Free Heart

Ch 68 - I am Busy Learning

Emmy watched with utmost fascination while Robin meticulously pieced together the skull of a fractured skeleton they found in a coffin from the wreckage. It had floated up and was about to sail right by the Going Merry if the archaeologist had been less newest member had insisted it be brought up to sift through and even though they couldn't understand why, the cook and the first mate were happy to oblige. The swordsman and the doctor were not as convinced that this was a good thing.

"What's that woman doing? Opening the coffin?" Chopper hissed from his hiding place behind the mast.

"Tch. What can you possibly learn from that?" Zoro scoffed.

"I don't know," Robin admitted without looking up from her project.

"You've got strange interests," Nami commented as she walked around the deck for the upteenth time while staring at the Log Pose, hoping it would sort itself out.

"A pretty woman and the dead. Now that's an interesting combination," Sanji said while meticulously placing pieces of broken bone next to Robin for her to sort out.

Emmy tilted her head to the side while she watched Robin work on her puzzle. "Is this arkonomy?"

"Archeology," Robin corrected with a small smile, "And yes, it is. I am hoping to learn more about this person's history once I put everything together."

"Oh, I see," Emmy breathed.

"OY! Emmy! Come look!" Luffy called out from the side of the ship.

"Eh?" Zoro went over to the railing and saw that the captain and the sniper had left their ship and were leaping across the surfaced part of the wreckage towards what remained of the galleon's stern.

"Emmy!" Luffy cried and waved his arms.

Emmy got up, poked her head over the side of the ship and she smiled apologetically. "I can't come right now. I am busy learning history but you go ahead. Have fun but be careful! Don't fall into the water."

Luffy and Usopp pouted as they watched her walk away. "Boo."

"What are they even doing?" Zoro asked.

"'Exploration' is what they said," Chopper reported.

"Just in time, Emmy-chan," Sanji said when Emmy returned to her spot next to Robin, "The restoration is complete."

Robin set down completed finished skull and she pointed at two clean holes near the back of it. They were the size of small coins. "The holes here are man-made. Do you see that?"

"Oh...so then this guy was pierced there and died, huh?" Sanji asked.

"No," Robin said, "These are indications of medical treatments. It's called craterization. Isn't it, Doctor?"

Chopper nodded. "Yeah. In the past, they made holes in the skull in order to constrain a brain tumor but that's a medical technique from very long ago."

"That's right," Robin said, "It's just like the other skull I saw before but with this one, we can know for sure that it's been at least 200 years since he died. On closer inspection, I can tell that he was in his early 30s. He fell sick while traveling on the sea and died. The reason his teeth remained in good condition compared to his other bones is because tar was rubbed on them while he was alive. This custom is characteristic of some areas in the South Blue before the invention of toothpaste. We can safely assume that he came from an exploration party from there."

She looked up and smiled at the first mate. "Would you mind getting that blue book behind you, little pirate?"

Emmy blinked and slowly turned. "The blue book behind...Oh. This one?"