The Buster Call Approaches

Inside Robin's room.

The window was slightly ajar, and moonlight and a gentle breeze quietly slipped in, as if entering a dream.

With a flash of silver light, Ye Qiong appeared out of thin air in the room.

Ye Qiong looked around the familiar room before finally fixing his gaze on Robin in bed. One side of her blanket had been kicked aside, revealing her delicate body wrapped in thin purple pajamas.

Robin slept peacefully, curled up around a pillow. Her soft breathing was even and long, her dark blue hair spread out like flowers, and her exquisitely sculpted cheeks carried a faint floral fragrance.

"Kiddo."

In a voice only he could hear, Ye Qiong softly called to her, his eyes showing an unprecedented gentleness.

Ye Qiong did not know when he had begun to care so much about the girl before him.

At first, after being reborn into the world of One Piece, he had felt like an outsider, completely out of place among the people of this world. That was why he had chosen to train and live alone on the eastern shore, far from the residential area, thinking about how to survive in this world filled with powerful people and how to leave this island for somewhere relatively safe.

After accidentally saving Robin, he felt as though fate had guided a character who had once existed only in anime into his own world.

She was real, a person of flesh, blood, and emotions—not someone on cold anime drawings, nor someone behind a video screen.

Nico Robin was a pitiful girl living by his side.

When she was lonely and sad, when she gazed out at the sea, when she suffered endless bullying, when pirates kidnapped her.

Ye Qiong had to admit that his heart ached.

That was why, for her sake, he had changed his original intentions time and again, and found the motivation to grow stronger time and again.

Robin often said that he brought her joy, happiness, and hope.

But in truth, Robin was the one who had helped him become part of this world.

"Qiong."

The distracted Ye Qiong was suddenly startled awake by the voice. Looking at the bed, he could not help but smile. Robin was talking in her sleep.

"Qiong, don't leave me..." Robin murmured in her sleep, hugging the pillow even tighter.

"Kiddo, how could I ever leave you?" Ye Qiong said softly, stepping forward to gently tuck her blanket around her.

He quietly watched Robin. After a long silence, his figure flashed, and he vanished from the room.

The room returned to silence. In her sleep, a faint smile appeared on Robin's face.

The next morning.

A massive steel warship cut through the waves, heading toward its destination across the boundless sea. The Navy's blue seagull emblem flew proudly upon its white sails.

A young man was sprawled lazily on a deck chair aboard the ship, a magazine covering his face. Only two tufts of fluffy black hair were exposed as he basked in the warm sunlight.

"Vice Admiral Kuzan."

A Marine approached and respectfully called out to him.

"Damn it, can't you see I'm sleeping?" Kuzan yanked off the magazine and cursed.

"S-Sorry!" the Marine hurriedly explained. "A message came from Headquarters. The two CP9 members sent out yesterday have lost contact on Ohara Island. Other CP9 officers will soon arrive on the island, and we have been ordered to speed up."

"Got it! Increase speed!" Kuzan said impatiently.

"Yes!" The Marine saluted and hurried away to relay the order.

The western shore of Ohara Island.

Ye Qiong walked across the beach, where an expected colossal figure lay sprawled on the shore like a mountain.

It was a giant more than ten times the size of an ordinary person, wearing short sleeves and shorts and a large brown hat. His entire body was covered in wounds, his face smeared with blood. Several seagulls circled and cried above his head as waves washed against his legs.

Ye Qiong walked up to the giant's face, startling away the seagulls. Seeing a giant of this world for the first time, he could not help but marvel at the Creator's wonders.

A giant so strong and towering possessed physical strength far beyond that of ordinary people.

"Cough, cough, cough..." The giant suddenly began coughing violently, and the air he exhaled sent sand flying across the beach.

He opened his mouth wide and gasped continuously. His opened eyes reflected Ye Qiong's figure as he urgently said, "Water..."

"What a hassle." Ye Qiong shook his head helplessly. He could not possibly carry someone that huge, so he could only use his ability.

"R."

A circular space with a radius of three hundred meters spread out, enveloping the giant's body. Ye Qiong grasped at empty air, and spatial power surged forth. The giant's enormous body was lifted by an invisible force, rising from the ground to float in midair.

"R: Command."

Ye Qiong pointed a finger, and the giant's huge body slowly moved toward the lake by the western shore. Once he released his ability, the giant crashed down, making the ground by the lake tremble slightly. Then he plunged his entire head into the lake and gulped down water.

Watching the water level of the lake drop noticeably, Ye Qiong was somewhat speechless.

"Ahahaha, that hit the spot!" The giant raised his head energetically, his face filled with satisfied delight. He looked at Ye Qiong beside him. "I'm from the Giant Tribe. My name is Jaguar D. Saul. Thank you so much."

Yes, that laugh was still as strange as ever, and his name was the same hidden surname with a "D" from his memories. Ye Qiong confirmed that he had saved the right person. This was the former vice admiral who had betrayed the Navy to save Olvia.

"My name is Ye Qiong. No need to thank me—I need something from you," Ye Qiong said. "Do you know where Nico Olvia is now?"

Hearing that name, Saul's pupils abruptly contracted. His massive body involuntarily leaned backward, crushing countless trees.

"Y-You... how do you know the name Olvia?" he asked in alarm.

Ye Qiong leaped directly onto a nearby boulder and looked down at him. "Because this is Ohara Island. For certain reasons, I know Olvia."

"What? This is Ohara Island? How did I end up on this island..." Saul looked even more terrified, his eyes filled with fear. "This island... is about to be destroyed!"

"I know that. I'm asking where Olvia is," Ye Qiong said. There truly was not much time left.

"Olvia..." Saul thought for a moment before sighing. "After I rescued her from Headquarters, she and I fled aboard a warship while the Navy pursued us with cannon fire the entire way. Later, we encountered a storm and fell from the ship, and I drifted to this island. Olvia is still on the ship. If she's lucky, she should also make it to this island."

Ye Qiong frowned. Saul's words were useless to him.

If he had known beforehand which shore Olvia's ship would land on, he could have gone there first and used "R" to search for her.

But knowing only that Olvia would come ashore and go to the Tree of Omniscience was utterly useless, because CP9 and the Buster Call would arrive on this island at roughly the same time as Olvia!

"This is troublesome." Ye Qiong sighed helplessly. In that case, he could only prepare for the worst and wait for Olvia at the Tree of Omniscience.

"Ye Qiong, the World Government is going to use a Buster Call on Ohara Island! Hurry and take a boat to escape!" Saul said anxiously. The first thing he considered was Ye Qiong's safety, which revealed the kind of person he was.

Yet Ye Qiong sighed inwardly. How could he not want to flee?

Was he supposed to wait for several vice admirals to arrive and cut off his own escape route?

But Robin's mother had yet to be found. How could he selfishly take Robin and flee?

Ye Qiong knew that Robin often gazed out at the sea because she was waiting for her mother to return and take her out to sea with her. That hope was now right before them. He had to seize it for Robin and fulfill her wish.

"Saul, hurry and build a simple wooden boat and leave this island. I'm going to save Olvia." As soon as Ye Qiong finished speaking, his figure flashed and vanished from atop the boulder.

Saul's eyes widened in astonishment. His Observation Haki spread out, but he could not sense even the slightest trace of Ye Qiong's presence. "A Devil Fruit user?"