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"Oh Española que linda eres, oh Española siempre floreses, tropicana, todos tus frutos mejoran los gustos, todos tus hijos mejoran el mundo."
"Oh my Española how beautiful you are, oh my Española you always flourish, tropical, all of your frutos* better everyone's tastes, all of your children better the world."
(the word frutos* is a weird one to translate, is kind of like assets in a way. In this case is referring to how rich the island is, with it's great land for agriculture and all of the gold hidden deep in the island.)
This was an old saying from the small island called La Española where Hermes and Robin are from...
The Island has always been tourist friendly because of its beautiful beaches, all of the fruits and amazing food they had. It is the place to go to if you want to have a vacation, the people there know how to show people a great time.
However, 13 years ago they were invaded by some pirates, they were powerful foes who were after the riches of the land. Their gold and their women.
The people of La Española didn't go down without a fight. After this incident the whole world found out the reason why a some of the best professional fighters or sport players around the world, came from this island. The reason wasn't that they were secretly studying and practicing different type of fighting styles or underwent any special training... The reason was that the more the enemy beat them down to the limit, the stronger they got. It was in their blood to fight back to protect the land and the people they love.
Even though they fought back, the enemy's strength was too overwhelming for them. They got wiped out...
After the war, the entire islands resources for survival were stripped from them. They couldn't trade from their Agricultural richness anymore, nor sell the gold that was in the island... The enemy enslaved the men that were old enough to work, sometimes even children, and made them dig out all of the gold everywhere in the island. They killed those who opposed, they raped most of the women and some children, they were ruthless taking something that was not theirs. Imagine growing up during these times.
Eventually small groups of rebellion started forming, as a result they were successful in killing the enemy, the women seducing and poisoning them or a lot of them died from natural causes such as diseases or the tropical weather they weren't used to.
However, the island could never go back to what it once was and as a result the country turned gray and bitter. Everyone for themselves, a lot of people died of hunger, a lot of them turned to violence like stealing and killing in order to survive.
Not all parts of the island were bad, some were better then others, there will always be rich people that take advantage of situations and keep money to themselves, then the middle working class, and ofcourse let's not forget the lower poor and next to nothing class. There was no future if you weren't at the rich class from the start.
This was the story that they told all of the children that were born after the tragedy. But all of those that survived through those times knew that it was harsher as well as more horrific than the written version states...
There was something that always bothered Hermes about the whole thing, I mean he was only a little boy when all the tragedy fell upon them. But in his opinion it never made sense how some miserable pirate crew caused havoc and led to the destruction of their whole island by themselves. This is what he wants to figure out. Everything about Planet Europa and all of these powers that people have, are starting to complete that missing link that Hermes has always wondered about. Or maybe desperation helped him assume it was them, grasping at the one thing that is finally starting to make a little bit of sense.
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Robin and Hermes arrived at a small liquor store in the middle of Central Rica's talking woods. The liquor store was ran by an old couple who have kept their business going since the old days, this was what Robin told Hermes before they got there.
They finally got to the front door after a couple of hours of traveling via ship. He just followed Robin without questioning.
"Granny Tina, Gramps Tony, are guys here?" Robin said as they made their way through the door and no one was there.
As Robin started looking around for them, Hermes was looking around at all of the old type of rum and whine they had in their store.
"The oro 30, you have a good eye. We can use someone like you around in the business." said an old man that appeared out of thin air behind Hermes. This left Hermes in shock because he couldn't sense his presence at all, even as he looked at him it was like no one stood there. The old man just smiled.
"My dad always loved to drink this every Tuesday night, he would give us a taste here and there. After we came to this country we always looked for one but never found it." Hermes said to the old man while trying to not show how surprised he was at how much he can hide his presence.
"Oh really sunny, then by any chance are you from La Española?"
"Great guess." Hermes replied.
"Beautiful Beautiful land. We are not from there but we used to pay a lot of visits over there back in the day." The old man Tony said as he grabbed the Oro 30 bottle from the shelf and walked behind the counter. "We made lots of friends and had amazing experiences over there during our journey to conquer the liquors of the world. It's sad what type of country it's become after the invasion."
"..." Hermes stayed quiet.
Old man Tony put two cups on the table and started pouring drinks as he kept talking. "On our time there we met a bunch of great people and learned many things about the culture. One of those people was young Robin's family, the way they cooked was beyond anything we've ever had in our entire lives. And on our journey to the famous southern side of the island we met this little humble family. I wonder how that little boy who had his head full of hair and had the eyes of the king as a little runt. That was the first time I tasted Oro."
Hermes smirked and they both clinked their cups and drank the cups of Oro.
"that was so many years ago... I wonder if they survived the invasion, I wonder what type of lives that little family's led after everything horrible that has happened to their beautiful proud Island full of richness, dancing and life.... That Kid was only 2 years old at that time. I wonder how old and big he must be now."
Hermes grabbed the next drink old man Tony poured him, he drank it fast and stayed quiet for a couple of seconds.
"19... old man Tony the Drunken God of liquor... hehehe" Hermes said.
"hehehe, I hadn't heard that name in ages. It's been a couple of years since we stopped that way of life. Now me and my wife live on our dream house and only share our treasures with those who are worthy."
Robin was just looking at them talk from the door. And Granny Tina walked through the door while carrying some things on her hands. Then she took one look at Hermes back and dropped everything she was carrying. When he heard things fall, he looked behind him and got up.
"Oh its little Devil King eyes boy... who would've thought you would grow up to be this tall, you were such a tiny kid hehehe man how time passes."
He smiled... He Genuinely smiled.
"I didn't know you guys knew eachother... but it makes sense since you guys know a lot of people." Robin said as she walked closer to them.
"It was too long ago I barely have any memories of those old days." Hermes said and Robin replied, "Well since we're done with intros, Granny knows the reason we are here, we're going to be staying here until the next trial, I'm going to train this weakling and make him into a real man. Thank you again for letting us use your basement."
"Come on you know it's no problem, anything for you guys." ~Tony
"We will be working hard up here too, with all the food we will be making for you guys!!" ~Tina said as she smiled.
"Thanks, I look forward to having another drink old man." Hermes said to him and He smiled but once Hermes turned around and headed downstairs with Robin, his facial expression changed... Tony looked a little worried.
They walked to the basement and it was nothing like Hermes had seen before!! It was like a big Spa, with a little house on the side, a house inside a house's basement, it was incredible. There were hot springs, a sauna and places to shower and sleep. The best part was the big empty mountainous area that was definitely going to be used for the main part of their training.
They made their way to the house and put of their things down and Robin said, "Okay so for today we're going to take the day off and just relax. I'm going to go get changed... meet me at the hot spring.... Oh and Hermes, from here on we're going to start a different type of training. Resting your body is also part of it, so don't even think about training while I go to sleep."
"you knew..." He said as he stared at her.
"I got up and saw you a few times, it's one of the reasons we're here right now because I respect a determination like that one. However, promise me from now on you will rest too."
"I promise." Hermes said to Robin and she just stared at him a little and gave him a flirtatious look as she walked out of the room. "See you in the hot springs, I'll go change in the bathroom."
*hmmp, I guess she's interesting and is a sexy mf. Plus I am gonna be with her basically alone these next few weeks...* he smacks his own head, "what are you thinking man, it'll never happen...
Oh well."
He went into the hot spring waiting for Robin to come.
Wow...
what a beauty...
she can definitely pass for a goddess...
Robin came wearing only a towel and started walking into the hot spring... Hermes swallowed his saliva and just kept staring at her as she turned around to take her towel off and get into the water...
*These three weeks are definitely going to be harder than I thought* Hermes~...