The green haired swordsman stares down the mysterious girl in front of him, and thinking of what to ask first. Once, he has a few ready, he works on getting some answers. "How long have you been in this world?"
Rose grins at the harmless question before she looks to the stars. "Since the day I met you guys at Little Garden."
Zoro is dumbfounded by the quick answer, because of how calm she was not only on the island but also when meeting the band of pirates. "So, you planned on coming here?"
She sighs at the question before she faces him, and lightly scratches the back of her head. "No, I came here by accident. The night that I left my world, I saw the comet for the first time. I didn't know how to leave that place back then, so I made a joke that a wish would do it."
She chuckles at the joke that she made before she lifts up her necklace to show off her crystal under the lantern's light. "Turns out the joke was on me, because this beautiful gem absorbed enough of the comet's energy to grant it while I was asleep. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the deck."
He immediately becomes shellshocked at the answer, and stares at the heavy sleeper with wide eyes. "You woke up on our ship?!"
Rose holds herself back from giggling at his surprised facial expression, and looks to the Merry's head. "Yea, you guys already left when I showed up. I figured out that you guys were pirates, so I left to avoid getting in trouble for sneaking onboard."
He nods at this, and is grateful that she gave him some booze. He takes a drink to help him process the story then looks at her. "You still didn't seem freaked out when you met us."
"That's because when my folks were alive, we made guidelines on how to blend into other worlds." She digs into her bag until she takes out a lamp dial, and her journal.
She flips through the pages until she reaches the guidelines and turns on the lamp dial to shine a better light on the book. "I'm still updating it as I travel, but there are some very useful ones in here."
Rose keeps shining a light over the book while Zoro takes the book and reads a guideline out loud. "Guideline # 1: Don't tell anyone your origins until you learn how the Timore comet's viewed in that world. Depending on how it's viewed, you can either tell those that you trust or don't tell them at all..."
He widens his eyes at the hefty guideline and looks to her in disbelief. "You can't be serious about this..."
She shrugs as she takes the journal back. "If I told you guys the truth when we first met, would you honestly believe me and not be suspicious?"
He stares her down for a moment, but he knows that she has a valid point. "Fair enough, but that doesn't explain how you knew about Alabasta when we first met. You even knew what devil fruits were."
He pauses when another question pops up in his mind. "Wait, are your powers even from a devil fruit?!"
She giggles at the worried question and raises her hands up defensively. "Relax, the story of how I found my devil fruit was true. Besides this wind power, I'm the same as any other human girl you know."
The swordsman settles down by the answer, but that doesn't settle all his questions. "Ok, but do devil fruits exist in your world?"
She tenses up at the question, because she knows that they're going into the heavier details now. "No, they don't exist in my world. The reason I know about them is why I'm so hesitant in everyone knowing..."
Zoro raises an eyebrow at the tenseness before Rose takes a small breath.
Once she's ready, she gets it over with as quickly as she can. "You see, the books that we read are basically windows to different worlds. That means what we're reading is actually happening in another world. Where I'm from that's especially true because we have access to thousands, if not millions, of stories that show a different world's past and future. This world is no exception to that."
Zoro drops his jaw at the explanation and can only stare at her with wide eyes.
Rose drinks her alcohol on his behalf and shudders at the strong flavor again. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and sighs when she sees that he's still frozen. "And this is why I'm so secretive about it with you guys. I don't want to freak you all out."
Zoro snaps out of it and completely understands her reasoning. It doesn't mean that he understands the rest of it though. "You're telling me that you know this world's past and future?"
She quickly nods, and tries her best not to talk about her knowledge of the crew. "That's right, I know this world's historical events like the pirate king's death and what it caused. I also know future events that affect the World Government, which is why outsiders like me are prime targets for them. And thanks to my screw up in Navarone, they probably know who I am now."
He remembers her confession to the marine and starts becoming angry at how she can be so stupid. "Then what the hell were you thinking?! There had to have been other ways to get her to drop it!"
She groans at the lecture as she mirrors his glare. "If there was, I sure as hell would love to know it! If I had used my wind on Lily, she could've triggered the comet's power by accident!"
He's still mad about the choice when he remembers the lookalike that Rose helped. "What exactly is going on between you two? Why do you guys look alike?"
The brunette calms down a little at the new topic, but is still hesitant to answer his question. "Lily... She's kind of like this world's version of me."
The swordsman raises an eyebrow at the weird answer. "What do you mean?"
She knits her eyebrows in worry of how to phrase it right, and tries to explain it clearly. "What I said about doppelgangers is true but there's more to it. It's like two worlds are mirrors to one another with someone with the same face living in both worlds. They could have the same name, personality, and everything. However, the opposite could also be true and the only thing they could have in common is their faces. It all depends on the environments that they grew up in."
She sees the blank look on his face and chuckles at the reaction. "Sorry, I guess that was too much. What I'm trying to say, is that Lily is the me that's supposed to be in this world."
Zoro twitches an eyebrow at the off-handed insult to herself before he whacks her on the head, but his fist only goes through her. "Don't say that!"
Rose tilts her head in confusion of the hit as he tries again, but gets the same result. "What pissed in your booze?"
He stops trying to hit her when he finds that it's useless and grabs his liquor. "Don't say crap like you're not supposed to be here! You're annoying, but you're a part of the crew too!"
The wind girl is taken aback by the insult, as she watches him drink, but can't help but smile at his way of saying that he's accepted her. "Thanks, you're annoying too."
After he pulls away from the drink, he chuckles at the returned insult. "Thanks, so when are you going to tell the others?"
She freezes at the question, that reminds her of her other problems, and nervously rubs the back of her neck. "I'm not sure..."
He knits his eyebrows at the doubtful answer. "What do you mean?"
"I need time. I don't want to scare the others with all this."
He frowns at her uncertainty, because this is bound to get out to the others sooner or later. "I get that this is weird, but if you explain it to them, they'll get over it."
She hastily shakes her head to the idea. "Not yet, I need to gain Robin's trust first."
When the name of their newest crew mate is mentioned, he becomes confused. "What does Robin have to do with this?"
She grows nervous about explaining her problem with Robin to him, but she knows there's no way around it. "The two of us don't trust each other. I have a feeling that if I tell her as things are, something bad will happen."
He widens his eyes at the explanation. "She hasn't done anything to you, has she?!"
Rose looks away from him as she remembers the questions, and eavesdropping, that she had to deal with from the archaeologist. "Just a few spying eyes, nothing I can't handle. Still, I can't shake the worry that it won't end well if she knows now. I need time to find out when she's ready."
Zoro understands her reasoning and tiredly sighs. "Alright, but don't take too long. From what you said, we're all going to get dragged into some deep shit from this."
Rose quietly groans at all the problems she could be causing them, as she tightens her hold on her drink. "I did try to keep you guys out of my problems. We can all thank Luffy's stubbornness for this."
"I'll drink to that." Zoro says as he clicks his bottle with hers and drinks up.
Rose smiles at his response and joins him in drinking some liquid courage. She starts getting used to the taste and smiles when she starts to feel tipsy. She giggles at the lightening feeling as she puts down the almost finished bottle, to keep herself from getting too drunk, and grins at the green haired companion. "You know, it feels great to finally let this out to someone! You got any more questions?!"
Zoro grins at how she's finally relaxing about the subject and finishes his drink. "I just have a few more questions. First, what are you going to do with the stone you got back?"
Rose keeps a small grin on her face as she takes the tin container, that's holding her sample, out of her bag. "For now, I'm going to keep it by my side. It'd be pretty bad if someone in the crew grabbed it."
"How did you get that other one to work?"
She shrugs at the question as she remembers how the stone almost worked on her instead of her letter. "That was a lot of dumb luck, but I have a theory. In both the time when I left my world, and during the experiment there were a few common things that happened. First was that I spoke of a desired destination. The second was that I touched the crystal that held it's radiation."
Zoro nods at the similarities and tries to follow along. "If speaking of a place actually worked though, why did you freak out when Lily held the stone?"
Rose triumphantly laughs then points to him as if she's about to solve a crime. "That my friend is because having a destination in mind gives the energy a place to go to, but it's not the trigger! Oh no, the trigger in this is these babies!"
She points to her hand and wiggles her fingers. "It needs body heat! Or some other heat source to warm up and leak out the energy that it holds!"
She opens the box to show that the stone is surrounded by two, blue, shells that are emitting as cold of an air as if they're on Drum Island. "These are freeze dials. They have the opposite effect of heat dials and give off a freezing chill."
She grins at the cold crystal to find that its glow hasn't changed since she last saw it. "I've kept the dials with the stone all day, and it hasn't caused any problems."
Zoro widens his eyes at the theory and remembers the freezing cold wind that Rose made when she was convincing Lily to give her the sample. "I think you're right. You were making cold wind when you were talking to the marine."
Rose pauses at this and happily grins at the higher chances that her theory's right. "Really?!"
She puts her box away, and grabs her journal. She hastily writes down the confirmation and starts mumbling about her work. "This is so great! There are so many opportunities with this discovery! If I learn to control my cold wind, I might even be able to use the comet's radiation without losing a crystal!"
Zoro sweat drops at the nerd's enthusiasm before he remembers the papers that he saw disappearing during her experiment. "Hey wait, what exactly did you do in your experiment?"
Rose snaps out of it from the swordsman's voice and sheepishly grins at him. "I sent a letter and photo back to my homeland."
He raises an eyebrow at the answer. "You serious? I thought you hated that place."
Rose loses her buzz from remembering all the bad times in New York and sighs. "I do, but I have some friends that made life there less miserable. I wasn't able to tell them I was leaving, so I sent them those things to let them know I'm ok."
"You think they got it?"
She shrugs at the question before she looks up at the night sky, as if it holds her answer. "No clue, but wherever it landed will give someone a good fright."
Zoro chuckles at the thought before he gets up. "Ain't that the truth. I think I got all that I can handle tonight. I'm going to bed."
Rose sees that he's starting to climb off and grins at him. "See ya, and thank you."
He stops moving after he climbs off the edge and looks at her in confusion. "What are you thanking me for?"
"For being the first to find out, and for hearing me out before judging. I feel a lot better about it now."
The swordsman wasn't expecting such a sentimental answer, but he doesn't let it get to him as he lightly scoffs, and starts climbing down. "That's nothing to thank me for, it's not like you're any different. You're still the same shitty swordswoman I know."
Rose twitches an eyebrow at the insult before she glares down at him. "I'll show you who's shitty after I kick your ass tomorrow, you chia pet!"
"We'll see about that you alien!" Zoro says with a smirk as he climbs down without another word.
Rose chuckles at the new insult as she relaxes in the crow's nest, and is grateful of how things went. Even though she didn't tell him about how she knows the crew's future, she's happy that she could tell him the rest of her secret without him overreacting.
After she grabs her booze to finish the drink, she drops the bottle and looks down at her journal. With not only her crew mate, but the rest of the World Government, knowing her secret, she knows that her challenges are just beginning. "Man, this is nuts. Maybe I wrote that letter to them too soon."
She shrugs to herself as she updates her journal with everything that's happened involving the experiment. *If I find more stones, then maybe I can try again. Whatever happens, I hope that one I sent at least got to them.*
The astronomer keeps a small grin on her face as she goes through the night with her thoughts on her friends, and imagining the looks on their faces if they received the letter.
A few days have passed since Timothy and Naomi have hired Rose's foster sisters to work in their restaurant, and they're satisfied with the revenge they've dished out to them.
Marie and Laura have been forced to do every kind of clean up job available with Timothy being their supervisor. He's not one to let up either, if he sees that they're about to finish a task, he would get the next chore ready for them. Both of the girls hate the job, but they know that they can't find anything else decent, that would fit with their high school schedule, so they try to trudge through until they graduate in a few weeks.
Today's lunch shift was no different, with the twins in charge of cleaning the front room while Timothy takes care of placing new pizzas in the display cases.
While the nineteen year old boy is in the kitchen to grab another pizza pie, Laura immediately stops and sits down at an empty chair to rest. "I don't know how much longer I can handle this Marie."
Marie couldn't agree more, and doesn't care how her complaints look to the customers that are eating at the tables. "I know, this is torture. I finally get why Rosie always looked like a street rat."
"I don't see either of you winning beauty pageants."
The girls freeze at the squeaky insult and turn in horror to see Timothy staring at them with narrow eyes. He puts the sausage pie in the display case before he points to the window. "If you two have time to chat, then you need more work. Go clean the windows."
The girls regretfully agree as they go into the kitchen to get the cleaning supplies that they need.
Once they're gone, Timothy tiredly sighs at the girls' whining. However, they always do as they're told, so he knows that they're at least trying.
He silently hopes that they'd get rid of the attitude sooner than later, as he stays behind the counter to see his favorite pair of cops walking in. However, when he sees frowns on both Andrew and Robert's faces, and Robert carrying a guitar case and duffel bag, he starts getting worried. "What happened?"
Both men look to each other for a moment, then back to the employee before Bobby speaks up. "Our boss is calling off the search for Rose..."
Timothy widens his eyes at the news, but he understands since he knows that they can't find her. He's still disappointed that they gave up so quickly. "I see. Did he say anything?"
Andrew softly frowns at the teenager's saddened expression. "Just that the trail is too cold. We found her stuff on the roof of her foster home, but there's nothing else to go on."
Robert puts the duffel bag on the counter and takes the guitar cases off his back. "Since you're the closest to her, we're giving her valuables to you."
Timothy widens his eyes at this, and opens the duffel bag to see that it holds a rolled up sleeping bag, a first aid kit, a notebook, telescope, her camera, and the memory chips that got Rick arrested. "Seriously?!"
Andrew nods, before he gives him a small grin. "Yea, and look in the camera's memory. You're gonna want to see her pictures."
The nerd complies, and looks at the device in shock when he sees pictures of the Timore comet. "Oh my god! Do you know what this means?! She really did leave this world!"
He happily smiles at the picture when Marie and Laura come out with spray cleaner and rags in their hands.
Robert is taken aback by the girls' appearance, because he hasn't seen them since he arrested their dad. "You two work here now?"
The girls look at him in shock before they scowl at the cops. They blame them for their misfortune, almost as much they blame Rose for leaving them, and want nothing to do with them.
Laura keeps having a look of disdain on her face as she answers him. "Yea, we work here now."
"What are you two doing here?" Marie asks with hopes for them to leave as soon as possible.
"We're friends with Timothy." Andrew says while he starts feeling sorry for the girls.
Neither twin wants his pitiful look as they go to work but Timothy blocks them off.
"Hold on, you two should see this!" He shows them the comet photos in the camera. "These came from Rose's camera."
Laura widens her eyes at the news and looks through them. "You're serious?! You mean all that world travelling shit was real?!"
Marie rolls her blue eyes at the questions. "Don't be stupid Laura, of course it wasn't. She obviously photo shopped them before she ran off."
She looks to the cops who are supposed to be looking for the missing girl. "Have either of you found her yet?"
"No, we came here to tell Timothy that we're calling off the search." Robert says as he reflects their scowls.
Marie grins at the news. "Oh really? Wonderful!"
All the boys furrow their eyebrows at the blunt joy that she has for Rose's disappearance.
"You really don't care at all?" Robert asks in disappointment in the girl's immaturity.
Marie scoffs at the question and could care less about the hated stares she's getting. "The only reason I'd want her back is to get back at her for causing all this trouble. I'm surprised you all haven't figured out her scheme."
"And what scheme is that?" Timothy asks as he holds himself back from spraying her with soda.
She smirks at the men as she explains her theory. "She left all that evidence behind to make it look like she disappeared, and just ran away. I bet you the brat is in some homeless shelter in Jersey, and laughing at all you fools right..."
She trails off when the group feels a sudden chill in the air.
"What the, is the thermostat broken?" Laura asks, but one look at the thermostat can tell that it's at 67 degrees, and she can't blame it on the door opening, because only the early summer heat would fly in.
Before anyone can try another theory, a blue glow begins to float in mid-air, just above the counter and duffel bag.
The twins shriek in fear and huddle together while the boys step back from the light, that's half the size of the duffel bag.
The ten customers, who are having lunch, stop eating when they notice the flying light and share the same look of shock. They all shout out different kinds of shocked cries as they grab their cell phones and start recording the phenomenon.
Naomi runs out of the kitchen from all the noise and freezes when she sees the light. She scans the room for her son, and finds him staring at it with bug eyes and his back to the oven. "What the hell's going on?!"
"I have no idea! This light came out of nowhere!" Timothy says as he adjusts his big glasses to see shapes materializing out of it right on top of the bag. "There's something in there!"
"Nobody touch it!" Robert calls out to the civilians as he and his partner keep their hands above the guns, that are on their belts, in case it's something dangerous.
When the light begins to fade though, everyone begins to calm down to see that it's only two pieces of paper with a stone resting on top of it. The blue glow still emanates on the items for a few seconds before it fades off to the point where only the crystal holds a blue glow.
Everyone that knew Rose are still shell shocked by the appearance while the customers start approaching the counter to get a closer look at the objects.
"Whoa, this stone still has some light in it." A young man says as he goes to touch it, but Naomi snatches it from him.
The customers flinch at the owner's aggressiveness, but Naomi could care less as she points to the door. "WE'RE CLOSED! EVERYONE, BUT THE COPS AND EMPLOYEES, GET THE HELL OUT!"
Half of them rush out to avoid her wrath, but the other half refuses to go.
"You can't do that!"
"Yea, we want to know what happened!"
"Your employees were talking about Rose Catone's disappearance! How do you guys know her?!"
"We won't leave until-!"
The teenagers stop their protests when Robert punches the counter and glares at them. "You heard her! Get out before we arrest you for trespassing!"
Now that threat did the trick, for they rushed off as if the place was on fire.
"Just you wait! We'll find out after we sell the video to the reporters!" One of them calls out just before the door closes.
Laura pulls away from her sister's embrace and rushes to the lock the door, before she turns the open sign around to show that the restaurant is closed. "That should work."
Naomi tiredly sighs as she opens her fist to reveal the cold, glowing stone that's half as bright as it was before. She gets a closer look at the roughly cut rock, that looks like it came straight from a mine, and immediately recognizes the red and black colors that show under the blue light. "Isn't this the same kind of stone from Rose's necklace?"
Timothy takes the, rough stone from her and shivers before he puts it on the counter. Once he gets a closer look at the gem, he brightens up with a huge smile. "Oh my god, you're right! This must've been how she did it!"
Both twins look at the stone in horror, as they remember all the times they made fun of their foster sister for believing in other worlds.
Now that Laura knows that this is all real, a feeling of remorse wells up inside of her for how she treated her. A part of her believed that she was just trying to help Rose accept the reality of her life by following her sister and dad in tearing down her dreams. Now that she knows that this is all real, she has no idea why they were so mean to her in the first place...
Marie however, still feels the same hatred for Rose as before if not stronger for making fools out of them. She already lost all her friends when word got out about the arrest at school, and now that there's proof that all of this is real, she'll only be seen as the evil sister in Rose's story. No matter how she sees it, there's no way that she can recover her old life, and it's all thanks to her ungrateful foster sister.
The older twin turns away from all this nonsense and storms to the bathroom. "I'm going to clean the bathroom! Come on Laura!"
Laura hesitates in the order, which makes Marie stop and look at her in confusion. "Laura?"
The younger sister of a minute looks from the delivery to her sister before she shakes her head. "I want to see what happened to Rose."
Marie is taken aback by the defiance, for this is the first time her sister hasn't followed along. That feeling of shock immediately changes to betrayal as she turns her back on her. "Have it your way..."
She storms off without a word while the rest of the group looks at the argument in shock. Laura turns around to see their faces and gives them a shy smile. "If it's ok, I'd like to stay to know..."
Timothy is the first to recover and gives her a genuine smile. "Absolutely!"
He grabs one of the papers to see that it's a letter and reads it out loud for everyone.
Hi Timothy and Naomi,
In case you don't know, it's me, Rose Catone! I'm writing to you from the other side! Not from the grave, but from another world! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to tell you I was leaving. I'm more shocked than any of you about this. When the comet showed up that night, my necklace absorbed the comet's radiation. I didn't even notice what it was doing when I made a wish to go to the One Piece world, and it took me there in my sleep. I have to tell you, this world is as crazy and wonderful as shown in the story! Everything that's said to be impossible in our world is completely real here.
With that though, lies the danger. It turns out, the comet is considered a taboo by the World Government. I promise I'm ok though, I found a devil fruit and I'm learning how to use it while I'm travelling with the Straw Hats. We met in Little Garden and I asked for a ride to Alabasta, but that wasn't enough for Luffy. He liked my research, and my devil fruit so much that he stubbornly considered me his crew mate. I tried everything to scare him off, even told him about my research and the story of my disappearance from here. He barely hesitated though, and wouldn't give up on me. One thing lead to another, and I wound up being their astronomer. I haven't told everyone about the research yet, but after the right arc is done, I hope that they'll understand...
Listen, I don't know if I can write another letter. This is my first experiment, so I don't know if this even reached you, but I had to try to tell you some things. I want to thank both of you for everything you've done for me these last two years. Timothy, you're the first one to learn of my family's research and to actually believe in me. And Naomi, you may have had doubts, but you didn't treat me any differently than before you knew about it. Thanks to you guys, I'm positive that there's some good in every world I travel to.
That being said, I don't intend to go back to New York any time soon. That place holds too many bad memories for me, so I hope you guys can forgive me for being selfish...
Especially since I have a favor to ask. Naomi, I don't know if you remember but I gave you video cards on the day I gave you my application. If you still have them, can you find Bobby and give them to him please? I can't stop you and Timothy from looking at them, but I can't promise they'll be pretty. Out of all the policemen to handle them, I want Bobby to be the one because he's the only person I trust next to you guys. I also have a message for him on the back of this page.
I'm sorry, I took up a good amount of the page with the request. I'm just happy that I finally have a chance to try contacting you. You guys and Bobby are some of the only things I miss in that world, so I hope you're happy, and are doing well for yourselves.
Take care,
Rose
Once Timothy finished the page, with tears pooling in his eyes, he gives it to his mom to avoid the salty drops from falling on the paper. He brings his fingers under his glasses to get rid of the tears, but he can't hide the smile that's evident from reading that his friend is safe and happy. "I can't believe she's in the One Piece world! And she's a Straw Hat!"
Laura looks from him to the letter in amazement. "I've seen Rose reading One Piece a lot. If she's with the crew, would she show up in the story?"
Timothy silently gasps at the idea, before he's practically bouncing with excitement. "There's only one way to find out! Come on!"
He takes his former enemy by the wrist, and practically drags her into the back office where he keeps a small stash of manga.
Naomi chuckles at her son's enthusiasm as she looks through Rose's kind words. "I can't believe she used her first experiment to write to us..."
As Naomi reads the letter with a small grin, Bobby and Andrew look at the second paper that arrived to find that it's a photo of the missing girl.
Andrew chuckles at the girl who's sitting on a palm tree without a care in the world. "She seems really happy there."
As Robert looks at the girl he failed to help, he can't help but softly smile at the positive outcome for the brunette. Especially when it's the first time he's seen her wearing a tank top, and doesn't see a single bruise on her exposed skin. "Yea, I guess she is."
Naomi looks at the other side of the page to see that there's a whole other letter written on it. "Wow, when she wrote that she has a message for you too she wasn't kidding. I already gave you her videos, so here's the other half of the favor."
Robert becomes nervous at being given a message from Rose, in fear that it's full of jokes about meeting the real Smoker. Nonetheless, he takes the page and looks through the letter to get it over with.
Hey Bobby,
I'm sorry but our game's over. If I had known that the last time I saw you was the last time, I would've given you a proper farewell. I hope you can settle for this note.
I want you to know that I've always loved our chases. Not just because it's fun to mess with you, but because that was the closest I had to playing tag with a friend back then. Heh, you know, it's pretty rare for a kid to say that their first friend is a cop. I wouldn't change it though, you're a good person and I hope you can look at those videos. I was going to give them to you when I turn eighteen, but now that I'm gone, there's no point in waiting.
On a more positive note, I met with the real Smoker during my adventures! I told him all about you and he was surprised to learn that there's a blond version of him out there. No matter what either of you say, I know that Smoker is that world's version of you. He even gave me your scowl when I called him Bobby the second! I know he can't replace you, but it's good to know a part of you still exists in my life.
Thank you for not giving up on me these past five years. It's because of you that I was able to meet Timothy and Naomi, so I'm grateful. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to tell you that in the past. At least now that I'm gone, your job will be easier.
I hope you live a good life,
Rose
Once Robert is done with his message, he puts it down and keeps his head down. "I'm going to get a smoke."
Andrew and Naomi are surprised by the announcement as they watch him turn away from them, and walk out of the restaurant.
As soon as the blond cop is outside, he moves away from the windows so that he can't be seen and takes a cigar and lighter from his pocket. He struggles with the lighter in his hand as he thinks on what Rose wrote to him. He didn't want to admit it, but her chases helped him to get faster than ever. He barely loses his criminals now thanks to all the times he learned the twists and turns of the city from trying to catch her. And now that she's gone, he doesn't have that challenge to help him anymore.
He finally gets the lighter to work, and starts smoking it while he thinks about the last thing she wrote in his letter. "You idiot, you made my job more boring by leaving..."
He barely cares about the tears that are forming in his eyes as he smokes his cigar and remembers how fun the chases were.
Meanwhile, Andrew is scanning over his partner's letter and chuckling at Rose's mention of Smoker. "Wow, Timothy and I were right on the mark about her meeting Smoker."
Naomi lightly shakes her head as she stares at the photo. "Just like her."
She lifts her head from the picture and smiles at Andrew. "Did you ever meet Rose when she was here?"
Andrew nods to her as he puts the letter down. "Just a few times on patrol with Bobby. I tried to tell him to let it go since she was just a kid, but he refused and chased her without me. Every time he lost her, I had to get away from him so I could laugh."
He chuckles at the memory before he looks at the gem that came with the letter. "What are we going to do about this rock?"
Naomi snaps out of her happiness from the question and realizes that the answer is tricky. "Thanks to those videos, it'll be clear that Rose did go to another world. I don't want the public to know about the stone, because of how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands. I'm going to hide it right now."
She takes the crystal and goes to the kitchen with it. She puts it in a small, empty, metal cylinder and sealed the lid. The she goes into the freezer and goes into the furthest part of the freezer and places it on the corner top shelf where nothing gets placed for how forgetful the spot is.
Once she's done, she runs out of the freezer and shuts the door behind her. She rubs her arms to warm herself up while Timothy and Laura come out of the office with a One Piece manga in each of their hands. "Did you two find her in there?"
Laura shakes her head as she skims through volume 23 of One Piece. "All I can find are people riding ducks and a rubber guy fighting a sandman."
Timothy finishes skimming through volume 27 and sighs in disappointment when he can't find her. "I can't find her in here either. I don't get it."
Naomi hums in thought as she puts her arms down. "Maybe because the story is the writer's version of it."
Laura knits her eyebrows in confusion, because she has no idea what that means.
Timothy however, starts to think about it. "So, she could be in an alternate timeline that the manga won't show."
Naomi nods at the thought as she shows them Rose's photo. "Exactly, she did give us a photo though. Maybe you can recognize the place Timothy."
The boy takes the picture, and gets a closer look of the pirate that's sitting on a tree. He looks at the green pumpkin like fruits that are on her tree, and immediately recognizes the place. "This was taken at Skypiea! Those fruits only grow at this place!"
Laura looks at the photo of her foster sister, and can only smile when she sees her so happy. "Is this pirate world that amazing?"
Timothy happily nods to her. "It's the best! If you want to look into it, I can lend you the first volume."
The blonde looks from the book to her supervisor for a moment as she thinks about the offer. She knows that she can't change how she treated Rose in the past, but she can still get to know her. With that in mind, she gives him a small grin as she nods. "Yea, I'd like that."
"Awesome, come on!" He leads her back to the office to get her started on the first volume of One Piece.
The restaurant owner can only smile at the exchange, because she can tell that at least one of the twins is starting to change their attitudes. *Even when Rose isn't around, she causes chaos.*
She chuckles to herself before she heads back to the front room to talk to the officer. Now that her customers' videos have a chance of being public, she'll need their help to prepare for the unwanted attention that comes with them.
As the sun begins to rise for a new day on the Going Merry, Rose has just finished updated her journal with everything that's happened with her experiment. She happily grins at the results as she closes the book, and looks down at the deck to see that the some of the crew members are coming out.
Rose packs up her things, along with the empty liquor bottle, and vaults over the crow's nest. Once she cushions her fall with her wind, she heads inside to change her clothes for the day. When she reaches the girls' room, she's met with Robin reading one of the books that she took in Alabasta. "Since when were you into astronomy?"
Robin notices her arrival and closes the book. "I've grown curious since the base. For some reason, when we first arrived, they thought that we disappeared through Hell's comet."
Rose is dumbfounded by the explanation before she starts laughing. "Hahaha, you're serious?!"
The archaeologist is slightly confused at the sudden laughter. "Why's that funny?"
She settles down to light giggles before she grins at her. "Because they based it on my astronomy books, so they can have the soldiers believe it was a ghost ship at the time. They mentioned cursed gold too, right?"
Robin nods but looks down at the index book. "Still, why would they mention it if it's not in this book? And why is it so different?"
Rose quietly sighs to the questions, because she's too tired to deal with this, and honestly tired of dealing with Robin's suspicions. If she keeps just dodging Robin's questions, she can't get anywhere with her. She knows that Robin isn't ready to know yet, because telling her would make it easy for her to figure out that she knows her past as well.
Without a lot of thinking, she gives her a small frown as she looks the archaeologist in the eyes. "I'll make you a deal. When you can honestly tell me why the World Government is after you, I'll answer your questions. Until then, I'm done with your interviews."
Robin is taken aback by the blunt refusal to answer her as she watches her go into the closet to grab a long-sleeved green shirt, black jeans, and a navy-blue jacket. Rose moves deeper inside, and moves the clothes around to search for her gloves as she keeps talking. "I'm fine with us getting to know each other as friends, but if you have secrets then you shouldn't pry on others."
The wind girl finds her dark grey gloves on the shelf of the back of the closet and looks at the top shelf where her blue backpack, containing the books she stole from Navarone, reside. She steps back to move the clothes in place so that it's covered, closes the door, then looks back to her crew mate and the book that's in her hand. "Also, I don't mind you reading my astronomy books, but please put them back when you're done. I'll see you later."
She walks off and heads to the bathroom to change. Once she's alone in the room, she groans to herself as she buries her face in her hands. She didn't mean to make it so blunt, and now she feels like there's an even bigger rift between them.
Still, she can't help but be glad of the speechless results that she got from the archaeologist. With Robin thinking about her own secrets, she won't bother with her secret until she can be comfortable with the others knowing hers.
At least that's what the wind girl hopes for. Until she knows, all she can do now is hope that she bought enough time for them to at least make it through the Davy Back Fight. She nods to herself as she rushes to change her clothes and head off to join the other.
Meanwhile, Robin is still seated alone in the girls' room and contemplating what just happened.
This is the first time Rose has called her out on her own secrets, which has surprised her. The fugitive doesn't know why the wind girl hasn't spoken about it until now, but she can tell that she's serious about not answering her questions. She doesn't know if the astronomer knows what her secrets are, but she knows that she can't ask her anything without saying something about herself.
Robin can tell that this Hell's comet has something to do with Rose's secret, so for the time being she can only wait. Either wait for the World Government to bring her secret into the spotlight or for her own secrets to come out.
Robin quietly sighs at how things turned out as she puts the book away, and goes off to play in the waiting game that Rose has started.
Neither of them knows what to expect, and can only wait for time to tell of the chaos that their secrets will bring to the crew.
TO BE CONTINUED