"Leo, sew them all to the deck first. I'm going to check the pirate ship for loot."
"You got it, Captain Bardock!"
Bardock didn't hold out much hope. In his experience, the weaker the pirate, the lighter their wallet. Sure enough, after a thorough sweep, he scraped together less than a million Berries. However, inside the captain's quarters, he found the captain's bounty poster.
"Ten million Berries, and he has the absolute nerve to call himself 'Longbeard'?" Bardock scoffed, shaking his head. "Well, the ship is pretty nice, at least. Looks practically brand new."
What Bardock didn't know was that Longbeard had literally spent every single Berry of his plundered treasure to purchase this vessel, fully intending to sail it into the Grand Line in the near future.
When Bardock leaped back onto the merchant ship, he motioned to gather the remaining conscious pirates. Then, he stopped, completely speechless.
Every single person on the ship had been stitched flat against the wooden deck. That included the pirates, the merchant crew, Captain Jess, and, of course, Nico Robin.
Fate truly was a mysterious thing. It seemed that in every timeline, Nico Robin was destined to be violently pinned to a floor at least once.
"Leo... why did you stitch the non-pirates to the deck too? Undo them," Bardock sighed, rubbing his temples.
"But Captain! You explicitly said, 'sew them all up'!" Leo protested, visibly pouting as he scurried over to begin unthreading his needles.
"Mm-hmm! The Captain definitely said that!" Mansherry chimed in, staunchly defending her knight.
"Alright, fine, that's my fault for not being specific," Bardock admitted. He pointed toward the galleon bobbing in the water next to them. "Anyway, that pirate ship is actually pretty nice. I say we commandeer it."
He looked at his two tiny crewmates, waiting for their enthusiastic agreement.
"But Captain..." Mansherry tilted her head, her big eyes blinking innocently. "You can't even steer our tiny boat properly. Do you really know how to sail a big one?"
Do you know how? Know how? How?
The innocent, genuine curiosity in her tiny voice drove an invisible dagger straight through Bardock's pride.
"You see that woman over there, Mansherry?" Bardock pointed directly at Nico Robin, who was still currently stitched to the planks. "We're going to have her sail it. She can sprout dozens of extra hands. She could easily sail a massive galleon all by herself." He quickly gave them a rundown of her Flower-Flower Fruit abilities.
Leo, who was in the middle of un-stitching Robin's clothes from the deck, paused and looked at her. "She uses a Jutsu too? But Captain, she looks incredibly weak."
"I am not weak!"
Nico Robin's eyes snapped open. She had actually regained consciousness a while ago, but because she couldn't figure out the situation and was literally sewn to the floor, she had decided to play dead. However, being called weak by a tiny creature in a pointy hat was too much. More importantly, she had overheard Bardock's intention to recruit her. She couldn't let some miniature kid ruin her chances of finding a strong protector.
She had learned early on that the weak could not shield her; she had to rely on the strong. And based on what she had seen, this boy was undeniably strong.
"Dos Fleur: Tickle!"
Two small arms instantly sprouted from Leo's shoulders, relentlessly tickling the dwarf's sides.
"Ahahaha! Stop! Stop it!" Leo shrieked, bursting into tears of laughter as he rolled helplessly across the deck.
"Alright, that's enough, call it off! Leo didn't mean any harm," Bardock chuckled, stepping in. "I'm Bardock. I plan to sail these seas with absolute freedom. If you're willing, I'd like you to join my crew. Your official role will be the ship's Teacher, and you'll moonlight as our helmsman."
Robin instantly released her ability, the phantom hands dissolving into pink petals. She sat up, rubbing her wrists. "What kind of pirate crew makes their 'Teacher' steer the ship? But more importantly... you heard who I am earlier, didn't you? Knowing my identity, do you really have the nerve to take me in?"
"To be completely honest, your identity is definitely a massive magnet for trouble," Bardock shrugged casually. "But as long as we grow strong enough, fast enough, the trouble won't be able to catch up to us."
"Those are bold words, Captain."
At fifteen, Robin had certainly suffered, but she hadn't yet endured the decades of endless betrayal that would eventually leave her heart entirely walled off. She wasn't the completely broken woman who would later wait for the Sun God to save her; there was still a flicker of genuine hope inside her.
"Leo, stitch the rest of these pirates down, and let's get out of here," Bardock ordered. "We'll leave this pirate crew behind as Robin's severance package."
"You got it, Captain Bardock!"
A long while after the strange flying boat and the stolen pirate galleon disappeared over the horizon, the merchant crew slowly began to wake up.
Seeing the vicious Longbeard Pirates stitched helplessly to the deck, the merchants were terrified, especially when the pirates started screaming bloody murder and threatening them. Thankfully, they couldn't actually move.
Captain Jess checked on the pirates one by one. Once he confirmed that they were completely immobilized, he managed to calm his crew down. He then checked on Longbeard himself. The fearsome captain wasn't just immobilized; his body was completely stiff. He had been dead for a while.
Before leaving, Bardock had casually sent the brutal captain to the afterlife with a crushed windpipe.
"This must be the work of the Devil Child!" a sailor gasped, trembling violently. "How horrifying... sewing human beings to the floor boards..." "Terrifying!"
Those who had aggressively pointed fingers at Robin earlier were sweating bullets, secretly thinking, If you were this dangerous, why didn't you just do this in the first place?!
"Captain!" the lookout suddenly shrieked. "Both our masts are broken! The sails and rigging fell into the ocean and drifted away!"
"WHAT?!"
"So, you want to head to the Ilusia Kingdom?"
The newly stolen galleon cut smoothly through the waves. Robin's Devil Fruit was an absolute godsend for naval travel; with multiple arms sprouting across the deck, she managed the rigging, the helm, and the sails with far more efficiency than an entire crew of seasoned sailors.
"Yeah," Bardock nodded, leaning against the railing. "My family and I were caught in a terrible shipwreck. I survived and ended up gaining some crazy powers because of it, but I want to go back and see if they were lucky enough to make it out too."
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Robin offered softly, her eyes softening in sympathy.
"It's been over half a year. I've already made my peace with whatever happened," Bardock replied calmly, looking out at the sea. "After that, we'll spend a few years traveling the West Blue, honing our skills and building our strength. Once the time is right, we'll head back into the Grand Line. I promised Leo and Mansherry that we'd find the City of Gold, Shandora, and clear Mont Blanc Noland's name."
"Noland the Liar?" Robin's eyes widened in surprise. "The City of Gold is actually real?"
"It is. And I already know where to find it."
"Then you absolutely must bring me along! No archaeologist in the world would want to miss out on a legend like that."
"Don't worry, I won't leave you behind. What about you, though? What's your dream?"
"Me?" Robin paused, gripping the ship's wheel tightly. "I want to uncover the True History." She stared intensely at Bardock, bracing herself for the inevitable rejection or fear that usually followed that statement.
"Figured as much," Bardock nodded, completely unfazed. "In my eyes, history is always written by the victors. No matter what the official records say, the truth is always distorted. But since it's your dream, I'll help you find it. It just so happens I know the locations of a few Poneglyphs."
"Truly?!" Robin gasped, abandoning the wheel and rushing over to him. "Can you tell me where they are right now?!"
Bardock shook his head, holding up a hand. "Right now, both of us are far too weak. If we start poking around the Poneglyphs this early, we'll just draw the World Government's crosshairs before we have the strength to fight back. In my homeland, there's a saying: 'Build high walls, accumulate grain, and delay claiming the throne.' Basically, keep your head down, build up your strength in secret, and wait for the absolute perfect moment to strike. Understand?"
Robin fell silent, her brilliant mind turning the words over. Slowly, she nodded.
"Good. It's getting dark, so drop the anchor," Bardock smiled, clapping his hands together. "I'm going to start cooking dinner. You get ready to do your actual job—I expect you to start teaching Leo and Mansherry everything from basic math to geography."
"Oh? But Captain," Robin smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes as several arms sprouted to lower the anchor. "I heard you're only nine years old. You need an education just as badly as they do."
Bardock groaned, rubbing his face. "Alright, fine. You win, Professor Robin. Class starts after dinner for everyone."