Downward Ho!!

Luffy thanks Rayleigh yet again as an offscreen voice screams for his capture and the navy bears down. Rayleigh unsheathes his sword, asks the troops to honor his pupil's leaving, and scrapes a warning line into the ground, cautioning that crossing it would be foolish. Nearby, the Monster Trio finds itself hemmed in by fresh soldiers until Perona appears with her Negative Hollows, snapping at an ungrateful Zoro that he owes his arrival to her and telling them to get going. Aboard the Sunny the crew rejoices at being whole, Brook earning a kick from Nami for his usual request, and the last three members soon drop onto the deck riding a giant bird from the Torino Kingdom.

When cannon fire rains down, Hancock's Slave Arrows and the intervening Kuja vessel guard the Sunny. Usopp gawks at Hancock's beauty, Sanji petrifies at the sight of her, and Luffy casually mentions that the two first met on the Isle of Women, sparking the cook's jealous rage. Franky inflates the coating into a bubble over the ship while, across the island, Heracles' giant insects, a localized downpour from Weatheria, Perona's Hollows, and the okamas each tie down a separate marine platoon. Nami walks the crew through how a coated ship behaves, Franky strips away the air sack, and the sails go up so the vessel can catch the underwater currents. With the Rear Admiral and his men transfixed by Hancock's allure, Luffy gives the order and the Sunny dives toward Fish-Man Island.

Perona reveals she was the one who ferried Zoro to the archipelago. Almost everyone the crew met during the separation lends a hand covering the escape, including Hancock, Rayleigh, Heracles, the floating island of Weatheria itself, Perona, the okamas, and a Torino bird, leaving Robin and Franky the only members without a representative present. The whole crew stands together for the first time since the split, and they finally set course for Fish-Man Island, a plan held ever since the storyline that closed out the Enies Lobby aftermath. Another Rear Admiral debuts, and Sanji's worst nosebleed to date proves bad enough that Chopper must treat it. This installment ends the Return to Sabaody storyline.