The Everlasting One Piece Readalong: Vols. 22-24

Welcome back to the Everlasting One Piece Readalong as we follow along with the Straw Hat pirates on their adventures. If you’re new to the readalong, check out past installments in the project tag. You can read along using the official text for the readalong: the big omnibus collections that pull three volumes of One Piece into one handy book.

Volume 22-24 Overview

The final showdown between Luffy and Crocodile has arrived. How will Luffy defeat him when he’s so incredibly powerful? As Luffy fights, the rest of the Straw Hats struggle to prevent a giant explosion that will wipe Alubarna off the map. Plus, we learn more details about the history and politics of the Grand Line.

The Adventure Continues

As the Straw Hats regroup after their individual battles, at the palace Crocodile is facing a challenger in the Kicking Claw Force. They’re an elite team that protects the king, and to gain strength they take a lethal potion that gives them extra power. But because they fight physically, they can’t touch Crocodile, and he just scoffs at their attempts. He won’t even kill them and leaves them to suffer. Enraged at Crocodile’s behavior, Chaka attacks!

Devil Fruit Alert!
Chaka ate the Mutt Mutt Fruit, Jackal-Type which is a Zoan-type that allows him to change form and use similar skills as a jackal and gives him increased strength.
Back to the Action!
Chaka’s attack doesn’t make a difference. Crocodile stabs him with the hook on his hand just like he did to Luffy. As Crocodile tosses Chaka’s body aside the bombs set in the palace square inch closer to their detonation time. Crocodile may be enjoying toying with everyone, but as he soaked up the limelight, Koza was using a secret passage he learned as a kid to get inside. He surprises everyone when he appears and takes in the scene: the King pinned to the wall with his allies injured, and Crocodile standing over it all. Crocodile laughs it off and admits to everything: everything that Koza is fighting for was built on a lie Crocodile created, developed, and took advantage of. Now there will be a huge explosion that will kill and injure everyone nearby. Koza and the rebels were playing right into Crocodile’s hands!
Cobra urges Koza to save as many people as he can, but Vivi stops him: she argues that if the royal army learns of the impending explosion, they will only be able to extrapolate that it was the rebels who planted it. Instead, Koza has to stop the rebel army himself. Crocodile isn’t pleased about this turn of events, but before he can stop Vivi and Koza, Chaka finds another wind and guards them so Koza can rush out to prevent more violence. But even though Koza makes it outside and raises the white flag to surrender, a Baroque Works agent in the crowd—disguised as royal army—shoots him, and all the rebels see is the king’s men taking down their leader.
Confusion reigns, and then another shot is fired at the royal army—this time from a Baroque Works agent that infiltrated the rebels. There’s nothing Koza can do to stop the fight that begins. From her vantage point, Vivi is crushed, and Crocodile grabs her and dangles her over the edge of the palace by her neck. Vivi’s strength is that she cares deeply about people, and wants to save as many people as she can. She doesn’t like leaving anyone behind when there’s still a chance to rescue them. But Crocodile mocks her for her idealism, and then drops her over the side of the building, to the horror of Cobra.
But wait! As Crocodile laughs, a bird swoops down from high in the sky—it’s Pell, and he’s brought Luffy, who is ticked off with Crocodile. Luffy catches Vivi in her free fall, and Pell carries them away. When they land, they find the other Straw Hats, too, who are just regrouping. They’re thrilled to see Luffy. Luffy is renewed and ready for his rematch with Crocodile. He admits to his team that he lost, but now he’s in it to win it.
Crocodile can’t believe Luffy escaped the quicksand. Clearly Robin didn’t tell her boss that she freed Luffy herself, and Luffy doesn’t volunteer the information, either: this will not be the first fact about Robin he keeps to himself. Crocodile is resigned to another boring fight, except this time, when Luffy launches himself up, his punch connects! Crocodile goes flying back, allowing Luffy to hit him again. During their last battle, Luffy noticed that when Crocodile got wet, he couldn’t turn to sand. So this time, Luffy’s outfitted himself with a water system to help him stay soaked so he can fight Crocodile properly. With a few good hits already in, it seems like its time: the final showdown between Luffy and Crocodile!
Of course, Crocodile is no slouch fighter, even if Luffy has figured out his weakness. And Luffy is handicapped by the fact he has to carry around a barrel of water. So, to prevent problems: he drinks it all, turning himself into…a water balloon? Offbeat as it may be, it allows Luffy more freedom, and he soaks Crocodile before unleashing another successful attack as Cobra and Robin look on, one shocked and the other amused at Luffy’s creativity.
The Straw Hats, down in the city, set out on a search for the person who will set off the explosion that’s bearing down on Alubarna: Vivi is certain they’re in the square. Baroque Works agents are still in the crowds, though, and the Straw Hats have to navigate them, too, because they still want to capture Vivi for Crocodile, not realizing they’re on his chopping block, too.
Robin takes Cobra away to find the Ponegliff. As she’s leaving Crocodile approves her plan, because it’s about to get very dangerous around him. Crocodile presses his right hand to the ground, and everything starts dying or disintegrating—even Luffy’s shoes. Luffy barely keeps from falling off the crumbling building, and Crocodile laughs as he hauls him up and sucks all the moisture from his body, leaving Luffy a dried out husk! As Crocodile seems to win his second battle with Luffy, Robin marches Cobra through the streets, disregarding the Navy troops that try to stop her. Cobra begs the Navy, led by Tashigi, to help the citizens instead, because of the impending explosion. Tashigi tries to focus on capturing Robin, who we learn was labeled a threat at a very young age for destroying multiple Navy ships. Robin’s Devil Fruit power, though, can make her untouchable even when faced with thirty would-be captors. When only Tashigi is left, Robin forces her to turn her own sword on herself. Robin really wants that Ponegliff.
When they arrive at the Royal Mausoleum, where the Ponegliff is kept, Robin reveals to Cobra the reason that Crocodile can’t kill her is because she can read the Ponegliff, which Cobra didn’t realize was possible. Apparently, the language on the Ponegliff was lost and reading that language is a very rare skill. Crocodile believes the location of the Pluton must be on the Ponegliff, so he needs Robin to translate.
At the palace, Crocodile drops a dried out Luffy to the ground and leaves. But a quick flashback shows that Luffy spat a huge ball of water into the air before Crocodile drained him, and when it falls back down it splashes and renews him (don’t think about it too closely…just pretend Luffy has the properties of a tardigrade). Luffy gives chase, and finds Tashigi beaten up on the road. He demands to know where Crocodile went. Tashigi, thinking about how Crocodile just walked by and mocked her, the Navy, and her boss, opts to help Luffy out and tells him the way. He doesn’t make it, though; instead, as the fight between the rebels and the royal army rages, the Straw Hats look for the bomb, and Robin finally reads the Ponegliff, Luffy finally succumbs to his injuries and collapses.
When Crocodile arrives in the Royal Mausoleum, he has Robin read the Ponegliff for him: she rattles off the royal history of Alabasta, and tells him the information about the Pluton isn’t recorded. Crocodile set the years-long plan in motion with this as one of his triumphs and the information he was after isn’t even available. In a flash, he turns on Robin and attacks, because she’s served her purpose and failed to help him find the Pluton like she promised when she first approached him. After he’s finished, he realizes that the whole place seems unstable, but it’s too early for the bomb to have gone off. Cobra reveals he destroyed a column, and the whole place will collapse, trapping crocodile with him. Crocodile can just drain the moisture from the stones and escape, so he’s not too worried. Poor Cobra! He can’t seem to save his country no matter what.
In the place square, Vivi is still looking for the bomb. She’s frustrated because it must be large but they’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it. That’s when she remembers playing with Koza and her friends when they were kids, and where they would go to hide: she passes the news along immediately so the Straw Hats, spread across the city, can meet up.
Meanwhile Luffy, who looked down for the count—snuffles away. He was just napping! This kid can give any reader looking for a neat resolution to a battle a complex. He races after Crocodile again, and finds the entrance to the Royal Mausoleum.
While the Straw Hats and Vivi deal with Baroque Works agents and Zoro gets the surprise of his life as the Navy helps him to save the city from the explosion, Luffy faces Crocodile a third time: maybe this will be the final battle? He wants Vivi to be happy at last, because she cares so deeply about Alabasta while Crocodile doesn’t care at all: it’s just another tool for Crocodile to use and discard. Even without water, Luffy is able to land multiple hits on Crocodile, using his own blood. Luffy is hardcore. Even Crocodile recognizes that they’re at an impasse again, so he takes the cover off his hook: it reveals a poisoned hook tip. It’s a fight to the death!

Luffy and Crocodile dive into battle as Cobra looks on, amazed at Luffy’s tenacity. In the city, Vivi has figured out that the bomb and its operators have to be in the clock tower, because it has the best vantage point. They all race there to find Mr. 7 and Miss Father’s Day are controlling the bomb, with thirty seconds left before detonation. The Straw Hats use their combined strength to launch Vivi up to where the agents are.
Luffy and Crocodile are still fighting, although Crocodile can’t believe Luffy won’t give up after how many times he’s been stabbed with Crocodile’s poisoned hook. He asks Luffy why he doesn’t just walk away and why he’s willing to die for a cause that doesn’t even belong to him. Oops, Crocodile, you really don’t understand Luffy at all. He’s a pirate, but he’s also incredibly loyal, with a strong heart, and a lot of love for his friends. He believes in their dreams, and Vivi’s dream is for her country to survive and flourish. She wants to save her home, and so Luffy wants that future for her, too. Of course Crocodile can’t understand Luffy’s position. He doesn’t have any friends, not even Robin, who served him as Ms. All-Sunday for years. He turned on everyone allied with him out of greed and pettiness.

Luffy finally collapses as the poison kicks in, and Crocodile spends some time blowing hot air and gloating about how he’s so much better than Luffy as a fighter and a pirate. Even though he’s evil, he’s also a little sad. What’s the point of amassing power and status if you have no one to share it with? There’s being introverted and then there’s being a toxic jerk, and Crocodile definitely qualifies in the latter category. He even has the poisoned hook to prove it.
Back at the clock tower, Vivi manages to avoid the attack from Mr. 7 and Miss Father’s Day with help from Zoro and Chopper, but even though she cuts the fuse to the bomb, it continues to tick. Crocodile reveals to Cobra that he made sure the bomb would go off even if something happened to his agents at the same time that Vivi shouts down to the Straw Hats that there’s a timer on the bomb. She’s devastated, but behind her, Pell appears. He reminisces for a moment about his life watching Vivi grow up, and then he takes the bomb, still ticking, and flies it into the sky above the city.
As Pell carries the bomb away from Alubarna, Crocodile thinks he’s won, but Luffy still gets up, ignoring the taunts. As long as Vivi fights, so will Luffy. Anyway, he’s going to be King of the Pirates, although when he says that Crocodile lunges at him, infuriated he would think he had the power. But Luffy turns the tables and slams his hook into the ground, breaking off the poisoned edge. He sucks in huge amount of air, and blows Crocodile all the way to the ceiling of the mausoleum, and then he launches himself toward Crocodile and uses a vicious attack with bloody fists, over and over. Luffy punches Crocodile so hard into the ceiling that he breaks through and flies into the air via the force of Luffy’s fists. Cobra can’t believe Luffy managed it; he especially knows how thick the bedrock above the mausoleum is, that for Luffy to punch Crocodile all the way through is mind-blowing. Welcome to the world of Monkey D. Luffy and the strength of his resolve, King Cobra.
Outside, Vivi sees Crocodile’s body sailing through the air. Vivi is overjoyed; as the dust and clouds begin the clear, it starts to rain, too. Vivi tries to find the Straw Hats, who are heading away from the crowds quickly. On their way, they see Cobra, who has an unconscious Luffy slung over his back. Sanji asks for Luffy back, and Cobra shares that Luffy saved two people even after Crocodile hurt him so badly. Zoro recognizes Cobra as the king when Vivi arrives, and Usopp says they have to address the people together to really provide closure. She offers to tell everyone how they helped, but the Straw Hats don’t want the notoriety—they’re pirates, after all! Nami says they’ll head back to the palace to rest. Except, oops, they all collapse on the street, instead.
There’s still a lot of bad blood between the royal army and the rebels; after all, they saw the king destroy the city. But the little boy from Nanohana has come to Alubarna to tell everyone that all the people were imposters; it was never the king at all. Koza is ashamed, but Cobra tells everyone that it’s time to look toward the future. As he speaks, the Navy captures Crocodile and strips him of all his titles. The civil war is over! A whole country saved by pirates.
As everything starts to calm down in Alabasta, things are starting to heat up in the Navy. Tashigi helped Luffy, and then also wouldn’t let the Navy arrest the Straw Hats, who decided to nap in an alley where anyone could find them. She couldn’t defeat Robin, much less Crocodile, so she’s having a bad day. Although Smoker submitted his report to his superiors about the Straw Hats defeating Crocodile, the Navy persists in crediting Smoker and Tashigi for taking him down, raising their rank and giving them medals.
Captain Hina, Smoker’s colleague, tells him not to defy the Navy, because they don’t want word getting out about Crocodile being defeated by pirates—it makes them look bad, because they effectively let Crocodile do whatever he wanted, and justice wasn’t served by the actual authorities. They have to save face. Smoker isn’t having it: he tells them to shove their awards.
After a hard battle, Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats rest and eat, and enjoy Vivi’s hospitality for a few days, even though the Navy is thick around Alabasta. Nami knows that Vivi is tempted to go with them, but Vivi just got her kingdom back and she’s torn. The Straw Hats can’t stay, either, because as a result of the battle between Luffy and Crocodile, their bounties have gone up, making them prime targets for ambitious Navy captains. But they don’t know that, because they’ve already left, mysteriously.
On Captain Hina’s orders, The Navy has surrounded all the ports of Alabasta to ensure the Straw Hats can’t escape. She plans to capture them and bring them in. But as we learn in a quick flashback, the Straw Hats get a call from an old frenemy, Mr. 2; he’s taken their ship and wants to meet them. They leave with the Supersonic Duck Squadron and tell Vivi where to meet them later so she’ll have one more chance to join up with them. Vivi doesn’t know what to do; she loves Alabasta, but she also cares very deeply for the Straw Hats, too. While she’s debating, the Straw Hats meet with with Mr. 2, who took the Going Merry so the Navy wouldn’t find it. Now that Baroque Works is disbanded, he wants to renew the friendship they started when they met before Alabasta. With his help, the Straw Hats will get past the Navy’s blockade.
As Vivi prepares to address the citizens of Alabasta with help from Igaram and Cobra, the Straw Hats and Mr. 2 are blocked in by Captain Hina’s forces. Mr. 2 wants them to go around, but they have to meet Vivi and hear her decision about becoming a pirate, and they’re not going to let her down. Mr. 2, inspired by their determination to help a friend, disguises himself as Luffy and he and his crew draw the Navy off so the Straw Hats can escape, even though it means their destruction.
In Alubarna, Vivi steps out to address the people—or is it Vivi? Her voice rings out across Alabasta through a transponder snail, but it’s not Vivi at the podium—it’s Igaram disguised as Vivi. Vivi is on the coast, awaiting the arrival of the Straw Hats. She’s there to say goodbye, because she worked so hard to save the kingdom, so she wants to stay with it for awhile. She’s giving a speech over the snail, because it can be heard everywhere, but also by the Straw Hats, so she asks them if they’ll be friends if they meet in the future.
Sadly, the Navy is there, and if the Straw Hats answer, they’ll implicate Vivi and cause her problems. As Vivi cries from their lack of response on the shore, thinking it means in the future they won’t be able to be friends because of their difference statuses, the Straw Hats take off the bandages they wore to help identify each other in Alabasta. This is one of the most iconic moments of friendship in One Piece for me. The Straw Hats hold up their arms with the marks, silently, so only Vivi—and Karoo, of course—will understand. They leave her in friendship, and this is a chapter good for sobbing your eyes out over how great Oda is at creating super solid character relationships. The people of Alabasta will rebuild even though they lost a lot and suffered for so long; like Vivi, they’re resilient. As Alabasta begins the healing process, Captain Hina calls Smoker to complain that the Straw Hats got away.

Devil Fruit Alert!
Captain Hina ate the Bind Bind Fruit, and it allows her to capture anyone with any part of her body and hold them firm, even if they’re strong!
Back to the Action!
The Straw Hats sail on, although they miss Vivi. But they get a surprise: Nico Robin is aboard! They threaten her with weapons, but she disarms them all easily. She tells Luffy that it’s time to take responsibility for her: she wants to join his crew!
In a flashback to the defeat of Crocodile, we learn that Robin gave the antidote to his poison hook to Cobra so he could save Luffy. While Cobra administers it, he asks Robin why she lied to Crocodile…because the Ponegliff did give the whereabouts of the Pluton after all! Robin reveals that she’s after the True History, which is written on what she calls the Real Ponegliff. She’s been searching for it for twenty years. Aligning with Crocodile was her plan to acquire the knowledge of the Alabasta Ponegliff; she never intended to help him find the Pluton. But now she’s hit a dead end. She decides to die because her dream is over, which is a pretty extreme reaction. Even when she reveals things about herself, Robin remains a mystery. Of course, she doesn’t die: Luffy recovers with the antidote and carries both Cobra and Robin out.
Back on the Going Merry, she tells Luffy that since he saved her against her will, he has to let her join his crew because she has nowhere else to go. Luffy agrees, and before long, Robin has won everyone on the crew over…except Zoro. Zoro suspects that Robin may be playing a long angle—he’s going to keep an eye on her. And If that wasn’t exciting enough, as they sail toward the next island, they’re shocked when a massive galleon falls from the sky! They protect their ship from the tumbling debris and skeletons, but then Nami realizes that the log pose is pointing up, which can’t be possible…except then Robin tells them they’re been captured by a sky island!

Robin is an archaeologist and puts some of the details of the massive falling galleon back together. Luffy returns with a map before the Galleon sinks of a map labeled Skypiea, which he thinks proves there’s an island in the sky, along with Robin’s certainty. But how in the world would a ship get up there? They need more information, so Nami sends Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro underwater in suits to explore the sunken galleon. While they’re down there, though, another pirate comes up: the Straw Hats are in Masira’s territory, and he and his crew salvage everything from this area. Nami dodges a confrontation by asking to observe his salvage operation and flattering him in the process: he quickly agrees.
Masira’s whole ship is design to pull up sunken ships. He fills them with air from his own lungs to give them buoyancy and then pulls them up. But he realizes there are people in the ship this time, so he dives into the water to confront Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, who were able to take off their diving suits…even if they are breathing air that was just in Masira’s lungs. Luffy starts making friends with Masira almost immediately, but then the wrecked galleon is chomped by a super giant sea turtle, even still attached to the ships above with wires and tubes! As the turtle attempts to consume the ships, the sky grows dark above, even though it’s in the middle of the day. Luckily, Luffy, Sanj, and Zoro managed to escape from the turtle’s mouth along with Masira. But their relief is short-lived, because against the dark sky massive, threatening shadows appear, and the Straw hats book it out of there as fast as possible, kicking Masira off their ship when he tries to tag along.
Robin, thinking ahead, stole an Eternal Pose from Masira, which points to Jaya, a nearby island. The Straw Hats decide to head there to ask questions and see if they can find their way to Skypiea. But Jaya is home to Mock Town, a place of lawlessness and violence. Luffy and Zoro, of course, are into it, but it’s a pretty rough place, full of tough pirates.
Nami makes Zoro and Luffy swear not to fight while they’re in town, and they go to explore. They accidentally wander into a resort that another pirate has rented out, and his crew mocks them. They recognize Luffy from his wanted poster, which has him listed at 30 million berries. But after Alabasta, we know that the Navy raised his bounty quite a bit after he defeated Crocodile, along with Zoro’s because he defeated an infamous assassin going by the code name Mr. 1. But the Straw Hats never learned it from people in Alabasta, because they left quickly in order to reclaim their ship. After the pirate insults them, they leave and go to a bar for dinner, where Luffy gets into a food debate with another customer…but before they can fight, someone asks for Luffy from the entrance…

Turns out, Luffy, Nami, and Zoro had wandered into Bellamy’s rented resort, and it was his pirates that mocked Luffy. To them, Luffy’s an average pirate with a tiny bounty, and barely worth their notice except for how he walked into their space without permission. Bellamy is arrogant, rude, and tricks Luffy by buying him a drink and then slamming him into the bar. Luffy’s face is okay, but the bar is toast. Nami doesn’t want them to fight, because they haven’t learned anything about Skypiea, so before Luffy and Zoro can fight, she asks the bartender about the sky island. Everyone laughs at them, but Bellamy gets extra rude about it. On the plus side, he also informs them about the “knock up stream” that can launch ships into the air, and how that created the myth of the sky island…this seems like a lead. He insults them by telling them the only reason he came to meet Luffy is to see if they were good enough for his crew, but they’re not. He then proceeds to knock Luffy around a lot. Even when Nami begs them to ignore their promise and fight back, Luffy tells Zoro not to fight.
This means that Bellamy gives both Luffy and Zoro a complete working over. At the end, they’re both bloody and bruised. Bellamy offers to buy Nami, like a creep, but she turns him down, calls him a bully, and then drags Luffy and Zoro out of the bar. As they pick themselves up, the guy Luffy had a food debate with praises them on winning the fight, which…doesn’t seem right. But the stranger seems to understand why Luffy didn’t want to fight Bellamy. Bellamy’s overt posturing and show of power hides someone who is very self-conscious about their place in the world and doesn’t really understand how it, or people, work. Although Bellamy considered Luffy inconsequential, it’s actually the opposite—there’s no reason for Luffy to waste his energy in a person like that. The stranger wishes them well on their journey to find the sky island…who is that guy?
When they get back to the ship, they also meet up with Robin, who is returning after gathering information on her own. She was more successful than her crewmates, and found a map of Jaya, as well as the location of a local man who people make fun of for talking about dreams. Dreams are relevant to Luffy’s interest, so they head to meet the guy. But Robin’s search for answers made a splash in the town, and pirates there are talking about it, alerting Bellamy to the fact that the guy the Straw Hats are going to see may have some kind of treasure. And Bellamy, of course, believes he’s entitled to everything, and decides to go meet him.

Takeaways

The Straw Hats don’t mess around. Once one adventure is complete, they’re off to the next almost immediately. They made a good friend in Vivi and took out someone abusing his power. But I suspect we haven’t seen the last of Crocodile or the last of the fallout from Luffy’s win in their battle. Crocodile was, after all, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
The core of One Piece continues to be its focus on friendship and helping people, and undermining toxic ideas of engagement with the world, which is a great message. Plus, we’ve gotten some tantalizing hints about the politics of the world via Robin, whose past is still unclear. What is she looking for? Why did she come to Luffy after Alabasta? And now they’re on a new adventure which sounds preposterous: how in the world will they find an island in the sky? How long will Bellamy last if he keeps poking at Luffy? Find out in the next installment!

Next Time

We’re chugging right along into the next arc now that our adventures in Alabasta are done. We’ll be picking up Volumes 25, 26, and 27 to see if the Straw Hats find their sky island.