Chapter 14: The Historian and the Shinobi
Franky disappeared into the bustling crowds heading toward the town center. Nami, one hand protectively patting the wallet still secured at her waist, began her inevitable exploration of the street-side shops. Robin's gaze swept the area before settling on a path that curved toward the town's outskirts.
"Let's go this way, Itachi." She gestured gracefully. "From here, we should be able to see the entirety of the town."
Itachi assessed the direction and nodded. "The terrain rises this way. The highest point will offer the best vantage."
Robin smiled softly and reached for her notebook—only to find it still soaked through, its pages stuck together in a sodden mass.
Without a word, Itachi took the notebook from her hands. He channeled a thin layer of chakra to his palms, careful to maintain a precise temperature—hot enough to evaporate moisture, not hot enough to burn. He pressed the leather cover between his hands, and within moments, steam rose gently from the pages.
When he returned it, Robin's eyes widened with pleasant surprise. The notebook was warm, dry, and perfectly preserved. Something in her chest warmed as well.
"Itachi, you truly haven't eaten a Devil Fruit? Is this all really just ninjutsu?"
Itachi's brow furrowed. "Devil Fruit... what exactly IS that?"
Seeing his genuine confusion, Robin launched into a detailed explanation. As she spoke, she demonstrated—arms sprouting from her back like blooming flower petals, multiplying into wings.
"Devil Fruits grant supernatural abilities. My Hana Hana no Mi—the Flower Flower Fruit—allows me to sprout body parts anywhere. Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Mi makes him rubber. These are Paramecia-type fruits."
She continued, outlining the three categories: Paramecia, Zoan, and Logia, describing the general effects of each.
Itachi listened intently, and when she finished, he murmured almost to himself: "It truly seems this is not the same world."
"Did you say something, Itachi?" Robin tilted her head.
"Nothing." Itachi exhaled softly, gazing at the distant island—and beyond it, the sunlit depths of the sea.
"You don't know where your home is now, do you?" Robin asked gently.
Her fingers moved almost unconsciously, her sketch capturing Itachi as he looked into that impossible distance.
"No," he admitted.
At that moment, he felt something on his head. He reached up and discovered—two small hands had sprouted there, like a deer's antlers.
Robin's laughter rang out, her face flushed with mirth. She showed him the sketch: Itachi, standing on a cliff like a melancholy deer, staring into the horizon with those two tiny hands adorning his head like antlers.
Itachi's lips quirked despite himself. "Very artistic."
They walked together through a field of coral flowers—countless colors blooming in the gentle current, their petal-like forms swaying.
Robin paused at the edge of the coral sea. Her dark blue top and pink skirt complemented her fair skin, and for a moment she seemed an extension of the flowers themselves. She bent to admire a particularly beautiful coral formation, then turned to Itachi.
"Earlier, you seemed unfamiliar with the concept of the Four Seas. Do you know about the Red Line?"
Itachi sat beside her on a smooth rock, offering a wry smile. "It seems I know nothing at all."
He inclined his head respectfully. "Please, tell me whatever you can."
Robin studied him—this man who knew nothing of her world, who appeared from nowhere with impossible abilities, who had saved her crewmates without hesitation. Her smile remained gentle.
"Very well."
And so she began to teach him about the world, as one might explain its wonders to a child seeing the ocean for the first time.
She spoke of the East Blue and the North Blue, of the Calm Belt and the Grand Line. She described the Red Line that encircled the globe, the New World that waited beyond. She told him of Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, and of the current era where pirates and Marines clashed endlessly. She mentioned Sakazuki—Akainu—and his rise to Fleet Admiral.
She even shared stories of their own adventures with Luffy—the battles, the islands, the bonds formed along the way.
The sun traced its arc across the bubble's false sky. When it began to descend, casting amber light through the water, Robin finally fell silent.
She looked at Itachi. His eyes had gone distant, processing the flood of information.
"Did I say too much?" she asked.
Itachi blinked, returning to the present. "No. You explained everything perfectly."
Robin's expression softened with sympathy. "I'm sorry, Itachi. I truly don't know your Land of Fire. I've never heard of your Akatsuki."
She gestured at the vast bubble enclosing them. "This world is enormous. Your home may simply be somewhere we haven't discovered yet."
Itachi was silent for a long moment. Then that wry smile returned—the expression of a man carrying weighty knowledge.
"After listening to you," he said, half-joking, "I feel as though I have no connection to this world at all."
He paused. "As if I don't belong here."
"But you ARE here." Robin's hand found his shoulder, her warmth seeping through the fabric of his clothes. "You're a very reliable person, Itachi."
She smiled—that knowing, warm smile. "I think Luffy will invite you to become our nakama."
The word hit Itachi like a physical blow.
Nakama. Comrades. Companions. The word carried weight in any language, any world.
For him, it carried particular weight.
Seeing his silence, Robin rose gracefully and pointed down the path. "Let's continue, Itachi. There seems to be a bus stop ahead."
She laughed lightly. "Imagine—a bus service on Fishman Island! How wonderfully strange."
Itachi followed her gaze. Indeed, a signpost stood at the roadside, indicating a stop.
"If we can take a bus," Robin mused, "we might see more of the island."
"That's a good idea." Itachi's voice was thoughtful. He was still processing everything she'd told him—constructing a mental map of this vast, strange world of pirates and seas and mystical fruits.
A world completely unlike the one he'd left behind.
What neither of them knew was that above them, in the towering spires of the Ryugu Palace, chaos had erupted.
After being rescued by Camie, Luffy and the others had reunited with Nami. They'd been invited to the palace by King Neptune himself—the great knight of the sea—for a banquet.
But things had gone wrong.
The island's prophet, Madam Shyarly of the Mermaid Cafe, had spoken a prophecy: Fishman Island would be destroyed by a man wearing a straw hat.
Then the Ryugu Palace's right minister had reported that the Straw Hat crew were suspected of mermaid trafficking.
Neptune had ordered their arrest.
The result? Zoro and Usopp had essentially taken the palace hostage—though the arrest orders had already been issued. Ryugu soldiers throughout the island were now searching for every member of the Straw Hat crew.
Itachi's eyes caught movement in the distance—figures in armor approaching with purpose.
"Robin." His voice was calm, but alert. "Those fish-men in armor. Are they the island's military?"
Robin's gaze followed his. Before she could respond, the soldiers had already closed distance, holding up wanted posters and comparing faces.
"That's... Nico Robin of the Straw Hat Pirates!"
"By order of King Neptune—arrest every member of the Straw Hat crew!"
(End of Chapter)
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