One Unnatural Phenomenon After the Next! Disembarking at Thriller Bark!

Brook explains that Nami's Log Pose ignores Thriller Bark because the island drifted in from West Blue. Bidding the crew a grateful farewell and urging them to flee, he leaps off the prow and astonishes everyone by running across the water. Luffy, however, clearly wants to explore, and Robin deduces that the earlier jolt was the island's mouth-like gate sealing them inside a surrounding fence, leaving them trapped in open sea with no place to anchor.

Franky unveils Channel 2 of the Soldier Dock System, the steam-powered Mini Merry II, and Nami, Usopp, and Chopper take it for a test run while the others watch. Nami's scream soon carries through the fog, and back on the ship an unseen presence drops the anchor, opens a trapdoor, stretches Luffy's face, and flings one of Zoro's swords, making clear an invisible intruder is aboard. Robin reports being licked by something, a beast growls, and artificial waves rise inside the fence. Meanwhile the test crew crashes into a hidden embankment and tumbles into a bone-filled ditch, where a three-headed Cerberus, one head a fox, gives chase. After Usopp's Kemuri Boshi smoke lets them hide in a tree, a vampiric man hanging upside down introduces himself as Hildon and offers a carriage ride to the mansion of Dr. Hogback, a name that visibly shocks Chopper.

This episode adapts parts of Chapters 443 and 444 and marks the first appearance of the Mini Merry II, a scaled-down version of the Going Merry. Absalom debuts as the invisible beast, along with Cerberus and Hildon, and the Suke Suke no Mi makes its first appearance. The eyecatcher pairs Zoro with Nami.