Surprise

At the moment the marine ships appeared on the horizon Fox had hurried below decks, sitting down cross-legged at the base of the mast with both hands planted flat on the boards. As the Going Merry was bombarded with black spears Chopper had pushed them back out and blocked the holes with planks, which the white-haired woman had used her Devil Fruit Powers to merge with the main body of the hull. It had been frantic, tiring and repetitive work, but it was well worth it when the little ship finally escaped its pursuers and she could rest for a little while.

"I'm sorry girl," Fox murmured soothingly, stroking the side of the hull as Chopper climbed up on deck. "You're trying so hard but we really aren't looking after you, are we? We ask so much of you, far more than we should and you give us your all but you're weakening. I'll do all I can to keep you going but your hull wasn't built to withstand the Grand Line, was it sweetheart?"

Fox' sensitivity to all things living enabled her to feel the soul of the Merry, a soul born from the love of her crew and nurtured by the white-haired woman's own constant care. That soul sent back to her a sense of fierce purpose, concern and selfless willing.

"I know darling, I know. You're with us to the very end," Fox whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek, "and you have a right to see us through as many adventures as you can stand. I'll get you as far as I can, I promise." Fox rose to her feet. "But now I have to see about our stowaway."

Merry's soul rippled slightly.

"I won't hurt her, not unless the captain agrees," Fox promised. Going Merry knew her better than most, almost as well as Swift Hunter did. "You are Luffy's ship after all."

With that she slipped up the ladder, darted through the pandemonium and placed the blade of her Kairoseki knife gently across Nico Robin's throat just as the woman settled in a deck chair.

Nico Robin, the Devil's Child with a 79,000,000 beli bounty on her head, froze in shock as the cool metal on her throat stole her strength and Devil Fruit Abilities away.

"Now that we have the upper hand," a tranquil, hard yet lyrically accented female voice said by her ear, "perhaps you could explain yourself to the captain?" The knife did not so much as twitch, proving her captor had a steady hand and considerable experience in holding people hostage.

Across from where she was sitting Robin could see the chef was torn between praising her captor for recognising the threat and berating the woman for holding another lady hostage, the long-nosed sniper and the reindeer had calmed down, the navigator looked pleased and the swordsman had crossed his arms, leant back against the outer wall of the storage room and seemed to be enjoying the show. Monkey D. Luffy's expression had not changed: he was still frowning at her.

"You're really weird, what do you want?" he demanded.

Robin swallowed. This was not how she'd pictured this going but at least she was being allowed to explain herself. "Let me join your crew," she said, the words more desperate than she'd intended them to be. The knife at her throat had drained her strength away to the point that she couldn't even move a finger and the former Miss All-Sunday felt terribly vulnerable. "You made me go on when I wanted to die," she continued, "that's all your fault and I have nowhere else to go. So let me stay on this ship."

"If it's like that there's nothing else for it," Luffy said. "It's okay. You can let her go now Fox."

The knife was removed and Robin turned to get a look at the woman who'd got the drop on her, a woman she hadn't realised was part of the Merry's crew at all.

She was a little older than the rest of the crew, probably in her early twenties, but her white hair and piercing golden eyes made her appear ageless. She was tall, taller than Robin herself by about an inch and wore a flowery mint-green halter top, brown deck trousers and fawn slippers. The knife had vanished, probably into her waistband as the halter top was not a garment you could hide a blade under.

"Why did you let her go!" the rest of the crew wasn't so happy with their captain's decision. Luffy just grinned.

"Don't worry! She's not as bad as you think!" he said brightly.

"Luffy is the captain," Fox said mildly, wandering away from Robin, "and I think our new crewmate knows the score."

Oh, Robin knew the score. She had met plenty of killers in her life on the run –killers working on both sides of the law– but none had ever been as serene, as professional or as strong as this one. She may have done assassination work to keep herself alive but now she felt like a complete amateur. The Going Merry didn't need an assassin; it already had one. Hopefully there would be space on board for an archaeologist.

As Usopp attempted to interrogate their new crewmate Zoro only had one question for Fox:

"Why?"

Fox shrugged, leaning into him as they both sat facing the figurehead, their backs to the Merry's mast. "Several reasons: firstly, acquisition of a defeated enemy's assets is accepted pirate practice; secondly, she honestly means Luffy no harm; thirdly, her ambitions are not at odds with his; fourthly, she fits."

"Fits?" Zoro repeated.

Fox flashed the swordsman a lopsided smile. "Luffy has picked for his crew a mismatched bunch of people who are all a little bit broken," she said sadly, "people whose only reason for living was to accomplish their dreams. Where would you be today, Roronoa Zoro, if you didn't have your ambition to drive you forward?"

Zoro didn't answer. Why did Fox have to be so damn perceptive?

"So you see, Nico Robin fits in rather well," Fox went on. "Don't worry though; I'm sure that between the two of us we can fend off any trouble she might bring to our door." With that the white-haired woman wandered away into the forward cannon deck that doubled as her bedroom, leaving Zoro to his thoughts. Deciding that worrying was pointless, he went to lift weights. Nico Robin might not mean Luffy any harm but there was a big difference between 'means no harm' and 'will not harm'.

Nico Robin meets Fox for the first time.