Chapter 498

Upon arriving at the bar, they see the bar owner, Shakuyaku, an attractive looking woman with a cigarette in her mouth and a bloody customer, who tried to not pay his bill, in her grip. Shakky recognizes the Fish-Man and happily greets Hatchan when she sees him, claiming it to have been a long time. After expressing her delight after learning about Hatchan ending his days of piracy (believing that his health comes first), she offers food and drinks to the Straw Hats, only to find Luffy and Brook already raiding the fridge, despite Chopper’s warnings of her possibly being a rip-off, but she assures them all that since they’re friends of Hatchan, they can do as the like and even gives Chopper some cotton candy. Luffy suspects she knows something about them which Shakky admits so, claiming to be a well-informed person, before questioning him about the Enies Lobby incident and his relation to his grandfather Monkey D. Garp. Shakky then reveals that she is a former pirate, which is why she knows Garp, who used to chase her forty years ago (surprising Luffy at that part, leaving him to wonder how old she really is). Hatchan soon asks about the location of their friend “Rayleigh the Bubble Coater” to get the Thousand Sunny coated, but she claims that he has been gone for half a year and as a former pirate, he could look after himself.  She gives them various hints regarding Rayleigh’s whereabouts including the “Lawless Zone” and Sabaody Park, but tells everyone to be careful while searching for him due to the presence of other powerful pirates. In particular, she notes that at this point, there are eleven pirates (including Luffy and Zoro) on Sabaody Archipelago who had taken different routes to pass through the Grand Line and became known as Supernovas due to having bounties worth over 100,000,000, with one of those pirates’ bounty being even greater than that of Luffy’s. At this moment, the story cuts away from the Straw Hats to introduce those nine other pirates and crews within Sabaody Archipelago: Back at Shakky’s bar, the owner notes that while many other crews have set out to sea, only the strongest such as the Straw Hat Pirates and these other rookies have made it this far. She believes that they will all make their mark and that others such as the Kid Pirates, infamous for injuring civilians (which is the main reason why his bounty is higher than Luffy’s), are more violent than Luffy’s crew, thus making her root for the Straw Hats to succeed. Luffy, Brook and Chopper worry about Rayleigh’s fate outside but she claims that he will be fine as he is a hundred times stronger than any of the rookies.