Adventure in the Land of Samurai

With the guardian dog and the ape trading blows, Luffy pleads with them to spare the Sunny, then recalls the events that stranded him. Having scaled the waterfall, the crew glimpsed land but got sucked into a whirlpool, prompting Sanji to seize Nami, Carrot, and Chopper and ferry them ashore via Sky Walk, given an extra push off Luffy's belly. He himself never made it, caught by the spring octopus and stuck aboard until waking up on the sand. Noticing his Vivre Card has vanished, he panics for a moment, then resolves to stop worrying about it. Deeper inland, a ruffian rides a huge bird-horse, hauling a prisoner tied inside a sack who pleads to be released and given back the rice. When the ruffian reaches the shore, spots the ship, and phones someone called Shinuchi to move on Luffy, Luffy drops him with his fists, and the captive, freed and revealed as a little girl, finishes knocking the thug out.

Named O-Tama, the girl offers to surrender until Luffy assures her he means no harm. Pulling a bit of flesh from her cheek that becomes a dango, she feeds it to the ape Hihimaru, who calms at once. Curious, Luffy asks if this is Wano Country, and she says yes, naming the surrounding area as Kuri. Feeling indebted for the rescue, she promises to explain the land and share a meal at her mountain home, where she lives with her master and trains to be a kunoichi. Luffy devours every grain of her rice, and her masked guardian bursts in enraged, revealing the rice had been set aside for her eighth birthday since the pair can barely purchase it two times a year. Tama, who had merely sipped water to blunt her hunger, then faints, horrifying her master when he learns the source was the river, poisoned by the runoff from Kaidou's mills. She has lingered here awaiting a pirate who swore to return one day, and Luffy is floored to learn that pirate was Ace.

This installment shows the manner in which Luffy split off from his companions and that his Vivre Card was lost. He encounters O-Tama and her guardian, and the girl is revealed to carry the Kibi Kibi no Mi, granting her taming dumplings drawn from her cheek, the very treat she used to win over the ape. Presenting herself as a retainer under the Kouzuki name, she is later linked by her master to a shared history with Ace. Luffy stows the ship in a secure spot, while Tama grows ill after gulping the water fouled by Kaidou's mill. As one of the headliners under Kaidou's banner, Basil Hawkins is exposed, and he opts to confront the newcomers on his own instead of alerting Kaidou for now.