Chapter 17

Still losing blood from the gash he opened on himself, Zoro fights on and swears that no rival blade will bring him down. Cabaji jeers that the injury gives him a built-in alibi for losing, yet Zoro fires back that defeat in this state would only confirm he was never fit to be the planet's finest swordsman. With Buggy and Cabaji both fixated on the duel and the remaining crew knocked out, Nami murmurs her scheme to Luffy. She intends to ransack Buggy's warehouse while the men keep brawling, betting that the Grand Line chart stays on Buggy's person rather than tucked among the loot.

Cabaji launches his flashiest stunt, scattering spinning tops before pedaling his unicycle up a wall to plunge down with a finishing slash. Zoro parries the tops, but Buggy sends his detached hand flying to pin the swordsman so he cannot dodge the strike.

Luffy stamps down on the floating hand before it reaches Zoro and chews Buggy out for butting into someone else's fight. Cabaji presses on solo, but a spent Zoro tosses him off his unicycle and ends the duel with the Oni Giri. Falling, Cabaji laments his loss to a mere thief, and Zoro topples from exhaustion, naming himself a pirate before he blacks out and leaves the rest to Luffy.

Shocked that the two are pirates, Buggy ridicules Luffy's demand for the Grand Line map and questions what a nobody could possibly accomplish there. Luffy declares that the throne of the Pirate King is his goal, then moves to fight, but Buggy hesitates: the straw hat stirs a memory of a certain red-haired acquaintance from his past, the first thread tying him to Shanks. A color cover opens the chapter, depicting a band of pirate penguins clowning around with Zoro's swords.