Prophet in Heaven
"If we're going to heaven, I have preparations to make." Coby spoke seriously as he looked far above them, "My foretelling told me that I'd meet a god traveling with Luffy, but I didn't think it'd be so soon."
Robin watched with a raised eyebrow as the pink-haired pirate walked back into the Galley and into the room reserved for the males. His expression was controlled, as it tended to be when he was deep in thought, and she quickly picked up on the subtle shift of Zoro's shoulders. It didn't happen all that often, but when the somewhat baby-faced, and somewhat insane boy fell deeply into his own thoughts, it was as if some instinct brought the swordsman to check if his weapons were free to slide out of their scabbards in the blink of an eye.
She didn't know Coby, not truly: despite the clear camaraderie between him and the others, despite the obvious respect and interest he held for everyone's specific set of skills, it was as if there was a glass between him and the world, and only rarely that distance vanished. For example, while talking shop with Usopp, or while learning as much as he could of field medicine from Chopper. When his enthusiasm for what he was doing overwhelmed his natural, calculating manner. It was the same distance she had spotted appearing between the moment he pulled the trigger on one of Crocodile's legs, blowing it up, and the flippant deference with which he answered to Luffy's reprimand.
"I'm glad you decided to come on board."
The sun seemed to snuggle amidst the white clouds while the waves broke under the cheerfully sailing Going Merry. Despite the several, perfect patch-ups that Usopp had been able to realize thanks to clever applications of his fruit, it was clear to any expert navigator that the drag of the waves was keenly felt against the hull, and that even with the great care that bordered on the obsessive of the pink-haired pirate, it was a miracle that everything was still working as well as it did.
Robin regarded Coby with a wan smile while she sat at a small table on the upper deck, the breeze whipping her hair as if a dark flag that, not unlike a Jolly Roger, screamed defiance.
He placed a chessboard on the table between them, and quickly arrayed the pieces on it: they were of excellent make: onix-black and marble white, from the foot soldiers to the higest ranked piece, each was unique while keeping a sense of continuity. "Marines and Revolutionaries?"
The king of the white pieces was the unmistakeable, stylized, form of a celestial dragon, with a bubble helmet of perfect white concealing the features of its unisex appearance, which was merely confirmed by the set of miniaturized golden shackles that dangled from its waist. A good, miniaturized imitation of Sengoku the Buddha stood as the Queen, with Garp the hero as one Bishop, complete with his Dobermann helmet, and something resembling the fluffy feathered cloak of Deflamingo wrapped around the figurine.
Its been good training for Usopp." Coby spoke idly, "He has an artistic mind and a keen eye, his power truly fits him: I merely described the more important parts."
It was counterintuitive how he'd use a vice admiral and a Shichibukai as a bishop, instead of two of the three admirals, but the role of the piece was clearly inscribed into the bases, which were enough to identify each piece. Still, the choice of Boa Hancock and Jinbe as knights surprised her even more, if not as much as seeing Akainu and Kizaru as the Rooks. The pawns varied, and Robin didn't recognize their single identities at all.
Noticing her interest, the pink-haired pirate spoke softly: "In chess, the freest piece is of course the Kight, which moves rather uniquely, and with the ability to jump beyond her pieces."
As he talked, he briefly toyed with the black pieces, drawing Robin's attention to them. The sight of the King made her smile a bit more genuinely: standing as the king was an imposing figurine of a fishman, which held emblazoned red on his chest the mark of the Sun Pirates. Curiously, she fingered the white, small statue of Jimbei, recognizing that the mark was there too, even if it had been left white.
"Fisher Tiger as the Revolutionaries' King?" she asked for clarification, which the pink-haired pirate didn't hesitate in delivering.
With a tone that sounded like he was barely holding back a peal of laughter, Coby spoke: "Ideas, and dreams... can they truly die?"
With long hair and a mark clearly visible on one side of the face, Dragon stood as the Queen of the Black Pieces, followed by a humongous-headed figure of a man in spandex for one of the bishops, with a cloaked, mysterious figure as a counterpart. The unmistakable miniature of a man with a Straw Hat stood as a knight, mirrored by the humongous shape of Whitebeard himself on the other side.
Kneeling, the form of Bartholomew Kuma made up for a Rook, and had what looked like a murder of crows in flight as a counterpart. Each was sculpted with extreme care, and besides the first that emerged from the base of the piece, the wings of the others bled into the bodies of the birds, making up a small cloud of them.
"A Shichibukai as one of the Revolutionaries' Rooks?"
"Is that the piece you want the story of?" Coby's gaze became heavy and unyielding as he met hers. Those eyes could be as calculating as Robin's, and he could be just as callous, "I warn you, you'll have to capture it for me to deliver it."
Following his implied suggestion, she looked at the black pawns, who again were a succession of figures she didn't recognize. Still, they all shared a fierce grin, and all held a small book in one hand and a sword in the other... even her own, small copy, who stood, angled forward as if to pounce, right in front of the Knight represented by Luffy himself.
Her smile dimmed when she recognized her own features as one of the pawns, and she rose a challenging eyebrow: "Do you see me as a pawn?"
"Pirates do not make good pieces for this game, I'm afraid." the grin of Coby was unnaturally bright, as if he didn't care one bit about how his implications could be received, "But I do like that a pawn can become a Queen... I thought that a historian such as yourself would appreciate the added layer to the game."
"We're actually going to play?" she still eyed with concealed distaste her own small figure: she'd never make such an expression. That bloodthirsty smile was almost frenzied, and she didn't like the implications, not a single one of them.
"Well, white moves first." the pink-haired pirate stretched back on his chair, letting his challenge lie in the open.
With a precise use of her power, Robin turned the chessboard, so that Coby would be the one playing with the whites, and raised an eyebrow of her own. "A story for each captured piece?"
"I wouldn't have it any other way." her opponent hunched forward on his seat, "Who knows, it might even be History instead of a mere 'story'."
She had been greatly unnerved by the match that followed. She eventually won against the casually dismissive way in which Coby had sacrificed his pieces, but she had the feeling that he simply couldn't bring himself to play to his best while bearing the miniature of a Celestial Dragon as a 'King'. Without giving it away, and using every inch of skill learned in her years on the run to avoid giving away what she ruly felt or thought, she had been almost spooked because she couldn't tell from Coby's expressions or gestures if what he told when one of his pieces was captured was truth or lie.
Only when her knowledge of the history involved matched what he told she could say for certain that he was telling the full truth about a certain character. However, only when she captured his Jinbe-Knight, she felt comfortable with the idea that everything was as reported in the papers, back when she was seventeen, nine years after Ohara's destruction. Other times, she had the feeling that Coby had been 'lying', as such telling 'a story' rather than 'history' under the terms of their 'added layer' to the game of chess.
His smile was a bit too wide when he told of how Hancock was a powerful pirate that had been offered the position of Knight of the Sea. It was as if he had been goading Robin into doubting what she remembered reading about her assignment in the News at the time. Yet what else could there be?
Yes, Coby was a dangerous man: the baby-fat was just finishing leaving behind his features, and while his body was shaping up into something that could belong to a powerful fighter, it didn't hold yet the brute certainty of Zoro, nor the precise strength of Sanji.
Of course, the memory of seeing him offer himself as bait for a Sea King not long before the Straw Hat Pirates made to Jaya was yet another thing that made her wary around him. Still, she didn't feel like she was under a scope from an enemy. No, he was merely a bit sadistic, something that he shared with the woman who had once held the title of Miss Valentine, which now seemed to naturally be dragged into the Pink-haired pirate's orbit.
Yes, he had a mind potentially as dangerous as her own, but the enthusiasm that peeked through during their match seemed genuine to her. That emotion, he couldn't fake: when she captured his pieces, he seemed drunk on life, and the heaviness in his gaze was swapped out for something far more bright and carefree. He was dangerous, but as blatant as it was, she felt challenged, instead of threatened.
It was a peculiar feeling.
With a practiced flex of her Devil Fruit powers, Robin observed in the men's room, manifesting an ear to be able to listen in. She saw how he was in a seiza position in the middle of the room, a disc tied to a string next to him, and a pristine package that she knew Sanji prepared that very morning.
"Robin." his voice didn't sound as loud as if he had been shouting, "Please, pop an eye in front of me, I'd like to watch you in the eyes while I explain."
She did as he asked, and what she heard left her speechless. This time she was sure she was telling 'a story'. It was the only possibility.
Then why did all of her being seem to believe that he thought he was speaking the truth?
God was intrigued.
He had felt the dwellers of the Blue Seas enter his domain, and he had been pleased, as surely other players for his selection for the Arc Maxim, other potentially worthy servants who'd follow him to the Fairy Vearth, could only make the game more entertaining.
This seemed a colorful bunch, even. His Mantra, empowered beyond all reason by his own, unique might, grasped everything that happened on Skypeia, from the furthest edge of the White Sea, to the stars themselves. He was God, and that was only natural.
One of the Blue Sea dwellers had, to the irritation and confusion of his companions, come prepared. He had been fasting to purify his body, and he carried a blindfold to not sully his mind. He chose to not touch weapons in order to not tar his soul, and while his companions had now joined others in the city, he remained on the deck of the subpar vessel they had all used to climb to heaven.
He knelt on his own, in silence, in front of a low table that had been covered by a perfectly white cloth, among three small trees that held curiously orange fruits. And as he knelt during his meditation, he prayed. A barrel full of water was on one side of the altar, another was full of precious Vearth, and God's interest was piqued.
God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
The odd, pink-haired devout knelt in front of what God realized was a small altar, and a he prayed, he set a package on it.
With his unmatched Mantra, Enel could hear the neverending prayer.
God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
And God, bored before the beginning of his Game, decided to meet this holy-man in person. He was weak, unaware of the overreaching senses of God, but as any truly faithful, he acted as if God could hear everything. He was different from those that had witnessed Enel's might, for he believed without proof, and without pretence.
His inner voice was clear as his spirit as he prayed: God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
The only thing that filled the human's spirit was that prayer, the only thing that his inner voice spoke of was the acceptance of a higher being, and pushed by boredom as much as a faint, preemptive taste of amusement at the potential 'enlightenment' that Enel could provide, God reached the odd faithful who so prayed.
God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance.
Enel appeared with the drum-shattering song of thunder, far above the meaningless, wooden vessels that depicted a goat of sorts as its figurehead, and the pink-haired boy who never stopped praying, his heartbeat steady despite the sudden rumble in the sky.
Tilting his head to the side, God watched as the faithful never wavered, his spirit as calm as before, with hunger simmering as if a coat just around his shape: a feeling that he wouldn't give in to, without Enel's intervention. A part of the Lightning Logia considered postponing everything, if only to see how close to death that strange fellow would come while waiting to meet god, another briefly considered killing him instantaneously, with no explanation nor reason. As he didn't need either, for he was God.
Yet...
"God Above All, bless me with your presence, fill my ears with your voice, and eat with me, so that as I break my fast, my soul might mirror your radiance." the voice of the praying man reached his hears directly then, and Enel, despite himself, found himself smiling patronizingly.
The prayer rang, again and again, and curiosity won over God himself.
With another movement too fast to be followed, Enel appeared in front of the praying man, and sat cross-legged in front of the makeshift altar, briefly taking notice of the pleasant smell given off by the trees surrounding them. While hardly rich, this could be a respectable attempt at worship: "Never before a faithful asked for my voice before knowing of my existence."
The calm into the pink-haired man's spirit was broken by a sudden spike of joy, followed by caution, and calm once more as his prayer stopped: "God, is that truly you?"
A bolt of lightning passed just past the pink-haired man who sat with his eyes bandaged, in order to keep himself from impure thoughts, and Enel grinned sardonically, despite knowing that he wouldn't be seen: "You called, I came, and now you doubt?"
"Never!" the faithful gasped, a hint of shame appearing in his inner voice as Enel watched closely: "But many would take advantage of someone seeking the enlightenment that only God can provide, and..."
"Spare me." God became bored quickly as the groveling began, and the pink-haired man was quick to shut his mouth, his hands deftly undoing the package which had been sitting quietly in the middle of the altar.
Gesturing with the head towards the barrel full of water, the man with a bandage covering his eyes spoke: "As an offering, I brought water from the Blue Seas." turning towards the other side, he continued, "I brought land from our isles." and finally, turning towards the now unveiled food on the altar, colorful, varied food that smelled so deliciously despite being at the same temperature of the environment around them, and I brought the result of the union between the two, so that my soul might be brightened if God was willing to break his fast with mine."
"Useless water, and a handful of Vearth." Enel wasn't impressed, despite the dangerous way in which the barrel of water sounded to his Mantra, but he was interested in the whole affair: "What do you hope you'll gain if I agreed to eat with you?"
"Surely my God knows how such an honor would make this faithful feel like having the Sun in his heart for a thousand years!" the pink-haired, odd man chuckled, truly thinking that Enel had meant to make a joke.
"You seem strangely prepared to meet God, for a man so ill-prepared, and whose arrival in heaven was due more to luck than to skill." Enel enjoyed exposing the obvious holes in the story offered, only to freeze when the truth was spoken.
"Prophecy spoke of how God would one day call to all the faithful, and how he'd take his chosen to the endless sky, far above heaven itself, to the evermoving moon."
The spirit of the man was elated as he whispered the Truth, and Enel understood how he could be so calm and happy despite the hunger and the potential breaking of his faith had God not answered his prayer: "Long I have been derided for my faith, God Above All, but the Prophecy spoke of how only those that the Almighty ate with could be worthy of being uplifted."
He had no fear, because God was with him.
"I put a Trial in place, to select those worthy of joining me." Enel spoke with triumph in his heart, all of his dreams and plans being at once confirmed and reinforced by the prophecy the pink-haired man spoke of. If the only thing he had to do to confirm the prophecy spoken of referred to him was to eat along with this little, odd man, then he could.
"If you Choose me, Highest, I'll face the Trial with your light in my soul." again, there was no hesitation, only endless, almost desperate eagerness that was now sharply joined by a pang of hunger.
Almost enthralled by the faith he was being exposed to, Enel took a spoonful of the rich plate in front of him.
AN
How did Robin's proper introduction go? I opted for a full scene in her memories coupled with a bit of deep thinking, which I feel it's something she'd do. There are of course a shit-ton of implications about each choice of each piece for each role of their small game of chess, and maybe I'll add other scenes later on to explain them.
This is the last chapter in which nothing changes between the two versions of this fic. From the next chapter, we'll be dealing with one story that is truly divergent and growingly original from canon, and one that instead follows canon but with extra steps to it (I'm already bored at the thought, but it will be interesting until after Marineford at the very least.)
(As always, I won't swear that a story will be completed unless I break through the 50k words, and Unbound, Stealing the Thunder was the declared exception, so I have time still to drop everything).
Let me know your thoughts!
