Her limbs ached and her empty stomach was screaming at her, but the poor little raven-haired girl did not dare stop running.
The Marines had surrounded the town from all sides, and they were searching for her with their hounds. She knew that once they got their hands on her, there was only one fate that awaited her, and that was death.
They had not even spared the children when they killed everyone at her home.
A mirthless laugh escaped her lips but soon hot tears started streaming out of her eyes once again. There was rage burning in her young heart, and there was sadness filled inside it that suffocated her. How funny it was that the World Government considered her, a 10-years-old child, the biggest threat to the World?
And she had never once in her life ever harmed a soul before they came after her.
The beautiful face of her mother flashed in her mind, and the images of that dreadful day surfaced again. The screams of her family as they were shot and burned alive right before her eyes were still fresh as ever. She would never forget the day the sky fell on Ohara, and her frail shoulders were now burdened by the sacrifices of her mother and Saul, who gave their lives to make sure that she escaped the disaster.
Another face appeared in her mind. It belonged to a tall dark man with afro hair, and her blood boiled with rage as she remembered the pity in his eyes. She sometimes really wished that he had killed her right then and there instead of letting her escape. She knew that he was capable of ending her misery, but he had let her live out of pity and for the last wish of his comrade, Jaguar D. Saul.
It was his mercy that she still lived today, but she was not grateful to him. His hands were stained with the blood of her kin, and she hated him to the core of her being. She hated him just as much as the World Government, who called her kin traitors and unleashed a Buster Call on their beautiful home.
When her mind cleared up, she found herself staring at a wall that blocked the alley, and the approaching footsteps of her pursuers grew louder. Her heart constricted, and she frantically looked around, but there was no escape. All she could do now was hide inside a dumpster, counting her last breaths.
The days when she was pampered with flowers and beautiful dresses were gone, and here she was now, in rags, hiding inside a dumpster just like the rest of the trash of the world.
The little girl used the Power of her Devil Fruit and conjured up an eye outside to help her keep a watch on what was happening. Her blistered hand was tightly wrapped around the locket she wore, and somewhere in the back of her mind, a young face appeared, making her heart ache terribly in longing.
It was the face of a boy, a few years older than her, with unruly raven hair and haunting grey eyes. His benevolent smile always made her smile back at him. But he was gone now. And she did not know if he was even alive or not. God, she prayed he was alive. And she hoped he was out there searching for her, his beloved little half-sister.
He always said that he loved her the most in the world and that he would always be there to protect her, but she never blamed him for not honouring his promises. She just wished that if he was alive, he received all the happiness in the world.
The locket she cherished more than her life was his gift to her on her sixth birthday, and that was the last time she saw him. Her mother never told her where he went, and only said that he had to retrieve some things. She was scared that he would never come back, and her fears proved true when he did not return the next year and the year after. Now Ohara was gone, and he had no home to return to.
"Sin..." She whispered his name one last time as she saw the hounds of the Marines madly bark and rush towards where she was hiding, ending all her hopes of survival.
She was weak, frail, and starved, but her will was strong as ever. Just like her brother, her blood was the blood of the Devils, and there was no way she was going to embrace her death without a fight.
Dozens of Guns were pointed at the dumpster she was hiding inside, and a Marine cautiously stepped forward to open it. The hounds were still madly barking when dozens of hands sprouted from the backs of some Marines and caught their necks in deadly vices.
The little girl used all her power and somehow managed to break their necks, making them fall to the ground like sacks. The sight made the hounds quiet down, and the rest of the Marines fearfully looked at the dumpster she was hiding inside.
"Open Fire!" Someone yelled, and then there was chaos.
As soon as she heard the command to open fire on her, her vision turned red. The rage in her heart erupted, and her strong will to live manifested itself, washing all over the area.
"I want to live..." She whispered right before she lost consciousness.
The little girl did not know what she had done, but all the Marines and their hounds in the vicinity were on the ground, unconscious, just as clueless as her as to what had happened.
Minutes passed, and the other platoons of the Marines started moving towards the area after receiving no calls from the fallen Marines. The sight that met them constricted their hearts, and the hounds with them were loudly barking at the dumpster, telling them where the culprit was hiding.
"Forward!" The Marine Captain leading them raised his hand and signalled to a few members to approach the dumpster.
To their relief, when the Marines fearfully opened the lid, they found the frail-looking girl lying unconcious amongst the trash.
"Sir, we have found Nico Robin!" A Marine yelled as he scooped the girl out of the dumpster and put the Sea-Prism Handcuffs on her small wrists.
Young as she might be, her powers were deadly.
Looking at the state of the girl, some Marines felt their hearts constrict, and even the Captain lowered his eyes before turning around and gesturing for the Platoon to follow him back to their Warship. Orders were orders, and the little girl was a criminal even if she looked innocent.
Then again, her hands were now stained with the blood of his men.
The Marines were onboard their ship, with the bodies of their fallen comrades, and the ones that had fallen unconscious due to the unknown phenomenon started waking up again.
When they were brought forward to the Captain and were inquired about what had happened, they narrated the incident that was still fresh in their minds.
"We just felt a wave of unyielding power wash over our senses and then everything was dark..."
Everyone was deadly silent after hearing their words and the Captain narrowed his eyes.
"The Conqueror's Haki..."
A Marine loudly whispered, and all the Marines looked at the cabin where the little girl was being held in alarm.
"Start the course towards Impel Down." The Captain ordered and left for his cabin to make a call at the headquarters and inform them of the success of the mission as well as the latest development. For a ten-year-old girl to possess such a potent Haki was not something that could be brushed off, and it was not just another Haki, but the Conqueror's Haki that was believed to manifest in only one among millions of people.
The Galleons had just set their course when all of a sudden the sky was shrouded in dark clouds and lightning that thundered in rage, making the sea restless.
This phenomenon alarmed the Marines as they had never before witnessed such an uncalled-for storm in the calm Seas of West Blue. And the amount of Lightning in the Sky was not normal even in the Grand Line. There was just something strange about all of this, and cold shivers soon started running up their spine.
It was a bad omen. The coming of death.
And then something happened that terrified them to the core of their beings.
Lightning struck the deck of their main Warship, but caused no destruction, instead, a boy emerged out of it, and his haunting grey eyes, with lightning pulsating in them, looked at the Marines in sheer rage.
"Die..." Their sentence was announced in a whisper and a powerful wave of Conqueror's Haki washed over all three of the Galleons, making everyone onboard lose their consciousness.
Once done with them, the boy opened his fist and the Vivre Card in his hand pointed him to the Cabin where Robin was.
His body trembled when he saw the state of his little sister, but then he stilled his heart and gently picked up the sleeping girl in his arms. He spent nearly half an hour searching for the key of her handcuffs.
The hateful Sea-Prism Stone made him Powerless at the contact, and the damned thing had to be one of the hardest minerals in the world. Otherwise, he would have just torn it off the wrists of his little sister. But he was in no haste and carefully gathered some supplies from the kitchens, as well as all the cash and treasure from the ships. There was not much, but there was enough for them to go by for a few years.
As the lower half of his body turned to lightning, he slowly ascended to the sky with the little girl in his arms, making her hair ruffle in the air, which eventually woke her up.
Her greyish-blue eyes widened in disbelief when she looked at his smile, and then her frail body started trembling uncontrollably before all dams broke and she loudly bawled, hugging him with all her might.
"Sin!" She kept calling out his name over and over again.
"Yes, little bird." He affectionately called her out with her nickname, and it only made her go crazier.
"It's not a dream, is it?" She scaredly asked, hugging him with all her might.
"No." He whispered to her and planted a kiss on her head.
Sin entered the clouds with her, isolating the sight of the three Galleons from her eyes. She did not need to see what he was going to do to them.
Three powerful pillars of Lighting struck each Galleon, tearing them apart in powerful blasts, killing everyone onboard, and sinking the bodies and the debris in the raging sea. There was no room for the witnesses, and to him, they all deserved to die for hunting his little bird.