Cover
Winter landscape. Robin is standing under a tree where two birds dressed in a cap and scarf are arguing.
Storyline
The Thriller Bark has drifted out of the fog of the Mysterious Triangle and is drifting into the impending sunrise. From the island, the startled voices of the shadowless forest pirates ring out, seeking shelter in the forest from the direct rays of the sun.
Gecko Moria stands, bloated to eerie size by thousands of shadows, in front of the snapped-off main mast of the Thriller Bark. Lifeless former zombies lie everywhere.
Captain Lola refuses to take shelter in the shadows. She stands by her decision to bet everything on Luffy’s fight against Moria. Zoro thinks that the battle against Moria is already won, the only question is whether they will win the race against the clock.
Luffy turns on Gear 2 and puts a gum-gum jet missile into Moria’s stomach, causing him to kick up a barrage of shadows. A subsequent jet bazooka releases more shadows. Usopp notices that Moria is already semi-conscious, so he can’t control the escaping shadows.
No sooner has he said this than Moria unleashes a swarm of Brick Bats on Luffy and has them form a box around the Straw Hat Captain. He maltreats the resulting box with punches and kicks, calling it a baptism of fire for the Straw Hat Pirates’s brazen foray into dangerous waters. The action further breaks the perimeter of the main mast.
Under the bewildered gaze of his crew, Luffy smashes the totally dented box and confronts Moria again. Moria reacts irritated to Luffy’s statement that the samurai can’t defeat him because of his rubber powers. Luffy announces that he will make Moria spit out the last of his shadows, and turns on Gear 3. Chopper calls out worried that Luffy’s body was already badly injured by the Gears in the fight against Rob Lucci, and warns him that his body could tear. Luffy continues his attacks against Moria’s stomach undeterred, so that he can only hold back the shadows that are spilling out with both hands.
Lola calls her shadow and asks him to return to her. She appeals to the long time they spent together when she is hit on the head by the first rays of the sun. Only a spirited intervention by the Risky Brothers prevents her from dissolving completely into dust. Now all the other shadowless forest pirates fall into cheering for their shadows, and Luffy addresses his shadow as well: If this one really wants to become the king of the pirates, he should stay with him. With these words, he hurls Moria against the main mast with such force that it topples over completely, burying the bloated Moria underneath.
Moria’s last words are a warning of what a nightmare awaits the Straw Hats in the New World, then the shadows escape into the sky as a great, wide stream. The Straw Hats look at the fountain expectantly as the fallen mast house above Moria breaks apart and the rays of the rising sun fall on the battlefield. Zoro, Robin, and Sanji begin to dissolve from the head.
| Manga volumes | Thriller Bark Arc (Manga) |
