Chapter 10: Incident at the Tavern

Buggy toasts the recovery of his Grand Line chart and Nami's apparent decision to join him. Nami quietly plots to drink the crew under the table before clearing them out, confident in her own tolerance. She teases the imprisoned Luffy and ends up feeding him, promising his captivity will end once her plan succeeds. The mood sours when Buggy suddenly demands Luffy's death, flattening a row of buildings with a Buggy Ball to prove his cannon's power and revealing his intent to rule the Grand Line through his Devil Fruit and artillery.

Ordered to fire on Luffy as a test of loyalty, Nami freezes. She never intended to take a life, and she tries fruitlessly to steer Buggy back toward the party. Luffy notes her trembling and tells her she lacks a true pirate's resolve, which he frames not as killing carelessly but as the willingness to stake one's own life.

When Nami refuses to light the fuse, one of Buggy's men does it for her, and she knocks him aside with her staff. She declares she will never become the kind of pirate who slaughters freely, since pirates took the most precious person from her. As the fuse burns and the crew swarms her, Luffy frantically tries to chew his way out of the cage. Nami finally stops defending herself and smothers the flame with her bare hands.

Zoro then bursts in, having tracked Luffy down at last, and rescues Nami. Buggy, eyeing the chance to boost his own fame by felling the famous swordsman, attacks. Zoro accepts and slices Buggy into pieces, stunning Luffy and Nami, though the clown's crew only laughs at the sight.

The chapter establishes that Nami harbors a deep hatred of pirates because one of them killed someone dear to her, a thread the series develops much later. It also marks the moment Zoro reunites with Luffy after their separation. Notably, this is the first cover page in the series that does not feature Luffy, instead showing Nami marching down a desert road beside a burglar-masked pig.