One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Nest Egg ❯ Disembark ( Chapter 3 )

      At Borto, the Straw Hat crew had decided to stay the night before setting out. It would give Robin enough of a head start that she (hopefully) wouldn’t realize she was being followed. It would also give Nami time to figure out the trick to the Eternal Pose that leads to her.

     Nami sat at her desk, watching the Pose. Trying to understand why it seemed to be pointing away from the person Nami had thought it was meant to lead to.

     Elsewhere on the sea, Nico Robin was getting ready for the moment she reached her destination. Along with her dinghy she had purchased a few other items that might be useful. There were going to be people who’d recognize her if she arrived looking like she always did. She couldn’t have that. So she began preparing a disguise.

     For clothes she’d wear an outfit she had left over from her time in Baroque Works. While she commonly wore the tops, the miniskirt with the tassels at the hem was something she had worn almost solely when she had assumed the identity of Miss Allsunday. So nobody who knew her would recognize her by her clothing. Step two, she took out a small jar from her bag and opened it up. She began to apply the yellow substance inside to her hair. Blonde hair with Robin’s blue eyes was such a common combination nobody would spend much time looking at her face. Especially since she was wearing her Allsunday clothes. Most men were likely to spend their time looking a bit below her head. Assuming her destination’s residents were as conservative as she remembered, most of the women would turn away in disgust at how Robin was so blatantly showing herself off.

     She would be able to move freely, being seen as nothing more than just another foreign traveler. If there was danger ahead, she’d be more able to take a foe by surprise. After all, if she had been alerted to come here, it was likely whoever it was who prompted the alert in the first place knew of her. Yes, stealth was by far the best strategy for the time being. She could decide on a different course of action once she knew more.

     The weather around Robin began to stabilize a bit. Up until now it had been somewhat cloudy with the occasional rain or snow. Robin had been frequently worried a storm could capsize her. But she had lucked out on that part. The seas were a bit rough, but nothing she hadn’t long ago learned to handle. Now that the weather was getting calmer, Robin knew she was very close. On the Grand Line, the weather was erratic except when you were very close to an island. The particular island Robin was headed for was a spring island, meaning its primary season was spring. The warm, but not too hot temperature was a sign this was the right place. Robin also took note that as the weather calmed down, the bird that had been her companion on her trip suddenly leaped off the boat and began flying away in the same direction Robin was headed.

     Robin steered her dinghy towards a coastal town. She saw a much larger ship docked at the town. It was a good sized boat, roughly three times the Going Merry. Robin sneered at it when she saw it was painted with the colors used on Navy ships. Though it didn’t have a Navy insignia on its sail. That suggested it was a civilian ship working for the World Government. Robin immediately realized that this ship was the likely reason she was brought here.

     Robin stepped off of her boat, her travel bag slung over her shoulder. She walked through the town. As she did so, she noted with satisfaction that everybody was reacting to her just as she’d expected. Wearing little else than her top, skirt, and a pair of matching boots, the older women couldn’t stand to look at her flaunting her body. The older men couldn’t take their eyes off her body. Either way, nobody was looking at her face. Some teenagers were staring, but their parents turned them away.

     Among the men ogling her, Robin spotted a few Navy sailors. Nothing special, just your typical marines. Still, it put Robin on alert. It only took one to recognize her for this to end very badly. She inhaled and stuck out her chest a bit, knowing it would surely keep their eyes focused elsewhere.

     She walked through the town and out the opposite end she had entered from. Along here were farmsteads scattered along hilly plains. Robin walked along a well-beaten path until she reached a particular house several miles outside of town. She recognized the home from the last time she was here, several years ago. She walked to the door and knocked three times in rapid succession. When nothing happened for about ten seconds, she again knocked three times. This time she waited two seconds between raps on the door. Soon after, the door opened. A man in his late forties stood on the other side. He had dark hair and a beard along his chin. Behind him sitting at a table was a woman with light brown hair. Both had green eyes and each of them was centered on Robin. The man soon broke into a smile.

     “Robin. It’s been a long time. Blonde doesn’t suit you.”

     “No.” Robin replied with her own smile, “But it suits my purposes just fine.”

     She walked inside.

     The Straw Hat crew sailed. Nami held the Eternal Pose before her, using it to guide her to Robin. To someone who didn’t know better, it would appear that Nami had the Pose backwards. She was following the white end of the compass needle instead of the red. But, that was the idea. A simple yet brilliant deception, put in place in the event that the Pose was intercepted.

     It was nothing more than having the Eternal Pose’s compass needle painted in opposite directions. The red end was white and the white was red. Following the red pointer on a pose was so ingrained into sailors on the Grand Line, that anybody who happened upon the Pose would follow it the wrong way to who-knew-where.

     Nobody knew where exactly Robin had headed. So Nami didn’t know how long it would take to get to where they were going. Sanji had procured plenty of food for the trip and was keeping careful watch on it to make sure Luffy or Usopp or Chopper didn’t get at it.

     Unknown to them, that wouldn’t be too necessary. No more than usual, anyway. Their destination wasn’t very far at all.