Chapter Summaries

Nereus stopped Harald from attacking his ship in the Florian Triangle, then warned him that the World Government was not trustworthy and that Rocks had left a warning about Elbaf. Harald was left grieving Rocks and more determined to secure Elbaf’s peaceful integration.

• Harald mistook Nereus’s ship for an ordinary Pirate vessel and attacked, but Nereus blocked his sword strike and retaliated.
• Harald explained that the World Government had ordered him to eliminate Pirates and that he had broken off his horn to atone for the Giant Race’s past.
• Nereus questioned whether the World Government would ever let Giants live peacefully and warned that its leader had long coveted Elbaf.
• Nereus told Harald that Rocks had encountered matters connected to the World Government and could not trust him even in death.
• After Nereus left, Harald wept over abandoning Rocks and reaffirmed his resolve to integrate Elbaf peacefully without letting anyone use the issue against his people.

Nereus and his crew followed the currents through the Florian Triangle and found Brook, the long-isolated skeleton musician. Brook recognized Nereus’s name but called him a rookie, prompting Hermes to angrily defend him.

• Ginny and Nanamo discussed the Giant Race after spotting Harald, while Kuma wondered whether he might grow horns.
• Nereus’s crew found a current that could lead them toward their target and followed it through the tangled waters.
• The crew heard Brook singing in the fog and spotted his battered ship, while Brook thought he saw a mermaid on their vessel.
• Remembering his dead companions, Brook played a familiar tune until Nanamo arrived and applauded him.
• Brook asked Nanamo who her father was, then recalled Nereus as a troublesome rookie from the newspapers.
• Hermes rebuked Brook for calling Nereus a rookie and warned that the skeleton seemed dangerous.

Nereus found Brook and offered him a place aboard his ship, sharing news of Laboon and promising to take him to Twin Capes. After Brook joined the crew, Nanamo tested his musical skills and offered to arrange an earlier passage if his performance impressed her.

• Nereus told Brook that it was March 1504 and explained that he had learned about Laboon from a dolphin.
• Brook accepted Nereus's offer to join the crew and bring him to Twin Capes, then retrieved a box containing his companions' remains.
• Brook watched his old vessel disappear into the mist before changing into a suit aboard Nereus's ship.
• The ship's crew reacted to Brook's skeleton body, while Nanamo brought him to the music room to assess his playing.
• Nanamo asked Brook to play 'Binks' Sake' and promised to ask Nereus to arrange a ship ahead of time if she liked his performance.

Brook joined Nereus’s crew and, after Kadar reassured him that he did not need to work so hard to earn their acceptance, became more at ease among his new companions. At the Sabaody Archipelago, the crew sought coating supplies while Nereus learned that a human auction had been moved up to that afternoon.

• Brook played Binks' Sake, and Nanamo decided his talent could overshadow her at a concert.
• Kadar told Brook that the crew accepted him as a companion and did not expect him to please everyone; Brook opened up and grew more comfortable.
• Nereus’s ship arrived in the Sabaody Archipelago’s shipyard district so the crew could buy coating materials.
• Kadar warned Brook and the others that the local coating merchants were dishonest, and the crew turned down their sales pitches.
• Nereus received word that the next human auction had been moved up and would take place that afternoon.

Nereus prepared a covert raid on a Sabaody Archipelago slave auction, using Karma’s intelligence to track traffickers and rescue their captives. As the auction began, Sebastian and Nereus infiltrated the venue, where its manager Zeko awaited a rumored Mermaid.

• Karma reported that his undercover work had uncovered information about the traffickers, and Nereus warned him to remain vigilant.
• Nereus ordered the crew to prepare their ship for a swift escape and assigned Kuma and Amphi to stay aboard while combat personnel dealt with the Marines.
• Nereus and Sebastian planned to infiltrate the auction house using disguises, and Sebastian revealed that he could turn invisible.
• The human auction house in Grove 1 filled with buyers as Zeko arranged the order of slaves to be sold and hoped to profit from a Mermaid.
• Sebastian slipped backstage invisibly while Zeko dismissed fears that Nereus would attack the auction.

Nereus and his group raided a slave auction in Sabaody Archipelago, freeing the captives and fighting the Marines who responded. Kong ordered the garrison not to interfere as long as Nereus left government and Marine installations alone.

• Sebastian captured Zeko, took the keys, and freed the slaves by opening their cages and removing their explosive collars.
• Nereus and his group attacked the auction house, killing those who tried to stop them while leaving the freed captives' hand shackles in place for their protection.
• The Marines sent a vanguard to the auction house, but Nereus wiped it out and revealed his identity during the fighting.
• Kong considered sending reinforcements but found no Admiral available, while Garp refused to go.
• Kong ordered the Sabaody Archipelago garrison to let Nereus leave unless he attacked government or Marine installations.

Kong ordered the Marines to let Nereus leave Sabaody, while Mary Geoise demanded that the escaped slaves be recaptured. Nereus escaped with the slaves after Collier sent soldiers to their deaths, and he entered the River of Death to speak with Xebec.

• Garp criticized Kong for failing to warn Sabaody about Nereus, then asked whether the Marines would cover up the incident.
• Kong confirmed that the Marines would keep the attack quiet, and Garp called their justice a joke.
• Collier received conflicting orders from Marine Headquarters and Mary Geoise, then sent soldiers after the slaves despite knowing they would face Nereus.
• Nereus’s ship began diving with the slaves aboard, and the Marines he killed were left scattered along the shore.
• Kuma questioned the Marines’ claims of justice, and Nereus said the world had to be changed despite the bloodshed.
• Nereus entered the River of Death and asked Xebec whether he wanted something to do.

Nereus sent Rocks out of the River of Death to attack the World Government, and Rocks chose to strike under the threat of his own resurrection. After destroying the Marine base and a World Government office on Sabaody, Rocks was reported to Kong as the Avenger of Hell.

• Nereus told Rocks he could leave the River of Death and asked him to cause trouble for the World Government.
• Rocks proposed using the name Davy D. Jones as well as his own to confuse Imu, and Nereus warned him that he could still be destroyed in battle.
• Nereus ordered Rocks to kill the commander of the Marine base on the Sabaody Archipelago.
• Rocks traveled to Sabaody and obliterated the Marine base with his Abyssal Curse, leaving surviving soldiers to spread the news.
• Rocks spotted a nearby World Government office and declared that he had returned from hell to take revenge.
• A report informed Kong that the attacker had been Rocks D. Zebek, who called himself the Avenger of Hell.

After Rocks was blamed for the attack on the Sabaody naval base, Garp investigated and found evidence that seemed to confirm the attacker’s identity, including a photograph in which the swordsman was missing. The World Government dismissed the incident as impersonation, but conflicting reports spread and Rocks’s name returned to public attention.

• Kong questioned Garp about Rocks’s apparent return, and Garp explained that he had seen Rocks die after Roger and Nereus fought him.
• Garp ordered the messenger to report to his ship and told Kong that Rocks’s supposed death had been confirmed by the World Government.
• Garp arrived at Sabaody with Bogard, who secured the scene and discovered a photograph that showed a massive slash but no swordsman.
• Garp recognized Rocks in a reporter’s sketch and reported the strange evidence after inspecting the island and dealing with pirates.
• At Mary Geoise, Saturn and Figarland rejected the idea that Rocks had survived and classified the attacker as an impersonator.
• Two competing reports spread, one claiming Rocks’s ghost had returned and another claiming someone was using his name, reviving public interest in Rocks.

Nereus screened the rescued slaves and kept the suspected criminal pirates under guard while his group sailed beneath the sea. When one pirate took Nanamo hostage to force them to surface, an eight-year-old Mink child freed her, and Nereus questioned why she had let herself be grabbed.

• Nereus reviewed the rescued slaves’ records and had his crew free and comfort the ordinary people while keeping the pirates chained.
• Nereus explained that the pirates would be investigated and released only if their crimes did not make them a danger to Delta Island; otherwise, they would be handed over to the Navy.
• A pirate grabbed Nanamo by the throat and threatened to harm her unless the ship surfaced and let the pirates go.
• An eight-year-old Mink child bit the pirate’s wrist with an electric shock and knocked him away from Nanamo.
• Nereus asked Nanamo why she had let the pirate seize her, and she said she had wanted to look cool by turning the tables on him.

Nanamo handled a pirate attack aboard the ship while arguing with Nereus about her training and his habit of taking risks. After the attackers were defeated, Nereus personally registered the Mink Tribe member who had tried to intervene.

• Nanamo realized that either admitting she missed an ambush or admitting she knowingly ignored it would earn her extra training.
• Nanamo stopped a Mink Tribe member from intervening and sent her back to the crowd as Hermes prepared to attack the pirates.
• Hermes fired a storm of Iron Cloud needles that defeated most of the pirates, and Nanamo punched the remaining attackers.
• Nanamo counted the defeated pirates’ bounties and celebrated the money while Big Pan reassured the Mink Tribe member about the ship’s bubble coating.
• Nereus registered new information from the people aboard and personally questioned the Mink Tribe member who had drawn his attention.

Nereus welcomed Luna, a young wolf mink without a Vivre Card, as an apprentice and returned with his group to Fish-Man Island, where his crew had secured the island. As the newcomers settled in, Kuma began to see Nereus as a figure who embodied freedom.

• Nereus asked Luna about her origins and learned she had left Zou without a Vivre Card, so he offered to take her back when the crew reached the New World.
• Luna explained that she wanted reliable companions after humans captured her, and Nereus accepted her as an apprentice on his ship.
• Nereus returned to Fish-Man Island and heard from Sambel that the island was peaceful and that Roger's group had passed through half a month earlier before clashing with the World Government.
• Brook entertained Luna with a large bone-in slab of meat while the group relaxed at their hotel in Coral Hill.
• Kuma watched everyone laugh and eat, then told Ginny that Nereus might represent the legendary Nika's will of freedom.

Nereus and his allies prepared a coup to take the throne of Fish-Man Island with as little bloodshed as possible. That night, Nereus, Sebastian, Sambel, and Babel entered Ryugu Palace to confront King Pontus.

• Nereus told his officers that he wanted to become king to improve Fish-Man Island and asked them to help usher in a new era.
• Sebastian and Babel said the Fish-Man District and many other residents supported Nereus, while Babel warned that some still remained loyal to the royal family.
• Nereus ordered his allies to begin the coup and finish it before dawn.
• Nereus left the hotel that night with Sebastian, Sambel, and Babel, telling the front-desk mermaid that everything would be different by morning.
• At Ryugu Palace, Nereus refused to wait for the guards to announce him to King Pontus, and Sambel subdued the guards when they tried to stop him.

Nereus and his allies stormed Ryugu Palace so he could claim Fish-Man Island’s throne, and Pontus accepted that he could not stop them. Before they parted, Pontus warned Nereus to find and protect Poseidon, the Mermaid princess who could command the Sea Kings.

• Sambel disarmed the palace guards and secured the gates while Sebastian and Babel followed Nereus, knocking soldiers unconscious.
• Nereus reached Pontus’s throne room and declared that Fish-Man Island needed a new king.
• Pontus dismissed his guards and asked to speak with Nereus alone.
• Nereus accused the royal family of allowing Fish-Man Island’s defenses and safety to deteriorate, arguing that his rule would be better despite his being a Pirate.
• Pontus told Nereus that Poseidon was an Ancient Weapon born as a Mermaid princess and urged him to find her before she fell into someone else’s hands.

Pontus explained why the World Government feared Poseidon and challenged Nereus to a duel for the throne of Fish-Man Island. Nereus killed Pontus with a single strike, leaving Neptune alive and declaring that Fish-Man Island would enter a new era.

• Pontus told Nereus that the World Government had spared Fish-Man Island because it feared Poseidon awakening amid a massacre.
• Pontus said one of them would die that night and challenged Nereus to a duel for the throne.
• Neptune intervened and urged Pontus to leave, but Pontus asked Nereus to spare his son if he lost.
• Nereus agreed, and Pontus told Neptune not to seek revenge if he died.
• Pontus attacked Nereus with Merfolk Art: Ocean Vortex, but Nereus shattered the water spear and killed him with one punch.
• Nereus declared that Fish-Man Island would enter a glorious new era.

Nereus took the throne of Fish-Man Island after killing Pontus, while Neptune accepted his father’s wishes and prepared to leave with Pontus’s body. By dawn, news of Nereus’s ascension had spread, and many welcomed him as their new king.

• Nereus allowed Neptune to take Pontus’s body and belongings, and Neptune chose to bury him in the Sea Forest.
• Nereus told Neptune to gather Pontus’s loyal subordinates so they could leave Fish-Man Island with him if they wished.
• Neptune ordered the Ryugu Palace soldiers to lay down their weapons and recognize Nereus as king.
• Neptune left with a small group of followers, while most soldiers remained under Nereus’s rule.
• Nereus refused Sebastian’s suggestion to hunt Neptune down, saying he would honor his promise.
• The Neptune Army and residents began celebrating Nereus’s ascension, and the news reached an inn in Coral Hill.

Nereus declared himself the new king of Fish-Man Island, promising safety and a new era as residents gathered in Gyoncorde Plaza. He left the crowd convinced of his resolve after killing Pirates who tried to kidnap Mermaids.

• Nereus announced that the former royalty had become history and promised to make Fish-Man Island safer and more powerful.
• Residents, especially those from the Fish-Man District and people Nereus had helped, chanted his name and accepted him as king.
• Ginny, Kuma, Amphitrite, Luna, and Nereus's human subordinates watched the gathering from a quieter area.
• Nereus sensed Pirates kidnapping two Mermaids at the edge of the crowd and lifted them into the air with his power.
• Nereus freed the Mermaids, killed the Pirates, and declared that any citizen illegally taken from Fish-Man Island would be his shame.

Nereus reorganized Fish-Man Island’s defenses as news of his rule spread across the seas, drawing varied reactions from former Rocks Pirates and others. In Water 7, Tom wondered whether to reveal the blueprints for the ancient weapon Pluton.

• Nereus told Sambel to strengthen Fish-Man Island’s checkpoints and survey citizens’ Fish Type abilities for military recruitment.
• Newspapers spread the news of Nereus’s rise, and Kaido, Whitebeard, Ochoku, Golden Lion, and Buckin reacted to it in different ways.
• Kokoro told Tom that Nereus had become king of Fish-Man Island, and Tom admitted he was troubled by a choice.
• Tom considered whether revealing the Pluton blueprints would bring hope or plunge the world into disaster.

Tom considered whether Fish-Man Island could build Pluto using the blueprints in his possession, but decided the island was not ready. As Nereus’s rule drew little immediate attention from the World Government, Umit warned his Underworld shipping network to avoid trafficking Fish-Men and mermaids.

• Tom judged that Pluto might be built with the help of Fish-Man Island’s shipwrights and the Galley-La Hammer Corps, but chose to wait until the island was ready.
• Saturn and Nusjuro dismissed Nereus’s kingship as a concern and focused instead on finding the Figarland child and tracking Roger.
• Dragon wondered whether Nereus’s actions were part of a reform, while Wobigon read the news and returned to his research.
• Umit gathered his Underworld subordinates by Den Den Mushi and ordered them not to transport Fish-Man or mermaid slaves through Fish-Man Island.

Nereus began reorganizing Fish-Man Island’s government and preparing a major military reform, while Nanamo explored the palace treasury. He left the story recruiting a new core force from the Fish-Man District.

• Umit decided to keep the subordinate who had raised concerns close to him and considered killing him if he proved too dangerous.
• Nereus retained the Minister of the Left temporarily, accepted the Minister of the Right’s resignation, and realized he lacked a suitable civil official among his subordinates.
• Nanamo brought Nereus population records and asked to visit the treasure vault, where Nereus warned Hermes not to let her touch the Tamatebako.
• Nereus visited the Fish-Man District, gathered its residents, and announced plans to expand and reform Fish-Man Island’s military by recruiting a new core group.