Chapter 340

Citywide alarms warn Water 7 of the incoming Aqua Laguna, sending residents to board up homes while inspectors at the Blue Station watch the sea train for fleeing pirates. Luffy and Nami flee across rooftops, Zoro reads a newspaper account of the previous night's attack in a back alley, and Galley-La crews comb the hotel hunting the suspected assassins. At the docked Going Merry, an unaware Usopp crouches behind a rock, puzzling over why workers are searching the abandoned vessel.

Because their faces never appeared in the bounties, Sanji and Chopper move about unbothered. Studying the train timetable, they worry Robin may slip away, and a passerby points out that the aged woman matches the assassin from the poster.

The pair spot Robin on the far bank of a river and rush to cross, but she stops them, announcing she will not return. She admits she was responsible for the prior night's violence and for pinning the crime on the Straw Hats, then bids them goodbye and walks off. Sanji plunges into the water trying to follow as Chopper cries out for her, but she slips away.

Sanji sends Chopper to relay the encounter to Luffy while he pursues a scheme of his own. Chopper sniffs out Luffy, Nami, and Zoro hiding beneath a bridge, and the four regroup on a rooftop. Hearing Chopper's report, they resolve to determine whether Robin remains an ally or has turned against them. The cover continues the Gedatsu side story, where the Forest Boss surprises the party with a finished hot-spring inn.