The Hidden Past! Female Fighter Bell-mere!

Nojiko keeps recounting her sister's early years. The two of them came up on the fringe of Cocoyasi Village beneath their adoptive mother Bell-mere, who got by farming mikan. Money being forever short, Nami pinched books to feed her love of map-making, dressed in Nojiko's castoffs, and saw Bell-mere live on mikan alone so the girls could be fed. Boiling over at how poor they were, Nami once stormed off to hole up at Genzo's office, which left a guilt-stricken Bell-mere spending what coins she had on her daughter's favorite dish and sending Nojiko to fetch her back.

Once the storm let up, Genzo laid out for Nami the story of her adoption: Bell-mere had served abroad as a Marine, crossed paths with Nojiko and the baby Nami while there, and chose to bring them home and raise them as family. Nojiko then turned up, the sisters reunited, and they set off together for supper.

Chew, Kuroobi, and Hatchan chase down word of a flying ship and turn up its wreckage in a paddy field, then confront Luffy as he walks nearby. The heart of the episode lands when Arlong's pirates descend on Cocoyasi Village. Arlong claims the entire island as his and demands a monthly payment from every resident in return for their lives. Catching sight of smoke rising near the outskirts, Nojiko and Nami sprint toward Bell-mere's house, dreading that she has no way to meet the toll.

On the eyecatchers, the Funimation home releases keep the Japanese logo in place of the English one. 4Kids merged the Japanese 35th and 36th episodes into its own 34th. Two wanted posters appear, nodding to earlier foes Buggy the Clown and Don Krieg. Nami's concealed history is laid bare at last. The installment debuts Mummy Mee, Daddy Dee, and the Oykot Kingdom setting.