Ticking Down to the Time of Battle! The Navy's Strongest Lineup in Position!

The countdown stands at three hours. Ace, freed from the wall that held him, walks the long corridor flanked by guards and begins the climb up the towering staircase, his thoughts drifting to childhood days spent with Luffy. Across the four seas, ordinary people react to the looming war: villagers fret over whether Whitebeard will breach the base, an old man recalls how Shiki the Golden Lion shattered the headquarters two decades earlier, bartenders refuse to open their doors, and children sing about the great pirate while frightened civilians pray.

At Marineford itself, the city has been emptied and its residents relocated to the Sabaody Archipelago. Journalists wait to broadcast the spectacle as fifty warships and a hundred thousand soldiers ring the plaza, cannons are positioned, the Warlords take their stations, and the trio of admirals, Aokiji, Akainu, and Kizaru, settle in to guard the scaffold. Meanwhile Luffy reaches the closed gate and calls to Jinbe, baffled over how to pass through, as Buggy loudly proclaims he will become the next Pirate King.

Garp slams Sengoku's desk in frustration, but the fleet admiral insists Ace's death serves the world's stability and lays the weight of it on Garp's conscience. Once Ace kneels on the platform with two swords raised over him, Sengoku produces a Den Den Mushi and demands Ace name his father. Ace answers Whitebeard, but Sengoku overrides him: Cipher Pol traced the truth. Ace's mother, Portgas D. Rouge, carried him for twenty months to hide him from the Marines, dying after giving birth on Baterilla in the South Blue. Sengoku then declares to the watching world that Ace is the blood son of Gol D. Roger, the late Pirate King, leaving the Sabaody crowd reeling and Ace seething.

This is the first episode to use One Day as its opening theme. The anime expands the East Blue scene into a debate about whether any pirate could breach Marineford, with the old man citing Shiki, whereas the manga kept it simpler. The pre-arrival address, delivered by Vice Admiral Lacroix here, was given by John Giant in the original chapters. Royder, Lonz, Lacroix, and the location Baterilla debut.