Chapter 159

Saved by Ace's intervention, the crew slips away from the Marines and boards the Going Merry, planning to sail upriver before crossing into the desert. Before leaving, Vivi gives Karoo a vital errand: deliver a letter laying out the Baroque Works plot to her father, King Cobra, in Alubarna. At sea, Luffy tells his crewmates that Ace is his elder brother by three years, a pirate who ate the Mera Mera no Mi. Ace then leaps aboard for a short family visit. He invites the crew to join the Whitebeard Pirates, an offer Luffy refuses outright, and the brothers trade words about their rival ambitions for the Pirate King title. Ace hands Luffy a blank slip of paper that he promises will reunite them someday, thanks the crew for looking after his sibling, and singlehandedly wrecks the pursuing Billions vessels, telling Luffy to meet him at the top.

Ace is confirmed to wield the Mera Mera no Mi and to be Luffy's older brother. He reveals he is hunting a former subordinate, Blackbeard, who murdered a crewmate. The paper Ace gives Luffy, later known as a Vivre Card, will help them find each other again. The chapter also shows the brutal internal rules of Baroque Works, as the captured Mr. 11 is killed by his own organization, and Smoker realizes Vivi is traveling with the Straw Hats, voicing his disdain for the Warlord Crocodile.

The cover continues Jango's Dance Paradise, volume 26, The Returning Man, with Jango back on Mirror Ball Island in pirate clothes, freeing the Tulip Pirates' hostage. Part of the Arabasta arc, the chapter cements the Ace and Luffy bond and seeds the larger Whitebeard and Blackbeard threads that pay off much later in the series.