Robin's Painful Past, the Tragedy of Ohara (Part 2)
At that moment, a few scattered comments appeared on the screen. {Hey! Don't... don't shoot! Let him finish before you shoot! What was that magnificent kingdom called?!}
{Could those things really have happened during the Void Century? Has the World Government really been deceiving us all this time?! N-no way!}
{Whoa! I... I should have hidden like those people did earlier. Now that I know this secret, I... I'm dead for sure!}
{Forget it, forget it! I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything. World Government, don't come looking for me, don't come looking for me.}
{Worororo, you cowards, all of you shut up! I'm sick of seeing your spineless comments. From now on, none of you may speak without my permission.}
After threatening the commenters, Kaido sent another comment. {Worororo, so the world had such an interesting history in the past! The World Government sure buried it deep! One day, I'll bring it back into the world and become the one who shakes this world up.}
{Mamamama, Kaido, there you go bragging again! Can you gather all the Poneglyphs? Can you read what's written on them?!} Big Mom mocked.
{Worororo, Linlin, you make it sound as though you've gathered all the Poneglyphs yourself. Besides, that member of the Three-Eye Tribe in your family hasn't fully awakened her eye yet. You can't read the Poneglyphs either,} Kaido retorted.
{Mamamama, Kaido, Pudding will awaken her eye one day, and I'll learn everything about the past. But you? You'll never have that chance,} Big Mom said smugly.
{Worororo, Linlin, don't forget, Nico Robin can read the Poneglyphs too. All I have to do is get her!}
{Mamamama, Kaido, I'll get her before you do.}
{Worororo, just wait and see, Linlin!}
The Grand Line, somewhere at sea, aboard the Thousand Sunny.
"Oh no! One of the Four Emperors has set their sights on Robin-san!" the cowardly trio said in a panic.
"Robin-san, don't be afraid. I'll protect you," Sanji vowed, thumping his chest.
"I'll protect Robin-san too," Brook immediately promised.
Zoro and Franky stood to the side. Though neither said a word, both showed their support for Robin through their actions: one gently pushed the Wado Ichimonji out of its sheath at his waist, while the other struck a pose.
"Anyway, we'd rather die than hand you over to anyone, Robin," Luffy, their captain, concluded.
"I know. I won't leave any of you either." Robin smiled happily, then looked up at the video on the screen. A trace of sorrow crossed her face as she whispered, "Mom!"
In the video, she and her long-separated mother, Olvia, had finally embraced, but the price was the exposure of her identity as a historian.
The Grand Line, Sabaody Archipelago, Shakky's Rip-off Bar.
Rayleigh sat at the bar, swirling the drink in his hand as he watched Ohara being bombarded at will by the Buster Call on the screen. He murmured, "Whether it was you or us, we all moved too fast!"
High in the sky, in the edited video on the screen, Marine warships fired shells indiscriminately at Ohara under the Buster Call, turning the entire island into a living hell.
Meanwhile, to save the burning Tree of Knowledge library, Olvia entrusted Robin to Saul, who had just arrived. She told her that their true mission as archaeologists was to pass history down. Though Ohara was destroyed, as long as Robin lived, Ohara's will and its history could continue to be passed down.
Though Robin desperately did not want to leave, Saul held her in his palm and forcibly carried her away in tears.
On the way, Saul told Robin that Ohara and her mother were heroes.
However, when they reached the coast, they came under attack from Marine warships, and Saul was hit by a shell.
To protect Robin, Saul dragged his injured body forward and overturned a Marine ship, but even more warships concentrated their fire on him.
Even then, Saul did not forget to tell Robin to go to the evacuation ship and leave aboard it.
But when Robin reached the evacuation ship, the people aboard disagreed over whether to let her on. In the end, threatened by Spandine, they did not dare let her aboard.
This enraged Saul. He immediately turned his attention to the ship carrying Spandine, but before he could reach it, Aokiji arrived and pierced him with his power.
Facing his former friend, Saul asked him a profound question: looking at everything happening here, was this really the justice Aokiji had always stood for?!
Aokiji, however, said that justice changed with one's standpoint and the times, and that the scholars of Ohara had indeed broken the law.
As the two argued fiercely, the evacuation ship, which had already sailed away, was suddenly sunk. The one who gave the order was Akainu Sakazuki.
No one present had expected Akainu to do such a thing, so while everyone stood stunned, Saul hurriedly scooped up Robin and ran.
They had not gone far, however, before Aokiji caught up and used his power to freeze Saul.
Before he was completely frozen, Saul told Robin to run, to go out to sea. There, she would surely find companions willing to protect her.
In the end, Ohara was completely destroyed by the Buster Call, and the Tree of Knowledge at the island's center, which held the largest collection of books in the world, was also destroyed by fire.
Meanwhile, Robin ran all the way to the other side of the island, only to find Aokiji, who had been waiting there for her for some time. But Aokiji had not come to capture her; he had come to let her go.
Aokiji wanted to see how far the seed Saul had risked his life to protect would grow in the future. At the same time, he warned Robin not to think of him as her companion. If she ever committed a crime, he would personally bring her in.
And so Robin escaped in a small boat Aokiji had arranged, but because she was a historian of Ohara, she was wanted by the World Government.
She thus embarked on a life on the run, because everyone who approached her wanted to take her life and exchange it for a bounty from the World Government.
With that, all the suffering Robin had endured along the way and the tragedy of Ohara had been laid bare before the world.
Yet it was not all over.