So, since we've gone for a while without a One Piece post, and because One Piece is currently on the way back after a four year week hiatus, I thought I'd make a post to catch up on current events.

Quick recap; Monkey D. Luffy broke into the deadliest prison in the world, got badly poisoned, sacrificed ten years of his life to cure himself, pushed himself so far over his limits that he was running solely on sheer willpower, and then threw himself into the biggest battle in One Piece history, all so he could save his beloved older brother Ace... only to have Ace die in his arms.

It showed a side to Luffy that we had never seen before; sobbing in despair.

After hearing what had happened (the OP world has an excellent news service), the Straw Hats, who are currently scattered all over the Grand Line, immediately drop whatever they were doing in order to go be with their captain in his hour of need. Then they get the latest paper...

Edit to add: Sorry, forgot to mention, definitely not dial up safe.



Luffy has managed to snap out of his funk after being reminded that he still has his crew waiting for him. He wants to immediately set out to reunite with them - until Silvers Rayleigh, Gold Rodger's former first mate and awesome old man, asks him a question;



So what is this plan? Well, apparently the first step is giving Ace and the pirates who died trying to save him a proper send off.







The Marines think that the ringing of the bell is Luffy spitting in their faces. The more knowledgeable pirates guess that ringing the Ox bell, which is traditionally rung 16 times to symbolize the starting of a new year, is to herald the dawn of a new age. No one knows for sure, of course.

...except for eight pirates from across the Grand Line, who know exactly what it means.



Erm, although some take a little longer to figure it out then others.



Heh. "Forsooth."


The island of Torino Kingdom is where Chopper ended up. After working out a conflict between the citizens and the native giant birds, Chopper left to rejoin Luffy. However, shortly afterward, the island is visited by a mysterious stranger.



His secret identity revealed, Chopper explains that "something came up", and he wanted to study some of the plants he found there. Much to his surprise, the natives have not only studied the plants but have quite an extensive library on medicine. They just never got to use it thanks to the large birds.





Sanji, meanwhile, has found himself in Kamabakka Kingdom - the kingdom of transvestites.



Needless to say, he's spent every waking hour since trying to get the hell out of there.

Now, Ivankov, the ruler of Kambakka Kingdom, is one of the people who helped Luffy in his rescue attempt, and works for his father on top of it, so you'd think that he'd be glad to help out Sanji. One little problem, though...



But after reading the newspaper, Sanji is suddenly no longer quite so desperate to leave, especially when he realizes that the, uh, "men" have a special kind of cooking called "Attack Cuisine" which builds up your body just from eating it.







Meanwhile, Brooke has been captured by a bunch of triple-jointed weirdos and put on display. Normally this would be bad, but really Brooke could care less; he's too busy reading the same article the other Straw Hats read. Brooke remembers how he spent fifty years on a derelict ship, trapped as a skeleton, with his promise to his dead crew that he had no conceivable way of achieving hanging albatross-like around his neck.

Then Luffy found him, took one look at him at his terrifying skeleton body - and immediately offered Brooke both friendship and a place on his crew, without any reservations at all. To Brooke, it was practically a miracle from heaven.



Oh, it looks bad for him now, but just wait - next time we see him, Brooke will be a big rock star touring all over the place with his famous band, the Rolling Bones.

Nami, meanwhile, found herself on a sky island populated by a group of people who research and control the weather, and look not unlike wizards. Like Brooke, I can't post everything of what Nami does due to page constraints, so I'll paraphrase;

Weather Wizards: "You tied to steal our our weather creating devices and escape from the island, and you expect us to welcome you back?! We can't trust anything you say!"

Nami: "You're right, I'm a horrible person! *sob* I shall FLING myself into the ocean below in the hopes that my gruesome death will make it up to you!"

WW: "Wha - no, no, don't do that! We're sorry, we didn't mean to make you cry!"

Nami: "It's okay, I forgive you! I'll be needing a house of my own since I'm going to be staying for a while, all right? All right, thanks, Bye!"

WW: "...What the hell just happened?"

A little bit later, she asks one of the men, the one who found her when she first arrived, to teach her everything he knows about predicting and manipulating the weather. Her reasons why? Like you have to ask:





Robin has been approached by the Revolutionary Army, who call her "the light of the revolution." They want her to come with them, but she refuses - until she reads a certain article that changes her mind. She does her own reminiscing on her own past, completely alone until Luffy and the Straw Hats declared war on the world just to get her back.



Franky, meanwhile, is on the island of the genius inventor, Dr. Vegapunk. He kinda sorta blew up Vegapunk's old lab, which is was considered a national treasure, but thankfully was mistaken for a cyborg gorilla (it makes sense in context) so his bounty didn't go up. Also, all his skin was blown off.

Franky later finds something very interesting...



More stuff happens, but there's no room to post them and this is getting long enough, so moving on.

Usopp is on a island that's really a giant venus flytrap, where it's easy to get on but nearly impossible to leave. He's also met a man named Heracles, and become really, really fat. Usopp, as is to be expected now, has his own recollections;



Finally, Roronoa Zoro was sent to the ruins of the Sikkearu Ruins, home of deadly weapon wielding baboons and none other then the greatest swordsman in the world, Juracule Mihawk. Mihawk gave Zoro a boat and left him to fight his way back to Luffy and his crew, but Zoro soon returned, beaten and bloody, and begged for Mihawk's teaching. Mihawk is not amused.





And with Mihawk accepting that he'll train his rival, we finally get to the message. What did the ringing of the bell really mean? The answer is simple:

Dick all.

The funeral, the bell ringing, it was all smoke and mirrors meant to make people notice and allow Luffy to send out the real message;



Geez, two years? That's an awfully long time to be separated from your nakama. Nonetheless, it's captain's orders, so the straw hats begin to prepare for their reunion;





Luffy's going to be doing some training of his own with Rayleigh at an island filled to the brim with deadly animals. Those who watched the tenth movie, Strong World, will find the island very familiar. We finally get an explanation of Haki, which unfortunately I had to cut due to page constraints.



Well. With everyone hard at work training for the peril of the New World, there's really only one thing left to do;

START THE MUSIC!



What will the straw hats be like in two years time? Will all of them want to sail together after spending such a long time apart? Will Robin come back from her time with Luffy's dad - as Luffy's new mom?! And will anyone have grown a mustache?! Find out soon, same One Piece time, same One Piece channel!