Nico Robin remained silent, lost in thoughts that intertwined like the pages of a book she had yet to decipher.
Her gaze was fixed on the man standing at the edge of the sky island, arms crossed behind his back, observing the vast ocean below as if he were merely contemplating a garden.
She couldn't see anything from that absurd height.
But... what about him?
It was impossible not to wonder.
Jason D. Winchester.
That name seemed to carry with it a shadow, a weight, and a fascination that even she couldn't name.
Ever since the auction in Sabaody, he had been a mystery.
No, more than that.
He was an anomaly.
A man who smiled at Celestial Dragons as if he were playing with rich, spoiled children.
Who increased the value of his own auction in berries just to mock them.
Who wounded a Celestial Dragon without blinking.
Who killed another as if it were... nothing.
And then he called an admiral.
He called him.
No one calls an admiral.
Pirates run away from admirals.
They hide.
They tremble.
But Jason?
It was as if he were inviting an old friend for a drink.
Robin swallowed hard as she remembered.
She had been in the presence of Aokiji, of other monsters of the Navy.
The pressure was suffocating, almost physical.
But Jason walked through this world like someone who knew no fear.
Or perhaps—like someone above the very concept of fear.
Lost in these thoughts, she only realized she had walked up to him when his soft voice cut through the wind.
"How long are you going to stare at me in silence, Robin?"
She blinked.
She was just a few steps away, close enough to see the reflection of the clouds in his eyes.
Blue eyes, deep, bright... vast.
For a moment, she felt drawn into them.
Jason broke the silence naturally:
"You've been here before, right? Skypiea."
Robin breathed, regaining control.
"... Yes. A few months ago. We defeated Enel and freed the island from his oppression."
The way she said it contrasted with how she felt now.
The journey to Skypiea had been a challenge that almost cost them their lives.
And Jason had brought more than two hundred thousand people here with the same ease as walking through a door.
The powerful are truly free in this world...
She thought, with a twinge of bitterness and admiration.
"I heard about it. They did a good job.!"
Robin raised an eyebrow.
She expected irony.
Sarcasm.
But his face remained serene, sincere.
Nothing but that impenetrable calm.
So she finally asked what had been gnawing at her for days.
"Why didn't you help Luffy defeat Bartholomew Kuma?"
It was a question that, at first glance, he had no obligation to answer.
But she wanted to know.
She needed to know.
Jason stared at her for a brief moment—his blue eyes seeming to pierce through her.
He didn't answer right away.
"Before I speak," he said calmly, "what do you think of your crew's strength?
After everything you've seen in these few days...
You can already understand what the fights in the New World are really like, right?"
His voice was calm.
But Robin felt a chill run down her spine.
He wasn't avoiding the answer.
He was preparing her to understand.
It was as if he were asking her to be honest with herself.
Robin pressed her lips together.
She had seen Jason fight.
She had seen a 700-year-old structure wiped out of existence with a snap of his fingers.
She knew the answer.
But Jason wanted to hear it from her.
She took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and replied:
"...Enough to know that we are still weak."
Jason smiled.
Not mockingly, but with recognition.
And he replied:
"So now you know why I didn't stop Kuma."
Robin nodded, but Jason wasn't finished yet.
"Kuma wasn't an enemy—and you must have already come to that conclusion yourself. That was a rescue. You guys had no real chance of getting out of there alive without the intervention of someone absurdly stronger."
His voice had an almost cruel firmness to it. Robin felt it. It hurt because it was true.
"The truth," Jason continued, "is that you are not ready for the New World."
Robin shuddered. He wasn't trying to humiliate them. He was simply brutally honest.
"The way you are now, you would die before reaching Fishman Island."
"...Now you're being mean."
The thought escaped her before she could control it.
Jason watched her calmly.
"Your captain, Luffy... he's been riding a wave of luck since he set sail."
Robin immediately raised her head, instinctively ready to defend Luffy if Jason tried to belittle him.
But he didn't lie.
"In Loguetown, his adventure should have ended. Smoker is a Logia user. Luffy had absolutely no way of even touching him. If it weren't for his father, Dragon, Luffy would have been arrested right there."
Robin opened her mouth to say something, but there was no counterargument. It was true. And they knew it.
"His next encounter with a Logia was against former Shichibukai Crocodile. And again, Luffy was only able to fight because he exploited the natural weakness of the Suna Suna no Mi. Even so, he almost died—and had to use his own blood to dampen the blows. That was the only reason he was able to defeat him."
Robin felt the memory weigh heavily on her. Luffy was strong... but he was also a walking miracle.
"And here in Skypiea..." Jason raised an eyebrow. "Please. Tell me it's not too much luck that his fruit is the natural counter to the lightning fruit. Without that, he would have no way to touch Enel."
Jason didn't mention Enel's monumental stupidity in not melting gold and drowning him in the White Sea. Robin, on the other hand, thought exactly that, and realized that Luffy had survived so many times by an almost invisible thread.
"You've defeated enemies stronger than yourselves several times. And that made everyone... relaxed. Overconfident in small miracles, in camaraderie, in your own luck."
"..."
Robin didn't respond. The truth was so clear that it hurt.
"In Sabaody," Jason said, looking down at the island below them, "you finally got a reality check. You saw what the New World really is. You saw the kind of power that rules there. You weren't ready, and you still aren't."
He crossed his arms.
"But you can stay."
Robin took a deep breath, then asked, taking advantage of the chance to hear from someone who clearly understood levels of power they couldn't even imagine:
"And what do you suggest we do?"
Jason smiled slyly, like someone about to reveal an important secret.
"Learn haki."
"Haki?"
"Yes." He gestured as if it were obvious. "Haki is the minimum. It's the foundation. It's what any competent pirate in the New World needs to survive. It's what allows you to face logia users... and what separates children playing at adventure from true monsters."
Robin remembered Jason's fights, the way he physically struck Kizaru, something that would only be possible with haki.
"...So you used haki on that spear..."
She concluded in a low voice, almost to herself.
"...And how do I do that?"
The question came out softly, but laden with expectation. Jason turned his gaze to her, and a small smile curved his lips. Robin felt the mood change as Jason began to walk toward her, step by step, with that predatory calmness that made everything... tense.
He stopped so close that Robin could feel his warmth.
"...Did you know you're on my list of the most beautiful women in the world, Robin?"
Jason's voice came out hoarse, low, touching some part of her she couldn't name. Before she could react, he raised his hand and brushed a few strands of her hair away, sliding them behind her ear with unexpected care.
Robin's heart raced, without warning, without logic. A strange warmth spread through her chest.
She looked away, trying to hide the soft blush that tinged her cheeks.
"Hehe... I'll teach you haki later. But right now I don't have time because of the war that's coming."
Jason slowly walked away, and Robin realized she had been holding her breath without meaning to. It took her a few moments to regain her composure.
'This man is dangerous.'
For a moment, Robin forgot that she was on his personal list of the most beautiful women in the world. But that wasn't what made her nervous. It was the strange, almost inexplicable, irrational feeling that Jason would never do anything against her will. On the contrary... with him, she felt safe. Almost too comfortable.
As if... part of her wanted more of that.
She shook her head quickly, pushing away the heat that threatened to rise to her face.
"I-I would like to ask a favor. Could you take me to Sabaody? I need to find my companions again."
She still clung to the crew's promise: to meet again in Sabaody, no matter what it took.
Jason sighed.
"Unless you all learn to fly, you won't make it to Sabaody in a few days."
Robin opened her mouth to argue, perhaps to ask him to repeat the teleportation trick he used with the former slaves, but Jason spoke first.
And he dropped a bombshell:
"Anyway, your captain is in Impel Down now."
Robin froze.
Her mind went completely blank.
Impel Down.
The most secure and hellish prison in the world.
Almost no one ever left there alive.
Going to that place was equivalent to signing your own death warrant.
"…What is he doing in Impel Down?"
Her voice came out weak, as if each word weighed tons.
"He found out about his brother's execution. He said he wanted to save him before he reached Marineford. So I opened a portal to Impel Down and he went in."
"...You sent him to Impel Down because he wanted to go?"
"Yes."
Jason replied so calmly that Robin had to restrain herself from punching that handsome face.
Luffy was impulsive. She knew that.
But Impel Down...?!
Robin imagined Luffy and the crew storming Enies Lobby because of her—and let out a low, almost desperate laugh as she realized the irony.
If Jason hadn't helped Luffy...
He would have found a way to get in there anyway.
In comparison, being teleported straight to Impel Down was perhaps even... less dangerous than the path Luffy would have chosen on his own.
Robin thought again about the war that was about to begin. Before, it would have been just a confrontation between the Navy and a Yonkou. But because of Jason... it had turned into something much bigger.
A war between the old and the new.
Between the world that exists and the world that would emerge afterwards.
"...Are you really going to participate in this war?"
The question escaped her before she realized it. Perhaps because, deep down, she knew that this war would be historic. And Jason... Jason was the kind of man who could turn the tide of war single-handedly.
He was also the kind of man who attracted the attention of the Gorosei.
Jason turned to her, as calm as ever, with that calmness that only someone incomprehensibly powerful could have.
With a slight smile, he asked:
"Why? Are you worried about me?"
Robin swallowed hard. She didn't know how to answer. She wasn't crazy, she had no reason to worry about Jason. They weren't friends. They weren't allies. They barely knew each other.
"Look on the bright side."
Jason lifted his chin playfully.
"If I die in this war, you won't have to worry about anyone trying to win the heart of the Straw Hat archaeologist anymore."
Robin felt a strange tightness in her chest.
She didn't want to imagine Jason dead.
"Don't say that."
It escaped in a whisper, more emotional than she intended.
Jason raised his eyebrows. He literally felt her genuine concern.
Robin realized this at the same moment and panicked inside, her mind racing to find a logical explanation.
"I-if you die, what will happen to the former slaves you freed? And those you still have to free? You... can't start something this big and die halfway through."
It was an excuse.
A good excuse, she thought.
Plausible enough to hide that uncomfortable feeling in her chest.
Jason smiled, clearly amused by her attempt to cover it up.
"How about this..."
He took a step forward, closing the distance between them.
"When I'm done with this war, you might consider accepting my advances."
Robin's heart skipped a beat.
She never thought about romance. She didn't have time for that while she was on the run. When she found a real family, her only focus became helping them.
She never left room for that kind of thought.
But...
The idea wasn't repulsive.
On the contrary.
For the first time, she imagined what it would be like to look at someone, not as a colleague, not as a traveling companion, but as... something more.
And with Jason, it didn't seem so impossible.