Chapter 45 Luffy invites Robin to join his crew but is rejected.Run Fast calmly called out, "Gah!"
Vivi and Nami's forehead veins bulged: (╬￣皿￣)!
"When did you get up there?!"
"Even before the rest of us were leaving!"
The sun gradually rose, golden sunlight spilling onto the sea, and the Merry, carried by the monsoon winds, slowly sailed away from Whiskey Hill.
Nami took a deep breath and stretched: "Phew—we should be leaving this island soon."
"It's foggy, is it alright? Be careful not to hit a reef."
"Don't worry, I'm here as the genius navigator."
Nami suddenly realized: "..."
"Vivi, did you say that just now?"
"Huh? No." Vivi looked at Nami strangely, "I didn't say anything, why do you ask?"
At this moment, everyone seemed to sense something and turned around to look behind them.
Sure enough, sitting on the mast railing was a mysterious woman wearing a cowboy hat.
"What a nice ship."
Robin, chin in hand, looked down at the group of people with interest.
Vivi's eyes widened in shock as she stared at Robin: "You—you are!!"
Robin smiled at Vivi and said, "I just saw Mr. 8 over there."
Vivi's expression immediately changed, glaring angrily at Robin: "You're the one who…"
Zoro and Nami, seeing Vivi's sudden outburst, looked puzzled: "What's wrong? Who is this woman?"
"Miss All Sunday! Mr. 0's partner!" Vivi solemnly announced her identity.
"Crocodile's partner!?"
Nami was startled, her face turning deathly pale.
Luffy looked at Robin strangely: "You actually dared to show your face on this ship? Looks like you're more 'kind' than I thought."
Robin's previously calm expression froze, seemingly not understanding the deeper meaning behind Luffy's words.
"Luffy? You know this guy?"
Zoro looked at Luffy strangely.
"Of course," Luffy smiled slightly, his words surprising, "This is our next crew member to join us."
"What?!"
Everyone's mouths dropped open, their jaws nearly falling off the deck, staring at Luffy in astonishment.
"You're not kidding, are you?! This is the only woman who knows Mr. 0's true identity. We only found out about the boss by following her!"
Vivi looked at Luffy incredulously.
"To be precise, I deliberately had you follow me," Robin added with a smile to Vivi. "You don't even know who I am, and you want me as a crew member?"
"I already knew that!" Vivi was still furious. "You were the one who told the boss his identity was exposed, weren't you?"
"Exactly."
"What exactly is your purpose?!"
Vivi shouted angrily at Robin.
Robin maintained her charming smile: "Who knows? Maybe I just saw you were taking it too seriously and accidentally helped you out. It's really stupid to want to save the princess of the country by going against Baroque Works."
Seeing Robin's nonchalant expression, Vivi was suddenly reminded of the "dead" Icarus. Enraged, she roared and drew her weapon, intending to attack Robin.
*Crack!*
However, Luffy grabbed Vivi's shoulder and gently patted her head: "She's helping you, can't you see that?"
Vivi shook off Luffy's hand: "It was her! If it weren't for her, Icarum, he..."
Luffy sighed helplessly: "How many times have I told you, Icarum isn't dead, why don't you believe me?"
Robin, on the railing, was startled and blurted out: "How do you know!?"
Vivi's eyes lit up with joy, hope rekindling: "Icarum is really alive?!"
Luffy shrugged: "She's Icarum's savior. If it weren't for her, Icarum would have been blown to smithereens by that vulture and sea otter's bomb."
"What? Luffy, you saw who planted the bomb?"
Nami was stunned by Luffy's words.
Luffy gave a thumbs up: "Of course, I saw that ominous-looking duo sneak in with my own eyes."
Nami and Vivi instantly flew into a rage: (╬￣皿￣)!
"Then why didn't you stop Icarus from setting sail if you saw it?!"
"Oh, well, I was just playing the long game, and look what happened, I caught a super big fish!"
Luffy grinned at Robin.
"I thought you wouldn't dare show your face on my ship, but I underestimated the kindness in your heart." Luffy smiled at Robin, "Isn't that right? The legendary Devil Child, Nico Robin!"
Robin's expression instantly changed, her pupils contracting sharply: "How do you know that name?!"
In the instant Robin lost control, pairs of pale arms suddenly appeared behind them, gripping their necks tightly.
"What the hell is that?"
"Ah!! Hands have grown on my neck!"
Everyone stared in horror at the arms that had suddenly appeared on their necks, as if these arms would mercilessly snap their necks at any moment.
Robin, her face ashen, stared intently at Luffy: "Who are you?"
The wanted poster showed a photo of her at age eight. She had been hiding under an assumed name for so many years; her appearance should be vastly different from the photo.
At this moment, Robin felt for the first time that things were completely out of her control.
The others looked at Robin and Luffy strangely: "The Devil's Child? Nico Robin? Who is that? And why do you say she's kind? Her methods are anything but kind!"
Luffy spread his hands to indicate he meant no harm: "I'm Garp's grandson, and Aokiji is my good brother. Is it so hard for me to know a little bit about you?"
Upon hearing Aokiji's name, Robin's face turned deathly pale.
"What exactly are you planning to do!" Robin demanded excitedly of Luffy. "Monkey D. Luffy!"
Robin enunciated each word clearly, emphasizing the "D" in the middle.
Luffy remained unfazed by Robin's fierce expression, instead continuing to speak:
"Nico Robin, a survivor of Ohara at the tender age of eight, has been relentlessly hunted by the World Government for years. Forced to survive, she was forced to move between various pirate crews, barely clinging to life in this dark world. Her final act was to cooperate with Crocodile."
"She witnessed Crocodile's plot to seize the country and Vivi's efforts to save it, and out of compassion, helped her find the mastermind. To make Vivi realize the difference in strength between herself and Baroque Works, she deliberately exposed her undercover identity."
"She sent assassins along herself, intending to fake their deaths to deceive Crocodile."
"Unfortunately, she encountered us, an unexpected variable."
"And the reason she came here was because she discovered that the Log Pose in Nami's possession was destined for the supposedly inescapable 'Little Garden,' so she came specifically to deliver the Eternal Log Pose, right?"
As Luffy's words fell, Robin's face was filled with shock, and her body trembled involuntarily.
Vivi stared incredulously at Robin on the railing. If Icarus really wasn't dead, as Luffy said, then Robin had indeed been secretly helping them all along.
Luffy chuckled and continued to Robin:
"As for my purpose? Didn't I already say? You're my next crew member. How about it? Want to consider a different way of life, like hiding in the Marines?"
"I don't know what nonsense you're spouting!"
Robin angrily tossed a permanent hand pointer to Vivi, then frantically jumped onto a giant turtle.
"Let's go, Punch!"
Robin commanded the giant turtle, cigar in mouth, to hurry away as if some ferocious beast were behind it.
Vivi looked at the hand pointer in her hand and plopped down on the deck: "Could she really be helping us?"
"Hey, if that lady is a good person, why don't you hurry up and chase her back?"
Sanji watched Robin's departing figure, his eyes filled with infatuated admiration.
"What's the rush? Do you think they're as easy to fool as a lecherous cook like you?"
Luffy chuckled.
"What?! Luffy, are you going to fight?"
Sanji brandished his claws and teeth at Luffy.
Nami punched him unconscious, steam rising from his head. "Shut up! My head's already messed up enough!"
Zoro and Usopp, watching Robin's retreating figure, shouted, "That turtle was huge!"
"Luffy, was everything you said true?"
Vivi gripped her Perpetual Pose tightly, her face full of hope. "Icaram didn't die, and All Sunday has been helping us all along?"
"Of course," Luffy smiled, "but I never expected her to have the courage to board a Marine warship. It seems these years on the run have worn her out."
Nami asked Luffy curiously, "By the way, you said she was a devil's child, and a pirate?"
Luffy shook his head and slowly said, "To be precise, an extremely dangerous wanted criminal! A bounty of 79 million Berries!"
"What?!?!"
Everyone stared in disbelief, exclaiming in unison, "79 million Berries?!"
Nami was shocked: "That's almost four Arlongs!"
Vivi was equally astonished: "How can this be? Crocodile, before becoming a Shichibukai, only had 81 million Berries."
Sanji stared at the direction Robin had left, his eyes sparkling with hearts: "Is Robin really that strong?"
Zoro looked at everyone speechlessly: "Hey, hey, you're Marines, why are you so excited about pirates?"
"Did she do something heinous?"
Nami frowned and asked Luffy.
Luffy paused, casually took one of Sanji's cigarettes, lit it, and took a deep drag: "It's just a bunch of weak idiots trying to explore history and getting caught up in it."
"Huh?"
Everyone looked at Luffy in confusion, completely bewildered.
Luffy chuckled, offering no further explanation: "Let her tell you herself after she becomes a crewmate. I can assure you, this guy hasn't committed any heinous crimes; he was just born at the wrong time."
Were the scholars of Ohara innocent?
From a motive standpoint, they were indeed innocent. They simply wanted to decipher the blank history recorded on the stones.
However, they overlooked a cruel fact: history is always written by the victors.
The birth of a ruling class is inevitably accompanied by the baptism of blood and fire, and these brutal past events are rewritten by the victors as those of justice.
Without the necessary strength, they attempted to interpret and restore the history and texts that the rulers greatly feared.
This is absolutely intolerable for any ruling class.
Therefore, the demise of O'Hara naturally became a historical inevitability.
To attempt to cross the World Government's bottom line without sufficient strength is tantamount to courting death.
Therefore, while Luffy doesn't agree with the Buster Call, it's not entirely incomprehensible. If Luffy were on the World Government's side, he might have issued the same order.
After all, anyone would be annoyed by a group of people who lack strength yet spend their days researching things explicitly forbidden by law.
However, while understanding is understandable, Luffy is Joy Boy, having eaten the Nika Fruit. Once awakened, his future is destined to be one of irreconcilable conflict with the World Government.
Robin, who can decipher the Poneglyphs, is someone Luffy will naturally not abandon, whether because of his fondness for her in the original story or to find a legitimate reason to rise up in rebellion in the future.
As for Robin's identity as a survivor of Ohara?
The World Government probably doesn't even believe that an 8-year-old Robin can truly decipher the Poneglyphs.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have turned a blind eye to Aokiji's leniency for so many years.
It's purely to give Aokiji, who has now become a Marine Admiral, face.
As long as Luffy doesn't ostentatiously flaunt Robin's identity everywhere, no one in the World Government will bother to cause him trouble.
After all, the face of a Marine hero like Garp is far greater than that of Aokiji.
Seeing that Luffy didn't intend to mention Robin's past in detail, the others didn't delve into it, after all, he was the captain and highest-ranking officer of this ship.
Nami took the pointer from Vivi's hand and examined it for a while. Sure enough, the pointer was firmly pointing east, completely different from the pointer on her wrist.
"If All Sunday is a good guy, then can we just follow this pointer to Alabasta?"
Nami turned to Luffy and asked, her eyes full of anticipation.
Luffy grinned, revealing a set of bright white teeth: "No, we'll continue along the original route!"
"What? Why?"
Everyone looked at Luffy in confusion, their heads full of question marks.
Vivi hurriedly reminded him, "Baroque Works is a massive organization with over 2,000 members. There are several near towns like Whiskey Hill alone. If we continue along this route, we'll definitely run into a lot of pursuers!"
Nami gasped upon hearing "over 2,000," her face turning green. "So many! Let's use the Perpetual Pose!"
"How can I subdue Baroque Works if they don't come to their deaths?"
Luffy said to Nami with a puzzled look, as if stating something perfectly obvious.
"Huh?"
Luffy chuckled. "Do you see Zoro and Sanji even a little bit scared of this rabble?"
Zoro smiled smugly, his hand on his sword hilt. "Don't mention 2,000, I could cut down 20,000!"
Luffy nodded. "Commendable courage. Don't forget, Baroque Works actually has a Million Elder and a Billion Elder; they might actually number over 10,000 in total."
Zoro froze upon hearing this.
Sanji, eyes gleaming with hearts, twisted his hair into a pretzel and shouted, "If Princess Vivi becomes our ally, we can take on ten thousand, even a hundred thousand!"
"Hey, you perverted cook, what are you bragging about!"
"Huh? Mosshead, don't drag me into this if you can't handle it yourself!"
"What's going on here? Can someone explain this to me in detail?" Usopp looked at everyone, utterly bewildered.
Having been jolted awake by the explosion, he was still in a daze: "Ah! Why is there a giant ostrich on the ship?!"
"That's a duck, isn't it?"
Run Fast: "Quack!"
Amidst the commotion, the Going Merry sailed straight towards the Little Garden.
Behind them, countless ships flying the Baroque Works flag were poised to set sail, like sharks smelling blood!
"Three-Sword Style: Tornado!"
"First Meat! Back Meat! Lamb Shot!"
A group of clueless little kami were kicked around like dumplings in a pot, as Zoro and Sanji roared.
On the Going Merry, Luffy, Nami, and the others leisurely sipped hot coffee, watching the battle on the Baroque Works ship not far away like a spectator.
"How many waves is this?"
Nami went from initial tension to numbness in less than two days.
In these two days, Baroque Works members have been arriving in droves, like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather, to deliver their own deaths.
"A dozen waves, I guess? But the frequency seems much lower."
Luffy said lazily with a yawn.
Vivi, watching Zoro and Sanji's impressive display of power, was filled with unprecedented confidence for their return journey.
Soon, Zoro and Sanji had packed up the henchmen and tied them to the ship, then leaped back.
"Done! Job done!"
Sanji excitedly shouted to Nami, C.C., and Vivi, "Nami-san, Vivi-san, C.C.-chan, wasn't I cool?"
Nami waved her hand dismissively, "Not at all!"
Sanji was stunned, then sullenly retreated to a corner to fuss.
Zoro gave Sanji a disdainful look: "That idiot."
Then he walked over to Luffy and said, "Your turn to work."
Luffy yawned, stood up, and leaped onto the opposite ship.
His crimson eyes lit up instantly, glaring at the trembling Baroque Works members: "Obey me!"