Marcus let out a long sigh as he stared at his EMC balance. He was catching up to Tesoro's net worth, but it still wasn't enough to buy a single Devil Fruit from the transmutation tablet.
The 80 million EMC price tag was giving him a serious headache. Hell, at this rate, buying back an Eternal Pose later would probably cost him even more points.
He was starting to suspect that even if he strip-mined the entire planet down to its core, he might only be able to afford a handful of Devil Fruits.
Meanwhile, Alvida and Kira couldn't understand why he was sighing and looking dejected after earning what should have been a fortune beyond imagination.
"What's eating you?" Alvida asked.
"Nothing much. Where are Luffy and the others?"
Seeing Marcus dodge the question, the two girls exchanged glances.
"They probably passed out after the banquet," Alvida said, gesturing toward the distance where bodies were sprawled everywhere like casualties from a food war.
"Oh, by the way, while you were underground, Nami and Vivi discussed how to leave Whiskey Peak."
"Really? What did they decide? Sail straight for Arabasta?" Marcus asked curiously.
Kira shook her head. "They're planning to fake their deaths, then follow the Log Pose route step by step toward Arabasta."
"Not in a hurry?" Marcus was surprised. He'd figured they'd want to rush straight there. Was fate's pull really that strong in this world?
"According to them, faking their deaths will let them slip past undetected and buy some time. That way, when they return to Arabasta, they can give the head of Baroque Works, Crocodile, a nasty surprise. Maybe even find some key evidence while they're at it."
"Staying in the shadows, huh. Smart move."
"You're... not surprised at all?" Alvida asked. When she'd first learned that the leader behind Baroque Works was none other than one of the Seven Warlords, Crocodile, she'd been shocked speechless.
"I had my suspicions," Marcus replied vaguely.
The two girls didn't push the issue. After all, it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret once you started connecting the dots.
"You two tired? I'm gonna catch up on some sleep." Marcus yawned, the exhaustion from his all-night mining expedition finally catching up to him.
Both girls nodded. They'd joined the banquet earlier but had burned out quickly, and now drowsiness was creeping up on them too.
Morning sunlight was streaming down as the three of them headed toward the Going Merry.
Zoro spotted them returning and gave a simple greeting, then prepared to head below deck for some well-deserved rest.
But just as he set foot on the ship, a sudden voice rang out from somewhere nearby. "Oh my, is the banquet over?"
"Yeah..."
All three of them immediately went on high alert, hands moving instinctively toward their weapons.
They turned toward the source of the voice and found themselves staring at a woman who looked like she'd stepped out of some exotic travel magazine.
She wore a flowing white robe and a tall white hat, her tanned skin contrasting beautifully with a purple mesh top that revealed just enough to be intriguing while highlighting her waist. The combination gave off an aura that was both noble and mysteriously alluring, her tall, graceful figure the kind that would make any man stop and marvel at her beauty.
"Who the hell are you?!" Alvida demanded, frowning as she stared at this woman who had somehow appeared on their ship without warning.
Marcus blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected Nico Robin to already be aboard the ship. And what was Zoro looking at so intently?
Naturally, Zoro was studying Robin with sharp, wary eyes, his hand resting near his sword hilts.
They hadn't heard any approaching footsteps, hadn't seen her climb aboard, and there was no boat moored at the shore. How had she boarded so silently without anyone noticing?
"Relax," Robin said, leaning against the ship's railing with a gentle smile. "I'm just here to deliver some information."
"Information?" Zoro asked suspiciously, not relaxing his stance one bit.
"That's right. You don't seem like vicious pirates, so I'll give you this free of charge." Robin pulled out an Eternal Pose. "The next stop on your current route is Little Garden. The Log Pose will take a full year to reset there, and you don't have that kind of time to waste. This, however, is an Eternal Pose pointing to one of the uninhabited islands closest to Arabasta."
With that explanation, she placed the Eternal Pose on the ship's railing.
Alvida's frown deepened. "You're with Baroque Works, aren't you?"
Robin shrugged without giving a direct answer, but her attitude was confirmation enough.
Marcus, however, simply glanced at Robin once, then waved his hand dismissively and headed toward his quarters, leaving behind just one sentence:
"I'm going to sleep."
And with that, he was gone.
For a moment, the three people left on deck were completely baffled by his reaction.
Zoro snapped immediately. "What the hell are you doing, you idiot?! Didn't you see we have an enemy standing right here?"
"If she wanted to attack or escape, you wouldn't be able to stop her anyway," Marcus called back without turning around. "After all, that's not even her real body."
"Oh? So you noticed," Robin sounded surprised.
The other three didn't quite understand what he meant.
But in the very next instant, Robin's body began dissolving into fluttering flower petals that scattered in the wind before vanishing completely from the ship.
This sight stunned all three of them into silence.
"A Devil Fruit user?!" Zoro breathed.
Lying in his bunk, Marcus thought about what had just happened. Robin was clearly much stronger than he'd expected based on the early anime episodes.
When the series first started, she hadn't seemed capable of creating full-body doubles. But now she'd obviously mastered that technique completely.
Then again, it made perfect sense. For someone like Robin, who'd spent her entire life hiding and staying one step ahead of enemies, developing her Devil Fruit powers to their fullest potential was a matter of survival. Creating a duplicate body with the Flower-Flower Fruit shouldn't be that difficult for someone with her experience and desperation.
What would be truly challenging were the large-scale techniques involving countless limbs, like Mil Fleurs Gigantesco Manos, creating limbs on the scale of giants. The sheer number and size would drain enormous amounts of stamina.
It would be like throwing a thousand punches in an instant. Obviously, that would burn through physical energy at an insane rate.
But splitting off a body double? That should be relatively easy by comparison.
The reason he had figured it out was simple, his map showed two Robins. One was still back in the distant town, probably the real body. The one on their ship had only been her clone.
Back on deck, Zoro, Alvida, and Kira all exchanged uncertain looks.
"What do we do now?" Kira asked anxiously. After all, their secret mission had just been exposed.
Alvida looked troubled as well, clearly trying to figure out the implications.
Zoro, however, simply picked up the Eternal Pose that had been left on the railing, examining it carefully.
"Since trouble's already come knocking on our door, we'll deal with it when it shows up," he said. He wasn't worried. Instead, he was more curious about how Marcus had seen through the deception. Whether by sensing aura or just keen observation, that woman had felt absolutely real to him.
"Could it have been Observation Haki?"
Seeing the other two react this way, Alvida could only roll her eyes. These two idiots were hopeless.
But in the end, she also sighed. Since they'd already been exposed, there was no point worrying about it now. Overthinking wouldn't help their situation.
Kira, however, felt nervous and jittery, like a kid who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Naturally, Alvida patted her on the head reassuringly. "Don't worry about it."
"Should we tell Nami and the others about this?"
"When they wake up. We need to get some rest too. When enemies do show up, we can't afford to screw up because we're exhausted."
"Okay... that makes sense."
---
By the time Luffy and the rest of the crew returned to the ship, it was already mid-afternoon. The celebration had clearly taken its toll on everyone, they all looked like they'd been through a blender.
"What?! An enemy came aboard our ship and left behind an Eternal Pose?" Nami was shocked by the news. Then she gave the three a strange look, as if trying to figure out how this had happened.
"You didn't manage to capture her?"
It seemed impossible to her. Zoro, Alvida, and Marcus were basically the top fighters on their ship. Yet none of them had managed to detain this intruder, and it didn't even look like there had been a fight.
"She was a Devil Fruit user," Zoro explained simply. "She projected herself here, said a few words, left the Pose, and disappeared into flower petals."
Alvida and Kira both nodded in confirmation.
But Nami's eyes turned directly toward Marcus, who was looking suspiciously well-rested for someone who'd been mining all night.
"You could see through her trick, couldn't you?"
The others might not know his full capabilities, but Nami remembered asking him once how he'd known about her stolen treasure back in Cocoyasi Village.
Marcus didn't bother to hide it and nodded. "Yeah, I could tell."
"Then why didn't you try to catch her?"
"With her powers, I don't think I could have caught her anyway. Besides, since she can create clones, grabbing one doesn't guarantee it's her real body. If I'd acted rashly and showed that I can pinpoint her exact location, it would've made catching her later even harder."
Nami sighed deeply at this. He had a point, facing an enemy who could make duplicates of themselves was a nightmare scenario. Rush in and grab what you think is the real deal, only to find out you've been fighting a copy while the original escapes.
"She's probably Miss All Sunday, which means she's Mr. 0's partner," Vivi said. "Her ability to create clones is exactly why I said we don't have proof yet of Crocodile's involvement."
"So our whole plan is screwed?" Nami slumped over the table. "Great. Just great."
The thought of fighting a Warlord of the Sea was already giving her nightmares. They'd originally planned to move in secret, stay under the radar, gather evidence without being detected.
But now... shit. The future looked pretty damn dark.
"Look on the bright side," Marcus said with a shrug. "If it wasn't for Miss All Sunday, we probably never would've figured out that the guy behind everything is Crocodile in the first place."
"Yeah, but the person who's probably reporting our discovery of the Crocodile's identity is that woman," Sanji pointed out. As one of the few people on the crew with actual brains, he'd quickly pieced together the logic of their situation.
Vivi nodded, confirming his suspicions.
The room fell into silence.
"So what the hell does she actually want?" Alvida asked, frowning in confusion. "Is she trying to redirect trouble onto others? Or does she have some other agenda we're not seeing?"
Vivi shook her head helplessly. She couldn't figure it out either. Every piece of intel Miss All Sunday had given her only reinforced her suspicions about Baroque Works and Crocodile. And now, with assassins actively hunting her down, she felt more certain than ever that her doubts were correct.
It was like the woman was helping her, but also making things more difficult at the same time. And now she'd even handed them an Eternal Pose pointing to some uninhabited island near Arabasta.
She truly couldn't understand what the woman wanted anymore.
Did she want her dead? Then why help her at all?
Did she not want her dead? But everything she did felt like setting up traps.
After all, when your enemy hands you an Eternal Pose, no matter how you looked at it, it screamed "trap."
Meanwhile, Luffy was picking his nose and looking bored out of his mind. All this talk about planning and scheming, none of that concerned him. Right now he was just bored and getting hungry.
"Sanji, isn't breakfast ready yet?"
"It's already past noon," Sanji said as he brought out plates of food.
Without another word, Luffy dove into the meal like he hadn't eaten in weeks.
"Well, we've come this far. Let's eat first and figure things out later," Marcus said with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
The others had no choice but to join in, though their conversation was quickly drowned out by everyone's angry shouts at Luffy. His eating had become so enthusiastic that he was about to burst through the ceiling with how much food he was packing away.
After the meal, Luffy and Usopp wandered off to go fishing, which became their usual afternoon activity when there was nothing else going on.
"Nami, how much longer until the Log Pose finishes recording?" Marcus asked.
"It still needs... huh? It's already done?" Nami stared at her Log Pose in surprise. "Wasn't it supposed to take about three days?"
Just as he'd expected.
He'd dug up massive amounts of iron ore from underground during his mining expedition. Of course that would speed up the Log Pose's recording process, iron was magnetic, after all.
No surprise there. Little Garden's underground resources were clearly abundant beyond imagination.
Too bad iron was so cheap in the transmutation tablet's exchange rates.
"Right, everyone gets a set," he announced.
He pulled out diamond armor sets, giving each crew member a full set of gear, including Vivi.
One complete set of diamond armor, valued at sixty thousand EMC points each.
More than four hundred thousand points, just like that, gone from his balance.
If it had been before his massive mining haul, he would've felt the pain of that expense. But now? It was a significant chunk of change, but not crippling.
"Oh, new equipment!" Sanji's eyes lit up.
The crew had been wearing iron gear for a while now. The main reason he had been able to withstand those explosions back in Whiskey Peak, feeling only numbness in his leg without serious injury, was largely thanks to that iron armor set's protection.
"I get one too?" Vivi looked at the small, emerald-green diamond pieces in her hands with confusion.
"Just press each piece directly onto your body," Marcus explained with a smile.
Without overthinking it, Vivi pressed each piece of the diamond set against herself.
She gasped in surprise as she ran her hands over her body afterward. She could clearly feel that she was wearing armor, yet nothing was visible to the naked eye. There was no discomfort either.
"This is incredible!"
While the others marveled at their new gear, Marcus was busy collecting the old iron equipment they'd been using.
Then his eyes fell on a pair of iron boots that had turned yellow, clearly showing significant wear.
"The durability dropped this much from that explosion?" He was surprised by how damaged they looked.
Sanji scratched his head sheepishly. He couldn't see durability stats the way Marcus could.
"Maybe it's because of my kicking techniques?" Sanji guessed uncertainly.
"Hm... the wear and tear is faster than I expected," Marcus mused thoughtfully.
He'd already known that tools other people used lost durability much quicker than when he used them himself. But with armor, he hadn't really paid attention to that issue before.
Could it be that other people's fighting styles and body movements also affected equipment durability differently?
He'd have to run some tests sometime to figure out the exact mechanics.
And once the idea occurred to him, he decided to act on it. His first test subject would naturally be Luffy, that guy was always up for anything that sounded fun.
As Marcus headed off to find him, the other men followed along too, curious about whatever experiment he was planning and eager to join in on the fun.
That left only the four women in the dining area.
Vivi was still playing around with her new armor, taking the diamond helmet off and putting it back on repeatedly.
"You should probably contact Igaram now," Nami suggested. "We need to start making plans."
Vivi nodded and pulled out a Den Den Mushi from... well, Marcus had never quite figured out where exactly she kept that thing.
But she hesitated, looking up at Nami. "Actually..."
"Let's wait until he arrives, then we'll discuss everything," Nami cut her off gently.
Because right now, the Straw Hats were facing three possible paths forward.
First: sail straight for Arabasta using the Eternal Pose Robin had given them.
Second: take a detour to that nearby island where there was supposedly nothing, though it could very well be a trap.
Third: continue following their Log Pose to whatever the next destination was supposed to be.
Each option had serious risks and potential benefits, and they needed all the information they could get before making a decision.
Soon enough, Igaram arrived at the ship, looking as dignified and worried as ever.
Nami began explaining their situation in detail.
"It's definitely a trap!" Igaram's response was immediate. The man was naturally pessimistic when it came to protecting Vivi's safety. Charging straight toward Arabasta would surely mean running into enemy ambushes at every turn.
And the Eternal Pose their enemy had handed them, while it did point near Arabasta, it was slightly off-course, directing them to a small island nearby instead of the kingdom itself. But it was absolutely a trap. He couldn't believe the enemy would kindly hand them a safe passage.
"However, I can go ahead as the advance scout to test it out."
His decision was firm. Trap or not, this was the only way to ensure Vivi's safety while still making progress toward their goal.
Vivi fell silent for a long moment before speaking. "Igaram, you really don't have to..."
"Princess, you are Arabasta's future. You must not take unnecessary risks," Igaram stated seriously, looking directly at her. "Bringing you on this mission was already a grave violation of my duties as your protector. I must take responsibility for that mistake. It's my obligation as your loyal retainer."
"No, Igaram, it's because of my selfishness that we're in this situation—"
"No. I failed to dissuade you from this course of action, and I even accompanied you here. That makes this my fault, not yours."
Vivi opened her mouth, wanting to argue further, but Igaram gently placed his hand on top of her head. His smile was kind, full of the affection he'd shown her since she was a child.
She had a thousand things she wanted to say, but in the end, she couldn't find the words.
The original plan had been solid, leave Igaram behind in disguise to buy them time while they escaped undetected. But with their plans now compromised, this was the choice he felt compelled to make.
"If I were to follow you, it's true that your companions are incredibly strong, so strong that even a Warlord might not last long against them. But sometimes difficult tasks must be undertaken by someone willing to take the risk. If it's not a trap, I can return with good news quickly. If it is a trap, then as captain of the royal guard, I still have enough strength to face whatever awaits and hopefully escape to warn you."