Chapter 58 - Strong World Aftermath 1/6

Cross-Brain AN: We were going for a double, but with the unexpected and very well done omake posted by storysmith112358 on SpaceBattles… LET'S CALL IT A SECOND TRIPLE-TAP!

…

Though unfortunately, we already have plans made for Sabaody and the events leading up to it, such that we're not able to change things and make it fit into the story.

Patient AN: On another note, remember when we said you probably already know what we have planned for Perona? Well… we thought of something else while writing this chapter. Let's see if any of you guessed it.

If Shiki'd had any brainpower to spare for the Straw Hats the day after his defeat, he would have been livid to see that, quite unlike Alabasta or Enies Lobby, the full force of his assembled armies hadn't managed to inflict enough damage and fatigue to keep the Straw Hats down past a good night's rest. With two exceptions: Bartolomeo was still recovering and would be without use of his arms for the foreseeable future, and Luffy was under doctor's orders to take it easy, but that was it.

That meant that when the sun rose the next morning, there were now two infamous ships with two infamous crews sailing alongside each other toward the end of Paradise, with two individuals from Merveille sticking around. Heaven help whoever got in their way, because no earthly power was going to.

On the Cannibal, Ever was having trouble establishing her place in the Barto Club for lack of specialty. It wasn't a huge deal, of course, her crewmates were perfectly welcoming, but… well, it was a rare individual who was happy to live the pirate life as a grunt.

Meanwhile, on the Thousand Sunny, the situation was being handled a bit more smoothly.

"No, you are not going back, do you hear me?" Nami ground out, her foot tapping impatiently on the lawn. "You are parking your feathery ass right here and staying with us, got it?"

… Relatively more smoothly.

"B-B-But!" the electro-duck blubbered, flapping his wings uselessly. "I-I'm a coward, I'm ham-beaked, I've never left Merveille, I don't know most of you! I-I'd just weigh you down, g-get you in trouble and—!"

CLONK!

Billy ducked his head with a pained whimper, wings nursing the fresh lump growing on his skull. "Awawah…"

"Billy," Nami stated, leaning in close to the fowl's head. "You might have run at first, but that doesn't matter because then you came back. You came back, you helped us when we really needed it, and you even helped Luffy beat Shiki. Heck, I'd go as far as to say you're one of the biggest reasons we won."

"Also, having more emergency food supplies won't hurt," Sanji added as he strolled by, a fresh bag of food on his shoulders.

ZZT!

And then down he went, smoking from more than just his mouth with a bag of deep-fried supplies on his shoulder.

"Ignore that idiot," Nami sighed, not missing a beat. "The point is, you came back to help, so all of those things you listed? They're irrelevant, as far as I care. So you're going nowhere, got it?"

"Quaaa…" Billy squirmed uncertainly. "And… if I actually wanted to go?"

Nami donned a catty grin. "Then I'd shanghai you, regardless of whether you wanted to stay or not. After all, we are still pirates!"

Billy stewed that over for a second before giving her a shaky grin. "Then in that case… I suppose I might as well go along with you, huh?"

"Got it in one!" Nami chuckled in agreement, reaching out to ruffle his comb. "Now, if I let you go, are you going to go flapping for the horizon?"

"Nah, I won't."

"Good," the navigator nodded, removing the cloud she'd been using to pin Billy's tail and waving for him to follow her. "Now c'mon, let's see about getting you a cool saddle like Carue, alright? I've even got an idea or two for it."

"Okay!" The duck perked up eagerly, waddling after his new best friend.

Nami, however, was obviously in no hurry to go, and took a second to glance around the deck before reluctantly heading out into plain view. While most of her crewmates were out and about and treating her like normal, having apparently had the patience to hear her message through to the end, Nami had yet to locate the three dunderheads who, as far as she could tell, hadn't. But as reluctant as she was to face that particular firing squad, she couldn't very well leave her newest friend (her own animal companion! It was taking all she had to keep from bursting out into ecstatic squees!) twisting in the wind either.

As such, she set out across the deck and strode, with confidence, to the Sunny's pavilion, already a center of activity. Once they'd all rested up, Merry had unloaded the prodigious amount of loot that she'd filched from Shiki's palace. While the vast majority was mundane odds and ends of varying usefulness that Merry had stolen in the throes of a thieving spree that Nami recognized from her own youth, there was a sizable pile of gold—another 100 million at face value, probably more once appraised—and a massive cache of weapons that Usopp, Lassoo, Mikey, Franky, and Merry were excitedly poring over. Conis was standing off to the side, mostly succeeding in concealing her own excitement.

"Enjoying yourselves, I take it?" Nami chuckled.

"Soooo tempted to dry-hump!" Lassoo panted eagerly as he nuzzled up against a particularly large-bore rifle.

"Do it and I'll neuter you!" Usopp snapped, jabbing a wrench at the hound.

"Down boys, don't make me separate you," Conis chided, her hands continuing to polish her recently modified bazooka.

"Take it as a yes," Franky chuckled, nodding at Nami. "So, anything we can help you with, Big Sis?"

"Mm-hm!" Nami hummed, jabbing her thumb at Billy. "Seeing as I've gotten myself a mount to match Carue, I'm going to need a saddle, too. Insulated against electricity and heat, of course. Aaaand while I'm talking mounts…" She grimaced uncomfortably. "My Waver. How likely…?"

"Well, I could rebuild it, but it'd take a lot of time and effort, we'd have start from scratch… a better option would be another idea of mine, putting the two projects together," Usopp suggested, looking at Nami with a glint and a grin. "I've been working on the plans for Carue anyway, and I think that you'll really like them. That work for you?"

Nami glanced back at Billy, and nodded when he nodded. "That's fine, do it… after I examine every last page of the blueprints."

Usopp ground his palm into his forehead. "Why can you not let that go?" Usopp groused. "And by the way, this time, make sure you actually pay me upfront before I get more than halfway through this thing!"

"I'll take it into consideration," Nami muttered, before casting her eyes over the rest of the assembled arsenal. "So… any stand-out pieces in all this hardware? Besides the obvious, I mean," she added, raising an eyebrow at the sight of Merry cuddling the rotary gun she'd yet to let go of. Actually, she had yet to change out of the outfit she'd donned as they charged the palace, too. From the way she'd tossed it right back on after it was washed, where everyone else stored theirs away, chances were it would be replacing her raincoat and leggings as her normal attire.

"The obvious is all we need!" Merry squeed, hefting the massive hunk of metal above her head. "Do you know what this is? This is the M66 JINGO rotary cannon. It is one of the top firearms in all the six seas, and it's going to be my new main weapon, eeee!"

"Uhhh… seriously?" Nami questioned incredulously. "I mean, that thing's twice your size, isn't it?"

Merry's expression flattened. "You do see me holding it above my head like it was made of cardboard, right?"

"Aheh, r-right…"

"It is actually the perfect weapon for her, sis," Franky interjected with a big grin. "She can handle the firepower without flinching, and with a few mods from yours truly, it'll be a hell of a blunt instrument for cracking skulls too. Cool, huh?"

"Mm… well—wait," Nami cut herself off mid-sentence, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the rotary gun's ammo drum. The very large ammo drum. "I might not know a lot about guns, but what I do know is that guns only take ammunition that works for them. And I'm guessing that a gun like that does not pack normal ammunition. How many beris does a cannon like that suck down?"

Cold sweat suddenly glistened on Merry's forehead complete with an inability to meet Nami's gaze. "Uhhh… I-I don't—"

"Let's see," Conis tapped her chin thoughtfully, completely missing the panicked look Merry snapped at her. "From what I remember, the M66 JINGO weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires twenty-thousand beri, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. So by my calculations…" The angel counted down on her fingers before nodding. "It costs forty million beris to fire this weapon for twelve seconds."

One silent second later, Conis blanched as she realized what she'd just said. "Oooooh dear."

"RAAAAGH!" Nami loosed a possessed howl, grabbing the gun from Merry's hands with her Eisen Tempo and hauling back to throw it as far as she could manage. "DIE, EVIL THING!"

"MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMIIIIIIINE!" Merry declared, grabbing back the cannon from the cloud's clutches and shoving it inside her coat the moment that she had it in her grip again. She then began running around the deck. A prudent move considering that Nami was after her, iron hands outstretched and grasping furiously.

"GIVE ME THAT METAL MONSTER SO THAT I CAN DROWN IT, RIGHT THE HELL NOW!" Nami screeched.

"NOT ON YOUR LIFE, BITCH!" the ship-girl shot back. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY TICKET TO BADASSITUDE!"

"AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO USE SOMETHING THAT'LL EAT THROUGH OUR COFFERS FASTER THAN LUFFY AT AN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET!" the navigator-cum-treasurer spat. "WE ONLY MISSED THE POORHOUSE ON WATER SEVEN THANKS TO CROSS'S KNOWLEDGE, I'M NOT LETTING YOU LAND US IN THERE WITH THAT THING!"

"OK, FIRST OF ALL, THAT SIMILE IS COMPLETE NONSENSE AND YOU KNOW IT, OUR CAPTAIN IS INSTANTANEOUS WHILE MY GUN WOULD TAKE MINUTES! AND SECOND, YOU TOUCH ME, I'LL SCREAM BAD TOUCH!"

"YOU CAN DENT METAL WITH YOUR FISTS, PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THAT WHEN PIGS FLY!"

"GRAAAHHH—hang on, damn it!" Planting her feet, Merry spun around and raised her hands, both women skidding to a halt. "Listen! The gun's expensive, yes—!"

"Diiiiie—!" Nami rumbled, madness gleaming in her eyes.

"BUT!" the ship-girl continued in a panic. "It won't actually affect us for ages! None of them will! I filched Shiki's entire magazine, he had a dozen drums of rounds for this beast!"

The navigator paused in her fury, frowning questioningly. "And how long do you expect that to last?"

"Um… so long as I'm measured and cautious in my use—!"

"Give."

"Hey!" Merry bristled indignantly, before hanging her head with a defeated groan. "Alright, so I might see where you're coming from…" She then snapped her head up with big, watery—

CLONK!

"OW!" Merry yelped. Cradling her new goose egg, she nodded frantically. "Alright, alright, I legitimately promise that I will ration the ammo I have and keep my eyes and ears peeled for any opportunity to steal more, and if we do need to buy more, it comes out of my share. But if we run into another bastard like Shiki, all bets are off. Deal?"

Nami turned that over in her mind.

"…Fine," she sighed, her gaze sharpening intently. "But we are hammering things out right here, right now."

Merry readied a sarcastic retort, only to transition into a shit-eating grin. "Yeah, I don't think that's gonna be happening anytime soon. Shoulda watched your volume, girly."

It took Nami five seconds to process that statement, two to pale, and one to slap a hand to her face. "They are right behind me, aren't they?"

"Face the music, IT'LL JUST BE EASIER ON EVERYONE."

"Me included~" Merry sang as she rocked back and forth on her heels, a slightly crooked halo above her head.

Sighing, Nami turned to face the expected sight: her captain, flanked by the first mate on one side and the third (plus Soundbite) on the other, all standing behind her, arms crossed and expressions livid. But rather than cower, she simply matched them expression for expression.

"Before you take a strip out of my hide out of some misguided sense of injured pride, let me ask the four of you one question," she said before any of them could open their mouths. "Did you listen to the entire message I left on the Tone Dial? Including the part that only someone who was with us on Thriller Bark would understand?"

The quartet paused, glancing uncomfortably between themselves.

"Not even the so-called 'god', huh?" Nami sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Didn't think so. If you had bothered to listen to the whole thing, you would know that the last thing I said was, 'That's why I'm begging you to forgive me for doing something stupid and reckless again, and expecting it to turn out like last time.'"

She pulled back, observing the dumbfounded looks on her fellow mates' faces. "You. Complete. And utter. Idiots. Luffy's reaction is no big surprise, I half-expected it from him. But I expected more sense from you three."

"There's just one problem with that, Nami."

The five of them turned back toward Merry, who was looking at them with a fond smirk.

"Would you have spared enough time for sense if you were in their shoes and Nojiko was in yours? Or, hell!" she asked innocently. "Did you think for even a second when you hauled off and pinched me?"

Nami raised her finger and opened her mouth, and held that pose for a second before snapping her mouth shut "You… make a very annoying, annoyingly accurate point."

"I learned from the be~est~!" Merry sang as she walked off, proudly tugging on the lapels of her greatcoat as she went. The three mates and captain turned back to each other, no one speaking for a few moments.

"…Call it even and never let it happen again?" Cross suggested, tilting the brim of his hat down to cover his eyes.

"Fine by me," Nami said, smiling pleasantly.

"Agreed," Zoro nodded, his brow twitching furiously.

"Sorry?" Luffy said.

"Aaand moving RIGHT along," Soundbite chirped.

"In inadvertent aid of that," interjected Donny, sliding up beside Cross. "Two questions for you two. First off, just for the record, what's Billy's voice?"

Cross rolled his eyes, but didn't seem too exasperated this time. "I'd complain, but it actually fits him. Carue got his voice from Donald Duck, Billy got his from Donald's nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie."

"EVEN I don't know WHICH ONE IT IS!" Soundbite snickered.

"Triplet nephews, if you didn't catch it," Cross clarified.

Donny nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Other question: what was that about needing to talk to Sanji and me?"

Cross snapped his fingers and headed for the kitchen, gesturing for Donny to follow. "Right, thanks for reminding me. Do you still have the outfit from that psycho you fought on Thriller Bark?"

Donny twitched viciously. "Only because I can't burn the damn thing and our penny-pinching witch—!"

"Bite me!" Nami threw over her shoulder.

"—Won't let me toss it in the ocean like I wanted to," he finished.

"Perfect, and convenient for you seeing as we'll be getting rid of it as soon as Sanji gets something for me."

With much more enthusiasm, Donny followed Cross into the kitchen.

-o-

Not far away, Robin knelt beside her flower garden with a warm smile, tending to a week's worth of neglect. Her fellow academic knelt beside her, hooves sifting through the soil of a long and vacant pot, packing in the IQ plants he had retrieved from Indigo's laboratory.

"So, what did you get?" the reindeer asked curiously, jotting down a few notes on the miraculous plant in his notebook.

"Mm, nothing truly earth-shattering, sadly," Robin sighed, shaking her head. "Some evidence on corrupt bases, names of moles, leaks, and even some particularly virtuous Marines. Quite useful for Cross. But the most I could find otherwise was some history of the island and of Shiki himself." She scratched at a bandage on her cheek, drawing a pained grimace. "The payoff was only barely worth the pain."

She leaned down to take a closer look at the flower. "I take it that your endeavor was far more successful?"

Chopper grinned sunnily as he nodded. "Way more! Indigo's notes along with what I put together from what I saw on Merveille has given me so many ideas that I don't know where to start! The obvious first step would be actually using these plants, manufacturing serums of my own… ah, without the horrendous side-effects, of course."

"Of course," Robin chuckled.

"Beyond that…" The doctor tapped his hoof to his chin, humming in thought. "Painful as it was, that fight did give me one or two ideas on my own brand of chemical warfare. With the right combinations…" Chopper trailed off into a wide grin. "But honestly? What I'm looking forward to the most is the sheer insight that this experience has given me on biological manipulation, both in concrete and analyzed evidence, and my own…" The reindeer cut off into a frown. "I'm going to define it as a 'revelation', but I want to clarify that I mean that in a strictly philosophical manner, not a spiritual one."

"I wouldn't assume anything else from you, good doctor," the archaeologist replied, giving him a contemplative look. "Though tell me, what does this new experience add up to?"

Chopper snapped his eyes up, a glimmer shining in his eyes. Not the familiar glimmer of madness, mind, the glimmer of academic ambition. "A dissertation," he whispered reverently. "A paper on Zoan morphology specifically, and biological auto-manipulation through biofeedback in general! The first of its kind, it's going to be revolutionary! I'm not going to rewrite the biology textbooks, I'll be inspiring entirely new ones! Eeheehee~!" Descending into giggles, the Zoan started eagerly wiggling in place.

Robin smiled as well at his enthusiasm, not having the heart to bring him down by pointing out that it may be better to keep that information to themselves for now. He was young and impulsive, not an idiot, so he'd undoubtedly figure it out himself. But as the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly shifted ever so slightly, she realized that bringing someone off of a euphoric high was unavoidable.

"If there is any assistance I could lend when you start, I'd be glad to, Chopper," Robin said warmly, getting to her feet. "If you could excuse me for just a moment? I need to take care of something."

"Mmhmm, sure, sure," Chopper waved her off, not even looking up from the notebook he was fervently scribbling in. "I can handle this on my own, don't worry."

Robin made to leave, but paused and frowned as a thought occurred, and she tapped him on the shoulder with a new arm to get his attention. "The last time I left you alone with potentially hazardous research, there were almost… consequences. This time, please make sure you don't conduct any research without someone nearby? If only for my sake?"

Chopper blinked up at her, confused, but then the penny dropped and he glanced down at his notebook, grimacing uncomfortably before stuffing it away in his knapsack. "I'll be careful. And… Robin?" The grateful smile he sent her way would've melted the heart of a lesser woman. "Thank you. Truly."

Robin nodded, making to slip away, but paused again as another thought occurred to her. "By the way, you never did say what happened to Indigo."

Chopper's eyes flashed cyan as he snarled, "I guarantee you that the bastard is rotting. Whether he's doing it in Hell or Impel Down I couldn't tell you, but either way?" He shook his head. "The world's a better place for it."

-o-

Dr. Indigo's mind was a blur as he marched between a pair of guards. A cloth was wrapped around his eyes and handcuffs that he wagered were made of sea prism stone held his arms behind his back. He could have broken free in a moment, he had enough chemicals on hand. But he knew too little. His genius mind was sure of only three things about his present situation: he had been captured; he was being kept alive, at least for the moment; and he wasn't in the presence of Marines. The last of those he could discern by the fact that he had not been informed of his crimes the moment his captors saw that he was lucid. He had been ordered to walk and not speak, and with no alternative, he did so, finding as he did that his captors had taken his favorite shoes as well.

More light streamed through his blindfold, and he felt a gentle hand lift a corner. The face he could see was framed by blonde hair and had eyes the color of glass. She was smiling pleasantly, but the moment she spoke, Indigo identified the same sadism that his captain held.

"You have been spared from perishing along with your captain and the rest of your crew due to your expertise. From this point forward, you are in the employment of the World Government. You will be provided with adequate room and board and all the resources that you need to continue your research. Everything you have discovered to this point and everything that you discover from this point on is forfeit to the Government. Resistance and retaliation will be punished."

Indigo took a few moments to respond. Said response started with a twisting sneer, but the scathing retort transformed into a gasp of pain by the bullet that pierced his shoulder.

"Do not misunderstand, Doctor Indigo: you do not have a choice in this matter, and you are forbidden to die until the World Government can make no further use of you. And do not think that that ensures your safety from punishment. You know as well as anyone that even if we can't kill you…"

"AAAAAHHH!" Indigo screamed in agony as no fewer than a dozen holes turned his left arm into swiss cheese.

"It's quite surprising what a person can live through. Now, why don't you make this easy on yourself? I'd like nothing more than to keep shooting you full of holes, but the less we have to spend on patching you up, the better."

Indigo had thought that he knew the meaning of hatred when he was upstaged by an adolescent reindeer who was only intelligent because of his Devil Fruit. But this was nothing short of his worst nightmare: he had all the resources that he needed to accelerate his research beyond how he could dream of… and all of it was forfeit to the Government. His brilliance would fade into the Government's dominion, reinforcing their imperialism rather than proving his genius.

But he had his captain's patience. He would read his situation and consider the details. And he would listen to what his senses told him; his pride in his abilities remained strong, but he wouldn't pick another fight that he couldn't win.

"By your command," Indigo mumbled with a hint of steel. He winced again as that steel earned him another blow into his side, then the blindfold fell back over his face.

"Good. But try to get rid of that little shadow of defiance in your eyes. It's not healthy to consider resisting, you know."

A blow hit him from behind, sending him through a pair of steel doors and flat onto his face. The doors closed behind him, and as his handcuffs were removed he heard a derisive snort.

"She just can't keep her hands to herself," an androgynous voice growled, before actually growling in annoyance. "Hogback, get to patching him up!"

"Yes, sir," squeaked a much more familiar voice. Indigo used his good arm to rip away the blindfold just in time for a pair of hands to help him to his feet. He immediately identified the face of Doctor Hogback, one of the few medical geniuses in the world that he could accept as an equal; he lacked the chemical mastery that Indigo possessed, but his surgical abilities were far superior to the clown's.

"Welcome to the grind," the surgeon muttered as he led Indigo to his operating table. "I think you and I will get along swimmingly."

The badly hidden message made Indigo smile briefly, but it faded when lying down on the table let him see the other man in the room. He resembled a sumo wrestler, clad in red and with a massive battle axe on his back.

"Welcome to the World Government's research and development laboratory," he said unsmilingly. "My name is Sentomaru, your officer, enforcer, bodyguard—" The word was sneered out as though it was vile in his mouth. "—If necessary, which I hope it isn't… and executioner." The sneer turned into a smirk. "If it comes to it, which I hope it does."

His smirk faded and he continued speaking, sounding as though he were reciting a script.

"You will receive your first set of orders as soon as you are fit to work; upon reception, you have twelve hours to submit a report of the resources you require to do your work, including an explanation for each component, and the amount of time you require to complete it. Dr. Vegapunk will review your report and verify it before your requests are granted. Any attempt to falsify any part of the report will be punished.

"You will be monitored at all times," he continued, gesturing to the Visual Transponder Snails in every corner of the room. "If your progress does not match your estimations, you will be punished. You will be provided with your own laboratory and all of the necessities for your life. You may submit requests for luxuries if you maintain your progress. Finally, you are not permitted to leave your laboratory alone without express permission from myself or another authority. Failure to follow any of these rules will result in punishment."

Sentomaru glared at Indigo as Hogback began patching up his arm. "Any questions, Doctor Indigo?"

The clown pressed his lips together, and was privately relieved that Sentomaru didn't bash him for that show of discontent. It seemed he was no happier about this arrangement than his captives. That was a small mercy, at least.

"Will I be working alone or with others?" he asked at last.

"Hmph, an actually reasonable question," Sentomaru grunted. "You will be working with Hogback often. You can also expect to be acquainted with this lab's mechanical expert, Ratchet. To head off any complaints about his more luxurious conditions, he was enlisted, not arrested. Aside from that, you may request assistants if you deem it necessary. But any attempts to use them as guinea pigs will be met with…" Sentomaru tapped his knuckle against the blade of his axe. "Severe punishment."

Not ideal, but not unreasonable. At least the Government knew that one could not expect a genius to provide superior work under inferior conditions.

"…No further questions."

Sentomaru nodded and exited the room.

"I hear you're a genius who's good at long-term planning," Hogback whispered.

"Likewise," Indigo whispered back.

"They won't keep our genius chained up forever," they breathed in unison.

SLAM!

Hogback leapt back from the table with a shriek when Sentomaru's battleaxe buried itself between the two doctors.

"Did I mention that those feeds are live and your watchers can read lips?"

'But they can hold us for a hell of a long time…' the pair mentally groaned.

-o-

Off the stern of the Thousand Sunny, the winds swirled and surged in ways that were completely unnatural. Typically speaking, this was a perfectly normal state of affairs on the Straw Hats' ship, given how they were A. In the Grand Line and B. Navigated by a woman the world was 95% convinced was an actual, real-life witch. Not that the crew was more than slightly less skeptical on that front.

This time, though, the source was not Nami, nor the Grand Line. Instead, Nefertari Vivi sat on the railing of the aftmost balcony, her legs dangling out over the waves and her gaze focused on something only she could see. The 'checked out' look she was projecting was only reinforced by the way her hands were moving, drifting to and fro as though she were conducting an orchestra. In a dream, granted, but that was a good comparison, the princess's fingers were waving and gesturing to some tune that only she could hear.

But for all that the gestures made no apparent sense, there was in fact a method to the illogical actions, or at least, a purpose: for every twitch of Vivi's fingers, the air swirled in response, coiling around Vivi's fingers and body like thread from a divine, invisible loom. Strands of invisible currents of conflicting heat and cold responded to her every movement, extending into everything around her. A twitch of her fingers could cause a refreshing breeze on a summer afternoon. A casual wave of her hand could blow someone's hat off. An offhand wave of her arm could knock someone over.

And that was while she was barely even trying, merely twitching her powers in the slightest of ways.

"Alright…" Vivi breathed, her eyes narrowing as she returned to reality. "Now, how far can I—?"

Something cold touched Vivi's arm, and she gasped as debilitating fatigue washed over her, as though she had just tried a hundred meter dash against Carue and Usopp. That was all she had time to properly process before her entire world went spinning and she was slammed into the deck, gasping in pain from her arm being wrenched behind her back, compounded by someone else's arm clenching tight against her throat and coming a few psi away from entirely cutting off her airway. The entire scenario was completed by a sensation that Vivi had grown far too familiar with over the years, that of a blade pressing against her thro—!

"What the hell, Robin!?" Vivi wheezed.

"The hell, Princess Nefertari, is a practice commonly known as a 'reality check'," Robin responded frigidly, not budging from her kneeling position on the small of Vivi's back. "You've been playing with your abilities ever since we woke up, and it has come to the point where even I could feel the winds moving. And while I can personally understand that you would want to experiment with them…"