Chapter 58: Chapter 58
From every roof jump Luffy makes throughout the city, with Zoro being carried over his shoulder like baggage, the swordsman's mind is made up that if they survive this, he'll kick his captain's ass.
Luffy doesn't notice his friend's annoyance, and is more focused on trying to find their way back to the mansion. That's a lot easier said than done when the storm is getting stronger by the second.
"LUFFY! ZORO! SANJI!" Luffy lands on a store's rooftop, from the sound of Chopper's calls to see him riding a boat that's pulled by a yagara, with a small army of carpenters riding behind him and calling the same names.
Luffy grins from ear to ear at the sight of Chopper, and calls out to him. "HEY CHOPPER!"
The small parade stops from hearing Luffy, and look up with wide eyes to see him jumping off the roof while still carrying Zoro. Chopper and the carpenters try to catch the two pirates onto their boats, but they kept bumping into each other while Luffy and Zoro landed in the water.
"Guys!" Chopper calls out to them before he jumps in to go rescue them.
"REINDEER!" The carpenters yell out to him, but before they can do anything, all three of their heads pop out of the water.
Zoro catches his breath, while carrying the two idiots on each arm.
"Come over here, we'll pull you out!" One of the carpenters shouted as he starts driving his yagara towards them.
With little to no option, he accepts the offer by swimming towards them, and throwing the devil fruit users onto the boat, before he pulls himself aboard. "Thanks."
"We should be the ones thanking you guys for saving Iceburg! Your red haired friend went to the train station. We'll take you there." The driver announces before he turns the boat around with his fellow workers following him through the waterways.
Luffy manages to recover before his doctor then starts to sit up and looks at the driver. "You said Nami went to the train station?"
"Yea, Paulie is escorting her there to try to stop the train."
"That's where Robin is?"
"That's right." Chopper answers when he sits up and looks to his captain. "We learned that Robin sacrificed herself to save us from the marines. Nami's trying to buy some time to stop them from leaving the station."
Luffy clenches his fists at the news, and gets riled up for a fight to save his friend. "Then let's go kick some ass!"
"YEA!" Chopper roars in pride, and goes into heavy point, which causes the boat to tilt from the change in weight.
"Don't turn big here!" Zoro complains before he whacks Chopper on the head for him to go back into brain point.
The boat driver doesn't bother to tell them to settle down, because he can tell that they're not the type to sit still. Instead, he focuses on the waterway ahead of him to get them to the train station as quickly as possible.
Once they make it, they widen their eyes at a big wave, that came from the other side of the train station, hitting the building.
"Oh shit!" The driver shouts when the wave gives them a gentle spray, but the same wouldn't be said for the station's platforms judging from Nami's screams being heard inside.
Luffy, Chopper and Zoro are quick to jump off the boat, and rush inside, just when the wave pulls back, and see Paulie, Nami, and two conductors laying on the floor as though they just ran for their lives. That seems to be more than true, for when the wave cleared from the station, it showed a few pillars being demolished from the water's force.
"You guys ok?!" Chopper asks as he runs up to them, but luckily they were quick to get up and show that they're uninjured.
"We're ok, but the train left before I could stop it." Nami answers before she looks back to see the destroyed pillars. "For just one wave to do this though, will Robin be alright on that train?"
"I wouldn't worry about them, that train is made to handle all sorts of storms out there." Paulie answers before he looks at the damaged station. "For Aqua Laguna to be this strong though, there's no way for us to go after them with our ships."
"Don't you have another train?! We gotta go after them!" Luffy pipes up.
Paulie scowls at the question because unless they can suddenly make another sea train, they don't know what else to do. "I-!"
"Hey, are you Nami?" One of the carpenters asks, which gets everyone to see him approaching Nami with a note in his hand.
Nami knits her eyebrows at the note being given to her, and sees it's been written in Sanji's handwriting. "Where'd you find this?"
"Over there." He points to the corner, close to the entrance where the entire wall above it was graffiti painted with Nami's name, hearts surrounding it, along with an arrow pointing to the floor.
"That's definitely the ero cook's work..." Zoro mutters in annoyance of the stupid sign.
For the person the note was meant for though, she could only give a small smile at the big sign, before she opens the folded paper to find a baby den den mushi in it. She takes the snail in her right hand, and starts reading the letter. With each second her eyes scan the note, her annoyance of it being a love letter grows for this isn't the time for that. It's not until she sees the end of the note that she sees it relating to the mission, and starts reading it out loud. "P.S. I saw Robin boarding the 11:00 train. I decided to go after her by climbing aboard. I'll call you on this den den mushi as soon as I can."
The rest of the crew brightens up at the news with Chopper running up to her. "He's on the train with her?!"
"Yea, we just need to find a way after him!"
"Nagagagaga, so you need a way to Enies Lobby?" The group flinches at the sound of an old woman's voice and look at the entry way to see Kokoro stumbling into the station. She gives both pirates and carpenters alike a large grin, while holding a bottle of liquor in her hand, as she strolls towards them with her granddaughter Chimney, and their cat following behind her.
Luffy looks over to her with a hopeful look on his face. "You can get us there?!"
Kokoro looks to the captain, and loses her grin when she thinks of the type of place that destroyed her old companion. "Even if I did, it won't do you any good. Enies Lobby is known as the Gates of Justice. Once she goes through the island, she'll either head to marine headquarters, or the infamous prison, Impel Down. Both places are equal to a living hell for a pirate. If you go, you'd only suffer the same fate."
Luffy grits his teeth at the warning before he steps up. "All the more reason for us to go! We can't leave our friend to suffer like that!"
Kokoro looks into the captain's eye to see nothing but resolve, and no traces of fear. Her lips curl back into her usual smile before she starts giggling. "Well said Straw Hat. Ok, I'll take you on my sea train."
Paulie widens his eyes at this lady's comment. "Wait a minute, you have a sea train?!"
"I sure do, it's a prototype, but it'll work all the same. Let's go." She starts leading them out.
Nami though stops for a moment to see the mob of carpenters leaving too. "Hold on, we need your help. We need as much food, water and liquor as possible for this trip. I'll get Paulie to call you about our whereabouts."
"Yes ma'am!" The group runs off to get the needed supplies, while Nami grins in satisfaction, as she catches up to the others.
Paulie saw what Nami did, and is a little confused by the request. "Why did you tell my men to get food?"
"Luffy's stomach is a bottomless pit. The more food he eats, the more energy he'll have, and we need him at top strength."
The shipwright doesn't believe the reason for a second, but he doesn't question it further.
As they travel towards Kokoro's hideaway, Luffy looks over to Nami to see if she knows where his queen is. "Does that note say anything about Rose being there?"
Nami looks through the letter again, but doesn't see any word about the wind girl. "I don't see anything about Rose in here, which means that she didn't get caught."
Luffy may be glad about that, but he's still worried about her.
Zoro can see that on his captain's face, and voices his opinion. "She could've easily snuck onto the train without anyone seeing her. She might be backing up Sanji."
The captain can imagine her doing that kind of thing and nods in agreement. "Yea, that sounds like her. I just don't get why she didn't take us with her after she caught us."
Chopper looks up at the boys in confusion. "She caught you?"
"Yea, after those jerks sent us flying out of Ice Pops' place, Rose caught us with her wind. She just dropped us onto a building and left without saying anything."
Nami is surprised by this, but then remembers that Rose is a target too, and speaks up. "I think it's because of what Robin said about another unit going after Rose. She didn't want to drag us into her fight, because she knows that we have Robin to worry about too."
Luffy doesn't like that answer, but he knows that it's something Rose would do to make sure they only focus on Robin. Knowing that going after Robin will also lead them to Rose makes his blood pump all the more. "We gotta hurry then!"
He practically rushes ahead at twice the speed of what he was running, and even passes Kokoro just as they reach the entrance to a brick warehouse.
Nami ignores her captain's rushing, before she looks to Paulie. "Call your guys and tell them to come here."
The shipwright agrees as they make it inside and follow Kokoro down the basement's steps.
Kokoro giggles at the boy's enthusiasm as when she reaches the bottom of the stairs where a small, grey, train that has the face of a shark painted at the front of it, is waiting for them.
Luffy stops at the sight of the awesome train and stares at it with stars in his eyes. "This is so cool!"
Kokoro grins at the captain's eagerness, before she looks at the old train. "You like it? That's the prototype sea train called Rocket Man. This train is fast, but unpredictable which is why it never had any passengers before."
"Awesome!" Luffy keeps praising the train, and barely hearing a word about the train's dangerous nature, while the others begin to catch up to them.
"So, you came after all." Iceburg voices out, when he shows himself from the front of the sea train, while dressed as a shipwright rather than a mayor, and with a toolbox in hand.
While the pirates were confused by what he's doing here, Kokoro knows all about his intentions from knowing his past life as a shipwright. "You knew we were going to be here?"
Iceberg grins back at the conductor as he walks away from the train. "I knew you couldn't stand by from this sort of thing. We really can't help ourselves."
He puts down the toolbox, and looks back at the train he just worked on. "I just finished preparing the ship, and tried to fix some of the quirks. It's still going to be hard to control him, so board at your own risk."
"Thanks Ice Pops!" Luffy exclaims before he starts getting to the train, but he starts to stagger from his loss of energy.
Chopper rushes to his side before going into heavy point, and puts his arm around his waist to keep him from falling. "What happened? Are you ok?"
"I need meat..." Luffy mutters which gets everyone to deadpan at his state.
"Is he trying to say that he used up too much strength?" Zoro asks with Chopper only nodding at the question.
As for Nami, she only sighs at her captain's crazy state before she begins to hear footsteps coming from the entrance. "I figured this would happen, so I got Galley La to bring us as much food and booze as they could carry."
The others widen their eyes at this because they see the members of Galley La bring in bags upon bags of food, booze, and water.
"Bring it here!" Nami calls out as she points to an empty spot for them to drop it off. As soon as they drop the last bag of the supplies, it shows a towing mountain at least 15 feet tall.
Paulie cannot believe the sight of it, and looks to the navigator. "You can't be serious. There's no way Straw Hat can get his strength back just from-!"
"THANKS NAMI!" Luffy calls out which gets everyone to look back to see that Luffy has already eaten half of the mountain's worth of food while Zoro is enjoying the liquor that they provided.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" The carpenters called out, but Nami just giggles at the sight. Knowing that the two members of the monster trio are taking their fill, to get their strength back, she goes inside the train.
She takes a seat, gets her climatact ready while thinking about the other two girls in the crew. Sure, they had their secrets but so does everybody in this crew. No matter how bad their pasts were, it doesn't change the fact that they're both like sisters to her.
As soon as the boys get on, and the train starts moving, she'll be ready to do whatever it takes to save those two from the World Government.
**********************************************************
The storm is relentless to the two pirates sitting on the train, as they try their best not to slip off the roof of the car. Rose looks back towards the city that they left, and sees that it's as small as a marble now. Even if she wanted to turn back, it'd be too late to do so.
Instead, she looks to the chef, to get started on the first plan to help him conserve some energy. "I saw the marines put Usopp and Franky in the car in front of us. I think it's empty. You think you can get in there from here?"
Sanji looks to the train car ahead of them, then back to his crew mate, because he knows she would've flown them to the car if she was going with him. "What are you planning to do?"
Rose gives a slight grin, and points to the car right below them. "This whole cart is full of marines. I'll distract them with a little roughhousing while you free Usopp."
The chef would normally allow her to do as she pleases but seeing the burns on her arms, along with the charred ends of her sleeves around her elbows, starts to worry him about her condition. "I think I should go; I haven't had a fight all day."
Instead of giving him a straight answer, she points out the several carts ahead of the luggage cart. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance. The several carts ahead will have more people to deal with. I know for a fact that the guys below us are the weakest of the bunch, so I can take them with ease. But, if anyone in the cart ahead of us goes into the luggage cart while you're freeing Usopp, I'll need you to protect him. Can you do that for me?"
Sanji tenses up at her reasoning, because even if he wants to argue, he can't refuse the request of a maiden. He starts to turn around, and starts walking towards the cart ahead of them. "Alright, if you need any help, then yell out for me."
Rose smiles in satisfaction, of saving him a little bit of energy, before she starts seeping herself into the train car through the cracks below her. "I should be fine. I'll see you in a few minutes."
The wind girl continues to seep through the cracks until she's inside the cart.
The dozens of men inside stop what they're doing, and flinch away from the floating girl just as she lands in the middle of the room. She looks around the fancy place, with an innocent looking smile, and admiring the surroundings. "Wow, so this is the Puffing Tom. Tom truly was a master of his craft."
One of the World Government officials snap out of his stupor from her comments, and aims his gun at her. "Who the hell are you?! No ordinary civilian can sneak on here!"
Rose looks to the interviewer for a moment, as though she just noticed him and gives him a sly grin. "Right you are, name's Catone Rose. I'm here to see how long it could take for me to kick all of your sorry asses."
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" A bunch of the officials yell out when they pull out more of their guns at her.
The one who first questioned her starts yelling out. "Someone call Lucci about this rude bitch!"
"Don't do it." A white haired man, with a beard to match, who's so tall that he has to bend over with his back connected to the ceiling, says to his men as he looks down at the girl. "There's no need to contact CP 9 when you have me to protect you."
"Yes Jerry-san!" The men are quick to obey the CP 6 agent's orders by lowering their weapons, and standing back.
Rose doesn't act phased at all by the large man when she looks up at him with a childlike smile. "Ah, you're that boxing master from karate island! I'm so glad I get to be fighting you!"
Jerry chuckles at the girl's relaxed attitude before he gets his boxing gloves on, and pounds his fists together. "Seems like my reputation precedes me. In that case, I should tell you that I don't go easy on girls."
"I wouldn't have it any other way!" She flies up to give him an uppercut to the nose, before she sways to the left to avoid a punch, and returns it with a right hook to the face. She could use her powers to beat him quickly, but she knows that she has tougher opponents to fight, so she keeps her abilities at the bare minimum by making it so she can't get hurt by Jerry's impressive hits.
The officials slowly lower their weapons at the sight of the two fighters duking it out, but they can clearly see that Jerry is barely laying a finger on her due to his movements being restricted by being in such a small space. And the few hits that he's landing on her, are only being phased through due to her logia abilities.
One of the men in the back starts to grab onto a den den mushi, to call CP 9, but Rose saw it at the corner of her eye. She decides to stop playing around from the official's insubordination by using her wind to throw them all up to the ceiling to knock them out, then sets them down on the floor. Rose takes the attempted call as a sign that she's taking too much time, so she finishes the fight quickly by turning her right into a string gust, to whip it around into a powerful roundhouse kick to Jerry's head that slams it to the wall!
The blow was powerful enough to knock the martial artist out, which was confirmed when his head slid down until it hits the top of one of the train's chairs.
Rose lightly pants from exhaustion, then looks over at her opponent, and confirms that he's still breathing by the rise and fall of his chest. She feels relieved that he's still alive, then lands her feet on the floor to stop using her powers, and softly looks to the large man. "Sorry, I didn't want to win like that..."
She starts turning to the door to the next cart, but stops when she sees a small book peeking out from Jerry's pocket. She grabs the book, notices a pen clipped to the cover and scrolls the pages to see that it's a journal of his journey.
With a new idea, she flips through the pages until she finds a blank one, neatly rips it out of the book, then begins writing on it. Once done, she returns the book to its owner, folds up the paper, then walks towards the next cart. Just before she leaves though, she sees the den den mushi, which was almost used to call CP 9, and takes it with her for good measure.
As soon as she reaches the next cart, she's greeted with Usopp being freed, while Franky is still trapped in his bag, so he couldn't stop Sanji from kicking his face. "That was for beating up Usopp!"
Franky groans from the hit, while calling out to him. "I ALREADY APOLOGIZED!"
"YEA, HE SAVED ME AND MERRY FROM THE STORM! HE'S OK!" Usopp yells as he pulls Sanji away, so he won't attack him anymore.
Sanji calms down a bit from that, but still looks down at the cyborg in anger. "That doesn't change the fact that he stole and hurt you. Let's just leave him here and-!"
He cuts himself off when Rose approaches Franky's bag that he's tied into and starts undoing the knots. "What are you doing, Rose-chan?!"
The wind girl keeps her eyes on the knots of the bag, while she answers him. "Each cart ahead of us has either a group of marines, or an agent, stronger than the last. If we're going to survive, and get Robin out of here, we need all the muscle that we can get. Besides, if the World Government caught him, that means he's their enemy too, so he has no reason not to side with us."
She finishes untying the bag, and steps back to let Franky stand up.
Once he moves his joints around, he grins down at the freckled girl who freed him. "Glad to see SOMEONE in this crew has common sense. Sure, I wouldn't mind working with you Freckles."
Rose grins at the agreement, and cool nickname, before she gives Sanji both the snail and the folded piece of paper. "Here, you should be able to call Nami with this. As for the paper, please don't open it unless we're all in the court house of Enies Lobby."
While the chef may be glad about the den den mushi, he's confused about the paper. "What-?!"
He's cut off when they start to hear a rough knocking to the door ahead of them, and shouting out to them. "Oi, what's going on in there?!"
Rose doesn't waste time for explanations when she starts to fly them out, but Usopp calls out to her. "Wait, get that bag too!"
Rose looks back to see a small, closed, sack on the side, and doesn't question it when she uses her wind to take it with them to leave the cart, go through the cart she just fought in, and exit through the back door to get them onto the wet roof.
After Rose sets them down, she sits cross legged next to them, with the bag on her lap. "Why'd you want me to take this Usopp?"
"Zira's in there!"
"She's what?!" She quickly opens the bag, to see the passed out bird having a large bump on her head from where Kaku hit her. "What the hell happened?!"
"The bird tried to save me from CP 9, but she got her ass beat, and was captured with us." Franky answers as he takes a seat himself.
Rose sees the falcon's body stirring, which confirms that she's not dead, and notices the rock in the bottom of the bag. With one touch, she can tell that this is sea stone, so she packs it into the outer pocket of her bag, that's holding her dials, to use later.
While she gets the bird out, and checking her injuries, Sanji decides that now would be a better time than any to call Nami about their situation.
He puts the piece of paper that Rose gave him into his pocket, with his question waiting for later, and uses his snail to dial the one he left especially for his beloved Nami. With just two rings on the den den mushi, his snail begins to speak in Nami's voice. "Sanji, is that you?"
The love cook begins to swoon at the sound of her lovely voice, and starts to have hearts in his eyes. "Nami-swan! I'm so glad you're ok!"
"Same here, are you really on the train?"
Sanji's eyes begin to return to normal when he remembers their situation. "That's right, I have Rose-chan, Usopp, and the panty wearing thug with me."
"OI!" Franky yelled out in annoyance, and would've hit him, but Usopp was starting to fall, so he was busy grabbing the strap of his overalls to keep him from falling.
Sanji ignores him, while listening to Nami's explanation about why Robin was doing all this. While Rose kept a neutral face throughout her explanation on Robin, she grew shocked when Nami spoke up about her also being a target, because now she knows that Luffy knows too.
As for Usopp and Franky, they've been speechless throughout the whole story.
At the end of the tale, Sanji's the first one to break the silence. "I see, I figured it was something like this. Where's Luffy?"
"He and Zoro are breaking some of the giant waves ahead of us to keep us from capsizing, they should-!"
She stops talking, when she and the others hear a window opening in the background then she starts speaking to people on her side. "There you are Luffy, Sanji's here."
"Sanji?!" Luffy's voice takes over, when the snail's face starts to imitate their captain's. "Sanji, what's going on over there?! Where's Robin and Rose?!"
Rose tenses up from him calling her name, because of how she left him on the rooftop. She honestly doesn't know what to say to him, but before she could do anything, Sanji scoots backwards, so that he's next to the wind girl before he answers. "Robin-chan's still in the World's Government's hands, but Rose-chan is right here."
Sanji moves the snail towards her, and seeing as how she's been put on the spot, she just tells him their plan. "Hey Luffy, I'm sorry about what happened, but-!"
"You don't need to say it. You and Sanji are going after Robin, right? Even though they're after you too?"
Rose can feel her mouth dry from the sternness in his voice, but at the same time, she won't back down after coming this far. "That's right captain. Both Sanji and I are going to save Robin from those bastards."
Instead of the angry face that she was expecting, she sees the snail starting to smirk just as her captain is. "Alright, you guys give them hell."
Before either Rose or Sanji could respond, Zoro's voice begins to speak up in the background. "What are you saying Luffy?! They should be waiting for us!"
"Would you just wait, if we told them to?" Luffy asks, which earns the small groan from the swordsman.
To ease the tension, Rose begins to smirk. "What's this, you're worried about us hedge head?! What a shock!"
Sanji chuckles at the insult before he joins in. "I agree, Rose-chan. This is a real surprise. Looks like even moss heads have hearts."
"I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT EITHER OF YOU ASSHOLES!"
Rose lightly giggles from his outburst while Sanji takes back the call. "Anyway, we gotta go. We'll see you after we get Robin-chan."
He hangs up the call, just before Franky's cries fill the air.
Tears flow out of the cyborg's eyes like a river as he continues to wail from knowing Robin's truth. "WAAH! I DIDN'T KNOW ROBIN SACRIFICED HERSELF! THAT'S SO SAD!"
"WILL YOU QUIT CRYING?!" Sanji yells out, but Franky just denies that he's crying at all.
While Rose awkwardly pats Franky's shoulder to try to comfort him, Usopp keeps a solemn look on his face as he processes everything. "Wow, so you guys had a lot to go through too..."
Sanji's face softens when he looks at the former pirate. "Yea, but Robin-chan didn't know that you left. Even so, she was willing to sacrifice herself for all of us."
The chef then looks over to the wind girl to try to get some answers on her case. "But I don't understand Rose-chan. Even with Robin-chan's sacrifice, why weren't you included in the deal?"
Rose stops trying to comfort Franky from that question, and can see that all three guys are having that same kind of thought. Before she can say anything though, the bird in her lap begins to groan as she slowly wakes up.
Zira shakes her head, to try to regain her senses before she opens her eyes to her new surroundings. "What the hell is going on?"
"A talking bird?" Sanji asks in curiosity, but he isn't all that shocked thanks to being around Chopper so much.
"Yea, her name's Zira, I met her yesterday." Rose answers him before she looks down at the confused bird. "Long story short, you were taken by CP 9, but we rescued you. You ok?"
Zira widens her eyes at the story, when she remembers that if Rose knew about the future, then she must've known about CP 9 coming to Franky's house. That fact pissed the bird off to the point off she flies above Rose and goes to peck at her head, but her beak goes through her airy body while she rants. "What do you fucking think?! If you knew the future, then you should've warned me about CP 9 too! What the crap was that about?!"
"Wait, Rose knows the future?!" Usopp calls out which gets Zira to stop attacking her to see that Usopp, Franky, and Sanji are all surprised by her outburst.
When she looks at the wind girl's stunned reaction, and starts to feel a frigid cold wind flowing from her, she realizes that the boys didn't know the truth. She's quick to land on the roof, and tries to figure out a way to fix this. "That's not what I meant, what I mean is, umm-!"
She stops talking when she feels a gentle hand on her head, then looks up to see the girl she just tried to attack, giving her a small grin. "It's alright, I might as well let it out now."
The bird feels even more guilty by what she said, while the wind girl brings her attention to the guys. With a short breath, she steels her nerves for what's to come. "I do know the future, because I read about it back in my world. I then used my research to travel to this one, and that's why the World Government left me out of Robin's deal."
While Usopp and Sanji were shell shocked by all of this, Franky was just confused. "You're telling me you're some kind of alien, that knows the future?"
Rose chuckles at the question, before she starts digging in her bag for something that she collected at the last minute. "More or less. And as a way to prove it, I have something that you're gonna need."
The cyborg grunts in confusion until he sees her pull three bottles of cola out of her bag.
Usopp and Sanji grow confused by the gift, but more so when they see Franky smiling at the soda. That confusion immediately turns to shock when he opens his stomach fridge to reveal three bottles with only one being half full. "SUPER, thanks Freckles! I was running low on power!"
"YOUR STOMACH IS A FRIDGE?!" Usopp, Zira, and Sanji yell out with Franky looking back at them like they're the ones being weird.
"Yea, I'm a cyborg. If I don't have cola in my fridge, I'm a lot weaker, so Freckles' gift really helps." He's quick to take the gift, and replaces the bottles in his stomach fridge.
While the others are still shocked, Rose's face is as bright as a child on Christmas morning from seeing Franky's fridge in person. "That's one of the coolest things ever!"
Franky chuckles at the kid's enthusiasm as he closes the fridge back up to reveal his abs. "What's cool is you knowing the future. You know, like, exactly what happens here?"
"Yes and no. I read about some of the people here, but what happens with these fights is up to us."
The cyborg grins at the kid's answer, because he likes that it's not a guarantee. "Alright, then let's do this."
Rose happily grins at how easygoing he is about her secret, but that happiness is quick to die when she sees Usopp and Sanji still being uneasy.
What she doesn't know is that they aren't upset about her origins, but at themselves. They were the ones who freaked out about her research in Alabasta. The ones who told her how uneasy they were about other world people coming around.
And in turn, they made their friend feel like she had to hide who she is from them...
Before either of them can say anything, the wind girl tries her best to give them a smile to calm the situation. "I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but can we hold it off until we get Robin? She's a lot more important right now."
The chef can only nod at this, but the sniper begins to step back. "I can't..."
Rose stays quiet about the decision, but Zira and the boys are more than annoyed by this.
"What are you talking about, Usopp?" Sanji asks him, with the sniper looking back at them.
He refuses to look back, because along with feeling like shit for how he acted around Rose, the memories of him lashing out at Luffy last night makes it hard for him to face any of them. "After everything I said, there's no way I can see everyone again. I wouldn't be much help anyway. You're on your own."
When he begins to walk towards the back of the train, Zira starts flying after him in anger. "Get back here!"
"Zira, just let him go." Rose calls out, but the bird ignores her to go inside the back car where Usopp disappeared to.
"Let's just go." Franky comments with the other two agreeing.
Just as they're about to try getting back inside, a marine officer starts climbing up, and widens his eyes at the criminals. "Oh crap!"
He grabs his gun to get ready to shoot, but before they could react a pellet is shot at the marine's hand to get him to lose his grip and throw him overboard.
"What the hell?!" Sanji asks when the three of them see the silhouette of someone on the roof of the final car.
"No need to fear, I am your ally. Your friend Usopp told me everything." The mysterious man spoke up as he starts walking towards them.
While Sanji and Franky are confused about what's going on, Rose's happiness can be seen from a mile away from the sight. And that sight being of a man holding a slingshot as big as he is, while wearing a mask that hides everything on his face, but his long nose, as well as a red cape over his overalls.
What surprises her though is that a falcon, that has a mini mask, with the same half sun fashion as her companion, covering her eyes, is flying right beside him.
The stranger ignores the weird looks as he keeps speaking. "My name is Sniper King, and I'm here to help you rescue your friend with my trusted partner Shriek!"
"A pleasure." Shriek briefly greets them before she takes a seat on Sniper King's soldier while the hero crosses his arms over his chest in pride.
Sanji and Franky still have no idea what to say to this weirdness, but Rose is quick to break the silence. "So cool, I'm Rose! It's great to meet you both!"
Shriek giggles at Rose's excitement while Sniper King smiles behind the mask. "The pleasure's all mine."
Franky sweat drops at the weird conversation before he turns to Sanji. "She does know it's Long Nose, and Loud Mouth right?"
"Pretty sure. Better to not break Usopp's confidence now." Sanji turns to the kids and calls out to them. "Oi, we still need a plan."
Rose, Sniper King, and Shriek stop their conversation and head over to the others to talk about a strategy.
Shriek looks over at the train carts ahead to see that there are five remaining cars ahead of them. "Alright, with five cars left, we still have a good number of marines to fight."
Franky grunts at the plan as he looks ahead. "Can't we just run to the front from up here?"
"Not a good idea. The marines could find us easily like that last guy did, then call CP 9 and CP 8 up here. With both them, and all the soldiers in the rest of the cars, it'd lead to a long battle." Rose answers while trying to remember the details of how they got rid of the small fry from what she read, but her memory is a little fuzzy.
Sanji hums in thought for a moment before he starts snickering. "I have the perfect idea for this."
The group listens intently and were all in agreement on how to take care of the small fry. Once Sanji finishes explaining his plan, they're quick to go into action by heading to the last car, jumping down to the back door, and knocking on the door.
Instead of waiting for someone to answer, Franky opens the door, which shows a group of confused marines, who were investigating what happened to the guys Rose had beaten up, looking at them while the group casually smiles and speaks simultaneously. "Good evening!"
Franky quickly slams the door shut before shouts of anger come from the other side from the marines figuring out that they did it.
Before any of the soldiers can open the door, Sniper King is quick to seal the doors with some plywood and nails. The marines keep trying to knock down the door, but while they do so, the pirates rush back up to the roof of the car, and rush down the train until they reach the fifth car.
Franky raises his fist up, and throws it down, with his robotic arm managing to stretch to the metal chain holding the cars together. With the power of his strong right, he was easily able to break the link between the last two cars, and the rest of the train.
Sanji sighs in relief that his plan worked as he jumps down from the roof and onto the doorway next to Franky. "That should lower a good amount of their numbers."
As Sniper King hears the loud curses of the marines that are falling behind, he looks to the girl who's supposed to know the future. "Usopp said that you know the future, right? Will the Straw Hat Pirates be alright? They're on the same track as us."
Rose looks over to one of her favorite heroes, and nods to him with a grin. "Yea, don't worry. The crew makes it through them easily."
He slowly nods, and wants to say more to her, but before he could, they hear shouts down below them. They jump down to where Sanji and Franky are to see that more agents are in the car, and are aiming their guns at them.
"There's still some soldiers left." Sanji says when he starts stepping in, but Screecher flies onto his head to stop him.
"I'll take this one." The bird tells him before her eyes begin to glow blue, and she creates a bubble that covers the inside of the car, that stops just in front of the group.
Despite not being able to hear anything outside of the bubble, everyone can tell something is happening when the officials are writhing in agony, with them trying to cover their ears. Sanji, Franky and Sniper King are all shocked by the sight, where half of the men are passing out.
One agent struggles to stay up, and goes to aim his gun at the bird. Before the shot can be fired though, Sniper King protects his partner by using his slingshot to shoot a metal pellet at the guy's head to knock him out.
He does the same thing to every remaining agent standing to knock them out, until not a single agent remained standing. After that, Shriek cancels out her power, and starts falling off of Sanji's head.
Sniper King is quick to catch her, and sees her panting. "My trusted partner, are you alright?!"
The bird slowly nods, as she looks up at him. "I'll be ok. I just overused my power."
"Well, it was well worth it, you almost took out the whole cart." Sanji answers as he fixed his hair, while walking in to see that they're all completely knocked out from the sound.
The rest follows in, with Rose creating a small gust of wind for Shriek to rest on.
Franky whistles at the damage and looks back at the bird. "I knew you were tough when facing CP 9, but I didn't know you could do this, loud mouth."
"DON'T CALL ME LOUD MOUTH, ROBOT!"
"I'M A CYBORG!" Franky yells back at her with the two of them getting into a glaring match.
Rose stifles a giggle from the interaction as she gets closer to the next door. "Let's just get in the next car."
The others agree to this, and move on. Once in the next car though, they didn't know what to expect but definitely not what they're seeing. That being a short, stocky, man roller skating around the kitchen, including the ceiling, with a dining cart, and laughing in glee.
This weird chef acts as though they are welcomed guests instead of intruders by stopping right in front of them with the dining cart. "Sasasasa, welcome, welcome, I'm the mad man Wanze, and I'll be your chef for this evening! You must be hungry, I'll make you some ramen!"
"We don't have time for..." Sanji trails off when he sees the chef grab a bag full of flour.
The strange chef then starts putting handfuls of the ingredient into his mouth, and starts chewing the flour to knead the dough.
Every last one of the intruders grow completely sick by the sight when the white haired man starts pouring freshly made ramen noodles out of his nose and into a big white bowl. "Looks perfect, I hope you enjoy."
"WE'RE NOT EATING THAT!" Every one of the intruders yells out at him.
Wanze doesn't act phased at all by the outburst when Sanji starts moving ahead. "We're not eating your snot noodles. We're in a hurry so we're leaving."
"Who said I would let you?" Wanze answers when he blocks Sanji's path. "If you want to leave, then you're gonna have to get through me and my ramen kenpo!"
Sanji narrows his eyes at the wannabe chef and starts stepping up. "You guys go on ahead, I'll take care of him."
"I just told you, you can't!" He devours another type of flour into his mouth, and this time shoots hardened ramen noodles as quick as an arrow.
However, Rose made a wind barrier around the group, except for Sanji, to stop the noodles and let them fall to the floor.
Sanji is quick to stop Wanze by dodging the blows, and then kicking him in the face to send him flying.
Wanze manages to catch himself from falling on his butt, but it was too late. As soon as he looks ahead, he can only see the man who kicked him in the room, because the others left from the same door they came into. "They got away? No matter, they'll die anyway when they face Nero in the next car. He loves to kill."
Sanji clicks his tongue at that, before he starts lighting a cigarette for himself. "Those three will be fine. As for you, I'll show you how a real chef acts." Sanji asks, but the taunt goes completely over Wanze's head, because he's looking around to try to find who he's talking to.
"I'M TALKING TO YOU, JACKASS!" Sanji yells in anger before he starts the fight with Wanze by throwing another kick.
As the two cooks battle it out, Franky's group starts climbing onto the roof. Mid-climb though, Sniper King comes up with another plan, and tells the others. "I'm gonna try to get to Robin from the side."
Franky and Rose look back to see Sniper King grabbing suction cups on his hands and feet to scale the side of the train, and grin at the plan.
Shriek flies off the gust she's been resting on, and goes with Sniper King. "I'll go with him to make sure nothing happens."
"Good luck, Loud Mouth." Franky says which earns a glare from Shriek, but she decides to save her energy for anyone going to attack Sniper King, and flies beside him while he's scaling the train.
As for Rose and Franky, they make it to the roof to find not only Nero, but also Andreos and Rufus waiting for them on the roof of the next car.
Rufus smirks at the wind girl, before he looks over to his faithful comrade. "Looks like you were right Andreos, she came after all."
Rose narrows her eyes at the two men, before they get onto the same roof that they're standing on. Before she does anything, she looks to Franky and points to the two men who have been pursuing her since she arrived at Water Seven. "Mind if I take those two?"
"No problem Freckles, I'll take on the rat man."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RAT MAN?! I'M THE SEA WEASEL OF CP 9!" Nero yells before he charges at him.
Rose flies up to avoid the attack while Franky charges back at him to start his battle.
Rufus and Andreos follow her up to the sky, with Andreos swinging his sword at her, but she lands back on the roof of the kitchen car to avoid the hit.
The two CP 8 agents land with her, one agent on each side, so she couldn't get away.
Rose though has no intention of running, and shows it by getting in a stance. "Let's do this."
Both sides come at her at the same time, by instant shaving at her side, with Rufus trying to stab her with his finger pistol, and Andreos throwing a downwards swing of his sword.
Rose is quick to block the sword with the impact dial that's still strapped to her right hand, and jumps back to avoid Rufus' attack.
She creates small pellets of air on each of her fingertips to shoot at them. The men are quick to dodge, by jumping in opposite directions, but they look back to see that they came together into two rasengan sized orbs and turned to hit their torsos.
The two men are quick to catch themselves mid-air, through sky walking, before Rufus could crash into Franky's fight and Andreos could fly too far from the train.
The time that they were flying was just what Rose needed for her to turn both her arms into twisters, bring them down towards the water to collect water to fill half the tornadoes, and turn them into a combination of air and water.
She whips the two twisters at her enemies, but they sky walk upwards to avoid the blow. They keep dodging Rose's attack while Rufus creates a clay orb on each hand, turns them black with haki, and throws them at the twisters.
The bombs managed to blow up her twisters, and got her sliding towards the edge of the train.
Andreos is at the ready though by instant shaving towards her, and striking her side with the blunt side of his sword.
She clenches her teeth at the painful hit, as she floats back, turns her left arm into a powerful gust of hot air, and blasts it at him.
He sky walks away from the blast while Rufus takes the chance to throw another bomb at her, but she uses her wind to catch the bomb. Memories of what she did to Lareos come flooding back, so instead of throwing it back at the agents like planned, she throws it to the ocean just before it blows up.
Rufus notices the rise in anxiety that she had when catching the bomb, and starts to smirk at her. "So, even a monster like you can feel guilt for cold blooded murder."
Rose grits her teeth at the careless comment, and only answers him with a wind cannon ball that's shot at him with both hands.
The Kimblee copy only chuckles at the answer as he easily dodges the cannonball, and appears right in front of her. He keeps the disgusting smirk on his face as he pulls out Nishiki's old kunai that he had in storage, infuses them with haki, and starts trying to slash her.
She uses her impact dial as a shield, and uses her wind to try to blast him away, but she easily dodges her wind blows. Andreos joins in with his sword with him landing a few strikes, but Rose would step away to hit him with her wind blasts from time to time to push him back.
Rufus keeps using his observation haki to the best of his abilities to try to foresee her movements, as he dodges, throws his attacks, and keeps on speaking. "Just as I thought. I do admit, it was quicker than expected, but I knew it was just a matter of time for you to start showing everyone the kind of demon you are."
"Shut up!" Rose answers by turning her left arm into wind, blasts it into a random direction, just as she did when she fought Eneru, with Rufus not being able to foresee it until it hits his side and gets him to crash into Andreos, who was about to get back in for the third time.
Rose starts panting from the exhaustion of fighting them, along with receiving a few blunt hits of Andreos' sword, and Rufus' kunai. Even so, her eyes only show her fierce resolve to stay standing. "I know I screwed up. But one accidental kill doesn't make me a monster."
Rufus grows amused by her statement, as he starts standing up. "Of course, but it doesn't make you innocent either. And yet, you're still trying to avoid killing. It's pointless now. Even if you keep yourself from killing a hundred people, that one life will still hang over your head."
"I fucking know that!" Rose answers as her arms start turning into air. "I know I can't erase what I did, and I won't be promising that it won't happen again, because it's utter bullshit. Not when the World Government keeps sending dangerous people after me and my friends."
She blasts the air out at both Andreos and Rufus, before they both sky walk to different directions to avoid the blow.
Andreos is the first to go in, with anger in his eyes from what she said, then he goes to swing his sword faster than before, with Rose barely able to block with her dial, before being sent flying back. "You can't act like some tragic hero! Not with my friends' blood staining your filthy hands!"
Rose's guilt wells up from his words, but doesn't back down. Instead, she starts using her wind to create a wind shuriken in each of her hands. "The only thing I am, is a pirate who'd rather not kill you to survive this."
Rufus starts to snicker before he creates more bombs in his hands. "If that's the case, then let's see how far you're willing to go!"
He throws the bombs, with the wind girl answering the call by dodging, and going on the offense by throwing her shuriken for them to dodge, and continue their battle of will.
**************************************
In the first car of the Puffing Tom, Robin sits by herself in the empty train car with dread of her time as a Straw Hat coming to an end. She has no regret in leaving them, if it means to protect the crew from suffering from a Buster Call.
The only thing that she feels guilty about is the way she acted about Rose. Even if the astronomer stays free of CP 8's clutches, she will have a hard time with the crew now because of what she said.
Still, it's better for the wind girl this way. If the crew accepts her, she can happily live for the both of them. If they don't, then she can use her research to get out of this world, and go to one that won't prosecute her for her knowledge.
At least that's what Robin wishes for her. As long as Wind-chan gives up on saving her, then she can at least have a future...
Robin quietly sighs at these thoughts as she slumps back into her seat, but flinches when she hears a tap from her window. She looks with wide eyes to see not only her former crewmate in disguise, but also a bird traveling with him outside. "Long Nose?"
She's quick to open the window, and let them inside. "What are you doing here?"
Sniper King ignores her question to sit across from her, with his partner sitting on the back of his seat.
Once comfortable, he introduces himself to her. "Hello there young lady, my name is Sniper King, and this is my partner Shriek. We are here to rescue you as well as your friends Rose, Sanji, and a thug named Franky."
He grabs an extra pair of suction cups, which look like little octopi, for her to use. "I saw the people in the car behind us, but I have a plan for us to sneak past them. If you attach these Octopucts to your hands and feet, we can scale the train past them with ease."
Robin scowls at the escape plan, and acts just as cold as she's been since she joined CP 9. "I fucking told this crew that I'm not one of them anymore. None of you should be here! Get out of here before I make you get out!"
Shriek couldn't believe what she's been hearing and isn't afraid to speak her mind to her. "What the hell is your problem, you bitch?! It's one thing to hurt Rose because of her secret, but to refuse our help after coming so far for you?! You should be thanking us right now!"
"Shut up, you little parrot! You don't know the situation!"
"But we do Robin! Iceberg told us everything! There's no need for you to act like our enemy anymore!" Sniper King speaks up to try to convince her to leave.
Robin is slightly taken aback by this, but at the same time her resolve remains all the more stronger to keep them from suffering. "It doesn't matter. I can't go back to you guys..."
Shriek growls at her stubbornness, and starts flying towards her, but Sniper King holds her back. "Let me at her! She has no reason to deny our help!"
"I have every reason to deny it! I won't go back no matter what!" Robin answers back at her.
Sniper King is shocked by this, and starts speaking up now. "What are you talking about?! Do you honestly think the Straw Hats are just going to let you die for them like this?! They're going to do everything they can to rescue you!"
"I never asked for you all to save me! If you all come after me, you'll surely die, so get everyone out of here before-!"
She stops speaking when two loud crashes are heard from the car behind them.
Those crashes being both Franky punching Nero through the roof of the car, and landing at the center of the car, and Sanji kicking Wanze into the room after he had beaten the crap out of him.
"They managed to make it here?" Blueno asks with the rest of the agents looking at their beaten comrades.
Lucci is the only one who answers when he looks at Nero, who's all bloody and bruised from losing to Franky. "Well, I didn't expect much of these guys to begin with.
Sanji doesn't notice the other agents, but looks to Franky, who's standing over his beaten opponent. "Hey, where's Rose-chan?"
Franky cracks his knuckles to get ready for another fight without looking at the chef. "She's fighting some agents up on the roof. You beat the ramen guy?"
"Yea just now."
While Wanze has no chance of getting back up for another fight, Nero starts staggering up, and feeling nothing but rage from losing his battle. "Damn that cyborg bastard!"
Lucci looks over the weak man, then to Kaku. "Who is this supposed to be?"
"This is Nero, I heard he's the newest member of CP 9. However, he only knows four of the six styles."
Nero could barely care about Kaku's words, when he finally manages to stand up, but only with the support of the seat. "Bastard, I'll kill you!"
Lucci keeps on a neutral face to the recruit when he speaks out to him. "New guy, you're supposed to take him alive."
The new agent looks to his leader and starts losing some of his anger, because it's being replaced by fear of what Lucci is going to do to him. "I-I know that! I-I was just going to put him close to death to-!"
"Save it, you have three seconds to run for your life."
"WHAT?!"
"Three..." With Lucci beginning to count down Nero uses the last of his energy to sky walk out of the train to run away.
"Two..."
While Nero is continuing to run, Rose notices the agent from the corner of her eye, and remembers what's going to happen.
Rufus and Andreos grow wary when Rose angrily turns her whole body into air, but instead of attacking them, she starts flying towards the fleeing agent.
"One..." In a flash, Lucci makes it right in front of Nero, but instead of stabbing him with a finger pistol, his finger goes through Rose's shoulder, when she materializes in between the two men with her arm, that's holding the impact dial still a gust of wind except for the shell.
"YOU DAMN BASTARD!" The wind girl pushes the dial onto Lucci's chest, on a downwards angle, and activates it to send the leopard man flying back towards the train.
Lucci crashes through the roof and onto the floor, right next to Wanze, before he groans from the painful hit. Lucky for him, he was able to use iron body in time to absorb part of the blow, but not all of it.
Rose, though, is starting to grow exhausted from using her powers so much, and turns her arm back to normal.
Nero looks back at the wind girl in shock of her actually saving him, but can barely say anything with Rufus and Andreos sky walking towards them.
Rose doesn't show them any signs of her exhaustion by using her wind to throw the sea weasel at the two agents. "Take him, at least you people don't kill your own!"
The two men catch him, and look at the beaten man, before she descends towards the second car.
Kalifa and Blueno go to help their leader up, but Lucci starts getting up on his own.
The leopard man looks up at the flying girl, and starts glaring up at her. "I thought you knew everything, demon. You just saved an enemy."
She reflects the man's glare, as she gets inside, and is fully ready to fight him. "I don't care if he's from CP 9 or a fucking celestial dragon! You pissed me off by trying to kill your comrade, you piece of fucking scum! Actually no, scum is too good for you!"
He narrows his eyes at the girl, but before he can do anything, the door to the first car opens to Robin coming in, with Sniper King latched to her arm to try to pull her back, and Shriek trying to pull her back by the collar of her dress.
Robin ignores both of their attempts to bring her back to the first room, when she sees the rest of the group who ran the fool's errand.
Sanji brightens up at the sight of her, and starts talking casually to her. "Robin-chan, I'm so glad you're ok! They didn't do anything to you right?! Just stay there, and we can-!"
Sanji stops when Robin sprouts arms off her back to grab onto Shriek and Sniper King, and throws them to the floor in front of her.
"Long nose! Loud Mouth!" Franky calls out, but it looks like the throw didn't hurt him too bad.
"What are you doing Robin?!" Sanji asks, but she doesn't give him a decent answer.
Instead, she gives him a cold look, as though they're complete strangers. "It looks like words are meaningless to you people. Force is the only way to make you understand that I don't want you here."
Lucci starts to smirk at her statement, and goes to attack.
Sniper King has other ideas though, when he calls out to his companions. "GET TO THE THIRD CAR AND CUT THE LINK!"
Franky is shocked by this before he calls out to him. "WHAT FOR?!"
"TRUST ME!" Sniper King yells before he grabs a smoke bomb from his bag and throws it down to create a smokescreen in the car.
Rose flies out through the whole in the car, to see Rufus sky walking after them, with Andreos taking Nero to the first car, so she uses her wind to throw him into the room of the second car. Once he's gone, she goes to the third car from the roof to join the guys.
"Don't worry, he's got it." Rose answers when Sniper King runs into the car, with Robin being carried under his arm, and Shriek following them.
"Put me down!" Robin protests, but Sniper King doesn't do so until Franky uses his iron left to break the link of the car to get away.
Once their car starts gaining distance with the rest of the train most of the criminals start to relax. Rose, though, shakes off her backpack to the floor, then puts the impact and flame dials in the bag.
Once the weight's off, she keeps her bag on the floor, and starts creating a wind shuriken in each hand. "This isn't over, Franky, you got something that can cut strong stuff?"
Franky furrows his eyebrows in thought, before he groans at himself. "I don't..."
Shriek looks at them both in confusion, because this should be their victory. "Didn't we escape them?"
"No, this was too easy..." Sanji says when he, Rose and Franky look through the doorway.
It didn't take long for CP 9 to retaliate by Kalifa lashing her thorn whips at the retreating car. Rose throws her wind shuriken at them, but they were only able to create a shallow cut in each of the steel whips.
"Crap!" Rose curses as the whips start attaching themselves to the car, effectively stopping them from drifting.
Rose gets ready to throw her shuriken again, stops her attempt when Blueno takes control of the whips, and pulls the car towards the train. Everyone had to grab onto the car to retain balance until the car collided with the train with Blueno releasing the whips, and now holding onto the cars to be the new link.
"That smokescreen was pathetic." Blueno commented but makes no move against the pirates, because his hands are full.
Instead of the group answering that, Franky, Rose, and Sanji get ready to fight.
"Sniper King, guard Robin-chan with your life!" Sanji says as he goes to fight Blueno.
As he tries to kick Blueno, with him almost able to create damage to Blueno, Kaku feels as though he can't stand idly by.
Rufus thought the same thing, as both he and the long nosed agent started heading into the car. Rose sees this, and gets ready to create a wind cannon when she starts hearing Sniper King and Shriek screaming.
Despite knowing what Robin is doing, she keeps her eyes ahead in anger while Sanji and Franky see Robin locking both Sniper King and Shriek in a clutch.
"Robin, what are you doing?!" Sanji yells out at her.
She doesn't look back at them as she answers. "I've already told you people that I didn't ask to be saved! Leave me here!"
"I can't do that!" Sanji says to her, without noticing that Kaku is quickly approaching him.
"You'd better pay attention!" Kaku says, just as Sanji turns his head to see the agent about to give him a flying kick.
Rose knew it was coming though, so before Kaku could land his attack Rose uses her wind to pull the chef back, and throws a rasengan at him. "Back at you!"
The hit landed squarely on Kaku's side to send him flying back with Lucci catching his subordinate.
Rufus starts heading after them, but before he could, Franky blocks the door.
He looks back at the pirates angrily as he grips the doorway. "You pirates are insanely stubborn, I can't take it anymore, so don't waste this!"
Rose widens her eyes at the comment, when she starts to remember what he's gonna do. "Franky wait, you don't-!"
Franky doesn't listen to her words, and just goes straight into action by using his robotic strength to tear the doorway, along with the wall off of the train, and jumps to the next car. Blueno's grip was mainly on the wall, so as soon as Franky pulled that stunt, Sanji's car was freed from the rest of the train.
The pirates' car shakes from the separation, and gets Robin to lose her focus on her powers to free Sniper King and Shriek.
As the dynamic duo shrug off their aching limbs, Sanji and Rose are quick to see that it's not over yet.
That being because as soon as the wall was brought down, Rufus threw some clay at the top edge of the wall to get it out of his way, so he could sky walk off the train, and after the car.
Rose curses under her breath before she flies after Rufus to intercept him.
Robin grows angry from the sight of Franky fighting all of CP 9 at once, and losing within minutes.
To make matters worse, she sees Rose struggling in her sky battle against the agent because of how exhausted she is. She can't take this kind of stubbornness anymore, and screams her frustrations up at her. "GET OUT OF HERE ALREADY! IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP THIS CREW, THEN YOU SHOULD'VE STOPPED THE OTHERS FROM COMING HERE, AND LEFT THIS WORLD!"
Sanji is horrified by what he's hearing and speaks up to her. "Robin-chan, what are you saying? Rose-chan has been fighting the hardest for you. And we're not afraid of facing this buster call."
"You should be..." Blueno says when he opens an air door from behind Sanji and steps up behind him.
Before the chef can even turn, Blueno punches him to the floor. It wasn't hard enough to keep Sanji down though, because he's quick to get up, and fight back against the assassin.
Rose tries her best to keep her focus on the fight, but Robin's words were able to bring a smirk onto Rufus' face. "You really are a pathetic creature. Even someone like Nico Robin won't accept you."
"Shut the fuck up!" Rose yells while throwing a cannonball of air at him, but he easily dodges.
He keeps up his taunts at her while continuing to dodge her attacks. "Even when you're fighting for her, she doesn't see you as a friend. I bet those other friends down there didn't welcome your secret with open arms either, did they?"
Instead of giving him an answer, she exclaims her anger by throwing a powerful gust of wind down at him, and starts throwing him down towards the water. Halfway to the ocean, she realizes what she's going to do, and starts remembering Lareos' face. She starts losing her breath from the memory of her first kill, and accidentally stops her wind before she can kill the devil fruit user.
As soon as the wind started to let up, Rufus smirks at his merciful enemy, and instant shaves upwards, until he's behind her, with a baseball-sized orb of haki infused clay in his hands. Before Rose could even turn, he hits her back with the clay, and blows it up!
The blast was only strong enough to hit the wind girl, but that blast was all it needed for the wind girl to lose the last bit of her strength, cough up some blood, and lose consciousness.
Just as she begins to fall, Rufus catches his target by the arms. He throws the wind girl over his left shoulder, and uses his left arm to keep her from falling. He looks down at the pirates' train car to see Blueno and Sanji fighting.
As he descends down towards the car, he sees a few bruises on Blueno's body from Sanji's attacks, but in the end, it was Blueno's win due to his strength of mastering the six styles.
Both Sniper King and Shriek could barely get up, so all they could do was watch their friend be beaten. Lucky for the bird though, Blueno barely noticed her, so he kept his focus on his opponent.
After Blueno punches Sanji to the floor again, while breaking a few chairs along the way, he sees the chef still struggling to get up. "You really don't get it do you? Nico Robin is nothing but a curse. She knows that more than anybody."
Robin doesn't say a word to his insults, nor to Sanji's angered face both Sanji and Sniper King. Instead, she goes to leave through the air door.
"Robin, wait!" Sniper King calls out, which gives her enough hesitation for him to speak up. "We might not know all about what you went through, but there's one thing we do know. A pirate can't leave the crew without the captain's permission. You need to believe in Luffy."
Robin hesitates to leave from his words, but she snaps out of it when Blueno gives the sniper a kick that sends him flying to the wall.
Robin shakes her head as she turns to leave, but stops again when she sees the CP 8 agent coming towards them while carrying her fellow taboo user. With a heavy heart, she gives the wind girl a look of pity, before she forces herself to walk through the air door to the other train car.
Blueno looks to see the other agent landing in the car. "Let's go."
Sanji is horrified by the sight of his friend beaten to a pulp like this, before he finally gets to his feet, and rushes to Rufus. "LET HER GO!"
Rufus infuses his free arm with haki, and blocks it. While it was a successful block, the agent notes the strength of the kick was tough enough for him to almost need the haki to keep his defense strong. He pushes the chef off before he starts creating explosive clay in his hands. "Now, now, you wouldn't want me to blow her head off, would you?"
Sanji twitches from the threat, and backs off which gets him to chuckle, and goes to leave. "Amazing, some people really do care for this monster. Then again, you're willing to be friends with the demon of Ohara, so I shouldn't be surprised."
"They aren't monsters!" Sanji yells as he goes to attack him from behind, but Blueno punches him to the floor while Rufus leaves with his prisoner.
Blueno goes to follow him, but leaves one last word about them to the pirates. "Best that you lot give up now. Both of them are going to be tried for their crimes of existing. Nico Robin's whole island's crime was that lost history. And twenty years ago, a buster call was made to destroy the entire island, with Nico Robin's eight year old self being the only survivor. As for the wind girl, her trying to save Robin throughout both of the mayor's assassination attempts just shows that she knows too much to be free."
The chef is the first one to react, as he grabs onto a broken chair to help himself get up. "You used Robin-chan's past against her? And used her as bait for Rose-chan? That's sick..."
He lifts his head up to show all of his rage. "YOU'RE ALL FUCKING SICK! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
"We only did what we could for the sake of justice." Blueno says before he goes through the air door with Sanji chasing after him.
Just as he throws another kick, the air door closes, for him to only hit the space that the door used to hold.
Sanji is quick to drop his leg, and falls to his knees before he pounds his hands on the floor in frustration of both of his friends being taken. "DAMMIT!"
**************************************************
Back on the Rocket Man train, most of the rebels are either in preparing for the battle or are relaxing during the ride. Luffy was a part of the latter, until he suddenly gets a menacing feeling that gets him to jolt up from his seat. The others look at him in confusion as the pirate captain looks to the front of the train.
"Luffy, what's wrong?" Nami asks, but Luffy ignores her to go to the conductor's car.
He barges in, and calls to Kokoro. "Can we make this train go any faster?!"
Kokoro drinks up from her liquor before she looks to Luffy. "This is the fastest we can go, kid."
"Dammit!" Luffy mutters before Zoro goes in.
"What's the matter Luffy?" The swordsman asks, with Luffy looking back at him.
The only time Luffy has shown this look of serious rage is when he's facing an enemy, which makes his friend worry almost as much as he is. "We need to get there as soon as possible! I think Rose just got captured with Robin!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone