Adventure in the Country on the Back of an Elephant

No description for this page.

As the group climbs Zunesha, narration asks, "What falls towards our friends climbing the elephant?!" Something drops from high above with a rumbling sound, and someone yells, "Something's headed right this way!" The falling object rushes straight at them, making "ETETE TETE!" and "TETE TEEEEE EEE!" noises. Luffy reacts in confusion with "Ete?" and stares up at the strange shape. Kanjuro recognizes the sound pattern and says, "Indeed; Raizou the ninja goes 'tetetete' when he runs around." The party thinks the object may be their missing ninja comrade, but it is still only a shadowy, fast-moving figure hurtling down toward their precarious climb on the elephant's leg.

The falling figure shoots toward the climbing party. Someone screams, "Crap, that thing's gonna hit us! Dodge it!" while the shape drops with "TETEEEEE!!" The group tries to evade on the dragon's back, but the scene becomes absurd when Kin'emon and Kanjuro argue about a blindfolded no-jutsu trick. One of them says, "Whoa! Hm! Err! I do believe it is you, Kanjuro!" and asks, "Ninja art: Blindfold no jutsu guess-whooo-!?" The answer is obvious because, as the other points out, "You're the only person behind me!" A voice shouts, "Get out of the way, you two!" just before the silhouette crashes down with "DE!" and a shocked "!!?" It is not a ninja landing safely, but a chaotic collision that throws the climbers into further danger.

No description for this page.

Kin'emon and Kanjuro are knocked from the dragon and tumble down the elephant's leg. The crew screams their names: "Kin'emon! Kanjuro!" and "Waaa aaaagh!" Luffy realizes, "Oh crap! They fell off!" while the two samurai shout in panic. Robin tries to identify the falling attacker and says she cannot say for certain, but at first glance it appeared to be a man covered in blood, with countless knives wedged into him. Then she adds that, as it turned out, it just happened to be a small monkey. Someone asks why her first impressions are always so morbid, and another curses that the group did not get a good look at the thing that slammed into the samurai.

The crew watches the fallen samurai drop farther away, wondering if they may have fallen into the sea. Luffy immediately says they have to go save them, while the dragon shouts, "Kanjurooo~! Kinemooon~!!" The samurai call back that they are unharmed, more or less, and Luffy is relieved: "That's Kin'emon! I'm glad you're okay!" Kin'emon tells them, "Please go on ahead. We shall catch up with you before you know it." When Zoro tells the dragon it is time to turn around, Luffy protests that the dragon is one of them now and says they are coming down to get the samurai. The samurai insist again that the group continue upward.

The climb becomes exhausting. Usopp begs, "Ryuu! Turn around..." while the dragon coughs and gasps. Luffy and others look horrified, but Robin says, "So... adorable..." Zoro argues that the mission has to be finished as soon as possible, even if it means pressing on. The dragon is pitied as "Poor Ryuu," because they cannot simply ask him to turn around now. The dragon apologetically says it looks like they will go ahead after all and that they will meet the samurai there. Robin tells him to do his best. A voice from above suddenly calls them scum and warns that unauthorized entry into the country will not be permitted, ordering them to hurry and go. The crew hears an unfamiliar voice amid the ruckus.

The dragon pushes on as the party finally sees the summit. Someone cries, "I see the summit!!!!" and everyone cheers him forward: "You got this!" "Just a bit to go!" "Hang in there!!!" and "Do your best!!" The exhausted creature pants "Huff... puff..." while the crew calls, "Ryuunosuke!!" and "Ryuuno-suke!!!" Luffy shouts encouragement from the back as the dragon scales the last stretch of the enormous elephant. Despite the warning voice, the crew is now focused on reaching the top and surviving the final climb. The page lingers on the dragon's effort and the group's emotional investment in their strange temporary companion.

At last the party reaches the top, and Luffy throws his arms up shouting, "We made it!!!" The dragon, now affectionately called Ryuunosuke, grins through his exhaustion. Robin gently asks, "You'll be reverting back to a painting, right?" and the drawn creature begins to melt back into ink. Ryuunosuke says "Ryuu..." and "Sssssst..." as he loses form. The crew reacts with grief and gratitude, calling "Ryuunosuke..." and "Ryuunosuke...!!!" while someone yells, "Oi!! Wait a sec!" Ryuunosuke's drawn body dissolves, leaving only the memory of the creature that carried them all the way up the elephant's leg.

The crew mourns Ryuunosuke with overblown emotion, shouting his name as the drawing disappears. Law dryly says it was just a crappy old drawing anyway, while Zoro snaps, "Hold up, I heard that!!! Take that back, you jerks!!" Someone insists Ryuunosuke worked his butt off to take them all the way there. Zoro tells everyone to invest their concentration in what lies ahead because they have set foot into unknown land and do not have the luxury of looking back. The crew then sees the gates to the country, complete with sentry watchtowers. They marvel that an entire civilization truly exists on the back of the elephant, though Robin notes that the place seems pretty undermanned for the only way into an entire country, and that she sees no guards.

A breathtaking view opens before the crew. Luffy cries, "So awesome!!!" and asks whether all of this is truly on the back of an elephant. Usopp calls out that Luffy should not waste any time and should come look, because it is amazing. The country stretches out with forests, rivers, cliffs, buildings, and even entire towns. One voice says it feels like they are on another island, while Luffy realizes there is an entire country there. He marvels that all of it rests on the back of a gigantic thousand-year elephant. The wide view shows an impossible hidden land suspended high above the sea, turning the crew's climb into the start of a new exploration.

Luffy immediately leaps toward the town, yelling "Wahoooooo!!" and "Ah!!" Usopp sees the town and stammers that it is kind of strange, while another voice shouts, "Luffy jumped off!!" Zoro wonders whether they should go on ahead without waiting for Kin'emon, but Robin points out that the place may be huge and is not like an entire continent or anything, so they should keep moving. The crew notices that the gates are wide open because someone busted them open. Usopp says Luffy did not need to jump over the walls because the gates were wide open, and Luffy, already ahead, calls back, "Wait! I'm headed towards you guys now!" The broken gate hints that something serious happened before their arrival.

The path into the forest looks wrong. Someone observes that the tracks are still fresh and asks if it is safe or whether whoever made them is okay. Robin says this is clearly the remnants of some kind of destruction. Another notes that the path is too wide to have been made by the beasts of the forest and seems off. Zoro decides they had better tread lightly. Usopp panics that they do not even know who or what lies beyond, and asks if they are going to jump the gun and assume they are enemies. As they move onward, the party notices elephant skin, strange flowers blooming in weird and awkward places, and a path that is definitely not people-friendly. The whole country feels damaged, abandoned, and hostile.

The crew tries to make sense of the destruction. One asks what happened to Bartiete, while another observes that the lesser minks appear to have passed straight through the gates, meaning someone has probably been taken out. Luffy races into the town yelling, "It's the town!!" and "Wooaah!!" but the settlement is empty and devastated. He calls out, "Sanjii~ Nami~ Chopperrrrrr!! Brook!!" and remembers Caesar only as "gas... whatever your name was!" The ruins stretch before him, with broken buildings and rubble everywhere. Luffy shouts that it is so empty and that the country is a total mess, realizing that the place where his friends should have arrived has already suffered a major disaster.

The group studies the wreckage more carefully. Franky asks, "What happened!?" and points out that there is not even the faintest smell of gunpowder, nor gas. Usopp says he has a bad feeling and wonders why they cannot ever explore some place peaceful that does not make his skin crawl. Then the crew hears something. They snap to attention as a figure attacks from above, and Zoro steps forward. He draws his swords and says, "This one's mine..." The attacker rushes down through the forest toward the group. The lack of gunpowder or gas suggests the devastation was not caused by ordinary weapons or Caesar's poison, deepening the mystery as the first local defender strikes.

Zoro clashes with the airborne attacker, whose long leap creates a sweeping arc. Someone reacts with "!!?" as Zoro meets her strike, and Usopp warns, "Hold it right there!!" The attacker seems to float in mid-air, prompting surprise: "She's in mid-air...!!" and "Floating!!" Luffy is hit hard enough to cry "Ugh!!" as the fight spills through the ruined path. The panels show the mink's powerful mobility and unusual movement, suggesting that this enemy can spring through the air with impossible agility. Zoro keeps his guard up, but the crew is caught off balance by a local fighter who can attack from above and move in ways they do not understand.

The attack intensifies as Luffy screams, "Gyaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaa!!!" A rabbit-like mink named Carrot is called to stop: "Halt, Carrot!" Another mink, wearing Nami's clothes, rushes in and orders, "Leave them be!!" She says they need to deal with the intruders in the Whale's Forest, while the Straw Hats reel from the shock of talking animals. Usopp cries, "Wah!! Talking animals!" and notices, "Those clothes...! They're Nami's!!!" The page reveals that they are the Mink Tribe. The narration teases that the Mink Tribe is in the middle of a raid, but could it be chaos among perhaps Nami and the others? The chapter ends with the crew facing the minks and the mystery of Nami's clothing.

No description for this page.