Chapters · East Blue › Arlong Park

Chapter 74: Business

Summary

Trapped at Arlong Park after his cliffhanger capture (Ch. 70 — suspicious character at the gate), Usopp bluffs that he has a 20-million-berry bounty — the highest in the East Blue to make himself too valuable to kill. Arlong (off-page; presumably out at sea or off-property) is referenced but the courtyard is run by his crew. Usopp pivots to a Zoro-will-come-rescue-me leverage gambit; the crew demands Nami confirm or deny her connection to Zoro. Nami delivers a calm, public “Luffy was stupid to trust me / The only thing I believe in is money” monologue that disgusts Usopp (pages 3-5). She closes: “Luffy’s a fool!!! Even after you fled… he still believed in you!!” / “How could you deceive a guy like that!? He trusts you completely!!! Even now!!!” (Usopp); “Luffy was stupid to trust me so easily. The only thing I believe in is money.” (Nami).

A SPLASH from off-panel announces Arlong’s return (page 5 bottom). He arrives at the gate flanked by mooks and Hatchan (page 6); the wrecked Arlong Park pool/courtyard with downed fish-men shocks him — “What happened here!?” Hatchan: “This is the work of Zolo the Pirate Hunter!! Where have you been, Hachi?” The crew’s pre-Arlong-arrival mooks fill Arlong in: “He slaughtered my men while I was out!” Hatchan, blithely innocent, confesses on page 7 that he found Zoro tied up in a boat in their waters and — not recognizing him — towed him to Coco Village as a courtesy. Arlong, beat: “HACHI, YOU IDIOT!!! THAT WAS HIM!!!!” The first-mate-as-comic-failure register installs. Hatchan: “I towed him over to Coco Village. Where did he go!?” — Zoro is now at large in Coco Village thanks to Hatchan’s politeness.

Page 8 — Nami pivots: she takes a long bo-staff down from a rack and tells the crew that since Zoro is her crewmate (“‘cause he’s looking for me!”) she should be the one to deal with Usopp herself — “I’ve got to get these fools out of the way.” She calls Usopp “a mere human” who “thinks he can defy the glorious fish-men”. Page 9 — to a stunned Usopp: “You shouldn’t have attacked Arlong. You’re in the way. Everything was going smoothly, but you guys are about to ruin eight years of work. It was my mistake that brought you here. But every place has its own rules.” (Page 10) ”…So I should be the one… to eliminate you.” Arlong cackles approval: “Hmm… She’s become quite… piratical.” — “KILL HIM, NAMI!!” (mook) — Arlong, sardonic: “Ha ha ha! Don’t make me laugh!! Even I’m not so soft that a little girl could take me out!!” Usopp internal: “This is my chance!! If I don’t make a move now, I’ll never escape!!” Nami (calm warning, last warning-as-cover-for-tactic): “Beware Usopp… here, I’m not the Nami you knew!!”

Page 11 — Usopp fires Smoke Stars (FWOOM!! SPROING!!) from his slingshot to cover an escape — “A SMOKE BOMB!!” / “So predictable…” (Nami). Arlong: “Surround him!! Don’t let him escape!” Usopp: “I’ll make my escape across the water!!” Page 12 — THWACK!! — Nami’s staff catches Usopp at full-page composition: she emerges from the smoke and clobbers him in a single panel. “AGH… STOP!!” (Usopp); “FWOOSH!” / “FWUMP” / “UGH!!” — Usopp goes down. CHUNK!! — final panel composition, Nami standing over the bloodied Usopp in the smoke. Page 13: Usopp gasping — “NAMI… you…” — plip plip plip SFX (Usopp’s blood dripping onto the dock). Nami (close-up, eyes lowered): “I had no choice. It’s business.” Page 13 bottom: FWUMP — Usopp at her feet — “DIE QUIETLY…” — SHLUK. (The chapter holds the question of whether the blade-strike is lethal; in fact Nami’s strike is non-lethal and the bloodied-fall is a faked execution — confirmed in the next chapter.)

Page 14 top tier — Arlong roars approval to the crew (RAAAH! RAAAAAAH!!): “You’re an indispensable part of Arlong’s pirate crew!!” / “Ha ha ha ha!! Excellent work, Nami!!” Page 14 middle tier — cut to a building, shake shake SFX: an older man with a kanji 海 (sea) cheek-tattoo and a striped headband stares wide-eyed in horror, sweat-soaked: “Th-this is terrible!!! Aaah!!! No!!! Killed by sister Nami!! This can’t be happening!! Brother Usopp…” The Brother / Sister vocative register identifies this man as Johnny (witness from cover; Yosaku presumably with him off-panel). Johnny is now the off-stage news-carrier for the next chapter’s set-piece.

Page 15 — Arlong’s crew SPLASH (SPLASHHH) — Usopp’s body has been shoved into the sea. “AH HA HA HA HA HA!!” (crew, laughing). Nami, looking down at the splash: “This was what you wanted, wasn’t it!? To die at sea?” — bitter euphemism. Mook: “You’re on our team. I was wrong to doubt you, Nami.” Nami (calm, addressing Arlong off-frame): “I joined this crew for one reason!” / “Team? I have no team!” / “This is just business…” / “…to earn 100 million berries…” / “…and buy Coco Village back from you.” The 100M-berries-for-Coco-Village contract is named on-page for the first time — three chapters after the village proper-noun landed (Ch. 70) and 65 chapters after Nami’s 100M-to-buy-a-certain-village aspirational seed landed (Ch. 9).

Page 16 — Arlong (close-up, arms crossed, sitting, contemplative): “So I always wondered why someone like you would be so interested in a shabby little village like that one. You betrayed your fellow villagers. You betrayed your family. You don’t believe in anything but money.” Then an Arlong-officer in the background unfolds a folded weathered paper: “Your what? You look upset, Nami.” / “Eh? What’s that?” — Nami’s eyes go wide: ”!! That’s my…!!!” Arlong (smug): “That is, until I found THIS in your room.” Page 16 final panel — DOOM — Arlong unfurls an old treasure map with an X marking Coco Village. “This is an old treasure map!!! It’s of this island, and the X marks Coco Village!!!” The chapter installs the Nami-has-a-secret-treasure-stash-beyond-the-named-contract layer — the robbing-pirates-code operates against Arlong as well as for him.

Page 17 — Nami: “It belongs to Nami. Give it back.” Arlong: “Hidden treasure!! A mountain of gold!!” Crew RAAAA — the mountain-of-gold idea ignites them. Nami (close-up, calm): “You won’t go back on our deal, will you?” Arlong-officer: “I’m sick of your suspicions!! All I care about is buying that village!!” Then: “This is mine!! You had no right!!” / “SWUP!” — Nami snatches the map back. Page 17 final panel — Arlong seated (relaxed pose, hand resting on Nami’s shoulder, fish-man-as-paternal-feudal-lord composition): “Of course not. I’d slit my belly before I’d break a promise. That’s the kind of fish-man I am!!” The promise-tell lands — Arlong gives an explicit on-page guarantee with the most expensive verbal currency available (slit my belly = harakiri-honor framing applied by a fish-man villain).

Page 18 — SBS Question Corner (Volume 9 SBS bonus): bone-themed corner header with Chouchou (dog from Orange Town) napping at a doghouse. Q&A: a Sanji-fan joke, a Don’t-snack joke, an Alvida-fatness gag (Oda dismisses: “Oh please, get outta here.”), and a serious mechanical-tech explainer on flintlock pistols with detailed diagrams (flint, hammer, striking surface, flash pan, trigger). Oda notes that in the One Piece world “some have been modified to fire repeatedly. Scary, huh?” — pre-loads later repeating-pistol antagonists.

Mentions / appearances

• Nami — on-page, dominant character of the chapter. Delivers the Luffy was stupid to trust me / The only thing I believe in is money speech (pages 4-5). Performs the apparent killing of Usopp (pages 10-13). Names the 100M-berry-for-Coco-Village contract (page 15). Reveals the secret treasure map in her room (pages 16-17). Demands Arlong honor the deal (page 17). The chapter is Nami’s heaviest-screen-time chapter so far in the series and the chapter where her Arlong-side-identity is fully composed on-page — every prior off-page-Nami-tell now reads against this on-page Nami-as-Arlong-officer composition. The chapter installs the bo-staff combat-prop and the secret-treasure-map personal-prop in the same chapter.
• Usopp — on-page, captured at Arlong Park. Tries the 20M-bounty-bluff (pages 1-2), the Zoro-will-come-rescue leverage (page 3), the Smoke Star escape (page 11). Gets THWACK’d by Nami (page 12), apparently-killed (page 13), splashed into the sea (page 15). The chapter ends with Usopp presumed-dead by the in-chapter witnesses; reader is positioned for the was-it-real ambiguity that resolves next chapter. Chapter’s target-of-the-fake-kill — Usopp’s protected-by-Nami-without-knowing-it arc continues into the next chapter.
• Arlong — on-page from page 6. Returns to Arlong Park; processes the wrecked courtyard; chastises Hatchan; supervises Nami’s fake-kill of Usopp; delivers the piratical / KILL HIM, NAMI / Excellent work dialogue line (pages 10-14); names the betrayed-your-family line and unfurls Nami’s hidden treasure map (page 16); delivers the honor-promise (page 17). The chapter is Arlong’s first direct on-page interaction with Nami in the series.
• Hatchan — on-page from page 6. The I-towed-Zoro-to-Coco-Village confession (page 7) — the chapter’s comic-set-piece. Hatchan’s good-nature-as-comic-failure register installs.
• Zoro — off-page but referenced repeatedly. Established as at large in Coco Village thanks to Hatchan’s towing. Chapter’s off-stage-pursuit-vector — Zoro is hunting Nami’s location (per page 8 Nami line: “he’s looking for me”). Forward-payoff: Zoro arrives at Arlong Park in next chapters.
• Luffy — off-page, referenced. Nami: “Luffy was stupid to trust me so easily.” Usopp: “He trusts you completely!!! Even now!!!” The chapter installs the trust-betrayal binary that the next chapter’s Luffy-arrives-and-hears-Usopp-died set-piece will execute on.
• Johnny — on-page in cover (page 14). Witnesses the apparent killing from a building’s window; Brother / sister Nami vocative confirms identity. Chapter’s off-stage news-carrier. The chapter’s most subtle on-page beat — Johnny’s role is to survive-the-witness and carry-the-news.
• Arlong Pirates — on-page, full roster present (Arlong, Hatchan, mooks). The chapter is the first chapter where the full crew operates as a coherent ensemble with all roles visible (captain decides, first mate executes errands, mooks witness, embedded-officer Nami performs).
• Straw Hat Pirates — maximally dispersed: Usopp captured (Arlong Park), Zoro at large (Coco Village), Nami performing (Arlong Park, opposite side), Luffy and Sanji still off-page (presumably still inbound from Baratie). The dispersion-maxima register continues from Ch. 70.
• Yosaku and Johnny Bounty-Hunting Team — Johnny on-page witness; Yosaku off-panel but presumably nearby. Continues the expository-courier role established Ch. 70.
• Arlong Park — chapter’s primary setting. The full interior is on-page for the first time in the arc — the courtyard, the pool, the bench-thrones, the gate, the buildings. The architectural-as-character composition matures.
• Coco Village — chapter setting (Johnny’s vantage). Off-page Zoro location. Named four times in the chapter.
• Fish-Men — race continues to be the antagonist-tier of the arc. Nami’s glorious fish-men line (page 8) is Arlong-side-rhetoric — the chapter installs the race-as-class racial-supremacist rhetoric that Nami performs for cover.
• Buggy Pirates — cover-story Part 27 Parade!!

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Cover: Buggy’s Crew After the Battle Part 27 Parade!!: Buggy at center, head-tilted-up, hands raised in pained gesture, sweat-marks; smaller Buggy-coded figures (pumpkin-faced one, top-hatted one, plus others) parade behind him. The parade-of-lookalikes identity-crisis composition.
• Page 2 — Establishing-shot of Arlong Park interior + bounty banter: Wide-shot of the gate (signage ARLONG PARK), the pool, the mooks. “OHHHHHHHH…” Sound of the Arlong Park horn from page 70-18 carries into this chapter. Usopp captured-and-frantic in the foreground left; the mooks looming in middle-ground. “A reward that huge… would tempt any bounty hunter.” — Usopp’s bluff. Bottom panel: “He slaughtered my men while I was out! So where is Roronoa Zolo hiding!?” The chapter opens with the Zoro-hunt register, not the Usopp-captive register — Usopp’s leverage-pivot to Zoro is set up by the mooks’ actual focus.
• Page 3 — Usopp panic-flipping: “He’ll come here and kill you all!!!” / “You’re after Arlong’s head too!!” / “Zolo is my friend!! If you touch me, you’ll be sorry!!” (Usopp). “Impressive flip-flop!” / “In fact, if you kill me, Zolo will never come here!!!” / “Huh!? You shouldn’t kill me!” / “So, if I kill you, Zolo will come here?” — the chapter’s Usopp-bluffs-himself-into-incoherence comic register. Bottom panel: “You still don’t trust me, eh?” (Nami, addressing a fish-man) / “What’s the matter, Nami!? You’ve gone pale!” — the chapter pivots to Nami’s prove-your-loyalty moment.
• Page 4 — Nami’s Luffy is a fool / crafty one / crafty one setup: Nami (close-up, profile, sweat-drop): ”…They’ll kill me too!! No way!!” / “If I don’t allay their suspicions… to achieving my goal!!!” (interior monologue). Mook foreground: “You’re a crafty one. I know you too well.” The chapter installs the Nami-interior-monologue-as-internal-coherence-while-performing-villainy-externally layer. Page 4 final tier — Nami (looking down): “Why did you have to follow me? I was so close…” (interior, about Usopp). The chapter’s most-internal Nami beat.
• Page 5 — The Luffy was stupid to trust me speech: Usopp foreground (panic-face, hands-up, mouth-open): “How could you deceive a guy like that!!? He trusts you completely!!! Even now!!!” Nami (calm smile, head-tilt, hand on hip, cow-print dress in profile): “Luffy was stupid to trust me so easily. The only thing I believe in is money.” Page 5 bottom: SPLASH!! + WOOOO!! (Arlong’s arrival horn) + “Have you no heart!!?” (Usopp). The chapter’s emotional-peak in the Nami-as-cold-betrayer register.
• Page 6 — Arlong’s return: Top tier: “Huh!? Lord Arlong, you’re back!!” / “Welcome home, sir!!!” — mook chorus. Arlong’s silhouette (8-bit, recognizable in three panels — bare-chested, sun-bandanna, tall). “Hey!! What’s all the hubbub!?” Bottom tier: DA-DOOM!! — Arlong sees the wrecked courtyard, downed fish-men, broken columns. “What happened here!?” (Arlong); “If you’d been here, you might’ve stopped him.” / “This is the work of Zolo the Pirate Hunter!! Where have you been, Hachi?” (mook).
• Page 7 — Hatchan’s I-towed-Zolo confession: “…was some swordsman I didn’t know.” (Hatchan) / “No. The only one I saw…” / “Then you didn’t see Zolo?” (Arlong) / “I’d have scuppered that blasted Pirate Hunter!!! Of course!! I’d never let anyone kill my mates!!” (Arlong, in fury). Then the big-text “HACHI, YOU IDIOT!!! THAT WAS HIM!!!!” — Arlong realizes. Bottom tier: “So I took him there!” / “But… he said he was Lord Arlong’s guest!” (Hatchan); “You TOWED him!?” (Arlong); “I towed him over to Coco Village. Where did he go!?” (Hatchan). The chapter’s comic-set-piece; Hatchan’s first-mate-as-comic-failure register installs.
• Page 8 — Nami’s pivot to combat: “Is Zolo nuts!? He’s got no reason to tangle with these freaks!” (Usopp, internal). “Then there’s no need to look for him.” / “‘Cause he’s looking for me!!” (Nami). “So who’s that?” (Arlong, re Usopp) / “He’s Zolo’s crewmate. He thinks a mere human can defy the glorious fish-men.” (Nami) / “I’ve got to get these fools out of the way.” (Nami). Then WHA—! (Usopp reaction) — Nami takes a long bo-staff from a rack (silhouette composition, SWUP). The chapter installs Nami’s combat-weapon.
• Page 9 — eight years of work line + every place has its own rules moralism: “You wanna fight!?” / “So!!!” / “NAMI!” — Usopp facing Nami. Then she swings FWUMP!! OOF!! (a smaller intro-attack to knock Usopp prone for the public scene). “You shouldn’t have attacked Arlong… You’re in the way… Everything was going smoothly, but you guys are about to ruin eight years of work. It was my mistake that brought you here. But every place has its own rules…” The eight-years number is delivered in a casual subordinate-clause — Nami quantifies her embedment without performing the weight of it.
• Page 10 — So I should be the one to eliminate you + Arlong cheers: Nami close-up (calm smile, eyes-down, lifting the bo-staff): “So I should be the one… to eliminate you.” Mook chorus: “KILL HIM, NAMI!!!” Arlong (background, smiling): “Hmm… She’s become quite… piratical.” Arlong: “Ha ha ha! Don’t make me laugh!! Even I’m not so soft that a little girl could take me out!!” Usopp (panic, eyes wide): “ELIMINATE!?” / “This is my chance!! If I don’t make a move now, I’ll never escape!!” Nami (calm, last warning): “Beware Usopp… here, I’m not the Nami you knew!!” The chapter’s setup-for-the-Smoke-Star-attempt.
• Page 11 — Smoke Star escape attempt: Usopp draws slingshot — FWOOM!! SPROING!! SMOKE STARS!!! — smoke envelopes the courtyard. Mook chorus: fss fss fss A SMOKE BOMB!!! Surround him!! Don’t let him escape!! Nami (calm in profile against the smoke, tmp tmp SFX walking through): “So predictable… Just the sort of thing you’d think of.” Usopp (running, oooo SFX): “I’ll make my escape across the water!!” The chapter’s Usopp-knows-the-water-is-his-only-vector tell.
• Page 12 — THWACK!! Nami clobbers Usopp: full-page composition — Nami (in profile, swinging the bo-staff in a 270° arc from above-right, hair flying) catches Usopp (mid-leap toward the water, eyes wide). THWACK!! fills the upper half of the page. AGH… STOP!! / FWOOOSH!! / FWUMP!! / UGH!! — Usopp clobbered, falling. Final tier — CH… UNK!!! — Usopp hits the dock; Nami stands over him in the smoke (silhouette composition). The chapter’s most-arresting visual.
• Page 13 — I had no choice. It’s business + Die quietly: Usopp (close-up, bloodied face, mouth open, gasping): “NAMI…” / “you…” — gasp gasp. plip plip plip SFX (blood dripping). Nami close-up (eyes lowered, calm): “I had no choice. It’s business.” Final tier — FWUMP!! (Usopp at her feet) — Nami (raising the blade): “DIE QUIETLY…” — SHLUK!! (blade-strike sound; framed off-panel — the reader does not see where the blade lands). The chapter’s holds-the-question compositional beat — the reader is positioned to read the kill as lethal.
• Page 14 — Arlong’s celebration + Johnny’s witness: Top tier — Arlong (head-thrown-back, mouth open, fists in air): “RAAAH!” / “You’re an indispensable part of Arlong’s pirate crew!!” / “HMPH…” (Nami background, hands at sides). Mook chorus: “Ha ha ha ha!! Excellent work, Nami!!” / “RAAAAAA!!” Middle tier — shake shake SFX, cut to a building: a man in profile, sweat-drenched, hands clenched at sides, eyes wide-and-shocked: “Th-this is terrible!!! Aaah!!! No!!!” Then page 14 bottom — close-up on the man’s face: 海 (sea) tattoo on his cheek visible, white-banded headband visible, sweat-running: “Killed by sister Nami!! This can’t be happening!! Brother Usopp…” The Brother / sister Nami register confirms identity: Johnny, witnessing from cover.
• Page 15 — This was what you wanted, wasn’t it? / 100 million berries / buy Coco Village back speech: Top tier — SPLASH!! + AH HA HA HA HA HA!! — Usopp’s body shoved into the sea, the crew laughs. Nami (foreground, profile, looking at the splash): “This was what you wanted, wasn’t it!? To die at sea?” — bitter-euphemism delivery. Middle tier — “I joined this crew for one reason!” (Nami). Mook in foreground: “You’re on our team. I was wrong to doubt you, Nami.” Nami (cold, in profile, addressing Arlong off-frame): “Team? I have no team!” Final tier (close-up on Nami, eye-level, face calm): “This is just business…” / “…to earn 100 million berries…” / “…and buy Coco Village back from you.” The chapter’s central reveal — the 100M contract is named.
• Page 16 — Arlong’s betrayed your family + the treasure map reveal: Top tier — Arlong (arms crossed, sitting, profile): “So I always wondered why someone like you would be so interested in a shabby little village like that one. You betrayed your fellow villagers. You betrayed your family. You don’t believe in anything but money.” Middle tier — small panels showing: Arlong-officer (background, holding folded paper): “Your what? You look upset, Nami.” Nami (close-up, eyes wide): ”!! That’s my…!!!” Officer: “Eh? What’s that?” Arlong: “That is, until I found THIS in your room.” Bottom — DOOM — Arlong unfurls the map in his fist, hand-held composition: “This is an old treasure map!!! It’s of this island, and the X marks Coco Village!!!” The chapter’s secret-stash reveal.
• Page 17 — I’d slit my belly promise: Top tier — Nami (hand outstretched, urgent): “It belongs to Nami. Give it back.” Arlong: “Hidden treasure!! A mountain of gold!!” Mook chorus: “RAAAAAAA!!” Middle tier — Nami (close-up, calm-but-strained, eyes lowered): “You won’t go back on our deal, will you?” Arlong-officer (foreground): “I’m sick of your suspicions!! All I care about is buying that village!!” Nami: “This is mine!! You had no right!!” — SWUP!! (Nami snatches the map). Bottom — close-up on Arlong (seated, hand on Nami’s shoulder, paternal-feudal-lord composition): “Of course not. I’d slit my belly before I’d break a promise. That’s the kind of fish-man I am!!” The chapter’s load-bearing promise-tell.
• Page 18 — SBS Question Corner (Vol. 9 SBS bonus): Bone-themed header with Chouchou napping at a doghouse. Q&A: a Sanji-fan joke, an Oda-don’t-let-my-friend-die-without-snacks joke, an Alvida-fatness gag (Oda dismisses), a serious mechanical-tech explainer on flintlock pistols (flint, hammer, striking surface, flash pan, trigger). Oda: “in the world of One Piece some have been modified to fire repeatedly. Scary, huh?” — note the chapter installs flintlock as the default-canonical-pistol-type in the One Piece world. Reverse-load: every prior on-page pistol (Helmeppo Ch. 3, Bell-mère’s-future-pistol, Kaya’s pistol Ch. 34, Yasopp’s gunmanship) is now mechanically named as a flintlock.

Open questions raised

• Did Nami actually kill Usopp? The chapter holds the question. The SHLUK / FWUMP / SPLASH sequence is positioned as lethal, but the bo-staff-to-blade weapon-switch and the die quietly phrasing carry tells of a staged execution. Forward-payoff: next chapter resolves.
• Will Arlong honor the contract? The page 17 promise is a Chekhov-explicit setup; the chapter installs the breakable-promise as the arc’s foundational tension. Forward-payoff: arc-climax betrayal.
• What is on Nami’s secret treasure map? The map is named (an X on Coco Village, this island) but the what kind of treasure is unspecified. Forward-payoff: forward chapters resolve.
• Who is the older man with the 海 cheek-tattoo? First on-page identification of Johnny in the cheek-tattoo-and-headband composition (prior chapters showed Johnny but the cheek-tattoo is a Ch. 74 detail). Pre-loads the Johnny-and-Yosaku-as-news-vectors role for the next chapter.
• Where is Zoro? Off-page in Coco Village per page 7’s I towed him to Coco Village — but his exact location and condition are pending. Forward-payoff: Zoro encounters Nojiko, eventually arrives at Arlong Park.
• What happens when Luffy hears Usopp died? The chapter’s whole second half is structurally setup for the next chapter’s Luffy-arrives-and-rages set-piece. Johnny is the messenger-vector; the chapter ends without Luffy on-page.
• Eight years — when does the contract end? Nami has been eight years into the contract (page 9). The chapter does not specify the contract-end-date or whether one was named. Forward-question: is the contract open-ended-until-100M-paid or has Arlong added time-constraints?
• How much of Nami’s 100M is already saved? Implied to be substantial after eight years of pirate-robbing, but the on-page number is unspecified. Forward-payoff: the Nezumi-bribery raid that wipes out Nami’s savings is the arc’s mid-act-2 reveal of the actual saved-amount.
• What does Arlong’s betrayed your family line cite? The chapter does not name how Nami’s working-for-Arlong has betrayed her family — the leverage Arlong knows is on-page-implied but not on-page-named. Forward-question: what specifically does Arlong know about Nami’s family that makes the betrayal framing legible?
• Are Mohji/Cabaji in the cover Parade? The cover-story Part 27 Parade composition shows a parade of Buggy-coded figures. Forward-question: which are real Buggy-Pirates officers (Mohji, Cabaji) and which are impersonators / lookalikes / etc.? The cover-story’s identity-crisis sub-arc continues.

Cross-references to existing vault notes

• Nami — Ch. 74 is the first chapter where Nami operates fully on-page in her Arlong-side identity. Add an Arlong-arc operational-villain-performance entry to her arc-by-arc updates. Update last_appearance to Ch. 74.
• Arlong — Ch. 74 is Arlong’s first direct on-page interaction with Nami. Add the honor-promise (page 17), the piratical / betrayed-family lines (page 16), the Hatchan-as-idiot exchange. Update last_appearance.
• Hatchan — Ch. 74 installs the good-natured-comic-failure register. Update with the I-towed-Zolo-to-Coco-Village beat. Update last_appearance.
• Usopp — Ch. 74 is the chapter Usopp is apparently killed in a public-loyalty-test. Add the fake-killed-by-Nami-as-protection-cover beat. Update last_appearance.
• Johnny — Ch. 74 is the chapter Johnny witnesses Usopp’s apparent killing and becomes the off-stage news-carrier. Add the cheek-tattoo-witness-from-cover beat. Update last_appearance.
• Nami Backstory and Bell-mere — major thread installment. The contract-mechanism and time-depth components are now installed. Update evidence ledger; advance maturity status.
• Arlong Pirates — first chapter with full crew composition operational on-page. Add Ch. 74 to notable-events; expand roster commentary to include the Arlong-as-paternal-feudal-lord register.
• Nami Tangerine Village — the seed-aggregate is now complete-as-named. Update payoff status.
• Nami Robbing Pirates Code — add the two-layered code (contract + secret) annotation.
• Buggy Cover Story Survival — add Part 27 Parade!! installment.
• Arlong Park — Ch. 74 is the chapter where the interior is fully on-page for the first time (courtyard, pool, throne-bench, gate-from-inside). Add detail to the architectural description.
• Cocoyasi Village — Zoro is at large in Coco Village per Ch. 74 page 7. Update with Ch. 74 evidence.