Hello ;D!

Thank you guys for all the reviews/faves/followers c: I'm glad the story seems to be appealing!

So, someone reviewed and seemed a bit confused as to why I put the events in Water 7 and Enies Lobby there. I guess it is kind of confusing, sorry about that! And honestly, I'm not that sure if it'll have direct connection with the main plot, but for some reason I felt like putting it. I suppose you could say it's as a reminder of how Robin became closer to the crew, and the plot will be about the friendships between them. And not to mention the fact that she started to realize she had feelings for Zoro before the event in Enies Lobby.

I put the Enies Lobby event in Italics so hopefully that'll make things less confusing.

I hope things are a bit clearer now 8D!


Zoro's chin rested on my shoulder as I grasped his wrists and had a couple of my arms sprout from the ground to help me support him. After Zoro lost his strength, I was somehow able to use my powers again. And now I was carrying him on my back. The handles of my bag were placed between my teeth. It wasn't too heavy, so it didn't give me a very hard time. Never had I tried carrying any of my crewmates other than Chopper, but I could tell that Zoro had lost a great deal of weight. He had turned so fragile.

I knew that if he had been awake, he would never have let me carry him, and he would have pushed himself to walk. For now, it was probably good that he was unconscious. After finally returning to the beach, where the crew was sleeping, I set him down near Chopper and covered him. I felt much better after regaining my strength, and I had an idea why I was able to use my powers again.

Wasting no time, I made my way back into the forest. I had my fingers crossed that I would find a poneglyph that could explain the incident. Following my instincts, I went back to the river and managed to cross it by finding a big log. I used extra arms to place it properly so that it could work as a bridge. It was quite wobbly, but I was able to get to the other side without getting wet.

I scanned the trees in front of me and decided on a direction. Zoro had sacrificed his strength, and from what I understood, it was to bring back the powers and strength that some of us had lost. I also suspected the disappearance of the barrier that had held us back from getting off the island, since the barrier that had prevented me from getting to Zoro back at the river was gone when he lost his strength. I knew that he would've preferred none of us to find out. But it would be very difficult to hide it from the rest of the crew, and I believed they wouldn't let him be after seeing how fragile he'd become overnight.

After walking for what seemed like hours, I finally caught sight of a big rock not too far ahead of me. The sun started to rise. I sped up and sure enough, there was a poneglyph covered with vines, some dead and some alive. Despite the situation, I did feel quite glad I'd found one. Not only because of my search for the real history, but for the sake of Zoro. I placed my bag down and sat in front of the rock, studying it carefully.

I had to sprout an arm to remove the vines from the rock so that I could read it all. My theory turned out to be correct, but naturally with more details. From what I read, the island possessed some sort of spirit within it. The spirit craved power, and could sense the strongest of the people who step onto the island. It would place a barrier around the island to trap whoever came there.

Somehow, this spirit gives a message to the strongest one there about the sacrifice needed to be able to remove the barrier. But for some strange reason, it doesn't accept a sacrifice from a devil fruit user. The only information the poneglyph gave me about the reason was that devil fruit users aren't pure. And that was the reason why it had chosen Zoro, I thought.

I closed my eyes. Although I now knew what the cause of this was, I had no idea what we could do to bring back Zoro's strength. All the training and hard work he'd done suddenly vanished. It was unfair.

I felt the rush of wind against my neck again, and I shuddered. Picking up my bag, I started heading back. They would notice I wasn't there.

By the time I returned, the sun had risen completely, and they were up. They were up and very frustrated, especially Luffy. Everyone was standing around Zoro, who was also awake.

"Oi, Zoro!" Luffy yelled. "What happened to you?"

Zoro sat cross-legged and said nothing.

"OI!" Luffy had a very fierce and worried look on his face.

"Zoro, why are your arms like that?" Chopper whimpered quietly. "And where's Robin?"

I walked closer to where they were. "I'm here."

They all turned to me, their eyes asking if I knew anything. I took a deep breath and turned my gaze to Zoro. He was looking straight at me. I knew very well he didn't want me to say anything, and I never would have if it wasn't going to make a difference. But I believed telling them would be the right choice, since together we could try to find a solution.

I put my bag down and settled. "I went to look for a poneglyph."

After telling them what I had found out, Luffy looked even more horrified. As a reminder, I repeated that devil fruit users couldn't make the sacrifice, so that he could know it wouldn't have been possible for him to have done it.

"We could have crushed the barrier or something, right?! Or if Sanji and Franky had found out, they would've blasted the barrier with a bomb from Sunny. Anything!" Luffy yelled.

"Oh my God," Nami whispered to herself. "But…now…"

"What… are we gonna do?" Usopp asked quietly.

"Kick the stupid spirit's ass, that's what!" Luffy announced as he pushed his hat onto his head and headed into the forest. He was stopped by Zoro.

"Luffy," Zoro said, "stop."

"Heck no!" Luffy cried out. "I'm not leaving until you get your strength back! And I'm not gonna watch you train for getting it back all over again just because of some greedy…DUMB…THING!"

I got up and walked over to him. "Luffy."

He looked at me with angry and almost pleading eyes. "This time, I don't think kicking ass is going to work."

Luffy heaved a long sigh and pouted. "But look at Zoro! All his muscles…"

I knew Luffy must've felt very protective and angry, even more so than the others, since he was the captain. But I couldn't say that I didn't feel angry at the situation as well. I wanted to help Zoro just as much, but I didn't think it would be wise to rush into it.

We walked back towards the sea and indeed, the barrier was gone. Sanji and Franky were still asleep and we had to wake them up.

"Robin-chwaaan," Sanji whispered before yawning and sitting up.

Zoro had gone straight to the crow's nest, and I assumed it was to avoid Sanji and Franky's comments. He probably knew he couldn't get away from them forever, but perhaps he wanted some quiet for the time being.

"Breakfast, Mosshead!" Sanji called out to Zoro, but heard no reply. "Oi!"

After a few more calls, he finally came down. Sanji's angry and annoyed expression immediately turned into shock.

"Oi, Marimo," he said, taking his cigarette out of his mouth. "What's up with you?"

"I was sleeping, you have a problem with that?" Zoro replied, dodging the question and walking into the kitchen. We heard Franky cry out loudly when Zoro entered. I sighed. It must've been pretty obnoxious, getting such reactions. It wasn't as if he couldn't move anymore. I was never able to imagine Zoro without his buffiness and strength, but this is exactly what we were all seeing now.

"Robin-chan, what the hell happened to him?" Sanji asked, staring at the kitchen door.

I explained briefly.

"Dammit," I heard him whisper to himself. "If I'd gone with you guys…maybe…"

I put my hand on Sanji's shoulder, which made him wiggle in delight despite himself.

"What we need to focus on now is how to recover what he lost," I said. "I don't believe those thoughts are going to do any good. What happened happened, and that's that."

He nodded and lit another cigarette before slowly making his way into the kitchen. I followed him and sat beside Nami, who was staring at her food, blinking hard. I could tell everyone was trying to be considerate and not stare at Zoro.

"I have to give you a checkup," Chopper told him. "This is too weird."

"I'm fine," Zoro said, digging into his share of food. "And why aren't you guys eating?"

Not even Luffy, the biggest eater among us, had touched his food. Slowly, as if we'd realized we weren't eating and instead losing ourselves in thought, we began to eat. Luffy started politely, which was a surprise, but not too much time had passed before he began to dig in the way he usually did. After that, the crew seemed to relax a bit.

"Thanks, Sanji! AWESOME FOOD AS USUAL!" Luffy bellowed, letting out a slight laugh, which to me sounded a bit nervous. Sanji nodded at him and began to clear off the table.

As soon as everyone filed out of the kitchen, I walked to the counters and made myself a cup of coffee, then headed to our ship's library. I thought that perhaps I had missed something from the books I'd read about the island, and wanted to go through them again. We still had a little less than a week to figure it out.

I began to scan the shelves, taking out books one by one and stacking them on the table. Once I found them all, I settled on a chair and began to go through them. The door of the library creaked open.

"Robin?" It was Nami. She stepped in and closed the door after her. "Any luck finding anything?"

"Not yet," I told her.

"Oh," she simply said, sitting beside me. "This is crazy, Robin! Everyone on this crew is too reckless…I mean, maybe Usopp and I aren't the strongest, but we might've been able to give part of our strength to that…spirit thing! Couldn't we have done it together? It's not fair that he lost it all. He's been working on it all this life to achieve his goal!"

"I don't know if that would've been possible," I said. "But Zoro would've never asked that of any of you. He took the burden on himself, and unless you had been awake, there wouldn't have been a way to stop him."

Nami groaned. "We're nakama, we help each other! Geez…he had to go and do it alone…"

I shut the last book and set it back on the table. There was nothing about a way to bring back his strength. It made me feel as if there was absolutely no way, but I knew we couldn't let it go yet. There could be something helpful on the island.

We walked out of the library and onto the deck. There was no one there except Luffy, who was sitting quietly on Sunny's head. I walked into the infirmary to see if Chopper was there. He was giving Zoro a checkup.

"Oh, hi Robin," Chopper said, hopping off his little stool and getting a syringe.

"Oi, I said I was fine," Zoro protested. "It's not like I'm sick or hurt."

"I know, but for your body to go through such a change so quickly isn't good for you," Chopper replied. "I just want to give you something that'll help relax your body, that's all."

After giving him the medicine, Chopper said he was free to leave. Zoro sat up and headed towards the door. Although something inside me wanted to cheer him up, I knew giving him false hope wasn't the solution.

"He has lost a lot of weight," Chopper explained to me. "Robin, we can't leave the island until we're sure we can't do anything about it."

"Mhm," I mumbled, a bit distracted. In a way, I felt like a hypocrite. I kept trying to reassure everyone and tell them thinking about "what ifs" is pointless, and to focus on what we have to do to help Zoro. And here I was, thinking that way myself.