Chapter 12.

The Call

"Chapter 3.

Chapter Preluge

The Devil fruit is a tool for you to use. The second you eat it, it becomes a part of you. Depending on how you use it, the Devil Fruit can be everything from the most handy facility at home to the most fearsome of weapons in battle. You can form it, adjust it, precise it and develop it in endless of ways. Even if you were to think that there is not much more to this Devil Fruit, there actually is. You can always improve if you put your mind into it and that remains an obvious fact.

The key to improving is to search beyond your limits. This chapter will help you understand how a living creature is able to improve."

Robin looked up from the book and smiled. "To Perfect The Use Of The Devil Fruit" was getting more and more interesting. The chapters were long but everything was informative.

The archaeologist knew that this whole book probably could be summarized with the words "The key to improving is to search beyond your limits" but so far had nothing written in it disturbed her or made her disappointed. Things that were once blurry were now clear and the raven-haired woman was eager to finish the book so that she could see how much wiser she would have become then.

Robin was about to start reading the upcoming chapter when she was interrupted by the kitchen door being opened. She looked up again and saw the swordsman standing in the doorway. He had an empty bottle in his hand and the archaeologist could guess that he was after another one, not empty, of course.

"You're really taking advantage of this opportunity, eh, Kenshi-san?"

The swordsman snorted a little jokingly, "Yeah, I have to now when there's no shitty cook in my way, right?."

Robin smiled at him and Zoro responded the same way before he walked over to the refrigerator and bent down to inspect the selection of alcohol. Finally he grabbed a bottle of red wine and turned to look at the woman behind him.

"Care to share a bottle with me?" he asked her casually and held out and waved the bottle of wine to show her.

Robin was rather surprised by his offer but gave him another smile before she answered, "I'll be glad to."

Zoro didn't know why, really, he had asked but he figured that some company could never hurt. He grabbed two glasses before he went to take a seat at the table facing the raven-haired woman. He sat in a leaned back position and put his leg over the other and adjusted it to have his ankle leaning against the other thigh.

Robin closed her book and put it aside, jestingly thinking that it would be rather impolite to just ignore her company. Besides, there was no doubt in her mind that this wouldn't me fun. She leaned her head against her left hand and watched the man before her pouring up vine in the two glasses.

"So... are you getting any smarter?" he asked, glanced at the book and then took a zip from his glass.

"Well, I hope so." Elegantly she took and held the glass before her, "I definitely think it will help me improve."

"Oh, that's good. Heh, maybe you should let Luffy borrow it."

Robin chuckled and took a zip from the wine as well, "That's probably not the best idea."

The swordsman smirked, "No, probably not. He wouldn't understand any of it."

"He's doing a pretty good job improving by himself anyway, don't you think?"

"Yeah, he seldom let us down in battles, that's for sure." Zoro had quickly emptied his glass so he put it down and refilled it.

"Well, that goes for you as well, Kenshi-san." She smiled genuinely at him.

The green-haired man took his eyes off his glass and looked at her with interested eyes that yet could reflect a bit of tiredness. Robin could swear that there were a glimpse of sadness there as well but the area surrounding him told her completely different. Even now, sitting casually in front of her while taking a relaxing glass of wine, she could feel his enormous spirit crashing against everything in the room. Everything except for her. It was avoiding her. Blocking her from feeling inside of any of that strong spirit. This clearly told her that his thoughts and emotions was unavailable – out of reach. It was just centimeters away from her and she could only sense it at the most.

The swordsman turned his gaze to his glass again, feeling almost ridiculous for suddenly finding the red liquid in it so interesting. He snorted quietly for himself, thinking that he certainly did let them down last time at Thriller Bark. Didn't she see? They survived it, sure, but if he only had been stronger then he wouldn't be this injured and unable to protect his nakama now. Besides, last time was a little bit too close. It shouldn't have to be like that. Uncomfortable was all he was feeling when he thought about it.

"It is true Kenshi-san. You have in any case never disappointed me," stated Robin, as if she knew that the swordsman before her wasn't happy with what she had said earlier and somewhat needed to ensure him of this. She looked at him while slowly taking a wig from her glass.

Zoro told himself to continue putting up his fasade. As if to just shrug this matter off - he did just that, shrugged and tilted his head so he could see the woman in front of him again, "I'm just doing the best I can, just as everybody else."

"Yes, and no one can require any more than that," The archaeologist gazed slightly upwards. It had almost sounded as if she was telling this just as much to herself as to the swordsman.

She wondered, was he really alright then? Or could he hide his pain and emotions better than she thought?

Not knowing why really but feeling almost as if she had tramped on someones toes with this subject, she decided to smoothly start talking about something else.

She looked down again, let the hand that cupped around her left cheek fall down to instead lean at her other arm and then took the last wig of the wine. Zoro did her the honour to pour up more.

He also took the initiative of changing the subject, "Is it any good?"

Robin rippled the beverege round in the glass and observed it, "Yes, pretty good."

"Hmm, yes," Zoro inspected his glass for a moment as well and then took another few wigs, "I can definitely get used to this." He looked at Robin and let out a short laugh, "It's a good thing you're a woman, or else the cook would have never accepted that we won fairly."

Robin chuckled, "That's true," then her tone changed to a more sophisticated one, "I'll only use my devil fruit powers when I need to."

"Hoo, self-confident are we?" Zoro smirked. It was funny, it felt like it usually should be the woman before him saying that instead.

And almost as if on order, Robin leaned a bit forward and said, "The same goes for you."

By recognizing the only expression on the swordsman's face as a frown she continued, "You were flown quite the bit when the lizard spitted you out. You really didn't got injured?"

Her green-haired nakama sighed and looked at her with troubled eyes, "No, it didn't scratch me a bit."

"Not the least?"

"Look, Robin. What is it that you want, really? Insurance? Proof? Well, I can't give you proof, maybe Chopper can but I'm ensuring you this with my words – I am fine. And you just have to trust me on that."

Robin was expressionless for a while. How in the world did she end up bringing up the subject that she just recently had put aside? Well, this time she was definitely going to let it go, for now at least.

She let out a small sigh and then brought on a smile to her lips, "Okay, I guess my only choice is to trust you then."

"Yeah, that's better." His expression turned softer, "Now drink up, I have to spend at least 5 bottles per day to annoy the hell out of that cook."

The archaeologist let her head down and laughed with him. Then she forced herself to pursue her lips so that she could do as the swordsman in front of her also did – drink up.

A while later, the kitchen door opened again and the navigator, wearing pyjamas and a bathrobe, walked in.

She was quite stunned by seeing both Zoro and Robin together there, she had only expected the latter. What just seemed more out of place was that they were sharing a bottle of wine and by seeing a few more empty ones standing on the table as well, her guess was that this had been going on for quite some time now.

"Oh, Kōkaishi-san, what are you doing up?" asked Robin and looked at her.

Nami looked at her watch, it showed her 02:45 Pm. She returned her gaze to her two nakama sitting at the table, "I was taking a glass of water out on the lawn and I saw that the lights were on in here so I just wanted to check... No I mean, what are you doing up!?"

The swordsman gestured at the empty bottles, "Isn't it obvious? Drinking. Why?"

Nami sighed and looked bitterly at the swordsman, "Just because Sanji-kun can't stop you from taking all the alcohol for one week doesn't mean I can't. I don't care about your bet! It's expensive you know! I'm gonna raise your-!"

A sudden loud and strange sort of roar cut the navigator off. It lasted long and sounded painful, sad and frightening, yet it was powerful and almost shocking. When it finally ended everything was dead silent for a while.

"Wha- What was that!?" said Nami and looked around in suspicion, "Where did it come from?"

"It must be coming from outside," said Zoro in a serious tone, rose up, pushed Wadō Ichimonji up one centimeter with his thumb and then headed for the door. The others followed him.

Zoro gazed down over the lawn and around the ship and so did Nami and Robin but none of them could see anything out of the ordinary except for a woman sleeping in a strange position. It was still dark outside but not so dark that it was hard to see.

"It sounded like it came from far away," stated the archaeologist.

The door to the men's quarters were slammed open and out wandered the rest of the crew.

"W-w-wha-what the hell w-w-was that!" stumbled the sniper while hiding together with the little doctor behind the shipwright, they both trembled with fear.

Zoro, Nami and Robin also gathered down with the others at the lawn.

"I don't know what it was but I can't hear it any longer," said the navigator and inspected the others. When her eyes finally settled on a certain green-haired woman with her butt pouting up towards the sky she went over there and kicked her in the stomach.

"W-what!?" After landing a few meters away the woman lazily raised herself to a standing position.

The navigator sighed at their visitor's ignorance, "How can you still be sleeping after that loud and scary roar just a minute ago?!"

"Roar..?" Kiwa hid her neck by pushing her shoulders up high and brushed her upper arms with her hands, "It's cold, isn't it?"

Recognition consumed the others as they mimicked their visitor.

"Cold! It's so cold! Why? Isn't this supposed to be a summer island?" staggered the captain and jumped to one feet to another.

"Fall," stated the navigator, "but it shouldn't be this cold anyway, it's not winter season yet."

"My skin feels so cold I just wanna die!" cried the skeleton. Then he put his hands on both sides of his head, "Although, I have no skin and I'm already dead! Yo-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"What is this? I feel strange..." said Sanji while lightening a cigarette.

"You look pale bro, are you sick or something?" asked Franky.

"What? No... You look pale."

"A-a-am I going colour-blind?" stumbled Usopp, "You are all gray! It's all so blurry and gray!"

"I'm... I'm having a hard time breathing..." wheezed Robin. She held her hand against her throat.

The little reindeer looked horror-struck at everyone. He slowly walked against the woman and could merely stumble, "What...is... it... Robin...?"

The swordsman also put his hand at his throat and soon everybody else did the same, "What... is this?"

"It's getting... hard to see... as well," wheezed the navigator, "It's like... a fog."

"I can't see... anything," gasped the shipwright and looked around aimlessly, "Oi, guys... I can't see you!"

"What..." Luffy stared right forward, seeing only gray and white thick fog, "What is this! Oi! Guys... are you okay!?"

Nami let out a scream. She had no time to gasp after air but instead she hastily stumbled backwards, away from what she was seeing.

"Oi! Nami!" yelled Luffy.

Brook was heard gasping several times, "What- There are monsters! Monsters in the fog!"

Also Chopper and Usopp cried out. Thuds was heard, indicating that people was falling down on the grass.

"OI! What's happening...! Are you alright!?" yelled the captain. He suddenly stopped and shrugged back one step when he saw a skull-like figure shaped by the fog moving towards him. He heard complaining and tormented sounds growing louder as it came closer. It soon developed to a mini version of the previous starting roar as it ran through his body. Now he felt even weirder, as if he was scared.

"Bastard..!" Sanji gathered all his courage and strength to try and kick the faces away. It turned out to be futile and actually, he really hadn't thought it was going to work from the start, "Damn!"

The sniper were so terrified he could barely even move. He could hear his nakama struggling in their own ways but he could swear that in addition to the tormented sounds the faces were making he was hearing even more screams further away. That's when it occurred to him that this probably had struck the people in the town and probably around the whole island as well.

The swordsman started to cough violently and fell to his knees. Between every seizure he had to hurry and take breaths but every wheezing breath he was able to take were almost no good anyway. He felt like he was choking. He could hear the others being freaked out about the situation. Luffy angrily wanting to know what was going on. Nami, Chopper, Usopp and Brook being terror-struck. The stupid cook hopelessly swearing and the shipwright being all confused. He couldn't hear what were Robin and Kiwa's cases but he could definitely sense their presences.
He himself had no time for being frightened by the scarred faces in the fog which seemed to be the others source of fear as he was too troubled about not being able to breath and actually feared that he wasn't going to make it if this kept on going.

He fell forward and supported himself with one hand against the ground while the other were still at his throat, hopelessly trying to increase the flow of oxygen in some hopeless way. It was futile, and he knew it. Things started to look strange, everything swayed and it just made the faces look ridiculous instead. The dizziness overwhelmed him and he could feel the strength in every limb slowly pass away. He fell to his side and it didn't take many panicky seconds before everything turned black for the swordsman.

Robin peered her eyes in an attempt to see through the fog but knew it wouldn't work that well. She had almost gotten used to the occasional faces showing up by now. She ignored them and instead tried to find her nakama.

The archaeologist had enough of this. She closed her eyes, pictured the ship in her head and made 20 eyes do the looking for her instead. This was just a test to see if the fog was as thick everywhere, and it was. She passed on to her other plan and continued having her eyes closed. She exchanged the eyes all over the ship to ears and tried to overhear the painful sounds and distinguish her nakamas voices and in that way be able to gather them all together.

She had only barely moved from where she stood at first before the fog and knew that the swordsman should be close to her. She tried to sharpen her senses, tried to see if she could sense the overwhelming spirit which she had before, tried to feel if it was crashing against everything now as well. The result she wasn't happy with. She couldn't sense him but she didn't know if it had anything to do with the fog or not. Whatever possibility that crossed her mind added more and more fire to her worries.

She turned to her left and started to walk slowly meanwhile she blindly held out her arms in front of her to feel her way through. After only a few steps she bumped into something laying on the ground and it didn't take long before she could identify the person as the one she was looking for. Unfortunately though, it seemed that he didn't longer belonged to the concious world.

She turned the man around to inspect him closer and could confirm that he was definitely fainted. She laid a hand at his chest and held her ear against his mouth to confirm something else important. A slowly repeating movement under her hand and a silent wheezing tickling her ear told her that the swordsman at least was breathing.

The archaeologist wondered what she should do. The only thing she could do was to wait for this to be over and have Chopper look at him, right? She inspected his face and recognized the slightly narrowed eyebrows... Wait, he didn't look that peaceful. Was he... sleeping?

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "Kenshi-san, wake up!"

The response was merely a groan at first but then Zoro's eyes flew up and he was consumed by recognition. He was slightly confused by seeing the archaeologist bent down over him but choose to ignore it for now.

"Here." Robin held out her hand to him. He took it and with help from the woman he rose to his feet again.

The swordsman's first action by instinct was to hold his hand against his throat again but suddenly it wasn't as hard to breath anymore. He could see that Robin had noticed as well.

"I had enough of this!" It was their captain yelling.

The fog was actually thinning out but Luffy didn't seem to notice and launched out his arms as long to the sides as the ships construction allowed and then surrounded the whole lawn with them. Continuing he connected his arms together and formed a big circle but just as fast he shrunk the extent in purpose to bring everybody together in some sort of big hug.

"Whoa-!"

Everybody was fiercely flown into both each other and the captain.

"It worked! Everybody's here!" said Luffy and laughed.

"Uncalled for!" yelled Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji and together they kicked the captain into the wall behind.

HAHA, I had a hard time writing the part when Zoro was entering the kitchen. I was listening to "Call from the Grave – Bathory" and I just got this super-evil feeling and had the urge to write about Zoro being the devil himself or something like that. Yeah, maybe it is a bit fitting in itself but the circumstances was just too nice for that XD

Haha, "and release the 13,th chapter soon as well." Yeah, right. Sorry for taking so long with this but the truth is: I had no internet! Not so very guilty KnutKnutsson here decided to go streaking all of sudden so I had long lasting problems convincing him to work for me again. Well, that's not the whole truth. I actually hadn't finished this chapter even after I had internet again and yeah.. that was quite recently so.. I guess I'm just a lazy ass XD

No. or no. I mean yes, but as you can see, this chapter turned out to be quite long cause I figured that I can't just have a whole chapter with only Zoro and Robin talking (as good as it may sound.) And I've recently procured a tablet and so many hours was given to that as well. Damn, it's so much fun! :D

I've actually drawn Kiwa and uploaded on deviantart if by any chance there would be anyone interested in how I pictured her. Maybe it's totally different from what you imagined. There's also some Robin and Zoro pictures there! You can find the link on my profile, otherwise my username is the same as here, Slipmaskin ^^ bzzzzzzzz *EDIT* That picture of Kiwa is long gone, just so u know, I have to keep up with my own standards ;D *EDIT*