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Zoro folded his arms. "Don't forget her wanted poster-seventy-nine million Beli.
And don't forget who she used to stand beside."
Nami's nails dug into her palms.
She remembered Robin reading in a deck chair, her fingers always brushing the pages gently, as though afraid of disturbing the words.
She remembered the precision with which Robin timed her tea brewing down to the second, and the unreadable something that occasionally flickered through her dark brown eyes when she gazed at the horizon.
"She's one of us."
Nami spoke each word distinctly. "We've sailed together, fought together.
That's enough."
Chopper was still sobbing, his little hooves scraping unconsciously at the ground.
Luffy bent down and picked up a book that had fallen into a corner.
It had a hard cover, its gilt title already worn and patchy.
He opened it. A dried leaf lay between the pages, its fine veins like a spiderweb.
The wind suddenly strengthened, rattling the windows.
In the distance, waves crashed against the seawall, each heavier than the last, like the breathing of a giant beast drawing closer.
"What kind of person she is isn't the point."
Zoro looked away, avoiding Nami's searching gaze, and turned to the other side.
"Luffy, what's your call?"
The silence lasted several seconds.
"Whether she was forced to disappear or chose to leave-"
Luffy's voice carried clearly through the night wind.
"We have to find her first."
"If she's in danger, we'll beat whoever's holding her. If she left willingly... she'll have to tell us why to our faces."
He closed his hand, then slowly opened it.
Tiny particles of light rose from his palm, humming into the air like startled night insects, wrapped in fine blue-white threads of electricity.
The lights scattered throughout the city, drifting among rooftops of different