Levely Arc

Concluding the Whole Cake Island Saga, this arc turns away from the Straw Hats' usual adventures to focus on global politics. Luffy's crew heads for Wano in the wake of their clash with Big Mom, whose defeat has shaken the world, while the Revolutionary Army readies its next campaign. At the same time, monarchs from across the seas travel to the Holy Land for the international council known as the Levely, none of them aware that a shadowy figure upon the supposedly Empty Throne truly governs the world.

Aboard the Thousand Sunny, the crew read the latest paper reporting their exploits against Big Mom and their raised bounties. Sanji was pleased to outpace Zoro yet dismayed his poster now bore the Vinsmoke name, and Luffy misread his own figure, failing to notice it had soared to over a billion berries and earned him recognition as a so-called Fifth Emperor. The news rippled outward: on Fish-Man Island, Neptune prepared to place his realm under Straw Hat protection, while the Emperors reacted with a mix of approval and hostility. The Revolutionary Army, having relocated its base, introduced its commanders and confirmed Dragon's plan to wage war against the World Nobles at the coming council. Royals from many nations assembled at the Red Port and ascended the Red Line, among them Shirahoshi, who gazed upon the surface for the very first time, secretly shadowed by disguised revolutionaries.

Inside Pangaea Castle, the kings mingled, with Vivi and Rebecca reconnecting and Wapol harassing Vivi until Dalton intervened. Elsewhere, Doflamingo hinted from his cell that assassins would come to silence him over the Holy Land's national treasure, and a mysterious person opened a chamber housing a straw hat. Tensions flared when Saint Charlos tried to seize Shirahoshi as a pet, only for the reformed World Noble Mjosgard to strike him down and vow to protect her. Meanwhile Jewelry Bonney infiltrated the Domain of the Gods disguised as a queen dowager and discovered Bartholomew Kuma serving as a rented slave, prompting the revolutionaries to plan his rescue. As the council opened, the Five Elders spoke of an approaching cleansing of the world and knelt before the enigmatic Imu upon the Empty Throne, requesting the name Imu had marked for erasure from history.

Luffy's bounty rose to over a billion berries and the public began calling him the Fifth Emperor, while the existence of his Grand Fleet and his bond with Sabo became widely known. Numerous post-timeskip characters made their first reappearances, the Revolutionary Army executives were formally introduced, and the reveal of Imu upon the throne implied that a secret power ruled above the Five Elders. The seeds for the Warlord system's dissolution and the coming war were planted here as well. The series editor considered this a deliberately brief entry, yet it still runs beyond a handful of the series' very shortest arcs, and it stands as the only arc not built around a Straw Hat adventure in its own setting.