Chapter 346

Having laid out every shipwright, Zoro, Nami, and Chopper rush into the headquarters while Luffy snaps the bindings off himself and Paulie, and the whole group races toward Iceburg's quarters. Inside, Lucci educates his captive on what Cipher Pol and CP9 actually are. The reason no one knows the unit exists, he says, is that its members hold a license to slay anyone who will not comply, and the government wants the lost weapons brought back in the name of its own justice.

With Kaku reading his pulse, Lucci presents the agents' chain of reasoning. He calls it strange that a man under attack would not hand off the genuine design, unless it had already left his hands. The forgeries, he notes, bear three signatures from Tom's Workers: Tom himself, Iceburg, and Cutty Flam. The agents recall a visitor who came a year into their cover and offered only one name, leading them to Franky, the alias under which Cutty Flam still lives in Water 7, a man who handled materials there and could easily have received the real plans. Iceburg's quickening pulse settles the matter.

The chapter reveals that the operatives spent five years buried in Water 7 under false roles: Lucci and Kaku as Dock 1 craftsmen, Kalifa as Iceburg's secretary, and Blueno as a tavern keeper. It also confirms that Franky, hurt in an accident eight years earlier, now holds the authentic Pluton plans. As the agents turn to leave, the five intruders cut off their escape. The cover continues Gedatsu's rise to boss of the Blue Sea.