Chapter 10: Incident at the Tavern

Arc: Orange Town · Saga: East Blue · Released: 1997-10-13 (Vol. 2)

Summary

The chapter opens on the cover with Nami running through a desert with her pet/sidekick pig hauling a treasure chest under a skull-and-crossed-bones flag — her first manga appearance. Inside the chapter, Nami has infiltrated the Buggy Pirates at “The Drinker Pub” in Orange Town, posing as their new crewmate to steal their map of the Grand Line and their treasure. She wins a drinking contest, charms Buggy, and waits for the crew to pass out. Luffy — captive in a cage from the previous chapter — calls her “partner”; she furiously denies it, blowing her cover. Buggy demonstrates a Buggy Ball by leveling a city block, then orders Nami to fire one at Luffy’s cage to prove her loyalty. Nami nearly does it but cracks, knocks Buggy aside with a staff, and frees Luffy, declaring “I’ll never become what I hate!!! You pirates took someone dear to me…” — the first explicit hint at her backstory. The chapter closes with the first appearance of Roronoa Zolo (Zoro), who arrives via an offhand mention and a final-panel reveal: he’s recognized by the Buggy crew as the legendary “Pirate Hunter,” and he tells them he’s given up pirate hunting and isn’t there to capture Buggy.

New reveals

• Nami — first appearance. Established as: a redheaded thief who specializes in stealing from pirates, with a heavy tolerance for alcohol, a pet pig (cover only), and a stated personal grudge against pirates.
• The Grand Line — first named in the series. Buggy has a map of it (singular, valuable), and Nami’s whole infiltration is to steal it.
• Buggy Balls — Buggy-branded special cannonballs that explode with town-leveling force. Buggy attributes the amplification to his Devil Fruit (“with these Buggy Balls — and the special powers I got from eating the Devil Fruit — I’ll rule the Grand Line!”).
• Buggy’s ambition stated: rule the Grand Line.
• Nami’s worldview: “If I murder him in cold blood, then I’ll be as bad as a pirate, too!” — explicit moral line drawn between thieves and pirates.
• Nami’s wound: “You pirates took someone dear to me…” — the entire Arlong/Bell-mère backstory in one line (paid off ~Ch. 78-95).
• Roronoa Zolo — first appearance, named, with three swords on his hip. Known throughout East Blue by reputation. Has retired from bounty hunting (“I gave up pirate hunting”).
• Buggy targets Zolo — Buggy calls killing Zolo “a nice feather in my cap,” establishing him as a high-bounty trophy even before his stats are quoted.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Notable panels

• Page 1 (cover splash): Nami running through the desert with her cartoon pig and a treasure chest under a skull flag — her debut image. The flag is not a Buggy or Straw Hat jolly roger; it’s generic, fitting her “freelance thief” status pre-recruitment.
• Pages 2-3: The Drinker Pub party — Nami in the middle of a Buggy crew bacchanal, raising glasses with the future-Mr.-2-esque mooks. Establishes the pub-tavern texture that recurs across the series.
• Page 8: First named drop of “the Grand Line” + Buggy’s town-leveling Buggy Ball demonstration. The destroyed building behind Buggy is “Drinker” pub-signage debris — visual gag of him destroying the location of his own party.
• Page 10 panel 1: Buggy close-up — “DO IT.” Eye in heavy shadow. First panel where Buggy reads as genuinely menacing rather than clownish — Oda’s establishing that the early-East-Blue villains have real teeth.
• Page 14: Nami clubs Buggy with his own staff — first “Nami cracks under pressure and acts” beat that recurs in Arlong Park and Whiskey Peak.
• Page 16: The Nami-Luffy bars panel — her wound speech + Luffy’s instant understanding. Composition: she’s outside the cage, he’s inside, but emotionally he’s the one offering shelter.
• Page 20 (full-page reveal): Zolo catches four Buggy weapons on his sheathed sword. The “ZOLO!!!” caption is from Luffy off-panel — Luffy already knows the name, which seeds the pre-existing East Blue reputation.
• Page 22: Zolo + Buggy face-off, three-sword silhouette established. Zolo’s “back off before I pluck all your feathers” line callbacks Buggy’s “nice feather in my cap” — first instance of Zolo’s deadpan threat style.
• Page 24 (volume extra): “VIKINGS, Part 1” — Oda essay on Viking history. Part of the volume’s bonus content; serves as early-series world-building cue that Oda’s pirate worldbuilding is research-driven (Vikings, Caribbean privateers, etc.).

Open questions raised

• Who did the pirates take from Nami? → seeded here, paid off in Arlong arc as Bell-mère (and Nami’s village’s subjugation).
• Why did Zolo quit pirate hunting? → his swordsman ambition vs. Marine-system incompatibility is implicit here; expanded in Chs. 5-6 flashback (Kuina) and Whisky Peak.
• How does one get to the Grand Line? → the map is treated as singular and valuable here. The Reverse Mountain entry mechanism comes later (Ch. 101-105).
• What is Buggy’s exact Devil Fruit? → not named in-chapter (the Bara Bara no Mi name is from later chapters); only described as “the Devil Fruit I ate.”