16 Time skip

(3rd Person POV)

Many years passed since the Ohara Incident when Kuzan saved Robin and took her to East Blue. He has been clear on the matter that he would allow her to go wherever she wanted and that he would get her there. It was understandable for Kuzan that she would hate the Marines for what had happened. And he wouldn't blame her. But on their travel through West Blue, the Grand Line and the North Blue, Robin seemed to ever so slowly open up to Kuzan ... but that was only a front that Robin portrayed. She was scared of Kuzan and when they were in East Blue, she fled and hid from Kuzan. 

Kuzan had found a remote island, with a small village similar to Foosha Village. There were mostly elderly people living there and there was seldom news of what was happening in the rest of the world. So when Robin 'fled', Kuzan wasn't surprised because he had expected that to happen. He stealthily kept watch over her and made sure that no one did anything. 

Kuzan was surprised at the intelligence of the 8-year-old Robin. She truly was the daughter of a scholar. She walked around and while trying to be stealthy, observed the town and its people. After a few hours, she entered a small bar that had a friendly elderly woman who owned it. The woman's name was Marie. The experienced woman saw through Robin's lies immediately and offered her food and juice to drink. She showed her warm side and talked with Robin for a long time. 

When the night approached, the female barkeeper asked Robin where she was staying and when Robin couldn't tell her properly, Marie suggested that Robin sleep with her in the inn. Robin accepted as she felt the woman was nice and allowed herself to relax somewhat. During the night, the girl had nightmares and when Marie noticed this, she went and calmed her down. Kuzan seeing this was glad that Marie seemed to be legit and her intentions pure. But to make sure, he would continue to observe. 

And that's what he did. The woman and Robin began to form a deep friendship and bond. The days passed and Robin got to know more of the village's inhabitants and quickly became the highlight of the town. Everyone liked Robin and it was no surprise that they all wanted to adopt her when they found out that she was an orphan. 

After four days, a minor issue came up. A group of bandits entered the bar of Marie and saw the woman and the girl working behind the bar. They acted as if they were the owners of the bar and began to demand alcohol to drink and food to eat. The chaotic group were rude to Marie and made comments that were not meant for a small girl to be heard. Things started to escalate as the bandit leader started to harass the elder woman. Robin wanted to stop this and in turn, was shown another part of evil in this world. The bandit leader looked at the young girl and Kuzan who was watching could feel his emotions and he was ... disgusted. 

Before the man could lay a hand on Robin, Kuzan appeared there and held on to the man's hand. He crushed the man's wrist and then beat all of the bandits outside the bar. 

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Things started to look better for Robin after that. She came to very slowly trust Kuzan. Kuzan took an entire two months of vacation and spent it with Robin and the villagers. Robin's origin was kept a secret and Robin would not tell anyone. But the villagers didn't care about her history anyway, so everything was fine. 

At the end of the two months, Robin had started to see Kuzan in a much better light than the other Marines. She was still scared of him, but much less. As a present, Kuzan gifted her a few books he had taken from Ohara. He would come back when she had finished and learned all of the books and then gift her new ones. That was the little deal they had. He gave her 20 books to start with and told her that when she was finished, she should call him. He would then return and gift her more books. 

That was a little trick Kuzan used to get Robin to open up and relax more around him. He didn't want to take advantage of the girl, but he was certain that she needed someone she could trust now. If she were alone on the Grand Line, she would become bitter, paranoid and very lonely. He didn't want that for the child.

Every few months, Robin would call Kuzan from then on and tell him that she had finished the books. That would then mean that Kuzan would slip away from his duties and go visit her. They would then spend some time together and before he left again, he would gift her more of the books he took from Ohara. 

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As the years passed and Robin grew up, Kuzan began to explain to her about the world and all the questions she had about it. With every book she read, she would get more interested and thirst for more knowledge. She was an archaeologist at heart and wanted to learn the truth of the history of the world. It didn't even take 5 years for Robin to read almost all the books Kuzan had taken from Ohara. He had to search for other books that Robin hadn't yet read in the world.

The relationship between the two began to slowly get better, like the ice between them, it started to melt and Robin slowly got warmer towards Kuzan. Without knowing it, Kuzan one day came to realise, that he saw the girl as a daughter in a sense. He came to care for her greatly but kept a respectful distance, in order not to impose. Kuzan had a rather cool character, like the element that he represented, he was calm and collected. 

But his cool persona and character melted when after 6 years, Robin called him 'dad' for the very first time. It was unintentional and it seems that Robin was embarrassed about it, but Kuzan ... couldn't help but like it. Robin was 14 at that time and quite mature for her age, understandably. From that moment on, Kuzan talked with Robin and began to take his role as a 'parent' more seriously. He had no idea how to do that though. 

In that year, Kuzan began to start and teach Robin how to fight. He wanted to have her learn how to defend herself better than the casual training she did with her devil fruit. The Hana Hana no Mi was a fruit that had great potential and he told her some of his ideas. He explained to Robin about the Rokushiki, devil fruits and Haki. He created a training schedule for her and told her that should she manage to complete it, he would find and gift her a special book for her birthday. 

That was enough motivation for Robin and she started to train quite seriously. She understood the danger in the world and using Kuzan, she had the best way to grow stronger. Kuzan sparred with her and told her that by fighting stronger opponents, you would also grow stronger. So he told her to train Kenbunshoku Haki and her physical body first and only then try and achieve Busoshoku Haki. This way Robin slowly started to learn the Rokushiki and Haki. 

It took Robin 3 years to unlock both Kenbunshoku and Busoshoku no Haki. But by the time she was 17, she at least could use them at the very basic level. This leads us to the present time when Kuzan has been tasked with finding someone by Sengoku personally. 

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(Robin POV)

Kuzan was weird ... When the Ohara Incident happened, I saw my entire life crashing down on me. I saw everything I loved die and get destroyed, by people who were meant to protect us from the evil pirates. My heart died when I had to leave Mom behind again after finally reuniting with her after all those years. I wanted to be like her, to become an archaeologist, in order to be together with her. However, that wouldn't be. One of my few friends, Jaguar D. Saul, almost died trying to save me that day. I couldn't understand why the Marines would do that. I was scared ... so very scared. 

The last thing I saw was white. The colour white. Everything was white and I was alone for a while until I felt the small room move and then reveal the same white-haired man who was the friend of Saul. He had a sad expression on his face and then ... he hugged me. I couldn't control myself and broke down. I cried for a long time until I fell asleep. When I woke up, the man ... Kuzan, told me that we were on the sea floor making our way through an ice tube in the sea, towards a safe place. 

I was torn between my feeling of wonder of travelling under the sea and my fear of him. He could feel my fear and started to tell me different things. I was interested in what he told me but looking back, I understand what he was doing. I saw those giant 'Sea Kings', as he called them and he just scared them away. He was so powerful, that I planned to sneak away when he wasn't paying attention. And after we finally reached our destination, I waited for him to leave and then escaped. 

I scouted the village and made sure that he wasn't following me. It was the first time I met Marie. I was wary of her in the beginning, but her nice way of talking to me, made me relax. I tried to hide from Kuzan and for the first four days, I thought I had managed to do that. My naivety is astounding, now that I look back at it. I was scared again when the bandits came into the bar. They said mean and scary things to Marie and then they were trying to hit me. And that's when Kuzan came and saved me ... again as I would learn much later. 

I never saw those bandits again. To this day, I believe that he did something to them later on, but it doesn't matter. Over the years I came to trust him more and more, but there always seemed to be a certain distance between us. This distance vanished the moment, I accidentally called him 'Dad'. I wasn't even aware, that I saw him that way until I said it out loud. And from then on, our relationship truly became like father and daughter.

He made all of the mistakes a fresh parent makes. I read about it in a book, 'Mistakes to Avoid as a Fresh Parent'. It was one of the many books he saved from Ohara. It was amusing to see him struggle in the beginning. After that, I would also start to hug him sometimes and he would freeze at first. When he started to teach me how to fight, I thought I was going to die. It was only then that I realised just how powerful Kuzan ... no Dad truly was. He was a walking blizzard and yet he was also so powerful. I asked him how powerful he was in comparison to one of the Emperors and he said 'I'd win ... easily for that matter.'. For some reason, I can't help but believe him. 

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"Robin, are you here?", I hear Dad's voice calling me. 

"I'm here.", I say from my deck chair. I was enjoying the sun while reading a book. 

"Robin I was just called by Sengoku. Something came up, I have to go.", he tells me.

"Sengoku-san called you personally? Seems serious? What's going on?", I ask immediately interested. 

"Haha, apparently someone he knows went missing in North Blue or something. The Donquixote Pirates are involved somehow and he asked me to have a look and save this person.", he says summarising it very briefly. 

"When will you be back?"

"Depends on how long it takes me. But I'll probably have to show my face on the Grand Line for a while again. The pirates are acting up and getting more daring."

"I see. Then-"

"Yes, I'll try and find a new book for you to read. And as soon as you reach intermediate levels in both Haki, you are free to go as I already told you. You are very close as well.", he says reminding me to train. He told me that I could go ahead and travel the World if I wanted to, as long as I reached intermediate levels in Haki. He said that would assure my safety, somewhat in the four blues. But for the Grand Line, it would not necessarily be enough. 

"I know. I'll do it and by the time you return, I'll have achieved it."

"Good. Then I'm off."