Crocodile's trip to the West Blue had one purpose: raise troops and contact the local powers to lay the groundwork for a Bounty Hunters' Guild.
He was born in the West Blue and had a network there.
Besides, the West Blue was the freest of the Four Seas for independent professions like bounty hunters, mercenaries, and the underworld. Its currents were already liberal and lively.
That was one of Jin's key reasons for making the West Blue their next sea.
It was cultured too, and strangely romantic.
It held the scholars' holy land, Ohara.
Crocodile, Brook, Lafitte, Perona, Moria and others all hailed from the West at heart. Including Robin.
They shared something in common: an insistence on quality of life.
Crocodile favored cigars. Brook loved music. Lafitte dressed like a gentleman. Even Moria, who had sunk into the life of a slovenly shut-in, still carried that faint artistic air. Robin, though hunted for years, remained a refined woman.
Elegance never goes out of style.
Crocodile and Daz Bonez disembarked at a small town, the last stop before entering the Grand Line from the West Blue. They split up to work their angles.
Jin sold off goods he had brought from the Grand Line. Rare fish and Alabastan perfumes were especially popular.
Then began a tour around the West Blue.
Ohara.
Jin came only to pay respects, a traveler's stamp in his book.
The island once praised as the sanctuary of scholars was now a field of ruins.
A single order had turned knowledge to ash and lives to smoke.
Robin, the only survivor, set foot there again. Memories surged up and seized her in a mask of pain.
Flames.
Screams.
The nightmare never stopped revisiting her. Terror clouded her eyes.
Jin laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Eight hundred years of history is nothing but fame and profit."
"Ninety thousand li of searching the Way, and still you end with wine before a warm stove."
"Heroes have always been as countless as carp crossing a river, each dreaming of the open sea."
"Generation after generation, blazing across the sky like falling stars."
"And then the river of time turns them all to dust."
"Let go of regrets behind you. Let go of the fear ahead."
"Live in the present. That is the only shore."
Robin glanced at him. The words were warm as spring sun and calmed the storm inside her.
She had to admit it. This man had a quiet gravity more reassuring than anyone she had known.
"I'm alright."
She exhaled and looked around. "Strange. There are no traces."
Maya frowned. "What is it, Robin?"
"No traces of books," Robin said softly.
"Books?"
"Ohara had the world's greatest library. Yet there is not even a scrap of paper left."
Reiju said, "Maybe it was all destroyed."
She knew some of Robin's past.
Jin said, "It is also possible someone took them. Why don't we search a bit."
He knew who, but saying it aloud would draw questions he did not want.
"Alright," Robin nodded.
"I'll help," Maya volunteered.
The others were curious too. Ohara had once been famous across the world. They joined the search.
"Find anything on your side?"
"Nothing."
"Same here…"
Robin walked toward what remained of the Tree of Knowledge, half a trunk with charred scars. She remembered the quiet afternoons of her childhood.
Suddenly she froze. In the place she always used to sit, a small symbol caught her eye. Her pupils tightened. Her breath hitched.
She spun and ran.
"Robin, what happened?" Maya called.
Jin's eyes narrowed. Had Saul left a sign?
Robin reached the shore where she had once been saved by the giant vice admiral Saul.
There, in the grass on a flat rock, she found several ancient characters.
"Elbaf."
Robin choked on a sob and then smiled through tears. She clapped a hand over her mouth as they overflowed.
"Thank goodness."
She understood. Saul was still alive.
A year after Ohara's destruction the island had been erased from maps. No one could find it again. Robin, out of terror and caution, had never dared return.
If not for Jin's curiosity, she would not have come now. She would not have found this unexpected gift.
They left Ohara, and the change in Robin was clear. A real smile touched her face at last.
"Your Majesty, did Ohara truly perish?" Maya asked as the dead island dwindled behind them.
"Ohara perished," Jin said. "But the will handed down through generations, the changes of an age, the dreams of people, none of that can be stopped. So long as men seek the truth of history, the pursuit will never end."
He glanced at Robin, then flicked Maya's forehead lightly. "No slacking. Keep training."
On the road, Jin was putting Law, Maya, Robin, and Reiju through special drills. Hard, focused work.
Since Roger lit the Great Pirate Era, the world had grown more turbulent. The Celestial Dragons' rule was no longer so steady.
The fast rise of the Worst Generation was proof that the seas themselves were boiling.
In a storming age, strength is the only trustworthy pledge. Whoever holds the spear wins the field.
On the seas, that means peak personal power and a massive organization.
"Law, your Armament Haki has awakened, hasn't it?"
Law blinked. He had awakened it only after harsh training and had not shown it yet. How did Jin know?
He did not realize that when Jin gave him the role of Gunner, his data had been added to the ship's roster.
[Role: Chief Gunner]
[Name: Trafalgar Law]
[Access: Tier 3]
[Height: 191 cm]
[Ability: Paramecia, Ope Ope no Mi]
[Lineage: none]
[Haki: Armament Haki]
[Composite Power: 2150–4850]
[Evaluation: careful mind, clear goal, top-tier surgical skill, immense potential]
The instant Law awakened Armament, the data updated. Jin knew.
Not only Law. In this same period, Crocodile had also awakened both Armament and Observation, slowly finding his old self again.
"Use your Armament and fight them," Jin said.
Law understood. Jin wanted Reiju and Robin to feel Haki directly.
When Jin had trained him, he had done it the same way.
With a hammer.
In the physical sense.
"Reiju, you first," Jin said. "No raid suit. Law, no ROOM."
"Got it."
Reiju obeyed. Law's forearm hardened with Armament. Reiju snapped a kick.
"Robin, Maya, your turn next. Rotate."
Time flowed. The voyage reached its midpoint.
Jin visited kingdoms across the West Blue, trained his people, hunted pirates. The days were calm and full.
"At last, over a thousand soul crystals," he tallied. "Shame we only found two more Devil Fruits."
"Paramecia, Bronze-Bronze Fruit. Similar to the Gold-Gold Fruit. The eater's body becomes highly 'allied' with bronze, can command bronze, even become a man of bronze."
"Pity it cannot create bronze from nothing. But some properties will be useful for the Munch-Munch factories."
He glanced at the Germa clone troops, slid a crate of 98ks into storage, then looked across the yard.
Not far away, Judge and Wolfe were mounting a modified turbojet engine onto a yellow jet fighter airframe.
Jin's ideas, Germa's technological base, and Wolfe's craft.
The He 262 was being reborn.
"Your Majesty," Maya called, jogging up.
"There is a small ship in distress. They are asking for help."
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