The rest of the journey towards Panta was uneventful, for the most part.
Alexander's and Anemone's special activity developed into a regular activity over the last few days, once tasted it was hard to go without, not that Alexander was the most eager although he wasn't far behind Anemone in eagerness. She was unexpectedly active during their nights, contrary to their first time where Alexander did everything.
Their activities didn't remain hidden, that was something Alexander worried about mainly because Robin began eviting him, although not to the point where she hid from him, Alexander knew he had to become more aggressive in his pursuit of Robin because he couldn't let her distance herself from him, risking to ruin their relationship.
Apart from the trouble of the heart, Alexander continued his training. He didn't have any progress in communicating with his Zanpakuto, that wasn't unexpected as even the shinigami in Bleach needed several years to reach the Shikai, that was if you don't count monsters like Kurosaki Ichigo who didn't take much time at all. Even if he had an ability boosting his learning speed, he didn't know how much it would help, in the end it would all depend on him. So he spent much time in meditation.
Elis and the other girls didn't care about what was happening between the captain, Robin and Anemone, they were wholeheartedly focused on their training, not that they didn't gossip behind their back, after all everyone needed some kind of pass time.
Alexander looked at the screen where the [Dead Sea] was listed. He didn't yet have the confidence of entering, he hoped to at least master [Armament Haki] to a higher level before entering there, he didn't know what awaited inside so he had to be careful. Now that they had the chance to take a breather on earth, Alexander wanted to advance everyone's training and then venture inside the Dead Sea.
Swiping the screen away, Alexander, who was looking at the sea with his elbows on the railing, turned around at began walking towards Robin who was at the wheel, that was her main task for now and, while she didn't need to stay at the wheel all the time, since they weren't in the grand line where the weather changed like the clouds and one couldn't rest for a second, she liked being in control of the ship.
"How is it?" Asked Alexander as he got closer to her.
Robin glanced at him, but her face didn't change as she replied, "We will reach Panta tomorrow." Her voice wasn't cold, but neither was it warm like before, Alexander felt pain in his heart, and he reignited his desire to earn her feelings. The situation wasn't all that bad, he wasn't an expert, but he believed that she was feeling a bit jealous, he may be wrong, but he was somewhat confident about his judgement after he saw her behavior during the last few days.
"We didn't train together for some time now, how about we resume were we left last time?" Alexander wanted to spend more time with her, only then will they get closer, and what was better than sweating together. It was obvious by her changing expression that she wanted to refuse at first but changed her mind at the last moment.
"Alright." They moved to the main deck as it offered the most space and there was no one else there, Elis and the other girls were inside the ship.
They moved until only three meters remained between them. Facing each other, they decided not to use the devil fruit as Robin was at a disadvantage in front of him. Her disadvantage in was because of the unique weakness of her fruit, if her extra parts of the body summoned were attacked, she would receive the damage to her main body together with the pain, touching Alexander's body was a bad idea, the only way she could overcome that was by training a strong haki. Their training was without the use of the devil fruit, as before.
Robin's talent and effort weren't to be underestimated, her haki was visibly better than a week before, for most people it took a long time to train haki, then there were people who had a natural disposition to learning it and Robin stood out even among them. He didn't understand why in the original story she showed no sings of learning it despite her obvious talent, maybe he shouldn't call it talent but her natural high intelligence that gave her a high comprehension ability.
Alexander's own haki was even better, but he didn't feel proud about it as he felt like he cheated with his system, he was told it was part of him, but he still couldn't consider it as such.
Since this was training, the best way was to both be at the same level of power so that they both could improve at the same rate.
Robin's strikes were more fierce than usual, she was clearly venting frustration on himself, he was more confident that he was right, she did felt jealous and not disgusted with him, that gave him some peace of heart, now he had to stir the waters more and change the jealousy in something else. There was no need for words, her emotional intelligence wasn't low, she could perceive his feelings just by observing his face and body language, he believed so.
Alexander became more aggressive, pushing Robin back again and again, until she was with the back to the main mast, then taking the opportunity of one of her punch going too wide, he took a hold of her wrist and pinned it to the main mast, leaving her exposed.
They both stopped moving and looked into each other's eyes, breathing heavily.
Crystal clear drops of sweat flowed down her face and between her valley, a very stimulating scenery, Alexander approached Robin's lips slowly, giving her time to understand his intention, giving her time to answer. Just when he almost made contact with her lips, when he wasn't paying attention to anything else, he found himself thrown on his back by Robin, he was startled for a moment and then disappointed that he failed, but before he could think more about his situation, Robin straddled him, one leg on each of his sides as she sat on his stomach, then, to Alexander's amazement, she kissed him, hungrily.