A New Emperor! Buggy the Star Clown!

Leaving Wano behind, Nami seethes because Luffy chose the waterfalls over the proper port, so she thrashes him and stuffs him into a cage. Not long after, Robin picks up a paper from a News Coo and points out that revised bounties have come in. Now counted among the new Emperors, Luffy carries the rank of head captain over the Grand Fleet bearing the Straw Hat name, while his crewmates are styled its senior officers. Their figures climb across the board: Chopper to a mere thousand berries, Nami to 366 million, Brook to 383 million, Franky to 394 million, and Usopp to 500 million. Robin reaches 930 million, Sanji 1.032 billion, Jinbe 1.1 billion, and Zoro 1.111 billion, while Luffy lands at three billion, unable to respond from inside Nami's cage.

Over on Karai Bari Island, the cornered Buggy begs for mercy from Mihawk and Crocodile over the mistake that painted them as his lackeys and handed him an Emperor's title. A flashback lays out the truth. After the Levely dissolved the Warlord system, the pair allied and wrecked a Marine fleet bombarding Buggy's base, which led his followers to assume the two had come to save their leader. In reality they were chasing a debt owed to fund their fledgling company. With no money to pay, Buggy pledged manpower, promotion, and transport services instead. His adoring crew then splashed his face across the Cross Guild flyers, fooling the Marines into seeing a threat and an Emperor.

This serves as the launch point for both the Egghead Arc and, more broadly, the Final Saga. Crocodile's bounty rises to 1.965 billion, Mihawk's to 3.59 billion, and Buggy's to 3.189 billion. Mihawk eventually softens, content with a quiet life rather than an Emperor's role, and Crocodile comes around once he weighs the upside, leaving Buggy to proclaim himself the guild's figurehead with the two as Chief Officers. A preview from the prior episode misspelled Crocodile's name on his poster, a slip corrected before broadcast.