Chapters · Alabasta › Alabasta

Chapter 217: Stowaway

Arc: Alabasta · Saga: Alabasta · Released:

Summary

The Alabasta arc’s epilogue chapter. It opens on a Marine sea-chase: Captain Hina (“Hina is furious”) and her unit corner the fleeing Mr. 2 Bon Clay, who is bound by Hina’s Bind-Bind (Ori Ori / “Wire Cage”) power as he shouts his motto and vows to avenge his captured Officer-Agent comrades — “I’m mad at you, Smoker” — before being clapped in a steel band (pp. 2-3). The scene then cuts to a montage of post-war Alabasta: the populace of Yuba, Alubarna, and the desert towns rebuild while recounting Princess Vivi’s speech to the country and her private words to her father King Cobra (“Father… I have something very important to tell you… I’m a king, but no title is dearer to me… than that of ‘Father.’”) (pp. 4-8). At a desert graveyard of crosses, a cloaked, grieving Chaka mourns the presumed-dead Pell (“I can’t even shed a tear… Pell.”) (pp. 9-10). On a Marine vessel, a recovering, leg-injured Smoker is briefed by Tashigi on the aftermath: the Straw Hats got away, Crocodile lost despite his army of “extraordinarily dangerous criminals,” Zolo defeated a hundred bounty hunters at Whisky Peak and brought down Daz Bonez (Mr. 1) at Alubarna, and there are now wanted posters on “these two” (Roronoa Zolo and Monkey D. Luffy, the 30,000,000 poster) — Smoker resolves: “We’ll settle things with them another day” (pp. 11-14). Aboard the Going Merry, the crew tearfully misses Vivi as they sail away; Zoro snaps them out of it (pp. 15-16). Then a sudden intruder-panic (“Enemy raid!!”) resolves into the chapter’s reveal: Miss All Sunday — Nico Robin — has been a stowaway below deck the whole time, wearing borrowed clothes, fresh from a shower. She menaces Luffy (“You haven’t forgotten what you did to me, have you? …Take responsibility.”), then drops the bombshell: “I want… to join your crew.” Luffy and the crew: “WHAT?!” (pp. 16-19). Page 20 is an SBS column (Navy-uniform-regulations Q&A).

New reveals

• Nico Robin (Miss All Sunday) is alive, free, and aboard the Going Merry as a stowaway — she asks to join the Straw Hat crew (pp. 17-20). This is the recruitment-pivot beat for the series’ seventh major crewmate; the formal acceptance/aftermath plays out in the next chapter.
• Zoro now has a wanted poster (Roronoa Zolo, “DEAD OR ALIVE”) shown alongside Luffy’s 30,000,000 poster (p. 14) — Tashigi: “There’s quite a bounty on these two now.” (The new post-Alabasta bounty figures — Luffy’s jump to 100M — are not yet on-page here; this is the older 30M poster in wider Marine circulation.)
• Hina (Marine captain, “Hina is furious”) appears on-page capturing the fleeing Bon Clay with her binding power (pp. 2-3).
• Bon Clay (Mr. 2) survived and is captured by the Marines — he vows revenge “I’m mad at you, Smoker” before being bound (pp. 2-3).
• Pell is presumed dead by Alabasta — Chaka mourns at a desert graveyard (pp. 9-10). (Vault note: Pell in fact survives; the populace and Chaka believe him dead here.)

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

Nico Robin · Luffy · Zoro · Nami · Usopp · Sanji · Tony Tony Chopper · Vivi (recalled, not present) · Nefertari Cobra (recalled) · Pell (mourned, presumed dead) · Chaka (graveyard mourner) · Smoker · Tashigi · Bon Clay (Mr. 2) · Crocodile (referenced) · Mr. 1 (Daz Bonez, referenced) · Karoo · Toh-Toh (named Yuba elder) · Hina (Marine captain — no vault note yet) · Straw Hat Pirates · Baroque Works · Marines · Alabasta · Alubarna · Yuba · Sandora River · Rainbase

Notable panels

• Page 1 (cover): Cover serial — “Hachi’s Walk on the Seafloor, Vol. 31: Save the Catfish Village!! Exchange the Treasure for Cooking Equipment” — Hatchan splayed across a seafloor wreck. (Cover-story tracker: Hachi B-plot continues.)
• Pages 2-3: Hina captures the fleeing Bon Clay with her binding/cage power; Bon Clay shouts his “Oh yeah, baby” motto and “I’m mad at you, Smoker” before being clapped in a steel band.
• Pages 4-8: Post-war rebuilding montage across Yuba / Alubarna / the desert; the people recount Vivi’s speech and her “no title dearer than ‘Father’” words to Cobra.
• Pages 9-10: Chaka at the desert cross-graveyard, cloaked, mourning the presumed-dead Pell — “I can’t even shed a tear… Pell.”
• Pages 11-14: Recovering Smoker (leg injury, “Please don’t call me that”) briefed by Tashigi; the Roronoa Zolo + Monkey D. Luffy (30,000,000) wanted posters shown; “We’ll settle things with them another day.”
• Pages 15-16: The crew weeps over leaving Vivi (“We miss Vivi!”); Zoro: “…then you should’ve kidnapped her.”
• Page 17: “Enemy raid!!” panic → Robin revealed below deck.
• Pages 18-19: Robin menaces Luffy (“Take responsibility”); reclines in a deck chair.
• Page 20: Robin’s full-page request — “I want… to join your crew.” / Luffy + crew: “WHAT?!”
• Page 20 (back): SBS column (Navy uniform-regulation Q&A; kappa anecdote).

Open questions raised

• Will the Straw Hats accept Robin? (Resolved next chapter.)
• What exactly does Robin mean by “take responsibility” / what Luffy “did to her” at the Pluton tomb?
• What are the new post-Alabasta bounty figures (Luffy’s jump above the 100M ceiling)? — issued/shown in the following chapter, not here.
• Robin’s 79M/20-year World-Government bounty (Ch. 175 Smoker exposition) vs. her crew-join request — how does a wanted woman travel openly with a pirate crew?