Chapter Summaries

Ye Mu trapped the Marines and civilians around the auction venue in a massive fire cage, then raised its temperature beyond Kuzan’s ability to contain. Zephyr realized Heaven was absorbing the flames and prepared to attack Ye Mu directly.

• Ye Mu summoned a fire dragon that split into nine and formed a flaming cage around the auction venue and much of Sabaody Archipelago Island 1.
• Borsalino recognized that Ye Mu intended to take everyone hostage, while the trapped Marines and civilians panicked in the heat.
• Kuzan froze the fire cage, but Ye Mu raised its temperature to 2,000 degrees, melting and vaporizing the ice.
• Zephyr noticed that Heaven was absorbing the flames, then covered his arms in Armament Haki and vowed to defeat Ye Mu.

Ye Mu forced the Marines to choose between surrender and death, then demonstrated the Sky Pirates’ strength by having Enel and Tiger repel attacks from Kuzan and Borsalino. He raised the formation’s temperature to 3,000 degrees, triggering a Marine rout while Zephyr remained determined to capture the pirates.

• Ye Mu opened an escape gate and told the Marines they could leave if they laid down their weapons, citing his agreement with Kuzan.
• Spectators surrendered their weapons and escaped through the gate as Zephyr questioned Ye Mu’s purpose.
• Kuzan and Borsalino attacked Ye Mu, but Enel and Tiger blocked their strikes and the blast carved a fissure through the island’s roots.
• Borsalino recognized that Enel and Tiger had advanced to near-admiral levels, while Zephyr resolved to capture the Sky Pirates.
• Ye Mu unleashed Divine Fire: 3000 Degrees, and Kuzan’s Ice Age could not prevent terrified Marines from abandoning their weapons and fleeing.

Ye Mu escaped Sabaody Archipelago by forcing Zephyr to choose between pursuing him and saving the Marines trapped in the growing fire. At Pangaea Castle, Kong reported the failure to the Five Elders, who ordered CP0 to act and discussed replacing the Navy’s senior leaders.

• Zephyr realized Ye Mu intended to awaken the world against its rulers, and Ye Mu hinted that he knew about a hidden power behind the Five Elders.
• Ye Mu sealed the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Formation and explained that the burning Yarukiman Mangrove would make its heat and smoke grow worse unless Zephyr let him go.
• Ye Mu flew away with Tiger while Enel followed, and Zephyr stayed behind to protect his subordinates as Borsalino questioned his choice.
• Kong told the Five Elders that the Navy had failed to stop Ye Mu at Sabaody, and he left after they dismissed his objections.
• The Five Elders discussed Ye Mu’s unusual Flame-Flame Fruit abilities, ordered CP0 to act, and considered replacing Navy leaders with Sengoku.

After escaping the World Government’s search in Sabaody, Ye Mu learned that the Government had ordered his erasure and prepared to sail for Fish-Man Island. He demonstrated the Hot-Hot Fruit’s power through Heaven and told Rayleigh that destiny did not matter as much as helping the world.

• Ye Mu, Shakky, Freya, and the others ate in the Door-Door Fruit’s separate space, where Shakky revealed the World Government had ordered Ye Mu erased and that New World powers were interested in him.
• Ye Mu said he welcomed enemies who might bring Devil Fruits and suggested everyone consider what their second Devil Fruit should be.
• Ye Mu called Garlan Annu to say goodbye before departing for Fish-Man Island and arranged for Rayleigh to deliver a giantess as her bodyguard.
• Ye Mu put on black wristbands that suppressed his Flame-Flame Fruit, then showed that he could channel the Hot-Hot Fruit’s power through Heaven and into his body.
• Rayleigh asked whether Ye Mu was the person destiny awaited, and Ye Mu denied it but said the world could benefit from having more than one correct answer.

The Sky Pirates descended beneath the sea toward Fish-Man Island, where Tiger was finally returning home after six years. Ye Mu outlined the crew’s plans to visit Freya’s homeland and Alchemy Island before seeking a New World base, potentially near the North Blue so they could help Flevance.

• The Twin Goddesses sank beneath the sea in a coating bubble, and Tiger became emotional as he neared home.
• Tiger explained the route to Fish-Man Island, and Ye Mu thanked him for guiding the ship while acknowledging the crew’s recent training.
• Ye Mu told the crew they would stay on Fish-Man Island, then visit the Gourmet Kingdom and Alchemy Island before establishing a base in the New World.
• Ye Mu revealed that Alchemy Island was said to hold Pure Gold, a metal that could slow aging, exciting Freya and Baby-5.
• Ye Mu proposed a base near the Calm Belt, preferably on the North Blue route, so the crew might one day help Eric and Ayala’s homeland, Flevance.

Ye Mu's crew prepared to save Flevance and set goals for their New World journey before descending into the great sea trench. There, they spotted traffickers fleeing with a captured mermaid, and Ye Mu attacked their ship.

• Eric thanked Ye Mu for helping him and Ayala, and Ye Mu urged him to train for the fight to save Flevance.
• Ayala asked to eat the Color-Color Fruit, but Ye Mu promised to find her a better Devil Fruit in the New World.
• Ye Mu discussed using Kuromi's Munch-Munch Fruit to give non-living objects Devil Fruit abilities and listed Pure Gold, the Gourmet Kingdom, Devil Fruits, and territory as the crew's next targets.
• Tiger steered the Twin Goddesses down the current into the great sea trench.
• A captain and his crew raced through the trench with a captive mermaid, hoping to sell her for a hundred million berries.
• Ye Mu appeared above the traffickers' ship and struck with his Shinto Sword-Wind Style: Cross Slash.

Jinbe and his companions discovered that an unknown swordsman had destroyed the traffickers’ ship, then reunited with Tiger as he returned to Fish-Man Island aboard the Twin Goddesses. As the group approached the island, a pirate ship recklessly burst through its bubble and drifted toward the surface.

• Jinbe, Aladdin, Arlong, and the Neptune Army generals stopped pursuing the traffickers when their shipwreck washed down from the trench.
• Jinbe recognized the smooth cuts in the wreckage as the work of a human swordsman, and the group feared another powerful pirate had arrived.
• Tiger appeared aboard the Twin Goddesses and reunited with Jinbe, Aladdin, and Arlong, declaring that he had returned to Fish-Man Island.
• Ye Mu watched Tiger become overwhelmed with emotion as the ship traveled beneath the Sunlight Tree Eve, while Freya learned how the tree brought sunlight to the island.
• Shark General warned the group that ships had to enter Fish-Man Island through its official border, but a pirate ship burst out of the surrounding bubble and drifted upward.

Eric destroyed a ship of mermaid traffickers, prompting Jinbe to respect Ye Mu’s companions and Tiger to ask about the worsening trafficking on Fish-Man Island. King Neptune welcomed the Sky Pirates to Ryugu Palace, where Queen Otohime began refusing Tiger’s offer to discuss the island’s troubles.

• General Shark tried to chase a ship suspected of carrying traffickers, but Ye Mu stopped him and called on Eric to act.
• Eric used a bubble and his twin blades to smash the traffickers’ ship with a powerful current slash.
• Jinbe explained that mermaids had been disappearing daily and that he had joined King Neptune’s royal army to help stop the traffickers.
• Tiger asked Ye Mu for help with Fish-Man Island’s trafficking problem, and Ye Mu said they should wait to meet King Neptune.
• King Neptune and Queen Otohime welcomed the Sky Pirates and hosted them at Ryugu Palace.
• Tiger raised the trafficking crisis at the banquet, but Queen Otohime said the matter belonged to Fish-Man Island.

At Ryugu Palace, a dispute over Fish-Man Island’s response to human pirates revealed that fear of provoking humans had left the island unable to defend itself. Ye Mu asked Otohime to sense Tiger’s pain, and she collapsed after feeling the darkness he had endured.

• Otohime criticized pirates, and Tiger angrily objected to her remarks in front of Ye Mu’s crew.
• Neptune explained that the kingdom army and Jinbe could not stop the pirates, while Enel and Arlong revealed that Otohime’s opposition to violence had constrained the fish-men’s response.
• Neptune defended his effort to seek peaceful relations with humans so Fish-Man Island could one day live beneath the sunlight.
• Ye Mu called the island’s people weak and asked Otohime to use her Observation Haki to listen to Tiger’s heart.
• Otohime sensed Tiger’s pain and darkness, then collapsed to the ground in tears.

Ye Mu proposed that Fish-Man Island enact and fairly enforce harsh laws against mermaid traffickers, while arming its people to find and punish them. Tiger gained Neptune’s support, and Ye Mu assigned his crew to help protect the island and put the plan into action.

• Ye Mu argued that Fish-Man Island should use strict laws, island-wide searches, and lethal punishment to deter mermaid traffickers, while enforcing the law fairly against locals and humans alike.
• Tiger thanked Ye Mu, pledged to try his plan, and knelt before Neptune and Otohime; Jinbe, Aladdin, and Arlong joined him in support.
• Neptune agreed to have the royal army cooperate with Tiger and provide reasonable assistance.
• Ye Mu ordered Enel to monitor the island for missing merfolk or fish-men, assigned Eric to support Jinbe, and put Freya in charge of helping Eric.
• Ye Mu asked Tiger to help draft laws and looked to Neptune and Otohime for further cooperation.

Ayala and the Sky Pirates began enforcing Fish-Man Island’s new laws alongside the Royal Army, arresting mermaid traffickers and pirates. Their actions changed the island’s atmosphere within a day, while residents learned that Tiger and Otohime were explaining the laws at Gyoncorde Plaza.

• Neptune agreed to help draft and enact laws for Fish-Man Island after Otohime pledged to support the island’s future.
• Three human traffickers harassed a mermaid maid at a bar, threatened the fish-men, and openly discussed selling the queen.
• Ayala arrived with Kurota and the maid, used Truth Fungus to incapacitate the traffickers, and sent them to prison for interrogation.
• Ayala introduced herself and Kurota as Sky Pirates working with the Royal Army to protect Fish-Man Island and enforce its laws.
• Sky Pirates and the Royal Army arrested traffickers and pirates across the island, and many criminals surrendered when they heard the Sky Pirates’ name.

Tiger and Princess Otohime presented Fish-Man Island’s new law against human trafficking and oversaw the execution of twelve convicted traffickers, including fish-men. Tiger urged the residents to help protect their homeland, while Otohime remained troubled by the bloodshed.

• Tiger and Princess Otohime introduced the Fish-Man Island Population Trafficking Management Law, which made human trafficking punishable by death regardless of the criminal’s race.
• The Minister of the Left announced the crimes of twelve prisoners, including fish-men who had colluded with human traffickers, and Tiger and Eric carried out their execution.
• The residents cheered the executions, while Princess Otohime questioned why humans and fish-men could not understand one another.
• A hooded person warned that the executions could provoke human retaliation and asked whether Fish-Man Island could punish powerful traffickers.
• Tiger defended the law and called on residents to join the royal army or patrols to protect their homeland and loved ones.

Ye Mu publicly promised to protect Fish-Man Island and lent the Sky Pirates’ name to its people so they could resist traffickers and pirates. More than ten days later, the island remained safer, and Ye Mu had gone with Tiger to another place.

• A hooded man challenged Tiger’s promise to protect Fish-Man Island after the Sky Pirates left, and Ye Mu answered that he would deal with anyone stronger than Tiger.
• Enel struck the fleeing hooded man with lightning, and Tiger called the kingdom’s army to take him away.
• Ye Mu explained that he and Tiger would eventually leave, then offered the Sky Pirates’ name to anyone on Fish-Man Island who resisted attackers.
• Over the next half month, no fish-men disappeared, and pirates and mermaid traffickers stayed quiet while the Sky Pirates remained on the island.
• Fish-men grew warm toward the Sky Pirates’ members, especially Eric, Freya, and the others who helped enforce the law, while Ye Mu followed Tiger to another place.

Ye Mu brought Tiger to the Fish-Man District to recruit fish-men warriors and challenged Tiger’s belief that Fish-Man Island could achieve peace by appealing to humans. He suggested fish-men could settle elsewhere and questioned whether Fish-Man Island’s location and the Sunlight Tree Eve were truly coincidences.

• Ye Mu saw the Fish-Man District’s orphaned children and said they were suited to becoming warriors for the Sky Pirates.
• Tiger admitted that recruiting fish-men elsewhere on Fish-Man Island had gone poorly, and Ye Mu criticized how Queen Otohime’s people had been conditioned not to resist.
• Ye Mu argued that peace sought without strength was fragile and said human reactions would change if fish-men competed with them for land and resources.
• Ye Mu suggested fish-men could find a home on an island in the Calm Belt, giving Tiger an alternative to living beneath the sun on land.
• Ye Mu called Fish-Man Island a cage and told Tiger that wherever fish-men and merfolk lived was Fish-Man Island.
• Ye Mu questioned why Fish-Man Island lay beneath Mary Geoise at the Red Line’s opening and why the Sunlight Tree Eve grew there, asking whether these were really coincidences.

Ye Mu gathered the Fish-Man District residents and used his Conqueror’s Haki to command their attention before offering them gold and a place in a new guard force. He named it the Sun Army, with Tiger as general, Jinbe as vice general, and Aladdin, Arlong, and Hatchan as officers.

• Jinbe told Ye Mu that only a few hundred fish-men suited to becoming warriors had gathered in the plaza.
• Ye Mu unleashed his Conqueror’s Haki, frightening the fish-men into silence, then praised their strength and potential.
• Jinbe’s subordinates brought out a chest of gold and jewels, which Ye Mu offered as military funds if the fish-men joined his force.
• Ye Mu established the Sun Army to protect Fish-Man Island and promised its members support if they trained into powerful warriors.
• Ye Mu appointed Tiger as general, Jinbe as vice general, and Aladdin, Arlong, and Hatchan as major officers.

Ye Mu recruited Fish-Man District residents into the Sun Army, appointing Hatchan as an officer, then clashed with King Neptune over raising an army outside the royal family’s control. Ordered to leave Fish-Man Island, Ye Mu agreed on the condition that he could search Ryugu Palace’s books and experience Sunlight Tree Eve up close.

• Ye Mu easily recruited Fish-Man District residents to the Sun Army with Tiger’s name and offers of treasure, and urged Hatchan to train hard as an officer.
• King Neptune summoned Ye Mu and accused him of privately recruiting outlaws and challenging the royal family’s authority.
• Ye Mu argued that Fish-Man Island needed warriors of its own and that the Sun Army would remain to protect it after he and Tiger left.
• King Neptune ordered Ye Mu to leave Fish-Man Island, and Ye Mu agreed if he could look through Ryugu Palace’s books and visit Sunlight Tree Eve up close.

Freya helped protect Fish-Man Island and reunited with Eric, while Ye Mu gathered the Sky Pirates to explore the Sunlight Tree Eve before they eventually departed. Queen Otohime then revealed that her Observation Haki could not hear Ye Mu’s heart, leaving King Neptune stunned.

• Freya defeated a human who had harassed a mermaid and accepted a pearl bracelet from the grateful locals.
• Freya found Eric holding hands with Lorelei, and Eric promised to return for her after he and Ye Mu gained a foothold in the New World.
• Baby-5 summoned the Sky Pirates to the Twin Goddesses, where Ye Mu introduced Den, Mr. Tom’s younger brother and a skilled shipwright.
• Ye Mu said the crew would stay on Fish-Man Island for about a week while Tiger organized the Sun Army and taught Haki, and announced that Den would guide them to see the Sunlight Tree Eve.
• As the Twin Goddesses set sail, Otohime told Neptune that her Observation Haki could not hear Ye Mu’s heart.

As Den guided the Twin Goddesses upward from Fish-Man Island, he explained how the Sunlight Tree Eve’s roots and resin formed the island’s protective bubbles. Ye Mu seized on Den’s description of the bubble as rubber and asked him to confirm what he had said.

• The Twin Goddesses rose from Fish-Man Island, and Freya and the others admired the island and the Sunlight Tree Eve’s roots from above.
• Den explained that the Sabaody Archipelago’s mangroves had separated from the Sunlight Tree Eve and described Fish-Man Island’s double-layered bubbles.
• Den demonstrated how Eve’s resin absorbed other bubbles, then explained that the outer bubble had become a resilient, rubber-like shield.
• Den pointed out an air storage facility built among the roots and explained its role in supplying and regulating Fish-Man Island’s air.
• Tiger noticed Ye Mu’s troubled expression, and Ye Mu asked Den whether he had just said “rubber.”

Ye Mu proposed that Fish-Man Island might sit at a weak point in the Red Line and imagined using Sunlight Tree Eve’s roots, the island, and a rubber Devil Fruit to smash through it. He left his crew questioning whether the Red Line had been created by gods, as the Celestial Dragons were called descendants of the creators and the Clan of D. their natural enemy.

• Ye Mu connected Den’s mention of rubber to the Gum-Gum Fruit, which he knew the protagonist would possess twenty years later.
• Ye Mu asked the crew to identify the weak point in a hard piece of wood, then suggested Fish-Man Island might mark a weak point in the Red Line.
• Tiger and the others considered Ye Mu’s idea that Sunlight Tree Eve’s roots could form a slingshot frame, with Fish-Man Island as the projectile.
• Baby-5 pointed out that the slingshot lacked a rubber band, and Ye Mu proposed using a Devil Fruit like the Gum-Gum Fruit to provide one.
• Ye Mu asked whether the Red Line had existed naturally or had been created, then connected the question to the Celestial Dragons and the Clan of D.

Ye Mu proposed that the Red Line and the submerged world might have been created by an ancient race, and that a conflict over whether to divide the world left a hidden passage beneath the sea. As the Twin Goddesses neared Sunlight Tree Eve, Ye Mu touched its trunk and was enveloped in radiant light.

• Ye Mu used Island Whales’ attempts to ram the Red Line as evidence that the barrier might not have existed from the beginning, shocking Tiger and Den.
• Ye Mu compared Long Ring Long Land to Freya’s bracelet and theorized that a sudden Red Line had raised the seas and submerged much of the world.
• Ye Mu guessed that ancient rulers had fought over whether to divide the world, and that the losing side had used Sunlight Tree Eve’s roots to preserve an underwater passage and bring light to Fish-Man Island.
• The Twin Goddesses approached Sunlight Tree Eve while the crew remained absorbed in Ye Mu’s theories.
• Ye Mu touched Sunlight Tree Eve’s trunk and was suddenly surrounded by dazzling light, appearing like a sun god.