Chapter Text
Long Island-
“ROBINNN!!!” Nami screamed as she watched in horror, frozen in fear, as her teammates and captain were defeated by the Ice-element logia fruit using Admiral Aokiji.
Luffy’s right hand was frozen, so was Zoro’s right bicep and Sanji’s left kneecap. And Robin was… Robin was frozen entirely into a statue of ice.
She watched in panic as the Admiral raised his arm to smash Robin’s body into pieces. Time stopped for a moment, but Luffy swooped in tackling Robin’s frozen form out of harm’s way while using his own body to cushion the fall. Her breath hitched again in shock as the Admiral rose his foot high, intent on stamping Robin’s frozen form.
Usopp saved the day when he grabbed Robin’s body in a split-second and ran past the tall admiral, while the man stamped Luffy in the chest, making him cough up blood.
“Run, Usopp! Get back to the ship! Start thawing her!!” Luffy yelled as he rolled sideways on the ground away from the tall man.
Usopp ran, close behind him was Chopper. The admiral turned towards them, “For god’s sake, don’t save a woman like her.”
Aokiji caught the swing of her clima-tact, stopping it in his grasp, “Thanks for the suggestion, but no thanks. The pirate world is filled with women like her.”
“And you know it?” The admiral countered swiftly. The man pulled her clima-tact out of her hands with his monstrous strength and ‘whap’, she was sent flying. The pain didn’t register, as she climbed back to her feet, “Stand aside, missy.”
“Nami-san!!” Sanji yelled as he got back on his feet, facing the admiral. The noise of a sword being unsheathed out of its scabbard drew the logia user’s attention. The admiral’s gaze fell on the swordsman who was wielding three swords, one in each hand, and one on his mouth.
“Wait, you two!!”
All of their attention fell on Luffy, who was standing up, wiping the blood on his mouth away.
“Don’t fight him. I want to fight him alone.”
“Are you crazy?” Nami screamed at her bull-headed captain.
Luffy’s tone made her flinch, “That’s an order.”
Luffy’s gaze was now locked on Aokiji, “Let’s settle this…you and me, mano a mano!”
“Cool with me, kid. But be warned, this will be a fight to the death.”
A short while later...
The admiral sat on the grass as he watched the frozen statuesque form of Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of the Straw-Hat Pirates. The form was still aiming to punch him, arm stretched in attack mode.
“Feh…” The admiral sighed, “You tricked me didn’t you, brat?”
“Mano a mano…” Aokiji muttered, “I agreed to fight you one on one. I won, but still…if I attack your crew now, I’d be going back my word. Clever…”
'How did he know that I would keep my word?' The admiral wondered curiously. The brat was fascinating. If he wasn't mistaken, he never would have expected a rookie brat from this part of the grand line to use Kenbunshoku Haki of all things, even the brat's first-mate swordsman Roronoa Zoro used something similar, 'Did the brat sense my intent?'
Then he shrugged, a thin grin appeared on the admiral’s face, “Or…you actually believed you could defeat me…”
The man chuckled lazily, “Anyway, it doesn’t matter.” The admiral stood up lazily, patting the dust off his clothes.
“Your crew will break apart very soon. Nico Robin’s troubles are not easily rid of. Her misfortunes will follow you to your death. Monkey D. Luffy...”
The admiral rose his leg aiming to kick, but decided otherwise as he once again stood down, “I could so easily shatter you into a million pieces and send you to the hell that you so rightly deserve. But I owe you a favour. I was there when Smoker made his report. Crocodile should have been my problem, but you took care of it for me.”
“So, let’s call it even.”
With that, the admiral walked away lazily, leaving the frozen form of Straw-Hat Luffy in the middle of nowhere.
In the darkness of the ship, Robin walked past her sleeping crewmates to the deck. She stared into the night sky and got lost in the millions and millions of stars that lit the dark sky.
“Can’t sleep?” A voice broke her out of her musings. She turned to see Nami standing there.
“Nami-san.” She greeted politely.
Robin’s choice to ignore her query wasn’t lost on her, but she needed her crewmate to be clear-headed. She walked closer to the mysterious woman and she stood beside her and began staring into the night sky, enjoying the beauty of it.
“Chopper will throw a fit if he sees you walking about already.” She simply said it, not expecting a reply.
“Doctor-san must keep a closer eye on the captain. Cook-san is likely to kill him in the morning.”
“What did he do?” Nami asked in alarm.
“I saw Monkey-san raiding the fridge.” Robin replied with a smile. Nami’s eyes twitched at Robin’s response, but then resignedly sighed at the antics of her fun-loving idiot of a captain.
They both fell into a comfortable silence. Neither had any idea how long they stared up at the sky and enjoyed the silence. Robin and Nami sat opposing each other, but their eyes were fixed on the sky.
The silences lasted until Nami willed herself to ask, “Robin, what was the admiral talking about?”
Robin closed her eyes as if she had expected this question, “Please, do not ask me about that.” Robin withdrew into herself, clutching at her legs with her arms.
Nami remembered something Nojiko once said to her when she had started stealing from pirates. In order to bring someone’s wall down and earn their trust, she had to open herself up to them first. While she took the advice at face value and concocted a believable sob story to deceive the pirates who she then robbed blind, the actual intent behind the words of wisdom weren’t lost on her.
“My island was subjugated by Arlong, a Fishman pirate, who enslaved my village and killed my mother before my eyes. For so long, I shut everyone out of my life, to protect myself. Whenever I looked at myself in the mirror, I could see the weight and guilt weighing on my shoulders. I can see that on your shoulders too, Robin.”
With that, Nami stood up, “I don’t know what happened to you. I won’t ask. But I will tell you something that helped me overcome my fears…”
“Trust in Luffy.”
Robin perked up when she heard Luffy’s name, she watched as Nami walked away to get some rest. Lost in thought, she mused about Nami’s words.
She did trust her captain. This crew welcomed her and for the first time in a long time, she felt like she belonged in this family. But the admiral’s words still rang in her ears, and Luffy suffered for her sake. Every time the world came for her, her crew would try to hand her over, this time, however, her captain and crew fought for her. And this time, she would protect them.
Luffy sat on the sheep figurehead of Going Merry. They ran into a giant frog named Yokojina that was trying to battle a sea train called Puffing Tom, and then they met a granny named Kokoro the shift station's station master and from there they were going to Water Seven, where they will repair the Merry and recruit a Shipwright as part of the Nakama.
Thinking made his head hurt. He hated thinking. But he had no choice. He had to think of a way to battle the ice-guy if he came after them to finish what he started later on. His mantra didn’t help him in the fight at all, while he saw Aokiji’s moves coming, but he only saw them at the last possible second, and even then, he was too slow to evade them all.
He needed to increase his speed drastically and he had to better his mantra. For the last ten days, he’s been practising his mantra non-stop like Zoro, who was lifting even heavier weights since their run-in with the admiral. Sanji had upped his training, his speed and the strength behind his kicks. Even Chopper and Nami were taking lessons from Robin about awakening their mantra. Usopp was Usopp, their sniper was dead-set on building a new dial-powered slingshot for a better range and accuracy.
He needed to get stronger, much, much stronger. Ever since their fight in long island, he could sense the presence of all the living things all around him. And with each passing day, his range has been improving by a few metres. And he was planning on taking Robin’s advice seriously, he will remain calm in battle. He remembered losing his calm against Aokiji and fully freezing in an instant, until then, he was barely keeping up with the guy as it is, and he was certain that the ice-guy was holding back big-time. He made a promise to himself; he would keep his nakama safe.
‘Next stop, Water Seven.'