The heavy silence of the courtyard was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps. All heads inside the cage turned at once.
Takuya walked calmly towards them, a faint, unreadable smile on his face. And by his side, matching his stride with an elegant and composed air, was Nico Robin.
The reactions were instantaneous and varied.
"TAKUYA!" Luffy yelled, his momentary despair forgotten, a wide, genuine grin splitting his face. He pressed himself against the bars, as if his friend's mere presence was enough to solve everything. "You're okay! Get us out of this stupid cage!"
Zoro, however, stopped his futile sawing. He didn't say a word, but his one visible eye narrowed. A hot flush of humiliation crept up his neck.
Here he was, captured and powerless, and Takuya was strolling free and clear. He sheathed his sword with a sharp, angry click, crossing his arms and turning away, unable to meet the man's gaze.
"T-Takuya! Thank goodness!" Usopp cried, scrambling to the bars and reaching a hand through the cage as if to grab onto salvation. "You have to get us out! You have a plan, right? You always have a plan! Please tell me you have a plan!"
Chopper let out a shaky sigh of relief, his small body slumping. "Takuya's here. It's going to be okay now." The presence of their powerful ally instantly quelled his fears.
But not everyone shared their optimism.
Sanji's eyes, which had been wide with shock at seeing Takuya, instantly locked onto Robin. His pupils transformed into pulsing hearts, and a lovesick sigh escaped his lips. "Mellorine~! What a stunning, beautiful, flower of a woman! Such grace! Such—"
His train of thought abruptly derailed. He looked at Takuya, then back at the beautiful woman standing so familiarly at his side. The pieces clicked into place in his mind, and the hearts in his eyes were replaced by furious sparks.
"Wait a minute!" Sanji shrieked, pointing an accusing finger through the bars. "You! You two-timing bastard! What are you doing with another woman?! What about Nami-swan?! What about Vivi-chan?! How dare you cheat on them, you lowlife scum! Let me out of here! I'll kick your head into the next century, you traitor to love!"
At the same time, Smoker straightened up, his tired frustration evaporating into sharp, professional alarm. His eyes were fixed not on Takuya, but on Robin. His jaw tightened.
"Nico Robin," he growled, his voice low and dangerous. "The 'Devil Child' of Ohara." His gaze flicked to Takuya. "Where the hell did you find her? And why is she walking free?"
At the hated epithet, Robin flinched almost imperceptibly. Her serene expression didn't change, but her shoulders stiffened just a fraction, and her fingers twitched at her sides.
Takuya's smile didn't falter, but his eyes cooled as he looked at Smoker. He reached out and casually draped an arm around Robin's shoulders, pulling her closer in a clear, possessive gesture.
"You shouldn't call my wife that, Smokey," he said, his tone deceptively light.
The word "wife" landed in the courtyard like a thunderclap.
A stunned silence fell over the cage.
Sanji's jaw dropped open, his furious tirade completely forgotten. The anger on his face melted into pure, unadulterated shock, which then curdled into a look of deepest, most profound injustice.
"W-Wife?!" he finally stammered, his voice cracking. "Another one?! Why... Why do all the most beautiful women in the world end up with this guy?! It's not fair! It's a cosmic tragedy!"
Luffy just blinked, confused. "Wife? Cool! So she's a friend too?"
Usopp and Chopper stared, utterly bewildered, their brains struggling to process this new, world-altering information.
Zoro let out a quiet, disgusted "Tch," from his corner, the situation becoming even more humiliatingly complicated.
Smoker's eyes widened, his cigar almost falling from his lips. He looked from Takuya's defiant face to Robin's composed one, understanding dawning that the situation was far more complex and dangerous than he had ever imagined. The game had changed entirely, and he was stuck in a cage, powerless to do anything about it.
The stunned silence was broken by Smoker, his mind cutting through the personal drama to the tactical nightmare. "Takuya," he growled, smoke beginning to curl from his shoulders in his agitation. "The Marine squadrons that were protecting the city. What did you do to them?"
Takuya's smile widened, becoming a fraction less pleasant. "Oh, them? They're... indisposed. It seems they were overcome with a sudden, overwhelming need to... relieve some urgent personal urges.
I'm a generous man, Smokey. I saw no reason to interrupt them." The unspoken truth—that his "Pixie Dust" had neutralized an entire Marine contingent—hung in the air, more terrifying than any direct attack.
Before Smoker could form a furious retort, Luffy, utterly oblivious to the subtext, started shaking the bars again. "Takuya! That's great! Now get us out! I need to find Crocodile and punch him again for this stupid cage!"
Takuya turned his attention to the rubberman, his expression shifting to one of playful conspiracy. "Still full of fire, I see. Good." He then reached into a small pouch at his belt and pulled out a stack of cookies. They were perfectly round, golden-brown, and sprinkled with something that glittered faintly.
"Getting out is your job," Takuya said, his voice a low, tempting murmur. "But if you're hungry for a fight, these will give you all the power you need to kick his ass. Come and take them."
The sight of food, especially from Takuya, made Luffy's eyes bulge. He started drooling immediately, his entire body straining towards the bars. "MEAT COOKIES! GIMME!"
"YOU IDIOT!" Sanji yelled, finally snapping out of his jealous stupor. He kicked the bar in front of Luffy, his anger redirected. "How are we supposed to 'come and take them' when we're locked in this unbreakable hell-cage?! Are you mocking us, you bastard?!"
Takuya didn't even look at Sanji. His eyes remained locked on Luffy, whose face was now pressed comically between two bars. A slow, knowing smile spread across Takuya's face.
"You're all so focused on the cage," he said, his tone dripping with condescending wisdom. "You can't break the sea-prism stone bars, that's true. But..." He paused for dramatic effect, tapping the toe of his boot on the ornate ceramic tile floor just outside the cage. "...are the bars buried in sea-prism stone too?"
He let the question hang in the air.
Inside the cage, the effect was instantaneous. It was as if a lightning bolt of sheer, utter stupidity had struck them all simultaneously.
Zoro's head, which had been turned away in shame, snapped back around. His eyes widened, then narrowed in self-directed fury. The floor. He'd been sawing at a bar for what felt like ages, and it never once occurred to him that the foundation holding the cage in place might be ordinary stone and mortar.
Sanji froze mid-fury, his foot still raised. He looked down at the solid but perfectly breakable castle floor beneath their feet, then back up at the impossible bars. A deep, crimson blush of embarrassment spread across his face beneath his blonde hair.
Usopp stopped his panicked pacing. "The... the floor?" he whispered, the simplicity of the solution so blindingly obvious it was painful.
Chopper gasped, his hooves covering his mouth. "We... we forgot about the ground!"
Even Smoker looked momentarily floored, his cigar now dangling uselessly from his lip as he stared at his own feet.
Seeing their hesitation, Takuya applied the final bit of motivation. He waved the cookies under his nose, inhaling deeply with an exaggerated sigh of pleasure. "Mmmmm. It's a brand new flavor.
Something really special. So juicy, so powerful... I don't think anyone has ever tasted anything like it before." He then looked directly at Luffy, his eyes glinting. "Not even Mira."
That was the final straw.
"NOT EVEN MIRA?!" Luffy roared, a competitive fire igniting in his eyes that dwarfed any desire for mere freedom. The idea that his rival-in-eating might miss out on this unique culinary experience was an unbearable injustice.
With a primal yell that shook the courtyard, "MY COOKIES!" Luffy didn't target the bars. He dropped to his knees, his fists—weak and human though they were—hammering down on the ceramic tile floor inside the cage with berserk fury. CRACK!
Zoro, snapping into action, used the pommel of his sword like a battering ram, driving it into the cracked tile. Sanji, channeling all his embarrassment and rage into his heel, stomped down with devastating force.
CRUNCH! BOOM!
A large section of the floor gave way, collapsing into the dusty space beneath the cage. In a cloud of debris and shattered ceramic, Luffy shot out of the hole like a cork from a bottle, his eyes laser-focused on the stack of cookies in Takuya's hand. He landed in a crouch before Takuya, snatched the entire stack, and shoved them into his mouth in one go.
"SHOOOOOOBISH!" he mumbled through the massive mouthful, his cheeks bulging, his body already beginning to twitch with the incoming surge of energy.
Behind him, the rest of the Straw Hats, along with an utterly flabbergasted Smoker, began clambering out of the hole they had created, free from Crocodile's ingenious but flawed trap. They were out, thanks to a cookie and a lesson in looking at the obvious.
Takuya stood there, arm still around a quietly observing Robin, his smile one of supreme satisfaction. The first move was his, and it had been a checkmate delivered with a snack.
As Luffy, now buzzing with cookie-fueled energy, shot off towards the palace depths with his crew in tow—Zoro and Sanji still grumbling about the cage, Usopp and Chopper cheering, and Smoker stomping off to find his "indisposed" Marines—Takuya turned his attention elsewhere.
"Luffy! Crocodile's all yours!" Takuya called after the retreating rubberman. Then, he glanced at Smoker's retreating back. "And Smokey! Your squad might need some... therapy after they're done! You should hurry!"
With that, he gently guided Robin, his arm still around her, away from the courtyard and deeper into the royal palace. They moved through ornate halls, following the distant, familiar sounds of frantic conversation until they entered a grand chamber.
There, they found Vivi, Nami, and Mira, all gathered around a large bed where King Cobra lay, looking pale and weary but awake. The relief on Vivi's face was palpable as she held her father's hand.
The moment they entered, the room's atmosphere shifted. It was impossible to miss Mira. She was slumped in a plush chair in the corner, looking like she'd been put through a meat grinder.
One of her eyes was swollen shut, her lip was split, and a spectacular purple bruise bloomed across her cheek. Her clothes were torn and dusty, and she held a melting ice pack loosely against the back of her head. She looked utterly wrecked.
Standing near her, arms crossed and a satisfied, if still irritated, smirk on her face, was Nami. Her knuckles were slightly red. It was abundantly clear that Nami, unable to direct her fury at Takuya for his new "wife," had found a perfectly acceptable substitute in the "idiot who took off on a quad bike." And she had taken out every ounce of her jealousy and anger on her.
Yet, despite her battered state, Mira didn't seem to care. Her one good eye was half-lidded, and she even managed a lopsided, wincing smile as Takuya and Robin entered. She gave a weak, little wave with the hand not holding the ice pack.
"Hey, boss," she slurred slightly through her swollen lip. "Nice ride?"
Nami huffed, turning her nose up. "She was asking for it. Thinking a civil war was a good time for a desert joyride."
Mira just shrugged, a gesture that made her wince in pain, but her smile didn't fade. "Worth it. Got some great air off a dune."
Takuya looked at her, taking in the spectacular bruising and the split lip. He didn't scold her or acknowledge Nami's justification. Instead, he simply reached into his pouch, pulled out one of the remaining golden-brown cookies, and tossed it gently to her.
"Here," he said, his tone matter-of-fact. "This will feel better."
Mira caught it clumsily with her free hand, her one good eye lighting up. Without a second's hesitation, she popped the entire cookie into her mouth. The effect wasn't as dramatic as the energy surge Luffy experienced, but it was visibly potent.
A faint, warm glow seemed to pass over her skin for a split second. The angry swelling around her eye receded noticeably, the purple bruise fading to a faint yellow, and the cut on her lip sealed itself into a thin pink line. She let out a sigh of relief, rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck without any wince of pain.
"Whoa," she breathed, a genuine, unforced grin spreading across her now-healed face. "Thanks, boss! Good as new!" She flexed an arm, showing off.
Nami watched, her irritated expression softening just a fraction into one of grudging acknowledgment. "Hmph. Well... I suppose that's one less thing to worry about."
"Father, you're awake!" Vivi said, her voice tight with emotion, trying to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand.
King Cobra's eyes, however, snapped past his daughter to the new arrivals. His gaze, initially grateful, hardened with recognition and shock as it landed on Robin.
"Nico Robin?" he breathed, his voice a mixture of confusion and alarm. He struggled to sit up taller. "The right hand of Crocodile from Baroque Works? What is the meaning of this? And who is this man with her?" His protective instincts flared, his eyes darting to Takuya.
Vivi let out a long, weary sigh, as if dreading this exact moment. She stepped forward, placing herself between her father's suspicion and Takuya's calm demeanor.
"Father," she began, her voice firm despite her clear exhaustion. "This is Takuya. He... he's the one who saved us. And... and that's Nico Robin. She's... well, she's his wife now."
Cobra's eyes widened in disbelief. "His wife? Vivi, what is going on?!"
Takuya gave a slight, formal bow, his smile polite but edged with undeniable ambition. "King Cobra. My name is Takuya. You can think of me as the future King of Alabasta, and your daughter's husband."
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