Chapter 162

A full day's march under a punishing sun leaves the crew drained. Luffy gulps down water, which sparks a squabble with Usopp. When the group finally rests, flock of thieving birds make off with their belongings. Luffy bolts after the birds and instead runs into an enormous lizard, but the reptile proves no obstacle: the crew slays it and makes a meal of it. They also adopt a stray camel and name him Matsuge. Luffy soon begins hallucinating from the heat and drops off to sleep, leaving the others to lug him along. By nightfall they reach Yuba, where Vivi senses that something is amiss with the town.

The crew takes in the camel Matsuge, who will help carry them across the sands, though he only permits women to ride him. After enduring the heat, thirst, robber birds, giant lizards, and the eccentric camel, the Straw Hats arrive at their destination of Yuba.

The cover advances Jango's Dance Paradise, volume 28, Two Dancing Heroes, Baby, in which Jango and Fullbody strike a triumphant pose over the beaten Tulip Pirates as a crowd cheers. The chapter, part of the Arabasta arc, is a lighter travel interlude that still ends on Vivi's unease about what awaits in Yuba.