Chapter 2: The Philomath (He who Learns, the Knowledge)
| ❝ Text ❞ : Speech
| ' Text ' : Thoughts
| *! Text !* : Actions
| [ Text ] : Voices
Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters are owned by Eiichiro Oda. I only own the idea of the story, my own characters in it and the various divergences.
Note: For the sake of story purposes, Nico Robin has been down aged to 20 years for her debut which makes her for the sake of story a 8 Year old when she discovered Rommel, it's destruction happening only 3 months after his departing. Moreover Kaku is briefly mentioned to create some relations for future plots, though the main focus will be on Rommel.
Since the Raid on the Village of Portus of the Yncáng Island Nation, which housed the Kingdom of Chi, the Island has been on high alert for the past few weeks, despite the fact that no matter how many times the Kingsmen sent their sailors out to search the areas around them within the ocean territory of Jedynki Camp, which was directly on the opposing side of the much more dangerous ocean territory of Las Camp. Anastasia had already informed her husband, now the Commander of the 80th Branch, Bole Zhanshi, to assist in the hunt for her son and return him safely home. Even then, the outsourced marines had little luck scouring the seas for their Commander's legacy, but where was the young lad, Rommel, Son of Bole? Should we go ahead and do it?
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❝ ...Officer Zhanshi turned left, then right, then left... As they sped through the alleyways of Illisia Kingdom in pursuit of the elusive Pirate, Ratman Jason, each instant was swift but precise. It was rumoured that the Pirate had ingested one of the ocean's cursed riches, allowing him to transform into a Rat as white as his own hair! The pair were suddenly confronted with a wall; a dead end. The pair appeared to hesitate as they exchanged glances, one where the hunter had cornered their target and the other a trapped rat-like creature– ❞
Below the Galley of the Raider's Galleon stood a well-kept Bilge, which they were now utilising to keep their 'Live Goods'. While inhospitable to most humans, the 11 youngsters below the dock area made it livable by repurposing boxes and barrels of empty kept below to create makeshift versions of the furniture they had grown fond of. Each time re-arranged to fit the situation as they fit, which was currently a mass area of conference with crate's stacked together to make an oak podium, while the remaining barrels and crates scattered around the area reminiscent of seating which currently held all the children who were eagerly listening to the spokesperson's story, only interrupting at each interlude the child took for a sip break — water was a rare commodity, they used in sips.
❝ Oh, come on! It's time for your fifth Sip break! If I were the Great Samso- ❞
*!Bonk!*
❝ Oh, shut up! We don't hear you telling good stories, Sammy. ❞
The first child to talk was an energetic teenager Samuel of Age, 15, who was the second eldest of Chi's eleven children. This was Samuel the Son of Sam, the meathead of the group with bleached yellow hair and baby blue eyes and the child of a local militant, while the other voice to both bonk and interrupt them was Jason, whose parents were a mystery beyond having been washed up sometime and the current eldest child among the eleven. Jason had black hair and wore a tank top, with the most noticeable feature being a mole on his left cheek.
❝ Hey! Don't bother Rommel – ❞ ❝ – He is younger than use and yet – ❞ ❝ – The smartest of us! Let him continue – ❞ ❝ – The story, unlike some… we listen! ❞
The next quadruple of voices to express their concerns were a pair of twins, neither of whom were linked in any manner to the other pair, but the bond of having been kidnapped by the Raiders had fused their bond to fuse their twin speech to something on the level of quadruplet speech. They were named Edna and Wilma, the Daughters of Mord, Sarah, and Helen, the Daughters of Lock, and were now known as the Daughters of Mordlock.
❝ Guys! He is starting! I wanna listen! ❞ Kaku, a child with fluffy hair and a short rectangular nose who wore a cap backwards, was the last of the eleven to speak, the 11 year old being only two years younger than the quadruplets themselves, leaving Rommel, the four year old, to be the youngest and yet the most educationally advanced of the group due to his mother's tutelage. Of course, there were others younger than Rommel, those aged 2 and under - a total of three tiny toddlers who were currently sleeping because they had been out of it for the day.
As if waiting for them to conclude their conversation, he placed the tiny bottle with a cap of water on the crate before clearing his throat to begin again. The small kid who had been born all those years ago had grown up nicely, almost at an accelerated rate, as the child appeared to be nearly 11 years old as they stood at 63 inches in height, almost as tall as Kaku himself, falling only 7 inches short. He was considered somewhat pretty despite being tall, slender, and with baby fat, owing to his facial features. He has his mother's snow-white hair and his father's sky blue eyes, which are a brilliant azure colour, the hair raised up giving him a spiker appearance as he opened his mouth to resume one of his mother's numerous stories of his father's travels.
❝ The Officer appeared to have won the chase until Ratman gave a sneer and began to decrease in size, prompting the Officer to surge ahead. Unfortunately, the Marine's complacency and overconfidence before the Pirate was shackled cost him, as the Man turned Rat ducked under a hole in the wall and vanished elsewhere. After a while of scurrying around, the Ratman emerges from the edge of another Dead End before reverting to his primitive human form. Unfortunately for the Pirate, he had failed to escape as Officer Zhanshi stood before him, and this time, without giving the Rat Man a chance, the Marine Officer blurred from the Pirate's eyes to appear behind him, the only indication of something happening being the sudden weight of something on his ankles and wrists before the Ratman was knocked out due to the mystery blue stone of the shackles! Thus, the Marines rescued the day, and the Evil Pirate was apprehended! ❞ With the conclusion of his story, young Rommel yawned as exhaustion and narcolepsy caught up with him, leading him to fall asleep right away.
❝ As always, Rommel, a wonderful narrative. Sleep now... We'll keep an eye on things here, and you, Kaku.. ❞ As the small child dropped down, Jason and Samuel caught him and laid him down beside the kid with the long nose and the twins who gathered around the babies to give and provide warmth to each other as they drifted off, leaving only the two eldest to keep their sanity and awakeness. It was no longer a variable commodity for the group of children, as they only had the temperature of the cold water to go on based on Kaku's and Rommel's information. If it was chilly, it was day; if it was hot, it was night... Any storm that occurred would be unwelcome and unneeded, as that was the Raider's responsibility.
❝ What are we to do Jason? They are too naive to survive wherever the Raiders will relieve us! ❞
❝ Calm down and keep quiet you meathead! Stating the obvious is not exactly helping us solve anything… ❞
❝ Well in one more cycle the ship will moore on some Island… we can attempt to escape but- I doubt we can all escape together ❞
❝ So you mean- If we do that, then we can't tell the kids you know. ❞
❝ Heh, All my Family lay down their lives to defend the children of Chi, I may not be an adult but… I rather go down under my own terms than be a slave to some disgusting Noble! ❞
❝ Well the kids know to run, we will just pray to be right behind them yeah? ❞
In the faint light of dwindling candlelight, the two adolescents planned their escape from the Raiders' captivity at the next port. If they fail, they will be sold, separated, and will never see their families again. They were well aware that they were unlikely to all escape successfully, but as long as the youngest four did, they would be happy. The twins... will have each other if what they heard was true, but their future looked grim nonetheless. As the water began to cool and become frigid again, the two teenagers dozed off as a new day approached.
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The Raider's Galleon [Madam Rosmerta] seemed to vibrate with sinister intentions and greedy vibes as the group of slavers and smugglers aboard began to arrange the various pitches of their trade in various baskets, crates, and boxes of inconspicuous items as they still required to pass through the Marine Checkpoints near Jambalaya Kingdom if they were to enter it. None of them realised the significance of what they had taken from the Island of Yncáng, but they were all well aware of the significant rise in marine patrols in the five major camps (i.e. West Blue Ocean Territories).
Since fleeing Jedynki Camp, they had mostly waited to fend off any pursuers in the Las Camp, where no Marines feared to go because it was White Beard's domain. Finally, the ship was leaving Las Camp to enter Mount Camp, which included Kano Country, Illisia Kingdom, Jambalaya Kingdom, and O'hara, which, while heavy and concentrated with Organized Crime, also had the heaviest Marine Presence at the time due to two of the three kingdoms being part of the World Government. Yet the group of 44 were confident, after all the Ali Baba Raiders have been active in the West Blue for 25 whole generations, with a legacy as old as some of the Kingdoms yet the Blue as a whole was their home for almost 500 years.
❝ Prepare yourselves, scurvy dogs! we be gettin' close to the coat o' jambalaya kingdom. The marines be lurkin' in places where we can't see them, so be on yer 'best' behavior an' secure the bilge. Open it up an' give the kids a seaworthy bath! men, report to yer stations! let's go! ❞ Kassim the Rotten, the 25th leader of the family, seemed to scream as he observed the incoming marine ships while the Captain of the Raiders sat at the helm. The goal of his orders to open the Bilge and wash it out was to not only give the 11 kids stored in it a bath, but also to violently get rid of the three babies they had stolen whose shrieks may give them away. In the end, it's a loss for the greater good; after all, after they sell the children to the World Government to be raised as Child Soldiers, the money will last them a lifetime!
[ Ohohoho… Fall at the mercy of Fate… Now Child… Woven the Basket… Cast them Young… the Purge is about to Begin… Ohohoho… ]
A deep sound of something speaking through the grating of wood on waves seemed to bring Jason and Samuel (unknown to the duo, Rommel who was still sleeping stirring at the deep voice, even him) into action as they ashurred the twins awake. The gang of six began to labour hard in relocating and sealing the sealment of the barrels so that neither air or water could escape or enter the barrels, which now carried Rommel and Kaku, each with a baby and two babies. They hoped that the children would be reunited wherever they were brought, and then the hatch opened, allowing water to flood in and carry everything save the Six.
When the Raiders came on the island, they roared in wrath because the supposed 9 youngsters who were meant to be sold had dropped down. The World Government was displeased to have been duped, and it didn't take the dark shrouded agents of white more than a second to wipe out the 500-year-old history of robbers and thieves from the West Blue in an Instant, while removing the youngsters who had been knocked out. On their route, they came across a barrel, which contained the sleeping form of Kaku as well as a baby, who was also taken in... But one thing was certain. Two babies and Rommel had escaped; now they can only hope the child is safe elsewhere. The Nine Children of Chi would then be brought up in Guanho… but that was a story for another time.
As for the barrel containing Rommel... It seemed to bob up and down across the ocean for days. The children had awoken at some point, and Rommel, having been forced to mature, had developed some level headedness to remain calm and hush the children while feeding them fruit from the barrel or juicing the fruits with the juicer to sate their hunger, while eating the fresh fruits despite the fact that one of the fruits appeared to be rotten. A fruit he had kept at the bottom to eat while feeding the fresher ones to the babies as the days turned to weeks, and weeks into months. The repercussions of poor nutrition and poor health were catching up with little Rommel, who had just turned 5 before going into a deep sleep. Even as the barrel smashed against the shore, neither of the children inside appeared to be able to rouse... and mostly forgot as they were gradually buried in the sand, in an Island with the massive tree being its most glaring structure.
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Meanwhile, on the Island of Yncáng in the Kingdom of Chi, all hope had been lost. The children were the Kingdom's greatest failing, and Commodore Bole Zhanshi, the newly appointed Captain of the 80th Branch, never ceased reminding them of it. Anastasia Deboli-Bole, Rommel's mother, appeared to be in declining health until, on the same day Rommel arrived on the unknown island with the massive, the seamstress appeared to pass away from a combination of stress and the aftereffects of their wounds from the attack on the Village of Portus almost a year ago.
As they moved away from the Humane Justice they had previously embraced, the 80th Branch became one of the most violent followers of Absolute Justice. Criminals were rarely imprisoned anymore, and most were put down if given the chance, until the higher administration in Marineford was forced to call away Commodore Zhanshi to the Grand Line and assign a man named Captain Zelbab to take over his command, allowing crime to slowly return and foster once again, in such times the Capone Family of West Blue seemed to rapidly grow in fame and power.
After all… the World Government did not necessarily need to be good samaritans, especially when the Underworld benefited them greatly with its various products. It was fortunate then was it not, that Rommel was still alive even though the two babies passed away Rommel seemed to have entered a cryogenic state of sleep that seemed to preserve the young boy, until his barrel was forced into light almost a month later…. Through the actions of another child.
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Nico Robin was born on the island of Ohara into an archeologist family. When Robin was two years old, her mother, Nico Olvia, went off to sea to uncover the True History, leaving her in the care of her family. Later, Robin went into the Tree of Knowledge and was permitted to peruse the books included within Clover's invitation. She overheard parents instructing their children to avoid her at all costs, as well as other children calling her a demon. Her only pals were the scholars at "The Tree of Knowledge," with Professor Clover of the archaeology lab, a mother's friend, attempting to look after her.
She passed an archaeology exam at the age of eight and was formally accepted as a scholar. When she declared that she, like her mother, wanted to discover the true, unrecorded history of the world, she was chastised by Clover, who told her she would be barred from the library if she continued to spy on the other scholars, which had forced the girl to wander across the beach in search of 'treasure' when a heavy disgusting stench hit her nose, causing her face to twist into unadulterated disgust at the rot.
Her brain, however, could not give up on a riddle as she forced her body to move, leading a formation of limbs to be developed to grab for the barrel, which was remarkably solid despite being so soaked for so long, as well as quite heavy. She was obliged to drag it back to the tree home to show Clover her findings because she couldn't pry it open.
❝ GRANDPA CLOVER! LOOK WHAT I FOUND! IT SMELLS OF ROT, BUT I BET I FOUND SOMETHING EVEN YOU DO NOT KNOW! ❞
Whereas Robin couldn't place a label on the stink, Clover's brow seemed to rise over his forehead since it was a stench he hadn't smelt in a long time but wasn't unfamiliar with. The foul odour of death on the high seas. Given how deadly the world was, it was a wonder what was even in the barrel that made Clover's eyes crinkle as she requested Robin to come back tomorrow in a strained voice that Robin didn't pick up on.
❝ Ah Robin-chan, let me investigate this to see if it is disease free first, then tomorrow we can observe your first discovery~ Now go sleep young one. ❞
❝ OK GRANDPA CLOVER! ❞
Clover flexed his springy old limbs with such force that one would not notice the scholar had to hack away at the Barrel with a crowbar, pushing the odor to become stronger as holes formed up, until finally it broke away to disclose the content to Clover and the scholar's eyes. Clover's heart was almost broken when she saw the water-logged bodies of two small children, since it appeared to be a last-ditch effort by someone to save their children. But it was the ethereal blue radiance of something or someone else within the Barrel that took me by surprise.
The radiance revealed itself to be none other than the frozen form of Rommel — not that any of them knew, though the physical likeness to the former Commodore of the 80th Division was not lost on Clover, who had dealt with the guy in the past. Somewhere in his mind, he remembered the man asking him to keep an eye on his kidnapped child... possibly. Clover slowly approached town to touch the youngster, but as they made contact, the brilliance seemed to break into dust, causing the small boy to become drowsy as his sparkling eyes, despite his emancipated state, opened out to stare outward.
❝ Wh-re -m … Ai- ❞
The clumsy phrasing was throaty and garbled, but it was coherent enough for Clover to grasp as he grew to his full height and started with a happy chuckle.
❝ Why Child! You are in Ohara, the Land of Scholars! Welcome to the Tree of Knowledge! ❞
Rommel could only blink blearily before he succumbed into sleep once more, but this time he was once more among the living.
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To Be Continued, Chapter 3 The Aleck: Estimated Time, 1 Week.