Chapter 489

Brook tells the crew that the tone dial holds the Rumbar Pirates' last song, the one that carried him through fifty years alone, then folds it back inside his lifted skullcap. Overjoyed that Laboon is alive and that he again has a purpose, returning the dial to the whale, he asks whether he might come aboard. Luffy answers with a casual yes, which thrills the men, horrifies Nami, and sets Robin laughing, while the knocked-out Zoro says nothing at all. Off at the Twin Capes, Laboon abruptly howls with delight, and Crocus is glad to see the whale in such fine spirits.

Brook shows off his wanted poster, putting his bounty at thirty-three million berries and revealing that he once led a battle convoy in a kingdom no one knows before captaining the Rumbar Pirates, then bows his loyalty to Luffy. Two days on, he admires the grave Franky and Usopp have built for his dead crewmates, since the corpses could not be carried aboard the Thousand Sunny. Zoro settles in beside him and plants his ruined katana, Yubashiri, into the soil, holding a small funeral for the blade. As the crew prepares to leave, Franky hands the repaired Rumbar ship to the Rolling Pirates, and Lola, revealed to come from the New World, tears a strip of living paper and gives half to Nami, explaining that the card leads its holder to a chosen person and that her mother is a renowned pirate who will lend the crew aid. Luffy recalls Ace passing him similar paper back in Arabasta, fishes it from his hat, and finds it shrunken and smoldering. Lola, shaken, warns that the dwindling card means Ace's life is slipping away.

Brook formally becomes the ninth member of the crew, with a confirmed bounty of thirty-three million berries. The Rumbar Pirates are laid to rest on the island, and Zoro retires Yubashiri at the same grave. Boa Hancock is named for the first time, the workings of the Vivre Card are spelled out, and Lola's New World roots and her mother's fame as a great pirate come to light. As the closing chapter of both the Thriller Bark Arc and its saga, it keeps up the running habit of titling certain chapters by the order in which crew members joined.