Punk Hazard

The Thousand Sunny is thrown into the furious weather of the New World, and an island ahead erupts through the storm. Someone shouts, "Look! That island over there just erupted!!!" The sea roars around them as Nami warns Luffy to listen: not one of the three Log Pose needles is pointing at that island, and even by New World standards that is not normal. Franky calls back to Laboon's family, "Farewell, Laboon's family! Take care!!" but Luffy does not care about the needles. He insists, "It's right there, isn't it?! Who cares where the needles are pointing!! I don't care how weird it is, that's where we're going!!" Nami refuses: "Not a chance! We're not going anywhere near it!!"

The crew stares at an impossible sight: "The ocean is on fire, for heaven's sake!!" A flaming sea crashes around the Sunny, and the crew shouts that it makes no sense. Sanji, still thinking about food, tells Luffy he saved a bad-news piece of the gigantic fish they caught, but then realizes the fish has been burned by the sea. The others panic that their ship could be next. Franky insists the Sunny is made of sterner stuff, but even he cannot deny the situation is absurd. Luffy, however, looks across the fire and smoke with excitement rather than fear, still drawn toward the island.

As the crew debates the burning sea, the Den-Den Mushi suddenly starts crying, "Puohooooooohhhh!!" Luffy thinks the little snail might have a stomach ache, but Robin identifies the sound correctly: "Don't be stupid - that's a distress signal!! Somebody's calling out for help!!" Luffy immediately wants to answer it, while Robin warns that the chances of the signal being genuine are under fifty percent. If they answer, whoever is listening will know the Straw Hats are in the area; it could be a Marine trap. Usopp recognizes Robin's caution but says, "That's our Robin! You heard her, Luffy! We have to think carefully before..." Luffy reaches for the call anyway.

Luffy answers the distress signal in the most Luffy way possible: "Hello?! This is Luffy!! I'm going to be the Pirate King!!!" The voice on the other end cries, "Help! Please! Anyone!!!" and Luffy asks where he is and what his name is. The caller answers through pain and cold: "It's cold... so cold... Is that you, boss...?" He says they are being sliced down one after another and that it is no use. Then the danger becomes specific: "We're all gonna be killed by the samurai!!!!" When Luffy asks where they are, the caller can only gasp out the place name: "Punk Hazard!!!" The call turns the strange island from curiosity into a rescue destination.

The caller is abruptly cut off, screaming that someone else was sliced too. Luffy says he smells an incident, and Usopp insists it is obviously an incident because the guy was murdered. Robin warns that it could still be a lure. Brook and Zoro discuss the word "samurai." Zoro has heard the term from Brook, and Brook explains that samurai are the swordsmen of Wano Country. Wano is a self-ruled nation whose people do not take kindly to outsiders; it is not part of the World Government, and its swordsmen are said to be so terrifyingly strong that even the Marines dare not venture too close. The distress call therefore introduces not only Punk Hazard but a connection to Wano.

Robin reasons that if the caller used a baby Den-Den Mushi, the flaming island is the only nearby place from which communications would likely reach them. Luffy immediately says, "All right!! Let's go and save him then!!!" while the others scream no. Chopper thinks the samurai sound frightening, and Brook says he quite agrees. The scene then shifts to a G-5 Marine ship, where the distress call has also been intercepted by a black Den-Den Mushi. Tashigi hears "Punk Hazard" and asks Smoker what route those pirates are taking. The Marines have caught the same signal, and Smoker is already considering what it means for the Straw Hats.

The page introduces Smoker formally as "Marine Vice-Admiral at 'G-5,' The Fifth Marine Branch Station in the Grand Line, Smoker the White Hunter." Smoker says they have a one-in-three chance under ordinary circumstances. The three islands reachable by Log Pose from Fishman Island are risky Red Island, Raijin Island, and Mystoria Island. Smoker came assuming Straw Hat would choose Raijin Island, where the magnetic field is most unstable. Instead, Luffy has chosen an entirely different route from those three. Behind Smoker, captured pirates complain about the heat and beg for help, while G-5 Marines bully them. Smoker's deduction shows that Luffy is not merely reckless; he is unpredictable even to someone waiting for him.

The G-5 ship approaches Punk Hazard, whose cliffs burn with unnatural flame. A Marine reminds Smoker, "Ever since the incident four years ago... Punk Hazard has been a sealed-off island, completely devoid of human life!!" Tashigi asks why someone would be there now. Smoker admits it is strange and cannot see how any living thing could survive there in its current state, but it is their only lead. When someone panics that the island is off-limits, Smoker cuts him off: "I don't want to hear a lecture on law from you. Just get this ship moving, you layabouts!!!" The law says stay away, but Smoker orders G-5 toward the forbidden island anyway.

The Straw Hats receive a deep-sea fish lunchbox as Sanji prepares for the scouting party. Luffy can barely contain himself: "Oh, man!! I can't wait to eat it!!!" Someone asks who drew the marked straws, and Zoro and Robin answer, "We did." Usopp screams that somebody traded with him, but Robin says this should be interesting. Nami uses "Milky Road!!" to create a cloud road, and the Mini Merry rides up it. Luffy cheers, "Whooooa!!!" as the route curls through the flaming sea toward the island. Nami urges them to hurry across while the clouds are still stable, and the crew recognizes the cloud road as something like what they saw back on the sky islands.

The scouting party sets off on the Mini Merry. Luffy rides with Zoro, Robin, and Usopp while the rest of the crew sees them off from the Sunny. They call, "All right!! Here goes the scouting party!! We're counting on you, Mini-Merry!!!" and wish them luck. Luffy keeps eating, saying, "This fish is great!!" Usopp cries for someone to take his place, while the others tell him to chin up. The Mini Merry glides over the fiery sea on the cloud road. Robin notes that the clouds carried them safely back as well, but Nami is unsure whether they truly reach all the way to the island.

Back aboard the Sunny, Chopper melts with pride because he drew one of the go-with-Luffy straws and cannot stand hot places anyway. Nami says they could not exactly let Luffy go alone, because once he sees there is nothing on the island, he will come straight back. Sanji tries to delay his own departure by promising a cold deep-sea-fish dessert for Nami, but the scouting party continues. Luffy points toward a possible entrance and tells the others there might have been people there years ago. Robin says the Den-Den Mushi must be transmitting from some far-off island, which is the only explanation if nobody could possibly live here now. Luffy insists the entrance proves someone can be inside.

The Mini Merry reaches Punk Hazard Island's entrance, a fenced-off facility marked with warnings. A sign reads "PUNK HAZARD ISLAND ENTRANCE," and another says "DANGER KEEP OUT" with the Marine and World Government emblems. Usopp argues that if someone is inside, they must be Marines, and there is no point helping them; they should go back. Zoro points out that the island is sealed off. Robin notes the Marine emblem and realizes the site is tied to the World Government. Luffy, however, still thinks the distress signal really did come from somewhere inside. The name on the gate matches the call, so the crew pulls the Merry up onto the island.

The scouting party breaks into the island anyway. Zoro says, "I hope you realize you're breaking the law!" and Usopp answers, "Oh, right... we're pirates..." Punk Hazard is ablaze all around them, but the island itself does not look like a natural volcano. Robin asks whether there was some kind of disaster or accident. Luffy, sweating in the heat, says, "Man, it's hot...!! Let's see..." Zoro warns that if they did not hear the earlier warning, they are picking a fight with the World Government. Usopp protests, "Oh, wait... We already did that..." The party is not just trespassing on a hot island; they are walking into a forbidden government site.

Inside Punk Hazard, the ruins do not resemble civilian homes. Robin guesses the place used to be some kind of government facility. Zoro asks the right question: why was the island sealed off? Was it because of whatever caused the fire, or because it was dangerous to begin with? Robin adds that for some reason the island cannot be reached by Log Pose, which makes it even more suspicious. Luffy ignores the bigger mystery and calls loudly into the ruins: "Hey!!! Den-Den Mushi guy, are you here?!! We've come to save you!!!" The scouting party is surrounded by burning ruins, but Luffy still treats the rescue call as the main point.

The group continues through the burning ruins, calling for the supposed samurai and the men who were being attacked. Luffy yells, "Where are you, samurai?!!" and "Come and get us!!!" Usopp tells him not to call for those crazy murderers. The heat is intense, and Usopp begins to notice something strange: the voice on the Den-Den Mushi kept saying it was cold. Luffy wonders why the caller would be cold on a blazing-hot island. Usopp suggests maybe the man was an idiot; Robin says perhaps his predicament was so terrifying that it chilled him to the bone. The contradiction between the island's fire and the caller's freezing words remains unresolved.

Back on the Sunny, Nami notices something wrong with the sky above the island. "It's the clouds," she says. On the far side, it looks almost like an arctic climate, while the side they can see blazes with fire. Then the scouting party finds an enormous skull-like shape in the ruins. Usopp shouts, "Whoa!! A giant?!" but Zoro says even giants are not this big. Robin says it cannot possibly be real, yet Luffy asks, "Do these things actually exist?" The skull and bones look like something from legend. Before they can understand it, a huge roar shakes the ruins, and the crew sees something alive approaching.

A massive creature emerges from the flames. The page labels it "Resident of Punk Hazard: Dragon." Luffy, Zoro, Robin, and Usopp stare up at the huge dragon as it roars, "Rrrgghhhhh...!!" Luffy blurts, "A dragon?!!" while a voice nearby asks, "Who goes there...?" The dragon's body fills the ruins, smoke and fire curling around it. What had seemed like an abandoned government facility is not empty at all. The first living resident the scouting party encounters is a creature straight out of legend, standing between them and the mystery of the distress signal.

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