Robin's Diary

Chapter 2: Decisions

After the raging party I'd managed to start had ended, Aokiji had more or less disappeared by the morning after although nobody was sure exactly when or how he'd left. After Whitebeard's hangover had passed, he and Clover sat down to negotiate. Well, negotiate is a strong term. It's more that Whitebeard recalled what Clover had drunkenly told him the previous night and had already agreed to let the historians settle in Foodvalten under his protection. The historians cheered at the news that they'd succeeded in their dangerous journey, while I had been lost in thought.

True, the pressure of Ohara's demise was off my shoulders. But now what? Did I go and live with my mother, living the childhood I always wanted? Did I go out and do another crazy stunt like try and save Gol D. Roger from execution? Go into hiding so that none could use my knowledge to alter the future? Spare my friends their near universally poor childhoods? There were so many options, and I truly felt myself at an impasse. Did this make me a Whitebeard Pirate? That idea immediately struck with me as something to be rejected; the only Pirate crew she would formally join would be the Straw Hats.

"Gomen…" I said as I walked up to Whitebeard and pulled on his pants, confident that such a man of integrity that even Luffy respected wouldn't hurt me.

"Yeah Nico-mini? What can I do for you?" asked Whitebeard casually as he watched the historians of Ohara celebrate, hangover be damned with a sparkle in his eye.

"I'm not gonna be a Whitebeard Pirate," said Robin definitively. "It's not happening."

The Oharans all stared at her in shock at the insolence she'd just displayed towards their savior when Whitebeard burst out laughing at her precociousness.

"Don't worry little Oharan, I don't recruit children and you don't seem tough enough anyways! Gurararara!" Marco and Saul both smiled at her, taking any possible sting out of Whitebeard's words.

Robin stuck out her tongue at them all.

"Good, because I'll only ever have one Captain."

I don't know what courageous bone sprouted in my body at that moment, or when I became so…Luffy-like. All I know is that I did it and my mother has promised that she'll find it adorable for the rest of her life. Perhaps I should avoid having my crew and my mother meet, ne…?

The next few days were spent sailing leisurely with Whitebeard. The reason he'd arrived at just the right time was because the Moby Dick had been anchored off of Puman, the island we'd originally been heading to, when he heard the roar of the Sea King that had been about to attack us from the vibrations in the water. The funfact of the day was that the Gura Gura no Mi gives the user an affinity for vibrations no matter how faint they are. The only time their roars are ever heard is when someone's sailing in from the Calm Belt, which is why he and Marco went to investigate.

I spent those days for the most part, relaxing and getting to know my mother for the first time in two lifetimes. I also played with Saul and occasionally Marco who were both determined to 'make a normal little girl' out of me. I thought it was funny more than it was annoying, and I hadn't had the chance to unwind like this…ever. Even when having fun with the others, I always held myself back from fully engaging in the silliness. Maybe it helped a bit that even though I was mentally a grown woman, I couldn't escape that I was physically an 8-year old girl. Even Whitebeard himself got in on the shenanigans when he saw the silliness the other two grown men were engaging in to bring a little girl out of her shell. It really was just like the Thousand Sunny all over again.

In between the moments of fun and camaraderie were reflections on what to do next. I was forced to write off any ideas I'd had of recreating the crew and our adventures exactly as they were with slight alterations like stopping Kuma's separation because of how…implausible they'd become. It was insanity to think that the crew would come together and that everything would happen exactly as it happened unless I'm ready to accept responsibility for enabling the worst of my friends' childhoods and allowing terrible events to befall others in the name of maintain the sanctity of the timeline as I knew it. I'm not prepared to do any of that, and any illusions I had of making everything go the same as before died the moment I decided that I'd do everything I could to save Ohara's people.

For one, I was no longer the same Nico Robin that Luffy was more or less forced to recruit. And I wouldn't be, even if I went through every miserable moment I went through originally in the other timeline (at some point, I embraced acknowledging this world as an alternate timeline. I think it began the moment I saw Whitebeard dancing around with chopsticks up his nose. That couldn't have happened in my timeline….right?). Precisely because I already knew what awaited me at the end. Why follow the path when you can explore the possibilities? Truly, Luffy's outlook on life is contagious.

So, first thing is first. Just before we disembarked on Foodvalten, I told Saul to warn Whitebeard and Marco to beware about a man named Teach. Both looked at him funny when he did, but shrugged and accepted the warning with relative grace. Neither of them knew a Teach yet. Ideally, neither Luffy nor Ace ever will either.

Settling into Foodvalten was relatively easy as the island was a net exporter of foodstuffs, so the added pressure of additional mouths to feed did little to dampen our new neighbor's enthusiasm towards us. My mother and I settled in a small cabin surrounded by terrace farms that Saul helped us build. Saul himself created a (relatively) small home nearby ours and became a common houseguest of ours. Our next closest neighbor was a friendly old man by the name of Choma, but I rarely saw him. In that time, I continued to think on what exactly I wanted to change, or to what degree I could control the changes I made to ensure that things went as I wanted them to.

All of my plans however, easily died with my mother who was determined to raise me as a loving parent would have any eight year old. A part of me loved it, because it was always what I wanted to have. Another part of me really wanted to be treated as an adult again and couldn't wait to grow up. After a few weeks of 8-year old bliss and spending quality time with my mother, I was ready to take the first bold step in changing the future. It was time to tell my mother I was from an alternate dimension. It went about as smoothly as it sounds on paper.

"Yes sweetie. You're from an alternate dimension. And I'm Gold Roger's mistress," said Olvia with a disbelieving laugh as Robin (unintentionally) began to pout. Thankfully, she had brought backup.

"I know it sounds crazy Olvia, but Robin really does know things she shouldn't. How do you explain how she knew what happened when I was a Marine?"

Olvia grew tight-lipped at this. Yes, she owed Saul a lot. Yes, she was his friend. But a part of her had never forgiven Saul for letting her fellow historians die. It was a rough topic for them to talk about.

"While I'll give you that, it doesn't conclusively mean that she's from an alternate universe," said Olvia, disbelief obvious in her voice.

Robin had to physically stop herself from voicing out all her other theories of what this was. Her mother currently thought she was being funny, she didn't want her thinking she's mad.

"What do I have to say to prove I'm from an alternate timeline?" asked Robin, figuring that this would be a more efficient way of getting her point across.

Olvia grinned at her daughter from across the table. "How about this. Tell me the day Gold Roger will die. And on that day, if you told me right I'll believe you."

Robin was just about ready to huff about her mother not taking her seriously when she stopped to think. And realized that date was a lot closer than she'd thought. Gol D. Roger was due to be captured by the Marines in about three days. It took all of her willpower to not start smiling.

"I bet you Roger gets captured in three days, and dies two weeks after that!" exclaimed Robin with a smile that clearly communicated that she knew something her mom didn't. Olvia just smiled with mild exasperation.

"Deal."

Needless to say, I won, and my mother started taking me a bit more seriously after that. Just a bit, mind you. She was still determined to treat me like Mommy's Little Princess for as long as she could. I can see where I got my penchant for penance from.

It was about six months into living at Foodvalten that I had a rough draft of my plans after much brainstorming and struggling to remember all I could about my friend's pasts. They were as follows.

The Three Tenets

Reassemble at least the original Straw Hat crew no matter the consequences

Improve the childhoods of my nakama without directly invalidating what made them who they are

Cripple the plans and ambitions of the antagonists we faced when possible

Priority to the tenets were given from top to bottom.

My plans were derived using the above three tenets as the pillars to justify actions I planned to take. My preliminary plans for my crewmembers are as follows, based on what she knew of her nakama's childhoods:

Luffy:

-Avoid the Sabo incident, if at all possible

-Failing that, ensure that Sabo's amnesia is lifted earlier

-Offer the three wild siblings some education. It's clear Luffy had none and it's unfair to him that he's continuously degraded for his lack of knowledge

Nami:

-Kill Arlong. Ideally, before Bellemere dies

-A major concern is that Nami will be a very different person without her life experience. But if I do nothing and Nami ever learned about my inaction, I'd undeniably earn her hatred. Even if I risk losing my nakama, I must take action for Nami

Zoro:

-Zoro has made vague references to a certain somebody that he's sworn a pact with as a swordsman, and also implying that they are no longer on this world. If I can figure out exactly what he was referring to, avoid that person's death if at all possible

-There is no fixing that man's sense of direction

Usopp:

-Ensure that he does not grow up alone. Visit him at least a few times. Perhaps introduce him to other nakama in the East Blue?

-Train the cowardice out of him early. Maybe force his father to look out for him while they're in the East Blue visiting Luffy, when he first got his hat

Sanji:

-I'm not sure anything can be done for Sanji. Germa 66 is unavoidable, and by the time I know where he is he'll already be working with….Veff? Zeff? From what he's told me, he was happy with 'the old geezer'

Chopper:

-Try to save his father figure, Hiluluk without voiding his apprenticeship to Kureha

-Due to knowing all of nothing about medicine, this means strong-arming him into Kureha's care as I can't cure him myself

-Wapol must die. I cannot tolerate any man who pretends to restrict knowledge from others or hurt my nakama as much as he did, directly and indirectly

-I'm so glad Chopper-kun and I had a lot of conversations in the past, or trying to fix Chopper's childhood would have been impossible

Franky:

-Warn Franky about Spandam's attempts to frame his master, Tom. This should occur when I'm 20, therefore I will

-Warn him in advance several years ahead of time and

-Try to be in Water 7 around the time of the events

-Spandam WILL die, for all the damage he's caused onto others

Brook:

-Brook is alone until approximately five years from our arrival in the Florian Triangle when Gekko Moria steals his shadow. This time, he'll be long gone by then

-The sooner I can save Brook from his solitude, the better

My laundry list of things to do is very large, but I've also got about 19 years to do it, more or less. The very first thing I should do is go and free Brook from the Florian Triangle. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to tell him to convince him to join us but…I'll figure it out when the times come. After that it'll be a trip to Water 7 to tip off Franky, and then…? Lots of waiting, most likely. A lot of my nakama's tragedies actually happen at roughly parallel times and I've already got the sinking feeling that I won't be able to do everything at once. At least the World Government won't be actively hunting me anymore.

Which brings me to an important point about the Ohara crisis. Word had spread via the grapevine back to our island that the World Government had more or less abandoned any plans involving the Oharan historians completely, viewing them as a lost cause now that we were under Whitebeard's protection. The villagers had scattered completely throughout the West Blue and even into the other four seas, and were also unlikely to be targeted by the World Government. Brutal they may be, but tracking down all of the Oharan diaspora would mean razing the entirety of the West Blue to the ground. Not even they were mad enough to attempt something so extreme…but I had my doubts at first. As the months went by with no news of disaster, I breathed a bit easier, knowing that if it hadn't happened before it was unlikely to happen now.

I had begun to prepare for my voyage out to the Florian Triangle but I hit…a snag.

"Young lady, you're 9. I don't care how much you know about the future, you're not going out to that forsaken blight of the ocean," stated Olvia with the absolute finality of a parent putting their foot down. She stood blocking the door with her frame, and looked far more intimidating than Robin had thought possible with the annoyed glare she was sending her.

"I've got a friend to rescue, I don't care what it takes, I'm going," stated Robin flatly, unamused by her mother's latest nurture streak. She was leaning against the wall just outside of their home, a bag packed next to her feet.

"You're 9!" exclaimed Olvia with exasperation, "What are you possibly going to do alone on the Grand Line as a 9-year old? Do you even have a ship?"

Robin chewed on her bottom lip in frustration. As much as she hated to admit it…her mother did have a point. She really doubted the Whitebeard Pirates would be up to lending her a ship and crew…let alone when they'd be back to visit Foodvalten again.

"Dereshishi! Your mother's right Robin-chan! You're too puny to be sailing the scariest stretch of the Grand Line outside of the New World! I'VE never gone there, how do you think you'd fare?" questioned Saul with a chuckle, sitting back on their lawn comfortably.

"Then come with me!" exclaimed Robin in exasperation. "I don't care how, I just care that I get there before Gekko Moriah settles down there!"

By this point in time, both Saul and Olvia knew better than to question Robin's cryptic references to the future, but Saul still looked unconvinced. Olvia on the other hand, had a far more thoughtful look before she offered Robin a grin.

"Alright, fine. But you're waiting until you're at least 14, and both Saul and I are going with you," said Olvia.

"You are?"

"We are?"

"Yep," said Olvia with lazy grin. "This peaceful island life is nice and all, but it's boring to an adventuring archaeologist like me. Helping you out with your crazy visions-"

Robin shot her mother a dirty look, "-will be a whole lot more fun than sitting here until I grow old and die!"

And so a bit under 5 years passed rather uneventfully. I had to physically stop myself at times from just rushing out down to the docks and taking any ship I could find in order to free Brook. Knowing that he was spending every day on his own in his own personal hell was maddening to my conscience, but I did my best to not think about it, knowing that my mother did have a point. As a child, I was all but useless on the open seas. And I'd do Brook or the others no good if I was dead.

I continued with my workout routines regularly with Saul deciding to act as my coach, as one of his past jobs with the Marines was a recruit trainer. With his guidance, I felt like I'd achieved the endurance I had when I first joined the Straw Hats, and was roughly as strong as I would have been in my late teens.

But the achievement I was proudest of was finally accessing Observation Haki. Saul, being competent in both forms of Haki, had been trying to get me to bring it forth as part of my training under him with little success. But when I was 13…

"Hyah!" shouted Robin as she jumped over Saul's sweeping finger and began to run up his arm. Saul chuckled as Robin's mouth twisted in a frown. "Saul, that punch was so slow that I could have dodged it when I was 8," complained Robin as she reached his shoulder.

"Gomen Robin, but you know that I can't go any faster. The force would seriously hurt you, dereshishi," chuckled Saul as he jabbed his free arm at the girl on his shoulder, forcing her to jump off rather than get hit and landing in a crouch.

Robin was dressed in what she'd mentally dubbed her 'serious outfit', consisting of a pair of flexible black pants, gladiator sandals, a form-fitting purple tank top, and her hair, still about the same length she'd worn it for most of her life, tied back in a short ponytail to keep it out of her face. She stared down Saul wearily, trying to pick out a new angle of attack.

The giant's post-Marine outfit was rather reminiscent of the damaged clothes he'd worn when he'd first met her; gray slacks, a dark t-shirt, and a cowboy hat. The major difference in his appearance was that he now wore a pair of massive cowboy boots, a red ascot tucked into his shirt, and kept a pair of cowboy gloves hanging off his waist at all times that Robin had never seen him wear.

Part of Saul's training had involved teaching Robin the basics of fighting in close combat, something she'd never really picked up in her previous life besides the basics of wielding a knife. Robin was happy to learn as it'd add more flexibility to her repertoire, should she ever face anybody who she couldn't overpower from a distance; the idea being to use close combat to create more distance between herself and an enemy.

Most of that was focused on training to dodge and maneuver, but Saul had also thrown in how to kick, punch, and break a hold. Rather awkwardly, as when verbal instruction failed he had to corral Olvia as a practice dummy for demonstration purposes, as he was far too large to demonstrate anything but being flattened to the ground under overwhelming force.

To Robin's frustration however, she could barely tell if what she was doing was right as Saul's overwhelming physique meant that he barely felt the 13 year old girl's efforts and they commonly bickered (or as close as Robin could get to bickering) over the effectiveness of their training. Robin didn't really complain about the training itself…more about how frustrating it was to not be able to see the fruits of her labor as nobody on the island was inclined for combat against her. Which is why a common point of minor bickering between the two was Robin attempting to get Saul to take her more seriously.

Said frustration was visible on her face as she charged Saul again, throwing a few swift punches at his ankle before finishing with a roundhouse kick and retreating once more. "Take me seriously!"

Saul just smiled gently before taking in a deep sigh. "Alright, fine. If you're not fast, this is going to hurt Robin-chan."

With that, Saul's entire demeanor changed as his eyes began to track Robin's movements and he started circling her instead of staying in one fixed location. "Feel free to go all out," said Saul seriously, "or this is going to a very short spar."

Robin nodded determinedly as she crossed her arms, causing arms to sprout all over the ground surrounding her like grass, and she was lifted slightly off the ground, standing on her sprouted arms. "Cien Fleur: Hana Hana Floor," called out Robin as she took a stance and prepared to charge Saul down.

But that's not what happened, as with a start, Saul charged her far faster than she'd ever seen him move and was on top of Robin before she could blink. Robin's eyes widened in shock before she gathered her wits and jumped back, the arms she was standing on adding their strength and catapulting her away several meters. Arms sprouted as she was about to land, dampening her fall as the force of the landing was easily dispersed by the small ocean of arms, as they bent to absorb the shock. The arms where she had previously been standing had been dissolved by her just in time, as Saul's fist had formed a small crater where she'd previously been standing. Robin couldn't help but smile, glad that she'd finally get a chance to test herself.

"Let's go!" shouted Robin as a thin path of arms sprung in a path to Saul. Setting herself in a sprinter's stance, Robin pushed off, her arms once more accelerating her as she took long, powerful strides while charging at Saul. As she approached him, she jumped, rocketing to Saul's neck as she cocked her arm back. "Cinquenta Fleur: Punch Web Cannon!"

As Robin punched up at Saul's chin, arms sprouted on her arm, that sprouted on those arms and so on, until a set of 50 arms in a near web-like pattern were flying straight at Saul, all packing the same strength and acceleration of Robin's original punch.

Saul's hand caught her punch with surprising speed for a man his size and held on tightly as his other fist came up in an uppercut straight at her. Robin had already banished her extra appendages, freeing her from Saul's grip, but she was falling straight towards Saul's incoming fist.

Robin focused, and a leg sprouted on the middle of Saul's hand that she grabbed onto and acrobatically did a flip, using that momentum to get out of the way of Saul's punch. Landing once more on her small wave of arms, she raced at Saul once more, this time aiming for the back of his legs.

Circling him, Saul eyed her warily as she charged in, making a jumping kick that connected with the back of his knee, forcing Saul down to one leg. What she'd failed to notice was that Saul used this momentum from falling down to twist his upper body around, bringing a hand forward to catch Robin.

She was still in the air, but had no surfaces from which to form limbs and alter her trajectory. Robin's eyes widened in panic as she wracked her brain for a solution; using her arms to make wings would be too slow in altering her momentum, there were no surfaces to form limbs on in the air, and it looked like there wasn't anything she could do.

But then she felt it, a pulse in the back of her mind. Calling to her to try something she'd never done before as she read Saul's movements, seemingly before they were to occur. Eyes widening, she crossed her arms as an arm sprouted from the ground, then another on top of that, and another on top of that one and so on until a thin pillar of arms had formed a few feet away from her. From the highest wrist, another series of arms formed that stretched out towards her that formed a structure in the shape of a lightpost which she latched on to, stopping her just inches from falling where Saul's hand was prepared to swipe her out of the air.

As Saul's hand swung past underneath her, Robin dispersed the arms, falling onto the ground and landing gently in another small wave of arms. Saul stopped his attacks as he grinned widely, recognizing what Robin had just done. "Now we're making progress!" exclaimed the giant, causing Robin's eyes to widen slightly and a small, happy smile to grace her lips.

From that day on I was able to reliably access Observation Haki with Saul's tutoring. Saul became less worried about hurting me so long as he didn't use Observation Haki in turn, and soon our spars began to closely resemble the intense battle where I first awakened Observation Haki in this body.

One more year of relative peace passed by before the day finally came to go and rescue Brook from his isolation.

Saul, my mother and I were all ready to go, sitting on the docks as we awaited our boat. Saul and I were dressed in our usual outfits. While we had been living on Foodvalten, my mother had abandoned her trench coat she wore while on the run and wore clothing similar to what I would have worn casually aboard the Sunny; stylish pants, shirts, belts, shoes, hats, etc. But for the purposes of the voyage, it appeared she'd taken on some more practical clothing that I'd never seen her in before. I was rather surprised to see my mother dressed in a pair of light hiking boots and heavy-duty grey cotton pants. From the top up, she wore her usual style of an ornate belt and a blue tank top that exposed some midriff. She had donned her coat once more, and from the shapes I could make out, there were at least three different firearms stashed inside. My mother winked at me, causing me to smile and resume focusing on the horizon.

It took only a few more moments before we spotted our transport. To offer an explanation, I appeared to have become something of a favorite of Whitebeard's for what in his words was, 'the sheer brass and determination on a little girl' and was thus relatively well known among many of the division commanders due to stories of how I had been partially responsible for saving Ohara. As a result, my wish to sail into the Florian Triangle became something of a gag amongst the crew of the Moby Dick until it became apparent how determined I was to do so. Both Marco and Vista had volunteered to take me out to the Triangle, and thus here we were, awaiting our unknown Whitebeard Pirate escort.

When the ship arrived, I was happy to that we'd be sailing with Marco, as he was one of the Whitebeard Pirates I knew best. Along with him were several others I recognized from past knowledge as being members of Whitebeard's crew.

"Oi!" exclaimed Marco as they neared, "Sit down Robin-chan, before you burst a blood vessel from excitement-yoi!" Robin felt a faint blush of embarrassment at being called out for being excited, but too happy to finally be going after Brook to get flustered by it. Too much, anyways.

"I'm not the one that's overly excited and yelling, Firebutt-kun!" shouted Robin back, to the guffaws of many of the men on board.

"I told you to stop calling me that, baka. And Happy Birthday-yoi," said Marco flatly as their ship pulled in to dock.

Our voyage to the Florian Triangle took a few weeks but was fairly peaceful, or as peaceful as sailing in first the New World, then later Paradise could be. But the crew was very experienced, and we arrived with little difficulty. What was actually difficult was finding Brook. Due to the shrouded nature of the Florian Triangle, trying to find anything its waters was an exercise in futility that at first, the Whitebeard Pirates found entertaining but that eventually began to become tiresome as they sailed through what they estimated to be the majority of the Triangle with little to show for it but Robin's continued insistence to keep sailing about after two weeks of nothing. Until finally, the day came…

Robin sat stubbornly by the helm, a rather neutral facial expression on her face but to anybody that knew her well, would be recognized as frustration or annoyance. As she'd gotten older, her more childish habits that she'd picked up started to fall out of favor…albeit slowly. And they did pop back up when she was agitated. But all in all, she was slowly starting to feel like the old Robin, before this crazy alternate world had kicked off.

"Yo ho ho ho, yo ho ho ho…"

She sat up in shock, looking around wildly and praying that she hadn't misheard or imagined that echoing song. "Did you hear that?" asked Robin to Saul, who slowly nodded while looking around.

"Yo ho ho ho, yo ho ho ho…"

This was it. Standing up to full height, she cupped her hands and sang back, "Yo ho ho ho, yo ho ho ho!"

"Yo ho ho ho, yo ho ho…wha?"

THERE! The decrepit ship appeared out of the mist, and atop it, alone…Brook, leaning against a wall at a 42 degree angle while trying to look around and find the source before he slipped and fell with a loud "Yohohoho!" of shock.

Robin gestured at one of the crewmates to bring the ship in closer to the older decrepit ship as she crossed her arms, willing a small bridge of arms to appear between the two ships as she rushed across to the other boat.

"Ara? Gomenasai, but may I see you-oh, I'm sorry little miss. You are too young to be showing others your panties," said Brook as he took off his top hat and gestured in a bow. "My name is Brook. What is your name, little miss?"

Robin couldn't keep the smile off her face even as she sat through hearing Brook's perverted traditional greeting. Later, she would recognize that her behavior was shockingly Luffy-like in her excitement to meet the skeleton man, to her slight embarrassment.

"My name is Robin, Brook-san. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance," said Robin with a happy grin. "Is your ship not working anymore? It appears to be quite damaged"

Brook's mood became far more melancholic as he began to recall the story of the Rumbar Pirates. As he finished his tale, Robin almost jumped as she realized that many of the crewmembers from Marco's ship had come aboard and that Saul was audibly sobbing at the sad story from back on the ship. Olvia was smiling sadly at Robin, as she finally realized exactly why Robin had been so determined to come out to the Florian Triangle.

As Brook's tale came to a close, he turned to face Olvia with his usual indecipherable expression. "Ara….may I see your panties?"

His only reply was a pistol whipping him upside the head that promptly vanished back into Olvia's coat.

It took no effort at all to get Brook to leave with us, as he was more than happy to come. Trying to ensure that he'd become a Strawhat on the other hand…that was another matter entirely, but not because it was hard to convince Brook…

Robin's Room

Brook sat across from Robin, staring at her unblinkingly (But he has no eyes to blink, yohoho! Skull Joke!)

"May I?" asked Robin, reaching for his hand. Brook silently handed her his hand in confusion, unsure about what the purpose was. Robin took his bony hand in hers, hoping that something would happen. She forced herself to hold in a sigh. That would have been far too easy, no? To magically have Brook remember the future she could remember? Alas, no.

"Robin-san, what are you doing?" questioned Brook. Robin let loose a small sigh before offering him a small smile, "What I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy, but please hear me out."

Outside Robin's Room

"YOHOHOHOHO!" came a voice from inside the ship, making most of those on the ship jump in surprise.

Marco looked around, making eye contact with several aboard the deck, all confused about the strange laugh. Another laugh echoed out from the ship.

As they slowly resumed what they'd been doing before, they heard one sob. Then another. Soon, the ship was racked by sobs coming from inside the ship intermixed with laughter as Brook learned the story of the Straw Hats and their adventures.

Robin's Room

"I-I…I believe you, Robin-san. I completely believe you. There's no other way you could know so much. Like the names of so many of the songs I play regularly, or small details I never mentioned when I shared the tale of the Rumbar Pirates. A proper crew! Yohohoho! This gentleman has never been so happy!"

Robin smiled warmly at Brook, glad that Brook had been so willing to listen to her. She supposed that after being isolated for so long, the thought of having nakama that bordered on family like the Straw Hats was simply too good to not be true. Especially not when comparing Robin's story of how he originally joined the Straw Hats, versus what he'd gleamed about their current voyage in the Florian Triangle from others on board; that Robin was the one that lead this expedition and had wanted to come out here for years.

"I'm really glad you do Brook. I was afraid…that I'd be holding on to this knowledge forever in my head with nobody to tell the truth to. That our crew would not know the truth that would allow us to come together, stronger and happier than ever," said Robin with a lost look in her eyes. "I was afraid that in the end, the crew I'd bring together would be a mockery of what we all had, tied together through the force of my actions rather than the friendship we shared. And that because of my actions, that I'd alienate myself further from the others. I'm so happy that you believe me. It gives me hope that one day, I'll be able to tell all of the others the truth."

Brook's happy tears stopped as he stared at Robin.

"Robin-san, I don't know how the others will react to this. Or how they will feel about it. Or even if you want to tell them this in the end. Just know that I'm eternally grateful to you for saving me from my personal hell, and offering me a chance to once more be a part of an amazing crew. And that I cannot imagine that any of the others, from what you've told me of them, would ever hold your actions against you. On behalf of us all, for your actions, thank you. Thank you so very much," said Brook in a clipped whisper, as he choked on his words and smiled.

Robin embraced Brook in a hug that was reciprocated happily. Neither of them were alone any longer, in any way. They now numbered two. By the time they were through, they'd be back at full strength.