Chapters · East Blue › Orange Town

Chapter 13: Treasure

Arc: Orange Town · Saga: East Blue · Released: 1997-11-04 (Vol. 2)

Summary

In the aftermath of his off-page knockout of Buggy Pirates officer Mohji and his lion Richie, Luffy is reunited in the streets of Orange Town with Nami and the town’s old mayor — Nami no-sells the reunion, the mayor is baffled that anyone could shrug off a building-collapse. Luffy restates his mission to the mayor: “I’m after the map of the Grand Line… and a navigator!!” (p. 2). The chapter then pivots into the Chouchou interlude (pages 3-7) — a small mongrel guarding a “Pet Food” shop, growling at the mayor who tries to relocate him. In flashback, the mayor narrates that Chouchou’s master ran the shop until illness took him; before going to the hospital where he died, he told the dog “You’re in charge of the shop while I’m in the hospital. You and me will make it prosper together!” (page 4). Chouchou has been guarding the empty shop ever since. Luffy puts the framing into a single line: “This is his master’s store… it’s his treasure” (page 8). Mohji and his lion Richie then return in vengeance (pages 8-9) — Mohji shocked Luffy survived the building Mohji collapsed on him in the prior chapter. Luffy declares “I’m a rubber man! It takes more than a little kick to kill me!” (page 10) — eyes Mohji’s “you’ve got the devil’s own luck” reaction, and explains “A long time ago, I ate the fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree!!” (page 13). Mohji recognizes the framing immediately (“You ate the devil’s fruit, like Captain Buggy!?”) — the second-mook-to-recognize-DFs beat. Luffy beats Richie with a stretch-arm hammer slam he names Gum-Gum Gavel (page 12), then bowls Mohji into a wall (“That’s why I came… to clobber you!”, page 14). The Pet Food shop has been destroyed during the lion’s rampage; Chouchou returns, the rubble smoulders. Luffy finds one undestroyed box of pet food in the wreckage and offers it to Chouchou — “The rest got eaten, or burned… That’s all I could save for you, boy!” (page 18). The mayor, watching with Nami, gives the chapter’s anti-pirate speech: “They take away what’s most precious and laugh!!! They’re all the same!!! Pirates!!!” (page 16). Nami softens visibly as she watches Luffy with the dog. Chouchou trots off with the saved food box clamped in his teeth (page 19). On the chapter’s final page, Buggy receives the news that Mohji was defeated and orders “Ready my special Buggy Balls!!!” — promising to “light up this town until there’s nothing left.” Bonus page at the end of the chapter is a single page of Oda’s hand-pencilled “One Piece Rough Sketch!” storyboard.

New reveals

• Mohji — Buggy Pirates officer, first on-page naming (Buggy crew dialogue, page 19: “Mohji was defeated!?”). The character himself has been on-page across pages 8-14, fur costume, lion mount; Ch 13 is the first chapter where his name is spoken.
• Richie — Mohji’s lion mount, first on-page naming (Mohji on page 11: “Richie, bite his head off!!”).
• Chouchou — guard dog of a deceased pet-food-shop owner; first appearance, first naming. The mayor calls his master “his beloved master”; the master died in hospital after asking Chouchou to mind the shop. The dog has been guarding the shop daily ever since.
• The Mayor of Orange Town (unnamed in-chapter; later canonically named Boodle) — first appearance with dialogue. Wears glasses, has a grizzled white goatee, holds a fishing-style staff. Functions as the town’s pirate-grief witness and the moral mouthpiece against Buggy.
• Gum-Gum Gavel — first named on-page (page 12, “GUM-GUM…” into a two-armed hammer slam on Richie). Adds to the Luffy attack-naming vocabulary: Pistol (Ch 2), Rocket (Ch 4), Whip (Ch 6), Gavel (Ch 13).
• “Gum-Gum Tree” / “fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree” restated on-page by Luffy himself (page 13): “A long time ago, I ate the fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree!!” — same folk-myth framing Koby used in Ch. 2; first time Luffy himself uses the tree-not-fruit framing in dialogue.
• DF-class recognition by rank-and-file pirates — Mohji links Luffy’s powers to Buggy’s the moment he hears the framing: “The Gum-Gum Tree? You ate the devil’s fruit, like Captain Buggy!?” (page 13). Reinforces the Ch 6 / Ch 9 thread that Devil Fruits are a recognized, catalogued class of object in this world (see Nature of Devil Fruits).
• Buggy Balls escalation — the Ch 10 demonstration becomes an active town-leveling order on the last page: “Ready my special Buggy Balls!!! … We’re going to light up this town!! Until there’s nothing left!!!” The Ch 10 prototype is being weaponized for actual genocide-of-place.
• Nami’s anti-pirate worldview reinforced by an external voice (the mayor) for the first time. Up through Ch 10, Nami’s pirate-hate was monologue-only; Ch 13 has a second character independently articulate the same moral position to Nami — the mayor’s “They take away what’s most precious and laugh!!!” (page 16) is an adult endorsement of her Ch 10 outburst.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Notable panels

• Page 1 (chapter splash): Luffy and Nami sitting on a beach with what looks like a giant land turtle/tortoise behind them, fishing-rod in Luffy’s hand. Bait-and-switch splash — the chapter does not contain this scene; it is a tone-setter / “future chill day” tease consistent with the “rest scene” splash convention Oda uses sparingly in early One Piece.
• Page 2 (top tier): Reunion three-up — Luffy’s huh face, Nami’s wide-eyed “Hey!”, the mayor’s confounded “How could you survive that!?”. Luffy’s “crazy is good” face-up reaction sets the tone for the chapter’s parable structure (crazy people protect crazy things).
• Page 2 (bottom): Luffy’s mission restatement — “I’m after the map of the Grand Line… and a navigator!!” — direct head-and-shoulders shot, hat hand-touched. Same visual grammar as Ch. 9 page 13 hat-touch (the canonical Luffy mission-statement composition).
• Page 3: Pet-food-shop establishing shot, the bow-tied Chouchou with a yellow ribbon, the “PET FOOD” sign on the storefront. The bow tie is the master’s gesture the dog still wears — first frame of the chapter’s prop-tell.
• Page 4 (middle tier): The shopkeeper close-up — bald, bushy mustache, lifting Chouchou over his head — “You and me will make it prosper together!” with the “OPEN” sign in the doorway behind. The only frame of the master we ever see, and the only frame he’s ever drawn for; Oda gives him one full panel of dignified portraiture to anchor the emotional payoff.
• Page 5 (top): Mohji’s “SKDSSK” SFX recoil after touching Chouchou’s bite — first time we see Mohji as a vulnerable-by-comedy figure rather than a remote-enforcer figure.
• Page 8 (full-tier): The “DOOM!!” panel of Richie’s legs landing in the street — Mohji small atop the lion’s mane in the dust. Mirror of Ch 10 page 20’s Zolo full-page reveal (mooks scattered around a single high-status combatant) — same composition, low status: Mohji and his lion are the inverted form of Zolo, presenting threat without earning it. Cross-link Straw Hat Recruitment Pattern — Oda is using the same compositional grammar for villains-to-be-defeated as for crew-to-be-recruited, so the reader can read the difference structurally.
• Page 10 (large center panel): Luffy arms-folded full-body — “I’m a rubber man! It takes more than a little kick to kill me!” — the canonical “introduce-myself-by-power-and-attitude” composition. Visual rhyme with Ch. 2 page 20 Alvida reveal (“I’m made of rubber!”).
• Page 11: Mohji’s “Richie, bite his head off!!” — first naming of Richie. Lion mouth as full-panel hazard, classic “predator approaching” framing.
• Page 12 (full page): Gum-Gum Gavel — Luffy’s arms spiral up to a small ring-mark dot in the sky, then a single huge “KRA-SU—” hammer slam on Richie. The “GAVEL!!!” SFX shares typography with the Ch 4 “KRAKOOM!!” Morgan-statue collapse. New technique introduced.
• Page 13 (top tier): Mohji’s ”!!!?” reaction shot of disbelief — Luffy’s matter-of-fact “A long time ago, I ate the fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree!!” Mohji frame: “You ate the devil’s fruit, like Captain Buggy!?” — first time a Buggy crewman processes that another DF user is in town.
• Page 14: Luffy’s “That’s why I came… to clobber you!” close-up — eyes-from-under-hat composition (the “don’t underestimate me” face that recurs in every arc). Then “Take this!” — boots-up kick lifting Mohji off the cobblestones.
• Page 15 (full page): Mohji’s head spiked into the cobblestones, feet to the sky — the “villain takes a defeat-pose hit” full-page beat. SFX “SPLAK!” + “HELP M—” cut off mid-syllable.
• Page 16 (top + bottom): The mayor’s speech — “They take away what’s most precious and laugh!!! They’re all the same!!! Pirates!!!” — paired with Nami’s response: “I was hoping that lion would eat you!” (to Luffy, slipping back into surface bravado the moment Luffy reappears). The visual gag covers the emotional softening she just experienced.
• Page 17: Nami physically restraining the mayor, who is shouting “I oughta kill you right now, before you can get a crew and go pillage some town!” — first time another character treats Luffy as a future-pirate-threat rather than a present curiosity.
• Page 18 (top tier): Luffy seated with the dog, “The rest got eaten, or burned… That’s all I could save for you, boy!” — sitting-with-the-victim composition. Pet-food-box on the cobblestones beside them.
• Page 18 (middle-right): Nami’s “ULP!” reaction — the chapter’s quietest panel, the one that does the work for the whole arc. The mayor: “He fought that lion… for the dog’s sake!!”
• Page 19: Chouchou trots away with the pet-food box held in his teeth — small dog, oversized object, single-shot composition. Visual prop-rhyme with Luffy carrying the straw hat. Then Luffy’s chapter-closing “Good luck to you, too!” — the Ch 7 Koby parting formula re-applied, dog-edition.
• Page 19 (bottom): Buggy in full clown menace mode — “Ready my special Buggy Balls!!!” — first time Buggy gives the order rather than demonstrates the ordnance. The chapter cliff-hangs on the bombardment threat.
• Page 20 (volume bonus): “One Piece Rough Sketch!” — Oda’s earliest hand-pencilled storyboard for an Orange-Town panel set. First inclusion of a behind-the-scenes process page in the volume’s bonus content; signals Oda’s growing comfort with showing the reader his sausage-making.

Open questions raised

• Why does Mohji recognize Luffy “from before” if Ch 13 is the post-Mohji-defeat chapter? → Confirms the prior chapter (off-page from this reader’s perspective) had a Luffy-Mohji-Richie engagement Luffy survived; the Ch 13 fight is the rematch. Mohji’s “You should be dead!!” (p. 10) implies he believes he killed Luffy in the prior encounter.
• Who is the mayor? → Named only as “the mayor of this town” in dialogue (the mayor self-applies “mayor” implicitly through his town-stewardship framing). Canonically Boodle; not on-page-named in Ch 13.
• Where is Zoro? → Still off-page; Luffy notes mid-chapter “I’m going to look for Zolo. I’d better find him before that weird costume guy does” (p. 7) — the Ch 10-11 Zolo-vs-Buggy-Pirates plot is still in progress somewhere offstage. This confirms Zoro and Mohji have not yet crossed paths on-page as of Ch 13.
• Why does Chouchou keep guarding a shop with no inventory? → Stewardship-as-grief — the dog’s behavior is the chapter’s emotional anchor; the why is the chapter’s whole point. The framing — guard the thing because the person is gone, even if the thing is meaningless without them — is the template for every later Straw Hat backstory.

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