Chapter 100: The Legend Has Begun

Rain lashes Loguetown while a shadowy man drifts through its streets, reflecting that nothing can hold back change and warming to the very idea of a Pirate King. Buggy and Alvida, just struck by lightning, dash toward the docks counting on the Going Merry to be ablaze already, only to be caught in Smoker's net. The mesh, woven from seastone, robs them of their fruit abilities, a device the Marines built precisely to bind such users. Smoker leaves the pair and tears off after Luffy. Down at the docks the downpour ruins Mohji and Richie's bid to burn the ship, and a shot from Usopp's slingshot scatters them so he and Nami can clamber aboard.

Tashigi steps into Zoro's path and moves to confiscate his blades, but he overwhelms her, sets a sword at her neck, and refuses to give up his weapons before sparing her and hurrying on. Smoker then catches Luffy and Sanji and seals off the harbor road; his smoke shrugs aside every strike and a White Blow flings Sanji into a wall. As Smoker readies the killing blow, Dragon arrives, declares the world is awaiting an answer, and a furious gust tears through the town, hurling everyone clear and sweeping Luffy back toward his crewmates. Asked why, Dragon says he will not block a man's fate. The crew piles onto the Going Merry and casts off, with Smoker, Tashigi, and Buggy each vowing to chase them into the Grand Line. Out on the open water at last, the Straw Hats sight the lighthouse marking the entrance and renew their dreams for the road ahead.

This chapter closes out the Loguetown Arc, and with it the entire East Blue Saga. Its original Weekly Shonen Jump color spread served as a double celebration of the manga's hundredth chapter and the reveal of Toei's anime adaptation, and decades later a dual spread across Chapters 999 and 1000 paid homage to it. The quote opening the chapter, credited to Roger, lists a trio of forces that none can halt: a will handed down, the dreams people carry, and the rise and fall of the eras, each of which would later name a future chapter.