Pearl-san

The pirates serving Don Krieg slam into the restaurant's defenders, and both camps trade boasts about which side has survived the crueler ordeals. Climbing free of their tank without a scratch, Patty and Carne scatter a swarm of attackers and shout encouragement to the rest of the kitchen. Their cause, they insist, runs deeper than the building itself: it is about keeping a place where they can cook and brawl freely, since ordinary eateries turn men like them away.

Behind the celebrating pair looms a warrior who calls himself unbeatable. Encased in armor of pearl and steel, this Pearl proves the claim by dropping both chefs with one strike. Sanji rushes in when several of Krieg's men grab for Carne's blades, sweeping the thieves aside with his legs and reclaiming the knife for his colleague. Pearl keeps gloating that combat has never once made him bleed, and Sanji lunges to silence him. At that very instant Krieg ambushes Luffy from behind as the boy enjoys the show, flinging him through the air. Luffy lands by accident atop Pearl's head, ramming the skull down into the armor, and a single drop of red wells from the warrior's nose, the first he has shed in any battle.

This installment debuts Sanji's leg-based combat, built on the principle that a cook keeps his hands free of fighting because they are his livelihood. The armored officer Pearl, who serves as a high-ranking subordinate within Krieg's fleet, enters the story and ironically suffers his first wound only because of Luffy's stray landing.

The Japanese title reads Pearl-san. On the cover, the ongoing Buggy's Crew Adventure Chronicles shows Buggy and Alvida sealing a partnership over a meal so they can pursue Luffy together. Events fall inside the Baratie storyline.