One punch.
A kingdom-toppling haymaker dropped Doflamingo clean out of the sky.
The Donquixote family scrambled to fish their captain out of the drink.
The Marine battleship twisted into a pretzel.
The whole sea flash-froze into a glacier.
Not a soul left on the water could chase the two runaways.
Leviathan surfed a monster wave on jets of super-heated steam, then vanished over the horizon.
"Haa…"
Vice Admiral Tsuru watched the pink-haired girl disappear and let out the longest sigh in North Blue history.
Seven years since Ohara. The kid had only gotten scarier.
"Something wrong, Big Sis Tsuru? Still mad about that pirate?"
A peach-crop-top, spider-tattoo-thigh lieutenant (rear admiral, technically) slung her arms over Tsuru's shoulders.
"Gion, how many times do I have to tell you: act like a lady!"
Tsuru straightened the younger woman's collar, then yanked out a snail phone.
Click-clack.
A calm, gravelly voice answered. "Crane? What's up?"
"Your witch just escaped, took the Ope-Ope kid with her, and you're still sightseeing, Mr. Late-Admiral?"
Tsuru skipped the nice voice for her old classmate.
"Sorry, sorry! We had her dead to rights, but she dunked Smoker and, well…"
The purple-haired man on the other end laughed like a rookie caught napping.
He absolutely did NOT mention he'd let her go on purpose to "train the kids."
Tsuru rolled her eyes so hard the snail winced. She could rewind the whole chase just from the names he dropped.
"No more playing teacher. Mission first.
She's headed for Petrel Island. Get your butt there NOW."
She hung up after he swore on his justice coat.
Then she stripped off her own coat and dove in to chisel her unconscious sailors out of the ice.
Meanwhile, Leviathan skimmed the open sea, wind screaming through the rigging.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!"
Law stood on the bowsprit, screaming at the horizon until his voice cracked.
Then he flopped flat on his back, staring at the sky.
An upside-down pink girl in sunglasses appeared above him, reclining in a beach chair that definitely hadn't been there five minutes ago.
"I've decided, Sakura-nee."
Law spread his arms like a starfish.
"I'm gonna be a pirate. I'll steal the One Piece, make the whole world remember my name, and Corazon's name will live forever too!"
If you actually pull it off, every Marine will remember Corazon as the guy who raised a supernova. Forever.
Sakura swallowed the snark.
"Cool. Just don't regret it."
She flicked her shades back up and raised the Eternal Pose.
Sun glinted off the needle pointing dead ahead: Petrel Island, last stop before the northwest current that shot straight to the heart of the North Blue.
"Full speed ahead!"
Leviathan roared, engines glowing cherry-red.
Three days later…
A giant petrel-shaped rock rose out of the sea like a middle finger to gravity.
"We're here, Sakura-nee!"
Law had spent the trip either cramming medicine or getting yeeted around the deck by water-blades. Land = freedom.
Leviathan dropped anchor in the shallows.
Sakura rolled the ship into a scroll, slung it over her shoulder, and carried Law piggy-back onto a deserted beach.
SHHHHINK!
A sword beam carved the sand between her feet.
Sakura hopped back, still holding Law.
The ground split into a canyon.
Elite Marine cadets poured out of the treeline, rifles up, swords gleaming.
In the gap they left on purpose, a shirtless, purple-haired mountain of muscle strolled forward.
Former Admiral "Black Arm" Zephyr had entered the chat.
"Uh, Sakura-nee… this feels like a real bad time to be us."
Law gulped.
The guy blocking their path once made the New World flinch.
"Listen close," Sakura whispered, pressing Law's hat down. "Second I clear a path, ROOM out of here. I'll handle the rest and find you later."
A tiny hand grabbed her sleeve.
Law's eyes were glassy but fierce.
"Promise you'll come back alive."
"Relax. My vacation's not over."
Ice crystals blossomed across her skin, weaving into a glittering kimono of frost.
"Witch Haruno Sakura," Zephyr boomed, arms folded like throne rails. "Took you long enough. Playtime's over. Next stop: Impel Down, Level Six."
He cracked his neck, stomped, and launched like a missile.
"NOW!"
Sakura roared.
Conqueror's Haki detonated outward.
Cadets dropped like marionettes with cut strings.
Law's ROOM snapped open; he blinked twenty meters away.
"Not today!"
Zephyr's punch kept coming. He barked two names.
"Smoker! Hina!"
"Hands off my patient!"
Sakura bit her thumb, slammed the sand.
Summoning Jutsu!
BOOM!
Smoke mushroomed. A mountain-sized slug towered over the beach.
"WHAT?!"
Zephyr's fist buried into the slug's belly. Haki exploded inside, only blew off a basketball-sized chunk.
The chunk split into mini-slugs, crawled home, and re-stitched in seconds.
"Immortal freak!"
Zephyr glared up at Sakura standing on the slug's head.
"Katsuyu, acid spray, wide pattern!"
"Right away, Lady Sakura!"
Katsuyu's cheeks ballooned. A tidal wave of sage-enhanced acid arced high.
Droplets hissed tiny craters into the sand before the main flood even landed.
"STRONG ACID!"
Zephyr's heart dropped. Dozens of his unconscious kids lay right in the kill-zone.
"YOU COWARD!"
"Smoker! Hina! SAVE THEM!"
He blurred, kicking sleeping cadets out of the acid's path like footballs.
Smoker and Hina aborted the chase, spun back.
Smoke pillars and iron spears stabbed upward, trying to dam the acid river.
Sakura folded her arms atop Katsuyu.
"Hostages first, then cry foul? Classic Marine playbook."
Zephyr finished evac, looked up, eyes blazing black fire.
"Dirty pirate. Surrender."
The ex-admiral charged again, angrier than the sea itself.