Chapter 3: Introducing Pirate Hunter Zoro

Out on the water, Koby challenges the wisdom of recruiting Zoro, then marvels that they actually arrive at the 153rd Branch base. He warns that aimless drifting is no way to travel and that a navigator is essential, but Luffy only thinks of food. In a restaurant, merely uttering Zoro's name throws the patrons into alarm, and naming Morgan, the officer over the base, produces the same dread. Walking the streets afterward, Koby understands fear of the swordsman's reputation yet cannot work out why a Marine officer's name draws identical terror from the townsfolk.

Luffy scales the perimeter to spot Zoro, then climbs higher to inspect another figure inside, while a terrified Koby slips back down. Nine days without food, Zoro bargains a bounty carrier's head for his release. A girl named Rika scales a ladder and crosses to him with onigiri, which he curtly turns away. In comes Helmeppo, son of Morgan, with a few marines: he grabs the rice balls, spits one out after tasting sugar instead of salt, and tramples the lot underfoot. Citing his father's edict that aiding a prisoner makes one equally guilty, he commands a hesitant marine to hurl the child clear of the barrier, leaving Luffy to catch her.

Roronoa Zoro debuts here, and his arrest by the Marines comes to light. Rika later recounts that he was jailed after slaying a rampaging wolf named Soro, the pet belonging to Helmeppo, in order to shield her as the beast tore through town. Though he refuses to turn criminal, Zoro asks Luffy for the ruined rice balls and tells him to assure Rika they tasted fine. When Helmeppo brags that he will break his word and have Zoro executed within three days, a furious Luffy decks him and resolves that Zoro belongs on his crew. The cover is an Animal Theater of Luffy astride a polka-dotted shark.