Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and/or followed!

Chapter 9 – Contract

Day 6

"You look awfully relaxed for people who still have a friend to find."

Robin looked up from her cup of tea. "And you seem to spend a great deal of time walking around town for someone who runs an entire library alone."

The librarian raised an eyebrow. "Who said I was the only one working there? Or that I'm not working just because I'm out here? The library provides news as well as stories, you know. I need to keep up with what's happening on the island…and elsewhere."

Sanji raised his cup. "We'll keep looking until we've found our friend, no matter how long it takes. But taking care of our bodies is important, too. We won't be doing him any favors if we collapse because we pushed ourselves too hard."

Robin suspected Sanji would have kept looking much longer without a break if he hadn't happened to run into her right outside this café. He wasn't wrong, though, which was why she'd allowed him to lead her to one of the little outdoor tables and order them food and drinks.

"That's wise, and true enough," the librarian said. "But I wouldn't count on having the luxury of searching as long as you like."

"Are you talking about the creatures that drove off that pirate crew? We have no intention of harming anyone, but we won't allow anyone to send us away before we've found Zoro." Robin met the librarian's eyes. "And while the creatures are formidable, they won't be enough to stop us, if it comes to that."

The librarian regarded her for a long moment. Then she nodded, and her demeanor shifted. She leaned in toward their table, her shoulders curved as though to block out prying eyes and a secretive smile tugging at her lips. She laid a hand on Robin's arm, looking for all the world like somebody's dear old aunt settling in for a good gossip.

"You know, I've just remembered. You didn't find any books when you visited the other day, but I came across one I think would be perfect for you, if you gave it a chance. Why don't the two of you come with me to the library, and I'll see if I can find it again."

Robin exchanged a glance with Sanji. "I appreciate the thought, but we should really be getting back to looking for our friend. As you pointed out, the sooner we can find him, the better it will be for everyone."

"Oh, it won't take long. And it's really quite an interesting book—I'm sure you'll find it well worth the time spent."

Robin couldn't tell if the librarian was a good actor or not. Her performance was flawless, but the shift had been too abrupt; anyone would have known something was going on. Including them—and given the timing, this had to be related to their search for Zoro in some way. The detour might be worth it, or they might just be wasting more time—or worse, walking into a trap. It was a question that could only be answered with a gamble.

She looked at Sanji again, saw he'd come to the same decision, and turned to the librarian. "All right, then. I could use some new reading material."

"What are you doing back here?"

Zoro scowled, drawing himself up as tall as he could, which still left him short of Melwyn's waist.

Boran had gone to check on something in the kitchen, and Melwyn had wasted no time in cornering Zoro, dragging him around the corner to the foot of the stairs.

"Waiting for dinner."

"Don't play with me, you know what I mean. Why did you come back? I told you, you shouldn't be here."

Zoro crossed his arms defensively. "Boran wants me here."

"He wants a lot of things that aren't good for him."

"I didn't do anything to him!"

"It's not about what you did, it's— Ugh, I thought you understood. I thought you were smart enough to know you should stay away. Guess that makes us both idiots."

"I'm not stupid!"

"You're lucky, is what you are. You know, I wish the outsiders had caught you, then I wouldn't have to deal with this mess."

"Well, they did!" He hadn't meant to say that. But he was so tired of being seen as a problem, something to be fixed or tolerated or cleaned up after just because he existed. "But guess what? I got away all on my own, so I don't need your help. Just leave me alone!"

"Oh, you need help, all right—" Melwyn snapped his mouth shut and straightened.

"Melwyn," Boran said calmly, "why don't you go out to the garden and see if any of the tomatoes are ripe enough to use tonight? I saw a few earlier that looked like they might be almost ready."

Melwyn bit his lip and glanced at Zoro, then nodded. He skirted around Boran as though the man was an unstable bomb, and was gone.

"You said they didn't see you." Boran's tone was casual, but it was the sort of false calm a lion showed just before it sprang.

"So? I got away."

Boran frowned. "Zoro—"

"I got away, and they're not going to catch me again, so it doesn't matter!"

"It does matter. Zoro, you need to—"

"No!" He was even more dwarfed by Boran than he had been by Melwyn, but Zoro planted his feet and glared like he was nine feet tall. "I'll leave if you don't want me here anymore, but I don't have to tell you anything, and I don't want to talk about them!"

Boran held up a hand. "No, no, there's no need for that. I'm sorry for pushing you. Again. I'm just a worrier, I suppose. I'm not sure why you felt you had to lie to me, but we can let all that go for now. Why don't you go on upstairs and rest for a while? You still look a bit shaky."

Half an hour later, Robin was beginning to doubt their decision.

The library had been only a few minutes walk, but once they'd arrived, the librarian seemed in no hurry. She'd walked up and down aisles and peered carefully into reading alcoves, muttering all the while about where she'd seen the book last. She'd left them standing at the front desk while she went to look in the staff rooms, and had kept them waiting long enough that they had just made up their minds to leave when she suddenly popped up again.

"I just can't think where it could have gotten to. Did anyone else come in while I was back there?"

"No. You locked the door, remember?" Which had been more than a little concerning, no matter her excuse of not wanting anyone to interrupt them and make things take longer.

"Look," Sanji told her. "Maybe we should come back later. You can take all the time you need to find it, and we'll stop by again after we've found—"

"No, no, I'm sure it's—Oh!" The librarian snapped her fingers. "I've just remembered where it is. I put it out of the way so no one else would find it and then I forgot. How silly of me. Come with me, it'll be faster."

Robin's neck prickled. That timing had been far too convenient. The librarian had likely known where the book was the entire time, if there was even a book at all. Still, if there was any chance this had something to do with Zoro, they couldn't just walk away now.

The librarian led them to a door near the back of the building, which opened into a room barely big enough to be called a broom closet. Three people would have been a tight squeeze even without the sparsely populated bookshelves lining the walls, but the librarian marched in and gestured for them to follow.

"And make sure you close the door behind you, please."

Robin exchanged another glance with Sanji. "Why not just bring the book out here? I'm sure it would be more comfortable."

"Oh, it would be no good at all out there, believe me. Come on, inside."

"You're asking for quite a bit of trust for someone we barely know. At least tell us a little about this book. Why is it so important we see it now?" Only the fact that the librarian hadn't asked them to enter the closet ahead of her held Robin back from declaring the whole thing a trap.

"Hmm…I suppose you could say it's a fairy tale of sorts," the librarian said. "It's an intriguing story, one you won't have the chance to read anywhere else, and it should give you something else to think about while you're looking for your friend. You look a bit stressed, if you don't mind me saying so." Her tone was cheery, but her face was dead serious as she looked at them and beckoned again. "You'll be glad you read it, trust me."

Trap or not, this was the closest thing they'd found to a lead. They couldn't throw it away. Robin and Sanji piled into the room. It was hot and dark with the door closed.

"Which book is it?" Robin reached out to touch one at random. It lay flat on the shelf, not enough books around it to stay upright.

"One moment." A few soft thuds followed. "It should be right…around…ah!" A more solid clunk. "Here we are. Hold out your hands, please."

Robin did as instructed and felt herself pulled forward into space that hadn't been there a moment ago.

"Hold still." Something clunked again. A flare of light came a moment later.

The room they stood in now was at least four times the size of the closet, but was so packed with loaded bookshelves that it felt, if anything, smaller. A tiny desk had been jammed into one corner, and a small table and a few chairs took up most of the center of the room.

"I apologize for all that nonsense," the librarian said. "I had to make sure no one would see me bringing you in here." She reached out and rapped against the wall, making a dull, hollow-sounding thud. "These walls are six inches of solid plastic and foam, so we can talk freely here, though I'd advise against shouting all the same."

"What does a library need with a soundproofed room? Where is 'here', exactly?" Robin asked.

The smile the librarian gave her was nothing like the cheerful nosy neighbor smile she'd worn a few minutes ago. "The library's history section, naturally."

"The one that doesn't exist?"

"It doesn't, officially. Especially not to outsiders." The librarian sat down in one of the chairs, and gestured them to the others.

"Then why bring us here?" Robin asked, as she and Sanji took seats.

"Because I've been catching up on my reading this morning." The librarian pulled out a stack of newspapers and magazines and set them on the table. "Despite what you may think, we aren't wholly ignorant of the wider world. This is your group, isn't it?"

Robin leaned forward, instantly spotting Luffy's face grinning up from the newspaper's front page. "Yes." She shuffled through the papers. Some were recent, some older, and all had articles featuring the Straw Hats. There were speculations about Alabasta, theories about Marineford, a photo of the destruction of Enies Lobby. There were copies of all their bounty posters, and near the bottom of the stack, Robin found the paper proclaiming Luffy as a fifth emperor.

"I wrote to one of my sources, as soon as I suspected your visit wasn't going to be routine," the librarian said. "As you can see, there was no shortage of information."

"And does knowing who we are change things?"

"It tells me you're trouble. I'm not saying you'd win, mind, but it'd cost us, and I've concluded that letting you proceed in ignorance would cause more harm than revealing some of our secrets."

"Secrets like what happened to Zoro, I assume," Robin said.

"Of course. I wouldn't be telling you, otherwise. And there's one thing I want to make clear from the start." The librarian fixed them with a piercing glare. "I'm telling you this so you can help your friend and leave as soon as possible." She tapped the stack of papers. "I've seen what happens to the places you've been. Destruction, revolution, upheaval. Maybe for the better, I can't say, but you tend to leave countries very different than you found them.

"Do not do that here. I won't have you destroying our way of life. It's a strange life, and tragic in its way, but it's ours, and any changes must come from us, in our own time, not from angry outsiders seeking revenge. However upset you are once you know the truth, you need to know where to draw the line. Promise me."

Robin regarded her for a moment. This was something Luffy should decide, not her. But if they left to get him, there was no guarantee the librarian would still be willing to talk later, or that something else wouldn't happen. Luffy wanted to get Zoro back, no matter what. Promising not to destroy an island was far from the worst thing the Straw Hat Pirates had done to save a friend in the past. She knew that firsthand.

She looked at Sanji, who nodded at her, one side of his mouth quirked in a wry smile. "All right. We won't do anything more than necessary to get our friend back." Hopefully, that wouldn't include destroying the island.

Sanji murmured his agreement.

"I'll hold you to that." The oppressive mood in the room lightened a degree. "Now then, you were curious about the soundproofing."

Sanji gave the librarian an impatient look. "Come on, is that really the most important—"

"It's as good a place as any to start," the librarian said briskly. "We've tried a lot of things over the years to keep the information here safe. One of the earliest attempts had the books hanging from the ceiling by rope nets. That didn't work so well, and it's only because they weren't all kept in one place that there are any left from that time. We've tried hiding them on one of the outlying rocks, off the island proper, but that was still close enough for it to reach, so we lost most of that archive, too. Using stone or wood or soil would have been too dangerous, too easy. Later, we made metal walls, which were better, but it wasn't until strong plastic like this came along that this room could truly be described as secure. It can't affect plastic at all, you see, so everything in this room is a blind spot for it.

"We've been very careful for a long time. And in spite of the setbacks, we're proud of how much of our history we've managed to preserve."

"How can this place stay a secret if the whole town is coming in here to read?" Sanji's brow furrowed. "And what's this 'it' you're talking about?"

"Oh, most of the island has no idea this exists," the librarian said. "When I say 'we', I mean the historians. Or renegades, if you prefer. On this island, the two might as well be synonymous."

"I've asked you this before, and I hope you'll give me an answer this time," Robin said. "Why is the past something that needs to be hidden here? Why are you treating your history like it's forbidden knowledge?"

"Because this island is a delicate ecosystem, and it's in that system's best interest that detailed records of history remain unknown to most people."

"I don't understand."

"Then I'll go back to the beginning, to the time this island was first settled centuries ago. I did promise you a fairy tale, after all.

"On first glance, the island appeared uninhabited. And it's true enough that there were no humans here before we came, nor fishmen or mermaids or anything of that sort. But if you took that to mean there was nothing beyond simple plants and animals, well, you'd be wrong.

"We don't know what it is or where it came from—if we ever knew, that secret's been lost to time—but it's been here much longer than we have. It was asleep at first, we think, but it woke soon after we arrived, and had things gone differently, that could have been the end of us right there. You saw what it did to those pirates; if would have had no difficulty in wiping out a group of peaceful settlers."

"Those creatures—they were the work of this…being?" Robin asked.

The librarian nodded. "It can control anything and everything natural on the island, some more easily than others. Rock, plants, and earth are child's play for it, while things that have been altered by humans, such as metal or glass, require some effort. Regular humans are no threat to it—I'm still not convinced even you folk would win, though I'm sure you wouldn't lose easily.

"Fortunately—depending on how you look at it—humans have something it needs, something it couldn't get if it destroyed them, so the settlers were able to make a deal. To allow them to live, and even stay on the island."

"And what did it want from them?" Robin asked.

The librarian cleared her throat. "Human life."

Robin stiffened.

Next to her, Sanji stood. "What, like a sacrifice? Kill one person a year to let the rest live, or something? Is that what you're planning to do to Zoro?"

The librarian held up a hand. "No. Not in the way you're thinking. Sit down."

Sanji hesitated, then sat, looking like he desperately wanted a cigarette but didn't dare while surrounded by so many books.

"Perhaps it would be easier to understand if I call it 'human memories' instead, though that's not entirely accurate," the librarian continued. "Think of the years you've lived as a physical thing, like water you were slowly pouring into a bucket. Your memories, emotions, wisdom, all the physical and mental growth that comes with living—that's what the being needs to sustain itself."

That was all Robin needed to slot a few pieces into place. "And after the being has taken this life, the people it feeds from…they become children, don't they?"

The librarian nodded. "We call it 'Renewal', and it's been a part of our way of life for hundreds of years."

"Wait…" Sanji stared at the librarian, eyes wide. "If it—can it do this to someone more than once?"

"Yes."

"Don't tell me…the people here, are they the same people who first settled the island?"

"Some are," the librarian said. "People do occasionally die, mainly in accidents that are too severe for them to last until they can be Renewed. And of course, the island can support far more people than originally came here, so our numbers have grown over the years, though the birth rate is carefully controlled to prevent overpopulation."

"How could something like this be kept a secret?" Surely people had to know, if their friends and family were constantly turning up as children.

"Oh, everyone knows about the terms of the deal," the librarian told her. "It would be impossible to live here and not know about Renewal, or the being's existence. That's not the part that's restricted, except to outsiders. Even so, details are easy to lose over the years. Even those of us who have tried to remember don't know everything.

"Most people see the being as a god. It cares for us in every way that it can: the land is fertile and food is abundant, sickness is almost unheard of and most injuries can be mended quickly, and we are protected from attacks, as you saw. Some might call it paradise. In exchange, once we've gathered a lifetime of experiences and memories, we offer it up in return for all we've been given, and begin the cycle again."

"A symbiotic relationship," Robin murmured.

"Precisely," the librarian said. "Many view it as immortality, though without the memories of all the years we've lived, I can't say I fully agree."

Robin frowned. "But that doesn't explain why history is banned. If the islanders already know about this being, why is it wrong for them to know more?"

"That's a bit complicated. On the people's part, public opinion is that those memories belong to the god once we give them up, and that records of events are a form of memory. Therefore, keeping records about the past in anything but the broadest and most necessary terms is theft and a violation of the pact."

"That's ridiculous," Sanji said. "Having something written down doesn't change the actual memory."

"I agree, as have many others, or all of this wouldn't be here." The librarian waved a hand at the overloaded bookshelves. "But it's not time yet to voice such an opinion. And, setting the other islanders aside, the god has its own reasons for keeping the past from us."

"Which are?" Robin asked, when the woman didn't immediately continue.

"I can't claim to have any special insight on it's thoughts. But there are two conclusions that seem safe to draw, based on observation and what it's made known of its wishes.

"First, it wants to maintain the status quo. Of course it does; if the people of this island ever chose death over continuing the cycle, it would lose its food source, which would kill it as well, or at least send it back into hibernation. Letting us get too close a look at what we thought and felt in the past increases the chance that people would eventually grow dissatisfied with the current arrangement."

"Still, seems excessive," Sanji muttered. "Even if some people ended up wanting out, there's no way everyone would. I'm sure there'd be enough people wanting a long and easy life for it to keep itself going."

"Oh, if only it were that easy," the librarian said. "And assuming no one got it into their head to kill the being and forcibly free everyone. It would be an incredibly foolish idea with widespread consequences even if they were somehow able to succeed, but sooner or later, I have no doubt someone would try."

Robin was quite interested in what those consequences would be, but there were so many questions to ask, and they still had to bring the conversation back around to Zoro. "What's the second reason?"

"Hmm? Ah. Tell me, what's your favorite food?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Humor me. I have a point, I promise."

"…I'm fond of sandwiches."

"Sandwiches, eh?" The librarian nodded. "A good choice. So many different filling options, even if they still fall into the same general category. Well then, would you like to eat sandwiches every day? Would you be happy to eat nothing but sandwiches every day for the rest of your life?"

"Well…no. I don't think anyone would."

"Exactly. Everyone needs some variety. Even mysterious, inhuman, godlike beings."

"So…it wants other things besides the memories or whatever?" Sanji asked with a frown.

"No. What it wants is as wide a variety of life experiences as possible. But Renewal doesn't fully wipe our memories, since we're usually not taken all the way back to babyhood. The memories that remain are torn, scattered, buried, but they can be unearthed and pieced together to some extent, if they're poked enough. Words, places, stories…any connection can bring something up, but the quickest and most effective way is to spend time with those you were close to in your previous life.

"If we were allowed to keep records and diaries and the like, people could easily find out who their loved ones had been. Most of us would probably spend at least some time with those people. Both the records and the time together would awaken memories, and the more memories we regained, the more our lives would fall into similar patterns, with the same people around us, more often than not."

"Leading to a lack of variety in the thing's food," Sanji concluded. "Damn."

"It's an excellent reason for it to not want us to remember too much, don't you agree? And so there's a safeguard in place to prevent such things."

"What safeguard?" Robin asked.

"I know you've seen your friend since he was Renewed. You must have noticed it—the way he reacted to you."

Robin's mouth was dry. "Yes."

"Renewal poisons the bonds we had in our past life. It twists our attachment into fear and revulsion, like flipping a magnet to the wrong side. Seeing, hearing, or simply being near the person is unpleasant. Touch is worst of all. And the closer the bond, the stronger the aversion. From what I've seen, that your friend can even stand to be in your presence is a testament to his will."

Well, that certainly explained why Zoro's reaction to them—and to Luffy, especially—had been so extreme.

"The worst part is that the original bond is still there, even twisted," the librarian continued. "We can't bear being around our former loved ones, but if we meet them once, we'll have the desire to see them again, regardless of the pain. We're moved to a different town after each Renewal, to reduce the chances of ever meeting one of our Shards, as they're called."

Sanji looked a bit sick. "How can the whole island still support this thing when it causes so much suffering?"

The librarian gave a small shrug. "Given how well we're treated in everything else, most people believe the aversion is a natural side effect, and the god isn't causing us pain deliberately. I couldn't tell you if that's true or not, but either way, we've accepted that making new bonds is part of the price for living so long. The aversion only lasts through two or three Renewals, so a few lifetimes down the line, the same people could meet and become close all over again. It's a popular romantic fantasy here." Her mouth twisted in a bitter smile.

It was fascinating, in a horrific sort of way. "Why would it Renew Zoro? He's neither old nor a citizen of this island."

"True. I'd say it's most likely he found his way somewhere the god didn't want him to go. Possibly even its actual location."

"You don't know where it is?" Robin asked.

"Only that it's somewhere in the forest. There are safe areas we're allowed to visit and travel through, and places where people are brought for Renewal, but a large part of the forest is off limits. Your friend, of course, would have had no idea, and the god would have seen him as a threat and acted to protect itself."

"Damn Marimo and his shitty sense of direction," Sanji muttered. "And what about you people? Why aren't you warning everyone to stay out of the forest?"

The librarian fixed Sanji with a flat stare. "Most outsiders who come here are pirates intending to restock their supplies and leave. What do you think would happen if we told pirates to stay out of the forest, without giving a reason why?"

"It would draw attention," Robin said.

"Exactly. They'd be rushing in by the boatload, certain we were hiding some great treasure from them. Eventually, enough ships would go missing that we'd draw attention, and that's the last thing we want. Whereas if we make it clear that there's nothing to do here besides get supplies, most crews move on within a couple of days."

"Can a Renewal be reversed?" Robin asked. She felt Sanji tense next to her.

The librarian hesitated. "In theory, yes. There is one account of such a thing, and I have no reason to doubt it, though it's quite old. In practice, however, there are a few complications."

"Such as?" Sanji prompted, when the librarian hesitated again.

"For it to even be a possibility, you would first need to make contact with the god and convince it to return your friend's life, without getting Renewed yourselves. I hope I've explained enough that you can understand how difficult a task that is. The god will not want knowledge of its existence leaving the island."

"You have," Robin said, "but it's far from the hardest challenge we've faced for our friends."

"I wish you luck," the librarian said. "The second issue is the aversion. If the god can't remove it, then even if your friend is physically restored, mentally there would be a permanent, painful wedge between you."

"Shit." Sanji's teeth clamped down on an imagined cigarette.

"The aversion does become easier to bear with prolonged exposure, but it would never go away completely. Even the strongest bonds—no, perhaps especially the strong ones—would have difficulty overcoming an obstacle like that."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time we've beaten the odds," Sanji said.

The librarian gave them a strained smile. "I believe you. There's a third problem, though, and it's perhaps the most serious. You've got a time limit, and to some extent it may already be too late for your friend."

A sliver of ice worked its way into Robin's stomach. "What do you mean?"

"I told you, the god likes variety in its food. We do our best, but there are only so many new experiences we can provide it, living on the same island for hundreds of years. The memories from your friend—someone who's led an exciting life as a pirate out in the wider world—would be an irresistible delicacy. While it might consume an islander's life in small pieces over the course of years, your Zoro's would almost certainly be devoured immediately."

The sliver of ice grew to boulder size, and glancing at Sanji, Robin could see he'd gone pale.

"You say your friend disappeared six days ago?"

"Yes," Robin managed.

"As far as we can tell, the god consumes life at a rate of about one year per day. Six years of your friend's life may already be beyond saving, with more lost for every minute that passes. If you take too long to reverse the process, there might not be anything left to save."

Has it been a while since I did a cliffhanger? It feels like a while since I did a cliffhanger.