Takero turned to find Robin standing there silently, holding a steaming cup of coffee.
After a night to herself, she seemed to have calmed down. She had changed into clean, casual clothes, but her eyes still held a mix of complex emotions. She handed the coffee to Takero, and after a moment of silence, she finally asked the question that had been running through her mind all night.
"I heard... the World Government sent a 'former' Admiral to capture me," she said, her voice soft but perfectly clear. "Why don't you just hand me over? Keeping me here doesn't do you or this island any good."
After being used as a bargaining chip and betrayed so many times, she truly couldn't understand what the young man in front of her was thinking. She knew she was a walking disaster, a magnet for trouble that could bring destruction to anyone who helped her. Why wouldn't he just get rid of that trouble?
"Is that it?" Takero took the coffee and gave her a look as if she were speaking nonsense. His response was even more confusing to her. "Are you crazy? You're my property now, my maid. It's only natural for me to protect my own things, isn't it?"
"But..." Robin bit her lip, momentarily speechless at Takero's simple and crude logic. "Helping me means you'll become an enemy of the entire World Government! Are you insane?!"
In truth, Robin wasn't sure why she was even asking these questions. The old her would have just found a way to escape quietly, then coldly watched from a distance as the people who sheltered her were destroyed by the government's wrath. It was the cruel rule of survival she had been forced to learn. But for some reason, when she looked at this young man, her long-frozen heart wouldn't let her do it.
"The World Government? What's that?" Takero shrugged without a care in the world, even letting out a yawn. "If I wasn't in a bad mood right now, I would've flown over there and torn down their headquarters already. Look, let's not talk about this. It's a minor issue. I have something more important I need to ask you."
He looked at his new maid, the one who was said to be able to "decipher history," and an idea sparked in his mind. Perhaps... she could finally answer the questions that had been bothering him.
"Robin," he said, putting down his coffee cup. His expression turned serious for the first time. "I need you to tell me, what do you know about the 'history' of this world?"
Robin's eyes widened in surprise. She never expected this man, who seemed to only care about fighting and eating, to ask her about history. She took a moment to organize her thoughts before speaking slowly. "Mr. Takero, what part of history do you want to know about? The founding of the World Government? Or the history of the different kingdoms?"
"No, not that," Takero shook his head, trying to find the right words to explain his confusion. "I want to know about older things, things that might have been forgotten. For example, have you ever heard of a calendar system called the 'Age' calendar? Or a martial artist named 'Son Goku'?"
"'Age'? 'Son Goku'?" Robin furrowed her brow. She carefully searched through her memories for the two unfamiliar names but came up empty. In the end, she could only shake her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Takero. In all the historical records and archaeological sites I've studied, those two names have never appeared. There's also no record of a calendar called the 'Age' calendar. The one we use now is the 'Sea Calendar.'"
"Is that right..." A flicker of undisguised disappointment crossed Takero's face.
Seeing his expression, Robin felt a strange sense of curiosity. What was this mysterious and powerful young man, who seemed like he didn't belong in this world, searching for? She thought for a moment and decided to share the closest thing she knew to a real mystery.
"However, Mr. Takero," she said, lowering her voice, "although I don't know about the things you mentioned, there is a period in our history... a blank period that the World Government has tried to erase completely."
"Oh?" Takero's interest was suddenly sparked again.
"It's called the Void Century. It was a period of about a hundred years, from roughly 900 to 800 years ago. No one knows what happened during that century. Anyone who tries to research that period of history is eliminated by the World Government as an enemy."
She looked at Takero and added softly, "Perhaps... the things you're looking for were lost in that 'Void Century.'"
"Void Century..."
Takero repeated the words, and as he did, the thoughts in his mind began to clear. A bold theory started to form, growing rapidly like a vine.
*'Could this be it?'*
This world had 'Haki'.
This world had the legend of 'One Piece'.
This world even had him, a real Saiyan.
However, it had none of the characters he knew, none of the calendar systems he recognized, and none of the advanced cities he remembered.
All of it pointed to one single possibility—
This wasn't the era of the Dragon Ball story he was familiar with. It was the distant future, countless years, maybe even centuries, after the story of Dragon Ball had ended.
The more Takero thought about it, the more certain he became. Of course! No wonder the calendar system here wasn't 'Age' but the 'Sea Calendar'! No wonder the technology of this world was a strange mix of advanced and backward!
It had to be this way!
Long ago, the story of Dragon Ball came to an end. Son Goku and his friends either left Earth or passed away as time went on. Then, Earth must have suffered an unimaginable disaster, something catastrophic enough to destroy the old civilization completely. Maybe it was a war, or a natural disaster... whatever it was, it wiped out the once-glorious super-civilization.
And that destroyed period of history... that was what Robin called the 'Void Century'!
After it was over, the survivors rebuilt a new civilization from the ruins. That became the current world, covered by a vast ocean, with pirates and Marines as the dominant forces.
This explained everything!
As he came to this conclusion, Takero felt a wave of relief wash over him. All the confusion and the feeling of being out of place that had been weighing on his heart vanished in an instant.
"So that's it... I get it! I completely understand now! Thank you, Robin!"
He couldn't help but burst into laughter, his voice filled with the pure joy of a puzzle finally solved.
Robin was stunned by his sudden outburst. She had no idea why talking about the 'Void Century' would make Takero so incredibly excited. She felt like she had lost track of her master's thoughts once again.
Still, if Takero said he had figured it out, then it had to be a good thing... right?
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