Chapter 654

While the Sunny rides a current toward the surface, Nami showers and the others try to land a deep-sea catch worth cooking once they reach the top. Usopp hooks an enormous one, only for a larger creature to swallow it and a still bigger beast to swallow that, so Zoro ends the chain with his strengthened 360 Pound Cannon. The ship soon stalls and starts sinking, and Robin recognizes the White Strom, a vast dragon-shaped vortex infamous for casting ships out far away with no crew aboard.

Unable to cut the catch loose before the whirlpool grabs it, the crew is sucked into the spiral, but the Sunny halts against a colossal mass that proves to be a pod of island whales plugging the vortex. Overcome with emotion, Brook briefly mistakes one scarred whale for Laboon before steadying himself and playing Binks' Sake. Charmed, a whale lends its back, and the migrating pod stirs up a new current Nami orders the ship to ride. The whales breach the surface and fling the Sunny into the open New World, where a blazing red sea spreads before the awestruck crew.

On the cover, Lola, the bartenders Mozu and Kiwi, and the Risky Brothers all reappear after the timeskip, with the Rolling Pirates shown to have reached Water 7. The chapter defines a gam as a gathering of whales with no family bond. Nami debuts Shower Tempo, Usopp wields a bigger slingshot for his Hokaku Boshi technique, and Zoro's cannon upgrade hints that his other versions have grown too. With this, the Straw Hats finally cross into the New World, an entry that opens the Punk Hazard story and the larger Dressrosa Saga.