Her Wanderlust Odyssey

Their Determination

The pink-haired boy made it to the boat and was fighting a one-sided battle with the captured boy against Morgan. She launched herself right towards him and used that momentum to ram into him to knock him over. Taking advantage of the confusion, Sakura stood on top of him, making sure that her foot was firmly holding his arms back.

"Are you two alright?"

"Yes! T-thank you ma'am!" they both thanked.

"W-what the hell? I would've seen you coming, how did you just appear out of nowhere?!" Morgan demanded.

"Sir, you are in no position to be talking in that tone of voice," she warned as she unsheathed one of her katanas. Sakura placed it right below his chin, making sure that he caught a glimpse of it, and glided the cold blade across his neck. He flinched and shut up immediately.

"Hey, can you guys help me turn this boat around? I gotta keep him still, he's caused enough trouble already." They saluted at her and started to sail back to Shells Town.

=~+~=

"So what are your names?"

"My name is Colby, and he is Helmeppo-san," the pink-haired boy answered.

"I see, well Colby-san, you were pretty brave before to stand in front of a loaded canon and to disregard an order."

His face started to turn a bright shade of pink. "I'm very sorry about that! I just wanted to save Helmeppo-san and-"

"I'm not blaming you!" Sakura laughed. "It's alright, I'm just trying to say that you made the right decision. You save his life you know that right? If you didn't do what you did, the canon would've fired at the ship and they would both be dead."

"Thank you Vice-Admiral Sakura!" He bowed.

"You can just call me Sakura-san, and oh right do you guys know anything about the pirate hunter Ronora Zoro that was apparently 'tied up' in Shells Town?"

"He was tied up because of a dumb reason, but Luffy-san saved him and recruited him to be apart of his crew!" Colby-san boasted.

"Luffy? How do you know him?"

"You also know him Sakura-san?! He has saved me and helped me multiple times! He's the reason why I was able to fight for Helmeppo-san!"

"You seem to respect him a lot, well Colby-san and Helmeppo-san, I'll tell you both a little secret, Luffy is actually a childhood friend of mine. I've trained and fought with him."

"Sakura-san has trained with Luffy?! No wonder why he's so strong!"

"He is pretty strong, but he has a long way to go, trust me," she turned to the quiet blondie. "Hey, Helmeppo-san, you've been pretty quiet, are you alright?"

"Huh, y-yes ma'am I'm alright, I've just got a lot on my mind..." he stated.

"Look, I can tell that it doesn't settle well with you that your own father is being captured as a criminal..."

"No, he's not my father anymore, I won't ever think of him as my father. Now that he's a criminal, he's my enemy." He turned and looked his father in the eye. "After all, I'm a Marine, and you're not."

=~+~=

"Please forgive my poor supervision! Nearly allowing the prisoner to escape like that is the biggest blunder of my life!" the Commander bowed along with the rest of the branch. "After what's happened, these two will be kicked out for life!"

"We're very sorry, sir!" both of the boys were on the floor bowing.

"Well, Garp-san I was thinking that-" Sakura tried to recommend.

Garp-san put his hand up, signaling her to stop talking. "What truly lost causes you are. I doubt anyone anywhere would take you in now. And you'd only burden everyone if we turned you loose..." He turned his back towards them and faced his warship. "You leave me no choice. Come with me to Navy Headquarters!"

Everyone was in shock.

"Ha! That was unexpected!" Sakura laughed.

"Vice-Admiral Garp! You're going to take them with you to Navy HQ?!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"N-no, not exactly..."

"Well then, let's set sail back to HQ. My, oh, my. What an odd day this has been!"

Sakura turned to the two boys on the floor, still in shock. "You know I was going to take you guys under my wing and invite you to my crew, but I guess Garp-san was one step ahead of me! Don't worry too much, he's a good teacher. Though at times he might be a little rough." she reassured.

=~+~=

"Well, goodbye for now you guys, we'll definitely be seeing each other again. I want to get back to the Grand Line as soon as possible so I'll take my leave first. Say bye to Garp-san for me!" Sakura waved goodbye to the two boys and hopped onto her warship.

[End of the short story, Part 2]