Chapter 42: Shopping

Kai thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head. He muttered. "There's no way that will work. That bastard is way too tenacious to be scared off by a random threat. Damn dumbass." Kai clicked his tongue before he walked into the store he was in front of. He walked up to a customer quietly, still using his stealth like he did on Teach without realizing and stood next to her. He appeared out of thin air as he was previously invisible and the person beside him jumped back and crossed her arms. Suddenly he was covered in arms that tried to grab him only to go through him as his body turned to air.

He looked over to Robin beside him and asked in an emotionless voice. "What?" Robin immediately noticed the tone of his voice was weird. She regained her calm demeanor and said, "You shouldn't sneak up on people." He looked at her and said, "I didn't." She pointed at his body that was still half invisible as it was constantly changing from air to solid form. Kai looked down and in a dull voice said. "Didn't realize I was still doing that. My bad."

Robin was kind of concerned and asked. "Something to do with your little errand on this island?" Kai nodded. "I just had someone to talk to." Robin was curious but didn't push too much. She realized something was up with Kai but she still wasn't sure what. She also couldn't recognize any emotion in his tone or eyes. It was like trying to watch a TV show without turning on the TV, you just don't see anything. You can make a guess by the sounds that you hear or in this case the words he says, but without a picture to portray what's happening, it's still just a blind guess.

Kai grabbed a certain shirt and handed it to her. "This would look good on you." Was all he said. As he kept looking at the other clothes. Robin nodded and put her thoughts about Kai's current actions aside. "Learn anything?" Kai asked her without looking up. Robin nodded and told him about how there was someone on the island who apparently believed in the sky island. "…This guy Mont-Blanc Cricket apparently is an idiot who searches for a non-existent treasure."

Kai just said. "Like the story book Noland the Liar, right?" Robin nodded. "How do you know about that, I thought you were from the East Blue." Kai didn't fall for her obvious ploy to get him speaking. "When did I say where I was from?" He asked emotionlessly. Robin felt a little weird talking to Kai when he wasn't making jokes. She felt off, not like she was scared of him or that something was wrong with him, but more like she felt almost bad for him.

She felt like she was seeing through his facade of joy and happiness and that she just for the first time realized he was a person too, who had his own struggles and goals in life, other than just protecting the Straw Hats and making everyone around him laugh.

She felt a little annoyed at herself as she realized she had been thinking about Kai without seeing the full picture. She remembered all the people who treated her like a tool and just wanted to be around her because she was useful. She cut her conversation with Kai about the sky island short by asking. "What's wrong Fujin? Wanna talk about it?"

Kai paused for a moment. He stopped what he was doing and started thinking. Eventually he sighed. "I think you're the first person to ask me that since my mom died, but I can't talk about it right now. Thanks anyway though." Robin pursed her lips. She had finally gotten another clue about his identity but she wasn't happy about it at all.

Kai let his emotionless mask fall as he said this, only instead of the anger and bloodlust he felt towards Teach a moment ago, the only semblance of emotions in his eyes were sadness and regret. Robin tried to change the topic as she wouldn't try to use his current emotional state to try and find out who he was. "Want to try on some new outfits, Mask-san?"

Robin held out a random t-shirt and placed it in between her and Kai looking at it as if envisioning what it would look like on him. Kai looked at the dark green t-shirt with a blue line across it and grabbed a different shirt. It was the same design but it was a long sleeve. Robin didn't think too much about it. "Like warm clothes?" She asked him. Kai shook his head. "I don't like prying eyes, and it's annoying to always be the center of attention."

Robin didn't understand why wearing a short sleeve would make you the center of attention but she just thought that it was another narcissistic joke about being too handsome or something. Kai and Robin both walked into the change rooms and got into their respective clothes the other picked out.

Robin walked out wearing a white tank top with a small black leather ¾ sleeves coat that only reached down slightly above the waist and ended around her belly button. The jacket was left open revealing her white shirt and she had jeans on. She was also wearing a pair of sunglasses with a blue tint to them.

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Kai walked out in the shirt Robin picked out with long sleeves and a pair of dark green pants. Kai looked over to Robin and nodded. "Those look good on you." He said before he looked in the mirror at himself. He muttered. "But this definitely does NOT look good on me. Yikes." Robin giggled. "You definitely look better in a suit." She said as she decided to keep the outfit. Kai agreed and went back into the change room.

Robin went to go pay for her clothes and on her way back to the change room after paying she saw a girl not paying attention and walk into the wrong change room. Before she could stop her from going in the girl opened the curtain and screamed. "Kyaaa!" She ran away leaving the curtain open.

Kai, who was inside the changeroom was wearing nothing but underwear, showing his full body. Kai just looked at the girl running away and shook his head. "I swear, just because I'm so handsome, they all run away! Whatever am I going to do?" He said as he exaggeratedly threw up his arms in despair. The girl behind the counter was staring at Kai's scars, scared. "She didn't run away because you are handsome. It was because you have a scary body. If yo-"

Kai felt his eyebrow twitch as Robin grew a hand out of the girl's shoulder to cover her mouth and stop her from speaking. Kai took a deep breath and rubbed his temples for a second before he let out a long sigh. He shut the curtains to the dressing room only for Robin to hear. "Idiots! Everywhere! I can't stand it anymore! Doesn't anyone know how to take a joke!" Kai kept going on for a few minutes about the idiots while changing.

"Nishishishi!" Robin laughed at his little rant before releasing the girl behind the counter and giving her a cold stare. "Read the fucking room next time." She said in a cold voice and the girl just nodded, still not realizing her mistake. What an idiot! Anyway, Kai walked out of the dressing room in his usual suit and marine coat. Still shaking his head. He muttered one last. "Idiot." Before he looked up to Robin as if nothing had happened.

"Thanks." He said as they left the store together. Robin looked at him and asked. "For showing human decency? That's a pretty low standard Mask-san, I didn't even do anything." Kai chuckled at this. "You would think so right? Usopp did the same fucking thing! What an idiot." Kai shook his head and Robin was mildly stunned. "Really? I mean I know he isn't the smartest guy, but, really?"

Kai chuckled. "I'm telling you. They're all idiots. Besides, you're the first girl ever to not gasp in shock or run away from me, other than my family. So, thanks." Robin just nodded. Understanding it wasn't a topic Kai wanted to keep talking about. "So about sky island. What do you think?" Robin asked as she changed the topic.

"It's great talking to smart people." Kai muttered as Robin had picked up on his feelings and decided to change the topic. "Well, I mean, why wouldn't it exist. I've seen crazier things in this world. What's a sky island or two?" Robin nodded. In this world a floating island isn't actually that crazy.

Kai thought for a moment before he remembered something. "Say devil-chan. If this island really exists. What would be their biggest problem?" Robin thought hard for a while but couldn't find an answer. Kai smiled and added on. "What would their source of food be?" Robin smacked herself in the forehead lightly for overlooking such a simple thing. "How would they grow food without dirt? That must be extremely valuable to them." Robin said out loud.

Kai smiled. "Why don't we grab a little bit of vearth for the road?" Robin looked at him confused. "Vearth?"

"Err… I mean dirt." Kai said as before he bought a few large bags from a store and the duo grabbed a bunch of vearth, err… dirt from the ground.

Anyway!

After the two made it back to the boat with a bunch of dirt they stored it in the storehouse and came back to the top of the boat. When they got on the deck Nami asked the two. "Where have you two been?" Kai just shrugged and Robin held out a bag of clothes. "Shopping. Also I gathered some information."

Nami turned to Kai. "So what was wrong with you today? And who was that guy you almost killed earlier?" Kai just shrugged again. "Nothings wrong. And you don't have to worry about him. He's a dead man walking." The crew was slightly stunned at Kai's words as he wasn't some maniac who would kill people for no reason.

"What do you mean by that?" Sanji asked his brother, concerned. Kai replied in a monotone way. "He's either gonna lose his fight and die, or win and I'll kill him. Either way he's dead." Kai shrugged at the last part as if to say, what can you do? As he took out a cigarette, which Robin lit it for him, shocking him. "Thanks! It really is great to have you around all the time." He said, still in a slight daze.

Sanji cursed under his breath at his brother, but he still respected the fact that his brother liked Robin so he wouldn't go for her or anything. He may be a massive simp, but he wasn't an asshole who would try to get with the girl his own brother likes.

Robin tried to take advantage of Kai's daze. "Who is he going to fight? One of your two friends?" She asked, pressing for information on Kai. Kai looked at her and said. "Nice try devil-chan." He said before he turned around and walked towards his room. On his way he shrugged and said. "Who knows? Wahahaha!" Robin clicked her tongue and told the crew about Mont-Blanc Cricket. Kai got to his room and sat down thinking about today's events.

He was still keeping an 'eye' on Blackbeard and his crew with his haki and he started wondering about whether anything would change in his fight with Ace before shaking his head. "Not that it matters. I'll just have to save the little blow torch's ass if he fails." He mumbled to himself before thinking back to his time with Robin. A smile crept onto his face unbeknownst to himself.

"She didn't run away." Was all he said to himself as his smile grew. Even Kai wasn't fully aware of how much it had hurt him to see everyone scared and run away from his body and scars. Robin was the only person other than his own mother and sister to not even be startled by him. Kai lay down on the bed with a warm feeling creeping into his chest as he closed his eyes and said. "Maybe she really is perfect for me."