"By the way, why did you pick Ohara as our first stop?"
The ship was a mess.
After the two had been clashing swords for over an hour, Mihawk finally caught his breath.
Only then, watching Ozz snap his fingers to restore everything back to order, did he remember to ask.
"Well… the reason is…"
Leaning on the railing with the fresh sea breeze in his face, Ozz gazed toward the far horizon, where a tiny black dot was rapidly growing bigger at an absurd speed.
"Because if we don't come now, we might never get to see it again. Traveling means ticking off the must-see spots, right?"
"Never get to see it again?" Mihawk frowned.
This island isn't going anywhere. Why wouldn't we see it?
With teleportation speeds, it wouldn't take long at all to get from the Grand Line to Ohara.
And any pirates trying to hijack the ship either couldn't keep up or got their vessels sliced in half by Mihawk's blade.
As the ship drew nearer, the Oro Jackson slowly docked beside a cliff, not a proper harbor.
Ozz and Mihawk teleported down onto the "Island of Knowledge."
"Just as I heard this tree is ridiculously huge!"
From a distance, Ozz spotted the colossal tree at the island's center, so vast it nearly blocked out the sky.
"They say it holds every book in the world. I wonder if it has the kind I'm looking for…"
"Huh?" Mihawk frowned, not understanding.
"Just… never mind, forget I said anything."
Seeing Mihawk's confused gaze, Ozz recalled that this guy wasn't interested in women at all.
They decided against teleporting inside the tree, despite how convenient it was.
Ozz wanted to experience the journey to witness everything firsthand, not just teleport in and rush off again.
If it were just speedrunning through islands, he was confident he could check off every island in the world in a few months.
That special-ops style of traveling just wasn't his thing.
Emerging from the cliffside forest, they weren't worried about getting lost.
Ozz's Observation Haki helped, and besides, the tree was so enormous that just following it by sight was enough.
But as they walked, Ozz sensed a few kids nearby through his Haki.
One in particular caught his attention.
Mihawk noticed Ozz suddenly change direction but didn't question it, just raised an eyebrow and followed.
They soon arrived at the other side of the forest, where a small commotion was unfolding.
"Look, look! It's that monster!"
"Everyone, throw tomatoes at her!"
"Hahaha!"
Children's cruelty was innate maybe for fun or the need to fit in.
And clearly, the lonely little girl with no parents, who kept to herself and loved books, was the easiest target for bullying.
Tomatoes hit her head not painful but a hassle to clean.
Her main concern was washing off the juice before going home, worried her aunt might scold her for the mess.
But it didn't stop there.
A few kids nearby seemed unwilling to quit tormenting her.
So, reluctantly, she used her "monster" ability the one that had worked before to try to scare them off.
But she'd used it too many times.
Most of the kids weren't afraid anymore.
After all, what kind of power could a starving little girl really have?
Just as she curled up, hands over her head, bracing for more torment and hoping to get to the library faster,
Something unexpected happened.
"What… what's going on?"
She looked up.
A tall, imposing figure stood right in front of her.
The kids who had been bullying her were now being held by their collars, their heads swelling with bumps.
Who… who is this guy?
Is he protecting me? Like Saul?
"You ugly little brats, showing your faces and bullying other truly, the ugliest of the ugly…"
After handing out a few bumps to their heads, the kids cried and ran off.
Mihawk watched Ozz, satisfied and mischievous after bullying the bullies, and sighed.
There was zero aura of a mighty warrior about him.
Though, after witnessing the scene, he did dislike those ugly kids too.
Ozz felt pretty good.
Since he was six, he'd been the king of the kids on Duramos Island.
Under his reign, it was always him bullying others never the other way around.
"Hey, Nico Robin, where do you think you're going?"
Ozz watched the bullies scatter and turned to the girl who was about to run off.
She froze.
Did he just call her by name?
"Yep, I'm talking to you. Take us around this island. If I'm in a good mood, maybe I'll even pay you."
Ozz smiled.
Despite his charm, this time he'd miscalculated.
Poor, lonely Robin didn't trust strangers at all.
She turned and ran toward the town.
"Tch… can't help you."
Ozz shrugged.
Spending so much time with girls in the red-light district had made him think his charm was maxed out.
Then he said softly,
"Don't move, Nico Robin."
At that crisp command, a strange scene unfolded.
The skinny girl, who had been running, suddenly froze as if frozen by a spell.
Not even her expression could change from a startled panic.
"What… is this?"
Mihawk frowned.
He'd never seen Ozz use this technique before.
Was it some new Devil Fruit power?
Ozz stared at the frozen Robin, a wicked smile creeping onto his lips.
He reached out with his dark, mischievous hand toward.
Her book.
"Hey, Robin, if you run, I'll burn your book!"
The wicked gleam in Ozz's eyes was clear as he pulled the tightly hugged book from her arms.
What it said on the cover, Ozz had no clue.
Not surprising raised by pirates and never formally schooled, he could barely read even the newspaper.
By this world's standards, Ozz was basically illiterate.
True to form, after hearing Ozz's threat, once the control was lifted, Robin didn't run.
She only stared with fearful, trembling eyes at this handsome but mischievous "adult" in front of her.
"Please… don't burn my book…"
(And no worries Ozz's not going to become the crew's babysitter.)
----------------------------------------------------
[Preview for the next chapter :
"The Buster Call Descends: Time to Say Hello"
A terrified child leads two monsters through a burning past.A giant kneels, begging for mercy.And at the heart of it all, the man called Black Emperor yawns and snaps selfies.
The world sends a fleet to erase a speck of defiance
only to find the speck's already in the palm of a storm.
The Buster Call has arrived.
But this time…
The island isn't the one in danger. ]
Impatient? Same. Hit up my P@treon for future chaos!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"