Vision Cage

Robin: "..."

She fell silent for a moment, tilting her little head with no expression on her face.

"What hurts?"

Dawn raised his chin, gesturing at the wreckage around him.

"I was just shipwrecked, knocked unconscious by the waves, then drifted on this lousy plank for who knows how long. Of course everything hurts. Do I really need to explain that?"

As he spoke, he secretly studied Robin. She was smaller and quieter than he had imagined, with wariness and... lifelessness far beyond her years hidden in her sapphire-like eyes.

Robin: "Oh."

Dawn immediately felt helpless. Saul really was impressive, being able to keep talking to such a detached little Robin...

After only a few exchanges, Dawn was already having trouble keeping the conversation going. Still, he quickly adjusted his mood and tried to make his tone sound more natural.

"Is there a town on this island?"

Robin: "Yes."

Dawn muttered as though relieved.

"That's good. I thought I'd drifted onto a deserted island. That really would have left me calling to heaven and earth with no answer."

He paused, then looked at Robin with a suitably pleading gaze.

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad person. I'll leave once I've recovered. Oh, and when you get home, remember not to mention me to anyone. I don't want to draw attention."

Without even thinking, Robin answered directly.

"Got it."

Dawn raised an eyebrow, his tone tinged with suspicion.

"You agreed that quickly? You're not going to sell me out the moment you turn around, are you?"

"No. Because I'm not interested in you at all."

Just as expected, Robin at this stage was indeed hard to deal with.

Dawn sighed inwardly. He felt the furry little thing in his arms seem to move.

At that moment, Stella, transformed into a little white fox and curled up inside Dawn's soaked shirt, rolled her eyes beneath her fur.

What's with this guy? Ever since he started talking to this little girl, it feels like he's reciting some weird script... Even his tone is so stiff.

If Dawn had known what she was thinking, he would surely have been surprised by her sharpness. In truth, most of what he had just said was indeed dialogue from his memories of Saul's first encounter with Robin. He had been trying to recreate that first impression.

But clearly, the results were far from ideal.

Seeing that following the script would not open things up, Dawn decided to proceed at his own pace.

"My name is Dawn. Davy D. Dawn."

Before Robin, he did not hesitate to reveal his real name, both his true surname, Davy, and the D.

For now, this Robin was still trustworthy.

Of course, if he had been facing the Robin who had endured the Buster Call and struggled through years of darkness, he would never have revealed so much so easily. He would have been sold out without question; he did not possess the absurd affinity of some Sun God.

"D?"

Robin murmured the letter, a trace of extremely subtle puzzlement flashing through her eyes.

Dawn continued as if casually, his voice carrying the ease of the sea breeze.

"That? I don't know exactly what it means either. Everyone in my family has it in their name. But according to my parents, there are quite a few other families in the world with it in their names too.

"For example... I heard that a family of scholars in the West Blue was named... Clover? Right, the Clover family. Their names have it too."

"Clover?!"

Robin's pupils abruptly contracted! That was Dr. Clover's surname! Could the doctor also...?

The thought flashed through her mind like lightning, stirring violent ripples across the still waters of her heart. For the first time, she looked at Dawn with intense curiosity and scrutiny.

Seeing that his words had successfully caught Robin's attention, Dawn pressed on while the iron was hot. He brought the subject back to reality and put on a solemnly pleading expression.

"I'm being hunted by some very troublesome people, so having my identity exposed would be dangerous. Please, keep my secret. Don't reveal any news about me to anyone on this island, all right?"

This time, his gaze was even more sincere, carrying even a faint, nearly imperceptible trust in a fellow person rejected by the world.

Robin looked into his sincere eyes. The emotions within them seemed to resonate with a certain loneliness buried deep in her heart.

She nodded firmly.

"Mm, I understand. I won't say anything."

This time, her tone was no longer merely flat. There was a trace of earnestness in it.

Dawn glanced at the setting sun gradually sinking beneath the horizon and reminded her.

"It's getting late. Aren't you going home? Your family will worry, won't they?"

Robin suddenly came to her senses as well. Seeing how late it had become, she cried out.

"Ah! It is late! I really have to go back, or I'll get scolded again!"

With that, her small figure hurried toward the town deeper on the island, soon disappearing into the thickening dusk and the shadows of the forest.

Once Robin had vanished completely, the weak expression of a "shipwrecked victim" instantly disappeared from Dawn's face. He brushed sand and wood chips from himself and stood up with brisk movements.

With a "puchi," Stella finally could not hold it in any longer. She wriggled desperately out of Dawn's shirt, jumped onto a dry rock nearby, and vigorously shook out her fluffy white fur. In an irritated human voice, she complained.

"I was suffocating! Why were you lying there playing dead the whole time? You nearly smothered me!"

Dawn looked apologetic and reached out, intending to smooth Stella's ruffled fur.

"Sorry, Stella. Things were urgent, and I forgot about you."

Stella nimbly dodged his big hand, snorted, then stood on her hind legs with her little paws on her hips.

"Hmph! Forget that. How are you planning to handle tonight? We can't spend the night on this damp shore, can we?!"

Dawn shook his head and surveyed the dense forest behind him.

"Of course not. I planned it out long ago. There are plenty of ready-made materials here, so we'll just build a temporary wooden hut. We won't get a sea chart anytime soon, either. We may have to stay here for a while."

Stella spread her little paws. Her tone sounded helpless, but an unnoticeable flicker of delight flashed through her fox eyes.

"All right, whatever you say. But building a house is a big job."

"Easy."

As he spoke, Dawn made several agile leaps and easily jumped onto the steep rock face beside them, entering the forest above. Stella followed close behind, gracefully bounding up after him in a few jumps.

Dawn chose a relatively flat, concealed clearing in the woods not far from the shore.

By then, the night had become the best cover. Dawn raised one hand and murmured.

"[Vision Cage]"

A darkness as deep as night silently spread from his palm, swiftly enveloping nearly half the forest.

This darkness was not merely the absence of light. It seemed alive and tangible, greedily absorbing every sound and ray of light within its range. Then Dawn punched a large tree beside him, one that would take two people to encircle!

"Bang!" A muffled impact rang out, as though something had covered it. The trunk snapped at the blow, scattering wood chips everywhere. Yet the tremendous crash that should have accompanied its fall, the sharp cracks of breaking branches, vanished into the viscous darkness like stones dropped into an abyss. It absorbed and devoured them all, without letting the slightest sound reach the outside world.

Only the flock of birds within the dark domain was startled. They flapped their wings, trying to escape, but their cries and the beating of their wings were likewise swallowed completely the instant they touched the edge of the darkness, as though caught in an invisible swamp, and were utterly extinguished.

TO BE CONTINUED