Zou Arc

Placed as the twenty-eighth story arc, this segment opens up the Whole Cake Island Saga, additionally marking the fifth arc within the series' second half. Having just toppled Doflamingo, Luffy's party sails alongside Law and a pair of Wano samurai toward Zou, a living country carried on the back of the gigantic elephant Zunesha. The land is home to the Mink Tribe, long said to loathe outsiders, and the story steadily dismantles that rumor as the minks reveal themselves to be fierce friends and stubborn guardians of a concealed ninja.

Three storylines are woven together here: the reassembly of the split crew, the shocking news that Sanji has been pulled into a marriage arrangement, and the fallout from a savage raid. Serving as a pivotal junction, the arc plants seeds for both the Wano Country storyline and the Whole Cake Island one, unveils the Road Poneglyphs and how they mark the path to Laugh Tale, and ties the Mink Tribe to the Kouzuki bloodline.

Following a dangerous ascent up one of Zunesha's legs, the pirates wander the shattered Mokomo Dukedom and are met with suspicion by the rabbit mink Carrot and the warrior Wanda, who quickly grasp that the newcomers mean no harm. Wanda describes how Jack of the Beasts Pirates flattened the city while insisting the minks hand over a ninja called Raizo. The land's two rulers, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, together with their soldiers, held Jack off for several days until he unleashed Caesar Clown's toxic gas; Sanji's group then turned up and helped nurse the poisoned minks back to health.

Nami lays out what happened recently: acting for Big Mom, Capone Bege gunned down Pekoms and seized Sanji along with Caesar, presenting a summons for Sanji to marry Charlotte Pudding. The samurai Kin'emon and Kanjuro at last make it to Zou, where the minks confess they had been hiding Raizo the entire time, since both peoples share a bond of loyalty to Wano's Kouzuki family. Momonosuke's real standing as Oden's heir comes to light, and Robin decodes a Road Poneglyph tucked inside a whale-shaped tree, discovering that four of these stones together fix the location of Laugh Tale.

Luffy consents to help avenge Oden, and pirates, samurai, and minks band together under a pact meant to bring down Kaidou and the Wano shogun, though Luffy demands they retrieve Sanji before anything else. When Jack's fleet sails back intent on killing Zunesha, Momonosuke orders the ancient elephant to strike, and one sweep of its trunk wipes the attackers out. The company then divides, with the freshly formed Sanji Retrieval Team setting off for Whole Cake Island while Momonosuke and Inuarashi stay behind on Zou.

Much of the saga's groundwork is laid here. Numerous post-timeskip figures resurface, the minks' hidden Sulong power is hinted at, the four Road Poneglyphs and where they rest are defined, and the Vinsmoke Family is exposed as the commanders of Germa 66. Meanwhile rulers from across the seas begin traveling toward the coming Levely, broadening the narrative's reach.