Like Crocodile, Nico Robin did not possess the ability to see the future either, and so she had not the slightest idea into whose welcoming arms she was sailing aboard her large turtle, Banchi. A gigantic turtle with a black-and-brown shell and dark green skin, roughly the size of a small Sea King. It wore a hat, held a suitably enormous cigarette in its mouth, and had a pink scarf wrapped around its neck. Robin traveled in something resembling a palanquin, secured by straps to Banchi's back. Thanks to Banchi, journeys between islands took significantly less time than they would aboard an ordinary ship and were considerably more comfortable. Most importantly, there were no fellow travelers! For a loner like Robin, that condition was nearly the most important of all. The girl did not like people. She felt far more at ease among the ruins of ancient civilizations.
Unfortunately for Robin, achieving the central goal of her life required her to cooperate with all manner of scum. Crocodile, despite his status as a Warlord, was no exception. Robin would gladly have worked with someone else, but her status as a wanted criminal and the 'baggage' she had inherited from Ohara put a firm end to any other possibility. Thus, although Baroque Works knew her as Miss All Sunday, Mr. Zero's right hand and most faithful assistant, in reality they cooperated solely for mutual benefit and nothing more. They needed each other's help to achieve their respective goals, so they worked together while neither trusted the other. A typical situation in which he knew that she knew that he knew she knew. Two paranoiacs had found one another. And each firmly believed that the final word would unquestionably belong to them. Yet thanks to Fate's risky gamble, their seemingly inevitable clash had gone completely off the rails. Or rather, their cooperation had gone off the rails, instantly wrecking everything else along with it. The funniest part was that neither of them knew it yet.
Robin saw the glow over Whisky Peak several kilometers before reaching the island. It did not alarm her in the least. If anything, it disappointed her. The girl knew she was behind Miss Valentine and Mr. Five, but she had not thought she was that far behind. Otherwise they could not possibly have had time to set an entire town on fire. And if they had managed to set an entire town ablaze, then they had almost certainly already reached the princess and the captain. The performance had ended before the first spectator arrived. On the other hand, as Robin understood it, Mr. Five might love blowing things up with his fruit's power, but he should not have destroyed an entire town. Whisky Peak was one of Baroque Works' bases and constantly brought the organization a considerable income, so destroying it would have been extremely unreasonable. And why would he? The more Robin considered it, the less she believed Mr. Five had been responsible for the fire. Had the bounty hunters encountered prey they could not chew? If so, things became considerably more interesting. At least, in Robin's opinion, far more interesting than the princess and captain suffering a swift and inglorious death.
Or perhaps not. Meaning, not more interesting.
Thanks to her fruit's power, Robin could sprout parts of her body at a considerable distance from herself. While still on the opposite side of the island from Whisky Peak, approximately five kilometers from the town, the girl activated her ability. Eyes and ears appeared on one of the rocks not far from the burning town, but almost immediately turned into pink petals and then faded into nothing in the air. At the same time, another pair of eyes and ears appeared on a second rock, noticeably closer to the town. They vanished. Reappeared closer. Vanished. Reappeared closer still. Little by little, Robin worked her way to the outskirts of the town. Her fruit's power would easily have allowed her to sprout body parts directly in the center, and she would gladly have done so were it not for one serious weakness of her ability. Robin could sprout parts of herself almost anywhere and in enormous quantities, but if anyone or anything damaged a sprouted part, the same injury was inflicted on her real body. In other words, if someone suddenly cut in half an arm she had sprouted on a rock, her actual arm would be severed as well. Robin could easily have produced a pair of eyes and ears in the middle of the town, but the slightest mistake might have left her blind and deaf. Why take such a risk? Her chosen method required slightly more time, but it eliminated unwanted surprises.
After carefully examining the fire-engulfed town, Robin eventually managed to reconstruct the approximate course of events. At the same time, she became completely convinced that Mr. Five's pair had nothing to do with the burning town. There were numerous charred and dismembered corpses. Robin could not be certain, but she gained the impression that the number of attackers had not exceeded five. The uniform nature of the injuries on all the bodies she saw pointed directly to that conclusion. Each had been killed either by a fire attack, a powerful physical blow, or the amputation of limbs and dismemberment. For obvious reasons, the fire attacks were the hardest to identify. Robin nearly overlooked them, even though the presence of someone capable of using fire immediately explained the burning town. Yet that was not what concerned the girl most. Her greatest concern came from the fact that, as Robin strongly suspected, every body she had seen belonged exclusively to Baroque Works. Nearly all of them had died while fleeing. By every indication, only a handful had chosen to fight, and then only after they were cornered. Robin allowed for the possibility that her conclusions were wrong—an external examination alone, especially from a distance, could never provide a complete picture—but instincts honed over years told her she was not mistaken. Whoever the Baroque Works agents had encountered, their opponent had been incomparably stronger. So much stronger that all the bounty hunters had considered flight their only chance of survival, yet even then their enemy had displayed absolute ruthlessness. Otherwise, those fleeing would have been allowed to escape.
In that manner, gradually sprouting eyes and ears in places safe from the flames, Robin 'crossed' the entire town and finally discovered those responsible for Whisky Peak's destruction. A cheerfully chattering company of six young men and one young woman behaved as though they were not sitting on the outskirts of a town they had destroyed, but somewhere in a woodland clearing. As though they had gone out for a picnic. From her considerable experience, Robin knew that such cold-blooded composure belonged only to the most irredeemable monsters. That did not mean all the other killers she had encountered were good men or pleasant conversationalists. Still, even pirates did not normally feel inclined to celebrate a successful raid amid burning ruins strewn with corpses. To Robin's displeasure, the entire group was seated in such a way that she could neither examine them properly nor listen in. The night, the fire, and the constant crackle of flames severely limited the girl's options. She could observe them from a distance, where she could neither see nor hear anything clearly, or from almost point-blank range, where they might notice her in return.
In the end, Robin decided to take a small risk.
Three factors influenced the girl's decision. First—and perhaps most importantly—Robin did not know what fate had befallen Mr. Five's pair, and ordinary corpses were hardly enough to surprise her. Had she known every detail of the night's events, she would have thought a hundred times before making her final choice. Second, it was night, and Robin herself was five kilometers away in a direction unknown to the group. Which one of them could possibly find her? Or catch her if she chose to flee? Not across such a distance! Third, Robin saw both a submarine and a ship flying the flag of the 'Pirate Slayers,' who had become remarkably famous of late. As the person who had once personally sent the now-deceased Mr. Seven to recruit them, she felt even greater interest than someone with no connection to them whatsoever. In general, they stood out sharply from every other rookie pirate crew and thereby drew even more attention. Had Robin not possessed excessive curiosity, she would never have become an archaeologist. And so the girl risked sprouting an eye and an ear directly on the crate the 'Pirate Slayers' were using as an improvised table. She did—and immediately met the gaze of the man she easily recognized as Johnny 'Beheader.' She had not exactly expected to remain entirely unnoticed, but neither had she expected to be exposed quite so quickly. Belatedly, Robin realized she should first have sprouted ears on the rear of one of the couches. She would not have been able to see, but she could have listened to her heart's content. Such foolish mistakes were entirely unlike her. The girl realized she had somewhat underestimated her own curiosity.
Denied the opportunity to listen to the 'Pirate Slayers' conversation, Robin decided to make do with what little she had. The first thing she noted was the obvious increase in the famous crew's ranks. The girl easily recognized Yosaku 'the Butcher' and the already-mentioned Johnny 'Beheader.' In person, the young men looked ten times kinder and more harmless than they did on their wanted posters, but Robin, remembering the destroyed town and the countless bodies, did not allow appearances to deceive her. Nami 'the Queen' bore almost no resemblance to her photographs or poster, which at best could pass only for ugly caricatures. The moment Robin saw 'the Queen' in person, she immediately suspected the woman possessed a Devil Fruit; she could not believe anyone could have been born with such extraordinary natural gifts. Surprisingly, the only person who looked almost exactly like his newspaper photographs and wanted posters was 'Pirate Slayer' Roronoa Zoro himself. The only difference was that on the poster he made no attempt to conceal his infernal nature, while in person he tried to disguise it—with rather poor results. It was like painting a battleship's main cannon a cheerful shade of green and decorating it with bright yellow sunflowers. Only a complete idiot could be fooled by such 'camouflage.'
Overall, the quartet known to Robin and the rest of the world did not disappoint her in the least. 'Pirate Slayer' and 'the Queen' exceeded the girl's expectations considerably—'the Queen' through her beauty, and 'Pirate Slayer' through the aura surrounding him, which was in no way inferior to Crocodile's own. Yet the crew members unknown to the general public interested Robin far more. Their mere presence was enough to do so. There had been so much news about the crew, yet not a single word about any other members. Was that not strange? More importantly, in Robin's eyes only one unusually long-nosed young man looked anything like a newcomer, and even from him the girl sensed genuine danger. She trusted her instincts, as had already been noted. Had it not been for those instincts, she certainly would never have survived to the age of twenty-eight. The tall blond man with a cigarette in his mouth and a white business suit proved no less interesting. He inspired a strange dual impression in Robin. The girl was certain he was far more dangerous than either 'the Butcher' or 'Beheader,' yet at the same time she could have sworn he was completely harmless. Robin had never encountered anyone who inspired such contradictory feelings. Still, all of it paled beside the final unknown member of the 'Pirate Slayers.'
Black sandals, acid-colored shorts, an acid-colored shirt, elastic wraps around his wrists, sunglasses on his nose despite the night, a straw hat on his head, and a gilded crown perched atop the hat. He looked about fifteen, of average height and ordinary build, with a broad smile on his face, a carefree posture, and a complete absence of any aura whatsoever. One might have expected the smile and relaxed pose to project a feeling of ease, but Robin felt nothing from the young man. Nothing from him. Yet she distinctly felt goosebumps race down her spine, cold seize her insides, her breath catch, her heart contract in fear, and sweat cover her forehead. Then the memories came. Memories of Ohara, of Saul, and of the man who had appeared in her nightmares regularly for the last twenty years. She understood there was no logic in such a comparison. Some unknown youth and that man—the difference was beyond comparison! And yet she compared them. Compared, and compared, and still could not rid herself of the terrible sensation. Robin possessed not a single piece of evidence beyond her own instincts. But she had learned to trust those instincts. They had never failed her. Soon it became clear that they had not failed her now either.
"Actually, I was planning to deal with you a little later," the Monster declared, after which he offered her the choice of surrendering herself to his mercy voluntarily or waiting until he came for her himself.
Every word he spoke only strengthened Robin's certainty. That man and this young man were cut from the same cloth—two Monsters wearing human skin. Perhaps it was because of the memories, but Robin could have sworn the air around her began rapidly growing colder. Cold. Cold was another constant companion in her nightmares. The young man's words carried a horrifying implication, and it was that implication that created the cold. No, it was not the threat of violence. It was the very first words he had spoken, and the tone in which he had spoken them. He had known about her before she revealed herself. And he was absolutely certain he could find her. Remembering that man and trusting her instincts, Robin immediately made the only decision available to her. The still-smiling Monster waited for her answer, and in her own fashion she gave it. Canceling her technique, Robin leapt from the rock on which she sat and immediately sprinted toward the water.
Two hundred meters—was that a great distance or a small one? If a person was carrying two sacks of cement on their back, two hundred meters was quite a long way. If they merely needed to run out for a bottle, they might not even bother putting on shoes; rubber slippers would do. Robin ran her own two hundred meters to Banchi, who rested on the shore, for an eternity. No less than thirty seconds. The night, the rocks, the uneven ground, and the sand all hindered her. Even so, Robin ran without conserving her strength and without any caution whatsoever. Wild terror and flight at full speed—she had been through it not once, not twice, not even ten or twenty times. Robin could no longer say exactly how many times she had been forced to flee that way. To flee while everything around her collapsed and everyone around her died. Run, run, run! The only road to salvation was to run with everything she had! This time, the only difference was that everything around her had been destroyed and killed before her arrival, and so all attention was now focused on her alone. Mr. Five's pair could be forgotten. Robin had already understood why she had found not a single trace of their presence in Whisky Peak. After meeting the Monster, she harbored no illusions whatsoever about their fate. The girl was not even sure any ashes remained of them by this point.
"Banchi, into the water! Quickly!" Robin shouted loudly to the turtle dozing on the shore before she had even reached him.
Banchi, eternally phlegmatic toward everything, did not resist this time either. Obediently lifting his belly off the ground and standing on his legs, he began lumbering toward the water at an unhurried pace. Unhurried from the perspective of an enormous turtle, perhaps, but to Robin his speed was no less than her own desperate sprint. Yet it was all in vain. And perhaps, somewhere deep inside, even Robin knew she would not escape this time. One could run only from people. One could not run from Monsters. No more than twenty meters remained between her and the water—and the waiting Banchi—when Robin heard a rapidly approaching series of cracks. At that moment the cold finally froze her insides solid, and she stopped.
BOOM!!!
============================================================
Please Write a review/comments and support with power stones. Also check my other works.
Also if you want to support me, or access to some additional chapters, then check the patre on.com/moctopus