Did You Catch This Surprising 'One Piece' Throwback?

One Piece fans may be waiting for the Straw Hats to find their big treasure, but they've become solid sleuths in their own right. Over the years, Eiichiro Oda has dropped enough easter eggs in his series to make excavators out of its fans, and it looks like readers just spotted another blink-and-miss-it throwback.

So, if you remember who Moda is, then you will want to go back through One Piece's new chapter and find her.

Recently, Weekly Shonen Jump saw its latest chapter of One Piece go live, and the update revealed some big info about the 'Reverie' arc. The story will see the Revolutionary Army declare war against the Celestial Dragons as planned, but fans needed to met more of the militia before that could go down. So, One Piece decided to introduce the commanders of the Revolutionary Army, and it needed Moda to do that.

If you will recall, fans last saw Moda way back in chapter 280. The heroine was little more than a girl then as she risked her life to save Portgas D. Ace. Moda helped him out of a river after Doctor Black Beard shoved him into it, leaving him to drown. Ace thanked Moda by reuniting her with her parents who were working with the Marines. And, all these years later, Moda is still trying to save people.

One Piece just caught up with Moda as the much older girl was found standing up to the Pinkbeard pirates. The gang invaded Lulusia Kingdom, prompting Moda to beg them to leave as the only riches they had to be given to the Celesial Dragons. Of course, Pinkbeard demanded their crew get the gold, but Belo Betty of the Revolutionary Army stopped that in its tracks. The commander imbued Moda with the power to take Pinkbeard out, and the girl knocked the ruffian out with a whack to the head.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Did you notice this One Piece easter egg? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!