Chapter 12 & 13

 Chapter 12: The Dog

This issue introduces quite possibly my favorite character from all of One Piece, Shushu. The issue begins with Buggy deploying his vice captain in an attempt to quickly subdue Luffy and his crew. Then we see Zoro who is no longer able to walk because of his wounds. After Zoro sets his cage down Luffy begins to mess with a near by dog who proceeds to bite him. This is Shushu the most determined dog in the world. Aside from his real character qualities Shushu is also a very funny character. An example being that as soon as Nami throws Luffy the key to the cage Shushu eats it. At this point the village chief appears and offers to give Zoro a place to rest. While Zoro is resting  the chief tells Luffy and Nami Shushu's story. Shushu his owner had run a pet food store for the last 10 years. However,three month ago Shushu's owner passed away of an illness and his last words to Shushu were "while I'm in the hospital look after the store". Shushu has done just that for the last three months and the chief believes it is because the store is all Shushu has to remember his owner by and because of that it has become his treasure. Buggy's vice-captain finds Luffy and has his lion attacks Luffy destroying the cage and freeing Luffy. Luffy is also knocked through a building by the attack but is as always uninjured and stands up claiming that he will get rid if Buggy's crew and make Nami his navigator.

Chapter 13: Treasure

I know this is a rather long post and I know I have spent the majority of it talking about a minor character who isn't even human but these are my third and second favorite of the first 151 issues, respectively, anyway on to the review. Nami is amazed to discover that after being attacked by the lion Luffy is still very much alive and after a brief conversation between Luffy and the chief the scene returns to the vice-captain and Shushu. Shushu is attacked a by the lion again and again each time remembering some event in the stores history. From the opening to hard times to eating the stock. Every time Shushu is swatted away he gets back up and defends the store although the fight is very one sided it is truly an epic battle. Luffy is casually walking down the street when he becomes wide eye's at the horrible sight he sees. Shushu is setting in front of the pet food store barking as the building burns to the ground. After a very emotional moment watching Shushu Luffy finds the vice-captain. The vice-captain, believing he can beat Luffy attacks him head on. Luffy angered by what the vice-captain did to Shushu unleashes a new attack on him, the gomu gomu hammer. After the vice-captain tells Luffy he will do anything Luffy asks, as long as Luffy doesn't kill him, comes my second favorite panel in One Piece. Luffy with a terrifying look on his face tells the vice-captain that he didn't come for an apology he came for revenge. Luffy the gives him a full force fist to the face rendering the vice-captain unconscious. Luffy brings Luffy the only surviving box of dog food which he took from the vice-captain's lion. Shushu walks away with the pet food but looks back to show Luffy the only happy face he has worn through out the last two issues. As I'm sure you can already guess I could not say enough good things about this issue Shushu's story is so sad and he id the most loyal and noble character in all of One Piece, besides maybe Luffy, when I first read this part of the story I was really hoping Shushu would join Luffy and his crew on their journey. Aside from Shushu Luffy's reaction to what happened to Shushu is only surpassed by the beginning of his later fight with captain Arlong. As I said above this is my second favorite issue and is a must read even if you hate One Piece.