Vision Cage

Robin: "..."

She fell silent for a moment, tilted her little head, and showed no expression on her face.

"What hurts?"

Dawn lifted his chin, gesturing at the wreckage around them.

"I just survived a shipwreck, got knocked unconscious by the waves, and 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 thinner than he had imagined, and her sapphire-like eyes held a wariness and... lifelessness far beyond her age.

Robin: "Oh."

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

They had only exchanged a few words, yet he was already struggling to keep 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: "There is."

Dawn muttered as though relieved.

"That's good. I thought I'd drifted onto a deserted island. That would've been truly hopeless."

He paused, then looked at Robin with a perfectly measured hint of pleading in his eyes.

"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 attract attention."

Without even thinking, Robin answered directly.

"Got it."

Dawn raised a brow, suspicion coloring his tone.

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

"I won't. I'm not interested in you at all."

As expected, Robin was indeed difficult to deal with right now.

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

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's felt like he's reciting some strange lines... Even his tone is so stiff.

If Dawn knew what she was thinking, he would certainly have been surprised by her sharpness. In truth, most of what he had just said came from his memories of Saul and Robin's first meeting. He had been trying to recreate that first impression.

But clearly, the results were far from ideal.

Seeing that following a 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 Davy, his true surname, and the D.

Robin was still trustworthy at the moment.

Of course, if he had been facing the Robin who had endured the Buster Call and struggled through the darkness for years, he would never have revealed so much so easily. He would absolutely have been sold out. He did not have the absurd charm of a certain Sun God.

"D?"

Robin murmured the letter, and an extremely faint trace of confusion flashed 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 whose names have it too.

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

"Clow?!"

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

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

Seeing that his words had successfully caught Robin's attention, Dawn struck while the iron was hot. Pulling the topic back to reality, he put on a solemnly pleading expression.

"Robin, some very troublesome people are hunting me, so having my identity exposed would be dangerous. Please, you must help me keep this secret. Don't tell anyone on the island about me, all right?"

This time, his gaze was even more sincere, even carrying a barely noticeable trust in someone else "rejected by the world."

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

She nodded firmly.

"Mm, I understand. I won't tell anyone."

This time, her tone was no longer merely indifferent. It held a trace of sincerity.

Dawn glanced at the sun gradually sinking below 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. It was already late, and she cried out.

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

With those words, her small figure hurried toward the town deeper on the island, quickly vanishing into the deepening twilight and the shadows of the forest.

Once Robin had completely disappeared, the weak expression of a "shipwreck victim" vanished from Dawn's face. He brushed the sand and wood chips from his body, then rose to his feet in one clean motion.

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

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

Dawn looked apologetic and reached out, intending to smooth down Stella's puffed-up fur.

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

Stella nimbly dodged his large hand, snorted, then stood upright with her little paws on her hips.

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

Dawn shook his head and looked around at the dense forest behind them.

"Of course not. I've had it planned out for a while. There are plenty of ready-made materials here, so we can just build a temporary wooden hut. We won't be able to get a sea chart right away, so we may have to stay here for some time."

Stella spread her little paws. Her tone seemed helpless, but an imperceptible delight flashed in her fox eyes.

"All right, whatever you say. But building a house is a huge project."

"Easy."

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

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

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

[Vision Cage]

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

This darkness was not merely the absence of light. It seemed to possess life and substance, greedily absorbing every sound and ray of light within its range. Then Dawn threw a punch at a massive tree beside him that would have taken two people to encircle.

"Bang!" The heavy blow sounded muffled, as though something had covered it. The tree trunk snapped at once, and splinters flew everywhere. Yet the thunderous crash that should have accompanied its fall, along with the sharp cracks of breaking branches, was like stones thrown into an abyss—completely absorbed and swallowed by that viscous darkness, with not the slightest sound reaching the outside world.

Only the birds within the dark domain were startled. They flapped their wings, trying to flee, but their cries and wingbeats were likewise swallowed and extinguished the instant they touched the edge of the darkness, as though trapped in an invisible swamp.

TO BE CONTINUED