Chapter 24: Chapter 24
The sun is shining high in the sky as the Merry gracefully sails through the ocean with no more marine ships in pursuit.
Zoro looks around to ensure that no more marines are following them and begins to relax. He looks to see that everyone else is lying down on their stomachs on the upper deck with their arms hanging off the upper railing. "You know we lost them right?"
The crew sadly hums with a cloud of depression hanging over them while they stare at the empty space to their left as if Vivi would magically appear if they stared long enough.
Zoro raises an eyebrow at their attitude as he looks at the empty space. "What's the matter with you guys?"
"WE MISS VIVI!" The crew whines simultaneously as they start crying comical tears.
Zoro rolls his eyes at their depression. "Quit complaining, if you wanted her to stay that badly then you should've dragged her with us."
Chopper widens his tear filled eyes at the comment before he begins the string of insults for the swordsman. "You savage!"
"Prick!" Rose says with Nami following.
"Monster!"
"Marimo!" Sanji says with Luffy following after him.
"Three Sword Style!"
Usopp stops the line of insults and looks at Luffy in confusion. "Three sword style isn't an insult Luffy."
"Four sword style."
"Adding a number to it doesn't make it an insult!"
Zoro groans at the insults and ignores Usopp working to explain a proper insult to Luffy when the door to the lower deck suddenly opens.
"Looks like we lost them. Great work everyone." Everyone in the crew looks to the door in shock to see Nico Robin casually standing by the doorway in a pink button up shirt and a pair of jeans.
Zoro immediately gets ready to fight as he grabs the hilt of his sword. "You're here for revenge?!"
Robin ignores his glare as she looks to see Sanji staring at her with hearts in his eyes. "What a beautiful lady!"
Chopper quickly hides behind a corner with most of his body showing as he stares at Robin nervously. "Who is she?!"
"Nico Robin." Rose says as she casually waves at the stowaway. "It's been a while, good to see you."
Robin giggles at her calmness as she answers her. "It's good to see you too."
Nami freezes at the casual chatter and turns to Rose in confusion. "Why the hell are you being friendly with her?! Didn't you fight her at Rain Base?!"
Rose shrugs off her worries as she shows no fear of the intruder. "Yea, but she helped me out when I was being chased by a marine a few days ago."
"She could've done that to lower your guard!" The redhead gets her clima-tact ready when Robin grows arms out of her and Zoro's bodies to swat the weapons out of their hands.
Robin keeps a stoic smile on her face as she stares at the shocked look on their faces. "Don't point those at me. If I wanted to kill you, I would've done so already."
Nami glares at the woman as she picks up her clima-tact. "When did you get here?!"
Robin calmly grins, as if she's not surrounded by enemies, as she takes a seat on a lawn chair right next to the table. "I've been here since before you left. I hope you don't mind, but I'm borrowing your clothes."
Nami twitches an eyebrow at her attitude while the dark haired woman turns to Luffy. "Monkey D. Luffy, I didn't forget what you did to me."
Sanji stops his love daze when he hears Robin's complaint, and grabs Luffy by the collar. "What did you do to her you bastard?!"
Luffy ignores the shouting as he turns to Robin. "Quit lying, I didn't do anything to you!"
Robin relaxes in her seat as she chuckles at his denial. "No, I remember it clearly. You were pretty rough."
Sanji widens his eyes at her comment, as he imagines the most perverted scenarios, and glares at Luffy while he shakes him. "What the hell's the story here?!"
Rose holds herself back from chuckling at the display when Luffy pushes Sanji away and angrily turns to Robin. "What exactly do you want?!"
"To join your crew." Robin says with a calm smile.
Everyone, but Rose and Chopper, give her a look of shock at the request.
"Why should we let you join?!" Usopp asks worriedly as he stays hidden behind the group.
"Because your captain owes me." Robin says when she thinks back on how at the end of Luffy's battle with Crocodile she was ready to die in the crumbling tomb, but Luffy wouldn't let her as he carried her out of the tomb.
She keeps her small smile on her face as she gives them her explanation. "You made me live even though I wanted to die. I have nowhere to go now that Baroque Works is finished, so I want to join your crew."
Luffy blinks at the explanation before he nods. "I see, ok, you're in."
"WHAT?!" Nami, Usopp and Zoro yell out in shock while Sanji happily runs to the kitchen.
Luffy chuckles at his friends' reactions before he smiles at them. "You don't have to worry; she's not a bad person."
"I'll be the judge of that!" Usopp says as he takes a seat from a chair that's across the table from where Robin is. "Before we can accept you, I need to give you a proper interview to see if we can trust you!"
Robin giggles at the sniper's cautious behavior before she rests her arms on the table. "Very well, ask away."
Usopp nods as he begins to interrogate the newest crew member for any hidden motives.
Nami tiredly sighs at the new situation as she and Zoro scatter to different parts of the deck where they can keep an eye on Robin.
Rose, Luffy, and Chopper however, quickly become distracted when Robin sprouts an arm off the deck to entertain them. The three of them sit close to the arm, to get a better look, as they become fixated on it.
Rose grins at the arm, as it sways from side to side, and admires it without the fear of it turning on her like back in Rain Base. As she watches the arm bend to her right she doesn't see the three other arms springing behind her and the boys until they pull them to the left. As the three of them collapse, they look to see the culprits and laugh at the arms.
Meanwhile, Robin grins at the entertained kids when Usopp hits the table. "Pay attention!"
Robin doesn't falter in her smile as she turns to the sniper and rests her head on the palm of her hand. "Sorry, what was the question?"
"What's your profession?"
"I'm an archaeologist."
Usopp blinks at the answer. "An archaeologist?!"
Robin nods as she tells him her story. "It runs in my family. I became an archeologist when I was eight and then I had a bounty on my head."
Usopp widens his eyes at the bounty. "You got a bounty when you were just eight?!"
"That's right; I was chased by the World Government for the past twenty years. I faced a lot of things on my own, and in order to survive I had to join various criminal organizations like Baroque Works to protect myself."
Rose looks over at the archaeologist with a soft look on her face as she listens to her story, and thinks of how her own research could've brought her on the same path as Robin's. She continues to stare on sadly until she feels four arms grow on her sides with two on each side. She looks down in shock to see one arm on each side hold her arms up while the others bend, to reach her armpits, and start tickling her.
Chopper and Luffy widen their eyes at the tickle attack before arms also grew on their own bodies and start tickling them. Rose couldn't stop herself from laughing as she falls on her back and tries to free herself, but the arms were too strong as they keep tickling her.
Robin doesn't let her arms give in as she continues her interview as if she has nothing to do with the extra limbs. "While I worked under these organizations, I acquired a good number of skills that the crew can use."
The sniper hums at the interesting quality. "Really? What would you say is your best skill?"
Robin chuckles at the question while she gives him an answer in a confident tone. "Assassination."
Usopp immediately tears up in fear as he calls out to his captain. "LUFFY, I'VE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT SHE'S TOO DANGEROUS TO JOIN US!"
He looks to see that his captain, Chopper and Rose are still laughing from Robin's tickling, and grows frustrated. "CAN'T YOU GUYS BE SERIOUS?!"
Nami shakes her head at the trio's antics as she steps towards the table. "We can't rely on them for this." She smirks at Robin as she crosses her arms over her chest. "Don't think that we forgot that you were vice president of a criminal organization. You can fool Luffy, but you won't fool me. If I see any funny business then you're done, got it?"
Usopp applauds Nami's tenacity while Robin sighs and loses her smile.
"I understand. Oh, by the way..." Robin digs into her pocket and pulls out a pouch up for the navigator to see. "I nabbed these jewels from Crocodile before I left."
Everyone could practically see the stars flying around Nami as she runs up to Robin with a large smile and beli signs in her eyes. "Oh, what I meant to say was welcome to the crew Robin!"
Zoro and Usopp cover their faces with their hands as they shake their head in disbelief of Nami's quick change of heart.
Zoro tiredly sighs as he takes his hand off his face. "I should've figured this would happen..."
"Oh Robin my sweet~!" Usopp and Zoro widen their eyes when they hear Sanji's love filled voice, and see him twirling towards her while he speaks one romantic line after another while he delivers her a fruit parfait.
Usopp sweat drops at the chef's antics before he sighs. "He was a lost cause from the start..."
Zoro nods in agreement. "It looks like we're the only ones left on our guard."
Usopp nods as he crosses his arms over his chest. "You got that right. We're the only ones who won't be won over so easily!"
"Usopp!" The sniper turns to the sound of his captain's voice and he freezes when he sees that Robin grew a pair of arms out of the sides of Luffy's head to look like antlers.
Luffy mimics Chopper's adorable smile as he imitates the reindeer's voice. "Chopper~!"
The long nosed man immediately breaks his composure at the sight and starts laughing at the impersonation along with Rose, Luffy, and Chopper.
Zoro sweat drops at the sight before he gives up and walks towards the front of the ship for some peace and quiet.
As Nami counts the gems in the pouch with a large smile, and Sanji is love struck by Robin's beauty, the archaeologist looks to see Zoro heading to the front of the ship.
Robin follows him to the front of the ship and looks back at the lively crowd that she left. "Are they always this cheerful?"
Zoro hums in acknowledgement as he crosses his arms over his chest. "Yea, they are."
Robin happily grins as she cancels out the arms that were entertaining Luffy and the others, and then stares out at the sea with a calm smile.
Zoro scowls at the calm woman's smile for he can't get a read on what's going on in her head, but he doesn't confront her as he goes off to train.
Robin looks around at the horizon before she calls to Nami. "Are we on course Navigator-san?"
Nami snaps out of her trance with the jewels and looks at her log pose that's pointing ahead with a grin. "Yes we are! If we keep going ahead we should reach the next island in no time!"
Rose pauses when she hears this and mentally curses the next arc that they're going to hit. *Shit, next one's Sky Island! There's no way I can land a hit on Eneru with my powers like this!*
She starts flying up with the boys looking at her in confusion.
"What are you doing?" Chopper asks, so Rose stops to look down at them.
"I'm gonna work on my wind. I'll come down later." She flies above the ship to work on turning her limbs into air.
Robin follows the wind girl with her blue eyes and grins before she joins Nami to relax while the rest of the crew goes on with their daily activities.
An hour has passed, with Rose now lightly panting from using her wind so much. She points her arms ahead of her and tries to turn both of her arms into air again, but just like every time before only her right arm turned into air while her other arm only blasted wind out of her hand.
She sighs in frustration as she turns her right arm back to normal. She gazes down at her left arm and focuses on turning it into air. She starts to smile when it turns into air, but when she goes to turn her right arm into air as well it only blasts the wind out of her hand.
She groans at the lack of progress as she stops using her wind on her arms and ruffles her unruly bangs in frustration. "Dammit, this isn't working."
She looks down at her arms that she can only turn one into a wind bazooka at a time, and starts to wonder if she should focus on something else at the moment.
She lifts her right arm towards a cloud, that's the same width as the Merry, on her left and turns it into a strong gust. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration as she works to manipulate it, so that instead of going straight the wind moves to whichever direction she chooses.
As her arm's wind shoots inside the cloud she tries to manipulate her wind to that it moves 90 degrees to her right from inside the cloud. She keeps trying but she doesn't see it shooting out of the cloud from her right, but instead it shoots out of the cloud from her left in the angle she wanted.
She widens her eyes at the misdirection and stops her wind. She flies to the left side of the cloud to see the circular hole that she made and covers her face with her hand. "Zoro's lack of direction is rubbing off on me..."
She chuckles at the new development as she takes her hand off her face and looks at the hole with gratitude that her wind at least did turn. She looks for another cloud to practice on then freezes when she sees an island on the horizon. She blinks at the new land and begins the countdown for when Luffy will yell for the crew to go there. "3, 2, 1."
"HEY GUYS, THERE'S AN ISLAND! LET'S GO!"
Rose chuckles at Luffy's yelling as she looks down to see the crew looking at the island and then moving the ship towards it.
She descends to the deck and helps the others get ready to dock onto the spring island with a large city built by the coastline.
While the ship begins to approach a hidden cove, that hides their ship from the public, Nami goes over to the captain and points to the island. "Listen Luffy, we're only stopping to resupply. We can't stay after sunset or the log pose will reset understand?"
Luffy quickly nods when he sees that the boat has docked and jumps off the ship to head to town.
"HEY, WAIT UP LUFFY!" Usopp yells as he, Chopper and Sanji run after their captain.
Nami sighs at Luffy's carefree attitude then sees Rose walking off the ship with her backpack in tow. "Wait a minute Rose!"
Rose stops and looks back in confusion to see Nami walking up to her. "Come with me and Robin, you both need some clothes."
She looks to see Robin joining them with her smile still plastered on her face then nods to Nami. "Sure, let's get going."
She follows Nami and Robin into town where they see a group of five marine officers patrolling the street with their backs to them. The girls quickly go into the clothing store next to them before they could be spotted.
Nami looks out the window and sighs in relief when she sees the marines walking away in a different direction. "Looks like we're ok, but the guys better not start anything."
"I'm sure we would've heard screaming by now if they did." Robin says as she looks at the assorted clothes on the shelves. "At least we made it. Let's take a look around."
Rose nods in agreement as she looks at the full sized mirror in front of the fitting room door to looks at her green long sleeved t-shirt and black jeans. She has never been one to worry about what she wore as long as it was affordable and comfy, but today she wants to try something different. Something that not only looks cool, but she'll able to fight in it without problems. She scans through the shelves and stops when she sees a long, blue, hooded jacket on a hanger.
She tries on the jacket that reaches the top of her knees and grins at the snug fit around her arms and small waist. She sees a pair of dark grey gloves and slips them on before she steps in front of the mirror to see how they look. Satisfied with the appearance, she heads to the counter where she sees Nami arguing with the old shop owner.
The red head scowls at the old man over her pile of clothes after she heard the expensive price of five million beli for ten outfits. "That price is outrageous! Drop it to ten percent of it!"
The dark skinned, skinny, man returns the scowl as he adjusts his glasses. "Now who's being outrageous? Complain all you want, but every store in this town's priced like this."
Robin, who's standing behind Nami, raises an eyebrow at this. "Why so expensive?"
The old man sadly sighs as he rests his elbows on the counter. "You saw those marines that were walking by here? Their commander taxes us so terribly high that if we can't pay them, then he'd take anything he wants from us instead."
He freezes when he remembers how the three of them ran into the store, then narrows his eyes at the girls. "By any chance, are you girls pirates?"
Nami tenses up at the intense stare while Robin and Rose get their guards up.
"If we are?" Rose asks as she clenches her fists while Robin has her arms ready to use her powers at any moment.
The old man however, loses his glare at the answer, and brightly smiles at them. "In that case, can you help me out?!"
The three of them look at him in confusion as he reaches into his pocket and takes out a photo of him as a young man, with a beautiful woman by his side. He points to the golden pocket watch that strapped onto his belt with a white snake holding a pair of tiny ruby eyes decorating the outside of it. "This pocket watch was a gift from my wife. Last week, the commander took it when I couldn't pay this month's million beli tax."
Rose widens her eyes at the tax as she looks at the pocket watch. "He gives you guys that much of a stupid tax a month?!"
Robin lowers her guard and looks at the photo in confusion. "What does the pocket watch have to do with us?"
"If you girls can sneak into the marine base at the edge of town and bring back the watch then you can consider the clothes on me."
Nami scowls at the deal before she puts the clothes back. "Thanks for the offer, but we're not interested. We'll just take our business elsewhere."
Nami and Robin leave the store, but Rose keeps her stare at the photo of the man staring at the woman beside him with pure admiration in his eyes.
Rose softly stares at the photo of a man, who treasured his wife, as she takes off the jacket and gloves. When she looks to see that her friends are out of earshot, she turns back to the owner with a mischievous smirk. "Please place these on hold for me."
The old man widens his eyes at the request, when he realizes that she's going to do it, before he grabs the jacket and gloves. "You got it!" He waves Rose off as she walks out to join the girls.
As they walk through the town square, Rose looks to her left to see the large marine fortress at the edge of town that's the tallest building in the city. She looks towards the girls and gives them a grin as she sets her plan to action. "Hey, since we have to leave by the end of the day, how about we split up to cover more ground?"
Nami and Robin stop and look back at Rose while they ponder the suggestion.
The navigator looks around the various stores and then at the clock tower at the center of the square to see that it's already one in the afternoon. "Alright, but just don't go too far. We still have a couple of hours before sunset."
Rose nods as she walks off in a direction, that's not at a direct angle towards the base, but heads close to it.
Robin watches where the wind girl's going before she wanders off in her own direction. "I'll see what I can find in this part of town. I'll see you soon Navigator-san."
Nami watches their newest crew member also go off on her own then sighs in defeat before she goes off in a different direction to find an affordable place to shop.
After reaching the marine base, Rose looks at the ten foot, white, wall that surrounds the fortress except for two large blue doors that are the only entrance to the base. She flies up to the edge of the wall and looks to see that the courtyard shows no sign of being guarded.
She hums in curiosity as she scans the area. "For a greedy marine it doesn't look like he guards his base well."
"There are probably guards inside."
Rose absentmindedly nods at the voice as she spots an open window at the second floor of the building. "Fair enough, but if we sneak in and time it right we can-"
She stops herself when she realizes that she's talking to someone and slowly looks to her left to see Robin right next to her with her arms holding her onto the edge. "Hello."
Rose yelps in shock at how she was hanging there the whole time and accidentally shoots up into the air.
Robin giggles at Rose's shock as she watches the wind girl regain control of her wind and floats next to her. "When did you get here?"
"Just after you flew up here. I'm surprised you didn't tell Navigator-san that you were doing this."
Rose sighs at the situation as she rubs the back of her head. "If I told her, she'd try to talk me out of it. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"You don't have to join me in this if you don't want to. I'm just gonna get the watch and get out."
Robin chuckles at how easy she makes stealing from a marine base sound before she looks at the base. "Then there shouldn't be any problems with me joining you on this crusade. I have a feeling that this will be pretty interesting."
Rose nods at she does one last scan of the area then creates a gust of wind for her crew mate to fly on. "Alright then, let's go in."
She leads them through the window that leads to an empty hallway. As soon as their feet touch the ground, they tread the halls to the first door they find. Once they reach the door, they see a pair of marine soldiers turning a corner, so they rush into the room.
Rose peeks through the crack in the doors to see that the marines didn't spot them and are walking past the door to get to their destination. She sighs in relief as she looks back to see that they ran into a windowless treasury.
Robin looks at the shelves that hold various kinds gold and silver trinkets that the commander confiscated from their owners. "My, this marine truly does love treasure."
Rose finds a trunk in the corner of the room and opens it in disbelief to find it full of every kind of jewelry imaginable. "No kidding, this looks more like a pirate's treasure room than a marine's treasury. The watch has to be in here."
Rose digs into the chest and pulls out handfuls of jewelry to place them on the floor to keep digging. Every time that she found a pocket watch in the large chest, she used her wind to allow it to float into the air for Robin to examine.
As five watches float in the air, Robin looks in disappointment to see that none of them hold the white snake symbol that's in the owner's photo. "These don't appear to be the one the owner had."
Rose grabs the last handful of necklaces and, in her dismay, looks to see that there are no more watches in the chest. "Shit, it's not in here."
Robin looks around to see that there are no other trunks in the room and the only clocks on the shelves are decorative ones. "He might have sold the watch off."
Rose softly frowns at the possibility as she gently places the watches back, then uses her wind to pick up the dropped jewelry. "It's definitely not here, that's for sure. Let's get out of here before someone comes in."
The archaeologist nods in agreement as she watches Rose bring the jewels to the chest when suddenly; the door opens to a buff marine soldier.
The pale marine widens his blue eyes at the sight of two intruders inside the treasure room with a large amount of the treasure floating in the air.
"What the fuck?!" He mutters under his breath as he gets his sword out and glares at the girls. "Drop the treasure and come quietly!"
Rose looks from him to the floating jewelry in shock of how this looks before she puts the jewels back in the box and tries to distract him. "Now take it easy. We can-"
She stops speaking when six arms grow on the man's body to put him in an uncomfortable hold that pulls his arms behind his back and has two of the hands cover his mouth. The man screams behind the hands as his upper body bends backwards until he passes out from the pain.
Rose sweat drops at Robin's attack as she watches Robin release her hold on the unconscious marine. "You're quick."
Robin chuckles at the compliment when five more marines approach their comrade's unconscious body in the hallway. "BRUCE, WHAT-?!"
The marine cuts himself off when Rose uses her wind to send them flying and slam them to the wall before the two pirates make a run for it.
Robin giggles at the wind slam that Rose used on them as she looks back to see that the wind has subsided. "You're not so slow yourself."
"I can't let you have all the fun." Rose says when she looks over her shoulder to see that four of the marines are going after them.
She turns around while she turns her right arm into wind to send them flying while sending herself flying backwards to the end of the hall where there's a fork in the road. She manages to catch herself before she could hit the wall, but widens her eyes when she looks to her right to see more marines coming at them. "Crap!"
She blasts wind out of her arm to hold them back while she creates a wind for herself and for Robin just when she reached her, and started flying in the opposite directions with at least twenty marines in pursuit.
All the while one of the marines stayed behind in the communication room. "I can't believe this is happening with an inspector from HQ coming..."
He activates a den den mushi and alerts the rest of the base of the two intruders and to stop at nothing to capture them.
At a local restaurant in town Luffy, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper are enjoying their meal. Luffy eats five dishes of meat while he grabs a few pieces of the others' dishes.
Chopper tries to block a piece of his food with a fork, but Luffy managed to grab the food before he could hit him. "Quit stealing my food Luffy!"
"I Cansh't Helpth itsh" Luffy tries to say that he 'can't help it' with his mouth full before he swallows and continues his meal.
Sanji sweat drops at his captain's antics as he swallows his food. "I'll never understand how you can eat that much."
"Don't ask me." Usopp says after he quickly slips some hot sauce on a piece of his food just before Luffy grabs it.
Once the captain chomped on the piece of food, he started breathing fire and chugged not only his glass of water but everyone else's on the table.
As the three boys laugh at their captain's plight, Sanji stops when he sees Nami walking into the restaurant without a single shopping bag in her hands.
"Nami-swan, over here!" Sanji calls out with hearts in his eyes as he wildly waves his arms to get her attention.
Nami immediately notices them and joins them by grabbing an empty chair along the way, and sits down next to Usopp and Chopper. "Hey guys, how's the food?"
"Too hot." Luffy says after he finishes the drink and settles down.
"Did you find anything interesting Nami?" Usopp asks but she only sighs in disappointment.
"These stores won't know a good discount if it bit them in the butt. I doubt Robin or Rose found anything better."
The boys look at her in confusion when a pair of marines walk into the restaurant.
One is a large, muscular, man, with a jet black small beard on his lightly tan face. The color of his beard matches his hair, that reaches his shoulders where his commander jacket is pinned to his uniform. The other is a curvy woman, with her long light red hair tied into a ponytail, and her twin pistols tied to her belt.
The civilians, along with Usopp and Chopper, flinch at the sight of the commander and his subordinate walking into the restaurant.
Luffy keeps eating while Nami and Sanji keep their eyes on the two marines as they walk up to the manager at the counter.
The middle aged man looks at them nervously as he fakes a smile for the officers. "W-welcome Commander West. Would you and Tanya like a table?"
West smirks at the offer as he lifts his sunglasses. "Forget that, you know why we're here."
The manager slowly nods as he takes an envelope from his pocket that holds a large stack of beli inside.
Tanya takes the envelope and counts it off before she turns to her superior. "It's still ten thousand short."
The manager widens his eyes at the accusation behind his glasses. "That can't be right, that's the same amount as last month!"
West snickers at the claim. "You must've missed the announcement that it was raised."
The manager looks at him in shock. "That's all I have for this month! I can't afford more!"
Tanya sighs in fake disappointment as she looks around. "Well, that's a shame. I guess we'll just have to take some collateral."
The civilians keep their heads down as the marines looks around the decor of the restaurant. The pirates also remain silent as they watch them walking around.
Nami doesn't take her eyes off the commander, that she heard about, then widens her eyes when she sees that on his belt holds a golden pocket watch. When she saw the white snake symbol decorating the front of it with two tiny rubies used as the eyes, she knew that it was the clothing shop owner's watch.
The commander doesn't notice the attention as he spots a painting of the beach overlooking the sunset hanging on the wall in a thin black frame. "This will do perfectly for my office."
The manager widens his eyes at the portrait as he and Tanya start taking it down. "No please you-!"
The marines stop themselves when West's baby den den mushi starts ringing from his pocket. West leaves the painting alone to grab the small orange snail from his pocket and answers it. "What's going on?"
The snail starts crying fearfully as a male voice calls out to him. "Commander, we have a problem! Two women have invaded the base!"
Tanya raises an eyebrow at the declaration. "You're saying that the base can't handle two girls?"
"They're not ordinary girls ma'am, they're devil fruit users! One of them can sprout hands on people and the other can turn her arm into air!"
The pirates widen their eyes at what they overheard before Luffy and Sanji get up and run out of the restaurant.
"Guys, w-!" Usopp quickly shuts up when he, Nami and Chopper cover his mouth while Tanya looks over at them for a second, then sees the other customers staring at her.
"What are you all looking at?!" The customers fearfully look away from the intimidating marine as she returns her attention to the conversation.
West glares at the snail as he gives him the order. "Do whatever you can to capture them! We'll be right there to execute them! If they escape with a single piece of treasure then it's on you!"
He hangs up his end of the line before he stuffs the snail in his pocket. "Let's go Tanya."
Tanya nods in agreement as they take their leave. As they run past the crew, they don't pay attention to Nami's focus on them as they get out of the restaurant with one less watch on them.
Nami looks down at the pocket watch she managed to pickpocket from the marine while Usopp looks at them in shock. "Are Rose and Robin seriously there?!"
"That has to be them! Who else can-?!" Chopper stops himself when he sees a murderous aura coming from Nami.
The navigator puts the watch in her pocket while she stands up. "Those two couldn't stay out of trouble on their first island in the crew?!"
Usopp nervously gulps before he grabs his glass and plays it off like it's no big thing. "I-I'm sure they're fine. Robin and Rose are strong, and Luffy and Sanji are going to back them up. They don't need any- Whoa!"
Nami grabs Usopp and Chopper's wrists and drags them out. "You're coming too!"
"But I have the 'don't go to a marine base or I'll die' disease!" Usopp says while Chopper nods.
"Yea, I got it too!" Chopper says, but Nami won't have it as she takes them out of the restaurant, and ignores the customers and manager who are staring at them.
The manager blinks at the craziness that happened, and while he's grateful that he didn't lose the painting, he realizes he was still at a loss here. "I've been dine and dashed..."
Rose and Robin continue flying through the halls with at least ten marines on their tails. Robin crosses her arms over her chest to put them in a hold.
The marines can only cry out in pain as they fall to their knees, and watch their targets fly off. Rose looks ahead to see that there's a closed window in up ahead to their left where an intersection is. She turns her arm into wind and blasts it ahead to try breaking the window before they reach it by making it turn left. However, instead of turning left, the wind turns right where a crowd of marines were about to run in and sends them flying.
Rose blinks at misdirection, but decides to accept the victory as they fly past the intersection and turn at the next corner. Once the marines recover, from the girls' attacks they follow them around the corner to find they disappeared.
"Find them!" The marines quickly open every door to look inside before they run into the next room.
As one of them opens the door to the commander's office, he couldn't see anyone inside so he shuts the door where Rose and Robin are hiding behind.
Rose chuckles at how they were able to evade them by hiding behind the door. "Works every time."
Robin giggles at her pride in their escape as she goes to the large window at the end of the room. Once she sees that the window's locked she rummages through the drawers to search for the key.
Meanwhile, Rose looks around the walls that are covered by all kinds of paintings and two large shelves. One shelf holding more decorations that didn't look as valuable as the ones in the treasure, and the other holding eternal poses to various places from marine bases to tropical paradises.
The brunette wastes no time in going up to the shelf holding the poses, and looks through the top portions of the hourglass like compasses where the labels are, so she can see which islands they lead to.
"See something interesting?" Rose snaps out of it when she looks to see Robin staring at her.
Her purple eyes go from her to the shelf before she picks a few of the eternal poses up. "I'm just impressed with this guy's eternal pose collection. Nami might like them for her navigation or she could sell them off."
Robin raises an eyebrow at the explanation, when she sees Rose taking her backpack off to place the eternal poses inside, then she goes back to searching for the key. As Robin digs through the drawers she stops when she finds a stack of wanted posters in the drawer.
Robin grabs them and looks through them to see if there were any changes to her poster, but instead she finds a poster for her new crew mate.
After the astronomer places ten eternal poses that lead to different locations in her bag, she stops to see Robin staring at the posters. "What are you looking at?"
"Your wanted poster." Robin says as she looks it over with no changes in her calm facial expression.
Rose nearly drops her bag before she looks at her with eyes as wide as plates. "My what now?!"
Robin shows her the poster with her first name typed below the photo in big black letters.
Rose quickly grabs the poster that holds an accurately drawn photo of herself smirking and looks at the bounty below her name. "How the hell did I get a 17 million bounty?!"
Robin raises an eyebrow at her surprise. "You should expect this since you're a pirate."
"Yea, but I haven't been a pirate for even a week yet!" She keeps looking at the poster of herself as she tries to make sense of the bounty. *Cassim promised that he wouldn't rat me out to the government, did Amir do this?! Wait, if they knew about my research then wouldn't my bounty be closer to Robin's?*
The astronomer looks at her epitaph on the lower left and sees that they gave her the title 'Wind Rider Rose'. She chuckles at the name that she can only get if they didn't know about her research, and starts calming down. She folds up the paper to put it in her pocket before she puts on her backpack. "I must've got this because of my devil fruit. Either way, this is pretty sweet. We should get out of here before the crew shows up."
The archaeologist silently agrees as she looks down at the open drawer and finds a small golden key inside. She goes to open the window, but she stops when she looks outside. "Looks like they're already here."
Rose goes up to the window with wide eyes to see Luffy and Sanji fighting at least sixty marines in the front courtyard with more running out the door by the minute. "How the crap did they find out we were here?!"
Robin ignores the question as she tries to unlock the window, but the key doesn't fit.
Rose takes a few steps back and starts turning her arm into wind. "Stand back, I'll break it open."
Robin moves away from the window, and just when Rose was about to blast her wind onto the glass window, seven marines barge into the room with rifles in hand.
The men aim their guns at them while the one in the middle smirks. "You bitches have nowhere to run. Just give up."
Rose chuckles at the command as she turns her attention back to the window. "I don't think so, what do you think Robin?"
"I agree." Robin uses her abilities to sprout arms onto the wall right next to the tall shelves in order to push the top half of the furniture off the wall to fall onto five of the soldiers.
The soldiers ignore the falling contents as they struggle to keep the heavy shelf from collapsing on top of them. Meanwhile, Rose turns her arm into a strong gust of wind and breaks the thin glass window. Once she makes the hole large enough for a person to go through, she flies out with Robin just when the marines get the shelves off them.
Before they can start shooting at them Rose uses her wind to lift the desk and send it flying at them to knock them down.
Rose chuckles at the attack, but she quickly stops her smile when she sees that marines from the windows of other rooms have aimed their guns at them. "Crap!"
She maneuvers her wind so that she and Robin dodge the incoming bullets as they start descending. Robin uses her arms to put the remaining soldiers at the windows in a clutch to knock them out. Meanwhile, Rose blasts wind out of her arms to slam the marines under them onto the ground.
Sanji looks up with a large smile on his face as his eyes turn into hearts. "Rose-chwan! Robin-chwan! Don't worry; I'm here to rescue you! Are you two hurt?"
"We're fine cook-san, but thank you." Robin says as she puts a few of the men on the ground in a clutch while Rose keeps them flying just a few feet in the air before she joins the brawl.
Luffy punches out a marine then grins at them. "Why didn't you tell us you were here?!"
"Cause we're getting out of here." Rose says as she reverse hook kicks a marine in the face. She starts creating some wind to get the guys flying, when she hears a loud pistol shoot into the sky.
Rose accidentally loses her concentration and lands on her feet, along with Robin, as they look to see that Tanya made the shot by the front gate with West standing beside her.
The pirates look around to see that they're still surrounded by twenty marines, who are looking at their superior officers in horror as they approach them.
West raises an eyebrow at the four pirates, who have been causing this base so much trouble, then glares at the closest marine that's conscious. "These are the intruders?! You gotta be kidding me!"
The soldier flinches at the scolding tone in his voice. "But sir, most of them are devil fruit users!"
Tanya rolls her eyes at the excuse. "Please, if these weaklings were so dangerous, they would've killed you all by the time we got here."
"What was that?" Rose says as she twitches an eyebrow at the insult.
Tanya smirks at her rage as she keeps taunting her. "You heard me. I bet you're the one that can shoot wind out of your arms. Is that all you can do?"
Rose furrows her eyebrows at the question. "I'd like to see you try learning how to use a devil fruit! It's not like I can just snap my fingers-"
She snaps her fingers on her right hand to prove a point and keeps ranting. "And win a fight!"
Tanya chuckles at her anger, as she aims her pistol at her. "Well, I'll make it easier for you by-"
She stops herself when she sees that the snap Rose made created a tiny tornado that's starting to grow.
The pirates look at the startled woman in confusion as she watches the tornado grow a few feet in height so she, West, and the other marines quickly step away in fear.
The pirates, except for Rose, see the tornado that's moving away from them and towards the base in shock.
When Rose sees their surprised expressions, she looks at them with a blank expression on her face as she refuses to look towards the base. "I just snapped up a tornado didn't I?"
The group slowly nods, so he turns around and drops her jaw at the tornado that's now grown ten feet tall.
"Holy shit!" Rose quickly gets herself and the crew flying, before the tornado could be strong enough to pull them in, and starts flying away from the base.
"HOLD IT!" Tanya and West aim their guns at them, but before they can pull the trigger the force for the tornado pulled them into the storm.
As Rose and the others fly over the wall, they look to see Nami, Usopp and Chopper looking up at the tall tornado, that's sending the marines flying and destroying the windows, in shock.
When Nami sees the group, she calls out to Rose. "YOU FREAKING INVADED A BASE AND MADE A TORNADO?!"
"I DIDN'T PLAN ON THE TORNADO! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Rose calls out as she sets Robin, Sanji and Luffy on the ground, but she stays flying as she looks back at the tornado.
She groans in frustration when she sees it not dying down any time soon. "I can't leave it like this! How do I turn it off?!"
"You don't know how to stop it?!" Usopp and Chopper ask in fright.
"That's why I said it was an accident!" Rose says as she stares at the tornado while she tries to come up with a way to stop it.
Luffy tilts his head at the sight. "Why don't you stop it with another tornado?"
"We don't need two tornadoes Luffy!" Sanji says, but Rose widens her eyes at the idea.
"Wait, that's exactly what we need!" The group couldn't believe what they're hearing as they watch her land on the wall, and snap the fingers on her left hand to create a tornado that's rotating in the opposite direction of the first one.
"Are you insane?!" Nami asks as she watches Rose blasts wind out of her hands to help it grow.
"That's debatable!" Rose says as she continues to help her new tornado grow to the same size as the first one while she pushes it towards the base.
The crew widens their eyes at the tornado when they see it collapse with the first one and destroys it while the second fades away. When the marines fall from the cyclone, Rose catches them with a gust before she drops them just a foot above the ground, then she joins the others on the ground, and makes a run for it. "Let's get out of here!"
The others didn't have to be told twice as they make a run for it.
Luffy looks back at the broken windows and small hole in the roof with stars in his eyes. "That was awesome!"
Rose chuckles at his enthusiasm. "You got that right, but this one will need more practice too."
"Just don't practice that on the ship. I'm not sure Merry could take it." Usopp says causing her to nod in agreement.
Chopper looks from the damage to Rose in confusion. "How did making another tornado stop it?"
Robin smiles at his the reindeer before she explains it. "When she snapped the first tornado she made it with her right hand. When she made the second one she used her left one, so it rotated in the opposite direction. When the opposite sides collided at the same size, they cancelled each other out."
Nami blinks at the explanation before she scowls at her and Rose. "What the hell were you two thinking raiding a base all by yourselves?!"
"I was just along for the ride." Robin says without any fear of Nami's scolding tone.
Rose quietly sighs in disappointment of going through all that trouble for nothing. "Sorry, I was trying to get the watch for the clothing shop guy, but it wasn't in the treasure room."
"That's because it was on the commander's belt." Nami says as she shows them the pocket watch she stole from the marine in the restaurant.
Robin grins at the watch. "I'm impressed; with the damage Wind-chan made it should be a while before the marines recover, so we should hurry."
Rose blinks at the nickname that Robin gave her. *Wind-chan? Well, I never told her I was an astronomer, so this works.*
She shrugs off the name while Nami turns to the guys. "You guys get the sails ready. Once we drop off the watch and make it to the ship, we're leaving."
"Yes Nami-swan!" Sanji says as he runs ahead.
"Just don't waste too much time!" Usopp says as he, Luffy and Chopper follow Sanji to the direction of the ship.
The girls didn't need to be told twice as they head back to the clothing shop to exchange the watch for the clothes.
Meanwhile, back at the base West and Tanya were slowly standing up from their fall as they assess the damages. They grew more furious by the second as they find marine doctors rushing to the unconscious marines who are lying down at every place they look, a hole in the edge of the roof, and almost every window shattered.
"I will give those pirates a slow and painful death." West says as he and Tanya turn to leave, but they freeze when they see another marine with high ranking at the gate with two subordinates at his side.
The grayish man, with his thinning dark hair in a ponytail, and a marine overcoat over his purple clothes scowls at the pair as he walks into the courtyard and scans the mess behind his purple sunglasses. "What's the meaning of this mess Commander West? Did you forget about your inspection today?"
West cringes when he remembers that his base's inspection is today. "W-we can explain Inspector Shepherd. You see, there was this pirate crew that invaded the base."
Shepherd widens his eyes at the explanation. "And did you capture them?"
West looks at him nervously as he shifts his eyes to the right. "W-well, not exactly but-"
"You mean to tell me that you couldn't handle one crew?! Your base looks like it was hit by a tornado!"
Tanya awkwardly chuckles at the accurate assessment. "W-well, that's not too far from the truth actually. You see, we were hit by an actual tornado about ten minutes ago."
Shepherd raises an eyebrow at the explanation. "Your commander just told me that you were attacked by pirates, and now you're saying that it was a tornado? Well, which is it?!"
"It was both." West says, which makes the inspector narrow his eyes at them.
The inspector takes a deep breath before he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that your base was not only invaded by pirates, but it was also hit by a tornado that came in just before I arrived?"
Tanya narrows her eyes at the officer as she tries to recover her standing in the argument. "One of the pirates made the tornado! There was nothing we could do to-!"
"So now you're saying that you were too weak to handle this?! I heard enough! I'm reporting this to Headquarters right now! I wouldn't be surprised if you both get demoted for this mess!"
The two marines can only stare at the inspector in despair as he left with his subordinates to report his findings that will not only ruin their careers, but also their reputation.
At the clothing store, the girls don't waste any time in grabbing the clothes they looked at earlier.
Once Rose puts on her new jacket and gloves, she sees the owner holding the pocket watch as if it's the One Piece itself. She grins at the sentimental man before she walks up to him and grabs one of the eternal poses from her bag to place it on the counter. "Here."
The owner picks up the eternal pose that leads to an island called Valor Island and looks at it in confusion. "What's this for?"
"Just in case you want out of this island." Rose says, but he shakes his head as he hands it back to her.
"Thank you, but no. My wife's grave is here and I can't part from it."
Rose softly grins at the explanation before she hands it back to him. "I understand, in that case keep it in case the commander tries to take something from you again. I'm sure he'd want an eternal pose more than a watch."
The owner nods with a smile as he takes the pose from her and bows his head to the girls. "Thank you, all of you. I really appreciate all of this."
Nami grins at the appreciation as she grabs her five shopping bags, holding various kinds of outfits, in her arms. "Don't worry about it. Thanks for the clothes."
She walks out with Robin following her, holding two shopping bags of her own, and Rose holding a pair of bags for her new clothes as well.
Nami thinks back on the eternal pose Rose gave the man and looks back at her in confusion. "You didn't steal the treasure but you stole eternal poses?"
Rose shrugs at the question. "They're more useful than treasure in my book. If you don't want them, I can keep them."
Nami blinks at the offer before she shakes her head. "No, I'll take them off your hands."
Rose grins at the agreement when they reach the ship and climb aboard. Once everyone's on the ship, they sail away from the island without looking back.
When the girls go into the girls' room to put the clothes away, Rose places eight of the eternal poses that she took from the base onto Nami's desk. "I randomly took these, so they might lead to marine bases. If anything, we can always sell them."
Nami blinks at the eternal poses that are labeled with titles, that are hardly able to tell them the difference between a marine base and a regular island. "Don't worry about it, we'll find some use for them."
Nami looks to see Robin unpacking before she points to Vivi's old bed. "You can use this bed."
Robin nods in acknowledgement as she puts her clothes away and heads out the door. "Thank you very much. I'm going to head out."
After Nami watches Robin leave, she quietly sighs before she turns to Rose. "I don't know about you, but one of Sanji's drinks sounds good right now. You want one while I'm up there?"
Rose shakes her head. "I'm good; I'll join you guys up there once I've put my clothes away."
Nami nods as she heads out the door while Rose puts her new clothes away.
Once Rose is alone in the room, she takes her wanted poster out of her pocket, and chuckles at her first bounty as she scans over the paper. She looks over her name again, and can't stop wondering about the fact that her last name is nowhere to be found on the poster. *It makes sense since I only told the crew that my family name's Catone. If the World Government ever does discover my research, then they could try to connect me to the researchers that disappeared that night. If they put one of the researchers' last names on my poster when that happens then...*
She shakes her head of the thought as she decides to not worry about that possibility until it happens. She goes into her bag to put the poster away when she sees the eternal pose that she kept from Nami in her bag.
She lifts the pose up to the edge of her bag to get a closer look at it, and sees that the label on the top piece of the device confirms that this eternal pose will lead her to Marineford. *I hope to god that I'll never have to use this...*
She puts the pose back in her bag and slings it onto her shoulder, before she takes one of her astronomy books. As she leaves the room, she fails to notice the blue eye that's watching her from the wall and vanishes into a few pink flower petals.
Robin stays seated in her lounge chair on the deck as she opens her eyes, and tries to process what she just saw in the girls' room from the eye she planted there. When she first met Rose, she only thought of her as a reckless child with an interesting devil fruit.
However, after watching her in action at the base she sees now that there's more to her than that. When she watched Rose gaze at the eternal poses in the office, she knew she was looking for a specific one, but took more so that it wouldn't look suspicious. While she couldn't see which destination the eternal pose Rose kept leads from where her eye was watching her, she knows now that Rose is hiding some secret motives from the others.
The archaeologist looks to the door to the lower deck to see Rose walking outside. Rose doesn't notice the attention as she sits cross legged on the deck with her back to the mast and starts reading her book.
After a moment of Robin watching her acting as if nothing's out of the ordinary, she gets up and goes to her new room. As she lies down in her bed only one thing clouds her mind: while most of the crew will be keeping an eye on her, she's going to be the one to keep her guard up against the wind girl.
TO BE CONTINUED
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone