Preparing to Evacuate

"Click."

The crisp sound of a button being pressed was like a thunderclap in the deathly silent chief's office.

Robin's pupils shrank to pinpoints in an instant. The special signal emitted by that Pure Gold snail was like a rusty, blunt knife viciously stabbing into the nightmare she had buried for twenty years.

The flames filling the skies of Ohara, her mother's tears, Saul's gradually freezing smile... That absolute violence capable of erasing everything seemed to cross time and space and descend upon her once more.

"What... what did you do?!"

Robin's voice cracked with extreme terror. Almost instinctively, she tried to lunge at Rain, but the Seastone cuffs around her wrists slammed into the desk, leaving a deep crack.

"Stop it! You have no idea what that means! This island, and Luffy and the others, will all be burned to ashes!"

Rain did not dodge. He merely dusted off the Top Secret files containing the core secrets of the Naval Six Powers and calmly stuffed them into his specially made giant pack filled with Seastone.

"Do you remember what I told you in the underground warehouse?" Rain tightened the straps on his pack and looked down at the Devil Child on the verge of collapse, his tone remarkably steady.

Robin froze. Her mind flashed back to what Rain had said on the second basement level not long ago, words she had not understood at the time: "After today, all of Enies Lobby will become ruins. Who would know I took them?"

"You... planned to summon the Buster Call from the very beginning?!" Robin stared at him in disbelief.

"If the World Government discovers that the Underground Treasury and the Six Powers Manual have been emptied, they'll surely hunt us down like mad across the world." Rain looked into Robin's eyes and openly admitted his scheme. "But what if Enies Lobby, which boasts that it has stood unbroken for eight hundred years, is blasted by the Navy's own Buster Call today until not even its foundations remain? Every trace of the missing supplies will be burned clean by that fire. That is the perfect way to destroy the evidence."

To cover up a theft, he had actually summoned a Buster Call capable of destroying an entire island! That meticulous calculation, bordering on madness, sent a chill through Robin.

Seeing Robin's bloodless face, Rain's gaze softened slightly. His hoarse voice held a little less coldness and a rare trace of complexity.

"Wipe that despairing look off your face. Do you think this is only for my own escape? The extreme chaos brought by the Buster Call can not only shatter the Navy's encirclement, but also provide the best cover for pirates like you to escape into the sea amid the confusion."

Rain turned to look out the window, where the violent rumbling of Luffy and Lucci's battle continued without end.

"You've been fleeing across this sea for twenty years. The Buster Call has been like an executioner's blade hanging over your head. If you don't witness it fall today, if you don't overcome this hurdle with those companions willing to give their lives for you, then for the rest of your life, you'll remain a slave ruled by fear."

Rain's words struck Robin's heart like a heavy hammer. She stared blankly at the man before her and suddenly realized that beneath his seemingly ruthless schemes lay an incredibly rough form of healing—forcing her to sever the shadows of her past through the most extreme despair.

"Boom—!"

At that moment, the thick stone wall beside the office suddenly erupted with an earth-shaking blast!

Amid flying rubble, two figures burst through the wall in a cloud of dust.

"Robin! We're here to save you!"

"Super—Strong Right!" "Special Attack: Firebird Star!"

With two furious roars, a massive steel fist dragging a long chain and a blazing firebird of intense heat hurtled mercilessly toward Rain, who stood before Robin!

The ones who had smashed through the wall were none other than the cyborg Franky, who had fought his way here through countless hardships, and Usopp, wearing a mask as Sogeking!

To them, the man in the dark gray cloak, standing above Robin and looking down at her, was undoubtedly a high-ranking CP9 agent who had driven her into a corner!

"Don't get in my way."

Rain did not even turn his head. He casually swept his left arm to the side, instantly activating the Rock-Rock Fruit's power.

"Bang! Boom—!"

A half-meter-thick shield of ultra-dense Granite instantly formed at Rain's side. Franky's heavy steel punch struck the rock, shattering only a few chips before the immense recoil sent it flying back. Usopp's Firebird Star exploded against the Granite's surface, leaving only a blackened mark and failing to harm Rain behind it in the slightest.

"What? This guy's a Devil Fruit user!" Franky pulled back his right fist, staring at the indestructible stone wall as he gritted his teeth and prepared to open the weapons compartments in his arms. "Sogeking, cover me! I'll blast him apart with a Coup de Vent!"

"Let Robin go, you CP9 bastard!" Though Usopp's legs were trembling, he still resolutely drew back his giant slingshot.

"Wait! Franky! Sogeking! Stop!"

Robin snapped out of her shock and hurriedly dragged her cuffs as she stepped between Rain and the two men, shouting, "He isn't with CP9! He's the one who took down Spandam!"

"Huh?"

Franky and Usopp, who had been about to unleash their ultimate moves, froze at the same time. Their feet slipped, and they nearly fell into the rubble.

With a thought from Rain, the rock beneath his feet surged. Spandam, who had been sealed underground, rose from the earth and appeared before them.

Spandam, CP9's highest-ranking chief in the leather mask, lay unconscious like a dead dog, his face so swollen that even his own mother would not recognize him.

"He's... not an enemy?" Usopp looked through the holes in his mask at Rain's arm, which had just reverted from Petrification, cold sweat streaming down his face. "You scared me to death. I thought we'd run into a monster even more terrifying than that leopard guy... Wait, isn't he that bounty hunter from Alabasta?" Usopp's legs, which had only just stopped shaking, immediately began trembling again.

Rain ignored the two clowns. He slung his pack over his back and picked up the Golden Den Den Mushi whose button had already been pressed.

"Wooo—wooo—wooo!"

At that moment, the highest-level piercing alarm rang out over Enies Lobby, completely shattering the brief standoff.

"Emergency announcement! Emergency announcement! The Buster Call has been activated! All Navy and Government personnel, evacuate immediately toward the Gates of Justice! I repeat, the Buster Call has been activated..."

Franky and Usopp's faces instantly turned deathly pale.

Rain glanced out the window at the battlefield, now completely thrown into chaos, and nodded in satisfaction. He walked to the corner, where the stone floor beneath his feet softened like a swamp.

"My part is over." Rain pulled his dark gray hood lower as his body began sinking into the rock below.

Before he was completely swallowed by the darkness, Rain raised his head and took one deep look at Robin and the two companions standing in front of her.

"Go create your own miracle. If you can't even overcome a mere Buster Call, then you aren't qualified to enter the New World."

With those final words, cold yet carrying a hidden expectation, Rain's body completely melded into the stone floor. Taking Spandam with him, along with the astonishing wealth and manuals, he vanished without a trace.

Amid the ruins of the office, only the piercing alarm remained, along with Nico Robin, who rose to her feet and stared in the direction Rain had disappeared, her eyes gradually becoming firmer than ever before.

"Let's go!" Robin turned to Franky and Usopp, and at last, a truly relieved smile appeared on her lips. "Let's meet up with everyone!"