Robin collected herself as best as she could. Nami took a step toward her.
"Robin—"
She reached her hand out to touch her shoulder, but was interrupted, as she walked away and insisted:
"I'm okay."
The tall woman headed for the bathroom.
As she rinsed the edges of a dusty tub, the rusty water—untouched for who knows how long- cleared up.
She had a bar of soap tucked away in her bag… No towel.
She couldn't hear any of the others talking next door in the kitchen. Only the old, nearly jammed shower, the water pouring from out of it, and the squeakiness of her lathering her skin up.
"Do you know anything about this, Sanji-kun?" Nami couldn't rid herself of the sickly knot in her stomach.
"Only that the two of them were in real trouble when Robin-chan contacted us."
Chopper removed his hat, brushing out the freshly revealed fur atop his endearingly large head with his hoof.
His high pitched voice was taking on a stern edge again, as he tried to force himself to grow up on the spot.
"Something really bad must have happened, for Zoro to get so upset." The small doctor couldn't hide the sadness in his face.
"Yeah, he's always been hot-headed and rude, but this is… Unusual." Nami added, resisting the urge to let slip the secrets she was sitting on. She had only seen him so emotional twice before.
¨If that idiot gets himself lost and killed out there all because of a temper tantrum I'm going to kill him again myself." Sanji marched off to exit the same way as Zoro had left, for an evening smoke. Nothing else.
Nami sighed softly, and Brook had nothing to add.
Robin turned off the water, she stood in the shower quietly. Less grimy, but still exhausted.
Zoro, on the other hand—was the exact opposite of exhausted.
The anti-hero was marching the same way they came. An unyielding, temperamental inferno, burning its way back into the very science lab which had humiliated him.
A deep sense of satisfaction filled him progressively, with every step he took through the long passageway, despite the darkness of the evening obscuring his way.
Not a bug in sight, still—He couldn't help but feel like there was something he had missed last time he was inside the tomblike building. He continued walking in what he deemed to be the right direction. Of course, this meant that he found himself somewhere entirely new, and previously undiscovered.