After Robin left Rose's cell, she starts strolling down the stairs, to the room that CP9 held her in, when Blueno meets her halfway.
"You managed to get anything out of her?" Blueno bluntly asks which Robin barely reacts to.
Instead, she just quietly sighs and puts on a cold facade, even with her heart still hurting. "You were right. She was nothing but a filthy demon after all. Thank you for opening my eyes."
The agent could care less about the gratitude, and it's clearly shown on his face. "What about her knowledge? You said she didn't mention us, right?"
Robin keeps a scowl on her face from her experience with the outsider, because she still has mixed feelings about her. Of course, she's still furious about how she held all those secrets about her, but the sight of her crying after she slapped her can't escape her mind. Rose looked so broken, and yet all she would talk about was that they weren't alone in this. Something about that faith, reminds her of when Saul would tell her that she would have true friends in the future. Whether or not Rose was speaking from her heart though, or just using her knowledge to manipulate her, is anyone's guess...
She clicks her tongue at the ridiculous thoughts swarming her mind, and looks Blueno in the eye. "That's right, she didn't say a word about your unit. When I spoke to her, she was tight lipped like always. From what I saw in the past, she's oblivious to everything, so I doubt her knowledge had anything on both you and the Straw Hats."
Thanks to her poker face being perfected for years, Blueno wasn't able to catch on to her lie. He gives her a look of satisfaction before he beckons her forward.
She follows him back to their meeting room, with a feeling of dread dwelling in her heart. She knows that she can't go back to the crew, but deep down she wishes that what Rose said is true. That they'd be willing to save her from this fate, and accept her for her past.
Even though she wishes for it though, she knows that it can't happen. The crew may be trusting, but even they must have their limits, right?
After all, she's turning a whole city against them, and will be treating them like they're her enemy. Adding to the fact that she almost strangled Rose to death, there's no way they can forgive her. And even if Rose promised to rescue her, there's no way she can get out of those cuffs. The only way she'll be free is if she cooperates with the CP unit that caught her, and takes Sengoku's deal...
Robin softly sighs at the doubts, but she knows it to be true. The only reason she lied to CP9 about Rose's knowledge, was so they wouldn't back out on their deal. The one to let the pirates leave the island unharmed, and to let the outsider use her research to get out of this world. That's the only way she could think of for all of them to live.
As long as they can survive, she can accept her fate and end her misery. She keeps that resolution strong as she walks into the interrogation room with Blueno to wait for when it's time to take on their mission to attack Iceburg.
************************************************
In a small, white, clinic, on the outskirts of the city, Rose is passed out on her stomach, with her torso stripped down to her bra, while a doctor is treating the new wound on the back of her shoulder.
The old, slender, man, is currently stitching up Rose's wound, on the bedside, while the weapon shop owner that brought the girl in, is keeping her arms on the bed, so that the doctor can do his job.
The blue haired doctor finishes up his stitchwork, rubs an ointment for the small burns from the explosion, then grabs her right hand to see the bloodied handkerchief on it from when Nishiki stabbed her hand. As soon as he removed the makeshift bandage, he widened his eyes at the horrible treatment to her hand. "What the hell happened here?!"
Harry softens his brown eyes at the wound, and looks down at the young girl. "I don't know, I was walking home from a delivery when all of a sudden, I heard an explosion. Afterwards, I saw Lily falling in the water. After I pulled her out, I found the kunai in her shoulder, but her hand was already like this..."
The doctor looks at the young girl sadly, because he remembers treating Lily since she was a toddler, so seeing her injured like this is like seeing a family member injured. He grabs a bottle of rubbing alcohol, pours it on the girl's hand, which causes the patient to flinch, and phases her hand away from the doctor to pull it away.
He widens his eyes at the action, because he knew that he kept a tight grip on her, but he plays it off to his old age. That is, until he tries to grab her hand again, and starts to see it phasing through him. "What the, Harry, do you see this?! What-?!"
He cuts himself off when he sees Harry try to grab her hand, and has better luck in getting a hold of her.
The weapon shop owner only gives his doctor a light chuckle, and plays off her power as a trick to the eye. "She must not have slipped from me because she recognized my hand. How about I hold onto her while you stitch her?"
The doctor looks at the freckle-less man in confusion for a moment, because he knows what he saw. Still, he holds off his curiosity for the sake of the patient, and grabs his thread and needle. "Alright, hold her steady."
Harry nods as he lets the doctor work on her, but can't help but feel saddened by the child's injuries. It's easy to tell that what she just went through wasn't easy, and for her to go through this at a young age, just isn't right to him...
As soon as the doctor finishes, he gets up to leave. "That's about all I can do right now. The bruise on her stomach isn't too serious, and those burns look to be only first degree. When she wakes up, I need to get a closer look at the black eye, but other than that, she should make a full recovery."
"Thank you Dr. Edgar." Harry says as he stays at her bedside, with his hand holding onto hers, and watches the doctor leave the room.
"I'm sorry..." Harry flinches at the child's voice, while her grip on his hand tightens, and looks to see that she's mumbling in her sleep. He grows even more speechless when he sees her weeping, with a cold mood breeze gently flowing out of her.
"I failed you Robin... I failed you all... I'm so sorry..." Her tears begin to stain her pillow after she mumbled those words, and breaks Harry's heart from the sight of it.
He uses his free hand to gently wipe her tears, then strokes her hair like he used to do with Lily when she had nightmares. Luckily, it works for the pirate version of her as well for after a minute of it, she calms down enough to stop her mood breeze.
Harry grins in relief in that he got her to stop, but he doesn't seem phased at all by her devil fruit powers. He just acts as though he knew his daughter to have these kinds of powers her whole life, by continuing to pet her head to keep her from crying again.
After a minute, the door to the room opens up to reveal a woman around Harry's age, wearing a black V-neck, and a knee length skirt, and dark blue hair in a ponytail, with a young boy who can't be older than six.
The little, pale boy, with the same green eyes as his sister, but his short, messy fringe hair has the same shade of dark blue as the woman he came with, runs up to the bed, in worry for the sleeping girl. "Is Lily going to be ok dad?"
Harry softly smiles at his son, before he gently pries his hand off of the patient's grip, stands up, and puts the kid in his chair. "She's going to be just fine Theo; she's just resting now. I need to talk to mom for a minute, can you protect her for us?"
"Right!" Theo salutes his dad before he turns to the patient and watches her like a hawk, which earns a chuckle from both parents.
Knowing that both kids are ok, Harry walks out into the hallway with his wife, and closes the door behind them. They both walk to an empty room down the hall, and close the door to make sure they're both alone.
Once done, the voluptuous, green eyed, woman, with the same pale complexion as her husband, but has a mole on her left cheek, looks to her husband with worry. "What happened?"
Harry sighs at the question before he rubs his tired eyes. "Do you remember the letter we got from Lily last week Ami?"
Ami slowly nods before she grabs said letter from her pocket, because when the old couple told them where her husband was, she grabbed the letter. "Is she who I think it is?"
Harry slowly nods before he takes the letter, and re-reads it to make sure he's not mistaken.
Hey mom and dad,
Guess what? I'm going to train under Vice Admiral Garp from now on! He's teaching me all sorts of skills every day! I'm having a real blast with him!
The weird thing is, I owe it to a pirate, who looks exactly like me except that she has freckles, a wind devil fruit, and purple eyes. Her name's Rose, she's from another world, and used a taboo to come to this one. When she and her crew invaded Navarone, I thought she was just another scummy pirate, like the ones who tried to fight Galley-La, but I was wrong.
She's a kind hearted person, who treated me more like a friend than an enemy. She even gave up her secret of her origins to save me from going to another world with her taboo. Because of that though, I think she's in deep trouble. If you guys see her, please pay her back on my behalf. As a marine, I don't think I'll have a chance to even thank her for saving me.
That doesn't mean I can't visit my awesome family though. Garp said that we'll be heading to Water Seven soon. Keep it from Theo though, I want my favorite little brother to be surprised when I come visit. I'll send another letter as soon as I get close. Take care of yourselves!
Love,
Lily
Harry sadly frowns at the letter before he gives it back to his wife. "There's no doubt about this. That girl's Rose."
Ami may be glad that it's not Lily who's injured, but she can't be happy that a girl who shares her daughter's face dealt with this either. "I see, then we can't leave her alone like this. I want to talk to her when she wakes up."
"You and me both, come on." Harry opens the door, and leads her back to where their son is.
*************************************************
Just as the two parents leave Rose and Theo alone, the wind girl begins to slowly open her eyes.
The boy brightens up at this, but he loses his smile when he sees purple eyes on his sister's face instead of the emerald eyes that they share. "Lily? Is that you?"
Rose jolts up into a sitting position from the cute kid's voice, and looks around to find that she's in a small infirmary. She looks down at the young boy that spoke to her, to see him waiting for her to answer. "Sorry, I'm not Lily, my name's Rose..."
He gasps at the answer, and comes to his own conclusion. "So I have two big sisters?!"
Rose widens her eyes at the question, because he looks so similar to Lily, that there's no doubt that this kid's her brother...
She softly frowns at what it could mean that her doppelganger has a sibling, but doesn't have time to think about that. Instead, she just gives the kid a pat on the head with a sad smile. "Sure, I can be big sis #2. What's your name?"
"I'm Theo, nice to meet you big sis #2!" He answers while practically beaming with innocence, before he looks at her bandaged shoulder. "What happened to your shoulder?"
"I got hit by a ninja, and..." She trails off when she looks at her shoulder, and finally realizes that she's not wearing a shirt. "Fu-!"
She covers her mouth to stop herself from cursing in front of the cute kid, and sees now why Lily gained a habit of censoring herself.
Theo just looks confused by her reaction, because he wants to hear more of the story. "What else happened?"
Rose just lowers her hand, sees that her backpack is in a corner of the room and focuses on it. "I just used my powers to kick his butt."
Theo is still confused until he sees her backpack floating towards them on a gust of wind, and starts smiling with stars in his eyes. "Whoa, you have wind powers?! Can you make me fly too?!"
The wind girl can't help but chuckle at the sweet reaction, before she drops the bag onto her lap, and digs inside for a new long sleeved, light blue V-neck. "Maybe another time. Right now, I need to get going."
The boy's surprised by the comment when he watches her put on a shirt, and starts getting out of bed. "Hey, hold on! You're injured!"
Rose doesn't listen though, for she forces herself to stand, then sees that she's still wearing her pants, but no shoes, and finds them by the foot of the bed. After she gets her shows on though, she sees the kid blocking the doorway. "You can't leave! I'm supposed to protect you big sis #2!"
The wind girl resists the urge to hug the adorable boy, by strapping on her backpack. Afterwards, she takes a pen, and piece of paper from the nearby desk, writes a message, then gives the child one last pat on the head. "When your parents come back, give them this..."
She's quick to give the child the note, before she turns into a gust of wind, much to the kid's surprise, and seeps out of the cracks of the window to escape the clinic.
Theo looks around, then runs to the window to try and find her, but can only see the sunset. Just as he opens the window, his parents come into the room.
When they see that Rose left, they both are shocked and join Theo at the window.
"What happened to her?!" Ami asks as she looks outside to try finding her, but no luck.
Her son looks up at her with a sad look and shows her the paper. "She woke up, then told me she had to leave. She told me to give you guys this..."
Ami takes the note, with Harry reading the note over her shoulder, and both of them saddened by the contents.
Hello Lily's parents,
Thank you for saving my life, but I'm not who you think I am. I'm sure you thought I was your daughter, but I'm sorry to say that you're mistaken. My name is Catone Rose, I'm a pirate, and your daughter's enemy. After my problems on this island are taken care of, I'll pay you back for the medical fees, then it's best if we don't see each other again.
Good bye,
Rose
Both parents grow saddened by the distant note, when Theo breaks the silence. "Is big sis #2 gonna be ok?"
Ami becomes confused by the new name, and looks down at him. "Why are you calling her big sis #2?"
"She said I can call her that after she told me she's not Lily."
Harry can't help but grin at that, because it shows that the pirate isn't as cold as the letter suggests. "Don't worry about it. She says she'll come to visit soon."
Theo brightens up at the comment and calls out to her. "BIG SIS #2, WE OWN THE BLIND SIDE WEAPON SHOP A FEW BLOCKS FROM HERE! COME FIND US! I WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU!"
He and his family move away from the window, with the person they were searching for sitting on the clinic's rooftop.
As soon as Theo called out to Rose, she felt nothing but sadness, because that kid symbolizes what she could've had if her own family lived. It took all it had for her to not cry from the thought, but she knows that she doesn't have time for this.
She knows that she can't think about that now. Robin's still in danger, and she has no idea if Usopp is still in the crew either. Her stupid emotions can't get in her way now or she'll keep failing everyone, just like she failed Robin this morning...
She rubs away any pooled tears off with her glove-less hands, and takes a breath before she grabs an apple from her backpack. When she starts eating, she floats up and looks around for her options. On one hand, she can wait out at Iceburg's mansion to stop Robin's assassination attempt, on the other hand, she can go back to the Merry and try to break up Usopp's fight with Luffy...
It's times like this, she wishes she can be at two places at once. Then again, maybe she can...
From what she remembered in the anime, Robin's shot happens later at night, but Usopp's resignation happens around sunset, so it must be happening around now!
She finishes her apple, tosses the core to a trash can right in front of the clinic, turns her body into air, then flies off to the direction of the ship.
***********************************************************
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN MERRY'S GOING TO DIE?!" Usopp yells in frustration, in Merry's kitchen, after hearing Luffy's news about the ship's condition. Sure, he lost most of the money to the Franky Family, and got the crap beaten out of him as a result, but they still have over a hundred million beli. Surely that much can still fix her, but now he's hearing this?! That's bullshit!
Luffy though isn't going to budge, because after what Galley-La said about the ship, he knows all too well that it's the end. "It's the truth, not even Galley-La can fix the ship. I wouldn't have decided this otherwise..."
The rest of the crew knew this, so they didn't voice any objections, but Usopp won't accept that! "This ship took us from East Blue, to the Grand Line, and even up to Sky Island! This ship is as strong as she comes!"
"This ship wasn't built to take us to those places, it took everything out of it! The shipwrights said it themselves!"
"Since when have you blindly followed a cheap sales pitch like that?! They're probably telling us that so you can buy a new ship!"
"It's not true Usopp! Please just calm down!" Nami calls out, but Usopp just ignores her.
"IF THE SHIPWRIGHTS WON'T FIX HER THEN I WILL!" Usopp shouts as he goes to leave, but Luffy blocks his path.
"This isn't something you can fix Usopp! I've already decided on our plan and we're sticking to it!"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Usopp grabs the collar of his captain's shirt, and pulls him so that they're face to face. "The Luffy I know wouldn't give up so easily! And don't say that you decided something like a real captain!"
That line earned him a punch to the face from Luffy, causing the sniper to let go and get his back slammed to the wall by Luffy. "Don't talk like you know everything! We all care about Merry, but this is the only way to keep going!"
"IT'S NOT TRUE AND YOU KNOW IT BASTARD!" Usopp screams at him and drives Luffy off the edge.
"FINE, IF YOU DON'T LIKE YOUR CAPTAIN'S DECISION THEN GET OUT-!"
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Sanji had enough of this and kicked the side of Luffy's head to get him off of Usopp and to send him flying to the other side of the kitchen!
The others were speechless about the attack, but stay quiet when Luffy gets up, and Sanji speaks up. "Both of you need to calm the fuck down! Do you even know what you're saying?!"
Both sniper and captain catch their breath, with rage in their eyes, but begin to calm down enough to not go at each other's throats again.
Luffy is the first to speak up with his head down in shame of what he was saying about Usopp leaving. "Usopp, I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said..."
Usopp raises his hands defensively as he starts getting up. "Yes you did, but it's fine."
"What'd you say?!" Luffy asks, when Usopp keeps going.
"If you're going to leave Merry behind because she became useless to you, then you might as well leave me behind too." He leaves the kitchen with the others rushing to catch up, but he's already off the ship and heading to the island.
"USOPP, COME BACK!" Chopper calls out to him, but he won't answer him.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Nami calls out, which gets him to stop, and turn to them.
He gives them a look of pride, and anger as he calls out to them. "I'M QUITTING THE CREW, BUT I WANT THE SHIP BACK, SO I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL LUFFY! I'LL BE BACK HERE AT MIDNIGHT TO FINISH THINGS, AND AFTER THAT, WE WON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!"
"I accept!" Luffy feels like his heart was being ripped out, but his face didn't show it. Instead, it showed a look of rage as he watched Usopp run inland to get what he needed for their fight.
As Usopp runs into the city, he refuses to look back or else he might start to waver. However, he suddenly realized that's the least of his problems when he realizes that he's still running, but not going anywhere...
He looks down with his eyes bugged out to see that a gust of wind is picking him up, and yelps when it takes him up to a nearby rooftop where the girl responsible is waiting for him.
Usopp is surprised to see Rose weakened enough to have to catch her breath from rushing to get there, but he barely cares, because he has an idea of why she kidnapped him. "You heard my declaration, didn't you?"
"I'm pretty sure half the Grand Line heard you." Rose answers with anger at herself for not making it in time.
Usopp groans at the look, thinking her angry look mainly for him, and turns around to find an exit. "I don't care if you drag me back to the ship, nothing will change, so you might as well bring me back down."
"Can you at least hear me out? Consider it a final request from a crew mate." Rose asks, with a softened expression to show that she's not angry at him.
He looks back, with mixed feelings, and knows that she won't let him leave until he does what she says, so he tiredly sighs. "Fine, go ahead..."
"I know what you and Luffy fought about, but Merry really is going to die. And you've proven yourself time and again that you're not useless, so please come back. We can sort this out with them together."
Usopp grits his teeth at her bluntness and glares at her. "Why does everyone keep falling for that stupid pitch?! Galley La was just scamming you into buying a new ship by saying Merry can't be fixed!"
"It's not true Usopp!"
"Shut up! You're just backing up Luffy! None of you care about Merry at all!"
She grits her teeth at the insult, and grabs him by the collar to yell at his face. "We all care about Merry, you fucking Pinocchio wannabe! And I know for a fact that Merry is dying because she told me herself!"
Usopp's anger is blown away from the new information, and is frozen in horror, because he remembers that they both spoke to Merry's spirit. "W-what are you talking about?"
Rose quietly sighs at the question, releases his shirt, and comes clean to him about what Merry's spirit really was. "What we saw on Sky Island, wasn't the result of our ship being on holy land. The reason we saw her was because she became a Klabautermann."
"What's that?"
She begins to shake from the question, because of having to speak about Merry's condition, but she has no choice but to tell him. "It's a spirit that lives in a ship that was well loved by its crew. She told me that the knock up stream was too much. It broke Merry's keel, she's been on her last legs ever since..."
Usopp begins to tremble at the answer, before his rage returns strong enough for him to try to punch her, but his fists just phase through, so he keeps trying to take out all his anger on her. "IF YOU KNEW, THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKING TELL US, YOU PIECE OF SHIT?! IF YOU TOLD US BACK ON SKYPIEA, THEN WE COULD HAVE SAVED MERRY! BUT YOU JUST FUCKING KEPT YOUR MOUTH SHUT, AND WATCHED US HAVE HOPE IN FIXING HER! WAS THIS ALL JUST A FUCKING GAME TO YOU OR SOMETHING?! ANSWER ME!"
Even though the punches couldn't hurt her, each word he uttered felt just as much of a stab to her heart as Robin's words did back in her cell. Even though she's hurting, she knows that Usopp's in even worse pain, so without hesitation, she wraps her arms around him, keeps her body solid for him to hit her back, and keeps hugging him like their lives depend on it.
Usopp stops hitting her to try to pull away, but freezes when he feels her trembling, and a wetness on his shoulder from her tears. "Merry didn't want you all to worry about her. She wanted the last part of her journey with you all to be a happy one. That's why she asked me to keep it a secret for her..."
Rose pulls away just enough for them to be face to face, but keeps her arms around him while she's still crying. "Do you fucking think that Merry would want this though?! To see two best friends like you and Luffy duel it out in front of her?! NO! She'll be crying just like everyone else watching your fight! And don't go giving me crap about you being useless! You're the greatest sniper I've ever seen! You even heard from Merry herself that you were able to bring her this far, remember?!"
"And you saw the good that brought us!" Usopp shouts back with tears of his own as he pushes her away from him.
Rose stumbles backwards, but she manages to stay standing a few feet from him while he keeps ranting. "My carpentry skills weren't enough to save her! And if I was as useful as you say, I wouldn't have gotten mugged by the Franky Family!"
"That wasn't your fault! It was fucking Franky's! Each and every one of us see you as a valuable friend!"
"USOPP!"
Both Rose and Usopp quit arguing by Chopper's voice, and look over the edge of the rooftop to see Chopper searching for the sniper.
"See, none of us think you're a burden..." Rose tells him, with Usopp looking heartbroken by the sight of his friend coming after him.
He looks to Rose, and opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself. He knows that he messed up, but he knows that he can't simply fix this, so he gives her a sad look. "I'm sorry, but I can't go back. I challenged Luffy to a duel. As a man, I can't cancel my own challenge."
Rose saddens at the refusal, but perks up when he adds one more comment. "When I go back for the duel though, I'll ask Luffy if we can fight away from the ship's view. I know it's not much, but I don't want to see her crying either..."
Rose can't say that it makes her feel any better, but she knows that there's no changing his mind, so she slowly nods. "Alright, just know that we're still friends even after the fight. I'll have your back if anything happens. If you ever decide to come back though, you need to apologize to Luffy."
He nods at her before he looks at her in anticipation, but she's not doing anything, so he sweat drops. "Um, can you put me back on the ground please?"
She flinches when she realizes that she forgot they're on the rooftop. "Right, sorry!"
She creates a gust of wind for him, but before she brings him down, she says one thing. "If you have any doubts about Merry's health, check the keel after the fight, and you'll see the truth."
"I know..." Usopp sadly answers before she gently brings him back towards the street.
Once his feet reached the ground, he went off to search for Chopper to tell him to go back to the others.
As he goes off on his own, Rose grows angry enough to kick the railing. "God fucking dammit!"
"Yeesh, what did the rail do to you?"
Rose jumps at the new voice, and gets in a stance, but stops when she sees the falcon that helped her escape, perched on the railing beside her. "Zira?"
"The one and only. I took your advice and went looking for the Straw Hats, but when I heard the fight, I decided to stay back. Who's this Merry everyone's talking about?"
Rose frowns at the question and looks to the direction of the ship. "Merry's our ship, and has been a home to all of us. She wasn't built to survive on the Grand Line though, so she's in bad shape. The dude I was fighting with couldn't accept that, and left the crew."
The bird knits her eyebrows at that, because she doesn't fully understand why losing a ship could cause someone to leave a crew. Then again, she's never had a home before, so she can't say if it's normal or not, so she leaves it alone. "So what are we going to do now?"
Now it's the wind girl's turn to be confused by how she asked the question. "We?"
"Yea, I came here because I have no place to go. That's what you said I can do after all. It seems like the others have a lot going on though, so I'd rather stay with you."
Rose slightly scowls at the offer. "You're better off staying back. I'm going to confront some Cipher Pol agents. I doubt you'd want to deal with them."
"Why the fuck would you want to face those guys?!"
"They still have Robin; I need to get her out of there."
The bird is shocked about that explanation when she remembers that this girl was willing to stay at the base to try and free her crew mate. Even if that woman didn't strangle her, doesn't understand why Rose would go so far for her. To be honest, she's getting curious to see what motivates her, since she's the first human she's met who's actually kind.
Because of that, she starts flying closer to her. "Ok, here's the deal, I don't want to be caught by those guys again, but I am serious about wanting to help you. I'll come with you, and if things start looking bad, I'll leave and alert your crewmates about what happened. How does that sound?"
It does sound like a nice deal to most, but for the wind girl, she finds that it might be too much. Instead, she has another idea. "I'd rather you not tell the others about this, but I do have a question. Do you know where the mayor's mansion is?"
The bird doesn't get what the mayor has to do with all of this, but nods nonetheless. "Yea, I've flown over his house a few times. I can lead you there."
"Perfect." She gives no explanation to why she needs to go there when she digs into her backpack, finds the mask she wore earlier today, and starts strapping it on.
Once her smirking face is concealed, she looks over to her new friend. "Just so we're clear, I only need you to lead me there. Afterwards, you can stay as far away from Cipher Pol as you want. If you're still serious about joining us, then you can meet me back at the ship. Whatever you do though, you can't tell a soul about what's to happen, you got it?"
The bird is surprised by the change of attitude, but doesn't affect her decision when she starts flying in the direction of the mansion. "Let's go!"
As Zira leads the way to Iceburg's mansion, Rose transforms into a gust of air, to avoid detection, and starts following her friend to her new mission.
***********************************************
After Robin returned to an office-like room with Blueno, they waited throughout the day until Lucci, with a pigeon on his shoulder, and Kaku arrived in their Galley-La uniforms.
The pigeon flies off of his master's shoulder and lands on the table just in front of Robin, but the prisoner ignores the bird.
She could care less about the new arrivals, and doesn't acknowledge the others, but Blueno is quick to greet them. "Everything set for tonight?"
"As ready as we'll ever be. We just need to wait for nightfall." Kaku answers the question as he goes to the closet to grab a cloak and mask for the mission.
Lucci though looks to Robin and sits across from her. "So, you're the poneglyph girl, are you?"
Robin doesn't say a word to answer, but it doesn't anger him. Instead, it gets him to smirk a little. From what he heard from Blueno; the other CP unit has a demon that's a lot more troublesome than this one.
As if to prove his point, Rufus and Andreos barge into the room.
When Lucci sees Rufus' disgruntled look, he's all the more happy to see him. "Let me guess, you ran out of stuff to blow up, pyro?"
While most will be annoyed by the attempted jab, Rufus just returns the smirk. "I'm here to offer support, so you don't have a repeat of the incident fifteen years ago."
Lucci gets up from his seat at the reminder of when he first had his devil fruit, and his lack of control ruined their cover in a co-op. "What do you want, you bastard?"
He takes a seat at the closest, empty, chair, and rests his arms on the table. "Like I said, to offer our support in tonight's mission. Our demon got away, and we have reason to believe that she'll arrive at your mission tonight to try to rescue your demon."
Robin is surprised that she was able to escape, but her face doesn't show it. Instead, she keeps a stoic face on while she speaks to him. "She can't be that stupid to risk capture again."
"She was stupid enough to stay in the base after she escaped her chains to search for you. Needless to say, you're the perfect bait for her." Rufus answers back, which shuts up any denials Robin could have for him.
Lucci though, couldn't be more amused by the development. "So you want to use us to fix your mistake? Not a chance, we don't need you."
Rufus can't help but chuckle at the refusal before he gets up. "Have it your way, just don't come crying to us when she declaws you, little kitty."
Lucci's amusement is swiped away, and starts going up to him to beat the sense out of him, but Kaku interferes.
The long-nosed agent goes in between them, and gives the other unit a look of disdain. "We appreciate the offer, but we refuse."
"Very well." Rufus answers, as he and Andreos are escorted out by the mediator.
As soon as all three are out of the room, with the door shut, Rufus goes on ahead while Andreos stays behind with Kaku.
The swordsman looks over to Kaku and gives him a curt bow. "I apologize for Rufus' attitude."
Kaku releases a breath he didn't know he was holding and can understand his pain. "Don't worry about it, it's partially Lucci's fault too. I'm just glad Lucci didn't pounce on him this time."
Andreos releases a chuckle at the memory of their last meeting, of Rufus taunting him enough to get Lucci to fight him, and taking the entirety of both units to break up the battle. "The feeling is mutual."
He looks to see that Rufus is already gone, so he goes into his pockets to reveal three sea stone kunai, and shuriken that he looted from Nishiki when he was unconscious. "Your unit may be commendable, but the wind girl's powers are unpredictable. You'd have a better chance of dealing with her with these."
Kaku grins at the offer, but shows no sign of accepting them. "Sorry, but Sengoku ordered you to take her in alive right? If I take those, I can't promise she'd be living."
Andreos slowly nods before he puts the weapons away. "Very well, good luck to you."
"Likewise." The CP 9 agent waves his comrade off before he goes inside to prepare for the mission.
When Andreos goes to rejoin Rufus, he sees that his comrade is as nonchalant about this as ever. "I know that we shouldn't interfere with CP 9's mission, but shouldn't we stake out the place? I don't like the thought of her running rampant."
Rufus chuckles at his worries, but acts like there's no big deal. "Since the overgrown cat thinks he can handle it, we can sit back on this one. Besides, she won't go far without Nico Robin. As long as CP 9 doesn't lose their demon, then we have nothing to worry about."
Andreos still doesn't like that they're just letting her go around free like this, but at the same time he feels like he has no choice. With half their current team incapacitated, they're also not at full strength.
Rufus already derived that this pirate is one that doesn't kill, so Andreos doesn't have to worry about the wind girl killing the other unit. If anything, they could weaken her further for them to capture her tomorrow. With a quiet sigh to the strategy, he gives his team leader a slight nod. "Alright, we should go see how Nishiki and Lareos are holding up."
Now that's something Rufus can agree to, so without hesitation, the two postpone their mission to capture the outsider to check the status of their comrades.
Meanwhile, Robin is slightly horrified by the news of the wind girl having escaped, and actually searched for her. She fucking strangled her for crying out loud! Why the fuck would she be trying to rescue her?!
She knows that Rose made that declaration after she left, but she never believed that she'd go through with it. What kind of psychotic person actually would?!
Now that it's come to this, she needs to be as vigilant as possible. If she sees her tonight, she needs to be as heartless as she can to push her away. Or else she'll ruin the whole deal for her.
"Robin!" The archaeologist snaps out of it to Blueno's voice to see that all three men are in their cloaks and masks. "Don't go hoping that this can be your chance to escape us."
Robin scowls at the remark as she gets up, goes to the closet to grab the green cloak, along with a gun. After she puts on the cloak, she shows them her weapon, but no intention of shooting at them. "I know my place here. As long as you keep your end of the deal, then I won't run."
"Of course, and now's the time to prove it." Lucci answers before he looks to Kaku and Blueno. "I need to inform Kalifa of this. I want both you and Kaku to go with her to make sure this demon doesn't interfere."
"Understood." Kaku answers up while he, and Blueno slip their masks onto their faces, while Robin keeps her face shown to the world.
Once they're ready, Blueno carves open a door that reveal Iceburg's bedroom. Even though it's the middle of the night, the mayor himself isn't in the room yet, so Robin and the agents make their way inside.
What none of them knows though is that Rose and Zira are perched on a tree right outside the window.
The wind girl narrows her eyes at the agents while the bird's shocked by what she sees. "Wow, you really can tell the future. Are you really from another world like your crew mate said?"
"We can talk about that another time. Right now, you'd better get out of here." Rose answers, which the bird didn't hesitate to accept by getting out of here. Rose grins at the departure of her new friend before she sees the men getting away from the doorway while Robin gets to the center of the room, so she can be clearly seen.
As soon as Robin does so, Rose begins her strategy by transforming into air, and starts to slowly sneak in through the cracks in the window.
She keeps her air flowing at a minimum, so the agents don't notice her arrival. They wouldn't have much time to react if they did anyway, because just as Rose gets inside the room, the mayor begins to open the door to the room.
He gets a clear look at Robin's face when she aims her gun at him, and just as she's about to pull the trigger, Rose goes into action by rematerializing next to her, and pushing her to the right!
Iceberg is surprised by the masked vigilante, because her push caused the bullet to miss the shot. He sees the other two gents come out of hiding, but before they could shoot, Rose uses her wind to lift Iceburg into the air, and push him back out into the hall. Under all the stress though, Rose uses too much wind to hit Iceburg's head to the wall and knock him out!
Kaku goes to shoot, from the doorway, and makes a shot at his stomach, but Rose uses her wind to pull him back, and throw him to the wall behind him, but he was still able to make a hit at his shoulder. Rose growls at the shot when she slams him to the wall, and turns to see Blueno blocking Rose's way to the mayor. "You shouldn't have come here"
"Neither should you, jerk off!" Rose calls out when she starts to lift herself and Robin into the air.
Robin is pissed to say the least, and doesn't hesitate to show it when she points her gun at her crew mate. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Rose ignores the question and creates a cyclone around the two of them to block out the agents, as well as send any small, loose, items at her enemies.
Rose rushes to the window, with Robin in tow, but Robin stops herself from leaving by creating two arms off the floor, to grab her feet, and anchor herself a few feet from the window.
Rose sees that Robin human chained herself, just before she sees the gun being pointed at her. "We don't have time for this, we gotta get-!"
Rose cuts herself off from the sound of the gunshot being made from Robin's shot, and phasing through her head. "Enough of this nonsense! You weren't supposed to even exist here! Stop interfering!"
"You know I can't do that when you're clearly hurting yourself!"
"You're the only one who's about to get hurt!" Rose hears Blueno's voice behind her and turns around to see that he used instant shave to get into the barrier.
Lucky for her, Blueno doesn't have haki, so his finger pistol goes through her, and makes her lose focus on both the barrier and Robin.
Robin uses this chance to release the arms and start running to Blueno's door, with Kaku covering her by throwing a tempest kick Rose's way. Rose ducks to avoid the hit, when Blueno grabs her from behind, but she turns into air to slip from his grasp, and lifts him off the floor to slam his head through the ceiling!
He barely feels it when he falls on his feet, but Rose wasn't done with him when she turns her body into a powerful cyclone, that traps the door man inside and throws him out through the window.
Robin doesn't look back when she gets through Blueno's door with Kaku blocking the doorway.
Rose stays as a gust of wind while she goes after her friend, but Kaku foresaw that, and threw a roundhouse kick at the air in front of her to make a tempest kick so strong that it sends her flying backwards. Not only did it succeed to hold her back, but it also created a large horizontal cut into the wall behind her!
Rose reverts back to her human form when her body hits the wall, but wasn't slashed by the kick. Instead, she's still standing to see that Blueno's door is only open by a crack.
"Dammit, give her back!" Rose creates a rasengan with her right arm, and throws it at Kaku. The agent goes to block, but the orb turns right without hitting him, which gives Rose enough time to create a small orb of air that's the size of a marble, grabs five hand-sized shuriken from her backpack pocket, and tosses them onto the floor in front of the agent.
Kaku starts to run but before he knew it, the orb expands all around him, traps him inside, and thrashes him all around in the air bubble. Along with the agent, the shuriken is flying all around the dome, and is attacking him from all agents. Even with iron body, the shurikens moved at such a speed that they were able to provide damage to him.
While he's being thrashed, Rose starts going to the door, but is stopped by the door man. He's quick to do a tempest kick to blow her back just when the air dome fades away.
Kaku falls on his knees, while catching his breath Blueno uses his powers to create a door under Rose's feet, but Rose practically foresaw that when she flew above the hole.
Blueno was practically one step ahead of her though, he used instant transmission to appear right before her, and used his powers to not only create a door on Rose's face to get it spinning like a revolving door, but also a door on her torso and knees.
"What the fuck?!" Rose tries to stop her body parts from revolving, but they wouldn't stop moving until Blueno throws another tempest kick at her to send her flying out the window.
Kaku begins to slowly stand, and get ready to go after her along with Blueno, when they suddenly hear screams coming from down the hall. "ICEBURG SIR, WHAT HAPPENED?!"
The masked men leave the outsider alone for now, for the sake of their own mission, and run through Blueno's door to the base. Once the door was shut behind them, the torn apart bedroom was left behind with no clues to who was involved in Iceburg's attempted assassination.
Rose regains her flight balance right above a building. that's across the street from the mansion. She turns herself into air to be invisible to the naked eye and rushes to Iceburg's broken window.
She doesn't go inside, because she has a clear view of a secretary, and two security guards picking up the injured man, while being careful of his bloody arm, and taking him to a doctor. She may not be happy that she couldn't get her friend out yet, but seeing that Iceburg wasn't as injured as in the manga helps her feel like she did something right today...
Rose's wind began to cool down from the thought of how shitty this day was, but tries not to pay it any more mind. Instead, she flies off to the direction of the ship to see if she can make it to Luffy and Usopp's fight.
She flew as quickly as she could to Merry's direction, but once she reaches the Merry, there's not a pirate to be seen. She lands on a cliffside that oversees the coast, and looks around until she sees Usopp a mile away from the ship.
The wind girl is heartbroken at the sight of the new bruises he received since she last saw him, while he limps towards the ship with his right arm holding onto his left one. "Fuck, they had their fight..."
Her eyes follow the sniper, but stop when she sees a familiar bird perched on a nearby cliff.
Rose walks over to the falcon and when she sees her watching the sniper, she sits down beside her. "How long have you been out here?"
Zira doesn't get surprised by Rose's appearance and keeps her eyes on Usopp. "Since the start of the fight. Long nose demanded Straw Hat to move their fight over a mile down the coast. Something about not wanting their fight to damage the ship."
When the bird sees the injured man approaching the ship, and climbing aboard, she looks over to her friend. "I still don't get it. The ship can be replaced right? So why would he fight his captain like that?"
Rose softly frowns at the questions before she looks over at the ship. "It's hard to explain. A ship can be replaced, but not the adventures that we travelled with one. That ship has been with the crew since near the very beginning. Merry's special to everyone, especially to the long nose one. Words can't describe his connection to the ship, since he's the one who took the most care of it. As for why he still wanted to fight Luffy after I told him the truth, that's a bit too personal for me to tell you. I take it you still want to join?"
Zira goes to nod, but hesitates when she sees Usopp manage to reach the deck, go to the figurehead, and hug her like he would for a family member. Seeing him so lonely like that hits her hard, because of her own experience of growing up alone in a forest, and doesn't understand why he chose this for a ship. To try to make sense of this strangeness, she looks over to her friend. "Can we hold off for a bit? I need to understand something first."
Rose turns to where she was looking at, softens her gaze on Usopp, because she has an idea of what Zira's thinking up, and looks to her. "Alright, if you're going to stay around Usopp, you need to know a few things."
The bird nods her head while Rose explains a few details about her friend. "He's a little jumpy, so don't be too offended if he freaks out about your powers at first. He will adjust. Also, if anyone from the Franky Family comes by tomorrow to kidnap him and the ship, let it happen. They'll keep them safe from a hurricane that's coming. Finally, you can tell him that we know each other, but not about my knowledge. You got it?"
"I do, will you come by soon?"
"As long as neither of us get caught, we'll see each other again." Rose answers before she gently strokes the top of the bird's head.
The bird leans into the kind girl's soft touch, until the human pulls away, and starts transforming into a gust of wind. "I'll see you later."
Zira only watches as her friend disappears into a gust of air that flies to the direction of the ship.
Without getting noticed by Usopp, Rose sneaks to the ship, to grab her research material, then leaves the coast to reunite with the rest of the crew.
As for Zira, she takes a chance to get a closer look by flying towards the ship, and making herself at home in the crow's nest. She perches onto the railing to get a bird's eye view of the sniper, and watches him distract himself from the pain of leaving the crew by doing maintenance work on Merry for the rest of the night.
************************************************
After leaving the coast, Rose re-materialized, and used her wind to hop from roof to roof in search of her friends. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to find the hotel that they're staying at, because Luffy is sitting alone on one of the rooftops, looking like he just killed someone in cold blood.
The masked girl lands on a roof, that's just a few buildings away from her lover, and is heartbroken from seeing his depressed state.
The sight alone is painful, but seeing him holding her necklace, with one hand for support, while staring off into space, brings her straight back to the times she sat like that on the roof of her foster home back in New York.
She'd do anything to keep him from feeling the same way she did back then, and intends to prove it by roof jumping towards him.
Luffy was so stuck in his own state of mind, that he didn't notice someone approaching until she sits cross legged right in front of him.
He releases the necklace, and grows confused by her arrival, because she's still wearing the mask, so she speaks up. "Hey captain, long night huh?"
He widens his eyes when he recognizes his lover's voice. "Rose? Where've you been? And what's with the mask?"
Even though she feels like she has no idea what she's doing, she lifts her face to reveal her black eye, but a calm smile as well. "I kind of got swept up by the city, got separated from Robin, and got in a few scraps. You should see the other guys though."
She loses her smile quickly to try to move the conversation back to Luffy. "Enough about me though, I heard about what happened from Usopp. Do you want to talk about it?"
Luffy deeply frowns at the question, and looks away from her. "Not really..."
She figured that much, so instead of talking, she decides to take some action by using her wind to lift him up.
He grows surprised by the lift, and tries to get down, but she's not letting up. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"If you're gonna sulk, then you need a better spot for it. Lucky for you, I know just the place." Rose takes his hand into her own, and begins their journey to the city's giant fountain.
Throughout the flight, the rubber man starts to feel his depression start to slip from the light rush of wind passing through him. It definitely helps that Rose hasn't let go of his hand for a single moment throughout the trip. Not even when it came to an end at the top of the fountain did the wind girl release his hand.
Instead, she sits them together, with their legs dangling off the edge of the fountain, just as the sun starts to peek through the horizon.
Luffy begins to marvel at the crazy view as dawn's light begins to shine for him to get a view of the city waking up. "Whoa, this is so cool!"
Rose begins to grin at the captain's excitement, and looks down at the huge landscape. "Knew you'd like it here. Places like these are always the best when feeling down."
Luffy grows confused by the statement and looks at her. "Why is that?"
She shrugs at the question, and looks out at the city. "Hard to say. Maybe because of how much more you can see of a place from this height. I know when I see so much going on all at once, it makes my own problems feel small in comparison."
The brunette turns to Luffy, gives his hand a little squeeze, and focuses on him. "But what about you? How are you holding up?"
His frown growls larger when he remembers his fight with Usopp, and starts to feel tears building up in his eyes. "I'm mad at myself for telling Usopp to leave, sad about Merry dying, worried about Robin, and I don't even know if I'll ever see Usopp again..."
Rose softens her gaze at the sight of Luffy's frustration, before she pulls the hand that's holding Luffy's free, so she can wrap that arm around his shoulders, and pull him closer to her side until his head is leaning into her shoulder.
The captain doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her waist, and cry into her shoulder, while Rose wraps her other arm around him.
As much as Rose wants to cry with him, she knows that Luffy needs support right now, so she keeps her eyes tightly shut to hold her emotions back. She gently strokes his back, to help soothe his pain, while giving him reassuring words. "Things are going to work out. Last I saw Robin, she was fine, and I'm sure she still is. And Usopp can be a stubborn ass, but he loves this crew. He just needs some time to come to terms about Merry. Once he accepts that, he'll be back."
"You think so?"
"I know so. Right now, we just need to be patient. And in the meantime, both the crew and I are gonna be here for you." She opens her eyes to give him a peck on his forehead, then she pulls back to wipe away his tears with her thumb.
After the tears were gone, Rose gave one more peck to his nose which got his captain to giggle at the weird feeling.
His smile starts to stay from the affection, and gives her a kiss to her lips as a sign of gratitude. When Rose starts to blush from the affection, Luffy pulls away and lightly laughs at her reaction. "Thanks Rose, I'm ready to go back now."
The wind girl can only nod at the request before creating a gust of wind for the both of them to fly back on. As they feel the morning sun on their faces, both pirates are more than willing to leave yesterday behind them.
With Luffy blissfully unaware of what's to come today, he wears a small grin in gratitude that the worst is behind him.
As for the wind girl, she feels a little satisfied of finally being able to do something good for the crew. Still, with her knowing about what's ahead, and about her new enemies, she mentally braces herself for the new day, along with the new dangers, that await her and the Straw Hats throughout the flight back to the others.
TO BE CONTINUED