One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Nine [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Nine-

"It's freezing" Usopp shivered in agreement.

"What is it?" Luffy asked when he caught sight of Aokiji scratching his head in thought.

"How should I put this?" the Admiral suddenly hummed. "You're the spitting image of your grandfather, Monkey D. Luffy—or maybe I should say, you're just as reckless and hard to figure out" he confessed.

"You knew my grandfather?" Luffy tensed.

"Seriously, Luffy's—hey, Luffy, what's wrong? You're sweating!" Usopp worriedly frowned upon seeing how tense the captain was as sweat nervously poured down his face.

"Luffy?" I quietly questioned before tensing myself when I suddenly felt Aokiji's gaze on me once more, his brows furrowed as if he was mulling something over.

"Nothing, really—I'm fine" Luffy dismissively waved as he started to relax.

"Your grandfather helped me out once, a long time ago—that's why I'm here" Aokiji revealed as he turned back to the captain. "I wanted to see you and Nico Robin together with my own eyes...on second thought, maybe I should just kill you" he said, causing my jaw to tighten. "The government still doesn't consider you a threat, but I know enough of your history to see you're a formidable crew—you may be few in numbers, but in the shrew rouges gathered here, this crew will likely be a problem later on" he frowned, his gaze now bouncing from crewmember to crewmember. "Considering the circumstances regarding your initial bounty, the numerous daring actions you've taken in the speed of your overall progress...I fought outlaws for most of my life, but thinking about how you'll turn out scares the hell out of me" he confessed.

"Hey, wait—hold on a second! You said you were here to check things out, not to kill anyone!" Usopp panicked.

"One among you I consider the most dangerous, that would be you, Nico Robin" Aokiji said.

"So, despite everything, you are here for Robin! Now I'm really going to kick your ass!" Luffy angrily snapped, his temper flaring back up.

"The size of her bounty isn't merely a reflection of her strength and power, it also represents something else—that would be the level of threat and danger she poses to the World Government" Aokiji explained, giving me depth do how bounties were usually assigned and how it wasn't always about physical strength. "That's why a 79,000,000 beli bounty was placed on her head at the tender young age of eight—I'm surprised you could survive, especially as a child" he confessed. "You managed to betray, sidestep, and escape from everyone in your path and then found a new partner to make you some. You survived in the underworld by being quick to switch sides and now you've chosen this crew as your next haven."

"That's enough, jerk!" Sanji snapped once he saw the pained look on Robin's face as if the older man had struck a nerve. "I'm not just going to stand here and let you speak to a lady like that! What kind of ridiculous grudge are you holding against Robin?!" he sneered.

"Stop it, Sanji!" Usopp pleaded as he attempted to hold the frustrated blond back.

"I don't have anything against her—the only connection we have between us is that I let her escape from me one time, that's about it" Aokiji admitted. "It was a long time ago—you will all learn soon enough that protecting this woman leads to nothing but regret" he warned. "If you need proof then consider this, every organization that she had something to do with in the past has been annihilated. Not one single solitary member escaped except for her—why is that Nico Robin?" he inquired as if wanting to make the woman feel terrible for whatever she had to do to survive.

"Shut up, you jerk!" Luffy snapped. "The past doesn't matter!"

"That's right! If it did, we wouldn't have a dangerous former pirate hunter guy or degenerate, conniving thief woman on our crew—would we?" Usopp nodded in agreement.