"Fire! Hurry up and fire! Dammit, if you miss again, I'll throw you all overboard to feed the Sea Kings!"
Captain Smith Ham of the Longbeard Pirates roared furiously. He had a mop of messy black hair, but his incredibly long beard was impeccably groomed. As a pirate who idolized Whitebeard, he desperately wanted to be feared by everyone on the seas, just like his hero, Edward Newgate.
The merchant ship ahead of them was certainly terrified, but instead of obediently dropping anchor and surrendering upon seeing his Jolly Roger, they had immediately turned tail and fled.
Sure, he might not have spared them even if they had surrendered, but since they chose to run, he was going to sink them all to the bottom of the sea.
The gunners were sweating buckets. Their captain was a cruel, ruthless man; if they missed again, they were genuinely going for a swim.
Another cannonball fired with a deafening boom. The gunners watched it in desperate anticipation as it traced a beautiful arc through the air, hurtling toward the fleeing merchant vessel.
They didn't even dare to breathe. 'Hit! Hit! Please hit!'
"It hit! It actually hit! Hahaha! Captain, we did it!"
"Call me Captain Longbeard!" he barked, a vicious grin spreading across his face. "Boys, bring us alongside them!"
That desperate shot had perfectly snapped one of the merchant ship's masts in half. With their speed instantly crippled, it was only a matter of minutes before they were caught.
While the pirates were roaring with soaring morale, the atmosphere on the merchant ship had hit absolute rock bottom.
"What do we do, Captain Jess?! That's Longbeard out there!" "We're dead... we're all dead..." "Longbeard is a total monster! He's going to slaughter us all and toss our bodies to the Sea Kings!"
The panic quickly devolved into finger-pointing.
"This is all your fault, Robin! This was your stupid idea! If you hadn't told us to run, maybe Longbeard would have just taken our cargo and left!" "You killed us all, Robin!" "You're just the ship's accountant! What gave you the right to give orders?!"
Only fifteen years old, Nico Robin stood pale-faced, keeping her head down as she fought back tears. She had joined this merchant crew under the alias "Robin" less than a month ago. Everyone had gotten along so well before, but now... was banking on a pirate's mercy really the right choice?
Captain Jess opened his mouth, then closed it. He had agreed with Robin's plan, and so had every single person currently screaming at her. None of them had wanted to leave their fate in the hands of bloodthirsty pirates. Just moments ago, when they thought they were going to escape, everyone had been praising her decisive thinking. But now that death was at their door...
He knew that even with his authority, he couldn't suppress the terrified crew's need for a scapegoat. If he forcefully stood up for Robin, they would just turn their fury on him. After all, Robin had only made the suggestion; as the captain, he was the one who gave the final order.
'Whatever,' Jess thought bitterly. 'We're all going to die anyway. Let them vent their fear on Robin. If there's a next life, I'm never stepping foot off solid land again. Screw the whole "the sea is a man's romance" garbage!'
Watching the pirate ship pull alongside the crippled merchant vessel from afar, Leo yelled, "Hurry up, Captain! They're already boarding them!"
"I'm on it, I'm on it!" Bardock replied, fumbling clumsily with the sail rigging.
In truth, Bardock had completely miscalculated. He had estimated their intercept speed based on fixed points, figuring that even as a novice sailor, he could easily catch up before the boarding started. But ships on the ocean were constantly moving targets, which meant he had basically swapped from a stationary shooting range to a moving one. Forced to constantly adjust the sails with his pitiful lack of experience, he had wasted a lot of time zigzagging across the water. Even rushing at top speed, they were still about fifty meters away.
Realizing he genuinely wasn't going to make it in time, Bardock prepared to use his backup plan. But a second later, he stopped, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder to calm him down as he settled in to watch the show. The merchant ship seemed to have already surrendered. That was way too fast.
Longbeard leaped onto the merchant ship's deck first, hefting a massive iron sledgehammer over his shoulder. A horde of vicious-looking pirates immediately swarmed aboard behind him.
"You little bastards made me go through a lot of trouble," Longbeard snarled. "Tell me, how exactly do you want to die?"
With a brutal swing of his hammer, he smashed the merchant ship's remaining mast into splinters.
The merchant crew was already terrified out of their minds. Seeing that display of raw, violent power, more than half of them instantly dropped to their knees, sobbing and begging for their lives.
"Captain Longbeard! I'm a navigator, please don't kill me!" "I'm a chef! My cooking is amazing! Please let me join your crew!" "I... I... Captain Longbeard! It was her! She manipulated us into running!" "Yeah! Yeah! She's a witch! I saw her sprout a bunch of extra arms once! It was horrifying!" "Why didn't you say anything earlier?! We should have burned the witch!" "I-I thought I was just seeing things!" "Robin! If you have any decency left, take responsibility for this!"
Robin felt a sharp sting behind her eyes. Her original plan had been to use her Flower-Flower Fruit powers to assassinate Longbeard in a surprise attack the moment he boarded, then rally the crew for a desperate final stand. As long as they fought together, there was a glimmer of hope for victory. But looking at them now, throwing her to the wolves to save their own skins, she felt like she might as well just let herself die.
'No. I can't die yet,' she told herself, biting her lip. 'Ohara... Saul... they need me to live. No matter what it takes, I have to survive.'
She desperately debated whether the Longbeard Pirates would accept her into their ranks if she revealed her Devil Fruit powers. If they refused, she would have no choice but to fight to the death.
"You're Robin, and you have a bunch of arms...?" Longbeard paused, his eyes widening before he burst into a booming, greedy laugh. "Gyahahaha! You're the 'Devil Child,' Nico Robin! A bounty of seventy-nine million Berries! Boys, we just struck gold!"
"What?! The Devil Child?!" "Seventy-nine million Berries?!"
The merchant crew cowered, trembling violently.
'Crap,' Robin panicked. She immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest, preparing to attack.
"Grab her!" Longbeard barked. Still a bit wary of the infamous Devil Child's abilities, he decided to send his lackeys in as cannon fodder first.
"Yeah!" The pirate grunts surged forward in a massive wave.
Robin's heart sank into her stomach. She had spent the last few years constantly on the run, never staying in one place long enough to truly train her Devil Fruit powers. Right now, she could only snap the necks of a few people at a time. Was this really the end of the line? If she let them capture her, would she ever find a chance to escape again?
Bardock had silently steered his sloop right up alongside the massive merchant ship a few moments prior. Somehow, neither the pirates nor the merchants had noticed him. He had signaled for Leo to hold his ground while he carefully eavesdropped on the commotion above. The moment he heard the name 'Nico Robin', his eyes lit up. This was world-class talent dropping right into his lap!
He desperately needed a tutor to educate the two kids on his ship. As a certified scholar of Ohara by the age of eight, Nico Robin was a genius of the highest caliber. Plus, she was an absolute master at intelligence gathering and analysis—the perfect external brain for his growing crew. Ironically, her legendary ability to read the Poneglyphs was the only thing he actually considered a liability right now.
'Well, these merchant guys are pretty despicable, but I guess it's your lucky day,' Bardock smirked.
He unleashed a violent shockwave of Conqueror's Haki directly at the deck above. The pirate grunts and the merchant crew alike rolled their eyes back and collapsed instantly, completely unconscious. Surprisingly, both Smith Ham and Robin managed to withstand the blast, though they were clearly dizzied, swaying heavily on their feet.
He couldn't help it; his control wasn't refined enough to exclude specific targets from his Haki burst yet.
Bardock vaulted over the railing and landed on the deck. "Oh? Still standing?" he mused, casually walking up to the dizzy Longbeard and delivering a swift, brutal chop to the back of the pirate's neck.
Longbeard finally crumpled to the floor, out cold.
That was the very last thing Robin saw before her vision faded to black, her exhausted mind finally giving out as she collapsed to the deck.