บท 72: Assassination
"You're Nico Robin?" Iceburg asked.
"So you know me?" Robin smiled, leveling a pistol at him.
"I've always wanted to meet you, Nico Robin, the last surviving demon of Ohara." He said, causing Robin's brow to furrow.
"You're the only person in the world who can read the Poneglyphs and reveal the true history, reviving the ancient weapons. Those weapons will destroy the world if they are found, I cannot allow you to do that." Iceburg pulled his own pistol, Robin pulled out three more.
"Hold on now. I came here to warn you. What business of yours are the Poneglyphs anyhow?" Robin was frustrated with how complex this had become.
"Warn me about yourself? The Poneglyphs ARE my business, because I hold the blueprints to Pluton precisely in the event someone like you were to revive the ancient weapons!" Iceburg said.
"Ah, I understand now." Robin smiled.
"You understand what?" Iceburg growled.
"What CP9 wants from you, the blueprints. It's them I came to warn you about, you know." Robin said.
Iceburg was confused now. Who was the enemy here? Should he try to kill Nico Robin now? Even if he died trying, the plans were safe in Franky's hands.
"CP9... Start talking then." He said curtly.
"They contacted me when I arrived here with the Straw Hats. I would not have agreed to work with them, if they hadn't threatened to use the Buster Call." Robin stated, trembling a bit at her own words.
Iceburg's eyes widened at her words. "I don't believe you, the World Government wouldn't use a Buster Call on Water 7! There are hundreds of thousands of innocent people living here!"
"And everyone on Ohara was evil? Every last man, woman, and child?" Robin looked at him with some disdain.
This gave Iceburg pause. "They would have evacuated the innocent beforehand."
"They did, and then they blew up the evacuation ship. Anyone on board could have secretly known how to read Poneglyphs after all. I was only 8 years old and I could, why not any of them?" Robin was getting annoyed at his blind faith despite not trusting the World Government himself.
Iceburg was lost in thought for several moments. "You said you wouldn't have agreed if not for the Buster Call. That means you're working for them?"
"I'm supposed to make a 'failed' attempt on your life. I can only imagine they wanted to scare you into handing the blueprints over to someone else. I'm going to complete this mission and you're going to play along and frame the Straw Hats as they expect you to, say you saw me do it. If their subterfuge fails, they'll use force. You know what that will mean and neither of us can bear the consequences." Robin explained.
Iceburg lowered his gun. He didn't have much choice in the matter, this was too big for him alone.
"Oh, and before I shoot you. The agents from CP9 have been undercover here, likely for quite some time. The two that I know of are called Blueno and Rob Lucci." Robin said.
Iceburg's eyes widened slightly, but he wasn't too surprised, which Robin found odd.
"Isn't Rob Lucci one of your senior shipwrights? Are you not surprised about this?" She asked, curious.
Iceburg simply handed her the cloth from his inner pocket. Robin took it with a newly bloomed fifth arm and read it.
She smiled warmly. "I see, so Cherry is also helping in her own way."
Seeing the warm smile on Robin's face, Iceburg felt his mental image of "The Demon Child Nico Robin", that had haunted him since the day his master Tom warned him about her, start to melt away.
"Alright, get it over with." He said, gritting his teeth.
*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*
...
Cherry and Franky's group arrived back at Water 7 by sea train the next day around mid morning. The winds was quite strong today, Cherry felt something big was coming.
"I'm going back to my base to drop this lumber off, Cherry! You can drop by any time you like, you'll always be welcome there! SUPEEER!" Franky said his goodbyes.
Cherry and Cabernet returned to the Going Merry.
"You're back, Cherry! That Franky family actually dared to steal from us again! Thankfully, even though we lost two, Usopp managed to hang onto the other two briefcases, so we still have enough to get a good ship." Nami said.
"That's right! I heroically fought off the shameless thieves!" Usopp said, covered in bandages.
"And he's not even lying this time." Nami added.
"Wow, it seems your training is paying off already, Usopp. I can say with certainty that if it was a few weeks ago, those goons would have beaten you half to death and taken all the money." Cherry said, causing Usopp to hold up his nose with pride.
"That Franky guy is supposed to come back today. We taught his men a little lesson, but we need to deal with the boss himself." Zoro said.
"""YEAH!!!""" The crew agreed.
"Well, before that, I have a surprise for all of you." Cherry said with a grin.
They all tilted their heads with confusion.
Cherry had them beach the Going Merry, much to their confusion. There were some complaints, but they were met with painful Haki powered pinches.
"Now what? We won't be able to run away easily if we have to..." Nami worried.
"Relax, you'll understand in a moment." Cherry said, then jump up onto the deck holding a fancy wooden chest.
Cherry got settled and opened up the chest where the others could not see her. She took out the Bleat Bleat fruit she bought at the auction yesterday and set it down on the deck.
Cherry focused on the ship and the Devil Fruit and activated her own Devil Fruit ability and began fusing the two together, making sure it permeated the whole ship.
Cherry hopped off, then the transformation started. The Going Merry twisted, morphed, and shrank in size.
The Straw Hats were dumbstruck at the sight before their eyes, not understanding what was going on until the final form began to take shape.
"Baaah!" A large ram with a golden fleece bleated, then pranced over to the slack jawed Straw Hats.
They looked back and forth between Cabernet and Going Merry as the truth of what happened dawned on them. They cried many tears of joy, gathering around Merry for a big group hug.
They then turned their gazes on Cherry who was smiling smugly at them.
They charged her and entrapped her into a hug as well. """"Thank you!""""
"Baaah!" Merry bleated.
""Merry says 'Thank you' as well."" Cabernet and Chopper translated. They looked at each other and realized they could both talk to Merry now.
The Straw Hats took their time to chat with Merry and calm down from their euphoria.
"Okay, we still need to take care of our business with the new ship and we still need to find Robin. I don't like this weather at all, it feels like something big is coming." Nami said.
They didn't need to guard the ship anymore, so they all went into town. Cherry said she'd find Robin while the others took care of their own business. "I've got my mysterious ways, don't worry."
They were shocked to hear that an assassin had tried to murder Mayor Iceburg the night before.
Around the same time, sirens went off and a message blared from speakers throughout the city that Aqua Laguna would arrive by midnight.
Cherry left the group and went straight for Robin's position. Fortunately the other devil fruit user had left her side.
She found the correct building and scaled the wall, entering through a third story window.
Robin had been drinking tea to calm her nerves when the window opened suddenly.
"Hey, Robin. How's it going?" Cherry asked nonchalantly.
Robin did a spit take with her tea. "H-how did you find me?!"
"You say that like you're a hard person to find? You're my morning star, Robin, I could spot you from a million miles away!" Cherry spoke poetically in jest.
Robin didn't know whether to be dumbfounded, happy, or embarrassed. But first, she bloomed arms to drag Cherry inside before she was seen.
"Oh my. To be invited inside by a beautiful lady, how can I refuse?" Cherry said shamelessly.
Robin sighed and slumped into her chair, giving up on any idea of preventing Cherry's meddling. "I'm glad to see you..."
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