****
Part 5
Roundabout ways
****
The sun rose on the sea once again for the billionth time since water was created
and the sun began to warm its surface. Nico Robin enjoyed sunrises; it made her feel safe
and secure unlike the sunsets, where anything could and was bound to happen. It had
been three years since she had left home and begun her new life; it had been three years
since she was seen as a wanted person. She had had the countless number of bounty
hunters and marines go after her, but always came away from challenges unscathed.
It had been two and a half years since left the crew that had her only for her skills;
like a circus animal used only for its tricks and not it's beauty and exquisite actions. She
hadn't seen any of those crewmembers since and in a way she was happy. Ruther had
been a big help but she knew he was only following orders and not his own mind or
heart. She still held very few friends, but kept acquaintances quite close, for you see, she
was constantly on the move.
It had been only a year since she entitled herself a professional killer. She had
become quite wealthy and always got the job done in minimal amounts of time. It was
why she was very popular among those who wanted to get rid of someone else. Yet she
didn't kill those souls for fun, only strictly business; she had always kept her work in the
part of her life that wouldn't effect who she really was. They were like separate lifestyles;
entities, people, and they both lived in Robin's life. She was quite determined to keep
them separate. For example, one day she would have afternoon tea with a darling old
woman and then that night kill a lowlife drunkard that lived only a few blocks away.
Never had the lives have had to intertwine, if that happened she wouldn't know what to
do.
The small boat glided through the small waves that were created by breezes that
came by every few minutes. Robin watched as gulls flew by above her, looking for a
meal in the water below her. Her next job was for a wealthy businessman who had been
having trouble with some wanderer that lived next door. Robin sighed as she looked over
the boat to see the reflected rays of the sun move gently with the rippling of the water. It
was times like this that she would feel happy to be alive.
During her travels she had learned to make more friends than enemies, but was
never truly able to keep in touch with them. She had mentioned this to all that she met,
but they didn't seem to mind too much. Robin was quite grateful yet still felt guilty. She
had friends that she couldn't talk to unless she visited or wrote under an unknown alias.
Then her friends couldn't be sure who was writing to them unless there was a way they
could use a specific code. In the end, the situation would become too complicated to go
through, but they still promised to try and see each other in a few years.
She arrived at the docks of the city of Arontowne later that day when the sun
began its descent in the sky above. The town was a large bustling center of commerce,
but also had a quaint side to it. Tea shops and cosmetic boutique crowded the streets as
cafes and theater halls drew the masses with their nightly entertainment. This place was
an area for tourists and the like, a definite place for a man to silently cut out the trouble. It
was people in societies like this that Robin didn't like to work with. The upper class
always had that feeling of inhuman emotion, a feeling that they could care less about
those who were lower than they were. The lies that the upper class spread around about
each other also disgusted Robin. At times she would believe having almost no money
was better than living the corrupted life of someone that had all the money in the world.
As Robin walked the streets of Arontowne, she found the place to hold many
burlesque houses and churches; bookstores and dance halls; bathhouses and bed and
breakfast businesses. The streets were covered with women in long dresses and
gentlemen wearing black and white suits with canes that twirled as the walked. It felt as if
she were walking into a painting or story. The area seemed so refined; she began to feel
out of place in her plain, knee-length, black skirt and white top. Robin looked to her left
and found a nice boutique with lovely clothing designs in the seller's window.
She tried on a few dresses and bought the one that looked the best and was the
most comfortable. She knew she had to have a good impression on her next employer, so
decided to purchase another dress in order to change and keep her image. It was always
good to blend in with the people of the town. You stood out less and it was easier to have
others not to take notice of you when you wore and acted like the inhabitants of any
town. Robin looked at her reflection in the windows as she walked by. The long, dark
purple dress reached her ankles and a purple and black flapper hat covered the top of her
head. She saw herself as a young girl in an old rich society and it was time she went in,
did her job, and, leave without much thought.
It didn't take Robin long to find the house of her new employer, Mr. Pither. The
streets all seemed to lead to the home or in her opinion the castle, as if it were where the
most important business in the town took place. She walked up the cobblestone road and
stopped when she reached the guards whom stood in front of the gates to the mansion.
Robin gave both men a charming smile and curtsied.
"I'm here to see Mr. Pither for business."
The guards looked at her and shrugged to each other as if the had some telekinetic
speech power. The man on the right wore a neatly trimmed mustache that came out thick
in the middle and thin on the ends in a curl. The man on the left had no real facial hair,
but sideburns that ran to mid-cheek. They both wore the uniform of an honorary guard of
the same length and color, jacket to mid thigh and a deep navy blue.
"Name miss?"
Robin gave a small smile and told the two men her name. After a quick check
over of the list they had recognized her name and allowed her to enter the gates, but told
her to wait after entering. It had seemed that the actual mansion was twice as far from the
gates as the town was. Robin saw a horse drawn carriage arrive and offer her the ride to
the main entrance. She nodded and was helped into the carriage by the busboy. The ride
was short, but the scenery was something that had to be taken in slowly. Fountains and
gardens covered the length from gate to home and Robin was amazed to see the wealth
that was surely used in the creation of this place.
She was helped out of the carriage by the busboy and told to go up the steps to the
entrance of the mansion. Robin did as she was told and was met by a man at the front
doors. He led her in and brought her to a room so she would be able to wait for Mr.
Pither. It took a few moments, but Robin didn't mind the wait. She glanced at her
surroundings and saw a bookshelf on her left side. Getting over to the shelves she looked
at the small library the man had. There were books on guns and hunting, as well as
cooking and sewing. It wasn't until Robin heard a clearing of voice that she broke her
concentration with the book scanning.
"So you're the one they call the 'child killer', I hear."
Robin shrugged and walked over towards the man she assumed was Mr. Pither.
The man was of an average height, dressed in a navy blue suit and had a pearl colored
ascot that surrounded his neck. His hair was a graying black and mustache was thick and
had the same coloring effect as the hair on his head. He seemed to be a kind gentleman,
but Robin knew that under all that kindness held the urge to get rid of anyone who was in
his way. It was like this with all of the upper class people she had encountered.
"I believe you brought me here for business, am I correct in assuming so?"
The man did not seemed phased with Robin's polite speech, but he did react with
a small grin. Mr. Pither waved his hand in a gesture for her to sit down. Robin complied,
but found it difficult to sit in the fluffy dress. She sat up and paid as much attention to the
man in front of her than to the dress around her.
The job was quite a simple one. All she had to do was rid of a poor rambunctious
man that hung out by one of the party halls in town. The man, Mr. Pither had said,
created a domestic disturbance with his presence and needed to be dealt with. The job
seemed easy, but to kill someone for such a petty reason like that... It was what the man
wanted, so who was she to stop from getting paid for her services.
She left the mansion in the same fashion as her arrival. The gates closing with a
large metallic clang as she headed back towards the town's main center of activity. The
streets began to become filled with those more affiliated with the nightlife as Robin found
herself sitting at a nice bistro sipping a glass of tea. It didn't take long till the sun went to
its hiding place and the moon shone in the sky above.
Laughter and drunken chatter filled the air as did lively jazz beats and the
clacking of designer shoes on cobblestone roads. Robin left her place at the bistro and
walked into the crowd intending to get her job finished and finished quickly. Her own
shoes clicked in rhythm with the beats surrounding her as she walked with ease towards
the theater district.
This district wasn't hard to find among most of the clubs and entertainment
centers. The billboards that hung above each hall told of what was 'showing' and
'coming soon' giving the buyer something to look forward to in their humdrum futures.
Robin scoffed at the women offering men pleasure at the street corners as well as the
good-looking men offering the same in alleyways. She knew it wasn't her place to look
down, but it was hard not to. All she really had to do was look at her life in a mirror and
see the killer she really was, but trying not to be.
A loud roar came from a man not too far away from where Robin stood, gathering
the attention of many by passers. She walked quickly towards the ruckus and saw the
man in ragged clothes yell at people around him. The man's hair was up in and almost
beehive-like style, his clothes hung loose around his body, and the odor emitting from the
rags were none too pleasant. The voice seemed a bit familiar as did the hair, but Robin
couldn't place where she had seen and heard the man before.
The man turned in his display and came almost face to face with Robin. His eyes
held a look of horror and shame as he stumbled to walk away from her in an almost
terror-like motion. He scrambled away from the circle of people surrounding him and ran
down an alleyway. Robin got odd looks from the people around her, but she ignored them
as she ran to catch up with the broken man, her heels clacking with every step.
She ran down the same alleyway and saw the man crouching on the ground in the
dead end he had run into. She slowly approached the cowering man and shook her head.
He knew why she was there.
"Why don' ya jus get it over with?"
The twang in the man's voice brought back memories vividly as she looked at
him closely. The hair was dark and in those familiar corn rolls that she hadn't seen for
almost two years. She took a step back, not believing what her senses told her. This man
was Ruther.
"Why... are you here? Of all places, and like this?"
Robin's question was innocent enough, but Ruther let out a gruff, weathered
laugh. This only added to her confusion, but she decided to keep quiet in order to hear the
man out.
"Ya wanna know why I'm like this, yah? Well, its cause ya left our ship. We had
nothin' ta go on. We was dirt poa and ya took what we had lef."
"I wasn't even fully paid..."
"Ya weren't gonna be fully paid cause ya were gonna work foa us."
"Not if I could help it. I wasn't about to be used by anyone, especially low name
pirates."
Ruther gave a loud sigh and looked up to Robin.
"I figgad ya woudn wan that ta happen. I don know if I coulda stood it eitha. Ya
lucky ya know. All fancied up. Damn kid. Ya did well, ya know. Anyway, go get don
what ya supposed to do."
"I don't think I can. Ruther, you saved me... now I will repay you. Here," Robin
held out a small bag that held some bellies in it. Ruther took it with hands and eyes wide
open. "I want you to go get some clothes and take my boat and get out of here. Don't
come back either. I am supposed to get rid of you... wait. Stay here, I'll be back."
Without waiting for a response Robin ran toward the closest clothing shop and
bought some clothes for Ruther. She estimated his sizes, but got what she needed and ran
back to where he was waiting for her in the alley. She instructed him to get out of town as
soon as possible and to go start again somewhere nice.
"Ya don know what ya do foa me, kid."
"I have an idea."
Ruther turned for a moment to look at the items he had received and when he
looked up to thank Robin she had already left his to start over. He smiled to himself and
did what the child had told him to do.
Robin walked away from the alleyway with a smile on her face. She was happy
and she knew she had to enjoy it as much as she could before something else would come
and ruin her conscience in some horrid way. For now, she would just enjoy the smooth
sounds of jazz as she walked down the busy streets of Arontowne.
Part 5
Roundabout ways
****
The sun rose on the sea once again for the billionth time since water was created
and the sun began to warm its surface. Nico Robin enjoyed sunrises; it made her feel safe
and secure unlike the sunsets, where anything could and was bound to happen. It had
been three years since she had left home and begun her new life; it had been three years
since she was seen as a wanted person. She had had the countless number of bounty
hunters and marines go after her, but always came away from challenges unscathed.
It had been two and a half years since left the crew that had her only for her skills;
like a circus animal used only for its tricks and not it's beauty and exquisite actions. She
hadn't seen any of those crewmembers since and in a way she was happy. Ruther had
been a big help but she knew he was only following orders and not his own mind or
heart. She still held very few friends, but kept acquaintances quite close, for you see, she
was constantly on the move.
It had been only a year since she entitled herself a professional killer. She had
become quite wealthy and always got the job done in minimal amounts of time. It was
why she was very popular among those who wanted to get rid of someone else. Yet she
didn't kill those souls for fun, only strictly business; she had always kept her work in the
part of her life that wouldn't effect who she really was. They were like separate lifestyles;
entities, people, and they both lived in Robin's life. She was quite determined to keep
them separate. For example, one day she would have afternoon tea with a darling old
woman and then that night kill a lowlife drunkard that lived only a few blocks away.
Never had the lives have had to intertwine, if that happened she wouldn't know what to
do.
The small boat glided through the small waves that were created by breezes that
came by every few minutes. Robin watched as gulls flew by above her, looking for a
meal in the water below her. Her next job was for a wealthy businessman who had been
having trouble with some wanderer that lived next door. Robin sighed as she looked over
the boat to see the reflected rays of the sun move gently with the rippling of the water. It
was times like this that she would feel happy to be alive.
During her travels she had learned to make more friends than enemies, but was
never truly able to keep in touch with them. She had mentioned this to all that she met,
but they didn't seem to mind too much. Robin was quite grateful yet still felt guilty. She
had friends that she couldn't talk to unless she visited or wrote under an unknown alias.
Then her friends couldn't be sure who was writing to them unless there was a way they
could use a specific code. In the end, the situation would become too complicated to go
through, but they still promised to try and see each other in a few years.
She arrived at the docks of the city of Arontowne later that day when the sun
began its descent in the sky above. The town was a large bustling center of commerce,
but also had a quaint side to it. Tea shops and cosmetic boutique crowded the streets as
cafes and theater halls drew the masses with their nightly entertainment. This place was
an area for tourists and the like, a definite place for a man to silently cut out the trouble. It
was people in societies like this that Robin didn't like to work with. The upper class
always had that feeling of inhuman emotion, a feeling that they could care less about
those who were lower than they were. The lies that the upper class spread around about
each other also disgusted Robin. At times she would believe having almost no money
was better than living the corrupted life of someone that had all the money in the world.
As Robin walked the streets of Arontowne, she found the place to hold many
burlesque houses and churches; bookstores and dance halls; bathhouses and bed and
breakfast businesses. The streets were covered with women in long dresses and
gentlemen wearing black and white suits with canes that twirled as the walked. It felt as if
she were walking into a painting or story. The area seemed so refined; she began to feel
out of place in her plain, knee-length, black skirt and white top. Robin looked to her left
and found a nice boutique with lovely clothing designs in the seller's window.
She tried on a few dresses and bought the one that looked the best and was the
most comfortable. She knew she had to have a good impression on her next employer, so
decided to purchase another dress in order to change and keep her image. It was always
good to blend in with the people of the town. You stood out less and it was easier to have
others not to take notice of you when you wore and acted like the inhabitants of any
town. Robin looked at her reflection in the windows as she walked by. The long, dark
purple dress reached her ankles and a purple and black flapper hat covered the top of her
head. She saw herself as a young girl in an old rich society and it was time she went in,
did her job, and, leave without much thought.
It didn't take Robin long to find the house of her new employer, Mr. Pither. The
streets all seemed to lead to the home or in her opinion the castle, as if it were where the
most important business in the town took place. She walked up the cobblestone road and
stopped when she reached the guards whom stood in front of the gates to the mansion.
Robin gave both men a charming smile and curtsied.
"I'm here to see Mr. Pither for business."
The guards looked at her and shrugged to each other as if the had some telekinetic
speech power. The man on the right wore a neatly trimmed mustache that came out thick
in the middle and thin on the ends in a curl. The man on the left had no real facial hair,
but sideburns that ran to mid-cheek. They both wore the uniform of an honorary guard of
the same length and color, jacket to mid thigh and a deep navy blue.
"Name miss?"
Robin gave a small smile and told the two men her name. After a quick check
over of the list they had recognized her name and allowed her to enter the gates, but told
her to wait after entering. It had seemed that the actual mansion was twice as far from the
gates as the town was. Robin saw a horse drawn carriage arrive and offer her the ride to
the main entrance. She nodded and was helped into the carriage by the busboy. The ride
was short, but the scenery was something that had to be taken in slowly. Fountains and
gardens covered the length from gate to home and Robin was amazed to see the wealth
that was surely used in the creation of this place.
She was helped out of the carriage by the busboy and told to go up the steps to the
entrance of the mansion. Robin did as she was told and was met by a man at the front
doors. He led her in and brought her to a room so she would be able to wait for Mr.
Pither. It took a few moments, but Robin didn't mind the wait. She glanced at her
surroundings and saw a bookshelf on her left side. Getting over to the shelves she looked
at the small library the man had. There were books on guns and hunting, as well as
cooking and sewing. It wasn't until Robin heard a clearing of voice that she broke her
concentration with the book scanning.
"So you're the one they call the 'child killer', I hear."
Robin shrugged and walked over towards the man she assumed was Mr. Pither.
The man was of an average height, dressed in a navy blue suit and had a pearl colored
ascot that surrounded his neck. His hair was a graying black and mustache was thick and
had the same coloring effect as the hair on his head. He seemed to be a kind gentleman,
but Robin knew that under all that kindness held the urge to get rid of anyone who was in
his way. It was like this with all of the upper class people she had encountered.
"I believe you brought me here for business, am I correct in assuming so?"
The man did not seemed phased with Robin's polite speech, but he did react with
a small grin. Mr. Pither waved his hand in a gesture for her to sit down. Robin complied,
but found it difficult to sit in the fluffy dress. She sat up and paid as much attention to the
man in front of her than to the dress around her.
The job was quite a simple one. All she had to do was rid of a poor rambunctious
man that hung out by one of the party halls in town. The man, Mr. Pither had said,
created a domestic disturbance with his presence and needed to be dealt with. The job
seemed easy, but to kill someone for such a petty reason like that... It was what the man
wanted, so who was she to stop from getting paid for her services.
She left the mansion in the same fashion as her arrival. The gates closing with a
large metallic clang as she headed back towards the town's main center of activity. The
streets began to become filled with those more affiliated with the nightlife as Robin found
herself sitting at a nice bistro sipping a glass of tea. It didn't take long till the sun went to
its hiding place and the moon shone in the sky above.
Laughter and drunken chatter filled the air as did lively jazz beats and the
clacking of designer shoes on cobblestone roads. Robin left her place at the bistro and
walked into the crowd intending to get her job finished and finished quickly. Her own
shoes clicked in rhythm with the beats surrounding her as she walked with ease towards
the theater district.
This district wasn't hard to find among most of the clubs and entertainment
centers. The billboards that hung above each hall told of what was 'showing' and
'coming soon' giving the buyer something to look forward to in their humdrum futures.
Robin scoffed at the women offering men pleasure at the street corners as well as the
good-looking men offering the same in alleyways. She knew it wasn't her place to look
down, but it was hard not to. All she really had to do was look at her life in a mirror and
see the killer she really was, but trying not to be.
A loud roar came from a man not too far away from where Robin stood, gathering
the attention of many by passers. She walked quickly towards the ruckus and saw the
man in ragged clothes yell at people around him. The man's hair was up in and almost
beehive-like style, his clothes hung loose around his body, and the odor emitting from the
rags were none too pleasant. The voice seemed a bit familiar as did the hair, but Robin
couldn't place where she had seen and heard the man before.
The man turned in his display and came almost face to face with Robin. His eyes
held a look of horror and shame as he stumbled to walk away from her in an almost
terror-like motion. He scrambled away from the circle of people surrounding him and ran
down an alleyway. Robin got odd looks from the people around her, but she ignored them
as she ran to catch up with the broken man, her heels clacking with every step.
She ran down the same alleyway and saw the man crouching on the ground in the
dead end he had run into. She slowly approached the cowering man and shook her head.
He knew why she was there.
"Why don' ya jus get it over with?"
The twang in the man's voice brought back memories vividly as she looked at
him closely. The hair was dark and in those familiar corn rolls that she hadn't seen for
almost two years. She took a step back, not believing what her senses told her. This man
was Ruther.
"Why... are you here? Of all places, and like this?"
Robin's question was innocent enough, but Ruther let out a gruff, weathered
laugh. This only added to her confusion, but she decided to keep quiet in order to hear the
man out.
"Ya wanna know why I'm like this, yah? Well, its cause ya left our ship. We had
nothin' ta go on. We was dirt poa and ya took what we had lef."
"I wasn't even fully paid..."
"Ya weren't gonna be fully paid cause ya were gonna work foa us."
"Not if I could help it. I wasn't about to be used by anyone, especially low name
pirates."
Ruther gave a loud sigh and looked up to Robin.
"I figgad ya woudn wan that ta happen. I don know if I coulda stood it eitha. Ya
lucky ya know. All fancied up. Damn kid. Ya did well, ya know. Anyway, go get don
what ya supposed to do."
"I don't think I can. Ruther, you saved me... now I will repay you. Here," Robin
held out a small bag that held some bellies in it. Ruther took it with hands and eyes wide
open. "I want you to go get some clothes and take my boat and get out of here. Don't
come back either. I am supposed to get rid of you... wait. Stay here, I'll be back."
Without waiting for a response Robin ran toward the closest clothing shop and
bought some clothes for Ruther. She estimated his sizes, but got what she needed and ran
back to where he was waiting for her in the alley. She instructed him to get out of town as
soon as possible and to go start again somewhere nice.
"Ya don know what ya do foa me, kid."
"I have an idea."
Ruther turned for a moment to look at the items he had received and when he
looked up to thank Robin she had already left his to start over. He smiled to himself and
did what the child had told him to do.
Robin walked away from the alleyway with a smile on her face. She was happy
and she knew she had to enjoy it as much as she could before something else would come
and ruin her conscience in some horrid way. For now, she would just enjoy the smooth
sounds of jazz as she walked down the busy streets of Arontowne.