That Guy, "Straw Hat Luffy"

Setting out alone in a small dinghy to assemble a crew, Luffy almost immediately runs into trouble when a whirlpool swallows his boat. He resurfaces inside a barrel on a distant island that serves as the headquarters of Iron-Mace Alvida. There he crosses paths with Koby, a frightened boy kept around only for his navigation skills and forced to scrub the captain's shoes. After three of Alvida's underlings haul off the wine barrel Koby was pushing, Luffy bursts out of it, throwing the whole hideout into chaos.

Dragging Luffy to safety, Koby shows off the little boat he spent two years building to flee, and confesses his wish to enlist with the Marines and put criminals behind bars. Luffy mocks the boy's spinelessness yet shares his own ambition to claim the title of Pirate King, a goal he is willing to die for. When Alvida smashes Koby's boat and demands to be named the loveliest woman alive, Luffy openly calls her a hideous old hag, and an emboldened Koby finally tells her exactly what he thinks. Luffy shields the boy from her iron club, shrugs off the blow, and ends the fight with a single Gomu Gomu no Pistol that lays Alvida out cold.

This installment introduces both Alvida and Koby, lays out Koby's history under her thumb, and marks the very first mention of the Marines and of Roronoa Zoro, said to be locked in a Marine prison. Koby also explains that becoming Pirate King requires finding the One Piece somewhere on the Grand Line. The cover art, an Animal Theater scene with Luffy among striped ostriches beneath his flag, is the earliest appearance of the Straw Hats' Jolly Roger, surfacing nearly a year before the symbol debuts in the story itself. As the chapter closes, Luffy hears more about Zoro and decides to recruit him.