Chapters · Alabasta › Alabasta

Chapter 213: V.I.P.

Arc: Alabasta · Saga: Alabasta · Released: 2001 (Vol. 23)

Summary

Alabasta wind-down at Alubarna Palace. Chopper dazzles the palace’s 40-year veteran physician with Drum Island medicine while Nami browses the royal library and Zoro trains in the desert (“I have to concentrate harder… or I’m not really any stronger”). The royal guard (Chaka) turns Marine searchers away from the palace, flatly denying any pirates are being harbored. Luffy finally wakes after sleeping three full days of high fever, ravenous; Igaram is alive and his wife Terracotta, the palace housekeeper, feeds the crew a riotous banquet that King Cobra had meant to be a formal state dinner. The crew, Cobra, and Vivi soak in the palace’s great baths; Nami sells Vivi the world’s wonders (“there are lots of unimagined wonders just waiting to be discovered”) and a “Happiness Punch.” In the bath Nami quietly tells Vivi the crew is thinking of leaving tonight — the Navy is gathering near the port and they’re in danger if they linger. The chapter closes on the new wanted posters: Luffy 100,000,000 berries and Roronoa Zoro 60,000,000 berries (Zoro’s first bounty), with the warning that after defeating one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Navy’s top brass will now come after them.

New reveals

• Luffy’s bounty raised to 100,000,000 berries (Dead or Alive) — first on-page sighting of the new poster (p. 24). Up from his prior 30M.
• Roronoa Zoro’s first-ever bounty: 60,000,000 berries (Dead or Alive) — first wanted poster for Zoro shown on-page (p. 24).
• The bounty jump is explicitly tied to defeating a Warlord: “Not after you defeated one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!!” (p. 24).
• Terracotta — Igaram’s wife and the palace housekeeper — introduced (pp. 11-12), runs the kitchen staff and the banquet.
• The Straw Hats resolve to depart Alabasta tonight because the Navy is massing near the port (pp. 20, 23).
• Luffy was unconscious with high fever for three days and Sanji calculated 15 missed meals at five-a-day (pp. 10-11).
• The palace has great baths “the pride of the palace,” normally used only during the rainy season (p. 17).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, Vivi, Nefertari Cobra, Igaram, Chaka (turns the Marines away), Karoo; Terracotta (new — Igaram’s wife / palace housekeeper); the palace physician (unnamed, 40-year veteran).
• Mentioned not shown: Crocodile (“one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea”), the Marine “top brass.”
• Groups: Straw Hat Pirates, Marines, Baroque Works (Bon Clay narration on the closing posters).
• Locations: Alubarna, Alabasta.

Notable panels

• p. 1 — Title splash (color in original): Sanji seated smoking, with the Wapol-pig hot-air balloon and Luffy/Chopper behind — the chapter’s color/title-page art, themed to the Boo. Paratroops. cover-story aesthetic. Lighthouse + parachuting pigs in background. Decorative; flagged for the color-spread specialist.
• p. 2 — Cover-art spread “Boo. Paratroops. ONE PIECE”: Wapol-pig airship dropping pig-paratroopers over a terrace where Sanji, Nami, Usopp and Chopper share a meal. (Title-page art, not a separate cover-serial installment.)
• pp. 4-6 — Chopper amazes the palace’s 40-year physician with Drum Island medical technique (“Where did you learn medicine?” / “Chopper’s a doctor from Drum Island”).
• p. 7 — Zoro training alone against a boulder: “I have to concentrate harder… or I’m not really any stronger!” / “I’ve got to be able to draw on that power at any time.”
• p. 8 — Chaka (dark cloak, arms crossed) turns the Marine search party away: “You heard me. They are not here.” / “Now be gone!” — first on-page royal-guard-shields-the-Straw-Hats-from-the-Navy beat.
• pp. 9-11 — Luffy wakes after 3 days’ fever (“WAHOO!! I SLEPT GOOD!!”); learns Vivi and Chopper nursed him.
• pp. 11-12 — Terracotta introduced; Igaram alive and reunited with the crew.
• pp. 13-16 — The banquet feast with King Cobra; Luffy devours everything (“Not a shred of dignity”).
• pp. 17-22 — The palace great baths; Nami’s “Happiness Punch” gag (p. 20, “100,000 berries each”); Cobra in the bath (“A king is not a king when disrobed… not as a king, but as a father and a citizen of this land”).
• p. 20, p. 23 — Nami/Vivi: the crew will leave tonight; the Navy is gathering near the port.
• p. 24 — The new wanted posters: Monkey D. Luffy — 100,000,000 and Roronoa Zolo — 60,000,000 (both Dead or Alive); “There’s no turning back now, Luffy!!”
• p. 25 — Volume-end SBS Question Corner (non-story bonus page): the gakuran/“randa” etymology correction, the B.W. = Baroque Works / desert (Köppen BWh map-symbol) gag, and the “draw the six main characters with your foot” bit. Captured in SBS Volume 23 (Chapter 213, Page 168).

Open questions raised

• Will Vivi leave Alabasta with the Straw Hats or stay as princess? (decision teed up, unresolved here)
• How will the crew slip past the Navy massing at the port tonight?
• How high will the bounty escalation push Navy pursuit now that Admiral/“top brass” attention is invoked?