Chapter 16

Nami presses Luffy to explain how he shrugged off Richie's attack and inflated himself, but he answers only with the name of his technique, leaving her exasperated. Buggy and Cabaji, having survived the rebounded Buggy Ball by hiding behind their own crew, rise to their feet. Mohji wakes, furious that Cabaji used the unconscious Richie as a shield to keep his clothes clean, then notices Luffy standing nearby. He alerts Buggy that Luffy also ate a Devil Fruit and is made of rubber, which Luffy proves by stretching his cheeks. Enraged that he was not told sooner, Buggy hurls Mohji at Luffy, who smacks the beast tamer into a wall and declares the fight begun.

Cabaji charges in on his unicycle, but Zoro blocks him, claiming any swordsman as his own opponent. Luffy notices the gash Buggy gave Zoro earlier and offers to take over, yet Zoro refuses. Cabaji spots the wound too and hammers it repeatedly, using fire-breathing and dust-storm tricks to gain the upper hand and dropping Zoro in pain. Mocked as pathetic, Zoro rises, deflects the final strike, and then cuts deeper into his own wound as a deliberate handicap, vowing to become the world's greatest swordsman and show Cabaji the real gap in their strength. Luffy watches, impressed.

The color cover shows an ordinary day for the Buggy Pirates, with Mohji grooming himself and Richie, Buggy pouring a drink using detached hands, and Cabaji flashing his blades. Per the chapter's trivia, this cover is the first to spotlight villains and the first to leave the Straw Hats out entirely, and the opening three story pages ran in full color in Weekly Shonen Jump. The chapter belongs to the Orange Town arc.