Reunion of the Powerful! His Name is Fire Fist Ace

In the desert town of Nanohana, a young man last seen at Drum Kingdom wanders the streets and brushes off a swindler hawking a golden apple. Chopper and Usopp nearly fall for the same scam until Nami and Zoro intervene. Zoro then notices a stranger flashing Luffy's wanted poster and asking around, and a back tattoo tells him the man is no bounty hunter. He also spots Tashigi scolding a merchant over inflated sword prices and quickly hides, just as Smoker arrives hauling captured small-time pirates and confidently predicting Luffy will surface in Alabasta.

At the Spice Bean eatery, patrons gather around the same drowsy young man, who keeps collapsing face-first into his food before jolting awake to keep eating. When he asks Yoshimoto about Luffy, Smoker steps in and names him as Portgas D. Ace, Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. A starving Luffy then rockets through the wall with Gomu Gomu no Rocket, plowing Smoker and Ace through several buildings before demanding a meal. The chase resumes, and outside town Ace halts Smoker's strike to let his little brother flee, finally confirming to the stunned crew that he and Luffy are family.

Portgas D. Ace makes his entrance and is identified as Luffy's older brother and a Whitebeard commander. The Mera Mera no Mi debuts along with Ace's Kagero technique and Smoker's White Snake. Yoshimoto debuts as a character and Spice Bean as a location. Luffy reveals he came to Alabasta to defeat Crocodile, and Ace shields the Straw Hats' escape by intercepting Smoker.

This is the final episode to close with the ending theme BEFORE DAWN. In the Funimation dub, Smoker mistakenly calls Ace the fourth division commander rather than the second, an error fixed in later episodes. Across the Alabasta and Jaya arcs Ace is drawn with thick eyebrows, which become noticeably thinner from his Banaro Incident appearance onward. The episode falls within the Arabasta Arc.