The Sand-Sand Band's Secret Fort

The fighting between rebel and royal soldiers rages on as Vivi, sprinting for the clock tower, keeps losing her focus to it. Usopp tells her to shut the battle out of her mind and think only of stopping the explosion. A minute and a half stand on the clock when the pair reach the tower's base and meet up with Nami and Chopper, and Vivi reveals the device sits at the very summit. Circling above in search of the flare Usopp had fired, Pell is abruptly gunned out of the sky by a concealed figure who brags of a Ribbit Ribbit Gun.

Underground, Luffy keeps weaving around Crocodile's poisoned hook. He pulls up short of a Gomu Gomu no Bullet the moment the Warlord stretches out his right arm, knowing a single grab would mummify him on the spot. Caught between the drying hand and the venomous hook, Luffy struggles to land anything and is finally pierced by the hook. A kick of Luffy's knocks Crocodile back, and the Warlord declares it finished, the poison now bound to spread through the boy's entire body, to which Luffy retorts that the man grasps nothing at all.

Vivi works out that the bomb hides in the clock tower, and the entire crew assembles at its base with ninety seconds left. Pell is shot down. A new sniping pair assigned to defend the device is unveiled, Miss Father's Day being the one who downed Pell while her partner holds the Mr. 7 post. That position turns out to have been refilled, since Zoro is noted to have slain the previous Mr. 7 years earlier. Up on the structure, both Zoro and Sanji have already scaled to high floors, the swordsman having taken "north" to mean "upward," but Vivi cautions that the top is reachable only by a hidden stair and that breaking in could set the bomb off early. Thirty seconds remain when the snipers appear beside the device.

The cover carries on Hatchan's Sea-Floor Stroll, with a duped Hatchan flying into a rage and pummeling Mash. The chapter is part of the Arabasta Arc.