The World Begins to Swell

At Marine Headquarters, Garp learns that the Dark King Silvers Rayleigh has turned up as merchandise at the Sabaody auction. Rather than act, he buries the tip and tells the reporting officer to keep silent, reasoning that any raid would force his men to tangle with a pair of living legends. Down at the auction house, the monthly sale is already underway, with Camie chained at the neck and wrists on a waiting bench. Eustass Kid and Trafalgar Law sit among the buyers alongside their crews.

Duval ferries Sanji toward the venue, where the cook scans a price sheet listing slaves by class, noting that a mermaid like Camie commands roughly seventy million berries. Usopp squeezes details out of a kidnapping team and relays the location of the Hound Pets to the rest of the crew. Sanji frets that the show has been running half an hour, but Duval reassures him that prized stock like Camie is saved for last. Franky, Nami, Chopper, Hatchan, and Pappag are already at the door, arguing with guards who refuse to surrender the mermaid, leaving the pirates no option but to buy her back legally.

Garp suppresses the report about Rayleigh being sold. Nami resolves to play along and purchase Camie outright to win her freedom. Several previously unseen peoples are named through their listed prices, among them the Dwarves, the Longarms, the Longlegs, the Minks, and the Snakenecks. A dancing girl called Pascia goes on the block, and Sanji's interest in bidding on her earns a kick from Chopper and a jab from Nami.

At Grove 24, a fresh newspaper detonates among the gathered crews. X Drake connects the Marines' thin presence near the archipelago to a larger crisis: Portgas D. Ace has been condemned to a public execution. Drake warns that Whitebeard is certain to strike back, meaning the government is effectively courting open war with the Whitebeard Pirates.

The cover continues CP9's Independent Report, with doctors laboring to save Rob Lucci's life. The chapter quietly assembles the cast that will collide on Sabaody, placing Kid and Law in the same room while Luffy, Zoro, Robin, Brook, and Usopp remain in transit. The Ace revelation reframes the entire setting, tying the small-scale auction drama to the impending Summit War.