Tsuru

**Tsuru** (つる, *Tsuru*), also known as "**Great Staff Officer**" **Tsuru** (大参謀のつる, *Dai-Sanbō no Tsuru*), is a fictional character and deuteragonist from the *One Piece* series. She is a Navy Headquarters vice admiral.

"*You're a million years too early to defeat me.*"

—Tsuru, after defeating young pirates.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Juli Erickson (English), Minori Matsushima (Japanese), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Tsuru is a tall, thin and elderly woman with gray hair tied in a bun. Her attire appears to be less formal than the other high-ranking officers', consisting of a shirt left hanging out, with the sleeves rolled up and a tie around her neck, and calves-long pants, which makes her somewhat resemble the animal of her name, the crane. She sports earrings made of beads, and on her right wrist she has two bracelets.

#### The Young Past Days

In her youth she was quite beautiful and had dark blue hair tied up in a loose pony tail with sidebangs that framed both sides of her face. She wore a standard Navy uniform with a rifle strapped to her back.

Twenty-seven years ago at age 49, her skin was already wrinkled.

#### Post-Timeskip

* Hair Color: Gray (formerly Dark Blue)
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Black
* Age: 74 (debut), 76 (after timeskip)
* Birthday: March 26th
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

She is a veteran Navy who is not without wisdom for her age. She seems extremely knowledgeable; she knew who set the Navy to fight each other in the Navy and Warlord meeting when all others thought the two were simply messing around, and knew who Raffit was on sight. She is not above telling off the younger navy that show concern for her well being when she steps up to fight the incoming pirates at Navy HQ. She then justifies her being on the front line with the other vice admirals by stating there is no longer a safe place left in the world for her to run to anyway. According to Garp, she is an empathetic woman although she does not show this disposition very often.

Her crew is shown to consist solely of female Navy.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Navy
	+ Gion
	+ Sengoku
	+ Monkey D. Garp

## Abilities and Powers

As a Navy Vice Admiral, Tsuru is easily one of the most powerful Naval officers in the series, being a part of the same generation of prominent Navy officers as Garp and Sengoku.

Even in her elderly age of 63, Tsuru was strong enough to strike intense fear into Doflamingo who is an extremely powerful pirates before he became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, as he was quick to flee during her many pursuits of the Don Quixote Pirates throughout the North Blue, and despite his initial plans to reclaim Law from the Navy's custody to use his powers to immortalized himself, Doflamingo quickly changed his plans and swore upon seeing her battleship off the coast of Minion Island when he heard that the Navy had taken a boy (whom he wrongly believed to be Law) into custody. Several years later, when Doflamingo lost his title as a Warlord, he still showed respect for her, a stark contrast to his usual disrespect to other high ranking Naval officers.

### Master Tactician

Tsuru is a Navy who is exceptionally well-versed and skilled in military tactics and strategies. She is a master tactician with extraordinary wisdom and could able to instantly formulate new plans and the next step right on the spot, earning her the nickname "Great Staff".

### Devil Fruit

*Main article:* *Wash-Wash Fruit*
The **Wash-Wash Fruit** (ウォシュウォシュの実, *Woshu Woshu no Mi*; literally meaning "Fruit of the Wash-Wash"), a Paramythia-class Devil Fruit that was eaten by Tsuru, allows her to literally "wash and hang out to dry" people and objects as if they were clothes, turning them into very flat and hihly malleable like clothes, making her a **Laundry Human** (洗濯人間, *Sentaku Ningen*). This disables the opponents by rendering them unable to move. This can also "clean" a limited amount of evil off the victims, which is considered a dangerous ability against pirates.

### Haki

*Main article:* *Haki*
It was stated that all vice admirals possess Haki, so Tsuru can also use the ability. However, she has not yet been shown using it.

### Weapons

In her youth, she is seen with a flintlock rifle. How proficient she is in using it is unknown.

## History

### Past

Twenty-seven years ago, Tsuru was seen walking with fellow vice admirals Monkey D. Garp, Jaguar D. Saul, Kuzan, and Sakazuki. Garp asked her if he could borrow a ship, but she refused because he always broke them.

Thirteen years ago, Tsuru was stationed in the North Blue, where she continuously pursued the Don Quixote Pirates at the time. Doflamingo noted that her chases stopped after Rocinante left the crew, which led Doflamingo to suspect that his younger brother was giving away his crew's location to the Navy.

Three days before the scheduled exchange between the Marines and Diez Barrels for the Op-Op Fruit, she was stationed at Swallow Island following Rocinante's intel that Doflamingo and his crew would be there, unaware that they actually had gone to Minion Island instead. She was then contacted and informed by the Navy scouting Minion Island about the fire at Barrels' hideout and ordered them to investigate the coast while avoiding being spotted. As Doflamingo and his crew were leaving the island, Tsuru's ship fired at them, forcing them to flee.

## Synopsis

### *One Piece*

#### Before the Timeskip

##### Sky Island Saga

###### Jaya Arc

Tsuru is seen present for the gathering of the Seven Warlords of the Sea meeting at Mariejois to choose a replacement for Crocodile. As Doflamingo was forcing Navy officers to fight each other, Tsuru told him to stop.

##### Summit War Saga

###### Navyford Arc

Tsuru was present at Marineford in preparation for war against Whitebeard. Tsuru said some comforting words to Garp concerning the upcoming execution of Portgas D. Ace but he replied with laughter, stating that she should be shown sympathy rather than comforting him. Upon Whitebeard's arrival, she commented on the illogicality of his position and joined the other vice admirals when his division commanders began their attack. Although Vice Admiral Yamakaji expressed concern for her safety, Tsuru stayed on the front lines, stating that there was no safe place to hide.

She was next seen observing that Little Oars Jr. was bigger than any giant. She was then seen receiving Sengoku's order to prepare for the next part of the Navy's plan after having dealt with several pirates using her powers.

She later went to the plaza when Sengoku started to execute the final stage of his plan. After Rex's arrival and call for a ceasefire, she was seen standing down along with the other Marines.

#### After the Timeskip

##### Summit War Saga

###### One Piece Film: Z

After the destruction of Firs Island, Tsuru attended a meeting with other Marine officers to discuss the threat of Z. After Borsalino acquainted Sakazuki of Z's return, Tsuru reiterated the present about Z's former rank and his strength.

###### Dressrosa Arc

After the Don Quixote Pirates were defeated, Tsuru sailed along with Sengoku. After a conversation concerning Doflamingo's crew, Sengoku offered Tsuru some okaki.

Three days after Doflamingo's downfall, Tsuru and Sengoku arrived at Dressrosa and met up with Admiral Fujitora. Tsuru asked Fujitora why he did not capture Luffy and Law. The Admiral explained that he made his decision based on the roll of a dice and that the pirates had been lucky for two days in a row. Fujitora then gave Tsuru his dice and declared that if it rolled on any number other than one, he would go after the pirates himself.

After Luffy and his group escaped, the Navy left Dressrosa while escorting Doflamingo. While guarding Doflamingo's cell, Tsuru reminded Doflamingo of the reality that he lost and then listened to his comment about how the war for the title of King of the Pirates will begin. Later, the Navy convoy came under attack by Jack of the Beasts Pirates, who sought to rescue Doflamingo. Two of the Navy's four ships were sunk but they managed to defeat him.

## Battles

### Canon

* Tsuru's crew vs. Don Quixote Pirates (at least once)
* Navy and Seven Warlords of the Sea vs. Whitebeard Pirates and Allies.
* Doflamingo's Navy escort vs. Jack

## Anime and Manga Differences

In her first appearance in the anime, she does not say anything. In the manga, she talks to Don Quixote Doflamingo, ordering him to *be a good boy* and calm down.

## Notes & Trivia

* Eiichiro Oda has stated that he tends to name female characters after birds. This tradition continues with Tsuru, whose name means "crane". Her name can also be translated as "to hang", depicting her ability.
* Tsuru is introduced as Navyford's second-in-command despite being a vice admiral. Whether she holds more power than a normal vice admiral is unknown.
* She is currently the highest ranked female Naval officers along with Gion.
* When Tsuru and Sengoku were mentioned by Bartolomeo, they were shown in the latter's imagination, hardly resembling their real appearance at all.
* In the special *Adventure of Nebulandia*, it is revealed that she follows her own motto of Justice like the admirals. Hers is "Clean Justice", fitting her Devil Fruit abilities.