Say You Want to Live! We Are Your Friends!!

Holding off the warships to buy Robin a chance at escape, Saul watches her reach the evacuation vessel only to be turned away on Spandine's command. Vice-Admiral Kuzan arrives to trade blows with the giant, and the fanatical Sakazuki destroys the escape ship without hesitation. Dying, Saul presses Robin onto his raft, and Kuzan, sickened by the cruelty around him, lets the child slip away. From that point on she lives hunted, never daring to trust a kind hand, in a world that brands her mere existence a crime.

In the present, Robin lays bare her worst fear before the crew: that her presence makes them targets, and that they too will one day discard her as everyone before them did. Spandam jeers that protecting her means declaring war on the entire planet. Luffy's answer is to order Sogeking to torch the Government's flag, a deliberate act of war waged on Robin's behalf.

Shattered by the gesture, Robin recalls Saul's vow that true friends would someday stand by her always, and Usopp's urging to place her faith in Luffy. Collapsing into violent tears, she finally screams the words she was never allowed to speak: that she wants to go on living, and begs Luffy to carry her back out onto the sea with the crew.

Saul dies after securing Robin's getaway, and Sakazuki sinks the evacuation ship. Kuzan freezes an escape route to shield the young Robin. In the present, on Luffy's order, Sogeking sends a Fire Bird Star into the World Government banner and sets it alight, an open declaration of war. Robin voices at last her desire to live and rejoin the crew, and the Straw Hats steel themselves to take on CP9 to save her.

This Enies Lobby Arc entry gives Sakazuki his debut, glimpsed beneath a cloak with his eventual Admiral title left out of the introduction. Among the volumes rescued from the blaze were two titled Eiichiro Oda and Brag Men. It was the final episode to carry Adventure World as an ending and Brand New World as an opening, and the last overseen by Konosuke Uda, who had directed the series since its very first episode.