"Caw, caw…"
The cries of seabirds drifting overhead pulled Kairos out of his thoughts.
He stopped thinking about the system and glanced to the side in mild surprise.
Robin had already used her Devil Fruit ability to form a bridge over to his little boat.
"Hm?"
Kairos frowned for a moment, then relaxed.
He pushed off lightly and landed back on the boat. His movement was so controlled that he barely disturbed the sea, raising only the faintest ripple.
"Thank you for saving me."
Robin brushed aside the damp strands of hair clinging to her face and lowered her head slightly. Though she was still young, there was already a quiet, intellectual grace to her.
But beneath that calm exterior, her thoughts were racing.
She had come to thank him, yes—
but more importantly, she wanted his protection.
"I should be thanking you instead."
Kairos looked at her with bright, focused eyes and said something Robin had never expected to hear.
Thanking her?
Even someone as sharp as Robin froze for a second at that.
Still, she didn't linger on it. She quickly looked up at him and asked in a careful voice,
"Sir… where are you headed? There's a chance we might be going the same way."
As she spoke, she lowered her head slightly, making herself appear softer and more harmless.
"Whiskey Peak," Kairos answered without hesitation.
A glimmer flashed in Robin's eyes.
"That's exactly where I'm going too. Would it be alright if I traveled with you?"
"Sure."
Kairos agreed immediately, without the slightest pause or doubt.
"Thank you, sir."
Robin bowed politely, her mood visibly brightening.
What she did not know—
what she could not possibly know—
was that the man standing before her was currently thinking about something utterly outrageous.
He was trying to figure out how, exactly, he should "attack" her for a spar and get a card reward.
…
A few days later—
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
A squadron of Marine warships had just returned to port.
At the front of it was Vice Admiral Doberman's fleet.
"Cough… cough…"
Doberman stepped off the warship looking pale and badly injured.
He was no longer wearing his usual suit. Instead, he had on a white shirt beneath his Marine coat.
The shirt hung open at the chest, where bandages were wrapped tightly around his torso. More bandages covered his arms and legs, and even his face was partially wrapped.
"Doberman, you're hurt?!"
Vice Admiral Strawberry, who happened to be preparing to depart for the Grand Line, saw him and was immediately stunned. He hurried over, alarm clear on his face.
As he approached, Strawberry instinctively reached out as though to support him.
"It's nothing."
Doberman shook his head and pushed the hand aside.
"Weren't you on the mission to capture the Demon Child, Robin? How did you end up this injured?" Strawberry asked, concern plain in his voice.
The two of them were not particularly close, but they were still comrades. And judging by Doberman's condition, the injuries were serious enough that concern came naturally.
"Kairos."
Doberman looked up at him and spoke only that name.
"Kairos? The strongest rookie?"
Strawberry's heart skipped. Even the cigar clenched in his mouth trembled, scattering a few flecks of ash.
"He did this to you?"
"…Yes."
"But wasn't his strength supposed to be unstable?" Strawberry frowned deeply.
Every Vice Admiral had been paying close attention to Kairos.
Sengoku had even held a special meeting about him.
Strawberry still remembered the scene clearly—when Kairos' wanted poster and file were distributed, Onigumo had torn his copy apart on the spot.
Garp had laughed while looking at the poster, but there had been heaviness in his eyes. Helplessness, too.
Even without the one-billion-berry bounty, those reactions alone would have made every Vice Admiral remember the name Kairos.
"Our evaluation…" Doberman said quietly, "…was wrong."
After saying those heavy words, he walked past Strawberry and headed deeper into headquarters.
Strawberry stood there watching him go, his brow furrowed so tightly it almost looked carved in place. He didn't even notice the cigar in his mouth had nearly gone out.
Kairos.
That name engraved itself even deeper into his mind.
…
Grand Line.
Robin looked at the man sitting alone at the bow of the boat, and her expression turned increasingly strange.
Over the past few days, she had started questioning whether she had made the right choice.
Had she chosen the wrong person to rely on?
This man named Kairos…
was a complete weirdo.
Not because he had done anything indecent or inappropriate.
No—
the problem was that every few days, he would ask her to spar with him.
Robin, of course, had no intention of agreeing. She had seen with her own eyes how Kairos had beaten the powerful Vice Admiral Doberman until he coughed up blood.
Spar with someone like that?
That was just asking to die.
Worse, Kairos had been bringing it up more and more often lately.
What exactly was he trying to do?
As Robin was lost in thought, Kairos—still fishing at the bow—turned his head and called out:
"Robin, want to spar?"
"…"
Robin raised her eyes and looked at the strange man in front of her, calmly fishing as though he weren't saying anything odd at all.
In the end, she let out a long, weary sigh.
"I can't beat you. I surrender."
Then, after a pause, she added:
"Kairos… if you want to spar, I really don't think you should be asking me."
Robin was genuinely unnerved now.
Just picture it—
an endless sea, a man and a woman drifting together on a tiny boat…
and the man keeps asking you to fight him every few days.
The whole thing was deeply unsettling.
At that moment, however, Kairos seemed not to have heard a single word she said.
A smile spread across his face.
"Ding: Host has defeated Robin. Reward obtained: SSR Shikigami Onikiri Card (Onmyoji Version 1/1)."
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