Meanwhile, Robin raised her voice toward Luffy.
"I've told you over and over—I will not go back with you!"
It was a lie.
Standing beside her, Rengoku heard her lie once more.
"I don't even want to see your faces anymore! So why are you here to save me?!"
"Why…?"
"Why are you trying to save me?! I never asked you to come! I never asked for this!"
For a woman who had betrayed others countless times before, this time felt different.
This time, she truly didn't want to betray.
That's why she lied, breathing hard, betraying her own heart.
"…I… I just want to die already!"
At her words, Luffy stared at her, momentarily at a loss.
And then, from behind, Spandam clapped his hands and laughed, delighted.
"Wahahaha! What a pathetic crew! Throwing away their lives for a woman who doesn't even want to be saved—this is priceless! Wahahahaha!!"
His laughter echoed across the Tower of Justice.
From balconies all around, CP9 agents stepped out, gathering above the plaza.
Rengoku, standing at Robin's side, looked down below as well.
Monkey D. Luffy…
What a baffling boy.
"Hey, Robin," Luffy's voice rang out from below.
"We've already come this far… so if you want to say you want to die, say it while standing with us."
The moment he finished, the courthouse roof burst open—revealing the Straw Hat crew united together once again.
Six crewmates, standing side by side.
In Robin's mind, fleeting memories of their adventures together flooded back.
Soon, the six of them climbed to the plaza of the courthouse, forming into pairs, standing tall.
"So leave the rescue to us!"
It was a scene that could bring tears to anyone's eyes.
If only they weren't pirates.
"Hah! What a joke!" Spandam sneered, mocking the Straw Hats.
"This is Enies Lobby! Here stand the World Government's assassination squad CP9… and the man already chosen as the next Marine Admiral—Rengoku!"
Then, grinning like a lunatic, he pulled from his coat a golden Den Den Mushi.
"And in my hands—I hold the authority of a Marine Admiral, the power to summon a Buster Call!"
"A B-Buster Call?!"
Robin's eyes widened in horror.
She knew all too well what that meant.
Her home had been annihilated by one.
"That's right," Spandam jeered, "the very power that erased your island from existence twenty years ago, Nico Robin! Thanks to this Buster Call, Ohara was wiped from the map the following year!"
"Stop! You can't! You mustn't use that!"
"Heeheehee! What kind of attitude is that? Do you want me to push the button?"
Clutching the golden snail in his hands, Spandam's eyes were wild—blinded by his own mania.
"Do you… do you even understand?" Robin trembled, fury and despair mixing in her voice. "Do you truly know what you're holding in your hands? What will happen if you press that switch?"
"Of course I know! It means every one of these pirates, every last ally they've brought here—all of them will be slaughtered! With one push of this button, it will all be over! Wahahaha!"
Robin clenched her teeth, rage boiling in her chest.
"It doesn't end that simply!"
"Ungrateful wretch!" Spandam slapped her hard across the face, then waved the golden snail in front of her eyes.
"What's with that tone? Maybe I should give it a little test, eh? Shall I press it? Hm?!"
In that instant, memories of her childhood—the burning of Ohara, the screams, the fire—came crashing back into Robin's mind.
"You said Ohara was erased from the map, didn't you?!" Robin's voice shook. "Can you see people on a map? You can't! That's the problem! Because you look at the world that way—only as numbers—that's why such tragedies happen!"
Shing!
Rengoku slowly drew the black blade, Shusui.
And with deliberate motion, he placed its edge against Nico Robin's neck.
"Anyone else could say those words… but you, Nico Robin—you cannot."
"Kh…!"
For once, Rengoku's face was shadowed, darkened by rare fury.
"To you, weren't the citizens of Alabasta nothing but numbers as well? Didn't you look at that kingdom with the same cold eyes?"
It was rage—rage at Robin's hypocrisy.
Or perhaps… rage at himself, for letting her walk free five years ago.
Even he couldn't tell anymore.
"As the adviser of former Warlord Crocodile, you orchestrated Alabasta's civil war! With what face do you dare to speak such words now?!"
His fury took form—manifesting into an overwhelming aura of killing intent. It loomed like a colossal guardian statue behind him.
The second blade, Enrin Kitetsu, though sheathed, seemed to sense its master's wrath—spitting sparks of flame from its scabbard.
"Ohara's citizens are people, but Alabasta's citizens are just numbers to you?!"
Rengoku's mind flashed to one face.
Vivi of the Marines.
The young princess who bore the guilt of her kingdom, the crushing burden of responsibility.
The girl who had trained twice as hard as anyone else, swinging her blade day after day.
The girl who endured all of it for her people.
That girl—! That girl!!
"Ohara sinned. They knowingly violated the laws written into the Government's codex! That was their crime—and so they were destroyed!"
His anger burned hotter and hotter, until it was near-uncontrollable.
"But what crime did Alabasta commit? What guilt? None! And yet thousands—parents, children—starved, thirsted, and died in battle! All so you could chase fragments of history. All because you, Nico Robin, pulled the strings from the shadows!"
Shusui pressed closer to her neck.
"I asked you time and again—did you regret it? Did you repent? But your answer was always the same: 'my dream has too many enemies.' Self-justification! Not once did you acknowledge the evil you've done! That is who you are, Nico Robin! And such a one as you dares to speak of justice?!"
The force of his spirit crashed outward, a storm of willpower that swept across Enies Lobby itself.
CP9 faltered.
Even the Straw Hats, standing at the far end of the plaza, staggered under the weight of his presence.
Across the island, pirates, government agents, and Marines alike felt it—and froze in place.
"…I regret it! I do repent!" Robin cried out. "The crimes of Alabasta—I was the one who devised them! I've carried that guilt every day since! Especially after I joined the Straw Hats—I think of it constantly! I regret it, every day! But the Buster Call… the Buster Call is indiscriminate slaughter, even against its own! That cannot be forgiven!"
"You're too late," Rengoku said, his voice like iron.
"Five years ago, you could have spoken the truth. Even on the Sea Train, you had the chance. But you answered with nothing but evasions. That's why we stand here now."
The blade cut shallowly, leaving a clear line across her neck. Crimson dripped down her skin.
"Oi, oi, oi!! Vice Admiral Rengoku, stop this at once!" Spandam shrieked. "I speak with the authority of CP9, with powers entrusted directly from the Five Elders and the Admirals themselves! Put that sword away!"
Spandam didn't care about justice or life. What mattered to him was keeping Robin alive—squeezing every last drop of information from her. If she died here, that opportunity was gone.
And so he invoked every name he could—the Admirals, the Five Elders—to restrain Rengoku.
Rengoku's fury burned still, but at last he sheathed Shusui. The aura receded.
He stepped back, standing stiffly at Spandam's side.
But the fire in his eyes had not gone out.
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