Chapter 36

[3 Days Later; February 14th, 1502]

At every hour during our travel above the clouds, we ensured to check that we were going in the right direction, through the use of compass and map in our possession. Though Robin seemed nervous of the fact that we didn't have a plan B to prepare for 'what-ifs,' thankfully, we managed to sight the distant island that seemed to harbour a huge city.

"Phew... at least the first step hasn't gone wrong." Robin, who seemed notably relieved by the sight of the land, let out a relaxed sigh. Then, she turned her head back to face me, and inquired,

"And now, how should we sneak into the island, such that no one notices our entry? After all, we have to fool everyone that I've been living in that island for the entirety of my life."

I placed my hand underneath my chin in a thoughtful manner, "Start off by observing the island as a whole, and look for an ideal spot where no one is present. Especially since this is a very large island, there should be few spots like this."

Robin, in response, pointed her finger at the seemingly remote forest, which covered the western side of the island, "Done."

Gazing at the forest that Robin pointed out, I roughly estimated the distance from our current location—up high in the sky.

"I think it's manageable."

Robin tilted her head, "What do you mean manageable?"

Without giving her a proper explanation, I grabbed her tightly by the waist, as the nimbus under the two of us dissipated upon my will.

"...Huh?" As Robin let out a confused remark, I said,

"Don't scream."

Just when I said so, Robin seemed to have realized what I was about to do. Strangely, in contrast to how a child would usually react, she seemed... elated for some reason.

Nonetheless, ignoring her bizarre demeanour,

SWOOSH!

I kicked my feet against the air multiple times, by combining Geppo with Soru. Coupled with the huge surge of smoke that I generated at the soles of my feet to produce even more boost in speed, the two of us traveled in a blur, to a speed that most won't be able to sight.

And right before we hit the ground,

PUFF!

I immediately generated a dense layer of smoke right underneath the two of us, cushioning the impact of the fall.

"How thrilling... it's the first time that I experienced a fall like this." And as Robin placed her hands onto her cheeks and shook her head with a blush, now setting our feet on solid ground for once in three days, I quickly inspected our surroundings.

'Trees, trees, and more trees. No presence of another human being in here; did we successfully enter unnoticed?'

And just when I made such a thought,

"Over there!! I think I saw something!!!" I heard the shout from afar, causing me to sweatdrop.

'I jinxed us, didn't I.'

Holding Robin by the waist and quickly blowing dense smoke to clear the footprints, I nimbly jumped onto a tall tree nearby and hid ourselves from the eyes of the islanders.

Now, with Robin and me crouching on top of one tree branch side to side, twelve people made their entrance. All of them shared one common characteristic: wearing a black suit as an attire. Based on this, I couldn't help but think with caution,

'...Cipher Pol?'

"I wonder what would've happened if you made a miss just before... would we have been squashed into the ground like an ant when it's stepped on?" In contrast to my growing nervousness, Robin seemed oddly happy, whispering weird stuff into my ear. Ignoring her, I set my focus below us.

The mysterious group of men lazily looked around the forest with rifles in their hands. Their faces held nothing but a frown as they did so, as if having expected to sight no one from the start.

"Freaking Antonello... I told you, he never speaks the truth!!" In the end, one shouted angrily while slamming his weapon down.

"Calm down, Luca. It may be different this time around." Another man, who carefully looked around, stated as calmly as possible—though his demeanour told me that he too was currently furious.

"Hey, Sergio, look!" Then, another man called, earning the attention of the other eleven. He was... seen to be aiming his gun at random tree bark, and as the others' eyes fell on him, he crazily shot down the bark all of a sudden. Then, he yelled, "This is Antonello!!!"

Yet another one sighed, "C'mon, man! Just because that wimpy guy is the nephew of the boss, we have to endure all this? We aren't lapdogs... I didn't come here to become a lapdog!! I came here to be an actual mafioso!!!"

Listening to their conversations from the above, I felt relieved. They were mafia, and not Cipher Pols—how thankful.

The twelve mafias stayed within the area for some time, lazily observing the details around them. Eventually, they left, with the expectation that nothing will be found blinding their eyes.

"They are gone." Robin whispered at me, to which I snickered.

"Just because you said that, they're going to come back."

Robin raised her eyebrow at me. I shrugged in response, "Do you wish to bet?"

Robin looked at me strangely, seemingly reluctant by my confidence. Eventually, she opened her mouth to answer, but right when she was about to do so,

"USELESS FUCKERS!!!!!" She flinched from a sudden shriek that boomed forth.

From the direction in which the twelve mafias left, one thin-looking guy furiously walked into the scene, with the previous twelve following him from the back. Fuming in anger, the wimpy man aimlessly pointed all around the forest, "I told you, something fell down from the sky!! Are all of you blind?! Search thoroughly, again!! Repeat!! MOVE, IDIOTS!!!!!"

The calm-looking mafia stepped up and looked into the eyes of the wimpy man, "...Your eyes are unfocused, Antonello. Did you take the 'anger plant?'"

"DON'T PRY INTO MY PRIVATE MATTER!!! Did you not hear what I just said?!" Said Antonello clenched his fists hard, before slapping the cheek of the mafia. Funnily enough, it was his hand that became swollen from the strike instead of the man's cheek.

Quickly hiding that hand behind him, Antonello stuttered, "Y-you... just do as I say!!"

However, none of them moved according to his order. Instead, the slapped man walked up and grabbed Antonello by the wrist, "I apologize for the harsh treatment. I will face the punishment when we return. However, I believe that right now, there is a bigger concern than looking for an unknown that abruptly fell from the sky."

"Let me go!!! L-LET ME GO, y-you... FUCKER!!!"

With 'Antonello' screaming, the thirteen of them finally exited the forest, leaving the two of us—still hidden—by ourselves.

"I—" Robin was about to speak, but I placed my finger on top of her lips, silencing her. I whispered to her,

"Don't jinx us again."

__________

Walking in a direction different from the way that the mafias took, Robin frequently grew her ears as far away from our current standing as possible, gaining the slips of information from the civilians who lived beyond this large forest. By this inefficient method of gathering information, we only managed to figure out a couple of things:

1. This island is 'Veto' indeed, the one we've been aiming for.

2. The civilians are to pay some sort of 'tax' to 'Giancana' family, the mafias who protect them from outside harm in return. They seemed to be complaining however, that the mafias have recently been taking 'food' as the tax, instead of money that's been piling up.

3. Those without the ability to pay taxes are expelled to the outskirt of the city, and are termed as 'druggies,' for all of them tend to be addicted to an abusive drug called 'anger plant' that reduces them into animals incapable of thinking.

"...Smoker," And now, standing still in the forest, Robin mumbled in exhaustion, "So what plan's in your mind?"

I replied in a thoughtful manner, "I think you should act as one of those so-called 'druggies.'"

Robin turned and looked at me with evident exhaustion, "...I don't like the sound of that idea."

"All that we need is an alibi. An orphan girl, who harbours the will to stay sane among the crazed druggies, saved me and healed me back to health. Finding potential in her, and in order to bring her out of that hell, I officially recruited her on the spot. There, the story is complete."

"And how will you relay that story to the Marine? This island is under the supposed 'protection' of mafia, meaning that making an in-person contact with a fellow marine is practically impossible." Crossing her arms with a huff, Robin stated astutely, "Furthermore, Den Den Mushi too is a live being. It requires food to survive, which is of high value here; it is unlikely for the commoners to have such a fancy tool for communication, and if you are looking for one, you will have to get involved with mafias without a doubt."

I hummed thoughtfully, "Then what do you suggest?"

"We leave. The arrival here itself is enough of an alibi; you can say that you took me and escaped from this island."

"...I doubt that my superiors will believe in that." I shook my head negatively, before suggesting, "How about I just subdue the entire organization instead? That way, by making myself in the news, my absence during the Ohara incident will easily be understood."

Robin gazed at me in exasperation, "Are you telling me that you are able to defeat all of them by yourself?"

"I'll need the information first, but,"

I recall that in the canon, one of the Worst Generation, named 'Capone Bege,' was the boss of the mafia family in West Blue. I believed that my current estimate of strength was greater than Bege prior to the time skip in the anime, and based on this logic,

"me against the entire mafia family in one of the Four Blues... should be manageable."

Robin, who seemed to have grown curious to my full capability, was about to ask a question, however, at the next moment, our stomachs growled synchronously, causing her to close her mouth.

Reaching into my pocket, I took out a dried kelp and held it up toward Robin, "Want one?"

Robin's face immediately turned green. Turning away from the seaweed in my hands, she responded, "No."

Shrugging, I took a bite out of it, "Your loss."

...I suppose that the prolonged stay under Garp's command ended up dulling my sense of taste; I believed that it was a good thing though.

__________

[One Day After]

"Araegoiehg!!"

"Wegusdgaelgk!!!"

In the filthy-looking area of the island, upon the sun rising, the crazed roars of the 'druggies' were heard. Disturbed by the sluggish words and movements of these savages, Robin, who was sleeping soundly within a roughly-built wooden hut, jolted up awake.

"Morning, Orobi." And Smoker, the white-haired fellow who was still wearing his worn-down Marine attire, greeted Robin, whose hair was notably shorter than before, now only reaching up to her shoulder. However, Robin was occupied with something else on Smoker's left—a huge pile of fresh fish on top of a hand-made wooden plate.

Smoker, noticing Robin's eyes on the fish, said casually, "That's our money there."

Yesterday, they successfully located this 'slum.' Upon conducting few tests, the two of them came to conclude that all these people, having been damaged in the brain due to the chronic consumption of the plants all around here, lost all five senses of human. Hence, here they are now, having integrated themselves with ease.

Back to the present, Robin was found looking at Smoker. She then muttered in monotone, "...Fish."

"Huh?"

"Smoker, I am eight. I need to grow."

"Ah, of course. You haven't eaten anything for quite some time."

Smoker, chuckling as he realized Robin's hunger, then spoke mischievously, "Say pretty please, Lieutenant Smoker~!"

"...Pedo."

"What did you say? I didn't hear."

Robin, lowering her head momentarily, then stuttered with embarrassment, "P-pretty please, Lieutenant Smoker..."

The current situation was quite interesting, Smoker thought. He wondered if the cause was the sheer impact that 'Ohara incident' had on him, causing him to shrug off the presence of the 'mere' mafias.

"Well," Erasing such thoughts out of his head, Smoker straightened his hand up, "Who am I to ignore the plea of my subordinate? I shall now make you, the world's best sashimi."

And here started yet another day for the 13-year-old and 8-year-old—though they weren't aware yet, of what was about to come.