Buster Call (Part 2)

Five days later.

Ohara, northwest coast, Saul's hideout.

The sea breeze stirred the sparse blades of grass and scattered the charred aroma of roasted meat.

Saul's massive body nearly filled the crude rocky hollow serving as his hideout. Sitting cross-legged, he made the steak in his hand look exceptionally small. He swallowed it in one bite and let out a muffled, satisfied sigh:

"Dereshishishi! Delicious! This meat was prepared really well!"

He raised a finger and gave the remaining steak to the little girl atop the boulder:

"The rest is yours, Robin!"

Robin shook her head, indicating that she wasn't hungry. Then her gaze fixed on the giant as firmly as nails.

Saul froze. He met those overly calm eyes. His thick brows knit together, and his voice carried incredulous confusion.

"You still want me to thank you?"

"Mhm."

Robin's voice was very soft.

The giant fell silent for several seconds. The muscles in his face tightened, then relaxed.

Suddenly, he bared a mouthful of white teeth and let out a louder laugh that somehow sounded a little embarrassed:

"Dereshishishi! Dereshishishi!"

Before the laughter had faded, he suddenly leaned forward. With one sweep of his giant hand, he stuffed all the remaining steaks into his mouth. Muttering indistinctly, he rose to his feet, stirring up a gust of wind.

"I'm going to make a raft!"

His enormous body moved with the awkwardness of someone almost fleeing as he strode toward the logs piled on the shore.

Robin did not move. Her eyes merely followed him.

She watched him effortlessly lift a massive log that would have taken several people to encircle. Knotted muscles rolled beneath his bronze skin, making a dull scraping sound.

"Say, why are you so free? You've been here for days. Don't you get along with your friends or parents?"

Saul's voice came from beneath the heavy log, carrying a rumbling echo.

"I don't have a father. I have a mother, but she went to sea when I was two. As for friends, I only have one, but he went to sea without saying a word a while ago. The other children on the island think I'm strange, so they won't play with me."

Robin's voice was as calm as though she were telling someone else's story. The moment she finished speaking, her slender wrist lifted gently.

Dozens of little girls' arms suddenly sprouted from Saul's thick right arm as he held up the log. He slowly lowered his head and looked at the unimaginable sight on his arm.

A few seconds later, a laugh carrying a strange sort of acceptance rolled up from deep within his chest:

"Dereshishishi! So you're a Devil Fruit user. That ability really is convenient!"

"No matter how many times I hear it,"

Robin's gaze never left the little hands wrapped around the giant's arm.

"I still think your laugh is really strange."

Saul paid no mind to Robin's jab and burst out laughing again:

"Dereshishishi, don't say that. Laughter makes people happy."

Robin's voice remained calm, but it carried an unquestionable seriousness.

"I think people only want to laugh after they feel happy. My friend said that forcing a smile when you don't feel truly happy is ugly."

The muscles in Saul's arm tightened around the log, as if he wanted to press its heavy weight deeper into his shoulders and back. He was silent for a moment before responding in a muffled voice:

"Dereshishishi... that friend of yours... does have a point."

As the giant's deep laughter and the girl's calm words mingled in the wind, atop a jagged reef not far from their hideout, a protrusion identical in color and texture to the surrounding rock subtly adjusted the angle of its "gaze."

Information passed through thick layers of rock and earth, instantly reaching the underground space.

"It seems my appearance hasn't significantly changed the plot."

Adam's words created faint echoes in the empty cavern, cold and certain.

After confirming that the events on the coast had not deviated, his attention instantly withdrew from the damp darkness. Like invisible tentacles, it spread through the earth, leaping to the soil messengers scattered across other corners of the island.

Next, through the eyes of the miniature earth men, he watched Olvia return, Olvia get severely wounded by Cipher Pol, Cipher Pol drive the scholars out of the Tree of Knowledge, Robin reunite with the scholars and recognize Olvia, and a series of other events.

The scene shifted again, this time from inside a smooth black reef polished by the waves along the shore.

The evacuation ship carrying Ohara's last hope looked small and fragile upon the freezing sea.

The faces of Ohara's civilians—those who usually looked at Robin with disgust and regarded her as an oddity—were now twisted beyond recognition by extreme terror.

When little Robin tried to board as the soldiers prepared to embark, their despair instantly found an outlet.

"Monster! Get lost!"

"Don't let her aboard! She'll bring bad luck!"

"It's all because of you scholars! And this demon too!"

Their curses and abuse shot toward the lonely, tiny figure standing before the gangplank like a dense rain of poisoned arrows.

Robin's body stiffened. The last trace of color drained from her little face, leaving only ash-gray pallor and a vast emptiness.

Finally, Spandine's announcement broadcast became the last straw. Robin could no longer bear it and left with a choked sob.

Not long after Robin left—

BOOM!!!

A massive shell erupted from the main cannon of a distant Marine warship, streaked across the freezing sea, and struck the evacuation ship packed with lives with unerring precision.

Screams, cries, curses—all human noise... was utterly erased the instant that crimson light devoured everything.

The soil messenger inside the reef faithfully recorded the annihilation unfolding so close by.

Deep underground, Adams, floating in the darkness, slowly opened his eyes.

"It's time for me to make my entrance."

He murmured, his voice exceptionally clear in the empty cavern.

The instant the words fell, his floating body suddenly sank downward.

"Ha!"

With a low exhalation, the power of two years of waiting erupted. His fists, covered in earthen gauntlets, became two enormous hammers capable of breaking cities, tearing through the air with shrill howls as they drove without reserve into the rock overhead.

He could assimilate his way down, but the scholars could not. He had to open an escape route for them.

Inside the Tree of Knowledge.

A muffled crash powerful enough to stop hearts exploded from deep underground. Bookshelves toppled with a thunderous roar as if shoved by invisible giant hands, and heavy tomes rained down like an avalanche.

Years of dust fell from the dome in showers, mixing with the ash from the flames to form a choking cloud of smoke.

The terrified screams of the scholars surrounded by a sea of fire were drowned out by the continuous rumbling. Dr. Clover staggered, only avoiding a fall because Olvia beside him held him firmly.

His wrinkled face was filled with horror, his clouded eyes fixed on the violently trembling floor at the center of the library.

BANG!!!

The hard floor exploded like a fragile eggshell. Fragments shot in every direction like cannonballs, slamming into the burning bookshelves.

A huge hole suddenly appeared, and swirling smoke spread at once like the breath exhaled by some underground beast.

A figure took shape within the billowing smoke.

Dr. Clover clutched his throat, aching from the smoke, and stared in shock at the figure that had suddenly emerged from underground:

"Ad... Adams? You..."

"There's no time, Doctor! If you trust me, grab the books and jump down! Now!"

TO BE CONTINUED