CHAPTER 4: A VERY DANGEROUS LADY ON BOARD

The morning sun was hitting the ocean pretty hard, making everything too bright. Leo was sitting on the stairs leading up to the kitchen, his leg propped up on a flour sack. The cloth bandage around his ankle had unraveled halfway. He looked down at it, sighed, and pulled the loose end tight again, giving the top of his boot exactly three quick pats. Three clicks. It didn't make the pain go away, but it made him feel like things were under control.

The Going Merry was moving fast, leaving the weird cactus hills of Whisky Peak behind. The town was probably still asleep, or at least the hundred guys Zoro knocked out were definitely still asleep.

"We need to go faster," Nami said. She was leaning over a big map spread out on the deck, holding a pencil between her teeth. Her hair was a bit messy from the night before. "If this Crocodile guy is really a Warlord of the Sea, he's got eyes everywhere. We're carrying a target on this ship now."

Vivi was sitting on a small stool next to the map, her hands wrapped tightly around a mug of hot tea that Sanji had made for her. Her blue duck, Karoo, was asleep near her feet, his big orange beak resting on a pile of ropes.

"I'm sorry," Vivi whispered. She didn't look like a princess right now; she just looked like a tired teenager whose clothes were covered in dirt. "I didn't mean to drag you all into my problems. If Baroque Works sends their top agents, like Mr. 1 or Miss All Sunday..."

"Hey, don't worry about it!" Luffy yelled from the top of the main mast. He was sitting on the very edge of the wooden crossbar, swinging his legs back and forth over the empty air. "We're strong! Zoro chopped up a whole town by himself!"

"I only chopped their weapons," Zoro grunted from the back of the ship. He was lying flat on his back with his hands behind his head, his three swords resting against his hip. He had one eye open, watching the sails. "Mostly."

Sanji kicked the kitchen door open, carrying a tray with more tea and some biscuits. "Nami-swan! Vivi-chan! Don't let the scary bad guys ruin your beautiful morning! I will turn anyone who threatens you into mincemeat!" He did a little spin, landing right next to Vivi's stool, but his eyes suddenly locked onto Leo. "Hey, jacket guy. You're still using up our good flour sacks as footstools."

"My ankle is the size of an orange, Sanji," Leo said, leaning his head back against the wall. "Give me a break."

"Whatever. Just don't get blood on the deck," Sanji muttered, though he tossed a biscuit onto Leo's lap anyway before walking back to the upper deck to stare at Nami.

Usopp was sitting near the front railing, busy polishing his small green slingshot with an old rag. He looked over at Leo. "Hey, Leo. You said the next island is called Little Garden, right? What kind of island has a name like that? Is it full of small flowers? Because I have a very bad disease that makes me allergic to small gardens."

Leo caught the biscuit Sanji threw and took a big bite. It was a bit dry but tasted good. "It's called Little Garden because of the things living on it. To the people who live there, the whole place looks like a small backyard garden. But to us, the plants are bigger than houses."

Usopp stopped polishing his slingshot. His long nose twitched. "Wait. Bigger than houses? What else is bigger than houses?"

"Dinosaurs," Leo said plainly.

Usopp's face went completely blank. He slowly stood up, walked over to the side of the ship, and looked down at the blue water. "Nami, turn the ship around. I've decided I want to go back to Syrup Village. I forgot my favorite socks."

"Shut up, Usopp!" Nami snapped without looking up from her map. "We have to follow the Log Pose! If we don't, we'll get lost in the mist forever!"

Luffy suddenly dropped down from the sky, landing with a loud *thud* right in the middle of the deck. The whole boat jiggled. "Dinosaurs?! Really?! Like the giant lizards with the big teeth?!"

"Yeah," Leo nodded. "And there are two giant guys living there too. They've been having a sword fight for a hundred years."

Luffy's eyes literally turned into giant circles. He grabbed Leo's shoulders and started shaking him back and forth. "Awesome! A giant sword fight! Let's go right now! Make the ship go faster, Nami!"

"Stop shaking him, Luffy, he's already broken," Zoro said, sitting up from his spot. He walked over to the middle of the deck, his eyes fixed on the rear railing. His hand went straight to the hilt of his white sword. "And we've got company."

The fun mood on the deck vanished instantly. Sanji dropped his tray with a clatter.

Leo looked past Luffy's shoulder toward the back of the Going Merry. Sitting casually on the wooden railing of the upper deck, right next to the steering wheel, was a woman. Nobody had heard her climb aboard. She hadn't made a single sound.

She was wearing a purple cowboy hat, a dark leather coat with white fur around the collar, and she had long, straight black hair. She was holding a small purple book in one hand, her fingers turning a page slowly.

Miss All Sunday. Nico Robin.

Vivi dropped her tea mug. The ceramic broke into three pieces on the wood, the hot liquid splashing across Karoo's feet. The big duck jumped up with a loud *KWAHH!* and hid behind Vivi's skirt.

"You..." Vivi gasped, her voice completely dropping out. She couldn't even stand up, her knees shaking too much. "Miss... Miss All Sunday! How did you get here?!"

"The wind was nice today," Robin said. Her voice was incredibly calm, soft, and polite, like a schoolteacher talking to a bunch of kids. She closed her book with a gentle *snap* and looked down at the crew with a small, mysterious smile. "And your little ship is quite fast."

Sanji immediately kicked his leg out, but he didn't charge. He was stuck between wanting to attack an enemy and wanting to look at a beautiful woman. "A lady... a very dangerous, dark lady... but she's so elegant..."

"Get away from the wheel," Zoro said. He didn't draw his sword completely, just pulled it an inch out of the scabbard. The silver metal caught the morning light.

Luffy just tilted his head, his straw hat falling back a bit. "Who are you? Are you with the bomb guy?"

Leo sat perfectly still on the stairs. Seeing Robin this early in the story was weird. In the anime, she looked completely untouchable, like a ghost that could sprout hands anywhere and snap your neck before you could even blink. He knew she wasn't actually here to kill them—she was just checking out the crew that beat her low-level agents—but knowing it didn't make his heart stop thumping.

"I am the vice-president of Baroque Works," Robin said, her dark eyes looking over each of them until they stopped on Leo. She paused for a second, her smile getting just a little bit wider. "Though it seems some people on this ship already know my name. And my boss's name."

Vivi stood up, her fists clenched tightly at her sides. "Why are you here? Did Crocodile send you to finish us off?"

"The boss doesn't even know I'm here," Robin said, swinging her legs lightly over the edge of the railing. "He's currently very busy in Alabasta, preparing for the final stage of the plan. I was simply curious about the pirates who caused so much trouble at Whisky Peak."

She lifted her right hand and made a tiny motion with her fingers.

*Pop. Pop. Pop.*

Suddenly, three human arms grew directly out of Luffy's shoulders. The hands grabbed Luffy's neck and his arms, pinning him in place before he could move. Another arm sprouted out of Zoro's chest, its fingers wrapping tightly around the hilt of his sword so he couldn't pull it out.

"Whoa! What is this?!" Luffy yelled, trying to bite the hand on his shoulder, but it was at a weird angle. "Hey! Let go! It tickles!"

Zoro grunted, using all his strength to try and push the fake arm away from his sword, but the hand was locked on tight. "A devil fruit power..."

Nami backed up until she hit the mast, holding her wooden staff in front of her like a spear. "What kind of magic is that?!"

"It's the Flower-Flower fruit," Leo said from his spot on the stairs. He didn't move an inch. He knew that if he tried to stand up, she'd probably sprout a foot under his nose and trip him. "She can make her body parts grow on any surface she can see. Including our skin. So don't try anything stupid, guys."

Robin looked over at Leo, her eyebrows lifting in genuine surprise. She dropped down from the railing, landing softly on the deck boards. The extra arms on Luffy and Zoro suddenly vanished into thin white petals, blowing away in the ocean breeze.

"You really do know everything, don't you?" Robin said, walking slowly toward the center of the deck. Her long coat dragged slightly on the wood. "The agents at the town mentioned a boy who could see the future. I thought they were just making excuses for their pathetic failure, but... you're quite interesting."

Leo swallowed hard. "I don't see the future. I just read the manual."

Luffy rubbed his shoulders, looking completely fascinated. "Hey! That was so cool! Can you make ears grow on your feet too?!"

"Luffy, stop being an idiot! She's the enemy!" Nami screamed, her voice hitting a very high note.

Robin stopped a few feet away from Vivi. She reached into her coat pocket. Sanji instantly braced his leg to kick, but Robin didn't pull out a gun or a knife. She pulled out a small, round glass ball with a needle inside. An Eternal Pose.

"If you follow the normal Log Pose, you'll have to visit several islands before you reach Alabasta," Robin said, holding the glass ball up so Nami could see it. "The next one is Little Garden. It's a very brutal place. Most pirates die there within a day. If you take this, it will guide your ship directly to Alabasta without stopping."

She tossed the ball through the air. Nami's hands automatically caught it out of reflex. Nami stared down at the steady needle inside the glass, her face torn between her love for shortcuts and her distrust of the dark lady.

"Why would you help us?" Vivi asked, her voice shaking with anger. "You're Crocodile's right hand! You're the one who helped him ruin my country!"

"Help you?" Robin let out a soft, dark laugh. "I'm not helping you, Princess. I just think it's boring when a game ends too quickly. Watching you struggle against the boss is much more entertaining."

Luffy walked over to Nami, looked at the glass ball in her hands for exactly one second, and then grabbed it.

*Smash!*

Luffy threw the Eternal Pose straight down onto the wooden deck, shattering the glass into a hundred shiny pieces. The liquid inside ran into the cracks of the wood.

"Ah! What did you do?!" Nami shrieked, her hands flying to her head. "That was our shortcut! You rubber-headed dummy!"

Luffy didn't look at Nami. He looked directly at Robin, his face going completely serious under the brim of his straw hat. "You don't get to decide where our ship goes. If the compass says we go to the next island, then that's where we're going. I'm the captain."

Zoro let out a loud laugh, finally letting go of his sword hilt. "Good choice."

Sanji smiled, pulling out a fresh box of matches from his pocket. "As expected of our captain. Very manly."

Robin stared at Luffy for a long moment. The mysterious smile left her face for a brief second, replaced by something blank and thoughtful. Then, she smiled again, shaking her head slightly. "I see. What a foolish crew."

She walked back to the edge of the ship, stepping onto the railing. "Well, I hope you enjoy the giant lizards at Little Garden. If you survive, perhaps we will meet again in the desert."

Without another word, she leaned backward and dropped right off the side of the Moving Merry.

"She jumped!" Usopp yelled, running to the edge to look over.

Leo limped over to the railing too, dragging his bad foot. He looked down into the water. Robin wasn't drowning. A giant, purple sea turtle with a saddle on its back was swimming right next to the hull. Robin landed perfectly on the turtle's shell, opened her purple book again, and the giant creature swam away into the mist, moving incredibly fast.

"A turtle ride? Now that's fancy," Sanji muttered, leaning against the side.

Vivi dropped back onto her stool, her face buried in her hands. "We're going to die. We're definitely going to die. She knows everything we're doing."

Nami was still on her knees, trying to see if any piece of the broken Eternal Pose could be saved, but it was totally smashed. She looked up at Luffy with fire in her eyes. "Luffy! I'm going to charge you five million berries for that!"

"I don't have any money, Nami!" Luffy laughed, running back to the front of the ship. "Hey, Leo! Tell me more about the giant guys! Do they have big swords? Are they stronger than Zoro?"

"They're about as tall as the mountain, Luffy," Leo said, sitting back down on his crate and finally letting his ankle rest. "And they've been fighting because someone said one of them caught a bigger fish than the other."

Luffy stopped, his mouth open. "A bigger fish? That's the best reason for a fight ever!"

Leo just chuckled, looking out at the foggy horizon. The interaction with Robin had gone exactly like it was supposed to. No cheats needed. But as the mist around the ship started getting thicker and greener, he knew the easy part of the ocean was officially over. The air was starting to smell hot and damp, like an old greenhouse that hadn't been opened in years.

"Hey, Usopp," Leo called out. "Get your gunpowder ready. You're going to need to shoot some really big bugs pretty soon."

Usopp's slingshot dropped out of his hand with a click. "I think my allergy is getting worse."