The Courage of Children

"RUN!" Luffy yelled as he and Robin took off running into the forest.

"FIND THEM AND GET THAT SNAIL BACK, NO MATTER WHAT!" Spadine furiously roared, his two guards instantly disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Spadine ran to give chase, only for his cast to snag him back and send him falling to the ground. He gave a frustrated screech, flailing his arms and legs around in a childish tantrum.

Luffy had Robin's hand in one of his own and the gold snail tucked under his other. The two children kept running through the forest, trying to find some sort of way out back to the library. Once there, they could give the snail to Luffy's grandpa and hopefully save this island from death and destruction.

"Keep running, Robin! Don't look back!" Luffy yelled.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Robin panted, keeping up with Luffy as much as possible.

Suddenly, in a flash of black, one of the guards was ahead of them. Luffy and Robin skidded to a halt, diving into a near by bush. Peeking through the bushes winding leaves and branches, they saw that the guard hadn't seen them yet.

The guard started walking around the area, looking out for any movement. Luffy and Robin slowed they're breathing, doing their best to keep their noise down.

"You can't hide forever!" He yelled out into the forest. "…You shouldn't have done what you did…"

"Do you know what you just took?" He surveyed the scenery. "Do you know who we are?"

Luffy and Robin checked for an opening, any opening to take so they could possibly sneak past the black suited man.

"You know about the World Government, but you don't know about the task force they have… to do the work that the marines aren't trained for…what they don't have the stomach for…" The man went on, making Luffy gulp in nervousness.

"CP9." The man voiced out loud.

"We're assassins who go after people that have crossed the line, too many times to count!" The man went on, starting to enjoy the scare he was throwing out to these kids.

"We'll go after anyone the Government wants dead…" Luffy and Robin's eyes widened at this. "Men, women…and children!"

Fear ran though the two young ones like an ice cold knife. Robin was starting to weep silently in terror, until Luffy put her hand on hers. Robin looked at the boy, who was giving her a look that said; 'Stay Strong!'

Robin sniffed back her tears, trying to think of a way out of this. Suddenly, it came to her. She took her hand back from Luffy and made her Hana Hana pose.

In the distance from the two, two bright blue eyes identical to Robin's shown in a far off bush, along with two with a row of hands going down the forest ground. With a shake of the bushes with her spouted hands, Robin managed to grasp the attention of the assassin.

Looking in the direction of the noise, he easily spotted the shining bright eyes in the bush. "Got you!"

The eyes disappeared and the row of arms began shaking bushes one at a time, leading away from the assassin.

"You're not going anywhere!" The assassin vanished in a black blur, following the rushing trail.

After a while to check if the coast was clear, Robin and Luffy released the breath they were each holding. They came out of the bush and looked around for anyone else in the area.

"Robin, that was amazing!" Luffy praised the girl. Robin giggled at her cleverness.

"Thanks to you, Luffy! I'd never have done that if you didn't stop me from being scared!" Robin returned her own compliment.

As the two kids smiled at each other, another voice came from behind them.

"Yes, that was quite impressive!"

Robin and Luffy froze, turning slowly to meet the gaze of Commander Spadine, sneering at them like the cat that got the cream.

"Well, well! Two devil fruit eaters, and both of you children no less!" The green suited man chuckled darkly. "That's going to make my report on this investigation all the more interesting!"

The CP9 director spotted the gold transponder snail under Luffy's arm.

"Now, why don't you be a good little boy and hand that snail over to me…" Spadine said as convincingly nice as he could muster, which wasn't much.

Luffy hid the device behind his back. "You're going to use it to blow up this island, aren't you?!"

Spadine did a double take of this, then returned to his 'jolly' demeanor. "I only said that because I was upset about my coat getting torn, that's all!" He tried to wave it off, but the kids weren't buying it. "I would never blow up an island of innocent people!"

"Then why did the marines kill an entire ship of scholars who wanted to study the ponoglyphs?!" Robin sprang her question on the slimy commander.

"So you heard that too…" Spadine caught himself. "I-I mean I had nothing to do with that! Honest!"

Luffy and Robin kept glaring at the oily liar of a man. Spadine cleared his throat, making a chance to start again.

"Listen! Deciphering the ponoglyphs is a crime! Everybody knows that! You could get in really, really, really big trouble for it! I'm just here to investigate if anyone else on this island has been doing the same as they were!"

"…By pulling out the root?!" Robin stated, saying Spadine's lines, word for word.

The green suited man's face fell. "Smart little one, aren't you…"

"Smarter than you, that's for sure!" Luffy piped up.

"…That's it!" Spadine had reached his limit on this charade. Next thing to happen, the man pulled out a sword from behind his back.

"Give me that snail, right now!"

Luffy and Robin gain a face of horror at the weapon. Acting fast on instinct, Robin struck her Hana Han pose quick, and two hands sprout out from both Spadine's shoulders and slapped themselves over his eyes.

"What the?! HEY! I Can't see!" Spadine wrestled with the handover his eyes, swinging his sword like the blind man he currently was. As he did, Luffy launched his arm in the air and grabbed a branch. Robin clung onto him and the two rocketed into the air, pulling themselves up onto the branch, all the while watching Spadine fight with himself over control of his sight.

After the arms disappeared, Spadine looked around and found the two up the tree.

"GET DOWN HERE AND GIVE ME THAT SNAIL!" He bellowed.

Luffy pulled his rubber cheeks apart and stuck his tongue out at spadine. "Why don't you come up here and make us!"

"We're not going to let you destroy this island!" Robin declared proudly.

Grinding his teeth together, Spadine was reaching the end of his patience. He ran to the trunk of the tree and began to climb up it, grunting and fuming all the way up.

"When I get that snail back… I'm going to make you two watch… As I blast this whole miserable island, into oblivion!"

Before he reached the top, Luffy shot his arm out to another branch of another tree. Robin clung to him once more and the two swung over to safety, Spadine making a snatch out for the two when he finally reached the top.

As the two children landed on the branch, the one Spadine was on began to creak and crack. Looking over, the commander noticed that the branch was breaking. With a look of bewilderment, Spadine went crashing to the ground, with the thick branch landing right on top of him.

The two young ones couldn't help but laugh at this. The seriousness of their situation was far away from their minds.

Spadine lurched his way out from under the branch and picked himself up, along with his sword. Looking back up at the laughing children, his temper began to flare up once more.

"I WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED BY A PAIR OF BRATS LIKE YOU!"

"Looks like your'e doing a good job of it anyway!" Luffy laughed out loud again, while robin clutched her stomach she was laughing so hard.

Spadine was so overcome with fury, he began to hack at the tree the two were standing in wildly.

"What are you doing?" Robin wondered.

"I'M CUTTING DOWN THIS TREE!" Spadine hollered in his frazzled state.

"But that could take you forever…" Luffy chimed in.

"SHUT UP!" The government official screeched, not wanting to her any logic from a mere child.

The two chuckled a bit more at this, before Luffy tapped Robin on the shoulder. "Hey, Robin!"

The girl looked over at the boy, who placed the gold snail on his head, sideways as to not accidentally press it, then placed his straw hat on top. He showed his back to her and motioned for her to climb on. Robin did as was instructed and wrapped her arms around Luffy's neck.

"No matter what, hold on tight!" Luffy instructed.

Robin nodded, and the next thing that happened, Luffy had leaped into their to another branch like it was nothing.

"How did you do that?!" Robin kept getting surprised by this boy more and more.

"Me and my brothers run around the jungle all the time! Jumping like this comes naturally now!" Luffy grinned as he started to leap from tree to tree.

Caught in a state of disbelief, Spadine shook himself out of it and gave chase to the two children that were giving him the runaround.

"I'M GOING TO GET THAT SNAIL AND GUT YOU BRATS, IF IT'S THE LAST THING I'LL DO!"


Garp kept pacing back and forth, preying for any good news that Luffy was okay. Olivia just sat on her knees, looking at the forest before her, hoping beyond hope for Robin to just come bursting out of them and running into her arms. Clover stood beside her, looking out to the forest as well. Saul looked down at the three of them and back at the forest. Being a giant, you'd think you'd have the power to do anything you wanted. Everything except make two lost kids appear out of thin air.

The government agents just stood around like lost sheep, wondering where their commander had disappeared too. The marines kept up their guard of the library, following their admiral's orders. The squad that went out to find Luff and robin hadn't returned yet, making them hope more and more for the little straw hat boy's safety.

The scholars inside the library sat around the place, growing more and more impatient and the cabin fever starting to get to them. Looking out the window, they could see Nico Olivia beside Clover, showing that if they were still alive, they had a chance of living as well. Still, they thought more about the chance of Robin being reunited with her mother going by without her even knowing it. That thought weighed down on the scholars immensely.

The civilians of Ohara just watched on from a safe distance, wondering what in the world was going on. Marines and agents alike barred them from getting any closer, resulting in a few disagreements. If this situation didn't get sorted out soon, Ohara would be looking at a full blown riot, along with a downpour of hellfire just waiting in the distance of the unaware island.

The tension in the air was so strangling, even breathing was too risky in case of setting someone off.

Suddenly, a rustling in the bushes alerted everyone present. Looking onward, two black suited men came out of the forest, darting their vision in every direction. One of them spotted the navy officer heading in their direction.

"V-vice admiral Garp!" The assassins instantly stood at attention.

"You two! State your rank!" Garp barked.

The two agents stood at attention before the hero of the navy. "CP9, sir!"

"CP9? What business do you have here?!" Garp had a gut feeling, but he needed to hear it from the two before him.

"We are here to provide protection for Chief spadine, sir!" The black dressed guard stated.

"And where exactly is you're commanding chief?" The feeling that the two were getting from the vice admiral, it felt like they were being interrogated.

"Two children managed to get their hands on the Buster Call trigger, sir! We were ordered to pursue and retrieve the device, no matter the cost!" The assassin declared.

A crack of lightning went across the sky and rain began to fall from above.

The air went down a few degrees as the two black dressed agents stared at a fuming Monkey D. Garp.

"Let me ask you…" He spoke in a dark whisper. "Was one of these children wearing a tattered old straw hat?"

The two agents looked at each other before one of them spoke. "Y-yessi-"

The assassin never got to finish as Garp's massive fist bulldozed into his face, sending him flying into a tree, breaking the bark of the trunk on his impact and him sliding down to the ground, out cold in one punch.

The agent still standing looked back at Garp, his fear showing in the waterfall of sweat coming down his brow.

"That boy…" Garp slowly informed. "…IS MY GRANDSON!"

As Garp expressed his rage on the unsuspecting assassin, the rest of the surrounding agents were at a loss for action, until one brave soul dared to raise his weapon at the unsuspecting vice admiral.

"H-hey! That's enou-" The sound of multiple clicks got the agent and the rest of his comrades attention, looking in the direction of an entire platoon of marines aiming their rifles right at them.

"Fire on our commander and we fire on you!" A marine at the front proclaimed, stopping the other agents in their tracks, not even daring to move.

Upon hearing what the assassin had uttered before being attacked, Olivia was thrown into an even deeper pit of despair. Robin was being hunted down By the World Government!

It's a dream, she reasoned. It was all just a horrible, horrible dream! She was lying in bed, her two year old daughter clinging to her as they both slept. Soon she'd wake up, cancel her voyage for the ponoglyphs and remain on Ohara, making sure that Robin grew up safe and happy!

She clung to her shoulders, hugging herself as the grief consumed her.

Clover didn't know how much more of this he could take, along with everyone else! Ohara's very existence now lied in the hands of two mere children! One of them being Robin! He prayed to whatever deity was listening, to reach down and stop this madness!

Saul clutched at his pants legs. So big! So strong! Yet so useless!

He couldn't take it anymore! He weeped as he looked up into the flashing dark clouds above, the shower of moisture blending in with his own tears. If he made a move and started running around the island looking for the girl, he'd run the risk of provoking the battleships waiting out at sea to open fire, signal or not!

As lightning flashed across the sky, rain began to fall across the island, the dark clouds refusing to leave, mimicking the swirling and chaotic emotions all these people were going through.

The only thing that could put an end to this madness was a miracle!


As Luffy and Robin bounded from tree branch to tree branch, the Tree of Knowledge was starting to get closer with every leap. As the rain beat down on them, the two still managed to keep up their momentum.

"Were almost there, Luffy!" Robin called out, happy to her favorite place on the island.

"Yeah! Just a little more…!" The straw hat boy leaped in the direction where the large tree stood.

As Luffy jumped from tree to tree, they managed to spot Saul's large frame from their current location.

"WOAH! THAT GUY IS HUGE!" Luffy yelled in amazement.

"SAUL! WE'RE COMING!" Robin shouted out, her voice unable for him to hear.

"We're almost their, Robin!" Luffy informed. Just a few more leaps and they were home free!

When Luffy landed on the next batch he aimed for, his foot suddenly slipped on the damp branch from the rain. Both the kids fell down to the ground, luckily falling onto a bush cushioning their fall.

"Ow…Robin, you okay?" Luffy picked himself up from his landing spot.

"Yeah…I think so…" Robin voiced as she nursed her sore head.

"Not for long, you won't be…"

That voice made the two kids flinch in terror. Turning around, they once again, in a flash of thunder, came face to face with a battered, bruised and very upset Spadine, his clothes ripped and tattered after chasing them though out the forest.

"Looks like your luck's finally run out…" The mad looking commander stepped slowly towards them, his sword still clutched in his hand. "And finally coming back in my favor…"

Luffy and Robin both stepped backwards, the fear they managed to outmaneuver for so long finally catching up to them.

"Who do you think you are?" The crazed chief of CP9 whispered. "You're just two little brats! Two little devil fruit freaks! Up against the World government! Do you have any idea what I could do to you?!"

"I could have your entire families killed in their homes! Turn your home islands into work camps and put you to work like animals! Or even ship you off to the Celestials! I hear they love to torture devil fruit eaters like you for fun!"

All the while he was talking, Luffy and Robin's fear was growing bigger and bigger, tears threatening to fall from their eyes.

"You can't fight! You can't use your powers straight! You're too weak to even stand! And no one's coming to save you!" Spadine cackled mockingly.

Robin clung onto Luffy, the fear starting to get the best of her. Luffy looked back at her, and suddenly, something inside him burned away all the fear in him.

"WHAT CAN YOU POSSIBLY DO NOW?!" Spadine raised his sword above his head.

Luffy grasped Robin's hand, making the girl look at him, seeing the look of determination in his eyes once again.

"We can keep running!" Luffy declared. Luffy took off with Robin being pulled behind him.

Spadine grunted in disgust at their feeble attempts and merely picked up the pace of his walk, not even bothering to exert himself.

Luffy and Robin kept running as fast as their short legs could take them.

"Luffy?" Robin voiced out in her exhausted state. The boy looked back at her, still running to their destination. "Yeah?"

"Thank you for being my friend!" Robin smiled as her eyes shown with unshed tears.

Luffy gaped at her before coming out if it and running even faster, causing Robin to stumble a bit.

"We're still going to be friends, Robin!" Luffy refused to let things end here.

Spadine began to pick up his speed a bit, the image of the Tree of Knowledge beginning to look closer than before.

"No…" He muttered. "No,no, NO!" He began to sprint after the two children, sword over his head, ready to swing.

Luffy and Robin kept running to the end of the forest, the half crazy Spadine hot on their tail.

With the Tree of Knowledge finally in front of them through a last cluster of trees, Luffy and robin gave a loud, terrified cry.


The sound of screaming was heard by everyone around the Tree, all looking toward the forest. Just as everyone looked in the direction of the noise, Luffy and Robin came bursting out of the forest, looking scared beyond belief.

"GRANDPA!" Luffy wailed.

"HELP US!" Robin cried out.

"Luffy?!" Garp yelled stupefied.

"Robin?!" Olivia gasped in astonishment.

The next thing to come out of the forest was a raging Chief Spadine, holding his sword above his head, ready to strike.

The two children stumbled to the ground, their legs completely out of strength. Luffy's hat flew off his head as he fell, a golden object tumbling out of it. Spadine was on the kids, ready to swing his blade.

"YOU, AND THIS WHOLE ISLAND, NO LONGER HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST!"

Luffy and Robin clung onto each other, waiting for the inevitable pain to come.

After some time past and no pain had come, the two children cracked their eyes open, seeing Garp had intercepted Spadine, and now stood between him and them.

"Chief Spadine…" Garp spoke in a calm voice that held back a storm more fierce than the one above them. "Exactly what do you think your'e doing…" Spadine recognized the vice admiral instantly, beginning to quake in his shoes. "Chasing after children, with a sword in your hand?"

"I-I…I…" Spadine's mind was a complete blank. Every thought of murdering the two kids that had humiliated him and annihilating Ohara went right out the window, leaving him with nothing to say to defend himself.

"Hey, what's that?" A marine spotted something shining on the ground by Luffy's hat.

Everyone turned to it and dropped every one of their jaws.

"That's the Buster Call trigger!" An agent blurted out, making the chief commander shake in fear on a further level.

Luffy spotted it and ran over to it, grabbing it and holding out to his grandpa.

"He was gonna blow up the whole island because a tree snagged on his coat!" Luffy shouted for all to hear. Many of the civilians there didn't believe such an excuse, but the marines, a few agents, scholars, Garp, Olivia, Clover and Saul knew and believed that Spadine was just that spiteful to do so.

"I-It's a precaution!" The crooked officer piped up. "If we managed to find any evidence of the scholars the navy intercepted had come from Ohara, that would have been what we needed to…"

Looking around, Spadine could tell from all the dark looks being given to him, that he was not helping his own case with what was coming out of his mouth.

"Your'e not going to take the word of a child over a government official! Are you?!" He desperately roared.

Garp knew that Luffy was telling the truth. He was always too honest for his own good. Seriously, any time he tried to lie, he would physically show that he was being dishonest.

"If it's my grandson, then yes!" Garp inquired.

"Y-your'e…Your'e…" Spadine felt like wetting himself for realizing that he had just tried to cut down Monkey D. Garp's Grandson!

"You know what?" Garp's tone switched to a casual one. He then proceeded to ram his fist up Spadine's jaw, sending him flying in the air with a Garp powered uppercut. "We can talk about this later."

Chief Spadine fell from the high altitude to the ground with a harsh slam to the face, the rest of him then falling front first onto the ground. His tongue was sticking out of his open mouth, revealing a few missing teeth.

"Robin!" Clover ran to the girl and wrapped his arms around her. "Are you all right?!"

"Clover!" Robin then melted down into tears as she shoved her face into the professor's shoulder. "I was so scared! He was gonna …and…" robin blubbered out loud, braking the old man's heart.

"It's okay, Robin!" The aging scholar comforted his surrogate daughter by stroking her head. "Your safe now! I've got you…I've got you…"

Suddenly, the front door of the library burst out, all the scholars inside running to Robin's aid.

"Robin!"

"Are you okay?"

"What did that horrible man do to you?!"

Robin just looked around at all their concerned faces, happy to be cared for and looked upon by other people so much. She suddenly gained a look of shock and switched her head back to Clover.

"Professor! I think I left a book out in the forest somewhere! I'm sorry I lost it…" Robin's frown nearly came back, before a laugh from the aging archeologist stopped her.

"That's okay, Robin…" Clover's voice cracked as he nearly broke down as well. "I'll let you off the hook this time…"

Garp stomped up to Luffy, who's face was hidden by his hat. "Luffy!" Garp snatched the gold snail out of the boy's hand, shoving into his coat pocket. "Do you have any idea what you were doing?! Have you lost what little sense you have?! What could have possessed you to-"

"I'm not sorry!" The outburst caught Garp off guard, peering down at Luffy as he lifted his head, trying to hold back a flood of tears.

"I'm not sorry! I'm glad I stood up to that ugly suited jerk! I didn't want Robin to lose her home! I didn't want that creep to have his way! And I didn't…I didn't…"

The anger inside Garp evaporated as he slowly walked up to his grandson and kelt down in front of him.

"You're not going to cry?" He asked gently.

"No…" Luffy held his emotions back.

"Why not?" Garp went on to probe.

"Because if I do, it'll show I'm weak…" Garp raised an eyebrow at this.

"I cried when Shanks left…I cried when Ace and Sabo saved me…And I don't want to cry again…!" Luffy managed to get out without breaking down.

Garp looked between his close to crying grandson and the weeping girl in the professor's arms. Garp sighed out his frustrations, letting his temper melt away. He placed his hands on Luffy's shoulders, making the boy look him in the eye.

"Do you know why heroes cry, Luffy?" The straw hatted boy shook his head.

"It's not because their weak…" He said in a tender voice. "It's because they've had to be strong for too long."

Luffy's eyes widened at the information, then began to break down and cry. Garp scooped him up in an embrace, cradling his terrified sibling.

"I'm sorry, Luffy." The vice admiral soothed the boy. "What you did was stupid, but brave… Just like me…I'm so proud of you…"

"I tried to be strong! I didn't want Robin to get hurt! I didn't want that man to…" Luffy burst into a fresh series of wailing. Garp just let the boy cry out his pain, knowing that holding it in never helps in anyway.

"Robin!" Saul leaned his massive face down to see the dark haired girl. "I'm so glad you're okay!" The giant was close to breaking down as well.

"Saul!" Robin greeted, still crying but a smile now replacing her frown. "Are you alright?!"

"Forget me! You're the one that's been through a nightmare!" Saul grizzled as he went back into another fit of crying.

Robin smiled up at him, before a look of realization took over her face. "Luffy!" Robin leaped out of Clover's arms and ran to the boy, who was now being carried in the arms of Garp.

The vice admiral let the boy down, as Luffy stood in front of Robin, awkwardly aiming his sight away from her.

At the same time, the dark clouds from above began to move on and break apart, letting the sunlight shine down on the clearing.

"Are you okay?" Luffy asked passively.

"Mm-hm!" Robin hummed and nodded. "Thanks to you…" She smiled.

Luffy kept looking away from her, which only gave Robin the chance to peck the boy on his cheek. Luffy looked back at the girl in surprise, his face bright red. Robin just kept smiling at him, making him blush more.

"W-why did you kiss me?!" The boy blurted out.

"Because I wanted to!" Robin answered innocently.

"B-but it's gross!" Luffy yelled.

"It is not!" Robin pouted back.

"Yes, it is!" Luffy defended himself.

"How come?" Robin asked nonchalantly.

"I-it just is!" Luffy was fighting a losing battle, making all the adults in the area begin to brighten up and even laugh at the show in front of them.

Luffy just shouted and scowled at all of them, before catching the glimpse of a tall slender woman with white hair and blue eyes.

"Hey, Robin?" Luffy pointed over to the woman. "That lady kind of looks like you!"

All the laughter around them stopped dead as the two children stared at the woman, standing before them in the clearing.

"Same color of skin, eyes and kind of hair, only it's white!" Luffy went on.

She had been watching from afar this whole time, confused on how to deal with everything that was going on. Now that she had the little dark haired girl's eyes on her, all she could do was stand there and stare back, completely motionless.

Robin stepped toward the woman, wondering where she had seen her before. She could have sworn she remembered that face, but where?

Luffy then decided to ask a question that ended up making all the scholars hold a deep breath.

"Is she your Mom or something?"

Robin's brain clicked, remembering the image of a dark skinned woman with snow white hair, smiling at her as the young girl touched her face with her hands. Such a vague memory, but for some reason at this time, it came to her so clearly.

"Are you my Mom?" Robin asked, everything going still as the sun kept shining down on the two, illuminating their presence for everyone watching from afar.

Olivia didn't know what to say.

If she said yes, would Robin even want her in her life?

Should she say no?

Should she fain ignorance and tell her she must be mistaken?

So many possibilities ran through her head, doubt racking through her body and mind. She then looked back at the girl in front of her, those bright blue eyes gazing at her.

Olivia decided to be honest, to tell her the truth and what ever the outcome was, that was what she deserved.

"…Yes…I am…" She responded to Robin's question. The said girl's eyes widened in astonishment.

Olivia began to step toward her. "My name, if you don't remember, is Nico Olivia."

Many marines and government agents gasped and gossiped about this reveal, perplexed to know that the white haired woman had a daughter the whole time. The onlooking civilians that had been watching everything happen, were just as surprised to know that the Demon Child was the daughter of one of the most talented scholars on the whole island.

Garp just watched on, a stern gaze in his eyes the whole time. Clover and the scholars were waiting in anticipation for whatever would come next, along with Saul watching from up high. Luffy had no idea what was going on between the two, but thought it best to keep quiet.

"…I remember…" Robin began to step forward as well, meeting her long lost mother half way.

"Clover told me, on our way to the library," Olivia brought up. "That you aced the archeology exam, with flying colors!"

The two women met each other and stopped walking, looking back at one another in silence. Olivia then bent down to meet her daughters gaze.

"I'm truly proud of you…" she showed a bright smile, before frowning and tears beginning to leak from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Robin…" she sobbed, not wanting to look away from the girl in front of her, wanting to be upfront an honest with her baby girl. "I never should have left you alone…" Robin began to tear up as well. "I hope you never forgive me for what I did…" The two girls were now shedding their built up emotions. "I don't deserve to be in your life…If you want me to disappear and never come back, I will-"

"NO!" Robin screeched, taking her mother by surprise. What took Olivia by even more surprise was when Robin lunged at her and wrapped her arms around her neck and buried her face into the hair going down the woman's shoulder.

"DON'T LEAVE ME! …Please…"

Olivia, being frozen in shock, listened to her daughter's words.

"I always thought…" The little girl managed to speak. "That if I did what you do…If I studied the same things as you did…I'd end up finding you…" She pulled away from her shoulder and met her mother's eyes again. "And I did! …I found you…I finally found you…"

"Robin…" Olivia couldn't take it anymore. She wrapped her arms around the daughter she hadn't seen for six years and cried along with Robin, who was so happy to see her mother again. The two held each other, letting their pain come through and the missing places in their hearts become full.

Clover and the scholars were breaking down in happy tears, overjoyed for Robin and Olivia to be back together again. Saul was wailing in happiness so loud, he could be heard across the whole island. Many of the marines were even weeping from being touched by the surrounding emotions.

Garp had a warm smile on his face, while Luffy just beamed his toothy grin, happy that his friend was happy.

After a long moment of shedding tears, the two girls wiped their eyes, still smiling at the reunion. Robin then took her mother's hand and lead her over to the vice admiral and the straw hatted boy.

"Momma…" Robin dared to say, which only brought a smile and some more tears to the white haired scholar's eyes. "This is Luffy… He's…my friend!" Robin proudly stated, making Luffy grin happily. "He kept me safe from that man." Robin pointed over at the still unconscious Spadine.

Olivia looked down at the boy,then knelt down before him and took his hands in hers. "Thank you for keeping my Robin safe." She beamed a smile.

"No problem!" Luffy showed his toothy grin. "Robin's my friend, and I'd never want to see her hurt!" Robin blushed at the boy's words, which Olivia caught on to.

Garp walked up to the woman and children, catching their attention with his presence.

"You have an amazing grandson…" Olivia complimented.

"Don't I know it!" Garp ruffled Luffy's hair, beaming proudly at the boy.

Hiding behind a house, far off from the clearing, the group of kids that were picking onRobin earlier that day watched on and heard everything.

"That stretchy kid's grandpa…is a navy marine?!" 'Bad-afro' blanched.

"I heard one of those guys he beat up say that he was a vice admiral!" 'Egg-head' remembered.

"And you knocked that kid's hat off his head…" 'Pig-nose' brought up.

"S-shut up, no I didn't" 'Carrot-head' denied.

"So that's that freaky girl's mom, is it?" 'Bad-afro' asked out loud.

"I don't think we should say that anymore…" 'Pig-nose' deduced.

"Yeah, isn't that lady a wanted criminal?" 'Carrot-head' deciphered.

"In that case, I'm never going near that girl again…" 'Egg-head' said out loud, making the rest of the kids nod in agreement. After everything they did to Robin, the last thing they wanted was a criminal hunting them down for revenge.

After the tension had begun to lift from the crowd of civilians, they started to murmur Soon enough, they began to shout and shake their fists in the air.

"Hey, what the heck's been going on here?!"

"What's the world government and the navy even doing here?!"

"What's this got to do with the scholars of the tree?!"

"Is this their fault?!"

"Does this have to do with that Demon brat over there?!"

"I'll bet it does! Why don't you just cart that little freak off to prison all ready?!"

The yelling began to get louder and the crowd looked close to starting a riot. Olivia was beside herself in fury.

"Is this how everyone on this island has been treating you?!" She asked her daughter. Robin's silence was all the answer she needed. The mother looked back at the raving people in complete and utter disgust, both at them and herself.

Luffy was about to start shouting at the crowd for talking that way about Robin, until Garp decided to put an end to all of this himself. He stepped forward in front of Luffy, filling his lungs with breath.

"ATTENTION! PEOPLE OF OHARA!" The vice admiral hollered, making all of the crazed populace stop dead in their tirade.

"You have not been aware, but your homeland has been at great risk!" This got the attention of every one of the civilians present.

"Four days ago, the navy received information of a ship of scholars attempting to decipher the ancient ponoglyhs! They were intercepted and punished for their crime!" Olivia, Clover and the rest of the scholars grimaced at the mention of the incident.

"Commander Spadine attempted to 'investigate' the island of Ohara with the intention of finding any proof that they were doing as such! If he managed to find said proof, he would have issued a Buster Call, and have the entire island raised from the sea!"

Looks of horror took shape on every one of the civilians.

"However," Garp walked back to the two children behind him and picked them both up, placing them on either side of his shoulders. "These two brave young souls, not wanting to see this island destroyed, managed to steal the device that would have signaled the attack and evaded him, and his men's attempts to retrieve it!"

The people of Ohara looked at the two children, one being a straw hat wearing boy, with a large toothy grin plastered on his face, and the other being the labeled Demon child, looking at all of them wondering how to handle having so much attention being placed on her.

"Choose to be grateful, or choose to deny it, but the truth is here for all to see!" Garp held the two on his shoulders high.

"THESE COURAGEOUS CHILDREN…ARE YOUR HEROES!"

The sun shown through, completely breaking apart the storm clouds that once filled the sky, casting down on the children that had saved the island of Ohara from a fate worse than death.

None of the civilians made a move or a sound, unable to acknowledge what the aged marine officer was saying. Luffy and Robin began to look discouraged at the silence, wondering why all their effort earned them such a cold reaction.

From behind them, a clap sounded out, then another and another. The two children turned their heads around to see Professor Clover giving them an applause. Olivia was right behind Clover's lead, clapping her hands for the straw hat boy, and her daughter who she couldn't be more proud of. The rest of the scholars and archeologists of the Tree of Knowledge followed suit, showing their appreciation by causing the applause to grow louder and even began to cheer. Saul slammed his massive mitts together, the sound of his claps echoing out for miles.

The marines who had been standing guard of the library applauded the bravery of the children as well, respecting how they stood up for what they believed was right and saving hundreds of lives. The government agents on the other hand didn't even try to applaud, sour at the fact that their entire attempt at an 'investigation' of the island, had been ruined by a pair of kids!

Soon, a fair number of civilians began to clap for the young ones, while the rest appeared to not be grateful in the slightest, refusing to see the demon girl as a hero, going so far as to not believe a word that the hero of the navy was saying.

Back to the group of kids that were hiding from everyone present, 'Bad-afro' began to clap as well. The rest wondered what he was doing, until 'Egg-head' looked ahead and began to clap as well. 'Pig-nose' followed after them, and after wrestling with his hesitation and stubbornness, 'Carrot-head' joined them and clapped along too.

Excluding the ones that weren't clapping, a loud, thundering applause resounded around Luffy and Robin, as they took in the sight of all the people giving them thanks for saving their lives.

Robin looked over at Luffy, smiling wide at the sensation of being praised. "We're heroes, Luffy!" She happily proclaimed happily.

"Yeah…" Luffy cracked his signature large, toothy grin. "…Still prefer to be a pirate though!"

The two children smiled and looked back at the people applauding them, the sun shining bight over the island that the two young ones had managed to spare from total disaster.