Chapter 306 - 164

Chapter 164A fragrant breeze brushed past his nose, and Robin's lips missed his upturned chin.Luffy yanked his hand away from his eyes, looking with disbelief at Robin, who was inches away, her smile still elegant and composed."Robin, what are you doing?!"If he had merely relied on ordinary Observation Haki to perceive airflow and sound to dodge an attack, it would make sense.But Luffy's reaction just now was clearly because he had seen Robin's specific movements!"Ara ara,"Robin lowered the hand covering her mouth and chuckled, a mischievous glint flashing in her eyes."You really can see it. It seems you weren't lying."Luffy's lip twitched, and he couldn't help but retort, "What if I hadn't dodged just now?"Robin tilted her head, her expression very calm. "Nothing much. It's not like we haven't kissed before."Luffy: "..."He actually couldn't argue with that!That time at the golden bell tower on Sky Island, they really did kiss.And before that in Alabasta, they had kissed too.Robin pressed a step closer, almost leaning against Luffy, and lowered her voice meaningfully."Besides, didn't you and Vivi do something even more excessive back in Water 7?"Something even more excessive?Luffy's eyes widened instantly, and he said subconsciously, "So you really did find out?"Robin looked at him with a smile, her tone light: "Have you forgotten my ability? There are eyes everywhere."And she had even doubled back afterward.Luffy was suddenly speechless. Back then in the forest, Robin and Nami really had come looking for them.But he quickly reacted and hurriedly argued, "It's not what you think at all! I just took Vivi for a walk to give her some encouragement. Who knew you and Nami would suddenly show up!""Then isn't that even more suspicious?"Robin arched an eyebrow and asked back, "If it was just an ordinary walk for encouragement, then why did you hide so nervously when you saw us coming?"Luffy: "..."He opened his mouth, speechless.He couldn't exactly say it was because Vivi's symptoms were acting up and her state was a bit strange, so he was afraid of being misunderstood, right?Seeing Luffy's embarrassed look of being unable to defend himself, the smile on Robin's face became even brighter. She lightly tapped her red lips with her finger and said in a calm but unquestionable tone:"Since Vivi has tried it... then as a historian, I would very much like to research it as well. As the Captain, Luffy, you can't show favoritism, right?"Luffy was completely bewildered. He suspected he and Robin weren't even talking about the same thing."Tried what? And Vivi and I didn't do anything else!"If it came down to kissing, clearly you, Robin, have kissed me more times, okay?!The expression on Robin's face was like she had found an extremely interesting new toy.Luffy felt a bad premonition and turned to slip back to the thousand sunny.But as soon as he took a step, he heard Robin say slowly behind him, "You wouldn't want Nami to know about this either, would you? That night, you and Vivi in the forest."Luffy's footsteps froze instantly.Immediately after, he felt a dozen fair arms sprout from various joints on his body, pinning him firmly in place so he couldn't move.With his current strength, breaking free from these arms wouldn't be difficult, but he couldn't actually use force against Robin."Hey, Robin, what do you want to do?! I'm the Captain!"Luffy panicked a bit as his eyes were once again gently covered by several invisible hands, plunging him into darkness.Robin didn't answer, merely humming an unknown little tune as she walked over with elegant steps.Then, Luffy felt her seemingly fiddling with his limbs, and it seemed she had taken something out.Robin hummed her tune and took out a rubber band she had swiped from Vivi.Half an hour later.Luffy walked out of the going merry's lounge with somewhat weak steps, his legs involuntarily shaking.He turned back, looking at Robin who followed behind him with a satisfied and comfortable expression, his eyes a mix of shock and confusion.She even gave a soft little hiccup."Did Vivi do that kind of thing that night?"Robin revealed a standard mischievous smile and winked. "Take a guess?""Guess what!"Luffy was almost driven crazy.He had slept through that night; in his dream, he had fought so intensely with that ice-face Aokiji.It was only then that Robin seemed to suddenly remember serious business, lightly patting her forehead. "Right, I almost forgot. Nami told you to head over quickly; there seems to be something important."Luffy gave her a suspicious look, walked a few steps, and turned back to ask, "Aren't you coming with me?"Robin waved her hand elegantly, covered her mouth to let out a light hiccup, and said with a smile, "I want to take a walk."Luffy: "..."In a conscious state, even with his eyes covered, he had at least felt it.For the first time, he felt that going against the planmight not be so bad.Of course, at the very least, there had to be someone like Robin to help him handle it.By the time Luffy returned to the thousand sunnywith a bit of trepidation, Nami was already getting impatient and was planning to go to the going merry to catch him herself."Luffy, what took you so long!"Nami said with her hands on her hips, dissatisfied. She then looked suspiciously at Luffy's slightly odd expression and peered behind him. "Where's Robin? Didn't she go looking for you?"Luffy kept a straight face and replied in as natural a tone as possible, "Oh, she said she was too full from eating just now, so she's moving around on the deck and taking a walk."Nami became even more confused.Robin hadn't eaten much tonight.She felt something was off, but with more important matters at hand, she had no time to dig deeper and shoved a latest newspaper into Luffy's hands. "Look at this first! The headline!"Luffy took the newspaper and looked down.The front-page headline was printed in bold black letters with a shocking title."Multiple Islands in the East Blue Mysteriously Vanish! The Sea Map Silently Changes!"The accompanying image was a map of the East Blue with several startling red dots marked on it, representing islands confirmed to have disappeared.The report was vague, only mentioning that during the same period, several places in the East Blue, along with their towns and residents, seemed to have been completely wiped off the map by an invisible giant hand for unknown reasons. The World Government has intervened in the investigation.Luffy's brow furrowed.Although it seemed for now that none of the islands related to them were affected, who knew how long this bizarre situation would last?Where else would it spread?The East Blue was where their dreams had set sail.Nami's face was full of worry, her voice lowering unconsciously: "Luffy, what on earth... is going on?"Zoro and the others born in the East Blue gathered around; this was closely related to them."What's that, a meteorite?" Usopp asked, pointing at a picture in the newspaper.Besides towns vanishing inexplicably, things were also falling down inexplicably.Nami said, "The report says these are things that fell from the sky, like some trees that have only ever appeared in the New World."Luffy sat down and said, "But we can't stop our voyage on the Grand Line either."As a Navigator student of Nami's teacher, Luffyknew that in their current situation, they had no way to return to the East Blue.Currently, there were basically two ways to return to the four blues from the Grand Line.One was to abandon the ship and cross the Red Line. Abandoning the ship was impossible, and crossing the Red Line was also impossible—how could a pirate pass through the Holy Land Mary Geoise?Go beg Garp?Even the Navy Hero probably wouldn't have a way.The second way was to cross the Calm Belt.But they would have to face the threat of Sea Kings, and the thousand sunny and going merrywouldn't be of use there.He saw Nami's worry, and it wasn't just because Cocoyasi Village was in the East Blue.Zoro walked over and said, "Calm down. If the cause is unknown, it's useless for us to go back.""Besides, the paper says the World Governmentwill investigate, even if they haven't given an explanation. The Marine has already been deployed as well."Despite those words, Nami was still worried.At that moment, an extremely sharp whistling sound suddenly came from outside the cabin. Franky let out a cry and shouted, "Super! This is bad! It's actually raining blades up ahead!"A rain of blades?"What?!"Nami snapped back to her senses, ignored the newspaper, grabbed Luffy, and dashed outside. "I was just casually mentioning a warning for abnormal weather earlier."The two rushed out of the cabin and onto the bow deck of the thousand sunny.The scene before them was staggering.In the airspace not far away, the originally white clouds had turned grey and chaotic.Countless metallic blades glinting with cold light—various shapes of knives, swords, daggers, and even massive axe blades—fell from the sky like a torrential rain. They were densely packed, carrying a scream that tore through the air, turning that airspace into a dead zone.Some flying creatures that couldn't dodge in time were instantly sliced into fragments, falling as a rain of blood."What kind of crazy weather is this?!" Usopp was so scared his tongue was tied, and he almost hugged the mast."It can't be natural weather," Robin said, having appeared at the bow at some point. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the rain of blades with a grave expression. "It looks more like a phenomenon caused by some kind of ability."All sorts of messy Devil Fruit abilities could be seen everywhere in the Grand Line.An ability that could make so many blades and weapons fly wasn't unheard of."No time to study it!"Nami's instincts as a Navigator immediately overrode her shock. She quickly judged the wind direction and cloud flow, shouting commands: "Franky, prepare the Coup de Burst! Adjust the angle! We must leave this airspace immediately! Vivi, I'm counting on you too."Even an Emperor of the Sea wouldn't want to contend with natural disasters. An Emperor might be a disaster themselves, but that's a disaster of destruction; for something like this, it's best to dodge if possible."Understood!"Vivi and Nami's coordination was already practiced. She took a deep breath, holding her palms upward as invisible air currents began to swirl around her. "Wind, come!"At the same time, Franky rushed to the stern. The thousand sunny's rear injection ports began to adjust their direction, and the sound of boiling cola energy came from within."Coup de Burst ready! Launch!!"BOOM!!!A powerful blast of air erupted from the stern. Combined with the rising air current controlled by Vivi, the thousand sunny was lifted as if by an invisible giant hand, suddenly accelerating and tilting upward at a thrilling angle, narrowly avoiding the lethal rain of blades.The ship pitched violently. Chopper and Usoppclung to each other, letting out wordless screams.When the ship finally stabilized, everyone looked back with lingering fear; the airspace with the rain of blades had been left far below."Phew, we're saved."Nami leaned against the railing, letting out a long sigh, her forehead covered in cold sweat."Do we need to fly for a while?" Vivi asked.With her ability, she could use the power of the Coup de Burst to float for a long period.