Chương 73: My meeting with Nico Robin (Part 2)

For quite some time Nico Robin began to make her preparations to go to the Gran Line to fulfill her dream and escape from the sea where she was most wanted.

Her goal was to join a competent pirate band that had the goal of going to the Great Line, but they not only had to be competent. They didn't have to have many reasons to betray her, living with them should be minimally pleasant, easy to manipulate and easy to escape or neutralize with her abilities after completing their needed

In fact, she already had one or two bands in mind that she wanted to contact as soon as possible, but…

A few days ago the famous bounty hunter Frederick Freed exterminated them all at the same time!

For this reason she had to lower her expectations and look for other competent crews but with whom it wasn't so [pleasant] to live. For this reason, she had no choice but to choose the Hulk Pirates as a new hideout and conveyance. It wasn't entirely pleasant living with dozens of tough guys who lived by and for their muscles, but Robin had been in much worse places during her many years in hiding, so she couldn't entirely complain.

During their journey to the Grand Line to get some money for steroids and above all to prove their worth, masculinity and muscle power to Robin the Hulk Pirates decided to raid a cruise ship that was travelling near them. Something that was more or less routine for them and technically they shouldn't resort to use the violence or at least extreme violence if people cooperated as usual

Robin didn't like that idea very much, but she couldn't deny a pirate not to commit acts of piracy. Besides, the Hulk Pirates weren't mass murderers and they had asked her to just watch them from the ship, something she would do with her Hana Hana No Mi

It seemed that everything would end quickly and without incidents, but...

The famous bounty hunter Frederick Fred was on board a cruise ship and exterminated all the pirates!!

Since Fred appeared, Robin had many thoughts in her head.

She first thought of helping the Hulk Pirates in their battle, but seeing firsthand the capabilities of Fred and his strange Akuma No Mi that she hadn't gotten any information about until now, Robin decided not to act as the pirates had told her in the first place. Despite being confident in her ability to break columns from afar, she didn't want to risk facing a guy as versatile and deadly as Fred if she could help it.

For that reason, she began to make plans even before the Hulk Pirates lost.

She thought about pretending to be an innocent teenager kidnapped by the brutal pirates and thus being [rescued] by the people from the cruise ship, but she quickly abandoned those thoughts when she saw and thought of Fred. Some may not recognize her but Robin was sure that Fred, an extremely greedy and sharp-eyed fellow who tortured and killed people for a living would recognize someone with a bounty of 79 million berries as her.

She didn't want to stay even for three seconds on the same ship as someone as dangerous as him, so she prepared to drive the ship by herself with the powers of her Hana Hana No Mi and run away when everyone was distracted.

A tactic that worked! The ship where she was the only crew member managed to get far enough away from the big and heavy cruiser that wouldn't be able to follow her!

But above all far from the real danger, Frederick Freed, who being an Akuma No Mi just like her, couldn't follow her in any way in open sea, but…

SOMEHOW FREDERICK FREED MANAGED TO BOARD THE SHIP!

She was terrified...

Robin was really terrified of the abominable Frederik Freed, the Demon Faced Torturer!

She feared his strength, his tactics, his intelligence, his extreme cruelty… and the way he whistles and seems to be playing cat and mouse with her only increases her more than justified fear

Just thinking about being defeated by that redheaded boy with the same age as her made her tremble as if she were naked in the middle of a blizzard.

But even so, Robin had to face that fear if she wanted to survive!

She should try to kill him just as she had done with many others who had wanted to end her life or sell her alive to her great enemy

"AAAAHHHHH!!!"

And when she faced him she realized that her feminine intuition wasn't wrong the first time she saw him.

It was a very bad idea to go up against him!

Robin was easily defeated and falling unconscious after being poisoned by Fred's Akuma No Mi abilities.

"Mmm?"

And now after falling unconscious for an unknown period of time... Robin woke up again...

'My body...

Seems to be in one piece…

Thank goodness...'

Normally after waking up in an unknown place after being defeated for someone, the first thing people usually do is analyse their surroundings, but knowing that the one who had brought her there was Fred the priorities changed.

There were many stories about pirates defeated by Fred who upon waking up had missing limbs or were unable to move due to his weird poisons. For this reason, after verifying with relief that she wasn't one of those cases, she proceeded to investigate her surroundings stealthily, pretending that she was still asleep.

'Oh...

I had never been in such a luxurious room...'

After making several eyes bloom around the room to get a panoramic view, Robin was able to verify that instead of being in a humid basement surrounded by torture utensils she was inside an extremely luxurious room, resting in a big bed as luxurious as the room she was in

And to her surprise, she wasn't alone in that bed. On both sides she was surrounded and embraced by a cute little girl, a small group of cute panda cubs and a hawk, that were sleeping peacefully next to her.

'So cute...'

However, as much as witnessing that beautiful image healed Robin's wounded heart a little, she couldn't waste any more time contemplating those cute beings. She had to hurry and gather as much information as possible to understand the situation she was in and how to use that information to escape.

And therefore the main thing, apart from studying the entry and exit points, was to locate her captor, who was sitting on his own hair near a desk a few meters from the bed on which she was stretched out and with her eyes closed.

'What…the hell is he doing?'

From various angles Robin could watch as Fred manipulated what appeared to be extremely detailed masks and wigs of beautiful young girls, so detailed that they appeared to be made of real human hair and skin.

'Holy shit!'

It was at this point that Robin remembered that Fred used to assume other people's identities on many of his assassination missions, and to do so he skinned his victims to obtain their faces and hair.

And remembering this, Robin jumped to conclusions she wouldn't have reached if she weren't in a state of panic 'What should I do?

If I try to attack him I'll end up poisoned like before...

He's much faster than me, so there's no use in running

In the event that I manage to escape from the room, I am on a ship, so I cannot really escape.

Should I use the girl as a hostage?

NO! NO!

There're limits I shouldn't cross!

...

Maybe if I caught him by surprise I could...'

"I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you Nico Robin..." Fred said, interrupting Robin's chaotic thoughts "And don't make sudden movements or talk too much, you'll wake the children's..."

For a while Fred could hear how her heart rate and in general all the functions of her body had increased, a sign that she was awake but that she was trying not to make any movement to pretend to stay asleep

Fred waited for Robin to do something, but seeing that she was taking so long to speak decided to be the first to initiate the conversation in a way that conveyed authority and serenity.

"What...

What are you going to do with me?" Asked Robin, quite confused and with cold sweat running all over her body

She stopped pretending to be asleep and sat up slowly on the bed so she could have the conversation Fred seemed to want to have.

And hearing that question Fred took a deep breath, stopped what he was doing to talk face to face with Robin "Answering your real question...

I'm not going to torture you or hand you over dead or alive to the World Government to collect the 79 million they offer for you...

Just relax...

I don't do those things to innocent people like you."

"What?"

Hearing those words, Robin sighed in extreme puzzlement, with an extremely deep sound, almost as if she lacked breath and saliva to speak properly.

She expected many possible answerd from Fred, each one more twisted, unaffordable, bizarre, and even perverted than the last, but... never this.

"What you've probably heard my lady" Fred replied as he stood up and walked slowly towards one of the refrigerators in the room "Relax, I'm not your enemy... and sorry for poisoning you, but you have a somewhat annoying ability, so I had to neutralize you

ut I made sure to clean all traces of poison and heal the bites

Do you want to eat something? I asked the maids to bring me..."

"No!" Robin yelled unconsciously, food didn't interest her in the slightest now, just getting answers "I mean...

What do you mean when you said I'm innocent?"

Fred didn't use the word [innocent] unconsciously or by mistake

Fred conscientiously carried out that action to trigger precisely this reaction and thus have the perfect excuse to start his narration.

"I know that all the charges that the World Government brought against the Ohara scholars are false, especially yours Robin

If you can't sink navy battleships now, how could you at eight?

For the love of God!

You were just an eight-year-old girl mistreated by her adoptive family...

A girl who only waited for the return of her mother whom she hardly even remembered in order to have a family that would love her... and until that happened, earn the love, attention and recognition of the only people on the island that treated her well

That's why you tried by all means to learn to read the Poneglyphs… to be accepted as a full member among the Scholars of Ohara, just like your mother Nico Olivia, whom you wanted to impress when she returned.

Your blessing and at the same time your curse"

A narrative with which he managed to soften her hardened heart. A heart hardened on its surface thanks to each and every one of the scars from the thousands of wounds inflicted on it since her earliest childhood.

"How...

sniff...

How do you know all this?" Asked Robin, trying to keep a calm stance despite the fact that her eyes didn't stop shedding tears while she had flashbacks of all the miseries that she had to go through in her short life

A rather difficult question to answer, to accept and even to deal with whether or not he told the full or half truth... but Fred had... a certain magic... that would allow him to facilitate this conversation "Will you keep my secret if I tell you and will you not ask about this topic again?"

"Yes, of course" Robin replied as she tried to wipe her tears with her hands "You have my word"

And those were the necessary words to continue the conversation...

"I'm not an archaeologist like you, but I do have a certain… condition… with which I am able to see the past of this world

That's why I was able to see a lot of the things that happened in Ohara that day and a few days before you met Jaguar D. Saul...

Trust me, I don't even remember how many times I cried over that event, there's nothing wrong with you crying as many times as you want" Fred said, once again reinterpreting his almost omniscient knowledge of this world as he offered Robin a handkerchief.

A handkerchief which Robin gratefully accepted "Snff...

Thank you..."

And as promised, without needing to be limited by the Pact Magic, she didn't ask about Fred's wonderful ability to see the past. She couldn't deny being frankly surprised that someone had that power

Obviously she would want to know more about the suspicious origin of that convenient power and she even doubted that this explanation was 100% true, but…

In the end Robin decided to accept that explanation and promise not to ask questions about that… in the same way that she accepted the first show of kindness she had felt since she fled Ohara seven years ago.

In principle the conversation should have ended there but… Fred wasn't that cruel, especially with one of his favorite characters, especially when that character is a beautiful woman crying, so he allowed her to satisfy her curiosity.

"Well, now that it's clear that I'm not your enemy and that you will surely have more questions not related to the origin or operation of my powers...

I will allow you to ask me three more questions, which I will answer honestly.

Choose wisely…" Fred said ending his sentence with his number one sentence on his list of things to say to an archaeologist.

And being an archaeologist whose goal in life was to know the forbidden past, the first question Robin would ask was more than obvious: "If you're able to see the past...

Have you also been able to see what happened in the Void Century?

If so please tell me."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I haven't been able to see anything directly about the empty century yet" Fred answered with complete sincerity "In general terms I know the same theory that the scholars of Ohara that you know discovered... and that seems to be true, since otherwise the WG wouldn't have ordered a Buster Call to eliminate you all

Apart from that I only have pure speculation without any proof

That the advanced civilization eliminated by the 20 allied countries that would later form the World Government created the Akuma No Mi that you and I use...

That the will of the D is related to that civilization

That the members of the eliminated civilization were mostly Lunarians who lived right where Mary Geoise is now.

That Lunarians come from the moon...

But I insist, pure speculation...

Almost the only tangible thing is what you already have"

An admittedly disappointing answer for Robin, who was expecting a definitive answer rather than confirmation that Ohara was correct and some... interesting... speculations

"I see..."

A great disappointment that was clearly reflected in his beautiful face… something that made Fred feel partially guilty.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but since I haven't been able to answer this question... it doesn't count..." Fred apologized before getting all wise and deep with a girl his own age in part to regain some prestige before Robin after being unable to answer one of the questions that every One Piece fan asks themselves everyday "But my advice is that you think more about your present than about the past when asking your following questions.

You carry the will of Clover, Olivia and the other scholars to safeguard, find and spread the story that some want to silence to hide their bad deeds

It's not something that I or anyone should do for you... you will have to find the Poneglyphs scattered throughout the world, but especially in the Grand Line and discover the whole truth yourself

Nothing really worthwhile comes easy."

Robin's life's goal was to find the conclusive answer that her deceased companions couldn't get to know and after seven years with hardly any progress she felt extremely anxious

She wanted the answer as soon as possible, almost at all costs, especially when achieving that dream was being so difficult, full of dangers, betrayals, and tragedies for which she didn't feel fully prepared.

She never dreamed that someone could prevent her from walking this difficult path to reach her goal, so knowing Fred's and his strange ability was almost like a shinning ray of hope in the darkest eternal night but...

"You may be right..." Robin said with a bittersweet smile "I don't just have to hear it from someone else, I have to see it for myself

I am an archaeologist after all"

In the end, she accepted Fred's wise words.

Finding out the true history of the world is something she have to do personally. Not only to fulfil the wishes of her deceased friends and family, but also for herself, to give meaning to her existence.

Even if Fred had given her a conclusive answer, right now Robin understood that that answer couldn't be enough for her and any of the Ohara scholars.

A story without solid evidence wasn't enough for an archaeologist!

She didn't think Fred could lie to her, but still Robin would have to find the evidence in the Poneglyphs, verify them, write them down, cross-check them…and to do that she would have to find the Rio Poneglyph anyway.

For this reason, after reinforcing her spirit, she listened to another of Fred's advice to ask her next question "What's your goal, Frederick Freed?"

A man capable of seeing the past, with such power and ability at such a young age couldn't have a less ambitious goal than her. Knowing what kind of person Fred is, the one who defeated her and brought her into this room, was undoubtedly her most immediate priority right now and one of her greatest curiosities from now on.

Who really is the young man hailed by some as West Blue's greatest hero, by others as West Blue's greatest pest and by others as a global pain in the ass?

"Make this a better world by getting rich and having a good early retirement!" Fred replied cheerfully before continuing his explanation with a more sober tone "How to achieve it changes every day, especially since I ate this Akuma No Mi, so I can't give you too many details right now...

My plan becomes more ambitious every day and I'm sure you'll like what ends up coming out of it."

"Ahaha...

You're an expert creating intrigue" Robin said, laughing genuinely at this unexpected response before turning back to a more serious tone "What do you want from me? Do you want me to join you or something?"

Until now the only people who had been kind to her was to make her relax and then stab her in the back, those who thought she was a normal girl or those who wanted to acquire her knowledge and skills.

It was obvious that Fred knew his identity and that he wouldn't stab him in the back after everything he had told him, so there was only one possible alternative...

An alternative that began to excite her more every time she thought about it

"That's two questions in one, but I'll be nice and count as if they were just one...

....

I don't want you to join me, thank you.

You're very pretty, very nice and very competent… but I don't want to risk being persecuted by the World Government at this point" Fred replied as he walked away from her, returning to his desk where he had been doing crafts a few minutes ago "So... I'm sorry, but no, I'm putting myself in danger just by talking to you"

A response that felt like a jug of cold water in the middle of winter for Robin

"Oh...

Right…

That's…"

However, that uncomfortable feeling didn't last long. The just until Fred answered the next question

"As for what I want from you...

Not much apart from wanting you to survive and wishing you good luck on the thorny path of fulfilling our dreams...

While you were sleeping I have prepared some masks and wigs that could be useful for you to go unnoticed as well as a few notes about the art of changing your voice and some training exercises to improve your self-defense..." Fred answered, while showing the masks and instruction books "Your Akuma No Mi is very good, but having better physical strength would make her even better.

Ah, I didn't know what your luggage was so I grabbed everything on the ship and…"

"Why are you helping me?

What do you gain by helping me and revealing all this to me?" Robin asked totally puzzled, interrupting Fred's kind and considerate explanation.

Robin didn't understand...

She didn't understand why someone, especially someone like Fred, who despite what was said in some press releases, the biggest information brokers had verified that he's a very selfish and stingy who does nothing if he doesn't receive something in return

Robin was mature enough to know there was nothing free in this world, so she was wary of those who offered too-good-to-be-true deals. It was always easier to trust another person's intentions when both benefited from the deal they proposed.

And this was too nice to be true, there must be some ulterior motive behind all this niceness.

"What do I win? It's very simple...

In the event that I fail to learn the truth of the Void Century with my own means, you're probably my only one that can tell me the truth

I need to get along with you so that one day you will reveal that great secret to me..." Fred responded with his typical cliché villain laugh, giving the hidden motive that Robin was trying to figure out. "After all I'm a very curious guy

MUA HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"I see..." Robin replied "It's logic"

A partially selfish motive that reassured and convinced Robin, but not everyone in that bed.

"KYAHHH!!!" protested Captain Mcnugget, who could no longer pretend that he was still asleep until this point.

He was to take Stephen's role in his absence!

"You're the Tsundere! Sleepy bird!" Fred responded to his pet's accusations

"KYAAHHHHHH!!!" However, that response was less than desirable for Captain Mcnugget, who made the Herculean effort of getting out of bed and pecking at his owner…

Until Fred did the right thing.

"Ok, it's fine...

I also feel a lot of sympathy for and what you've been through

That's why when I saw you I felt the need to help you, even if it was a little" Said Fred, being a little more honest about his motives… although embarrassment quickly took over him once more, to the point of saying something more embarrassing than his real intentions "It's important to leave a good impression on pretty girls

After all, one never knows what may happen in the future, Robin-chan."

"KYAAAHHHH!!!"

And that second part of his response earned immediate the disapproval in the eyes of Captain Mcnugget, who pecked him again

"Shut up and go back to sleep!

That's how I'm, get used to it!" Fred answered as he allowed the spirit of Homer Simpson to strangle a being weaker and smaller than him with the same style

A heated and comical bird-human discussion rich in messages that Robin understood almost perfectly... and that made her smile like never before "Ahahah...

Thank you very much Fred, you're without a doubt the best bounty hunter I will ever find

And the one who blushes the most too..."

Like all One Piece fans, Fred loved Robin very much, so when he saw her in person, especially in her pre-muguiwara stage, Fred couldn't help but get carried away by his emotions and ended up helping her, consoling her and even sharing some of his secrets

And he did all of this despite the fact that it might damage his tough-guy image and ruin his many plans for the future that Robin and Mugiwara were directly or indirectly involved in.

One of Fred's great assets is that, to some degree, he knew the future of this world, but that future could change in unknown ways depending on how his actions affected the people and circumstances that make up that future.

Although in reality his simple and famous existence in the present and in the future had inevitably changed or would change many of the events that would happen in the future and from which he intended to profit.

However, one thing is change the future of a character like Perona, who although interacted with the protagonists, her actions weren't excessively decisive for the plot… but things would change too much if he inadvertently altered the main characters who handled the One Piece plot

And this was something he had probably already done by giving Robin some of the hope in the future that Luffy gave him, some of the affection that the Mugiwara gave him as a whole, and the teaching that Rayleigh gave him, but…

"Ahahaha"

Seeing her smile like that made all those risks really worth it.

"Uh...

I guess just like my good friend Stephen says I'm more sentimental than I'd like..." Fred said, more flushed than ever as he left his falcon on the bed and sat down to pet Robin's head, one of his goals to achieve in this life "I may not be one of those nakamas Saul told you about but...

At least I wanted to show you that there're people out there who know that you aren't the monster that the World Government and their useful idiots say you are"

"That's the greatest gift anyone has given me in years" Robin answered, accepting that pat on the head, as if she were the same little girl from seven years ago who only wanted affection and recognition. "I am very grateful to you"

But that moment of peace came to an end when Perona, the real little girl in this room, woke up from her lethargy hugging the panda cubs that were in bed with her "So noisy...

Wow! This room is super cute! Much better than mine!

Oh and here you are! Eeeee... What was your name? Fernd? frend? Fred? Fed?

And who's this girl?

And what do we both do in bed with you?

What's happening?

I remember last night I hugged the pandas you gave me and then...

What happened next?...

Everything gets blurry after that…"

"..."

"Robin...

Don't look at me with those dark eyes

Everything has an explanation... don't misunderstand what the little girl says" Said Fred with some panic as he tried to revive Captain Mcnugget to make him testify in his favour.

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