Heat Haze Duel! Ace vs. Scorpion Man

Out in the Arabasta desert, a man called Scorpion dozes atop a rocky perch beside Popo, a helmet-wearing bird resembling an ostrich. Roused by Popo, Scorpion spots distant smoke through his spyglass and sees the Straw Hats traveling with Ace. He breaks into a sweat of excitement, having long dreamed of tracking down Portgas D. Ace. Nearby, the crew eats while Luffy and Usopp beg for seconds and a food brawl erupts. Vivi and Nami marvel at how neatly Ace eats compared to his rowdy brother, and Nami notes how his bounty makes hunters salivate.

Scorpion lines up a rocket launcher on Ace, but Popo sneezes out the fuse without him noticing. Two starving boys then steal a piece of meat with a fishing rod and bolt, drawing Luffy into a chase. Ace stops the eldest, who pulls a revolver and fires, only for Ace to swat the shot aside. The boys reveal a photo of Scorpion and ask Ace to capture the man, who Ace believes once beat Blackbeard in Yuba. When Scorpion finally confronts Ace directly, the duel is brief: Ace bats away a net and floors him with a single punch, dismissing him as too weak to have bested Blackbeard. The boys then cry out that Scorpion is their father, a ruined farmer who became a bounty hunter to make his family rich. After his misfired rocket nearly kills them all, Ace shields the trio from the falling rubble.

This installment, debuting Scorpion, Popo, Chip, and Dip along with the Badland location, is mostly filler. Its one significant canon beat comes at the close, when Ace hands Luffy a Vivre Card and promises they will meet again at the summit of the pirate world. That paper becomes a key element during the later Impel Down Arc. The episode rates 13.9.