Whisky Peak Arc

Ranked eighth among the story arcs and set second within the Arabasta Saga, this early Grand Line chapter lands the crew on Cactus Island at the treacherous town of Whisky Peak. There the locals heap celebration on arriving pirates, only to strike the moment their guests drift off to sleep. Hidden under all the revelry sits Baroque Works, a shadowy syndicate whose numbered operatives answer anonymously to a concealed leader.

Several important faces debut here, chief among them Nico Robin, seen for now as the agent Miss All Sunday, and Nefertari Vivi, moving in disguise as Miss Wednesday. This is also where the Straw Hats first get pulled into another nation's turmoil, pledging to see Vivi safely home to Arabasta. Learning that the boss is the Warlord Crocodile hands the crew their first significant Grand Line enemy and drops several of them onto the syndicate's kill list.

Once the erratic winds and currents of the sea's first leg settle, the pirates tie up at Whisky Peak and are hosted at a lavish feast by the town's chief, Igarappoi. That party is bait, yet Zoro and Nami only pretend to pass out and spoil the intended ambush. As the settlement's bounty hunters, the Millions, close in, Zoro alone carves through around a hundred of them, then overwhelms the higher-ranked trio of Miss Monday, Mr. 9, and Mr. 8.

When Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine show up, the deception unravels: Igarappoi is actually Igaram, head of the Arabasta royal guard, and Miss Wednesday is Princess Vivi, both of them spies who had wormed their way into the organization. A baffled Luffy briefly turns on Zoro, thinking the fallen townsfolk were allies, before the two inadvertently beat the Mr. 5 duo together. Vivi reveals that Baroque Works staged a civil war to grab her kingdom and that Crocodile leads it. Igaram then dresses as Vivi to serve as a lure, but his vessel is destroyed the instant he sails off.

Back at the Going Merry, Miss All Sunday is already waiting, the same woman who both fed Crocodile's name to Vivi and blew up Igaram's decoy craft, leaving her allegiance a mystery. She holds out an Eternal Pose aimed at a course near Arabasta, but Luffy smashes it, unwilling to let her choose their heading. The crew then departs for Little Garden as Vivi officially comes aboard.

The episode leaves lasting marks. Zoro's slaughter of the bounty hunters later feeds into his first official bounty following the Arabasta events, Baroque Works and the future crewmate Robin make their entrance, and Crocodile becomes the third Warlord to be named. Since Usopp and Sanji dozed through the fight, neither lands on the hit list, a gap that gives them an advantage in future clashes.