With days passing since Aokiji's encounter with the Straw Hat crew, the ice Admiral is finishing his bike ride by reaching his destination to Marineford. As he walks the halls, any subordinate in his path was quick to get out of his way. He doesn't care if anyone is in his path, but he admits that it makes it easier to get him to where he's going.
In a matter of minutes, he reaches his destination to Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office, and knocks on the door.
"Enter." Sengoku answers for the ice man to step inside.
Once Aokiji closes the door behind him, Sengoku looks up from his paperwork, and slightly relaxes from the sight of his subordinate. "About time you came back. Were you riding your bike on the ocean again?"
The ice Admiral chuckles at the accurate guess, as he takes a seat on the couch across from his desk. "I did, and on my outing, I managed to meet the Straw Hats. They escaped though."
He twitches at the name of the infamous crew, that's causing them trouble, and groans at his laid back attitude. "You shouldn't be so calm at that!"
"Sorry sir, but I can tell that they'll be heading to Water Seven next, just as you thought."
He relaxes at the news that his plan isn't ruined, but at the same time, he's grown a bit curious about what he found out. "I see, were you able to find anything out about our two targets?"
"Nico Robin is definitely with them. The crew even protected her from me. She has them wrapped around her finger."
"And the outsider?"
Aokiji thinks back on his encounter with the wind child, before he tiredly sighs at what he has to say about her. "For once, we got an outsider that has future knowledge. She knew about my power, and about both my past and future. What's worse is that she acts just like a member of the D clan. She wouldn't stop fighting me even with severe frostbite."
Sengoku scowls at the news, because it confirms some of his worst fears. He looks over to the picture frame on his desk in slight depression of this. The photo in the black frame is obviously old due to the faded image, but three marines in the picture can still be made out. The two boys can be depicted as a twenty something Garp on the left, who's showing off his signature toothy smile, with a just as young Sengoku in the middle with a small stoic grin.
On the right though, is a young, pale, curvy marine woman, with curly raven black hair pulled back in a ponytail, that's down to her mid-back, a large smile that can compete with Garp's, and large amethyst eyes, that resemble the eyes in the outsider's photo.
He softly frowns at the marine woman in the photo, before he looks to his subordinate for the most important question to him. "What about her surname? Were you able to confirm it?"
Aokiji releases a small smirk from remembering the conversation with Rose, and speaks about it. "She denied the connection. I almost believed her too, but she couldn't hide all of her anxiety. I'm willing to bet that she does have a relation to the Alun family, but I don't think she's Alun D Aria and Aiden's child. She would've been much older than she is now."
Sengoku nods in agreement, but it doesn't take the mournful look off his face, from confirming that she's related to the woman in the photo. Dammit, why are so many marine bloodlines becoming pirates?!
He ignores the temptation of punching something, before he answers back. "Two of their children were with them at the facility that night. Their son didn't vanish, but their daughter did. Depending on how time works, in whatever world she came from, she could either be the missing daughter, or Aria and Aidan's granddaughter. In any case, we can't take this lightly since she's sided with the pirates."
Aokiji does agree, but feels that he should make a comment for her case. "You're right, but she might not be a lost cause. Before I froze her alive, she told me something to help me in the future. She's willing to share her knowledge to help those that she trusts, from what she learned of us in her world."
The fleet admiral feels slightly relieved by the new information, because if they can get her on their side, her knowledge, of both the future and of where she's from, could be of great use to them. "In that case, I'll order our Cipher Pol teams to bring her to me alive. I already have a few members of CP 8 placed in Water Seven for this. With their experience in catching outsiders, and having CP 9 with them, they shouldn't have any trouble in catching her, along with Nico Robin. I'll update you when we have them. Until then, you may go, but be close on standby. We don't know if Wind Rider stopped gaining future knowledge of this world when she came here, so if she can predict both CP 9 and 8's actions, then we need all the man power we have to catch the Straw Hats."
"Alright." The ice admiral remains stoic as soon as those words are said, and calmly leaves the office for Sengoku to make the order to Cipher Pol.
As Aokiji roams the halls of the base, he can't help but be curious as to how all of this will play out. He knows that he'll have to join the offense if needed, but he can't help but hope the outsider's prediction about Nico Robin was right. Ever since he spared her life twenty years ago, he's kept tabs on her in hopes that she would find a place of her own to belong in.
He knows that the World Government didn't make it easy for her, so he couldn't blame her for going to the criminal underworld. With her going from one place to the other though, and leaving destruction in her wake, he doesn't know how much longer he can let it last. If she doesn't find a place with the crew that was willing to protect her from even himself, then he'll have no choice, but to go against Saul's wishes to take her down.
He quietly sighs at the two choices, but he knows that at least for now, he can only go to his quarters for a nap. After a few steps though, he pauses when the outsider's advice rings in his head. *"Get yourself stronger. You can be the Fleet Admiral that this world needs if you defeat the lava mutt."*
Aokiji can't help but chuckle at Rose's nickname for his comrade, before he turns around and starts walking to the training room instead. If getting stronger keeps Akainu from becoming Fleet Admiral, he's willing to hold off on his nap for a while.
**************************************
With a new morning going by for the Straw Hat pirates, each member is going through their day without a care in the world.
That is, all except for the crew's logia user. It's been four days since they recovered their memories, and Rose hasn't seen a single sign of them reaching Water Seven yet. She was able to use the time to train her powers, swordsmanship, and lock picking skills, but the anticipation is still killing her.
After this morning's routine training, she tries to make a change in her routine, to help keep her mind sharp, by sitting on the deck, with her back to the mast while reading her constellation book. Even though she's read it cover to cover at least three times, it's still a good tool for her to let her mind wander to the universe.
As for her lover though, Luffy's gotten bored out of his mind on his spot on Merry's figurehead. He doesn't want to go fishing with Usopp and Chopper again, because he feels like he's always doing that. And with Nami visiting Sanji in the kitchen more, it's even harder for him to get a snack than normal...
He groans in frustration of not finding anything to do, then looks behind him to find Rose reading away. A playful grin grows on his face when he gets an idea to pass the time, then gets up and jumps onto the deck.
Rose doesn't pay any mind to the footsteps approaching her, as well as the shade from the rope ladder above her swinging around from someone climbing up. The only thing that could get her away from the pages of her book, is a pat on the head from above. "Rose, move your head back!"
The brunette hums curiously the looks up to see Luffy above her, with his body holding onto the bottom side of the rope ladder.
"What the hell are you doing?" Rose asks while she scoots backwards until her back, and head are to the mast.
With her moving back, Luffy lets his hands go, but keeps his feet looped around the ladder, so that he's hanging upside down with his toothy grin just a few inches from her face. "Just hanging around."
She pauses at the bad pun, with a blank look, which gets him worried, until she suddenly bursts into a fit of giggles. "Hahaha, oh my god, that was fucking perfect!"
Luffy giggles along with her before he feels his feet starting to lose their group on the ladder, and have him slip for a second before he stretches his feet to get them to regain their grip.
Rose notices the slip though, and looks up to find his stretched feet struggling to keep their new size, then looks to Luffy. "Don't your feet hurt?"
"Not really." Luffy answers but the way he shifts his eyes and purses his lips tells her another story.
She frowns at the lie then looks back up to see that his feet are shaking, and could return to their normal size at any moment. "Seriously, you should get down from there."
He slightly pouts at the comment, but freezes when he comes up with an idea.
Rose grows confused when she sees his upside down face give her a smirk, before he answers her. "I'll get down if you give me a kiss."
She starts to blush at the idea of a spider man kiss, but grows annoyed at how he thinks he has the upper hand here.
However, there's two who can play at that game, so she gives him a small smirk of her own, and puts the book down. "As you wish, I just need you to close your eyes."
Luffy does as he's told, and closes his eyes, and can feel her hand on his left cheek. He leans forward to help her make contact, but instead of his lips reaching her, they only kiss the air while he feels a pair of lips on his other cheek.
He quickly opens his eyes to the kiss to see that Rose moved to his right side to kiss his cheek. "Hey, that's not where I wanted you to kiss me!"
She giggles at the childish complaint, before she sticks her tongue out. "You never said where, you just said to kiss you, so now you gotta come down."
He groans at her cheekiness when his feet suddenly return back to their normal size, and lose their grip on the ladder.
"Whoa!" Luffy's quick to fall, but before he could hit the deck, Rose managed to unleash a small gust to cushion his fall, a few inches off the floor before it disappears, and drops him on his butt.
Rose can't help but giggle at the fail, before she puts her book in her backpack, then stands up with a playful smirk. "Better luck next time captain."
Luffy groans at the comment when he watches her start walking below deck. Refusing to give up on getting that kiss, he jumps back up to his feet and starts running in her direction.
When Rose hears the loud footsteps approaching, she looks back with wide eyes to find that Luffy's coming after her. "Oh shit!"
She ran inside without a second thought, but couldn't get far because he managed to catch up to her in the hallway. He grabs her shoulder, spins her around, and pulls her in for a kiss on the lips.
No matter how many times they kiss, the wind girl can't keep herself from blushing at his affections. There's enough proof of that from how red her cheeks got whenever their lips made contact, but she wouldn't change it. To prove it, she pushes in to kiss back, then wraps her arms around his shoulders.
Luffy's hands follow suit by grabbing onto her, but instead of grabbing onto her waist like he planned, they grabbed a hold of her butt!
Rose yelps at the grab, before accidentally releases a strong, hot, gust of wind that pushes Luffy off her, and sends him flying to the wall!
Luffy groans at the flight when he slides down the wall and lands on his butt.
As for the wind girl, she's a little shell shocked by what just happened, but is still worried about him because the hit was hard enough for him to make a dent in the wall. "Are you alright?!"
Luffy nods to the question, as he gets up. "Yea, but why'd you use your wind on me?"
While she's embarrassed by the accident, she's annoyed that he groped her so suddenly, so she gives him a weak glare. "It was a reflex from you suddenly groping my ass! What the fuck was that about?!"
"I don't know, I was going for your waist, but my hands moved on their own!" He answers with a look of pure honesty.
She knows that he's telling the truth, but that just makes her blush even darker, because that means it was his animal instincts that did it. And if his instincts kick in like that from them just kissing, she could only imagine what'll happen if they go farther than that!
"Fuck!" She covers her face with her hands, as if it'll shield her from her dirty thoughts. "D-don't worry, I get it. I-I'm gonna see if we reached land..."
She rushes past her confused lover, and reaches outside to get some fresh air. Once she smells the salty air, she slowly lowers her hands and relaxes at the sight of the ocean.
The relaxation quickly dies though when she sees a large frog, with scars all over his body swimming nearby. "It's time..."
She mumbled those words under her breath, so no one could hear her, but it was quick for the others to act when Chopper yells about the frog. "WHOA, THERE'S A FROG DOING FREESTYLE!"
"WHAT?!" Luffy yells when he runs outside to see the big frog dressed in sumo gear. "GET THE PADDLES! WE GOTTA CATCH IT!"
"Right!" Usopp yells back as he and Chopper grab two giant paddles from below deck, then they and Rose work on one paddle while Luffy and Zoro work on the second paddle to change course.
Nami can immediately sense the change in turn from the kitchen, and rushes outside to see the idiots moving. "Why the hell are you changing course?!"
"There's a frog swimming nearby, we're gonna catch him and eat it!" Luffy answers to the shock of the boys.
"You're going to eat him?!" Zoro and Usopp ask at the same time.
"You fucking surprised at this point?!" Rose asks but then looks to the water to find floating railroad tracks nearby, and acts surprised. "Holy crap, are those railroad tracks?!"
Nami follows her gaze to the water, and finds the rails, then sees the frog standing on the track, a mile ahead of her. When she sees it approaching the tracks, she turns to the paddlers. "TURN THE SHIP TO THE LEFT NOW! OR ELSE WE'RE GONNA GET CLOBBERED!"
"WHAT ARE YOU-?!" Luffy cuts himself off when he sees a train that's actually moving on the water, and heading in their direction!
The paddlers didn't need to be told anything else, and did what Nami's told to ensure that the ship's far from the tracks. They were able to make it to a safe distance from the tracks, but as for the frog, he's staying on the tracks and getting ready to face the train like it's an opponent.
"Oh shit, he's actually gonna face it!" Rose calls out which leads the others' to noticing the frog not moving.
"HEY, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Chopper calls out, but the frog refuses, and collides with the train, only for it to get hit, and sent flying!
Rose lets go of the paddle and focuses her wind to catch the injured animal.
As soon as she brings him back to the ship Chopper rushes over to him to help heal his injuries.
Meanwhile, everyone else is staring at the train in awe as it passes the ship.
"What kind of a ship is that?" Nami asks, but the boys can't really answer.
As for Rose, she forces herself to hold back from speaking, since she knows for sure now that they're approaching Water Seven. Because of that, she needs to make sure that her research is safe.
She goes below deck, and into the girls' room. Once the door's shut, she goes in her closet to grab the Navarone backpack, then she unloads it, along with the backpack she's wearing, and begins to unload everything into two piles. One pile holds her dials, change of clothes, her blanket, the kunai that she took from Navarone, her camera, and cash. The other one holds her books, her box, that's holding her crystal sample, and her eternal pose.
For the pile holding her dials, she puts the blanket and clothes in her main part of the bag, along with shells that she knows that can't be used for combat such as a lamp dial. For the rest of the pile, she places them into the outer pockets for easy reach.
For the items holding her research, she picks them up gently, then goes into the closet. She moves Nami's shoes out of the way, and moves a loose floorboard off the floor. She sees a small, empty space underneath, and moves her research in there for safekeeping from CP 9's prying eyes.
Once she puts the floorboard back, and Nami's shoes, she grins in relief, but when she touches her necklace out of reflex, she realizes that there's one more item she needs to protect. If she gets caught by them, they'd no doubt take it...
Frowning at the thought, she reaches for the bracket, just when she hears the door open. She lowers her hands, without removing the necklace, and gets out of the closet to find her eyes meeting Robin's. "There you are, I've been looking for you."
"You have?" Rose asks curiously.
"Yes, we dropped the frog off at a lighthouse, and we've now set a course for Water Seven. I think it's best for us to peel away from the others this time."
Rose nods to the plan. "You're right. We need to stay in the most populated areas to hide in plain sight. It's not the best strategy, but it's the safest one I can think of. Unless you have anything better."
"No, hiding in plain sight is a good strategy. It'd be easy for them to find us if we're in an open space."
The wind girl gives a small smile in the agreement, then goes to leave. "Alright, then I'll meet you outside."
Robin gives a small wave to the wind girl before Rose leaves for the deck. Once out there, she sees Sanji outside with the boys talking about the shipwright they're going to find in Water Seven.
Luffy shows the guys a horrible sketch of a person, who looks more like a blob than a human being. "He needs to look like this and be five meters tall!"
"I'd run if I see someone like that!" Usopp says in disgust of the bad drawing.
"Yea, he looks like he's part octopus." Sanji says in agreement of the bad art.
"Fine, but he needs to be big!" Luffy says as he throws the sketch out.
"The shipwright just needs to be competent, and willing to be a pirate." Zoro speaks out of indifference.
"He's right." Rose answers before she takes her camera from her bag, and flies in front of the Merry.
Luffy grows confused by her flight before he calls out to her. "What are you doing?"
Despite all the mixed emotions swirling in her mind, Rose puts on a realistic smile for the sake of both the crew, and for Merry. "Just taking one last picture of Merry before we get our shipwright."
Usopp brightens up at the idea and calls out to her. "Good idea, we can see the difference in the ship after the shipwright fixes her!"
All the wind girl can do is nod, before she backs up for a perfect shot of the ship. As soon as she gets it, she starts flying back to the deck. When she goes past Merry's head though, she speaks in the volume of a whisper for only the ship to hear. "Thank you for giving me a home Merry. I love you, and I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you..."
She takes a breath to keep her sadness in check, before she lands on the deck with her smile plastered on her face. "I'll make sure this gets developed when we get to the island."
"Great, thanks!" Usopp says before he looks past her to see something on the horizon.
He grabs a pair of binoculars from his bag, and uses him to get a closer look at what's ahead. "Guys, the island's coming up ahead!"
The rest of the crew rushes to the front of the ship to see the island beginning to approach them!
"Whoa, awesome!" Luffy says before he looks at Rose. "Rose, can you get the ship moving faster?!"
"You got it." Rose says, with her smile still stuck on her face, as she flies up to the sails to give the sails a stronger breeze to get the ship moving.
Meanwhile, Robin comes outside, and sees the island coming up ahead. "My, this island's interesting."
"Yea, this is amazing!" Nami says when they get close enough to see that the island looks like a giant fountain, with the city going up to great heights.
"No wonder a sea train can go through here." Sanji says when they get close enough to the borders to see the sea train tracks going into the city.
As soon as the ship reaches the outermost part of the city, Rose stops using her wind, and descends to the deck to gawk at the beautiful place with the others. The ship goes through the waterways of the city to find that the city is even more extravagant up close than from a distance. Every building, home, and even the street is floating on the water, to the point where it's as if they're travelling through Venice than an island in the Grand Line.
There are even gondolas, and sea animals bringing civilians around the waterways to get through the city, which amazes the crew all the more.
While Rose did take pictures of the wonderful place, she was still anxious for multiple reasons. Not only are Cipher Pol agents lurking around, but she couldn't forget that her doppelganger is from this very city. If anyone from Lily's life mistakes her for the marine, it'll cause all sorts of problems for both them and herself...
Luffy can pick up on Rose's anxiety when he sees her warily looking to the streets, and walks up beside her. "What's up?"
Rose holds back a flinch from the question, and gives him a grin. "It's nothing, don't worry."
Luffy frowns at the fake grin, and wraps his arms around her to show that he won't give up. "Don't give me that. If something's bothering you, then tell me."
She groans at his stubbornness, with a small blush decorating her cheeks, and turns to him. "I'm serious, I was just thinking of that weird marine girl from Navarone. She's from this city."
He blinks at the weird answer, and tilts his head. "You mean the one that pretended to be you?"
"Yea, since we looked so similar, I was a bit worried that people from her life would mistake me for her." She looks out at the large city around them, sees some of the citizens wearing masks, and chuckles in delight when she comes up with an idea for that problem.
For now though, she just plays it off as a childish thought. "Now that I'm seeing the place though, it looks like I worried for nothing. This place is so huge, that there's no way I'd meet with anyone from her life."
Luffy nods to the explanation, but doesn't let her go. "Yea, it'd be dumb to worry like that. When we land, how about we go to the shipwright yard together?"
While she's tempted to meet the members of Galley-La with him, she can't change her plans, so she shakes her head. "Sorry, I promised to go into the city with Robin today. Wanna explore the city tomorrow? We can try roof jumping."
The captain brightens up at the suggestion, with stars in his eyes. "Yea, let's do it!"
She giggles at the excitement, and hugs him back, but tenses up when she feels her necklace pressed against her chest, and remembers that she needs to do something about it. She knows that taking it with her is risky, but when she thinks further about the ship's going to be inspected by Kaku, there could be a chance he'd even find her research's hiding spot. She can always rewrite what's been written in her journals if they get taken, and there are chances for her to steal her sample back again, but there's no way in hell can she lose her family's treasure to them. She needs to find a way to secure its safety...
She finally snaps out of her thoughts when she feels a soft pair of lips onto hers.
The brunette flinches awake from the affection, but doesn't have time to react before Luffy pulls away with a toothy grin. "That's what you get for spacing out like that."
She couldn't help but chuckle at his cheekiness, and gives him a peck on the lips in return. "Fair enough. Thanks for..."
Rose trails off when she looks at her captain's prized straw hat on his head, and has a new idea. "Sorry, but can you do something for me?"
Luffy hums in confusion when Rose pulls away from his embrace, carefully unlocks the bracket for her necklace, and pulls the necklace away from her, so that the treasure is in full view. "Would it be alright if you held onto this for me today?"
The captain widens his eyes at the request, because he knows that she loves her necklace just as much as he loves his hat. "Why are you lending it to me?"
Rose doesn't act surprised by the returned question but instead gives him a shy grin. "Well, I have a bad feeling that something bad will happen to it, if I take it with me. And I can't imagine there being a safer place than with you."
She looks away from him, and to the doorway to below deck. "If you don't want to though, I understand. I can go hide it for today."
"No, I can take it!" Luffy says, then proves it by taking the necklace out of her hands, and puts it on himself.
As soon as the bracket of the silver chain's locked around his neck, he smirks in satisfaction as he lets the dual colored stone shine proudly above his shirt. "How does it look?"
Rose softly grins at the look, with the red half of the stone being slightly darker than his vest, the red and black jewel looks amazing on him. Then again, anything looks great on her captain. "You look perfect. Thank you for doing this."
"Don't worry about it, I'll give it back to you tonight."
She nods in approval just as the ship reaches an empty coast on the other side of the island, that's safe for them to dock.
Once the anchor was dropped, and the sail was raised, most being to leave the ship.
Nami, Usopp, and Luffy are quick to leave, with the bags of gold from Skypiea held over each pirate's shoulder to exchange and use as payment for Galley-La.
As their distance grows from the ship, Rose watches them from the ship, and silently hopes her encouragement towards Usopp these past few days can actually help show him how important he is. She knows that it's a long shot, but it's all she was able to do without going with them...
She jolts awake from her thoughts, when Robin places a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready Wind-chan?"
All Rose can do is nod, and make sure her backpack is secured on her back before she turns to her. "Let's go."
The two girls begin to leave the ship when Chopper calls out to him from the top deck. "Can I go with you guys?"
Rose is hesitant to speak, so Robin speaks up for them. "Sorry Doctor-kun, but Wind-chan and I need to take care of something personal in town. I believe Chef-san will be willing to go with you?"
Chopper softly frowns about the decline, but he understands, so he nods to them. "Ok, you two be careful out there."
"Same to you doc!" Rose says, with a believable smile as she waves him goodbye while they're walking off the ship.
Lucky for her though, the freezing cold breeze from her fear is soft enough for only Robin to feel it when they reached shore and started walking to the city.
As soon as the archaeologist knows that none of the pirates can hear them, she speaks up about the mood breeze. "If it wasn't for your wind, I would've thought you weren't scared."
Rose flinches from the comment, which wipes the calm smile off her face, and groans before she takes a few deep breaths until she sees that her mood breeze stopped hitting Robin. "Sorry, I'll try to keep it under control."
Robin slightly giggles at her apology, as they keep going towards the heart of the city. "Don't worry about it. You managed to hide it well from the others, so there's no harm done."
The brunette grins in relief in that, before they look to see a mask store coming up. "Hey Robin, we should go in here."
She looks at the store Rose suggested from the window and knits her eyebrows at all the masks from simple colored masks that cover half the face to the most bizarre designs on masks that she's ever seen that cover the entire face. She noticed the locals wearing plenty of masks in town, so she grins at the wind girl's plan. "Alright, let's go in."
The brunette brightens up at the agreement as she opens the door for her friend and lets her in first before following inside. In a matter of minutes, both girls walk out with two full face masks covering their features.
Rose can't help but giggle under her black mask, that's littered with white music notes all over the decoration, along with white lips carved onto the covering, in joy of wearing a cool mask like this. "This'll be perfect for us. How do you feel under yours Robin?"
Robin smiles under her mask that's divided to white on the bottom half, with dark blue lips carved on the bottom, and on the top half shows a checkered design of sky blue and black scattered around the eye holes. "It's actually pretty comfortable. We should keep moving."
She nods in agreement as she stays by her side all morning. They managed to travel to the heart of the city with no issue, and with each passing minute, they start to actually enjoy themselves by exploring the town's culture.
They acted like the classical tourists by exploring the stores, listening to the local street performers, and even took a tour on a giant yagara bull with ten other people. By the end of the tour, both girls decide to take a break by eating at the center of town inside a cafe.
Once the two of them take a seat, and order their drinks, Rose looks around to find no one that she recognizes from CP 9 in the establishment, so she allows herself to take off the mask and relax. "Man, this city is awesome. I can't believe that tour took us to the top of the city."
Robin slightly giggles at her friend's enthusiasm, and takes an extra precaution of installing ears in each corner of the room of the floor. Once she's satisfied, she thinks back on how well Rose navigated them through the city, then lifts her mask over her head to reveal her face. "It was a nice experience. You seem rather used to these kinds of surroundings though."
The brunette slightly grins at the analysis when she thinks back on her hometown. "I grew up in a city like this. We didn't have any waterways, but I'm sure all cities are easy to go through once you know how it works."
The waitress comes by with two cups of tea for the girls then leaves as quickly as she came in.
While Robin is sipping her drink, Rose stares at her friend for a moment when she reflects all the fear that she had about Cipher Pol when coming here. And for Robin to deal with that kind of nightmare, really causes her to respect her all the more.
After Robin sets down her drink, she notices the staring and speaks up to her. "Is there something the matter Wind-chan?"
The wind girl snaps out of it from the question, and lets herself speak her mind. "I just realized how strong you really are."
She hums in confusion when Rose continues her explanation. "All morning, I felt like I was losing my mind from the paranoia of the World Government sending assassins after us. You've dealt with this for over twenty years though, and still strived for your research all on your own. You're really amazing."
Robin is a little startled by the sudden praise, but softly smiles at the kind words. "Thank you Wind-chan, but I don't see it as big of a feat as you make it out to be. I only did what I could to survive."
The brunette slowly nods to this, and feels silly for telling her that until Robin adds one more thing. "That being said, it does give me joy to know I'm not facing this kind of thing alone anymore. For that, I'm really grateful to you."
It ends up being Rose's turn to be surprised, from hearing that kind of gratitude from her friend. All she can do is mutter that she feels the same before she enjoys the drink in front of her.
As the two girls let themselves relax for a brief moment, two masked figures, wearing black cloaks, who are seated on the other side of the restaurant, look over the pirate women.
"So that's them?" A masculine voice coming from the full red and white checkered mask, sitting on the left side of the table, asks his companion.
The other man slowly nods, and begins to smirk under his silver mask before the two men turn to each other. "That's them alright. Contact that door buffalo from CP 9, we'll go after them as soon as-!"
They flinch from the sound of a cup breaking and look back at their targets to see that the only things left of the targets are broken tea cups on the table.
"SHIT!" The two men rush out of the cafe, but with the hustle and bustle of the crowds, they can't get a decent sight of them.
The checkered masked man growls in frustration, before he turns to his partner. "Nishiki, can you spot the outsider with your haki?"
The silver masked man was already on it, by scanning the area with his haki, but he can't spot the wind girl's outrageous aura like he did in the restaurant. "She must've flown off. Lareos, call that CP 9 buffalo, and tell him to also bring Rufus and Andreos. We need all the help we can get to catch them."
"Right!" He grabs his baby, purple, den den mushi and follows his comrade in running away from the square in hopes for a sign of the criminals.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the cafe, Rose and Robin are staying as quiet as possible as they lay down on the roof, and watch the two men run off from the edge.
Neither girl relaxes when they see them leaving, but Rose is the first to move by sitting up, then sees that her companion is hugging her arms, and shaking like a leaf.
Rose gently grabs her by the shoulders, then sits her up so they can make eye contact with one another. "I need you to breathe Robin. We're safe for now."
"No, we're not!" Robin practically yells in her face, as she keeps trembling as if she's back in Ohara all over again. "They mentioned CP 9! That's one of the deadliest Cipher Pol units out there!"
Rose softens her face at the scared explanation, and decides to use her knowledge. "Then it's a good thing I know the abilities of each member."
Robin stops trembling at what she said and sees that she's not kidding. "You what?!"
"I know all about each member of CP 9's abilities. They're masters of the six styles, and a few of them have devil fruit powers. It doesn't look like all of them are in action though, so we can take them if we work together. Whatever happens though, neither of us can trust them. No matter what kind of deals they try to make."
The archaeologist is frozen by the explanation, and miles of questions swarm her mind. "Why do you know this?"
"I can't tell you now, but I promise, I'll tell you everything after we're all safe. Will you please trust me until then?"
With one look on Rose's face, Robin can tell that she's being honest. With hope that she truly is an ally for her, she slowly nods her head, and relaxes a little. "Alright, it doesn't look like we can simply hide in plain sight anymore. Even with the masks."
"You're right. We need to find somewhere to hide out, come on." Rose stands up and gently helps her friend up.
As soon as Rose gets them flying, they both gape when they see a door appearing out of thin air on the rooftop. As soon as the door opens, they see Blueno, wearing a green mask, as well as four other masked men in black cloaks about to step out.
"Fuck!" Rose curses before she hits them with a blast of wind to send them flying backwards, to keep them from coming out the door, before the two of them fly off.
"Robin, I need you to create eyes around the island to find a decent place to hide from both these guys and the crew." Rose says as she looks back to see that their pursuers didn't use sky walk to go after them. Even so, there's no way that they'd give up this easily.
Robin does as she's told, and sees a remote shoreline on the outskirts of the town, that's far from the Merry, and looks like it's been abandoned. "Turn left, and keep going until you reach the rocky edge of the island, it looks like nobody has been there for a while.
Rose complies to the directions, and turns left, then keeps going until they reach the edge of the island where a rocky plain resides.
As soon as Rose lands, she looks around to see that this place is uninhabited, thanks to the jagged boulders that block the shore for miles and keeps people from simply walking here.
The wind girl grins in relief of the spacious hiding spot, and looks to see Robin still being anxious.
Rose softly stares at her for a moment, but feels that it's best to give her some space for a little bit.
However, time doesn't seem to be on their side, for in a matter of seconds, another door appears beside them, and once it opens, a tempest kick is being flown at them!
Rose sees that the flying slash is black, instead of white or clear like she's seen in the anime, so she takes no chances by flying them both up to dodge the kick and see that the blade carved its way into the boulder behind them.
They didn't have time to react though because their pursuers used the time they dodge to leave, shut the door behind them, and sky walk up to their level and surround them.
Robin does her best to put on a brave face, and gets her arms crossed to be ready to use her powers, while Rose does the same by turning her hands into air.
A man in a dark blue mask, with a dark red line circling its face, snickers at the girls, as he creates two clay orbs in his hands. "So, you decided to fight? Very well, let's see if the will of an outsider and demon or those of the world will strive!"
He throws the clay at them, but Rose creates a strong whirlwind around the two pirates to direct them towards Blueno, but he uses iron body to protect himself when the two orbs hit him and explodes!
*Explosions out of his hands?! No one in CP 9 can do that! They must've called another unit for me!* Rose grits her teeth at the angering thought, before she speaks quietly to Robin. "Listen, there's more than just CP 9 here. When you land, I need you to get as far away from here as possible. I'll look for you after I take these guys."
Rose ignores the words of protest, and instead speeds up the wind around them, to make it as strong as possible before she expands it to hit all five at once to send them flying!
While the five agents work to regain their balance in the sky, Rose takes the chance to set Robin on the other side of the boulders that lead to the city. Robin though, took action on her way to land by growing arms on all of their bodies, and goes for the clutch, but their iron bodies keep her from bending them to her will!
When she sees that it has no effect, she realizes that Rose was right, and listens to her advice. As soon as the archaeologist's feet touch the ground, she goes to make a run for it, with Blueno giving chase with sky walk.
"Leave her alone!" Rose cries out as she goes to create a rasengan with both hands and fires at his back to get him to crash into a nearby building. Before she can go to her next attack, Lareos and the bomb user use instant shave and sky walk to simultaneously appear by her side. Lareos is the first to act by turning his fist black with haki, and punching her in the face with haki hard enough to send her flying!
Rose widens her eyes at the haki attack when she sees that the other man has turned his bomb black with haki and threw it at her!
She's compressed the air onto her finger, and fires it like a gun to blow up the bomb before it can hit her.
With the explosion as a smokescreen, she creates a large wind shuriken in her right hand before she flies it at them. Just as it was about to hit them though, the shuriken is destroyed by another shuriken, courtesy of Nishiki!
Rose growls in frustration as she looks around to see that the four men have surrounded her again. She looks at the forest green masked one, who has yet to make a move at her yet, so she takes a breath, then compresses the air in her mouth into a group of small bullets. Before she spits it out though, she creates two shuriken in her hands, throws one at Nishiki, and the other at the two, when she goes to spit her bullets, she sees the fourth agent charge at her.
His right arm springs a sword, from his wristband, similar to Lieutenant Noah's weapon, and with memories of that sword, she follows her instincts, by dodging, then shooting him in the left shoulder with a mouth bullet!
The man groans at the attack, but ignores the blood coming out of his shoulder, from not reacting in time to create an iron body to protect him from the wind bullet, and goes to strike again. "For the honor of the World Government, your time is up demon!"
She tries to shoot him again, but the bomb user throws another haki infused bomb at them, and hits them both!
This time, the swordsman was able to use iron body to protect himself, but Rose was hit from the side, and sent flying. Nishiki uses the time to his advantage by throwing a wire line at Rose, and maneuvers it to tie it around her exposed ankle which causes Rose to go dizzy, because it was laced in sea stone!
He pulls her towards them, but while she's still dizzy, she was still able to reach her sword, and cut the line!
With the rope still attached to her ankle, she can't use her powers, and starts falling with them coming after her.
Rose doesn't waste any time, by grabbing a jet dial from her backpack and using it to create a strong gust to catch herself. Then replaces it with a milky dial to create a cloud of smoke around herself.
Nishiki throws another sea stone line into the cloud, in hopes of catching her, but he fails to catch anything with the line.
Once the bomber is in a safe distance to fall, he uses iron body, stops using sky walk, and throws a fist to the ground. "Exploding fist!"
True to the name of the move, his fist created a small explosion in front of it, and cleared the smoke to find that nothing remained of the wind girl. Even the sea stone rope was gone.
Nishiki begins to cackle maniacally at the sight of their prey disappearing. "Bibibibi! This chase is becoming a lot more fun than I thought! I can't wait to beat her senseless with my sea stone tools! Bibibibi!"
The swordsman groans at his comrade's careless attitude. "Don't forget that we need to take her in alive Nishiki. We can't dishonor Sengoku's orders."
Nishiki grows annoyed by the comment and looks at him. "Oh, shut up Andreos! I do what I please with my tools! If you keep complaining, then I'll take back the sea stone sword band I gave you!"
"I don't care if you do! If you're not going to-!"
"Enough!" The bomber calls out before the argument turns into a brawl, much to the dismay of Lareos, who was enjoying the argument.
"Aw man Rufus, we were just getting to the good part."
"The good part will be when we catch our prey." Rufus answers before he looks to Nishiki. "You're the best at observation haki. Can you pinpoint her location?"
"You got it! Bibibibi!" Nishiki closes his eyes, and focuses on the auras of the city. While almost every aura he detects is blue, there is one fiery red aura that sticks out like a sore thumb, even if it's in the shape of a gust of wind. "I've got her! She's heading towards the west!"
Rufus smirks under his mask, before he begins to sky walk. "Then let's go finish the game, before our prey gets too comfortable."
The others silently follow their mission leader as Rufus follows the direction he was told to go.
Meanwhile, in the western part of the island's rocky shores, Rose materializes from her air-like form to sit on a tall boulder to catch her breath. She knows that she can't rest for long, because if some of them can use armament haki, then there's no doubt that they could have observation haki as well. And that bomb guy makes it too dangerous for her to be hiding in the city again.
She comes up with a defensive strategy by starting to snap up some tornadoes with her right hand. When she sees her enemies starting to come, she flies up to the air, and half a mile over the ocean to keep their attention away from the developing hurricanes. It worked well when they're starting to go after her, and see Rose turning her arms into twisters and leaning them down for the fast spinning arms to taking water with it!
With not too much to weaken her, she raises up the cyclone arms, with the water to her level, and launches them forward to attack her assailants!
Rufus and Nishiki are able to dodge well, by sky walking further up, but Lareos and Andreos were hit by a cyclone in a spin, and crashed them into each other, and pushed them down to dunk them into the water!
Rose sees that Nishiki and Rufus throw a bomb, and kunai and her from both sides, but she turns into air to dodge the attacks.
Both men dodge the others' attacks with ease, while the other two men come up to the surface for air.
Before either Rufus, or Nishiki can help their comrades out of the water, a strong gust of wind pushes the two men towards the surface! Both Lareos and Andreos are shocked by the attack, and use their powerful bodies to swim after them at top speed.
When the men see the ever growing tornadoes, and joining into an all powerful hurricane, Nishiki uses instant shave to get away from the trap but Rufus is all the more enjoying the challenge! He works to create a large bomb out of both of his hands, just when the wind throws him up just above the storm! The wind, that Rose has manifested into flies above him, starts to spin in the direction of the cyclone and joins with it to have the agent taking the power of the cyclone!
The trapped man just cackles in excitement by the development as he takes the beating, with the bomb in his hands and completes his bomb, that's as large as his body, infuses it with haki, and throws it in the air just when he enters the cyclone!
Rose phases herself out of the hurricane, and starts flying off to avoid the explosion, but sees the other three sky walking after her.
Lareos is quick to throw a haki infused tempest kick at her, which she flies up to dodge, and has to use her sword to block when Andreos used instant shave and performed an upward strike. Just as she pushes him off and strikes, Nishiki throws three sea stone shuriken at her left arm.
Rose cringes when the three ninja tools land in her upper left arm, causes her to drop the sword, and takes away her ability to fly, just when the explosion hits to send her flying forward from the pressure of the explosion.
Before she can pull the shuriken out of her arm, Nishiki throws the ends of two sea stone wires at her. They wrap around her torso, pin her arms and backpack to her body, and dig the shuriken deeper into her arm.
Rose hisses at the pain in her arm, but refuses to give them satisfaction of yelling from the pain, when Nishiki hoists her up to him, and wraps his left around her waist. "Bibibi! Looks like we caught a live one boys! OW!"
Rose shuts up the creepy man by headbutting him, goes to kick him, but he blocks it with his leg and grows pissed. "You bitch!"
He punches her in the face with his free arm hard enough to knock her out, and leave her with a black eye.
The hit might not have satisfied Nishiki, but it surely gave Lareos a good laugh. "Hahaha, this girl's great! I like her!"
"You can have her then!" Nishiki yells as he tosses the unconscious girl to him as if she's a rag doll.
Lareos catches her in his arms, and then beams as if he got a present. "Awesome, I can't wait to see what she does next!"
"Oi, Let's go back!" Rufus calls from the ground, while ignoring the injuries, and bruises all over his body from dealing with that cyclone. Lucky for him, it was just like clockwork when a door is carved out of thin air beside him.
Blueno casually opens the door, without his mask, and sees that the other criminal is caught. "Come in before we have to kill witnesses."
"Like that's bothered us before." Rufus answers, but nonetheless, he slowly steps through the door with the rest of his men landing behind him, and stepping through the door to a new, yet nightmarish, experience for the outsider they captured.
TO BE CONTINUED