Stirred / The Scales in Her Heart

Had she been caught?

Was her life finally going to end?

Robin slowly lowered her hands. She chose not to resist, and her eyes grew vacant.

She looked just as Nami had when she learned that her promise with Arlong had been nothing but a lie.

Seeing this, Arthur's smile faded a little. He slowly removed the hand resting on her shoulder and said to Nami, who still hadn't recovered from her happiness, "Nami, go get two ropes and tie her up. She's worth 79 million Beli, and our new ship depends on it. Whatever you do, don't let her escape."

"Mm-hmm..." Nami answered, then hurried into the cabin.

She soon came back out with two ropes, her beautiful eyes gleaming with gold as she looked at Arthur.

"Give them to me." Seeing what a money grubber Nami was, Arthur smiled and flicked her forehead with his index finger. He took the ropes from her and turned toward Robin.

Robin was like a puppet, offering no resistance.

Arthur knew her personality very well, too. Simply tying her hands to the railing was enough to seal off her ability.

"You're in charge of watching her from now on. If you lose those 79 million, it's not my problem." Having tied Robin up, Arthur gave a sleepy yawn and told Nami, "I'm going inside to catch up on sleep. Wake me at dinner."

"Mm-hmm, leave it to me." Nami patted the two enormous mounds on her chest, full of fighting spirit.

Only when money was involved could one see this side of Nami.

Arthur reached out and ruffled Nami's hair, then took something from his pocket and handed it to her. "This is an Eternal Pose. Just sail in the direction it points. If anything urgent happens, remember to wake me. Don't try to handle it on your own."

"Mm-hmm..."

Nami took the Eternal Pose and nodded like a chick pecking at grain.

Arthur took one last look at Robin, who stood with her head bowed like a prisoner. At last, a trace of tenderness flashed deep in his eyes.

Whether you can become my companion depends on your fate!

Robin had suffered a tragic childhood and had a dark past. She had experienced all manner of deceit from a young age and grown up on the run, hunted by others. Her heart was tightly shut as a result, and making her a companion would not be easy.

Arthur wasn't good at changing people's hearts, so he left that job to Nami.

Robin was ten years older than Nami, but their fates were remarkably similar, as though one were a more extreme version of the other.

Nami also appeared to be a money grubber, but at heart she was a kind and gentle girl.

By leaving Robin in her care, if Robin was willing to open her heart to her, Nami's kindness would be stirred.

Then Arthur would accept her as a companion, become her safe harbor, and stand before her to shield her from the wind and rain.

If not, then it would prove that this was heaven's will.

Let heaven decide everything!

With that thought, Arthur went into the cabin and caught up on his sleep.

Lying on Nami's bed and breathing in her lingering scent, which had yet to fade after she had woken, Arthur slowly drifted off to sleep.

In his sleep, he felt the ship beneath him rocking. It seemed they had set sail.

Night fell, and Nami woke Arthur on time.

Fog had suddenly risen over this stretch of sea, making it seem as though the small cabin sailboat had sailed into a fairyland.

A table stood on the deck, where Arthur and Nami ate a steaming meal. Not far from them, Robin remained tied up, her head still lowered so that her expression couldn't be seen.

As she chatted with Arthur, Nami more than once wanted to ask if he could untie Robin first and let her come over to eat.

But Arthur said nothing, and Robin was a wanted criminal with a bounty of 79 million Beli, so Nami didn't dare make the decision herself.

Only after dinner did Arthur have Nami prepare a meal for Robin. He stayed in the cabin, waiting until the latter half of the night to take over her watch.

Just like that, several days quickly passed.

By Arthur's design, Nami was practically a nanny, attending to the captive Robin's every need.

Women were very troublesome. Not only did they need food and drink, they also needed to bathe and use the toilet.

Arthur left all of it to Nami.

As a result, Nami not only had to prepare three meals a day for Robin, but also had to bathe with her to keep her from escaping, holding on to the rope binding Robin's hands the whole time. Only late at night, after both of them had fallen asleep, did Arthur come out and carry Nami back.

Nami could only draw nautical charts while keeping watch over Robin during the day.

Before long, Robin had figured out Nami's personality and discovered that, though she appeared to be a money grubber, she was actually a very gentle girl at heart.

Gradually, at some unknown point, Robin lost the vacant, listless look she had worn at first. Instead, it was as though she had accepted her fate, waiting for Arthur to hand her over to a Marine Branch and for the moment her life would end.

With no more thought of escape or resistance, Robin began talking to Nami of her own accord. After learning that Nami was an excellent navigator, she began telling her about the islands she had seen during her years on the run, and the two women quickly found plenty to talk about.

Arthur saw all their increasingly familiar interactions using Observation Haki.

Even Nami hadn't realized that, during this time, Arthur had been appearing less and less often, apart from at their three daily meals.

Chapter 28: Stirred

[I want to emphasize an explanation: as stated earlier, the skill template is not Arthur Pendragon's template. It is a template that turns the One Piece power system into game-system data. The letter grades are only there to show people unfamiliar with Type-Moon what level each letter represents. The skill template's grading does not follow Type-Moon's system; Type-Moon fans can think of Type-Moon's A and B as either A or X in One Piece. Also, as for why there aren't three pluses in the grades, this needs explaining: according to Type-Moon's setting, two pluses mean an exceptional level, while three pluses mean exceptional to another dimension. One Piece obviously isn't that strong, so there are only two pluses. I'm not a novice, and I'm writing this book very seriously. If you don't understand it, you haven't read carefully. Don't skim ten lines at a glance and then go misleading other readers in the reviews. It's really annoying.]

[The above couldn't be posted because of a problem with the review section, so I could only put it in the chapter. I won't say these things in chapters again. Please forgive me!]

That night.

Having left the stretch of sea where fog frequently appeared, the night sky was especially bright.

The temperature gradually grew chilly that night.

Nami draped a blanket over Robin's shoulders, then handed her a cup of hot black tea.

"Thank you," Robin said. She raised her bound hands, accepted the cup Nami offered, and held it as she took a small sip.

Eight days had passed since Robin was captured.

During that time, Nami and Robin had grown familiar with each other. At Nami's suggestion, Arthur played the villain, pretending to consider it before agreeing to let Robin's hands remain untied from the railing.

Her hands were bound together with ordinary rope, so Robin could actually use Lataib at any time. But she knew there was a monster in the cabin, and with the sea all around, there was nowhere to run.

So she didn't do it.

"You're welcome..." Nami smiled faintly and poured herself a cup too, warming her body against the chill of the early morning. She tilted her head back to gaze at the star-filled sky, then looked at Robin beside her and suddenly asked, "Robin, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Hm?" Robin looked at Nami in surprise, then smiled gently. "If it's you, Nami, you can."

"That's great, thanks." Nami gave a cheer, then gazed at Robin and asked curiously, "A while ago, Arthur said you had a bounty of 79 million Beli. I still can't believe it. Robin, how did you end up with such a high bounty?"

"..."

At those words, Robin fell silent. It was as if she had remembered something, and her face grew gloomy.

"Um... you don't have to tell me. Ahaha..." Even Nami could tell now that Robin must have had something difficult to talk about. She hurriedly waved her hands and laughed awkwardly.

Robin pursed her lips and looked up at Nami. "I'm curious too. How did you meet the knight, Nami?"

"Me?" Nami composed herself, and a lovely smile suddenly curved her lips, as though she had remembered something wonderful. Hugging her knees, she said with a sweet smile on her face, "We're both from the East Blue. We met in a place called Orange Town. Back then, I was discovered sneaking into a pirate crew to steal things, and I ran into him while I was escaping. That was the most wonderful moment of my life..."

In a matter-of-fact tone, Nami told Robin the story of everything that had happened since she met Arthur.

As she spoke, tears of happiness spilled from her eyes. She had long wanted to find someone to confide in, and now that Robin had asked, she couldn't help opening her heart and showing another person her happiness without hiding any of it.

When she spoke of Arthur breaking her prison, Nami's undisguised love shook Robin.

This girl...

Robin looked at her tear-streaked face, at the smile that never left it and the happiness that shone through, and fell silent.

So I'm not the only one with a fate like this...

A feeling of kinship in suffering rose in her heart, and Robin's gaze grew even gentler as she looked at Nami.

At that thought, Robin pondered for a while. Staring at the ripples in her tea, she suddenly said, "Nami, would you like to hear a story?"

"Hm?" Nami wiped away her tears and looked at Robin, who was staring into her cup.

"This is the story of a little girl. That little girl was a monster, a story about a monster..." Robin began on her own, but the hands holding her cup started to tremble.

Nami quickly took the cup from her hands and set it aside, then clasped both of Robin's hands in hers.

She could feel this gentle older sister giving off an emotion very similar to what she herself had once felt.

"...The little girl studied archaeology with the doctors and scholars who were willing to accept her. At just eight years old, she passed the 'doctoral examination' with a perfect score and became a real archaeologist... Because of her mother, the little girl grew curious about Poneglyphs. But investigating Poneglyphs was against the law, and it could bring the little girl a fatal calamity..."

Robin spoke softly, appearing very calm compared with Nami's immature way of expressing herself.

If not for the violent trembling of the hands Nami held, which she could clearly feel.

Inside the cabin, Arthur drank red wine in the kitchen, his expression impassive as he served as a second, unseen listener.

Time passed bit by bit, and before they knew it, it was already the early hours of the morning.

"...The girl escaped the destruction of the Buster Call on a bamboo raft. Afterward, when it was discovered that she was still alive, a high bounty of 79 million Beli was placed on her head on the charge of 'destroying six Marine warships,' and she was given the epithet 'Devil of Ohara.' The girl began a life on the run..." Robin said this with a smile. Her trembling hands had grown still after she reached the Buster Call.

"Sniff..." Beside her, Nami was in floods of tears. She held Robin tightly, as though she had found a sister she had been separated from for years.

So she wasn't the only one with a fate like that.

It was precisely because their fates were so similar that Nami wept so bitterly. She knew that feeling of despair all too well.

"I'm sorry, Robin, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Nami apologized through her sobs, apologizing for her behavior over the past few days and for having even thought of turning Robin in for the bounty.

"Thank you, Nami..." Robin understood what Nami meant, and tears slipped from her eyes.

Confiding in each other rapidly brought the two closer, until it felt almost as though two sisters had found each other again.

Inside the cabin, Arthur set down his wineglass and slowly stood up.

Hands in his pockets, he walked back to his room.

"Hmm... my luck's pretty good today. I'd guess it's EX."

Chapter 29: The Scales in Her Heart

"Arthur... Arthur, wake up..."

It wasn't light yet. Arthur, who had only gone to sleep in the early hours, was groggily pulled from his dreams.

He slowly opened his eyes, and a figure filled his blurry vision.

Nami was straddling him, wearing only a white shirt that reached her thighs. Several buttons were undone, revealing an immensely alluring sight. She was leaning over Arthur's head in particular, and that deep cleavage made the newly awakened Arthur feel as though his body temperature was gradually coming to a boil.

"What's wrong?" Arthur rubbed his eyes and yawned, speaking lazily.

He was highly alert. At the slightest disturbance, Intuition (A) and Observation Haki would automatically warn him, and anyone else approaching would also wake him, but Nami was not included among them.

"Lord Wind Sword, Lord Knight, great Lord Arthur... could I ask you a favor?" Nami pressed her palms together as if praying to Buddha and pleaded ingratiatingly.

"Don't do that. I'm not used to it..." Arthur tried to shift, but Nami was pinning him down. Looking at her blinking eyes and her cute, innocent expression, he could only give up and say helplessly, "Yes, yes... go on. What do you need my help with?"

"Hee-hee..."

Nami giggled foolishly, then suddenly leaned down and cradled Arthur's head in both hands, placing it against her enormously full breasts. She gently kissed his forehead, then gazed at him with her orange eyes and said seriously, "Arthur, could you let that woman outside go?"

"Do you have a fever? Let me see..."

Arthur smiled inwardly at her words. Resting his chin against Nami's cleavage, he looked up with a deliberately puzzled expression and reached for her forehead.

"Oh, come on... I mean it. I'm very serious." Nami caught Arthur's hand and spoke coquettishly.

"What happened these past few days? The little thief who only loves Beli and oranges has had a change of heart, and doesn't even want 79 million Beli anymore?" Arthur pulled free of Nami's embrace and lay back down, resting his hands behind his head. Staring at her, he said, "Go on, give me a reason to convince me."

"I just think she's really pitiful..." Nami stopped acting coquettishly and said dejectedly, "Before I met you, I always thought I'd had it bad enough. But I never imagined there was someone who had it even worse than me. Not only is her hometown gone, she was hunted and forced to live on the run when she was so little. Compared to her, at least I still had Nojiko and Genzo and the others, and now I have you too. She's suffered enough already. I really can't bear to hand her over to the Marines for the bounty."

"I see. You felt a connection with her?" Understanding dawned on Arthur's face. He reached out and pinched Nami's cheek, then smiled. "In that case, let's let her go."

"Huh—"

Nami was slightly taken aback by how readily Arthur agreed, and she looked at him in confusion.