Water 7 Arc

The Water 7 Arc is the fifteenth story arc in the series, and the second in the Water 7 Saga of the manga and anime series, One Piece. Water 7 is the seventh island that the Straw Hats encounter on the Grand Line. It is a water metropolis that was built on top of a previous sunken city. Things seem to be going fine for the Straw Hats until a mysterious organization called CP9 gets involved. This arc is well known for extensive use of plot twists and sudden shifts in the story-line, as well as the serious conflict within the Straw Hat crew. There is some dispute as to how the Water 7 Arc should be categorized, particularly whether the journey on the sea train should be attached to the Water 7 Arc, the Enies Lobby Arc, or if it should stand alone. Another is whether or not the Water 7 and Enies Lobby Arcs should be considered separate arcs or not. After being attacked by Aokiji, the crew has fully recovered and has returned to sailing. Along their way, the crew sees a giant frog doing the crawl stroke and, wanting to eat it, Luffy orders everyone to make the ship follow after it. They end up on some tracks underwater and are nearly run over by a train traveling on top of the water, and the frog is sent flying by it. They are amazed by this sight. On a nearby station, they meet with a train conductor named Kokoro and her granddaughter Chimney, along with her pet rabbit (who acts like a cat) Gonbe. After revealing that the frog, Yokozuna, is perfectly fine and that it is always testing its strength against the train, Kokoro explains that the train is a Sea Train that connects several of the nearby islands and is called the Puffing Tom. She then tells them that the Log Pose will lead them to Water 7, a city of shipwrights where they can fix their ship, and tells them to get help from a man named Iceburg. The crew arrives at the city, which resembles a fountain, and sail through the canals in the city looking for a place to dock, but the people are kind enough to tell them where to hide their boat. After stopping, a group of Luffy, Nami, and Usopp head out to exchange their gold from Skypiea and find a shipwright, using creatures called yagaras to navigate the canals. Later, Robin and Chopper leave to look around, and Sanji goes by himself to do the same, leaving Zoro on the ship. While Chopper goes into a book store, a masked man walks past Robin and simply says "CP9", leaving her in shock. When Chopper comes out, Robin is gone. Meanwhile, several bounty hunters come onto the Going Merry to claim the bounty on the crew, but they underestimate Zoro's power and are quickly defeated. Luffy's group manages to exchange the gold for Beli300,000,000 and they go to Dock One of the Galley-La Company. There, they meet Kaku, one of the foremen, who reveals that Iceburg is the mayor of Water 7 and the president of Galley-La. Kaku does not know where he is, so he decides to inspect their ship in the meantime, using immense speed and leaping capabilities to rocket across the city. Just after he leaves, Iceburg and his secretary, Kalifa, introduce themselves to the three and he agrees to work on their ship.

However, as they are about to enter the dock, the crew finds that all of their money is gone, and they see it being taken by several people. Luckily, at that moment, another foreman, Paulie, was running from tax collectors and knocked the robbers off of their yagara bulls, but was about to use the money to pay his debt before another foreman, Rob Lucci, stopped him. Iceburg reveals that the thieves (and the men who attacked Zoro) are known as the Franky Family, a gang of dismantlers that bounty hunt and steal on the side, and are led by a powerful man named Franky. Meanwhile, Sanji sees Robin with the masked man from before, but when they turn the corner he finds that they are gone. He later meets up with Chopper and they start looking for Robin. Meanwhile, in Dock One, while Usopp is separated from the group, he is attacked by the Franky Family and the Beli200,000,000 he had were taken. Kaku returns from his inspection of the ship and reveals a startling fact—the Going Merry is impossible to fix. Since the keel is broken, trying to fix it would be no different from making a new ship entirely. Though Luffy complains about this, Iceburg tells him to think about it for a while. The empty suitcases containing the money Usopp carried are found, and they conclude the Franky Family is the cause, so Luffy rushes off aimlessly into the city while Nami heads back to the ship after finding out about the location of their headquarters from the Galley-La workers. On the way, however, Nami finds Usopp bloody and battered on the street, who shows deep regret about letting them take the money. She leaves him there for now so she can get everyone else and explains the situation to the others, including Sanji and Chopper who had returned to the ship. At Franky House, the dismantlers' headquarters, the stolen money is presented to Franky himself, who reveals that the amount will be enough to buy what they've always wanted, and leaves his gang a bunch of money to party with. As he is about to leave, the door explodes as Usopp walks in demanding that he gives the money back. After a failed attempt to attack Franky, the others gang up on Usopp. The other Straw Hats go to where Usopp was, but all they can find is bloody footsteps as Luffy falls from the sky. After he explains that he was trying to leap across the city like Kaku, he is told the situation. Outside of the Franky House, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper find Usopp even worse off than before. The four battle the Franky Family, destroying the building, but they find that Franky already left with most of the money. At this point, Luffy decides to abandon the Going Merry and buy a new ship.