Robin Disappears; The Navigator, Xiaoyi

None of that affected Dongze. The days went by as they always had.

Until one day, Dongze ran into Nico Robin again.

Looking at the corpses strewn across the ship, Nico Robin asked him the same question.

"You're not going to kill me?"

He checked his status panel.

Armament Haki: 120000/1000000;

Observation Haki: 110000/1000000;

Conqueror's Haki: 1000/1000000;

Hundred-Pace Flying Sword: max;

Crossing the Eight Directions: max;

Sword-Draw Technique: max;

Heavenly Flying Immortal: 8000/10000;

Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness: 3500/10000;

One Sword Across the Ages: 2500/10000;

Taiji Swordsmanship: max;

Sword Intent (locked): 0/100;

...

Dongze sighed. "Sorry. I can't beat you!"

He sounded utterly sincere, making the corner of Nico Robin's eye twitch. She had no idea why he refused to kill her, but there was nothing she could do. She could hardly capture him, beat him up, and demand to know why he would not kill her.

She gave the man before her a long look, then turned and left.

"Heavenly Flying Immortal!"

The sailboat exploded, scattering fragments across the sky.

As the number of pirates in the East Blue dwindled, Dongze and Nico Robin crossed paths more often. By the seventh time, Robin finally snapped.

"You bastard! Why are you picking on me?!"

Every time they met aboard a pirate ship, Dongze spared her and no one else. Once or twice might have been a coincidence, but every single time? That was not normal.

With their encounters becoming so frequent lately, Robin naturally concluded that Dongze was targeting her.

Watching Dongze prepare to leave, Robin thought of everything she had endured over the years, and anger flared in her chest. It was bad enough that the Marines targeted her. Now even a Pirate Hunter was doing it.

"I'm not! I really can't beat you!"

Robin gritted her teeth. "Bullshit! I can't even block one of your strikes!"

In just a few months, she had seen him split a ship apart with one strike six whole times. And he claimed he could not beat her? Did he think she had been kicked in the head by a donkey?

Dongze had no idea how to explain it to the furious young woman. He really could not win. He was still at least 500,000 points away from Aokiji.

But what was he supposed to say? Your old man—that Admiral Aokiji—has been watching you the whole time. I couldn't beat him even if I swung my sword until it broke.

Robin probably would not believe him anyway.

"Look, I really can't beat you!"

"I don't believe you!"

In her fury, she used her power. More than a dozen pairs of small hands appeared behind Dongze, and then...

That was it. An unconscious burst of Dongze's Conqueror's Haki knocked her out cold.

"Oh, great. Now I'm in trouble."

Dongze looked at Robin, sprawled on the ground, and sighed. He could not leave her here alone. It was dangerous, and he would not feel right about it.

Helplessly, he picked Robin up in his arms and carried her back to his ship.

Then came "Heavenly Flying Immortal!"

Once again, he tore the pirate ship apart.

"Mm..."

Two hours later, Robin woke. The unfamiliar surroundings made her heart lurch.

Her first instinct was to jump out the window and flee.

First, she scanned the room. It was clean and tidy, with everything one might need. Several suitcases stood in a corner. One lay open, packed full of Beli.

If the other cases were full of Beli too, she estimated they held at least five or six hundred million in total.

Yet the owner apparently did not care much. He had left them sitting there in plain sight.

A bookshelf on the east side of the room held all kinds of books: medicine, navigation, ship repair, cooking—every subject imaginable.

Nearby stood a framed photograph of four people. A middle-aged man in glasses wore a swordsmanship uniform, while the other three were children: two boys and a girl. One boy had moss-green hair and a haughty look in his eyes. The little girl wore a bright smile. The last was a black-haired boy with the hint of a smile on his lips. He looked happy, yet his eyes held an unshakable resolve. Who else could he be but the bastard who kept targeting her?

Robin had never imagined Dongze, whom the East Blue's pirates called a demon, had a side like this. She had thought he was an orphan. He hated pirates so fiercely that he spared none of them.

Just then, Dongze pushed the door open. Seeing Robin awake, he said flatly, "Now that you're awake, leave."

Robin looked at his expressionless face. Something seemed to occur to her, and the corner of her mouth rose.

"What if I refuse?"

Dongze narrowed his eyes, killing intent radiating from him. "I'm a Pirate Hunter."

Robin's face paled under the pressure. Her large eyes, framed by straight bangs, filled with apprehension. Even so, she held her ground. "Mr. Dongze, you can't scare me with that. If you wanted to kill me, you would've done it long ago. You certainly wouldn't have waited until now!"

"What if I've changed my mind?"

Forgotten Dust slid from its sheath. A chilling force surged outward, and Robin slumped to the floor.

For a moment, Robin seemed stunned senseless. Only now did she fully realize that the man before her was a Pirate Hunter—someone who hunted pirates for a living.

He was not someone a pirate like her could bargain with.

Looking up at Dongze, who stood a head taller than her, Robin felt a rare spark of stubbornness.

Robin was considerably older than Dongze, but she had no advantage in height. As Dongze's physique had developed, he had grown a head taller than her.

"I'm not leaving!"

Robin's unexpected stubbornness left Dongze at a loss. He had considered the possibility of this happening. Nico Robin had earned her archaeology certificate at seven years old. She was exceptionally bright.

With her intelligence, it would not be hard for her to work out that Dongze had no intention of killing her.

And with nowhere else to go, she might latch on to him. That was why he had said he was in trouble.

Dongze said nothing. Robin found that surprising too. Sharp as she was, she could see that he did not seem to want to kill her. He even appeared to be wrestling with a decision.

She remembered looking much the same as a child whenever she could not decide between eel rice and grilled meat.

"I can cook, I know navigation, and I know archaeology! I'm not dead weight!"

That was how clever people communicated. Robin saw his hesitation and began making her case.

The words startled even her. She was a pirate. Why was she so desperate to stay aboard a Pirate Hunter's ship?

"I can't protect you."

After a long silence, Robin finally got an answer.

But his words brought tears to her eyes.

"I can't protect you."

Ever since Ohara had sunk beneath the sea, everyone who approached her had wanted something. Some hoped to use her reputation to make a name for their Pirate Crew. Others wanted to trade her for the bounty.

When had anyone ever said something like that to her?

In all her life, no one had spoken to her so plainly. She could hear the difference between this man and the people she had met before. He did not care that she was the Devil Child. He was even willing to protect her.

For an instant, she felt as though she understood something, though she could not quite put it into words.

"Have we met before?"

Silence settled between them again, much as it had earlier. This time, though, Robin felt anticipation instead of unease.

"Do we need to have met before today?"

That answer struck her speechless.

Robin was quiet for a long time. Overwhelmed, she found herself saying, "What if I told you that, if it came down to it, you could leave me behind?"

After that, Dongze had little left to say.

"Do as you like."

Robin's eyes lit up. He had finally relented.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Dongze!"

The sun had already sunk toward the western horizon, and night would soon fall. Dongze sighed and tossed Robin two small boxes.

"You're too recognizable like that."

"Dye your hair and put in these contact lenses. Change your hairstyle too—brush your bangs back."

"And change your clothes. I'll get you a few outfits in the next town. For now, you can wear mine."

They were both smart enough to know where things stood. If Dongze kept playing the villain and tried to drive Robin away, he would only cause more trouble. So he decided to let her stay.

Back in his previous life, he had seen this sort of plot so often that he had grown tired of complaining about it. He still remembered thinking the male and female leads must have been kicked in the head by a donkey the first time he encountered one.

Now that he was the male lead, why would he make the same mistake?

For a long time, he had wondered how the Marines and Pirate Hunters identified pirates well enough to track them down and cut them off.

Before he mastered Observation Haki, he had assumed they relied on the portraits on wanted posters. After mastering it, he realized Observation Haki might also let them identify a target.

But in the East Blue, people who could use Observation Haki were few and far between. Even among the Marine officers stationed there, hardly any had mastered it. Not even a talent like Smoker had.

With the legendary art of changing one's appearance through makeup, Dongze was confident he could make the young woman before him vanish from the East Blue for a while.

Unless they ran into Aokiji himself, or Garp on a visit home, no one would recognize the person beside him as Nico Robin, the Devil Child on the wanted poster.

The next day, Robin, dressed in men's clothing, stared at her reflection in astonishment. She looked nothing like her old self.

"Is that really me?"

"It's a temporary solution. Unless we run into someone proficient in Observation Haki, no one will recognize you."

"One more thing. From now on, you're not to use your Flower-Flower Fruit powers in front of anyone without my permission. Break that rule, and you'll bear the consequences."

The young woman standing before Dongze had red hair, light brown eyes, and hair swept back from her face. A pair of black sunglasses rested on her forehead.

Dressed in the clothes of a swordsmanship dojo, she looked both dashing and alluring. There was not the slightest resemblance to the woman on the wanted poster.

(Think of the mishap with Sanji's first wanted poster! It's entirely plausible.)

Dongze sighed softly. "Not bad."

"Only thanks to your skills, Mr. Dongze."

"From today on, you'll go by Xiao Yi when we're out in public."

Nico Robin fell silent. She knew Dongze meant well, but she did not want to give up the name she had been given at birth. It was proof of her place in this world.

Dongze sighed. He understood what Robin was thinking, and said quietly, "If you won't do it, you can leave on your own when we reach the next town."

He had goals and ambitions of his own. Though he had grown somewhat fond of the woman before him, he would not compromise his principles.

Hearing the resolve in Dongze's voice, Robin did not hesitate again. She nodded gently. Taking her in was already an immense kindness. If she failed to appreciate that, she could hardly call herself clever.

"Then Xiao Yi is pleased to meet you, Mr. Dongze."

Robin bent at the waist and bowed to Dongze. From that moment on, Nico Robin's fate was swept into the unknown by the force Dongze had brought into her life.

"You're looking for a Poneglyph, aren't you?"