Valentine's Personal Log 17: A Silent Goodbye

Sanji wants me to take it easy until my back heals, so he had Luffy carry me out the window when we left the palace. Mr. 2 contacted us and said that he hid our ship upriver so the Navy wouldn't find it. For a "iffy" guy, as he calls himself, he can be thoughtful sometimes. We rode the supersonic ducks to meet him. I rode with Chopper again.

In our days of recovery, Vivi helped me mend my dress as best we could. I took fabric from the damaged right sleeve to make a new veil. There was just enough fabric left over to turn the sleeve into a glove. I feel a little lopsided, but my poisons harness is still hidden in the sleeve on the other side. The skirt has a permanent split now. It reminds me of the dance dresses I used to wear. We sewed in an under-skirt for style and I wear shorts so I can fight freely without giving Sanji a nosebleed.

Sanji set me up a table by the stairs and made sure I had plenty of tea before we set off, telling me no matter who we run into I was to stay put. Mr. 2 asked if he could add my face to his collection. I told him that if we ever met again he might get to peek beneath the veil.

The Navy surrounded us and started shooting giant iron spears into Merry.

"Are you sure I can't help?" Karmen asks. "At least let me help Chopper patch up the holes."

"You can't lift your arms above your head," Zoro comments. "How are you going to swing a hammer?"

"We'll deal with it, Karmen." Sanji gives her a confident smile.

"Ok, but if they sink Merry I'm going to use the Plucharon and I'm not going to give them the antidote." She hadn't made the antidote yet so there wasn't one to give. She should get on that. Shrugging to herself, Karmen continues.

Usopp sunk two warships with one cannon ball and Captain Hina showed up. Bon Clay disguised himself as Luffy to draw the Navy away. I kind of wish I had shown him my face now. I don't think we'll see him for a while after this. He turned out to be a true friend. Once the navy caught on they sandwiched us between to ships. The crew is currently fighting while I-

Karmen stops writing briefly as one of the marines crashes into her table. She barely has time to lift the log book off of it and grab the ink before it collapses into splinters. Luffy grabs him and throws him back at the Navy ship. Karmen tucks the ink into her wrist harness and leans forward to stab a marine with a sunblade quill. She tucks a pouch of antidote into his pocket and kicks him towards Sanji.

Karmen gasps. "I didn't get a desert strawberry!"

"We're not going back for a spider!" Zoro yells.

- am confined to this chair. I seem to be out of tea as well, thanks to those careless marines. The two ships around us have been sunk now, but we're still being followed. We can hear Vivi's heartfelt and poetic speech to the people being transmitted from speakers on the island. It's almost as if she's still on the ship. We saw her on shore a while later. She's staying for her people, but she's still our friend. We gave her a silent farewell by raising our left arms as a promise of our friendship before departing. Despite my fears, I'm proud of this tattoo.

Luffy returned all the iron spikes that had hit our ship, sinking the three closest warships. The men brought out the oars and gave us a good head start. I'm sure the navy will lose interest soon. We all miss Vivi, but right now we have other concerns. It seems the captain has collected another one. Nico Robin was aboard the ship and has been added to the crew. Only Sanji and Luffy are happy about it.

She uses terms like navigator, captain, and secretary. She doesn't say anyone's names. It's classic distancing technique that I know well. I used something similar the whole month before arriving at Syrup Village. Robin may be on this ship, but she doesn't consider herself a part of this crew.

Karmen hands everyone on the lower deck a cup of tea before carrying her tray to the upper deck where Zoro is watching Nico Robin carefully. He looks towards the two remaining glasses on the tray inquiringly as she hands him his but she shakes her head. Despite her reservations towards Robin, she couldn't bring herself to poison anyone without cause. She walks over to Robin and holds a cup out to her at arm length. "Ah, so you're the secretary. I never thought a face like that could be under that veil of yours."

Karmen's eyes narrow as the wind tousles her hair. "If you're coming with us then I can't keep my face covered the entire time. Are you saying you know me?" She asks this last part softly so her voice doesn't carry too far. She likes that saying it softer adds an icy edge to her words.

"I know you, but I don't care. What you do is your business."

"It seems like you've become my business." Karmen takes her own cup and tucks the tray under her arm, leaving one hand free to grab a quill if necessary. "Do what you want. But if you do anything to harm this crew, I'll poison your tea."

"How scary." Robin's face doesn't lose her smile. "Then you might like to have these." She hands Karmen two bottles labeled yellow-spotted scorpion venom and antidote. "You wanted to know what Crocodile used, didn't you?"

Karmen stares at the bottles, then up at Robin. "I see." She tucks the bottles into her pocket. "I don't trust you in the slightest, but I think we can make this work for now." She sips her tea and turns. "Oh, and stay away from my logs." Karmen notes Zoro's appreciative sigh. At least one of the crew shares his concerns.

A Tied Treaty

Karmen sits in the crow's nest, sore shoulders wrapped in a shawl. Her body is still adjusting to being out of Alabasta's warm climate. Behind her Zoro is doing one-fingered push-ups from the tip of the flagpole. "1,543, 1,544, 1,545…"

"How's your vantage point?" She asks, scanning the horizon before peering down at the deck.

"1,546, just right, 1,547." His gaze is fixed on Robin where she sits with an open book. "What do you think?"

"Having a bounty on her head from the age of 8, she must have done something that scared some really important people. She keeps to herself because she's used to being on the run."

"1,559. What makes you think that? 1,560."

"Just a feeling." She looks over at the rest of the crew, focusing on Usopp who is doing some maintenance work to keep busy. "Does she worry you?"

"We can handle her. 1,563. She actually reminds me of you in some ways. 1,565."

"Oh? How's that?" She wonders if he knows more than he lets on or if Robin had lied and spilled the beans. There was always the possibility that he overheard their exchange earlier. He had been a ways away when Robin said she'd known her, but the wind might have carried their words.

"1,568. Sometimes you don't seem fully here, like your mind is somewhere else. 1,570."

"You're comparing us based on the fact that we space out from time to time?"

"Among other things. 1,575."

"Do I worry you, then?"

"Should you?"

Karmen places a hand over the lump in her shirt created by the signet ring that now hangs around her neck. "Perhaps."

Zoro pushes off the flagpole and lands beside her. He sits and leans against the mast with his hands crossed behind his head. "Then I'll just handle whatever trouble you cause when it happens. Just be sure to keep those antidotes of yours handy, eh?"

"Zoro, that's not the kind of trouble I-" But the swordsman is already fast asleep. She thinks about the words that were about to come out of her mouth. "Alright then. I'll trust you all to take good care of me when the time comes. I wasn't planning on dragging you into anything, but I may need some help. I'm just a pirate secretary with a promise to keep, after all."

Karmen drapes her shawl over Zoro and climbs down stiffly. She grabs some rope and steps over to Usopp. "Did you break the sandbag course again?" he asks.

"I'm starting a new training. I need you and Nami to tie me up."

Nami peers over the railing from the upper deck. "What kind of training is that?"

"I'm weak, cute, and short, which on a pirate ship makes for an easy prisoner. If bounty hunters and other pirates get a jump on me then I want to be able to slip out of a few knots."

"If you'd like, I can teach you how to get out of suppression holds." Robin smiles over the cover of her book.

"Just for reference, if I poison one of your extra hands, you get poisoned too, right?"

"In theory."

Karmen observes her for a moment. "In light of your honesty, I'll take you up on your offer later, under Zoro's supervision, of course. Ropes first."

In the anchor room Usopp ties her wrists and Nami ties her ankles. "Why us?" Usopp asks.

"If I asked Sanji, he'd either tie the knots too loosely or do something weird. Luffy would probably crush me to death and Zoro is sleeping in the crow's nest. I don't completely trust Robin yet and you guys tie the best knots."

"So it was a process of elimination," Nami says glumly.

"At least she trusts us to do a good job." Usopp shrugs.

"Anyways," Karmen starts as she wrestles with the ropes on her wrists. "Any tips?"

"Tense up all your muscles before being tied up. If they put ropes around your arms and torso take a deep breath," Nami says. "If they tie your hands, lock your fingers together and rotate one wrist slightly to create a small pocket. Taking your shoes off will help you get ropes off your ankles."

"Shouldn't you have told me things like that before you tied me up?" Karmen asks, wiggling her feet. "And I know you spent eight years stealing from pirates, but how much did you get caught before you learned this stuff?"

"There are other ways you could get out," Usopp comments. "You're our special pirate secretary after all." He taps his foot on the floor.

Karmen sits on her knees so that her wrists and ankles are close to each other. "You're right, Usopp." She grins. "You two make terrible kidnappers. You didn't check me for sharp objects." Karmen holds up the lengths of rope that had been around her wrists and the knife she's pulled from her boot. "Next lesson, please." Nami and Usopp tie her up again, this time making sure her knife and quills were out of reach. Karmen cuts the ropes again and holds up a quill. "I was sitting on one. Check better."

Nami growls and grabs a fresh handful of ropes. She ties Karmen's hands behind her back, her arms to her side, and her ankles together. She takes an extra step and ties Karmen's wrists to her ankles. "Cut your way out of that one."

In her struggle, Karmen flops over on her side. Usopp steps forward to help her back up. "No. Don't help me," she says. "This might take me a while, so you can go back to what you were doing. If I'm not loose by dinner you can come get me, ok?"

"But it's not even lunch time," Usopp comments. "And Luffy might eat all the food if we wait until after dinner."

"Maybe being hungry will loosen some of these ropes. Besides, Sanji will save me something."

"Right. You heard her, Usopp. Let's go." Nami grabs Usopp's overalls and drags him out the door. She smiles over her shoulder before closing it. "Good luck."

Minutes pass by as Karmen works on the ropes, first on her wrists, then ankles, then her arms. She's able to locate a knot on her ankle but the angle is difficult to work with. When her fingers are sore and starting to lose blood flow she stops and sighs. "You can come out now."

"You're observant, secretary," Robin says, coming out from behind the plastic in the corner. "Nice workstation, by the way."

"You didn't touch anything, did you?"

"Of course not. I just looked." She holds up her hands in innocence.

"Good, because I can't really point out any antidotes right now." Karmen goes back to working on the knot she found. "Did you want something?"

"I thought this might be a good time to talk, Gallowcomb Jenevive Willow Karmen."

Karmen forces herself into a sitting position. "Don't know her. The name's Valentine W. Karmen." Her face doesn't betray any emotion but her eyes stare coldly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd be offended by that name." Robin sits in front of her, smile never leaving her face.

"No more than 'devil's child' would for you." Karmen watches Robin's face falter for a moment. "Yeah. I've heard about you. I know about how they blew up your home island. A certain warlord would come visit my father and talk about all the government's dirty little cover ups. He spoke pretty fondly of you and how you continued to evade capture. If it makes you feel any better, I find the whole matter despicable. That's not the reason I don't trust you, though. He told me about the other twenty years as well."

"I guess we've both had experiences with warlords then," Robin says. "Speaking of covering things up, how does the daughter of a noble end up on a pirate ship drinking poison?"

"The same way an eight year old girl ends up with a bounty on her head, I suppose. Learning too much, being a casualty of circumstance, wanting to find something tangible to hold onto... Maybe I'll tell you how when we've gotten to know each other a little better." Karmen uses the corner of a box to work on the ropes around her arms, ignoring the pain it causes in her shoulder blades. "In more ways than one, you and I are in the same boat. We're running and would rather certain agents of the government and underground don't catch up with us."

"It seems we are," she says, resting her chin in her palm. "That man is the real reason you want to learn how to escape ropes, isn't he? Everything I've heard says he enjoys stringing people up by their hands and feet." Karmen's eyes darken dangerously. "I'm sorry. Perhaps that was a step too far. I want to assist you if I can. If we're going to be crewmates, it's only logical that we help each other evade capture."

Mulling it over for a minute, Karmen works a few loops of rope up to shoulder level. In his occasional stories the warlord had never said one malicious thing about this woman. Secretly she had become a hero in Karmen's mind until she thought of all the people who had become patsies for Robin's continued survival. Still. She couldn't fully distrust anyone he spoke of with admiration. She trust his judgment above all others and after this year and a half of being on the run herself, she was beginning to empathize with her. "I think I can agree to that. If you keep this up I may start to like you." She wiggles her wrists again. "I'd shake on it, but I seem to be a little tied up at the moment."

"Allow me." She smiles cheerfully and produces a hand behind Karmen, shaking both of her tied hands together. "I'm glad we were able to come to an understanding." Robin stands and starts to head for the door.

"Could you do me a favor?" Karmen asks in a soft voice.

"I thought you didn't want any help until after dinner. You've made great progress so far."

"No. Not that. I just… Let me be the one to tell the crew, ok?"

"I already told you," Robin says. "I have no interest in who you used to be."