The story opens with Luffy out at sea on a small skiff, having just woken up from a nap. He hears a noise from above, and a strange bird plummets directly into his boat. He is impressed by its size, and wonders if it's an ostrich, or maybe even a panda. Then he realizes that the bird's arrival has made a decent-sized hole in the boat, so he plugs it with the creature, because he cannot swim if the boat sinks. While examining the animal more closely, he also notices that it's wounded, and wonders how it happened. Suddenly, a huge ship appears next to Luffy's boat, and a voice calls out for "Balloon" to escape, and fly far away. The bird tries to take off, but Luffy holds it firmly in place, reminding it that the current situation in the boat is its fault. A rope ladder is lowered from a shi