Where-Are-They-Now-Skypiea-Epilogue

A cover-page side-comic checking back in on the Skypiea / Shandian cast after the Straw Hats left the sky island. Captioned “WHERE ARE THEY NOW?” with a numbered SHOT N counter on each installment (the recurring-serial marker). Featured cast so far: Conis (the Angel-Beach girl), Aisa (the Shandian child with Mantra), Laki (Raki, the Shandian warrior — VIZ spells it “Raki” on the cover), Nola (the giant Upper-Yard guardian serpent), Wyper (the Shandian warrior-chief, now with a mechanical-arm prosthesis), and Gan Fall (the former God of Skypiea / “Knight of the Sky” — VIZ banner spells it “Ganfor”).

Serial scope is broader than Skypiea. The continuous SHOT N counter resumes during the Thriller Bark arc and turns its lens on other departed casts. Shot 4 (this note’s first non-Skypiea installment) revisits the Water 7 / Shift Station crew. This note is the single canonical home for the whole “Where Are They Now?” serial, regardless of which arc’s cast a given Shot features — do not fork a separate Thriller-Bark-era “Where Are They Now?” note; append later Shots here. (The filename’s -Skypiea-Epilogue suffix reflects only where the serial began.)

Installment log

• Ch. 424 — Shot 1: “Conis, Aisa, Raki and Nola walk across the Varse.” Serial opener. Conis (with her harp/wings ornaments), Raki, and a basket-carrying Aisa step out of a cave/tunnel mouth onto the Skypiea plains, with Nola the giant snake looming behind them. They are setting out on a trek across the Varse (the high-altitude cloud sea/plains of the sky islands). Establishes the serial’s premise: a walking journey across Skypiea reuniting the post-arc cast.
• Ch. 425 — Shot 2: “Wyper and the Shandians: The Forest Frontier.” Banner verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 2: WYPER AND THE SHANDIANS: THE FOREST FRONTIER.” Wyper — now sporting a cyborg/mechanical-arm prosthesis, his Shandian markings and the wheel-tattoo on his shoulder visible — rests among Shandians at a cluster of forest tents in the wake of the Skypiea war. The serial widens from the walking party (Shot 1) to the Shandian resettlement on the forested frontier of the sky island.
• Ch. 426 / Ch. 427 — Shot 3: “Ganfor and Chief’s Brilliant Pumpkin Plan.” Banner verified from both the original page (the install first runs as the ch 427 title page printed at the back of ch 426) and the original page (the same banner on ch 427’s own canonical title page): “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 3: ‘GANFOR AND CHIEF’S BRILLIANT PUMPKIN PLAN’.” Gan Fall (the former God of Skypiea / “Knight of the Sky,” white-bearded, in robes) sits beside the priest/Chief (striped-robed figure) among Skypiea foliage, an owl perched and Nola’s great horned head looming behind them — the two old men, one holding a small wrapped gift, plotting some pumpkin-farming scheme. The serial shifts from the Shandian frontier (Shot 2) to the elder Skypiea-natives’ quiet post-war domesticity.
• Ch. 486 — Shot 4: “Yokozuna no longer challenges the Sea Train.” Banner verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 4: ‘YOKOZUNA NO LONGER CHALLENGES THE SEA TRAIN’.” The serial’s first non-Skypiea installment — it jumps to the Water 7 / Shift Station cast. A peaceful waterfront tableau at Kokoro’s seaside station house (the A-frame cottage and signal tower behind): Kokoro (the station-master, lounging in the shallows), Chimney (her granddaughter, waving from up the bank) and Gonbe (the rabbit-cat) relaxing with Yokozuna — the giant frog who used to headbutt the Sea Train — now contentedly basking beside them instead of charging the rails. The gag: Yokozuna has made his peace with the train. Slice-of-life epilogue; no main-plot hook. (p. 1)
• Ch. 487 — Shot 5: “Auditions for Iceberg’s Secretary.” Banner verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 5: ‘AUDITIONS FOR ICEBERG’S SECRETARY’.” The serial’s second Water 7 installment, staying with the Galley-La cast. Under a 秘書 (“secretary”) AUDITION banner, Iceberg (Galley-La president / mayor of Water 7, in his striped suit) sits at left reviewing a line of would-be replacements for his old secretary — the casting-call premise nodding to the CP9 reveal that left the post vacant. The candidates are a gag gallery: a hulking muscular applicant in fishnets posing center, a deadpan numbered child applicant at right, and assorted hopefuls in framed portraits and the background. Pure slice-of-life comedy; no main-plot hook. (p. 1)
• Ch. 488 — Shot 6: “The Galley-La Company’s vice president being run down by fans and debt collectors.” Banner verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 6: ‘THE GALLEY-LA COMPANY’S VICE PRESIDENT BEING RUN DOWN BY FANS AND DEBT COLLECTORS’.” The serial’s third consecutive Water 7 installment, staying with the Galley-La cast. Paulie — the blond, cigar-chomping shipwright foreman and Galley-La vice president, in his fancy braided suit — bolts down a Water 7 street in panic, a roiling mob of cheering fans and pursuing debt collectors stampeding behind him in a cloud of dust. The gag pays off Paulie’s running characterization as a chronic debtor (he is forever broke and dodging creditors). Pure slice-of-life comedy; no main-plot hook. (p. 1)
• Ch. 490 — Shot 7: “Oimo and Kashii Return to Elbaph.” Banner verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 7: ‘OIMO AND KASHII RETURN TO ELBAPH’.” The serial pivots away from the Water 7 cast (Shots 4–6) to the Enies Lobby cast — its first Enies-Lobby installment. Oimo (left, shouldering his halberd) and Kashii (right) — the two giant gatekeepers who guarded the Gates of Justice, tricked into a century of World-Government service on the false promise that their captains Dorry and Brogy would be freed — walk home up a street of their homeland Elbaf, a great horned-helm tower and ranks of fellow giants lined up to greet them in the background. The pay-off to their Enies Lobby arc: freed of the WG lie (the Straw Hats / Usopp-”Sogeking” disabused them at the Tower of Justice), the brothers finally return to the giants’ warrior homeland. Slice-of-life epilogue; no main-plot merge in this window (status stays ongoing). (p. 1)

Notes

• Caption verified from the original page: “WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SHOT 1: ‘CONIS, AISA, RAKI AND NOLA WALK ACROSS THE VARSE’” — the SHOT 1 counter marks this as a true serial opener, not a one-off (distinct from the Skypiea-Chapter-Title-Page-One-Offs register-bin).
• Status ongoing — Shots 1–6 logged so far; subsequent Shots to be appended as later chapters’ cover pages surface them. Shot 3 (“Ganfor and Chief’s Brilliant Pumpkin Plan”) is the ch 427 title page: VIZ runs the next chapter’s title page at the back of the prior chapter, so the install first surfaces on Ch. 426’s page 22 and then prints again on Ch. 427’s own page 1 — it is logged against both here, with 0427 as its canonical home. Shot 4 (Ch. 486) resumes the serial after its hiatus through the Enel’s-Space-Mission / Thriller-Bark-one-off cover slots, pivoting from the Skypiea cast to the Water 7 cast — still slice-of-life, no main-plot merge (status stays ongoing, no payoff_chapter). Shot 5 (Ch. 487) continues the Water 7 thread — Iceberg auditioning a new secretary — again slice-of-life with no main-plot merge. Shot 6 (Ch. 488) continues the Water 7 / Galley-La thread — Paulie, the perpetually-indebted vice president, being chased through town by fans and debt collectors — again slice-of-life with no main-plot merge (status stays ongoing, no payoff_chapter). Shot 7 (Ch. 490) pivots a third time — from the Water 7 cast to the Enies Lobby cast — sending the gatekeeper giants Oimo and Kashii home to Elbaph now that the WG’s lie (their captains’ captivity) has been exposed; still slice-of-life epilogue with no main-plot merge (status stays ongoing, no payoff_chapter). Shot 8+ to follow.