Before sunset they finally reached the area where Onigashima fell. It was a spacious crater about three kilometers in diameter, black and charred, with all the rocks and rubble encircling it all around like a ring.
King tied the croco-shark to a rock and set up a tent while Robin had already begun searching for the Poneglyph. King soon joined her, but the search wasn't easy: the area was large, everything was black, and the sun was already setting.
"I'm wondering whether I should use my devil fruit after all," said King thinking out loud. "I'd have a much better point of view from above."
"You've got a height advantage even without it," said Robin. "Come on, climb this rock here and tell me if you recognize a cube, or a rock with straight faces."
King climbed and looked around. "I think maybe there's something over there." He pointed to a certain point some distance away from them.
They started walking in that direction, when suddenly Robin stopped. "There's a footprint here!" She pointed to the scorched dirt in front of her.
"Kuso!" King immediately pulled out the flag and tied it tightly around his head. He looked around suspiciously. "I hope no one has seen my face just now."
Robin looked around too, but didn't see any living soul. "I don't see anyone," she replied, "let's proceed cautiously."
They continued towards the square rock, which was indeed the right size. Robin wiped the ashes from the corner. "It's the blue Poneglyph," she said, "I've read it already."
"Really? What does it say?" asked King curiously. He passed by it a million times and never managed to decipher anything.
"History." Robin answered briefly. "Wano's previous shoguns." King was not sure she was telling him the whole truth, but accepted the fact that she may not yet trust him completely with this information.
"Let's keep looking." King replied.
"I can't see anything anymore," Robin said, "the sun has set. We'd better go back to camp and continue looking for it in the morning."
They groped their way back with the flame King was holding in his hand the only thing lighting their way. King warmed Robin's meal but refused to join her although she offered him again and again. When the desert night began to get very cold, they entered the tent. King of course could only get inside by crawling. He lay on his back and invited Robin to lie on his healthy wing, like the night before.
"Thank you," said Robin, "it's really warm like that on your wing, cuddling between your arm and waist. Maybe I'll even be able to fall asleep."
"Do you too always find it hard for fall asleep?" King asked.
"Yes," Robin replied, "a habit from the time when I was always afraid of being betrayed. Quite a few times I've managed to escape at the last second thanks to my insomnia."
"A familiar problem," King replied. "Although Kaido would never betray me, lots of cheeky subordinates always tried to find out information about me or just peek in when I slept. I fortified my room in Onigashima more and more, until it became just like a safe." King laughed.
"Listen, here's what we'll do." he continued, "I can see you're tired, try to sleep now and I'll keep watch, and when you wake up we'll switch, okay?" Robin nodded and settled herself into a more comfortable sleeping position.
"Imagine you're flying," King said to her in a quiet, soothing voice, "flying over Red Line. Beneath you are steep red cliffs, and on either side of you only sky and sea, dotted with small islands to the horizon. You fly and the wind carries you further and further on, to the next cliff, and the next... the road is long, but one day you'll surely get there, to the magical city in the Holy Land, to the place where you can be free..."
Robin's breathing made it clear to King that she had fallen asleep. He lay motionless, eyes open, listening to every nocturnal sound and murmur of the desert.
Robin slept less than four hours before she began tossing and turning in her sleep. "Saul... Professor Clover..." Robin murmured, and suddenly jumped to sit up: "Mother!"
Panting, Robin looked around anxiously.
"A nightmare?" asked King gently.
"That witch, Black Maria..." Robin replied in a shaky voice, "she was trying to create illusions of the people I lost in my mind to capture me. At that moment I had to overcome them, but now..."
King put his hand on her shoulder, to calm the tremor that gripped her. "That whore, she did it to me too!"
"Is that what you call your crewmate?" Robin asked.
"She really is a whore," King replied "Kaido's private whore. And she was not always my crewmate. She once had a brothel in the Flower Capital. She captured some headliners and even one of the Flying Six, to extort money and favors from us. Kaido sent me to take care of this. I defeated her of course and brought her to Onigashima as a prisoner. But in that battle, she created an illusion of my family in my mind, which caused me nightmares too.
Kaido eventually made her his whore. Every time he got drunk he would try to persuade me to take her, but after what she did to me I wouldn't touch her even with a ten-foot pole!" said King.
"Then... then who was your whore?" Robin wondered, "Sorry for asking, but who else fits you in size?"
"I don't need a woman that tall," King replied embarrassedly. "There was someone. Albatross SMILE. Impressive wingspan, but a bird's brain."
Robin laughed. "I will not fall asleep again," she told King, "it's your turn to sleep, I'll keep watch. Imagine you're flying over the Red Line..."
King hasn't heard this story told in a female voice ever since he was a child. He indulged in Robin's soft voice and closed his eyes.
