The Green City, Erumalu and the Kung Fu Dugongs

Hunting the man called Blackbeard, Ace chooses to ride alongside the Straw Hats for a stretch of their voyage. Their first stop is Erumalu, a settlement once celebrated for its greenery that the desert has since swallowed whole. Standing among the abandoned buildings, Vivi and Nami break down the truth behind Dance Powder and the wound it left across Arabasta.

In Alubarna, King Cobra steps outside the palace to address frightened citizens, admitting he cannot fix their suffering at once but vowing to restore the kingdom even at the cost of his life. Aboard the Going Merry, Vivi entrusts Karoo with a letter exposing the schemes of Baroque Works, sending the duck racing across the sands toward her father. Crocodile, meanwhile, learns from Miss All Sunday that the Billions stationed at Nanohana were wiped out by a lone fighter, and he orders any interference crushed. Once the crew reaches land, a band of Kung-Fu Dugongs challenges them; Luffy beats one and is promptly adopted as their master, costing the crew supplies before they part. At Erumalu, Vivi explains that Dance Powder, dubbed the King's Miracle, was secretly shipped to frame Cobra for the surrounding droughts. Enraged, Luffy smashes a ruined wall and the group presses on toward Yuba.

This installment expands well beyond its manga counterpart. Every Ace scene is original, since in the source material he had already departed after rescuing the crew. The anime adds the palace gathering, Sanji scolding Luffy and Usopp over the food, his disappointment that Nami and Vivi skip the dancer outfits, and an extended Erumalu sequence where the group buries a skeleton found in the ruins. Karoo's mission and Zoro spotting the dugongs first also differ from how events unfolded in print.