After the Going Merry narrowly escapes being hit by a "sea train", the crew meets an old woman, Kokoro, and her granddaughter, Chimney. Kokoro gives Luffy a map to Water Seven. Luffy, Nami, and Usopp buy boats driven by sea monsters called "yagara".

Luffy, Nami, and Usopp get strange greetings from the residents and they get to experience the roller coaster-like channels of Water Seven. Luffy find out that some pirates had been beaten at the hands of some powerful craftsmen; the Galley La Company. Chopper loses Robin and some strange new people threaten Zoro back on the ship.

The people who attacked Zoro reveal themselves to be the feared "Franky Family", though they're no match for Zoro. Luffy have their gold exchanged for cash. After, they meet a man who resembles Usopp, Galley La's carpenter employment foreman, Kaku. Usopp's cut of the money is stolen by the Franky Family.

Paulie makes his debut when he retrieves Usopp's stolen money as he runs from debt collectors. Kalifa shows Luffy, Nami, and Usopp around Dock No. 1 and tells them how Iceburg founded the Galley La Company. Kaku returns from the Going Merry and tells them that their keel is irreparably damaged.

Luffy refuses to believe that Galley La cannot repair the Going Merry. The two soon realize that not only is Usopp missing now, but the two brief cases that were returned to them are empty. Nami decides to head to Franky House and finds Usopp on the way in a pitiful state. As she heads back to the ship for help, Usopp goes to the Franky House himself.

Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, and Chopper follow Usopp's bloody trail to the Franky House, where they find him passed out in front. The four of them challenge the Franky Family only to find out that their real target, Franky himself, is gone and has taken the money with him.

Once they're back on the ship, Luffy has to finally tell Usopp that the Going Merry can no longer be repaired and that they've chosen to get a new ship without him. Usopp believes that Luffy has abandoned the dignity of their ship and says he's leaving the crew. That night, he challenges Luffy to a duel.

Usopp fights Luffy in order to decide who keeps the Going Merry; he fights harder than he's ever fought before. Luffy actually seems to pose no threat but all the while, he's remembering what great friends they used to be, sailing together on the same ship. Even after taking a harsh beating, Luffy defeats Usopp. They leave Usopp and the ship behind.

The Strawhats get themselves a hotel room. Nami finds the crew on the roof with urgent news: Iceburg has been shot. As the Galley La Company frantically search for answers, Nami and Luffy decide to check on his condition – only to be met by closed gates. Franky appears then to exact his revenge – with style.

In the streets outside of the hospital, Luffy fights Franky. Inside, Iceburg recalls seeing Nico Robin and another tall man before he was shot. The Galley La company run outside and stop Franky and Luffy and tell them that they suspect the Strawhat Pirates of the crime.

The Galley La Company continues to fight Luffy and Franky is enraged that they've stolen his opponent. An incredibly high tide called the "Aqua Laguna" is coming and Chopper and Sanji rush to warn Usopp. Luffy raises some chaos in order to meet with Iceburg and he demands to know what's happening. Iceburg says he wants to see Robin one more time.

In a bar, Franky talks with Kokoro about her theory on who shot Iceburg. The rumors she speaks of seem to have some truth as we see Robin meeting with someone from an organization called CP9. While the crew hide from angry residents, Sanji and Chopper discover Robin and she tells them what they've feared: she's responsible and she wants to part ways.

Chopper reunites with the others without Sanji and they discuss what's happened. Luffy decides that in order to know the full truth, they must catch Robin. Usopp attempts to repair the ship enough to withstand the Aqua Laguna and the Strawhats make their way to the Galley La Company.

The Strawhats (still missing Sanji) rush to Galley La where Robin and CP9 begin a raid. In Iceburg's room, Robin and the mysterious man Iceburg saw before, tell him that they've purposely placed the blame on the pirates. Their true aim is the blueprints he would've passed down to Paulie. Luffy separates from his group.

Robin speaks with Iceburg inside his room still. We already know that Robin can read the poneglyphs - and it seems Iceburg is the one with the blueprints to the ultimate weapon, Pluton. The true enemies are revealed to be Iceburg's own allies. Elsewhere, Luffy is tied up with Paulie after Paulie tells members of CP9 that his blueprints are fake.

Lucci tells Iceburg their hypothesis and has Kaku check his pulse to tell if the things he tells him are true. They suspect that Iceburg's friend from the past, Cutty Flam, is really Franky and it's revealed to be true. Therefore, Franky has the real blueprints. The Strawhat Pirates and Paulie break into the room where they find Iceburg and CP9.

Luffy and the others request that Robin comes back to the crew. She refuses and tells them that she cannot accomplish her "wish" if she were to stay with them. Robin turns to leave and CP9 try to hold the pirates back. Robin successfully escapes and Lucci shows those remaining his "transformation".

Lucci's transformation is a result of a Devil's Fruit; a Zoan Type leopard. He quickly disposes of the crew and CP9 tie up Paulie and Iceburg, leaving them alone as the building slowly burns down around them. In Franky's underground hideout, Usopp tells him his story and Franky is finally touched. In return, Franky tells him a little about Tom's contributions to Water Seven.

Usopp believes that the person who repaired the Going Merry in Skypeia was really the Going Merry itself. Franky says that the ship was inhabited by a spirit who enters ships who are dearly cared for. The spirit repaired their ship just enough for them to reach the next island. The doorbell rings from the sea side and the Galley La foremen enter.

The foremen discover Franky's hidden room and he fears they'll trample his memories. A long flashback ensues, covering Franky's past in Tom's Workers and how he and Iceburg helped create the Sea Train.

Spandam, a CP5 representative, was determined to get Tom proven guilty in his trial so he could get the blueprints. As Franky walked into the town, people from the government began to attack with the battleships he had personally constructed. Tom and Iceburg run to their shipyard where they're attacked by two ships which also destroy the others. Iceburg tells Franky that he has to take responsibility or he'll never forgive him.

Franky said that if a ship of his were to be used as a weapon, then it's no longer one of his ships. That enraged Tom and he punched Franky for the first time, telling him he had to take pride in the ships he created. He then told the judge that he would accept the punishment for both his previous crime and the recent attack. Franky tried to stop the train to Enies Lobby with his bare hands.

Chopper escapes the burning building with Paulie and Iceburg on his back and collapses outside. Iceburg tells Nami that CP9 threatened to destroy the Straw Hats if Robin didn't cooperate with them. Nami rushes to tell Chopper so they can go looking for the rest of the crew. Elsewhere, the foremen let go of the Going Merry so she would be destroyed at sea.

Paulie helps clear the name of the Strawhats but doesn't tell the mob everything he knows. He gets the mob to follow Chopper so they can search for the rest of the crew. Nami goes her own way so she can rush to the Sea Train. As Nami nears the station, Sanji, ahead of her, approaches the train

Nami and the conductors are rescued by Paulie when the Aqua Laguna floods the main station. A man hands Nami a letter he found from Sanji. It informs her that Usopp, Franky, and he are on board the train that had just departed. On board, he storms the cars. High up in the city, Nami speaks with Kokoro and spots Luffy, stuck in between two buildings, in the back streets where the Aqua Laguna will hit first.

Nami finally reaches Luffy and tells him that he needs to hurry before Robin reaches Enies Lobby. Chopper finds Zoro and hands him the Sandai Kitetsu so he can escape the chimney. Luffy pushes apart the buildings he was stuck between and Paulie grabs them all so they can escape the Aqua Laguna's massive wave.

Sanji fights his way through another train car and finds Usopp and Franky. Seeing how determined Luffy is to save Robin, Kokoro and Iceburg lends the Strawhat crew the use of another sea train, Rocket Man. The Franky Family shows up, pleading with Luffy to let them join them because they'll do anything for their leader.

The Rocket Man finally makes it out to sea. As the train connects with the tracks, Luffy has to rescue Chimney before she's thrown off by the wind. In the meanwhile, Iceburg has a flashback about when he finally met Franky again in Water Seven. With Luffy and Chimney safe in the train, Paulie tells his fellow carpenters who the real culprits were. The Strawhats, Franky Family, and Galley La Company form an alliance.

Luffy and Zoro perform a move that acts similar to a cannon and blasts a hole through the wall of the tidal wave ahead of them, opening up a channel for them to pass through. They miraculously pass through unscathed and the passengers rejoice. Sanji contacts the rest of the crew and fills them in on his current situation. Usopp separates from them but later, when Sanji and Franky are spotted, a man named Sogeking comes to their rescue.

Sogeking makes his grand entrance. Franky and Sanji aren't fooled by his costume but they try to humor him. They devise a plan first, then detach the last two cars and fight their way through the rest. Back in the Rocket Man, Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Chopper get an outfit change; Nami shows off the weapon Usopp upgraded for her while he was still with them.

Kalifa updates the CP9 on the situation with Franky, Sanji, and Usopp. Sanji tells Franky and Usopp to go on without him so he can fight Wanze and his "Ramen Kenpo". Franky begins to fight Nero, CP9's "Weasel", and Sogeking meets with Robin.

Franky's fight with Nero continues. Nero discovers that Franky's weak spot is his back, so Franky lies down flat so he can't get to it. Nero demands that he fight seriously, so Franky gets up to perform his "Centaur" form. Sogeking talks with Robin and tells her that the crew knows about her reasons for leaving. Those on the Rocket Man encounter the discarded cars and Zoro slices them so they can pass.

Zoro clashes with "Ship Cutter" T-Bone. The fight is short and Zoro joins the crew again in the Rocket Man. On the Puffing Tom, Sanji beats Wanze beautiful, though Wanze thinks he's ruined his face. Franky finally gains the upper hand against Nero and defeats him. After beating their respective opponents, Franky and Sanji stand to fight against the other CP9.

After hiding under Robin's cloak for a few episodes, Sogeking finally shows himself. They stumble into the room with the CP9 and meet with Sanji and Franky. Sogeking produces a smokescreen. The four head into another car, detach it, and escape. It's not long before Blueno pulls their car back, though. Franky knocks down the wall so they can escape but ends up on the enemy car. Blueno opens a door then back in the Strawhat car.

Robin willingly follows Blueno into his improvised door and Sogeking and Sanji are left alone. For a while, Blueno explains a little of Robin's past involving the Buster Call. Back at the Rocket Man, Yokuzuna the frog jumps onto the front of the train, knocking them from the rails. After Kokoro speaks with him, he joins the group. The CP9, Franky, and Robin finally reach Enies Lobby and disembark.

In search of food, the Straw Hats attempt octopus hunting before discovering a barrel in the middle of the ocean. After opening the barrel, with fireworks launched from it, the Thousand Sunny gets thrown into the foggy Florian Triangle where it encounters a ruined ship with a living skeleton on it. While the others are unnerved, Luffy boards the ship with Sanji and Nami where they find the skeleton. After the skeleton introduces himself as Brook, Luffy immediately asks him to join the crew.

Onboard the Thousand Sunny, Brook tells his story of being a musician before being killed. However, his spirit was able to reanimate his skeleton due to the power of the Revive Revive Fruit. He also tells of having his shadow stolen, and thus cannot be out in open sunlight. A ghost suddenly appears in the galley, and the Straw Hats find out that they have been targeted by the ghost isle Thriller Bark, which has found them.

Brook bids farewell to the Straw Hats and leaps overboard, revealing that the lightness of his body allows him to dash across the ocean's surface. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper sail out to explore the island using the Mini-Merry II, ending up getting knocked onto land before they are chased by a patchwork cerberus that is a third fox. Back on the ship, the remaining crew members are harassed by an invisible creature. After fleeing the cerberus, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper encounter Hildon, a vampiric creature who offers to take them to the mansion of Doctor Hogback.

Usopp, Nami and Chopper traverse through the forest of Thriller Bark, Chopper revealing Doctor Hogback to be a famous surgeon and expressing excitement to see him. But when the group have second thoughts of heading towards Hogback's manor, due to the strange creatures roaming the wood, Hildon is nowhere to be seen before being attacked by a platoon of zombies that drive them towards the direction of the manor. While immediately hospitable, despite the manners of his female assistant Victoria Cindry, Hogback starts acting strange after it is mentioned that Brook has arrived on the island. The Thousand Sunny, meanwhile, gets caught in a giant spiderweb.

After the meeting with Hogback, who frightens Chopper by insisting that no one is allowed in his laboratory, Nami takes a shower with Usopp and Chopper outside while musing her thoughts on their situation. But Nami finds herself restrained by an invisible man in the shower, the figure fleeing when Usopp and Chopper manage to drive him off. The invisible man meets with Hogback and the ghost, referred as Perona, to discuss what to do with the Straw Hats. As the rest of the crew set foot on Thriller Bark, Luffy taming the cerberus as the group encounter more zombie creatures, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper attempt to leave the manor. But the trio instead find themselves surrounded by the Surprise Zombies: zombies that strike from paintings, taxidermied heads, and even floor rugs.

While evading the Surprise Zombies upon finding a secret passage, Nami, Chopper and Usopp discover the truth about Victoria Cindry being a starlet who died long ago. They eventually found the door to Hogback's laboratory, observing the scientist from outside before they are found by a mysterious samurai zombie who sounds like Brook. Meanwhile, Luffy's group are ambushed by ghosts who briefly made them depressed before they reach the graveyard where they are ambushed by the zombies.

After beating the zombies, the Straw Hats learn that one of the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, has been stealing people's shadows and using them to revive zombies. After they leave, Absalom rallies the zombies together for the Night Attack, while the ghosts from before return to their master, a Gothic Lolita-style Ghost Princess Perona. Gecko Moria himself, a massive, giant-like man, is awoken. The Straw Hats come to the realization that Thriller Bark is not an island, but rather, a massive ship!

Usopp, Nami and Chopper are effortlessly incapacitated by Ryuma and locked inside a coffin. Luffy and the others enter the mansion and defeat the Surprise Zombies with ease, but Sanji goes missing, so they force Oinkchuck to act as their guide by taking him with them. While the zombies of Thriller Bark celebrate the start of the Night Raid, Absalom awakens the other General Zombies to handle the Straw Hats.

After awakening the General Zombies, Absalom is accosted by Lola, a zombie warhog obsessed with making him her husband. After learning that he's chosen Nami to be his bride, Lola sets her sights on the navigator. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper manage to escape their coffin and find themselves in a garden, surrounded by animal zombies, including a bizarre penguin-bulldog zombie named Inuppe who talks and acts a lot like Sanji. The other Straw Hats, meanwhile, discover a hallway lined with suits of armor, and realize that Zoro is now missing as well.

As Perona makes her way to the Thousand Sunny to get the Straw Hats' treasure while Absalom attempts to stop Lola from hunting Nami, who realizes Innupe's uncanniness to Sanji, Luffy, Robin, and Frankie are lured by Oinkchuck into a room where they are forced to face an army of armored General Zombies. Though they are able to handle them, the three Straw Hats decide that evading them is top priority. But while Frankie and Robin escaped, Luffy's route was blocked by a zombie swordsman named Jigoro who acts much like Zoro. Luffy is captured by the zombie forces, with Franky and Robin surrounded by both sides by the generals and a massive monkey-spider named Taralan.

Despite Absalom's attempts to halt Lola and abduct Nami to be her bride, both intents failed as the latter flees from Lola with Usopp and Chopper unable to slow the warthog zombie down. While the Wild Zombies disrespected his orders for them to not harm Nami, Absalom puts the lot in their place while venting his bad mode on Inuppe by blasting him into a wall for his insolence. At the same time, Franky and Robin buy some time against the Taralan and the General Zombies by the former destroying the bridge to trap the zombies in the courtyard while Robin flies them to the area of the castle behind Taralan. As Taralan was about to pursue them, Brook suddenly falls from the sky.

When Usopp and Chopper are unable to halt Lola, Nami manages to quell the warthog's bloodlust by claiming to be a male crossdresser while encouraging her to take more violent steps in getting Absalom's affections. But when Absalom manages to evade Lola, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper hide inside Perona's servant Kumacy who is unable to reveal the pirates' location as they overhear Absalom and Perona talking about being summoned by Moria as he obtained an ideal shadow for his ultimate Special Zombie: Luffy. Meanwhile, after their enemy used his webs to reach them, Franky gets the upper hand against Taralan until Robin is immobilized by the Spider Mice, the ones behind the abductions of Sanji and Zoro. Luckily, Brook jumped up to help the two pirates, promising to tell them the full story while easily defeating Taralan.

After defeating Taralan and releasing his shadow soul from within, Brook explains to Robin and Franky the truth that the zombies of Thriller Bark are actually corpses animated by shadows taken by Gecko Moria from his victims via the power of his Shadow-Shadow Fruit. Meanwhile, Moria meets with the rest of the Mysterious Four (as well as the hidden Straw Hats in Kumacy) where he uses his powers to steal Luffy's shadow to use his Special Zombie.

With Luffy's shadow, Moria and his followers head into the freezer holding his ultimate special zombie that he believes will help him gain power in the New World: the massive ancient warrior known as Oars. At the same time Brook parts ways from Franky and Robin after giving further crucial advice regarding the zombies, and answering Franky's request, so he can go forth to accomplish his own goal: defeating the zombie Ryuma and reclaiming his shadow from the samurai fencer.

With Usopp, Chopper and Nami bearing witness, Moria implants Luffy's shadow inside the corpse of Oars. Within moments, the massive zombie comes to life with three Straw Hats discovered by Moria's gang. Luckily, Oars immediately displaying aspects of Luffy's personality by yelling out for food, the three Straw Hat pirates escape in midst of the giant's revival. However, they do not get far as Nami is abducted by Absalom for the marriage he plans for her while Usopp and Chopper are left to fend for themselves against numerous platoons of zombies before being rescued by Franky and Robin.

Brook confronts Ryuma, recalling his time on Thriller Bark five years prior - and his first battle with Ryuma and how he lost to a zombie with his own shadow. Ryuma mocks Brook for being so careful about his afro, and the two engage in another battle. Oars meanwhile continues to exhibit Luffy's personality traits as he devours most of Thriller Bark's food while declaring his desire to be King of the Pirates.

Usopp, Chopper, Robin and Franky return to the Sunny, discovering their ship had been ransacked before waking up Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. After informing the three about their current status and Nami's abduction, Franky reveals that he asked Brook before they parted way of is what driving him as he could not really return to society due to his appearance. Brook reveals that he and his crew made a promise to return to Reverse Mountain where they left a valuable friend fifty years ago. Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Sanji are astonished to find out that friend Brook referred to is the whale Laboon.

Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro tell the rest of the crew how they got to meet Laboon as they started their new journey, while Brook reflects on his promise to return to Laboon amidst his duel with Ryuma. Luffy declares his intention to make Brook a part of their crew, and the Straw Hats prepare to counterattack the forces of Thriller Bark in order to reclaim what was stolen from them.

With their goals in mind, Luffy, Sanji, Robin, Usopp, and Chopper go after Nami and Moria! Meanwhile, Franky and Zoro head toward Brook. However, Hildon tells the others of the Straw Hat's plan.

Luffy continues on to take on Moria while Chopper and Robin remain behind to take on Hogback who sics Jigoro and Inuppe on them. After Oars runs off with a new pirate hat from his destruction, his actions disrupting Abalsom as his wedding to Nami is almost complete, the remainder of the crew end up in Perona's room where she uses her negative powers on them. But Usopp reveals that he's immune to her attacks due his negative personality, staying behind to take on the ghost princess while the others continue towards Absalom and Ryuuma.

As Usopp continues to stand up to Perona's Negative Hollows while wiping out Wild Zombies, Brook is greatly overpowered by Ryuma was about to defeat the skeleton when Zoro arrives. Meanwhile, Oars continues to cause chaos on Thriller Bark, forcing Absalom to send his entire General Zombie audience to stop him. But Abolsom learns that Oars annihilated all of the General Zombies with a "non-Gum-Gum" Gatling before Sanji arrives, Luffy having found Gecko Moria and expressing his intent to beat him up.

As Luffy finds himself facing Gecko Moria's animated shadow Doppelman while attempting to attack Moria, Usopp manages to dispatch the Wild Zombies and chases after a frighten Perona with Kumacy chasing after him. Though Absalom initially believed Sanji to not be a threat as he easily dispatched Inuppe, he is shocked that the pirate able to actual due harm to his heavily modified body. Having placed Nami's unconscious body on a pew, Sanji explains that he has more of a beef with Absalom besides his actions against the women in his crew.

Beating Absalom when he refused to reveal he has been using firearms, Sanji reveals that he knows Absalom's invisibility is due to the Clear-Clear Fruit which he wanted for his own reasons. As Sanji defeats Abalsom, Luffy managed to get through Doppleman to land a hit on Gecko Moria with his Gum Gum Stamp. At the same time, losing sight of Perona, Usopp finally manages to give Kumacy the slip before finding a more confident Perona floating in mid air out the window.

Usopp is forced to go through a gauntlet of Perona's Horo-Horo powers, including an untouchable body, size manipulation, passing right through him and creating explosive mini-Hollows that slowly rip away at his stamina and body. Temporarily turning into Sniperking to finally dispatch Kumacy, Usopp is forced up against a desperate wall until he finally realizes Perona's sudden change. Usopp uses one of his attacks to destroy a nearby wall, revealing Perona's body lying helplessly in her bedroom.

Having deduced that Perona used her Horo-Horo powers to project her spirit, Usopp attempts to fire an attack at it. But the attack appeared to miss with Perona producing a Special Hollow bomb to hold Usopp while she returned to her body. Usopp luckily uses an Impact Dial to absorb the explosive force, using it to take out the Wild Zombie Hippo Gentleman with some injury as consequence. Usopp then reveals that he actually fired an adhesive on Perona's body, beating her by scaring the trapped girl to death with toy cockroaches and an inflatable ten-ton hammer. As Chopper begins to notice Jigoro and Inuppe acting less like Zoro and Sanji, Oars undergoes the same transition and makes his way back to Gecko Moriah. Meanwhile, Zoro and Ryuma's fight is getting intense as Brook tells Franky that Ryuma is actually fighting for real.

Zoro duels Ryuma in Hogback's lab, while Franky guards over the injured Brook. Neither Zoro, nor Ryuma, can gain any advantage over the other, as they keep matching the other's attack. Their attacks quickly destroy the lab, forcing them to escape the room and continue their fierce duel on the roof. After an intense sword fight, during which the entire roof collapses to the ground below, Zoro finally defeats Ryuma using a technique which sets him ablaze. Sheathing Shunsui, Ryuma throws it to Zoro. Ryuma collapses in a bout of flames and Brook's shadow is finally returned to him, to his great joy. Zoro acknowledges Ryuma's skill as a swordsman and says he wishes he could have met Ryuuma before he died. He also agrees to forget the outcome of their fight.

Chopper and Robin are outmatched by Zoro and Sanji's zombies, both of whom have almost completely lost the personalities they acquired from their shadows. Chopper tells Hogback that he had once respected him, but does not anymore after realizing the true nature of Hogbacks experiments. Hogback, however, argues that the zombies are truly alive, and recalls that he had fallen in love with Cindry while she was alive, only to have her reject him in favor of her fiancé. After her death, Hogback agreed to serve Moria in exchange for reviving her. Chopper becomes furious and attempts to attack and purify Cindry. Zoro's zombie and Sanji's zombie begin fighting each other, still unable to get along, and Robin tricks Hogback into telling them to jump out of the tower. Hogback orders Cindry to attack, but Cindry, having temporarily regained her original self, is unable to move. Elsewhere, Luffy is still unable to hit Moria, and Oars arrives at their location.

With Oars now a fully obedient zombie, Gecko Moria takes his leave while instructing the giant to hunt down the Straw Hat pirates whose wanted posters are sewn on his arm. Oars attacks Luffy before he escapes to chase after Moria. Hogback without Cindry's conflicted support tries to run away, only to caught by Chopper as Robin helps him set up a suplex before Oars's attack smashed through the ceiling. Hogback then ends up being crushed under Oars's foot before the giant crushes into the chapel as Absalom takes advantage of Sanji's shock to spirit Nami away. Robin, Chopper meet up with Usopp as they run out of the mansion while Oars enters the courtyard while calling the Straw Hat crew out.

As Abalsom makes another attempt to finalize his marriage to Nami, the other Straw Hats are fretting over Oars hunting them all down. Oars assumes he is kill the Straw Hats and attacks Sanji upon identifying him from his badly drawn wanted poster. While Oars lacks any Devil Fruit power, he is able to use Luffy's attacks to smack Sanji into a building. Oars was about to crush Sanji when Usopp used his Fire Star to set the zombie's head on fire, only to provoke him as Zoro and Franky attempt to fight him. But Oars is too fast and overpowers everyone before destroying bridge where Usopp, Chopper, and Robin were standing. As a wounded Usopp cursed "Luffy" while lying on the ground below alongside his teammates, Oars stood over the seemingly defeated Straw Hats while proclaiming that he is a servant of Moriah. Elsewhere, Luffy's continued pursuit of Moria leads him out of the manor and into the forest.

Absalom, still battered from his fight with Sanji, attempts to once more seal his marriage to Nami with a kiss before she regains conscious. Lola arrives at that time, telling Nami to leave while pretending to attack her before Abalsom, briefly caught off guard, knocks the zombie out with a furious Nami intent to avenge her friend. Nami manages to win due to a combination of Abalsom's injuries and delusion, checking on Lola who saw through her earlier lie while thanking the girl for her encouragement. Meanwhile, as Luffy continues chasing Moria, Perona comes to and decides to leave on the Thousand Sunny after being told of Oars rampaging through the courtyard. But as Oars starts to search the manor for the remaining Straw Hat members, the ones he just defeated have all got their second wind.

After being updated by Lola, Nami decides to find her crew after helping herself to Thriller Bark's treasure. But she finds the treasure room after while finding two of Perona's subordinates. Meahwhile, as Brook heads to the kitchen for some salt, the Straw Hats attempt to find a means to knock Oars down. The Straw Hats attempt a "docking" maneuver by hanging onto Franky in order to form a "Giant Robot Warrior", but it fails when Robin refuses to participate in what she considers very embarrassing. The Straw Hats combine their strengths to get Oars off-balance and cause him to fall to the ground, enraging him. Elsewhere, Perona's subordinates load the treasure and food onto the Thousand Sunny when they see the a mysterious bear-like figure who requests for Gecko Moriah.

Taking advantage of several weaknesses, including his stupidity and similarities to Luffy, the Straw Hats continue to wear away at Oars despite his continued persistence. While the others were intending to hold off Oars until Luffy takes out Gecko Moriah, Zoro intends to fight the giant to test his new sword Shuusui. Meanwhile, after Nami gained interrogated intel that Perona is taking the Thousand Sunny, she arrive to confront the girl as the mysterious figure makes his presence known. Perona recognizes the figure as Bartholomew Kuma of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Kuma requesting for Moria before he is forced to make Perona disappear with his ungloved hand due to her defiance. Displaying his unnatural speed to Nami while asking of Luffy's ties to Ace, Kuma takes his leave while telling her of his "choice to be here". Elsewhere, realizing he caught Doppelman, Luffy finds out that he has been chasing after Moriah's shadow the entire time.

Moria's shadow escapes, leaving Luffy stranded in the forest, as some strange people reveal that they are looking for him. Zoro begins the fight against Oars, revealing the new 108 Caliber Phoenix with his newly-obtained sword, but Oars manages to avoid his attacks. Kuma informs Moria of the appointment of Blackbeard as Crocodile's replacement, and warns him that the Straw Hat pirates may defeat him, too. Moria refuses Kuma's offer to help him, and enters Oars' stomach to guide him against the crew. The crew realize that as Luffy failed to catch and defeat Moria, it is up to them to defeat Moria and Oars before dawn. Usopp runs to the kitchen to gather more salt to purify Oars, but Oars strikes out at him, destroying the passage to the kitchen. Brook, his injuries healed, manages to save Usopp and bring the Straw Hats a large bag of salt.

With Moriah's guidance, Oars is better able to counter the Straw Hats' strategies and turn their attacks against them. Franky is knocked unconscious after a failed attempt to fire himself at Oars with a giant slingshot known as Kuwagata and shoot him at point-blank range with Weapons Left. Nami arrives and joins the battle, but Oars demonstrates that he can somehow stretch his limbs, which the crew realizes is Moriah's Devil Fruit powers. Elsewhere, Luffy meets up with the Rolling pirates and their captain Lola the Proposer, whose shadows have been stolen by Moria. Lola has her crew plant all the shadows they captured into him in order to multiply his fighting strength and grant him new skills so that he can defeat Moria. The result is a monstrous version of Luffy, called Nightmare Luffy, that proceeds to reach his crew and take out Moria before the shadows leave his body after ten minutes' time.

Moria explains that he enabled Oars to stretch by stretching his shadow, thereby forcing his body to stretch along with it in order to ensure that the body and shadow are the same shape. Usopp fires Brook out of Kuwagata, with Robin making him spin and Nami electrifying him, but he only does minor damage to Oars and is knocked out when Oars retaliates. Robin attempts to use her powers on Moria, but he attacks her with his shadow and then switches places with it, rendering her attack useless. He then takes her shadow, rendering her unconscious. Chopper discovered that Oars died of frostbite, and that while he does not feel any pain, he can still take damage from their attacks. Sanji and Chopper launch a combo attack on Oars, who then knocks out both of them with Gum Gum Gatling, leaving only Nami, Zoro and Usopp standing.

With Zoro risking his own life by distracting Oars before the giant knees him into a wall, Usopp shoots Brook's salt into Oars' mouth with Kuwagata. But Moria's shadow catches the bag and flings it back at Usopp, the bag's contents spilling out before Oars apparently stomped Usopp to death. Oars tries to stomp Nami, only for her to be saved Nightmare Luffy who also saved Usopp at the last second before fighting Oars. While the Rolling Pirates take the unconscious Straw Hats to safety, Nightmare Luffy overpowers Oars to the point of knocking out on Moria with Gum Gum Pistol before sending Oars flying with Gum Gum Storm. The shadows leave Luffy's body, but he appears to have won.

Oars recovers from Nightmare Luffy's attack. However, the Strawhats all get back on their feet, from Luffy to Brook, and launch a final devastating attack on Oars, which ends with Luffy smashing a Gigant Bazooka into Oars' face from above, breaking his spine and finally defeating the demon. Moria, however, gets out of Oars' stomach moments later, and prepares himself for his ultimate technique, Shadows Asgard. By sucking up all of the shadows of all of the zombies on Thriller Bark, totaling one thousand shadows, Moria becomes a grotesque monster, as big as Oars in size with short spindly legs, gigantic arms, and a huge bloated neck pulsating with veins.

With Zoro telling the frighten Rolling Pirates that Gecko Moriah's Shadows Asgard is nothing but an act of desperation to stall for sunrise at the cost of his mind, Luffy proceeds to attack him in Second Gear. But Luffy only managed to release some of the shadows with Moriah regaining enough of his mind to overwhelm Luffy. But with the Rolling Pirates calling out to their shadows weakening Moriyah, Luffy acts against his crew's pleas by using both Second and Third Gears at once to defeat Moriag with his attack Gum Gum Giant Jet Shell. Though the shadows are released, Moriah's collapse causes the sunlight to hit the unconscious Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and the Rolling pirates as they are all set ablaze.

Despite nearly being vaporized, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and the Rolling regain their shadows at the last second along with the rest of Moriah's victims. As Hogback informs Absalom of their leader's defeat, the Straw Hats surround the still unconscious Luffy with Usopp worries that Luffy might hurt himself from facing stronger enemies in the future. As the Rolling Pirates offer to lead Nami to Moriah's treasure, she remembers Kuma before seeing him on the collapsed tower. Contacting his superiors via Transponder Snail, Kuma receives orders from the World Government to kill the Straw Hats and everyone else on Thriller Bark to prevent Moriah's defeat from becoming public. After taking out some of the Rolling Pirates with a strange move that sends several people flying backwards, Kuma turns his attention to Zoro.

Zoro attacks Kuma, who reveals that he has eaten the Paw Paw fruit, and shows his ability to repel attacks, move considerable distances almost instantly and repel the air to attack his opponents. Zoro is quickly outmatched, and Sanji and Usopp's attempts to help him are rendered futile by Kuma's hard body and ability to block projectiles. Kuma then creates a giant paw print that he compresses, offering all the pirates a chance to survive if they turn over Luffy. But they all unanimously refuse and Kuma detonates his paw print with the explosion from compressed air devastating Thriller Bark.

While almost everyone on the island is knocked out in the blast, Zoro slashes Kuma with Shishi Sonson, but sees that it is ineffective, as Kuma is a Pacifista, a cyborg whose body is harder than steel. Seeing that he can no longer fight, Zoro offers his life to save Luffy, saying that he cannot hope to become the world's best swordsman if he cannot protect his captain. Sanji attempts to take Zoro's place, but Zoro knocks him out. As part of his agreement with Kuma, Zoro takes in all of Luffy's pain and fatigue, which Kuma says would kill him if he suffered it on top of his already severe wounds. Zoro takes in the pain, and Kuma leaves, remarking on how Luffy has a loyal crew. Luffy regains consciousness, surprisingly energetic, while Zoro emerges from his sacrifice near death.

Hogback and Absalom escape Thriller Bark with the unconscious Moria, revealing that Blackbeard's Warlord status from defeating Ace. The next day, the Straw Hats celebrate their victory over Moria, but do not know why Zoro is so badly wounded. Sanji hears the story from the Risky Brothers, but prevents them from telling anyone else, saying it would trouble Luffy greatly to hear that Zoro suffered for his sake, but Robin eavesdrops on the conversation. Luffy tells Brook that Laboon is alive, and he is overjoyed to hear it, and begins to think about the time 50 years ago when he and his pirate crew first met Laboon.

Brook recalls his past, when the whale Laboon started following his pirate ship and befriended the crew. When the crew headed toward the Grand Line, they had no choice but to leave Laboon behind because the danger the sea would present to a young whale like him, but Laboon followed them over Reverse Mountain, anyway. Brook and his captain convince Laboon to stay behind, promising that after they traveled through the entire Grand Line and he grew strong enough to follow them, they would come back and bring him on their adventures. They were unable to fulfill the promise, though.

Brook recalls the Rumbar Pirates' journey through the Grand Line, where they faced many dangers but still managed to enjoy themselves. The captain contracted an illness and attempted to leave the Grand Line through the Calm Belt with the other infected crew, leaving Brook in charge of the remaining pirates. The journey continued until some powerful enemies defeated the Rumbar Pirates in the Florian Triangle, fatally poisoning them. As they were dying, they sang Binks's Brew one last time, recording it in a Tone Dial in the hopes that Brook would revive with his Devil Fruit power and deliver the shell to Laboon. Back in the present, Brook silently hopes Laboon will wait just a little longer for his return.

Brook tells Luffy that he is glad to be alive and asks if he can join the crew, which Luffy approves of. All the Straw Hats are shocked by this, except for Zoro, who is sleeping, and Robin, who knew Luffy would accept him no matter what, but they nevertheless welcome him to the crew. Two days later, Usopp and Franky make a grave for the dead Rumbar Pirates, and Zoro lays the broken Yubashiri at the grave. Nami gets a Vivre Card from Lola, which points the way to Lola's mother, a pirate in the New World. Luffy takes out the piece of paper he received from Ace, which is also a Vivre Card, and learns that as it is burning and shrinking, Ace's life is in danger. Believing that Ace can get out of trouble on his own, Luffy decides to head onward rather than go to rescue him, and the Straw Hats sail away from Thriller Bark. As the Luffy and his crew sail away, three enormous and mysterious figure appears in the fog, looking over Thriller Bark.