once the latter learn the truth about CP9, Luffy forms an alliance with the Franky Family and Galley-La to defeat their common enemy.

After which Luffy mostly sits at the front of the train for most of the trip. At one point they come upon a wave that threatens to derail the train. Luffy and Zoro combine their attacks together to blow a hole through it to allow safe passage for everyone. Later on they come across a detached compartment from Puffing Tom (the first train) which was due to the actions of Franky, Sanji and Usopp (going by his Sogeking persona). Luffy slingshots himself onto it and checks to see if his friends are inside. But finding only Government agents, jumps back on board the Rocketman as Zoro cuts the compartment in half to allow the train to continue.

Soon the group pick up Sanji and Usopp after their failed attempt to rescue Robin and Franky. Luffy assures Sani they will rescue her then gushes after he meets Sogeking not realizing who he really is (everyone save for Chopper realize though). After which Enies Lobby is in sight and the last ditch rescue of Robin begins.

Enies Lobby: Taking It to the next Gear


When they reached the Enies Lobby, Luffy (before hearing any plans the others can come up with) rushes on ahead straight into Enies Lobby and begins a rampage across the island, taking out any Marines and Government agents in his path. Eventually he reaches the Courthouse of Justice where Blueno of the CP9 comes out to confront him. Unlike the battle on Water 7 however, Luffy is a completely different fighter. He is able to keep up and avoid most of Blueno's Rankyaku attacks and even manage to break through his Tekkai defense. After a pause during the battle Luffy reveals he is thankful for meeting the CP9 as he now learnt a few new techniques to keep his crew safe. He then reveals the new technique, which he calls Gear 2nd, a transformation that makes him invisible to the human eye and his attacks much more devastating. Blueno is eventually overwhelmed by Luffy's new power, leaving Luffy free to call out to Robin. These turn of events force the other CP9 members to come out and confront him. The Straw Hat captain is soon joined by his fellow crew and the group prepare to face off against the rest of CP9.

It is here the dramatic confrontation takes place and they learn of Robin's true situation. Luffy demands that he hear that Robin wishes to live from her own mouth, She declares that she does indeed want to live and with those words set the following events in motion. After declaring war on the world government by means of Luffy issuing the order for Sogeking (Usopp) to set fire to the World Governments flag, Luffy grabbed his crew and jumped together into the waiting Rocketman train below; Franky fell down, pushed by Spandam and fell together with the Straw Hats. Each of them started to search for the key to Robin's Seastone handcuffs which is in the possession of one of the CP9; Franky encountered Fukurou, Nami encountered Kumadori, Usopp challenges Jyabura, Sanji encounters Kalifa, and Kaku pairs off with Zoro, Chopper was relegated to searching only at that time. Franky won his battle, while Nami defeated Kalifa; Sanji was defeated because of his chivalry to "never kick a woman". Chopper saved Nami from being killed and defeated Kumadori after eating a third rumble ball and taking the form of "Monster Point". While Franky and Nami got their keys, they searched for Usopp and Zoro to uncuff them. (Usopp and Zoro had become comically connected by one of the Seastone handcuffs.) When Zoro and Kaku started their true "uncuffed" battle, Usopp was immediately defeated by Jyabura. When Jyabura was about to kill him, Sanji appeared from out of nowhere. He reveals that he was revived when a bathtub full of water fell down and washed him, effectively releasing him from Kalifa's trap. Sanji decides to challenge Jyabura, taking Usopp's place. Both Zoro and Sanji manage to defeat their opponents and take their keys. Using these keys they successfully release Robin and Luffy was the only one remaining to have yet defeated his opponent, Rob Lucci. They are all surrounded by Battleships because of the Buster Call which was accidentally declared on the island. When Luffy defeats Rob Lucci by using Gear Second, their main problem was how to escape the now destroyed island surrounded by battleships. This was solved when the Going Merry appears in the sea below them without a navigator.

After Enies Lobby
With the Going Merry, everyone has managed to escape Enies Lobby safely. However, after escaping, Iceburg arrives in a Galley-La just in time to pick up the Straw Hat Pirates as the Merry suddenly breaks apart. Luffy then gives the Going Merry a viking funeral by burning it as the crew tearfully says goodbye.

As everyone relaxes at Water 7, Franky decides to build a ship for the crew out of the special wood called Adam Wood. However, at that point, Marines led by Garp break into Iceburg's mansion, where everyone is staying, and punches the still-asleep Luffy to wake him up. At this point, Luffy reveals that Garp is his grandfather. Sanji reveals to the Straw Hats that Usopp is planning to rejoin the crew. While Luffy, Nami and Chopper want to join and invite him back, Zoro insists that Luffy should be a firm captain on his position, Usopp shouldn't return full of pride, and should return on their terms, not his. Zoro even threatened to leave the crew, if Usopp was allowed to rejoin without asking for forgiveness for his behavior. Luffy got the message, and agreed with Zoro's view of the situation.

With the help of the rest of the Franky Family, he is holding Franky's pants hostage as a bargaining chip to get him to join his crew. Franky simply poses naked and he says "I'm still a man naked". Meanwhile, Sanji comes running with Zoro to tell that Vice-Admiral Garp, has sailed on the opposite shore in attack position. Luffy then throws Franky's speedo back and tells him to sail with them. Franky then says he does want to see his dream ship. Franky then agrees to join.

In chapter 438, Luffy is trying to battle his grandfather with his new ship. At this moment Usopp tries to rejoin the crew, however because of Zoro's speech, he is ignored until he apologizes. During the struggle between Garp and the Straw Hats, Usopp finally apologizes and admits he wants to rejoin, and with that note, Luffy tearfully accepts him back into the crew.

Meeting Brook and Into the Belly of the Beast
After sailing for some time on the Thousand Sunny, Luffy and the rest of the crew came across a mysterious barrel floating on the ocean. Upon opening it, a flash shot up from it. After braving a storm that mysteriously came afterwards thanks to Nami and Franky, Luffy and the rest of the crew found themselves in the presence of a ghost ship.

Wanting to explore the ship, Luffy along with Sanji and Nami climbed aboard. There they met a skeleton named Brook whose being interested Luffy. Luffy then asked Brook to join his crew which in turn the skeleton accepted. Luffy then brought Brook back to Thousand Sunny to show to the rest of the crew, to their dismay; especially Usopp, who wore a lot of Anti-Spirit clothing and charms, and Zoro, who quickly scolded Nami and Sanji for not stopping him from doing this. Over dinner, Brook explained his past and later explained that he really can't join Luffy due to his current condition of having his shadow stolen.

Luffy really wanting to have Brook as a member, promised to get Brook's shadow back no matter what. This pleased Brook so much that the skeleton decided to perform before the crew with his violin as he was a musician. Just as Brook was about to perform before an even more determined Luffy and the rest of the crew after dinner, a ghost appeared and some clanking sounds were heard. These sounds were caused by the gates of the island that suddenly appeared, Thriller Bark, closing. These events prompted Brook to head to the island before Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats' eyes.

With Luffy's resolve to go to the island to get his long awaited musician and to explore the island, Franky and Robin decided to join him also. After witnessing Franky's present to the Straw Hats, Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats decided to look for Nami, Usopp, and Chopper who had not returned. However before Luffy and the rest could go to the island, they were stopped by an invisible thing. This thing tried to stab Luffy with one of Zoro's swords. Luckily, Franky kicked Luffy away before the sword found it's mark. The thing later left Luffy and the rest baffled.

Exploring Thriller Bark
After the Thousand Sunny got caught in what was apparently a spider web, Luffy and the rest descended to the island. There they met the Cerberus which Luffy thought of eating. Luffy decided to tame the beast seeing as it was a big dog. The creature bit Luffy and in retaliation slammed the creature to a nearby wall. After Luffy tamed the beast, Luffy and the rest met two more of the island's creatures. Luffy caught the "Geezer Tree" while Franky caught the unicorn. Luffy then tried to get the tree to join his crew. He was fortunately stopped by Zoro and Sanji.

Later as Sanji was scolding him for asking Luffy, Luffy and the rest then came across some ghosts which he tried to catch one. The ghost was unaffected and instead passed through Luffy and temporarily drained his will to go on. After Luffy and the rest who also affected by the ghosts recovered, they pressed forward. Luffy and the rest later met with some Zombies which Luffy mistook one for an old man with a big wound after he tried to shove it back into it's grave as it was climbing out. He and the rest defeated the zombies with a combo technique. Luffy then asked the zombies about his three friends that came by earlier. The zombies inadvertently revealed that they attack them earlier with one of them selling out the other. For this, Luffy and the rest shoved the zombies back into their graves head first.

The group then met with an actual real old man with a big wound who looked like a Zombie, Spoil. The old man asked them to defeat Gecko Moria who had stolen his shadow and the shadows of others like him. Robin then explained that Moria was a Shichibukai with a former bounty higher than Luffy. With plans to actually beat Moria, Luffy agreed to help the old man and the others who had their shadows stolen by the Shichibukai. As it began to rain, Luffy and the others discovered that Thriller Bark was a actually a ship. With determination, he and the others ventured into Moria's mansion.

Inside the mansion, Luffy and the others fought against the Zombies in the dining hall. One of them, a Bear's Skin Rug fascinated Luffy as he fought against it. Luffy was so fascinated with the bear that he commented that he would've liked to have it join his crew if only they weren't enemies. After the battle, he and the others noticed that Sanji was missing. With nothing else to do in the room, Luffy and the others decided to take Buhichuck, the leader of the Zombies in the room, along in order to have him guide them to the rest of their friends. As Luffy left the room, the Zombies told him to be scared of Moria's wrath for what Luffy and his friends did in the dining hall. Luffy in response, merely replied that he will "kick Moria's ass."

After walking awhile with Buhichuck as their hostage, Luffy, Robin, and Franky suddenly noticed that Zoro too was now missing. The situation was beginning to become suspicious. Later, Luffy found a suit of armor and decided to don it. Franky questioning Luffy, asked why he put it on. Luffy then explained to Franky that it is a man's romance to don armor even if he is made of steel. After a performance by Franky, the three came upon an arena like area. There, Luffy and Robin witnessed a bout between Franky and a General Zombie. After witnessing it for while, Luffy's group were suddenly trapped in the room by Buhichuck. There they were forced to fight a large group of General Zombies. In the middle of the battle, Luffy found himself face to face with General Zombie with three swords like Zoro. Before Luffy could get a clear answer from Jigorou, he was caught off guard by some Spider Mice Zombies. Luffy was then sealed in a coffin by the Spider Mice with their webbing and then sent to the main mast of Thriller Bark.

Luffy was then brought before Gecko Moria. While Luffy was able to escape for a bit by eating through the cage he was in, he was unfortunately subdued by some ghosts that were emitted by Perona. After being stripped off of his armor, Luffy had his shadow stolen by Moria through the use of powers of the Devil Fruit Moria ate, the Kage Kage no Mi. Upon being separated from his shadow, Luffy fell into a coma. With Luffy's shadow in Moria's hands, Moria decided to put in the 900th Zombie, Oz. Having his shadow finished being extracted, Luffy was then brought back to the Thousand Sunny by some Spider Mice.

Counter Attack against Moria
After being placed in the Thousand Sunny's kitchen along with Sanji and Zoro, Franky tried to wake them by hitting them in the head but failed but by their own stupidity Usopp woke them up by telling them that a hottie with a sword showed up with meat. Upon awakening, Luffy's first immediate thought was kicking Moria's butt. After calming down for abit, Luffy and the others briefed on what happened while he, Zoro, and Sanji were out. With Nami and three of their shadows taken, Luffy and the others planned to take them back. Luffy was then informed by Franky of Brook's relationship with Laboon. Ever more excited by this information, Luffy then decided that he will make Brook join their crew, even if he has to drag the skeleton onto the ship himself. With this, Luffy and his crew decided to take back from Moria what he stole from them and their friends.

With the determination to get everything back before dawn arrives, Luffy and his crew split into two teams. With part of his team headed to save Nami and himself headed to defeat Moria, Luffy's team purified several zombies with some salt from Usopp on their way to their goals. As they rampaged through and purified Moria's zombie hoard, Luffy and Sanji unfortunately got subdued by more of Perona's ghosts. Fortunately however, they were saved by the rest of the team before the zombies could get to them. Just as things were getting chaotic enough, Oz, the zombie with Luffy's shadow, came crashing into the part of the building Luffy's team was in and separated part of the building as well as part of Luffy's team. With only Robin and Chopper left with him, Luffy and the two decided to continue towards Moria, seeing that the others wouldn't be beaten so easily. As the three continued onwards, they were stopped in Moria's dance hall by Hogback and Cindry. Fortunately however, Robin and Chopper were able to hold those two off long enough for Luffy to slip pass them and continue onwards to Moria. After running through a long hallway and into the freezer that contained Oz's corpse, Luffy finally reached Moria.

Despite some negotiations with Moria, Luffy immediately started attacking Moria. However as soon as he through a punch, Luffy immediately found out it wasn't gonna be easy landing a direct hit on the Shichibukai as Moria could just simply use his own shadow, Doppelman, to fight in his stead. Undeterred by this seemingly invincible being, Luffy was still able to land a hit on Moria himself by attacking the Shichibukai from an indirect place. However despite using this tactic for some time, Luffy was still unable to land a direct clean hit on Moria. This continued until Oz came back to freezer and started obeying Moria's orders fully. With his zombie completely under Moria control, Luffy witnessed as Moria gave Oz his mission to completely annihilate all of the Straw Hats. With that order, Luffy dodged a attack from the zombie and started to chase after Moria, who had then decided to run away from the chaos that was to ensue.

As Luffy chased after Moria, he was led deep within the forest of Thriller Bark. However as Luffy was chasing Moria, the Shichibukai tricked Luffy into chasing Doppelman. Upon realizing what happened, Luffy was left stranded in the middle of forest. Seeing that dawn was fast approaching, Luffy immediately tried to find his way back to the Mast Mansion. However while running around lost in forest, Luffy encountered the group that the old man, Spoil, was head of, the Thriller Bark Victim's Association. With some convincing by members of the association, the Risky Bros. of the Rolling Pirates, Luffy was told that they knew a way to beat Moria.

Through some explanations by the Risky Bros.'s captain Lola, who tried to but failed to ask Luffy's hand in marriage, Luffy was told of the process of using captured shadows to power oneself up for ten minutes. With one hundred shadows  that the Thriller Bark Victim's Association had collected over the years, Luffy was implanted with them and became a vastly larger blue being that was dubbed "Nightmare Luffy". With his newfound strength and skills bestowed by the shadows, Luffy rushed off to Mast Masion, where, as he was also informed by Lola, was the site of a mammoth battle between Oz and Moria against his crew and Brook.

Arriving just in the nick of time to save both Nami and Usopp from Oz, Luffy immediately started battling against the zombie and overpowered him with some devastating attacks. In the midst of the brawl, Luffy was able to finally land a direct hit on Moria. As Luffy battled on, Luffy unleashed a powerful Gomu Gomu no Storm onto Oz so devastating that it not only inflicted huge wounds onto the zombie but also caused severe wounds onto Moria who was caught in the crossfire. With the execution of this one last move, Luffy's ten minute limit to stay in his Nightmare form was up. However, Luffy had inflicted so much damage onto Oz that the behemoth completely toppled over onto the Mast Mansion.

Though Luffy was exhausted by having so many shadows implanted within him, the battle was still not over. As if to dash the hopes of all of the victim whose shadows were stolen by Moria, Oz rose back up to continue battling on. Despite their wounds, Luffy, his crew, and Brook rose back up as well and started one last combined attack against the zombie. While the rest of his crew began to restrict Oz's movements, Luffy was brought to top of Thriller Bark with help from Brook's high jumps and Robin's ability. At the top, Luffy was then thrown down towards a restricted Oz. As Luffy fell, he activated Gear Third and landed a crippling blow to Oz, in the form of Gomu Gomu no Gigant Bazooka, which completely pulverized all of Oz's already battle worn bones thus rendering the zombie incapable of moving anymore.

With his last attack on Oz, Luffy thus rendered the behemoth incapable despite Luffy's strong will within him. However, while Oz was indeed finally defeated, Luffy and the other shadowless victims still had to overcome the original obstacle before them, getting Moria to return all of their shadows before the rising dawn incinerates them. This was a task made more urgent by the fact that not only was time was running out but due to some actions caused by Oz earlier, Thriller Bark was no longer covered by the dark fog of the Florian Triangle. As Luffy and the others decided to find a way to finally solve this problem, they were startled by one last sight. Despite also receiving the blunt of Luffy's attack while he was powered up by one hundred shadows, the cause of the entire nightmare that was Thriller Bark, Gecko Moria, rose back up.

Though Luffy and the others threatened Moria to give back their shadows else he be beaten up more, the Shichibukai instead replied to them with one horrifying move, Shadow's Asgard. With this, Luffy and the others witnessed Moria implant one thousand shadows from his zombie minions into himself and become a gigantic monstrosity. Despite Moria's transformation, time getting dangerously over before dawn, and all the fatigue and wounds from earlier however, Luffy readied himself to fight Moria one last time. As Luffy battled against Moria to the limit with Gear Second techniques that made Moria spew out some shadows, dawn was quickly approaching. Eventually, with time practically almost over, Luffy decided to stack his Gear transformations on top of one another in order to perform a reckless move, Gomu Gomu no Gigant Jet Shell, to use against Moria. As Luffy attacked Moria with this move and just as the first signs of dawn started to incinerate both Luffy and the others, Luffy asked his own shadow to come back to him if it wanted to become Pirate King. Then with one last use of Gomu Gomu no Gigant Jet Shell on Moria, Luffy was able to topple down both Moria and the Main Mast of Thriller Bark. With the latter falling on top of the former, Moria's hold on all of his stolen shadows was broken and he spewed out every last one of them out. With this, Luffy's shadow and all of the other shadows of those on Thriller Bark returned to their original just in time to save them just in time as dawn finally arrived.

Just escaping the Tyrant's Clutches and Finally getting a Musician
With everyone's shadows finally returned and Moria finally defeated, Luffy collapsed from all the fatigue and pain he experienced from the night beforehand. While things seemed finally over, the celebration was however cut short with the arrival of Bartholomew Kuma in the scene. The second Shichibukai, having seen and reported the whole event to the World Government, was ordered to take out Luffy as well eliminate everyone else on the island who witnessed Luffy's victory over Moria. A battle for an unconscious Luffy thus then ensued between the second Shichibukai and everyone else left standing willing to protect Luffy. As the battle went on, it became clear to the Straw Hats, the Thriller Bark Victim's Association, and Brook that Kuma was just as hard as Moria and they were no shape to battle another opponent of such caliber. Kuma however, instead of blindly following his orders to the letter, offered them a compromise, surrender Luffy and live or die from an attack he was preparing with his Devil Fruits powers of the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi. Despite faced with these choices, they all refused to surrender Luffy and received the full force of Kuma's attack.

The blast from Kuma's attack devastated most of what was left of Thriller Bark and left an unconscious Luffy with seemingly no one left to protect him from Kuma. Though all seemed lost, Zoro was able to withstand Kuma's attack and was able to protect Luffy with an attack on Kuma just in the nick of time. However, while Zoro's attack saved Luffy from being harmed, it didn't stop Kuma. Left with no other options, Zoro decided then to exchange his life for Luffy's in order to save him. This choice didn't sink well with Sanji, who also withstood the attack, and thus he too asked to sacrifice a life in exchange for Luffy's safety, only his instead of Zoro's. Despite this little scabble between Zoro and Sanji, which ended with Zoro being the one to sacrifice his life, Kuma was impressed by their loyalty to Luffy and decided to comply. Using his Devil Fruit powers, Kuma pushed out all of the intangible pain and fatigue out of Luffy's body that was accumulated from the night before, and offered them to Zoro in the shape of a giant pawprint. With this, Kuma thus explained to Zoro that this was how he could exchange his life for Luffy's. Zoro would take all the pain that Luffy felt from before by touching it while Luffy would on the other hand be cured from it. With Zoro accepting these terms, Luffy was thus saved from Kuma by Zoro despite the incredible risk of dying from the process.

After Kuma left and a day of rest went by, an energetic Luffy decided to celebrate their victory with everyone. As party went on, Luffy noticed Brook playing a familiar song on a piano. Remembering that this was a song that Shanks and his crew used to sing all the time, Luffy got into a conversation with Brook. As Brook played and the conversation went on, Luffy once again asked Brook to join his crew. Brook once again, turned down Luffy's offer since the skeleton had still some things to do. Knowing what he was talking about, Luffy revealed to Brook that not only did he learn about the skeleton's relationship with Laboon, but also told him that Laboon was alive and well. Having told Brook this, Luffy touched Brook's heart and made the skeleton burst into tears of joy.

As the party got more joyous with Brook bringing out a Tone Dial with the last musical performance of the Rumbar Pirates on it, Luffy was asked by Brook if he could join his crew. For this, Luffy casually agreed, much to the shock to most of his crew. With this very casual acceptance, Luffy finally got the musician he so longed for since his journey as a pirate began.

An Old Nemesis and the Man in the Iron Mask
After sailing off from Thriller Bark and encountering several more phenomenon of the Grand Line, Luffy and his crew finally reached the Red Line again and the location directly above Fishman Island. Deciding to look for the island, Luffy, along with Robin and Brook, took the Shark Submerge to investigate the depths below. However due to the submarine's limits, they couldn't dive deeper than five thousand meters. As they decided to resurface, a giant sea rabbit followed them up to the surface. Luffy however made short work of the beast as he punched it away. As he punched the beast, two figures were spat out of it and onto the deck of the Thousand Sunny. To Luffy's and everyone else's amazement, the two figures were a mermaid, Keimi, and a talking starfish, Pappag.

Thankful for having being saved, Keimi decided to reward Luffy and his crew with some Takoyaki. However before Luffy and his crew could get their reward, they then suddenly learned that Keimi's friend who provides the Takoyaki had been kidnapped by the Macro Fishman Pirates with help from the Flying Fish Riders. He, "Hachin", was then being held in the Flying Fish Riders base five kilometers east of Grove 44 of the Sabaody Archipelago. Seeing that in order to get their reward of Takoyaki Keimi's friend has to be rescued, Luffy gladly accepted to help rescue her friend. Luffy jumped to Keimi's aid by this reasoning despite a more practical request by Nami that Keimi would led the crew to Fishman Island if they helped.

After following an arrow made by Keimi's fish friends leading to the Flying Fish Riders' base, Luffy and his crew found themselves under attack from the Flying Fish Riders. Despite this attack, the Riders however retreated under orders from their boss, Duval, upon recognizing a certain person amongst Luffy's crew. After this attack, Luffy and his crew continued towards the base with Luffy all the while amazed by the Flying Fish Rider's steads. Upon reaching the Flying Fish Riders' base, Luffy and crew found out that it was a floating town of sorts. As they entered the place, they found the place to be completely empty except for a suspended cage in the middle containing Keimi's friend, "Hachin". Though he was completely covered in ink in a sad attempt to fool the Straw Hats from recognizing him, Keimi's friend was revealed, to Luffy and his crew to be Hatchan through some clever questioning by Sanji. Realizing that the one he agreed to save was actually a former member of Arlong's crew, Luffy was slightly torn between not rescuing him due to past crimes, and rescuing him for some Takoyaki. Hatchan's past crimes also affected the rest of Luffy's crew's judgment that Keimi and Pappag decided to rescue Hatchan by themselves and in the process got themselves captured by Macro and his crew. Seeing those two captured and despite the dilemma, Luffy and his crew decided to save them and Hatchan for a way to Fishman Island and some Takoyaki. With a leap from the Thousand Sunny to the deck of the floating town, Luffy rescued both Keimi and Pappag with outstretched hands as well as told Zoro to free Hatchan. Upon landing, Luffy and his crew readied themselves for the fight against the incoming Flying Fish Riders. Upon facing them, their leader, Duval reveals why he held such a long-held grudge against the Straw Hats: His face looks remarkably like Sanji's ugly wanted poster. First, Duval attempted drowning Sanji by ordering his men into throwing an iron net. Luffy and Zoro attempt to rescue him,Hatchan says he'll save him as he is a Fishman, but Duval warns that Sanji will sink too fast for their attempts. Keimi later rescues Sanji, giving him a nosebleed. Duval attempts to sink the Thousand Sunny, but Franky and Usopp activated its latest weapon: the "Gaon Cannon", obliterating the Flying Fish Riders' base. Duval finally tried charging his bison, Motobaro but Luffy's "aura" calmed the beast down, like Shanks did to the Sea King ten years earlier. Sanji finally reached the surface and gave a Parrage Shot on Duval's face destroying the one thing he can't stand: The face his horrible wanted poster. The kick made Duval very handsome, and his feeling towards the Straw Hats, specifically Sanji, changed from bitter to joyful. He thanked them and promised to be an aid to them whenever needed by givng his number on the Den Den Mushi before setting off to return to his country life.

On the Yarukiman Mangrove
On their further journeys through the Sabaody Archipelago. The Straw Hats meet Shakuyaku aka Shakky in her bar. She said she had quit being a pirate fourty years ago and Luffy asked her how old is she. She then warns the Straw Hats of nine other pirates that are on the island as well as the Straw Hats. Shakuyaku tells the Straw Hats that Luffy, as well as Zoro, along with the other pirates are the Eleven Supernovas: rookie pirates worth more than 100,000,000. Keimi is then kidnapped and Sanji calls the Flying Fish Raiders for help. After they arrive and meet up with the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates they start looking for Keimi. Meanwhile Keimi is being mistreated by Disco, the manager of the slave auction, "Silvers" Rayleigh helps her in a way and is revealed to be Gol D. Roger's first mate.

An Incident Occurs
Luffy breaks into the auction house in an attempt to free Keimi, Hatchan is shot by Saint Charloss, causing a furious Luffy to punch him in the face. After several guards appear which the rest of the Straw Hats defeat but Saint Shalulia tries to kill Keimi while they were fighting but was stopped by Silvers Rayleigh who proceeds to knock out all the guards with a burst of spirit energy and claiming that he's been waiting to meet Luffy. In all the pandemonium, while Eustass Kid doesn't like the idea of facing a Marine Admiral, Luffy and Trafalgar Law insist they move forward to the challenge as they move further. Along with the two other captains, Luffy was the first to demonstrate his Devil Fruit Abilities to repel the incoming cannonballs fired at them by the marine's mortars. He later activates Gear Third to summon up a massive left arm while Kid uses his own powers to create a massive right arm of his own after drawing in all the metallic weapons within the vicinity while Law causes more havoc using his own powers to switch the marine's body parts with each other. Together, the three captains ultimately brought down the opposing formation. With the three Supernovas finally clearing the way, Kid vows to meet Luffy at the New World but as rivals, instead of allies. Luffy accepts saying he's going to be the Pirate King, Kid replies that it's an odd and laughable ambition in this day and age, but he's never allowed to anyone to laugh at himself and get away with it. The Kid and Heart Pirates depart, while Duval's Rosy Life Riders meet up with the Straw Hats to make a getaway.

A Story of the Pirate King from the Legendary First Mate
Duval and his crew take the Straw Hats back to Shakky's Rip Off Bar to rest and find out more about Silvers Rayleigh. As they arrive Shakuyaku is shocked to find Hatchan wounded, and takes him inside to recover. As Silvers Rayleigh explained, Hatchan knows him so well because at one point 20 years ago, he was shipwrecked in the ocean until Hatchan saved his life when he was just a kid, and have been good friends ever since, even up to when he joined Jimbei's crew.

Rayleigh then revealed to Straw Hats that he was Gold Roger's first mate. When Sanji questioned why he wasn't executed, Rayleigh explained that the group was never captured. Rather, Roger gave himself up. Roger contracted an incurable illness, and with the help of Crocus (whom Brook recognizes), he fought off the illness for four years, while finally conquering the Grand Line, gaining the title "Pirate King". In three of those years, the Gold Roger Pirates disbanded, with its members never heard from again, and in his final year gave himself up to the Marines. Amazingly, he told Rayleigh on last meeting him he isn't going to die. The Marines claimed to have captured him, and used his public execution in his home town as a warning to all pirates. However, Roger's last words started the very "Great Pirate Age". Although Rayleigh never saw Roger's execution, he knew Shanks and Buggy, two former members of Roger's crew were present.

Rayleigh got to know of Luffy when Shanks reunited with him explaining how he lost his left arm, and told him of Luffy's remarkable personality. Rayleigh congratulates Luffy and his crew for finishing the first half of the Grand Line, and says that Shanks is waiting for him in the New World. Luffy is excited at the idea of meeting Shanks again, as Rayleigh agrees to coat the Thousand Sunny, and even with no charge to the crew. However, since Rayleigh had experienced the end of the Grand Line, Robin and Usopp asked about secrets at the end of the Grand Line, the latter asking of considerable importance to many pirates: the location of One Piece. Luffy admonished Usopp for asking that question, saying until he's not sure if there even is treasure there, and wants to find out for himself. As many risked their lives searching for One Piece, it wouldn't be fair if Rayleigh revealed where it is. He also threatened to quit pirating if any of his crew asked Rayleigh where One Piece is, not wanting a boring adventure.

Rayleigh asked if he was sure he doesn't want to know, due to the New World being beyond his imagination, and incredibly strong rivals there, and asked if he wanted to conquer the Grand Line. Luffy replied he had no wish no conquer the Grand Line, but believes the person with the most freedom in the sea is the Pirate King. Unfortunately, Rayleigh will take three days at least to coat the ship, and with an Admiral currently on the archipelago, Rayleigh will move the ship as the Straw Hats plan to split up, and will rejoin at Rayleigh's location, and with the Biblicard they'll be able to find him. As the Straw Hats say their goodbyes to, Shakky, Hatchan, Keimi and Pappug, they are about to split up but are confronted an unknown figure.

Nakama Lost In Front Of His Eyes
This figure turned out to be the Shichibukai Bartholomew Kuma. As Luffy was unconscious during his Thriller Bark, the other members warned him that he was immensely strong, and of his ability. However, he demonstrated was wasn't only able to shoot "paw prints" out of his hands and shot a laser beam. Luffy was fascinated by this. Despite the danger, the Straw Hats were confident about being able to defeat him, as while they were exhausted when they first faced him, they were now at full strength. Luffy realizes the strength of his opponent and activates Gear Second. The battle continues between the Straw Hats and Kuma, as the cyborg continues to blast beams out of his hands and mouth. However, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji make a successful counter-attack as they give Kuma a combo named Gomu Gomu no Diable Mouton Jet 600 Pound Hou. While "Kuma" is successfully repelled, Zoro points out it may not be the real Kuma as thus far he hasn't demonstrated any of his Nikyu Nikyu no Mi abilities. However, this presented a problem, as it means there's one or several more clones on par with the real Kuma.

The Straw Hats, after a fierce battle, manage to severely damage the Pacifista when Usopp fires gunpowder into its mouth. After then the Straw Hats deliver powerful attacks to weaken the Kuma clone in its weak spots and when its wide open. To deliver the final blow, Luffy activates Gear Third and uses Gomu Gomu no Gigant Rifle to finish off the Pacifista.

After the fight, Luffy shrank to chibi size due to the side effect of using Gear Third as the rest of his crew contemplate having such a powerful opponent so early in their three-day period. Luffy returned to normal and as soon as as they caught their breath, a warrior with a broadaxe named Sentōmaru appeared with yet another Pacifista, referring to the defeated cyborg as "PX-4". Worn out and with another Pacifista appearing, The Straw Hats decide to separate and go in different teams to escape them and Luffy ordered them to meet up at the Thousand Sunny's location in three days. However, Sentōmaru then ordered Pacifista "PX-1" to stop the escaping pirates and the cyborg caught up to Robin's group. While Luffy grew worried about his nakama from the Pacifista's attack, Sentōmaru confronted the captain as he was escaping and successfully countered his Gomu Gomu no Gatling attack. He also revealed he is not a Devil Fruit user. To make things worse, Sentōmaru's superior, Admiral Kizaru finally appeared and attacked Zoro. With no-one able to stop him from finishing the already worn-out Zoro off, Silvers Rayleigh finally appears and successfully counters Kizaru's light-blasting kick warning him not to interfere with the "new era" of the Straw Hats. He thanks Silvers and orders everyone to escape but he is repelled again by Sentōmaru and Chopper is forced to transform into his Monster Point form, going on a rampage. Luckily Robin manages to carry him away in time. However, Zoro wasn't so lucky as the real Bartholomew Kuma made his appearance and teleported him to another location. After Zoro's disappearance Luffy orders the crew to escape but all of the crew, one by one, was teleported to different and unknown locations by Kuma. Luffy desperate for being unable to help any of his nakama is the last to be teleported by Kuma and with his disappearance the Straw Hats were defeated.

Adventures on the Isle of Women
Luffy is next seen flying through the sky, over the sea, cursing Kuma. He falls asleep while still flying, and after flying for at least one day and night, ends up landing on an unknown island, protected on landing by a paw print. Upon waking up he remembers Rayleigh's biblicard, and follows its directions, before dropping down from hunger. Luffy in his hunger eats a wild boar, and several mushrooms, one of which causes mushrooms to start growing all over his body. He is found and saved by a tribe of amazon women, who while washing him in a river, to treat his wounds, are shocked when their elder points out Luffy is actually a man. When Luffy finally awakens, he is completely naked, in a prison cell, which is surrounded by curious women. He realizes he is missing his straw hat first, and snatches it back from Sweet Pea, before realizing he is completely naked. Having not seen a man before, the women believe that all men are like Luffy from seeing his ability to stretch and being generally slow. In addition, the women notice the physical differences between men and women, which Luffy explains is his personal "treasure". Margaret gives him some new clothes they made to match his old ones, but these ones have flowery frills. After an angry out burst about his frilly clothes, the warriors prepare to attack him, simply for being a man. Luffy quickly escapes the prison cell, just wanting to find his nakama.

He then grabs Margaret, and jumps out and over the mountain walls surrounding the village, using his Gomu Gomu no Fuusen technique to land safely. Margaret is distrusting of him at first but she gives him back his biblicard, and just can't control her curiosity, so they talk, and Luffy tells her he is a pirate. She already knows about pirates since their leader, Hebihime, better known as Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, is also a powerful and beautiful pirate.

Luffy gets Margaret to remove the flowery frills from his new clothes and vows that if his nakama are still alive, they will get stronger and eventually defeat everyone who's against them. He begins his efforts at getting stronger by trying to run all the way back to Sabaody Archipelago on his hands, giving up after realizing he needs a boat. Margaret tells him they are in the Calm Belt so the islanders have no boats. Luffy then attempts to build his own raft so he can row back to Sabaody. It quickly falls to pieces and Margaret has to save him. She decides she can't continue being nice to him or she will get attached, so she attempts to kill him with arrows imbued with "haki" making them very powerful. Some of the other Kuja find them so Luffy begins to run away again.

Later, after shaking off the Kuja chasing him, Luffy decides to see the person in charge of the Kuja, and determined that she would be living in the biggest building since she was the leader. However, thinking too much about it made him feel uneasy, so he simply jumped off the wall he was on, which made him land right in the bath where Boa Hancock was taking her bath. He noticed what was supposedly a pair of gorgon eyes on her back, and seemed to recognize them from somewhere.

Meeting the Snake Princess And Dueling In The Battle Arena
After Luffy sees Boa Hancock in the bath, she tries to turn him into stone. This doesn't work because Luffy is very simple minded and pure of intention and doesn't notice her beauty (although Sandersonia believed that his fear of death is blocking the dirty thoughts from turning him to stone). Luffy is then later captured to be executed, Margaret and the other Kuja pirates who brought Luffy to the village tried to save him, but Boa Hancock turns them all into stone. A black panther called Bacura is the executioner of the Kuja pirates and is sent to kill Luffy. To the surprise of the Kuja pirates, Luffy defeats Bacura with a single hit. Luffy is angered because of the fact the Kuja pirates were not offended by Boa Hancock turning their nakama into stone. Boa Hancock claims that everyone forgive her because of her beauty, but Luffy ignores this, telling Hancock that she pisses him off. Caught aghast by this remark, Boa Hancock orders her sisters to kill Luffy. Sandersonia and Marigold transform into hybrid snake-women, and begin what the Kuja call "The Saragi Dance" (Snakepit Dance).

Some of the Kuja speak of their snake forms being caused by defeating the gorgon and Luffy is confused because they are obviously devil fruit powers. Sandersonia ate the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Anaconda and Marigold ate the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: King Cobra. The Kuja begin to chant "EXECUTION" and Hancock states Luffy's crimes and sentences him to death. Luffy moves the Kuja that were turned to stone out of harms way and gets ready to fight. Luffy dodges attacks from Marigold and barely avoids the deadly venom she spits out. He hits her with a Gomu Gomu no Stamp but it ricochets off her with no damage taken. Luffy is hit and it hurts which normally shouldn't happen because he's rubber. Sandersonia grabs him and explains that he's weak because he doesn't use haki. She reads all of Luffy's moves, dodging them all. Marigold strikes him and he nearly falls onto spikes that surround the battlefield. Sandersonia grabs Margaret and as she is about to smash her into the ground, in anger, Luffy (unknowingly) releases his haki and stops her as well as knocking out several of the crowd. Some Kuja state he has the haki of the chosen ones: "Haoushoku" or the King's Disposition. One in a million people have it and Hancock has it, too, although she notes that Luffy hasn't mastered it. Luffy prepares to finish the fight as seemingly begins activating one of his Gears.

Luffy activates Gear Second and prepared to attack the Gorgon Sisters who initially seemed afraid, but psyched each other up. Sandersonia attacks Luffy with Hebigami-Tsuki Yamata no Orochi (Snake-Hair Possession). Although Sandersonia can read his every move using haki, she couldn't keep up with Luffy's speed and therefore couldn't lay a single hit on him. Luffy grabs and slams Sandersonia to her younger sister's surprise. Luffy prepares to attack Marigold who believes that his attack would be useless because she can use haki to deflect it, but Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka knocked Marigold off the stairs. After both sisters have been knocked down by Luffy, everyone else is surprised. Boa Hancock calls on her sisters, who apologize and begin a new attack. Both sisters surrounded Luffy and were about to end the battle, with the Kuja rejoicing. Using his Gomu Gomu no Jet Gatling technique, Luffy was able to knock both sisters down once again. Luffy also ties the tails of both sisters together, and Marigold already in flames burns Sandersonia clothes. As Luffy celebrates his victory, Sandersonia almost falls in the spike pit. Luffy jumps onto Sandersonia's back to cover the gorgon eyes, although the Kuja mistake this as attempting a final blow. Sandersonia orders Marigold to attack Luffy, who tells her that the young man is protecting them from the gorgon eyes. Boa Hancock orders everyone to evacuate the Battle Arena, due to the gorgon eyes being revealed. Sandersonia questions Luffy's character, because he is helping them although they were enemies just a second ago. Luffy answers that their fight has nothing do with the reason why the gorgon eyes are hidden. As the Kuja are ordered to evacuate by their Empress, Boa Hancock begins to cry to herself.

Befriending a Shichibukai, and Leaving the Isle of Women
With her two sisters defeated, Luffy asks Hancock if he has to fight her next, to which she declines. Luffy also asks her if Margaret, Sweet Pea and Aphelandra can be turned to normal, and Hancock confirms she can. However, she "tests" Luffy by making him choose allowance for him to safely leave the island, or for the three amazons to be reverted to normal. To Hancock's surprise, Luffy was delighted at the prospect they could be turned to normal, not even considering his own situation and even willingly bowing his head in gratitude. As Luffy passed her "test", Margaret, Sweet Pea and Alephandra were reverted to flesh and blood, to Luffy's joy and reunited with the rest of the Kuja warriors outside the arena. Surprisingly, Luffy was invited to Boa Hancock's palace, in which her, Marigold and Sandersonia were in his debt for hiding the cursed mark from the Kuja. Luffy noted that it looks similar to Hatchan's tattoo, as Elder Nyon entered the palace (to Hancock's dismay) demanding that the three sisters reveal the true reason why that mark is a secret. Nyon recognizes who Luffy is, and what the had done to the Tenryuubito three days prior. Luffy further iterated that he attacked a Tenryuubito and from seeing what one did to his friend, he isn't remorseful in any way. Absolutely shaken at what she just heard, Hancock decides to tell Luffy everything. It turns out the mark is not that from a gorgon, rather a tattoo marking signifying a slave of the Tenryuubito.

Several years prior, Boa Hancock and her sisters were captured and sold into slavery, experiencing unspeakable abuse and torture by their hands, until a Fishman named Fisher Tiger climbed through the Red Line into Mariejois itself where the Tenryuubito reside, freeing all slaves regardless of race and causing great destruction to the town. The Fishmen who were enslaved were taken in, and although he couldn't remove the mark of slavery, he re-branded it into a symbol of the sun, forming the Sunny Pirates, with him as their captain. It was also explained that Hatchan may not have been a slave, but he was certainly a member of the Sunny Pirates. Hancock also explained for entertainment, she, Marigold and Sandersonia were fed the Mero Mero no Mi, the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: King Cobra, and the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Anaconda respectively, and fabricated the story of how they received their powers and what their mark entails. The memories themselves were so painful that Hancock and her sisters' broke into tears showing sides of them that have been buried for years, as Nyon noted. After she revealed the story of her tattoo to Luffy, Boa Hancock asked if he finds her shameful, but Luffy replied he already hates the Tenryuubito, which pleases Hancock and now she decides to aid Luffy by allowing him to use her ship.

That evening, Margaret saves Luffy from unwanted and increasingly harassing attention from the over-enthusiastic Kuja and is taken to the home of Nyon to lie low until the morning. While the three talk, Nyon informs Luffy that Hancock is one of the Shichibukai and that the Government is bracing for battle with Whitebeard as Portgas D. Ace's execution date is drawing near. Shocked at learning this, Luffy tells the elder that Ace is his elder brother, and pulls out Ace's Biblicard to discover that it is almost burnt away. After some deliberation he makes the painful decision to forgo reuniting with his crew just yet in favor of trying to rescue Ace. Though Nyon insists that there's nothing that he'll be able to do, she reluctantly tells him that while it will take a normal ship a week to reach Impel Down, a Marine ship can take a shortcut to cut the time down to only four days. When he goes to Hancock to ask for her to accept Vice Admiral Momonga's Shichibukai summons, he learns that she has been struck by a seemingly fatal malady known as 'love sickness' apparently stemming from a crush on Luffy. Nevertheless, she agrees. The following morning, Luffy gives his farewells to the Kuja tribe as he embarks his travel to "The Great Gaol": Impel Down. His goodbyes are addressed some specifically to Margaret, Sweet Pea and Aphelandra, promising to return one day with his crew with him. Margaret replies that if they have anything like Luffy's character, then they are looking forward to that day.

Traveling to and Arriving at the World Government's Greatest Prison, Impel Down
As Boa Hancock came on board, hundreds of women demonstrated their admiration of her beauty, and yet when she saw Luffy on her ship, her own infatuation for him, made her blush and not look at his eyes directly, showing shyness. As the two left, Marigold and Sandersonia were left in charge of the island in Hancock's absence, as her ship met that of Vice-Admiral Momonga's Marine ship. Hancock requests she is taken to Impel Down to the Vice-Admiral, and at his wishes, she reverts the petrification placed on the Marine sailors during their first meeting, before Momonga complies. Luffy is shown to be stowing away on the Marine ship by hiding under the large robe Hancock is wearing. On the ship, Hancock makes seemingly outrageous demands to the Marines, such as 100kg of food a meal, for five meals a day, and threatens the Marines to turn them into stone again if they do not comply. When the food is taken in to the room she's staying in, it is shown it is simply needed to feed Luffy. Hancock also forbids anyone from peeking into her room (lest they find Luffy). Hancock daydreams about a relationship between her and Luffy, and when the later has finished his meal, he makes a loud outburst about how good the food was, Hancock fools the suspicious Marines by (embarrassingly) claiming it was her as she brings the tray out. Luffy is later shown looking at what's left of Ace's biblicard as he gets ever closer to Impel Down. When Luffy arrives at Impel Down he hides under Hancock's robe once more. However, Hancock warns him that she will be searched. Luffy merely tells her to press on, saying he'll think of something when the time comes.

On the Loose
Luffy has managed to sneak into Impel Down by hiding under Hancock's robe. Before Hancock receives a full-body check by the Vice Jail Head, Domino, Hancock immediately petrifies her and the vigilant snail (snail is like a security camera). Luffy comes out from under the robe after realizing that it's safe, but Hancock explains that she cannot accompany him further into the prison. She begs him to promise not to make a ruckus inside Impel Down because it will be nearly impossible to save Ace and escape as is, without alerting security. Luffy promises her and calls her by name, "Hancock". Hancock is shocked and nearly faints. Luffy then climbs up to the ceiling and prepares to leave after the room is opened by Impel Down's Vice-Chief Hannyabal for Hancock to leave. After the check up, Hancock is accompanied by Vice-Admiral Momonga along with Hannyabal and Domino to an elevator. Hancock prays for Luffy's success. Luffy decides to say thanks by using lip sync, but Hancock mistakes his "thank you" (Arigatou) as "I love you" (Ashiteru) and faints from thinking that Luffy actually loves her. Meanwhile, Luffy navigates his way through Impel Down by following Ace's biblicard and going through any open doors. After he enter Level 1 of the prison (Ace is on Level 6, further down), he sees a prisoner running from monsters that appear to have no face - the Blue Glory - and the prisoner is sliced in half by their large axes. When the prisoner continues to run and come back together, Luffy realizes it's Buggy. They yell at each other over petty and insignificant stuff, but after Luffy concludes there is no way for them to escape in their current location, Buggy agrees to fight with Luffy at least so they can escape, and they retaliate by punching with their respective Gomu Gomu and Bara Bara abilities.

Luffy manages to defeat all of the guards in an instant, much to Buggy's surprise as his special combo didn't even faze it. Buggy explained to Luffy that he met Ace, and he was his drinking buddy, and he himself was upset when the news of Ace's capture got to him. Buggy also said he finds Ace more tolerable than Luffy. After hearing Luffy wants to go to Level 5 where Ace is kept, Buggy initially decides to leave him and escape until hearing Luffy tells him about the battleships outside, he decides to stay. Buggy suddenly spots the arm band that Luffy is wearing and immediately identified it as the map to Captain John's treasure. Although Luffy insists he goes to Level 5, Buggy states he has to go down each level, which houses more dangerous criminals the lower they go. Buggy explains that he himself has only reached Level 4. He also heard of a rumor of lower level than Level 5 where they keep the most terrible monsters hidden from history, but mentions it should be simply a rumor. He makes a deal with Luffy, he will escort him to Level 4 of Impel Down but in return, Luffy has to give him the treasure. Without hesitation, Luffy agrees and even decides to give him the arm band in advance for helping him. Buggy feels guilty for lying to Luffy but nonetheless, decides to escape from Luffy but crashes into the Prisoner's room and towards the Crimson Hell. Luffy grabs hold onto Buggy as they fall. Luffy throws Buggy's feet into the ground as told and they fly towards a giant hole. Buggy explains that the hole leads to Level 2. Luffy immediately jumps down and heads towards Level 2.

Upon reaching Level 2, Luffy and Buggy (who fell into the hole as well) are chased by a giant monster chicken called a Basilisk. Finally, Luffy gets fed up and activates Gear Third to defeats the Basilisk and the other guards chasing them. Buggy decides to relase the prisoners to start a riot inside, and told Luffy that he lied about knowing where the other floors are to make an escape, angering Luffy. However, when the prisoners shut themselves back into their cells, for fear of encountering the boss of the floor, Buggy then say's he'll show Luffy to Level 3, infuriating Luffy even more because of his prior statement. Luffy also finds out that one of the prisoners released is Mr. 3. Luffy, Buggy and Mr. 3 are defeating and been chased by the bizarre wild beasts of "Level 2", before confronting the Sphinx. Buggy and Mr. 3 knowing that there's a staircase plan to ditch Luffy as he goes down "Level 3", while they go up to escape. However, Luffy jumps up and gives a Sphinx a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka, which only serves to infuriate it, and Luffy climbs on top of its head and places himself between the Sphinx's hair. The Sphinx tries to attack Mr. 3 but is easily confused by his wax statues of himself (despite them not being painted by Miss Goldenweek) and tries to smash them with his paw. Both Buggy and Mr. 3 try to reach for the staircase, but one sweep from the Sphinx was so powerful that it smashed through the floor, making it, Luffy, Buggy and Mr. 3 collapse through to Level 3.

After falling to Level 3 Luffy is told by Buggy that they're in the "Starvation Hell". With the Sphinx knocked out, Luffy wants to head to Level 4, but he and Buggy, who wants to get out of Impel Down, argue about where to go. Before they can seperate though, a net made of steel reinforced with Seastone captures Luffy, Buggy, and Mr. 3. The guard and commander of the Blue Goris: Saldeath walks up and claims there's no escape, and they should be glad they were captured by him as where they to continue to Level 4, they will face the Demon Guards. However, the Sphinx wakes up and breaks the net. Luffy looks up to see Buggy and Mr 3 climbed to the rafters as they tell him that they're betraying him. Luffy however merely thanks them for taking him so far, much to Buggy and Mr 3's shock. Luffy then begins to beat up several Blue Goris and guards in his way as he heads to Level 4. As Luffy continues to head on, the Sphinx is still chasing him, but a man in a prison outfit looking like Zoro kicks the Sphinx off Luffy. It turns out to be Mr. 2 Bon Clay, and they are both pleased to see each other. They team up to beat up the Sphinx and Saldeath orders a large number of Blue Goris fo capture them.

Bon Clay tells Luffy he knows he wants to head to Level 5 and decides to team up with Luffy to help him get there, as there is someone Bon Clay would like to see as well. After defeating the army of Blue Goris, Mr. 2 and Luffy meet a Minotaur, the demon guard Minotaur gives two a good fight, almost killing Mr. 2, until Luffy goes into Gear Second and his Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka, knocking him out. They then climb up a wall and are literally standing above Level 4. Mr. 2 Bon Clay warns Luffy that Level 4 is the "Blazing Hell", and on the lower parts of the floor, is a vat of boiling blood and blazing fire, so they must be careful they don't land in the wrong spot. However they meet up with Mr. 3 and Buggy who are being chased by the same demon guard which was sent flying and coincidentally landed on them while they were hiding. The four decide to team up together and Buggy starts off by throwing an upgraded miniature Buggy Ball (or Muggy Ball as he now calls it) at the minotaur and Mr. 2 gives it a powerful twirling kick named Fuyu Sora no Memoir. Finally, Luffy gets Mr. 3 to wax over his arm to make a candle for the short time it takes to deliver the finishing blow. Luffy fires the Gomu Gomu no Tonkachi Rifle finally knocking it out. The four celebrate as they make their way to Level 4.

The four of them fall through to Level 4 because the floor collapsed beneath them thanks to their fight with the Minotaur. At first they did not notice it but soon they came to realize about the danger of falling into the boiling pot. However, the falling debris allowed them to jump off it before they landed in the boiling pot. Luffy begins charging at a random direction. As soon as he smells food he runs towards the kitchen on Level 4, knowing that his strength increases a lot once he has eaten something. On the way he takes out a large amount of guards using Gomu Gomu no Hanabi, when he charges, he notices a blob of poison, as Chief Warden Magellan leaps towards the group and confronts them to deal with them personally. Mr. 2 Bon Clay warns him that the man that is in front of them is Chief Warden Magellan, who has eaten the Doku Doku no Mi, and thus his entire body is poison. Magellan tells Luffy he knows he broke within Impel Down to rescue Portgas D. Ace, and demands to know exactly how he did this.

Thinking of Hancock, Luffy refuses to tell him anything, Magellan explains that if they were to keep going to Level 5, the Demon Guards would be waiting for them, and immediately starts the battle off by using his Hydra technique. As Luffy dodges the dragon-shaped poison and witnesses what it does when his own guards get caught in it, Bon Clay explains that the Hydra is made of a paralyzing poison which corrodes the body until the person dies. Luffy manages to swing across a ledge with fire below and melts one of the Hydra heads. Magellan fires a poison bubble from his mouth he calls Chloro Ball, giving off CS gas, then uses his Silk Road technique to create a road of poison (using his Hydra as a sort of jet stream) to get into range of Luffy. He then detaches his horns to try and stab Luffy with them, but he dodges them in time. The horns are so corrosive they melt through the wall. Luffy then kicks Magellan's hand away, and delivers Gomu Gomu no Stamp to the wall, knocking him back on to floor below. Magellan asks him how long is he going to keep this up before he defeats him, but Luffy activates Gear Second, and explains that there's no way he's going to die before finding Ace, and if the fact that Magellan's body is poison, so he can't touch is going to make him lose, then he better use his hands to score at least one hit than let Ace suffer the ultimate price for his failure, and delivers a Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka to Magellan, as he starts to feel the poison.

Current Events
Despite Luffy's determination and managing to give Magellan a few good hits, the warden covers the whole room with a poisonous cloud, weakening Luffy's senses and slowly enveloping him with poison. Luffy tries to remove the poison with fire, but he finds it too hot as he rolls on the ground, where Magellan sees an opportunity to envelop him with his poison Hydra. Luffy lies defeated as Magellan declares that this was punishment for breaking into Impel Down and sentences him to death in Level 5: The Freezing Hell, where he will die in 24 hours, claiming that he has been dosed with so much poison there is no cure for it now. Before passing out from the intense pain of the poison, Luffy's last words were "Ace". He is later seen incarcerated in a Level 5 cell, where despite dying, is still determined to rescue Ace, and is only living on despite the poison through sheer willpower. His other cellmates mock him for his determination when he can't save himself from Magellan's poison, they also warn him to think for him first. Fortunately, he was later released by Bon Kurei, who returned to help Luffy and hopes to get rid of the poison slowly killing him by bringing him to Iva, the King/Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom. With his body being dragged by Bon, the two wandered through out Level 5, but later encountered a pack of wolves intent on eating them; Bon managed to fight off a few but was later overwhelmed by their numbers. To his surprise, Luffy suddenly got up and, after biting off one of the wolves attacking Bon, lets out a surge of Haki that repelled the wolves away. He is shown afterward to have passed out along with Bon Kurei, where they are approached by Inazuma.

Luffy and Bon Kurei are revealed to have been saved by the Okama prisoners who've managed to create a small refuge in between Levels 5 and 6. The former Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom, now King of New Kama Land on Level 5.5, Emporio Ivankov, took Bon Clay and Luffy in after being impressed by Luffy's selflessness in begging him/her to save Bon Clay when he was himself dying. Iva placed him in a locked room and chained him to a slab to help heal him. However, he warned Luffy that the process will cost him ten years of his life, if he does survive and the procedure does not guarantee his survival and would only boost his chances by 1-2%. Luffy decided to go through it anyway, and Iva injected some of his Healing Hormones into Luffy to boost his immune system to counteract the poison, giving Luffy such intense pain that he screamed non-stop even when Bon Clay came to ten hours later. Iva expected the healing to take two days, in which he will surely miss Ace's execution. Bon Clay decided to cheer him on through the hours, along with Iva and the natives of "New Kama Land". However, twenty hours later, the room grew quiet with blood leaking from the room, until a loud bang from it was heard with Luffy yelling "Fooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!" indicating he was cured, to Iva's surprise and just two hours before Ace's execution.

After eating massive amounts of food, enough to feed New Kama land for days, Luffy finally emerges from the room, bloody but recovered. He thanks Bon Clay and Iva for helping him to heal, and immediately tries to set out to save Ace, whose execution is minutes away. However, in an ensuing conversation with Iva, he states that Dragon is his father, much to Iva's surprise. Iva, being a former nakama of Dragon's, realizes that both Luffy and Ace are Dragon's sons. After injecting Luffy with Vigour Hormones (acting as a temporary adrenaline rush), Iva sets out with Luffy and Inazuma to Level Six, to save Ace.

Luffy does not make it in time and is cut off from Level 1 due to the elevator shaft being flooded with sleeping gas. Luffy then resolves to go to Maineford to rescue Ace, despite Iva's protests. Crocodile becomes interested and offers to help Luffy escape. After he is convinced by Ivankov to free Crocodile, Jinbei begs Luffy to free him as well. He states that he knew Ace since before he joined the Whitebeard pirates and that Ace had often told him of Luffy. He explains that he was locked up because he objected to the war between the World Government and Whitebeard and that he wants to save Ace as well. Luffy is convinced, despite Inazuma's objection that he doesn't know if they can trust Jinbei, and allows Jinbei to join as well. Now with Crocodile and Jinbei joining them, Iva states that it's time to break out of Impel Down. Inazuma notes that they now have two Shichibukai to which Luffy blankly asks who the other Shichibukai is.

Luffy, along with Jinbei and Crocodile are heading up Impel Down, and realized that they only have five hours before Ace's execution. While Ivankov, Inazuma, Mr. 2 Bon Clay and other dwellers of Impel Down Level 5.5 catch up, Luffy, Crocodile and Jinbei, defeat the guards there, and Crocodile with his Suna Suna no Mi powers, turns the gate into dust and pass through to Level 4. Crocodile frees his former subordinate Mr. 1 from his cell, while the others catch up. Luffy notes Mr. 2 was also implanted with Vigour Hormones by Iva, and he explains the man Crocodile released was the one who fought Zoro in Arabasta, but Luffy still hasn't an idea of who he is. With Iva and the New Kama natives caught up, Iva implants Face Hormones into himself and makes his head larger as the army gathered with Luffy burst through guards in their attempt to escape Impel Down and head to Marine Headquarters. Luffy and the army of prisoners continue to blast through the goalers. Iva tells Luffy to keep going through as it is his goal to save Ace. Jinbei says to Luffy that he will assisst him as much as he can despite his strength being limited on surface as he is a Fishman. Saldeath orders his Blugori to charge at them. Hovewer, Iva, enhanced by his Emporio Face Hormones fires his Hell Wink at the Blugori and defeats them. Sadi-chan then appears with her Demon Guards, Minorhinoceros, Minokoala and Minozebra. With the three beasts brutalizing the army from New Kama Land, Luffy, Crocodile and Jinbei decide to blast through, as Luffy activates Gear Third and uses Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol on Minokoala, while Crocodile uses Sables to blast Minozebra away and Jinbei delivers a Gosenmai-Gawara Seiken on Minorhinoceros; all defeating the Demon Guards with a single blow, to the shock of Sadi-chan and the goalers.

Back with Luffy and his gang, they meet up with Sadi-chan,who uses her Koufun no Geki Akamauchi attack on several prisoner and cuts the bridge in half as well. Luffy charges at her, but is thrown by a now female Ivankov. As Luffy makes his way towards the stairs, he is once again stopped by Hannyabal using his Naginata named "Kessu," telling Luffy that the stairs are blocked by the Bazooka Troops. Luffy tells him to move to which Hannyabal refuses. Hannyabal then uses his Shounetsu Jigoku Guruma to try and defeat Luffy. He is unsuccessful and is defeated by Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Jet Gatling. However, he quickly gets up and continues his attack on Luffy, being beaten every time. The guards beg Hannyabal to stop, saying he will die if he keeps it up. Their words fall on deaf ears as he calls Luffy and his companions scum. Hannyabal then begins to talk of how Impel Down is hell for evildoers to keep the world safe, to which Luffy replies that Ace's life is precious to him and tells Hannyabal to move once again, but Hannyabal yet again refuses. Hannyabal then sees that the Bazooka troops have been taken out by Blackbeard, who also crushes Hannyabal,greatly shocking everyone and angering Jinbei. Blackbeard remembers that Jinbei was Ace's friend but states that Jinbei has no reason to fight him. Luffy recognizes Blackbeard from Jaya and is shocked to discover that he is Blackbeard. Luffy remembers that Ace was looking for him, while also remembering the encouragement Blackbeard gave him on Jaya and Nyon informing him that Blackbeard had captured Ace and turned him over to the World Government. Blackbeard also notes that he never told Luffy his name when they met in Jaya. Blackbeard then asks Luffy if he wants to be here, seeing as how Ace's execution is staring soon. He then further enrages Luffy by laughing at the fact that Ace will be killed soon. As Luffy found out that Blackbeard was initially planning to defeat Luffy, but had to to defeat Ace first because he got in his way, he could not hold back anymore and attacked Bleackbeard straight away causing a significant damage on him using his Haki during the fight, however was stopped by Jinbei who reminded him about the rescue of Ace which should be his priority. As Luffy then made his way to Level 3 Blackbeard whispered to him that the One Piece really does exist.

Early One Piece
 Image:RD1Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn V.1 Image:RD2Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn V.2 Image:RD3Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn When drawing One Piece, Eiichiro Oda was heavily influenced by the manga Dragon Ball, and had the series in mind when designing his characters. Oda has said that when he was creating Luffy, he was thinking about "manliness", because Dragon Ball had already done all the things that a child could possibly be happy about. .

Luffy was first featured as the main protagonist in the first pilot of One Piece Romance Dawn V.1 in the Shonen Jump specials showcasting upcoming artists, about a year and a half before One Piece began. He would remain as the main protagonist in the second release of Romance Dawn, Romance Dawn V.2 (featured in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself) and the final version Romance Dawn V.3.

Luffy's character changed throughout all three versions of Romance Dawn. Starting from Romance Dawn version 1, Luffy was much smarter than his final incarnation and while he had the power of the Devil Fruit he did not seem to have any named attacks. He claimed to be a candidate for pirate and a Peace Maine type of pirate. His background story was near enough identical to the final story released with Romance Dawn version 3, with a number of note worthy differences. The major difference being that Higuma the Bear was absent from the story in this version. Another minor difference was that Shanks' arm was bitten off by a shark instead of a Sea King. In Romance Dawn V.1 there was also a panel that featured a Luffy as captain of his own crew. This is the only time a older version of Luffy has been drawn by Oda in regards to One Piece storyline.

Version 2 of Romance Dawn feature a Luffy closer to the final version then Romance Dawn version 1. He now had a named attack (though it featured a different naming scheme to the final version) and lacked the intelligence he displayed in Romance Dawn version 1, however, it is arguable that he was less intelligent than his final design overall. His story, though still featured him eating the Devil Fruit, did not feature Shanks and instead Luffy got both his hat and the Devil fruit he ate from his grandfather. Luffy remained a Peace Maine type of pirate in this version and was still promoting himself as a candidate for a pirate while seeking to join up with a crew.

In both versions, Luffy was missing the scar under his left eye. Apart from this the only difference in Luffy's overall appearance was the adaptation to suit the drawing style of each Romance Dawn. The most note worthy change from each version was of Young Luffy, whose head and body shape, though remained roughly the same, was different enough to notice.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the anime, Luffy's past did not include the scene where he stabbed himself under the eye to prove to Shanks he was a man. The anime also skipped over all the scenes before Shanks gave Luffy juice, these scenes showed Shanks making fun of Luffy for being a child as well as some of the interaction between Shanks, Luffy and the rest of Shanks' crew. Also in the manga Luffy couldn't swim, even before he ate the devil fruit, which was why Shanks called him "Anchor," hence the shirt Luffy wore.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the Viz English manga and 4Kids and FUNimation dubs, the most common alteration seen to Luffy is the reference to his devil fruit, the Gomu Gomu no Mi, as the "Gum-Gum Fruit". The correct term would be the "Rubber Rubber Fruit", which has not been used outside the Odex version of the series (For example, Gomu Gomu no Fuusen is translated as "Rubber Balloon").

Other alterations in the 4Kids dub are mainly directed around the renaming of most of his attacks, most away from references to guns (such as the Gomu Gomu no Pistol, which becomes Gum-Gum Blast), but not traditional weapons (Gomu Gomu no/Gum-Gum Axe). Other than attacks, Luffy is constantly the center of attention for the removal of blood in battles against foes. All of these are common censorship edits made for American TV. With the recent changeover of the dubbing company, FUNimation took a more relaxed approach to editing, and retained the firearm references, as well as a gratuitous level of blood shown. By episode 177, the anime appears to be fully uncut.

In the book The Anime Encyclopedia - A guide to Japanese animation since 1917(2001), there was a short article about One Piece. In it there were 3 mistakes concerning Luffy; his age was written as 16, his name was spelt Rufy and he was written to have saved Shanks' life instead of the other way round.

Crossovers

 * Luffy appeared in a Shonen Jump special, where Enel attacks Tokyo and Odaiba. Goku arrives to fight Enel and Luffy appears to help him. Luffy and Goku make an attack called "Gomu Gomu No Kamehameha" and they destroy Enel.
 * Luffy and other characters also appeared in Cross Epoch with Dragon Ball characters.
 * Luffy has appeared in the games Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS. He also appeared in Battle Stadium D.O.N on the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Cultural References

 * Luffy's Devil Fruit the Gomu Gomu no Mi was referenced in the Japanese TV Drama show Trick.
 * Luffy had a small mention in the PS2 game Ape Escape 3, where it is revealed that Pink Monkey is angry over Luffy's popularity, and seems to believe he is a real monkey.
 * In Yakitate!! Japan, episode 56, there is a parody of One Piece where Kuroyanagi turns into a "Tenobi Man" as a reaction from trying Azuma's Japanese-Style Ja-pan dumpling. To this effect, he dons a straw hat and starts stretching his arms like rubber to unbelievable lengths like Monkey D. Luffy.
 * In a fake movie preview during an episode of Gintama, Isao Kondo (playing a lookalike of Crocodile) is seen charging towards heroine Tae Shimura. Tae defeats him with a "Gomu Gomu" move. Similar enemies and attacks are also performed connected to Dragon Ball and Bleach in the same film.
 * In To Love-Ru, Ren Elsie Jewelria is reading a copy of Weekly Shonen Jump where Luffy's head can be seen as the picture on the binding.
 * In one chapter of the manga Eyeshield 21, a Luffy-like character was seen.
 * In an online RPG called Dragonfable there was an enemy pirate monkey dressed up like Luffy, and was called L.D.MONKEE which is backwards for Monkey.D.LUFFY.

Merchandise
As the main protagonist, Luffy has been the choice character in many forms of merchandise and is arguably only out produced by Chopper. He has been featured in the series of models Portrait of Pirates. He was released in the One Piece DX Figure - Swim Suit Style set which included him and Nami. When the Wii game One Piece: Unlimited Adventure was released Luffy was one of the crew produced as a figure in the One Piece Locations Trading Figures series. He has also appeared as a plushie in a number of sets such as the One Piece Fishing Plushies pair.

He has featured in One Piece Gashapon sets on numerous occasions and he also featured in the 5 piece One Piece VS Figure Gashapon set. Another Gashapon set he featured in was the One Piece Full Color R Gashapon, of what he was featured twice. He was issued alongside Shanks and Lord of the Coast in a One Piece Block Figures set featuring the Straw Hats and their past mentors/loved ones. He has featured in trading figure sets such as One-Piece Motion Figure box and the One Piece Styling Figures.

Luffy has also featured on many Keychains/cellphone Straps sets including the One Piece Desert Kingdom Mascot Keychain/Cellphone Strap collection, alongside his brother Ace. He is part of the One Piece Sky Island Mascot Keychain collection. Another set he featured in was the One Piece Monkey Island Mascot Keychain/Cellphone strap series. In the Keychain pairing, he was released alongside Nami, however in the Cellphone strap series he was released alongside Shoujou.

Songs

 * Wanted!
 * We Are HERE!
 * Every-One Peace!
 * Holy Holiday (with Zoro)
 * Akuma no Mi (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji)
 * Hi! Ho! Ready Go! (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji)
 * Family (with other crew members)
 * We Are! (with other crew members)
 * Utae! Jingle Bell (with other crew members)
 * You Are the One (with other crew members)
 * Jungle Fever (with other crew members)
 * Respect! (Luffy, Zoro and Sanji)
 * Doctor Tony Tony Chopper (as backup to Chopper)
 * A Thousand Dreamers (With other crew members)

Trivia

 * Luffy is described as being like the fourth son of a family.
 * Due to the nature of the One Piece timeline against the real world timeline, Luffy does not age, remaining 17 no matter what the year is in real life.
 * Monkey D. Luffy is the second character that carries the initial D., however he is the first D. to be named in the story.
 * Except for the Gears, Luffy's Forms (up to now) have all been him messing around hoping something will work, and just doing goofy stuff, but they have saved him each time.
 * Luffy's favorite food is meat.
 * Oda has claimed that at the time of naming Luffy, he did so because he felt the name "Luffy" was right for his main character. Later Oda found out there is a Maritime term called a "Luff" and has insisted this is pure coincidence but one he was delighted by.
 * In the Dragon Ball and One Piece crossover Cross Epoch after Luffy falls from a cliff Goku orders the Kinto'un to save Luffy from the fall and then he rides the Kinto'un until they arrive in the tea party. Riding the Kinto'un, in the universe of Dragon Ball, means that Luffy is pure of heart.
 * One of Oda's more mature SBS questions asked if Luffy's lower regions could stretch, to which Oda replied that they could. They actually do stretch (though it is never actually shown) in chapter 514.
 * When Luffy activate his Gear 2nd, in the original manga Luffy skin doesn't turn red, the anime made it turn red to show the difference. In the game One Piece Unlimited Adventure when Luffy activates Gear 2nd his skin stays the same color but glows with a golden aura.
 * Luffy during the Jaya arc displayed a fascination for Hecules and Atlas beetles to the point where he became distracted from everything else. Both species are highly prised in Japan and are used for fighting.
 * Luffy has a tendency to suck his lips in and turn his head to the side when an attack or technique fails to affect him, such as Enel's various electrical attacks or Boa Hancock's Mero Mero Merrow.
 * Despite the Gomu Gomu's fruit stated ability of making Luffy immune to blunt damage, the majority of his fights don't demonstrate this, with even relatively weak opponents being able to hurt him just by hitting him. Although this is most likely for either comical or dramatic effect.
 * Luffy, so far, has met every Shichibukai except Donquixote Doflamingo. He holds a mutual respect for Juracule Mihawk and a seemingly one-side grudge against Bartholomew Kuma. He also has befriended two (Boa Hancock and Jimbei), and defeated two (Crocodile and Gecko Moria). He also has a hate for Blackbeard after he kidnapped his brother Portgas D. Ace.

Related Articles

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