One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Sitting on the Waves ❯ Rhinestone Cowboy ( Chapter 12 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

ONE PIECE
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 12
BY
Sgamer82

     Robi n was in a bad situation. Trapped in an unfamiliar place with a foe who had familiarized himself with her powers. She had to think clearly. She had no idea where Coverque was. With his Phospher Streamers creating blinding light around the area, she couldn’t find him with her one uninjured eye.

     I have other senses besides my eyes. Robin thought to herself. The problem came in how she could use them in this fight. She had but moments to memorize as much as the terrain as she could before Coverque had lit up the place. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten much of the area, since she had still been reeling from the initial attack on her eye. She needed to figure out what was around her. But how?

     “Trescientos Flor!” Robin called out as an idea came to her. It was risky, but it provided a chance to end this. At Robin’s words, hands began sprouting from the ground around her.

     “Search!”

     The arms sprouted outwards from Robin. A few immediately around her. Then some around the first set. Then more around the second set. And so on and so on. The arms appeared without a problem on the flat soil immediately surrounding Robin. In places where Robin couldn’t feel arms appear, objects were present which prevented Robin from doing as she initially intended. Instead, in those places, arms would bloom from the ground near the objects and begin grasping them. When Robin felt bark, more arms would sprout from the backs of the hands on the ground and begin climbing up the tree. This continued until Robin was almost literally standing in a sea of three hundred arms.

     “Not bad, Ms. Nico, not bad at all!” Coverque said. He was clearly outside of Robin’s initial range. Though he could hurt Robin by attacking her many arms right now, or even Robin herself, he knew it would risk giving away his position. He wouldn’t act against Robin without certainty in his action. To do otherwise against her was suicide. Robin couldn’t tell where his voice was coming from. But that was easy enough to fix.

     “Oídos Flor.” Robin whispered.

     Robin was silent for a few moments. In that time the only sound was her many hands brushing the soil and tree bark. But then, a twig snapped. Robin, who had for most of this time had her eyes closed, turned towards the noise and looked straight at Coverque.

     Coverque was surprised to say the least. His eyes, covered in protective sunglasses, locked with Nico Robin’s eyelids. He told himself it had to be a coincidence. Nothing more. He sidestepped to his left, and to his shock Robin, eyes still closed, followed his movement. He was getting nervous, his breathing getting heavy. Without warning, arms suddenly shot out from the trees around him and grabbed him from his armpits. He looked behind him in shock and saw, of all things, ears sticking out of the trees near the arms.

     Robin breathed a sigh of relief as the several hundred arms receded back from whence they came. She knew she couldn’t use her eyes, so she relied on her touch and hearing to find her opponent. She used her Trescientos Flor to learn a clearer understanding of her surroundings. Following that, her Oídos Flor created ears on the trees her arms had found. From there it was a matter of figuring out where the sounds Coverque made were at their loudest. There was her opponent, waiting for his defeat.

     However, Coverque wasn’t to be beaten so easily. Though Robin held on to him tightly, she wasn’t prepared for the sudden, massive lurch in weight when he suddenly lifted up his feet from the ground. Robin had to let go to avoid breaking her arms. She heard Coverque pick himself up off the ground and move away. This wasn’t right. He was a big man, sure, but the weight she felt in that moment was far beyond what it should have been.

     “You’re a real tough case, Ms. Nico.” Coverque said, “But that wasn’t quite good enough. Before my Streamers lit up the place, you might have noticed the studs on my coat.”

     He was, clearly, referring to the many gaudy rhinestones that adorned his long overcoat.

     “They do more than just make me look good. Each one weighs about 2 pounds. I have nearly two hundred on my person.”

     Robin understood now, whatever he weighed normally, he also had an extra four hundred pounds on him. Which meant he was strong as well as clever. Robin had to make absolutely sure he didn’t get close to her. But Coverque wasn’t about to let Robin make a clean escape. Though she couldn’t open her eyes to see, Robin could clearly hear her enemy charging her. She didn’t know what kind of attack was coming, and so didn’t know how to dodge. She could barely squint with the bright light from the Pospher Streamers, and so could barely see anything. She prepared herself for the blow. But was saved by a voice from out of nowhere.

     “Gunpowder Star!”

     Robin suddenly heard something whiz by her and explode in front of her. She immediately recognized the voice as Usopp. He had come to aid her. It worked quite perfectly, actually. He was just the person she needed.

     “Robin! Are you okay? I’m here to help!”

     “Thank you, Long-Nose, dear.” Robin replied sincerely, “Your coming is quite fortunate.”

     “Well, for a brave warrior of the sea such as myself, this kind of battle is nothing!”

     “By the way,” Robin said, “Do you have your goggles on right now?”

     She was, of course, referring to Usopp’s sniper goggles, which had lenses on them which darkened bright light.

     “Of course.” Usopp replied, “It’s so bright around here it’s the only way I can see to aim.”

     “Yes. It is rather bright here, isn’t it?” Robin asked, as if making casual conversation, “May I borrow them?”

     “What?” Usopp asked, but then, for the first time, noticed Robin had her eyes shut tight. Usopp seemed to get what Robin was thinking. He closed his eyes and helped place his headpiece on the archeologist’s raven-haired head. Robin moved the left eyepiece down to her own eye. Feeling over the lens to be sure the sunglass was in place, she tentatively opened her eye.

     It was still unbearably bright, but Robin could see clearly enough now that Usopp’s goggles blocked some of the light. She saw Coverque again getting up off the ground. This time, though, Robin could fight him on more equal terms.

     First thing Robin did was spawn an arm right out of Coverque’s chest and rip the sunglasses he wore right off his face. He was momentarily blinded by his own trap and shut his eyes. He stumbled backwards a bit. When he was close enough to several trees Robin called out.

     “Doscientos Flor! Pluck!”

     With perfect aim, two hundred arms spawned out of the area surrounding Coverque and, one by one, plucked off the many rhinestones off his coat. Ripping them off and dropping to them to the ground. Coverque felt the pulling along his coat and was able to guess easily enough what was happening. A group of hands suddenly gripped onto Coverque’s face and pushed him onto his back.

     “Crisantemo!̶ 1; Robin cried out. The two hundred arms receded back into the trees and soil, but soon reappeared underneath Coverque. A group of the arms pushed up on his back and held on to his arms and legs. The many arms reappeared again as they seemed to stack up on top of one another, almost like the stem of a flower. The arms kept going up until they were holding Coverque nearly 14 feet in the air. Then, without any warning, they let go and pulled back into the soil. Coverque hung in the air for just a second before gravity kicked in. He fell to the ground and hit it with a heavy thud. If he wasn’t dead, he was out cold.

     That business taken care of, Robin looked around and used her arms to dismantle the pouches that were strung up. Looking around she found a container Coverque had apparently used to transport them and stuffed the Phospher Streamers inside. When they were gone, she informed Usopp he could open his eyes. Upon doing so, he saw Robin holding his goggles out, giving them back to him.

     “Thank you for lending them, Long-Nose, dear.”

     “Anytime.” Usopp replied as he put the headset on his regular place on his own head. He looked over and saw Robin’s opponent flat on his back, spread-eagled on the ground. For some reason, Usopp wasn’t sure he wanted to know just what Robin had done. On looking at Robin, Usopp noticed, for the first time, Robin was keeping her right eye shut tight.

     “Robin! You’re eye-”

     “I’ll be fine, Long-Nose, dear,” Robin interrupted, “so long as we can locate our doctor. Otherwise, he may end up removing this eye rather than saving it.”

     Usopp felt a little green in the face. How could Robin be so blithe on something serious like losing an eye?

     With Usopp right behind, Robin headed west, to the path in the center of the forest. As they left, Usopp informed Robin of all that had happened.