Foreboding of a New Adventure! The Puzzling Girl, Apis

On a Marine vessel during a storm, a small girl knocks out her guard, breaks loose, and scrambles onto the deck. Climbing the mast, she accidentally unfurls a sail that throws the ship sideways, then leaps into a lifeboat to get away. Out on the Going Merry, Luffy asks Nami whether they have hit the Grand Line, only to learn two days have passed. When Usopp spots a flock of birds, Luffy stretches out expecting a fish and instead reels in the unconscious girl, bowling Zoro overboard in the process.

The girl wakes to the smell of Sanji's cooking but panics on realizing she is among pirates and refuses any food. Hunger later drives her into the kitchen, where she watches Luffy get snared in Sanji's giant mousetrap before she swipes some of his meal, and Nami assures her the crew means no harm. Come morning she introduces herself as Apis of Warship Island and cooks a too-spicy breakfast, declining to explain her capture, a silence Sanji defends as her own affair. The Marines then spot the Going Merry, guess Apis is aboard, and open fire. A southward gust carries the ship clear, but the pursuit halts the moment the Marines see where it is heading. As the crew celebrates, Zoro notices they have stopped moving, and Nami realizes with horror they have entered the Calm Belt.

This installment launches the Warship Island Arc. It debuts the characters Apis, Nelson Royal, Eric, and Hardy, introduces the Calm Belt as a location, and features Luffy's anime-only technique Gomu Gomu no Amidori along with the debut of the Hiso Hiso no Mi.