69 Liftoff!

Eventually, Veyron arrived together with Nico Robin, and Hancock's expression changed entirely to one of love and sympathy once she noticed that there seemed to be nothing amiss between the two.

"Darling~," she exclaimed.

"Hancock~," he replied.

They shared a warm hug and a couple of kisses. Hancock received him as if they hadn't seen each other in years. She was clearly a girl in love, and for Veyron, whose feelings were much the same, all he could do was play along and entertain her.

"Let's get this over with; we have to save Shawty," Hancock hummed after getting 'recharged'.

"Hai!"

Veyron used his powers to levitate everyone onto the ship, and they set sail. Momousagi and looked rather irritated.

"I never thought that I'd ever sail on a pirate ship. Isn't it better to just use our warship? It has seastone covering," Gion remarked, her sense of justice unwavering. However, the boy just rolled his eyes at her attitude. Tsuru, for her part, remained mostly silent with her arms crossed.

Veyron sighed at her anti-pirate attitude which could make her a perfect target for teasing. 

"To where we're going, we don't need seastone. Just be quiet for a while; I'll take us there in a flash." He lifted his finger, and at first, they didn't notice any change. But then, the entire ship began levitating.

He activated all of his forcefield coverings, g-force removers, friction cleansers, and aerodynamics. Everything needed to be much stronger, considering he was flying an entire ship at supersonic speeds instead of just his body or some companions. 

Also, the course wasn't going to be horizontal, it was going to be vertical, all the way to the stratosphere. 

Meanwhile, Primrose approached Robin, who felt a bit out of place and wanted to stick together with Veyron. However, the boy was now levitating in the centre of the ship, out of her reach.

"I'd like to ask this girl some things too," Primrose said.

"Yes, ma'am?" Robin didn't even know how to address this empress, whose age she knew was older than herself. But Primrose's countenance was so 'nourished,' just like the rest of her body, that Robin thought those four might as well be her sisters.

"What's the name of your mother?" Primrose asked with furrowed brows.

The archaeologist was a bit taken aback by the sudden question, but she answered nonetheless. "My mother's name was Nico Olivia."

"Nico Olivia… and your father?" Primrose mumbled as if trying to recall her memories but didn't find anything.

"I don't know... I never met him. Is there anything wrong?"

"Why the question, mom?" Hancock and the sisters joined Tsuru and Gion, all listening intently.

"She has the features of a Boa. But I don't know any Nico Olivia in our registries, let alone that 'Nico' family has never belonged in our tribe".

"Your Boa Dynasty is one of the oldest in Amazon Lily, correct?" The archaeologist followed along with interest. 

"How do you know?"

"I have read old newspapers of your Kuja Pirates from about three dozen years ago. Your Boa Dynasty loses and wins the throne very often in Amazon Lily. If I remember correctly, before you..."

"The empress before me was not a Boa, she was Empress Shakuyaku. And before her it was my mother, Boa Paletulip" Primrose remarked, finding herself interested in this young lady whose knowledge was broad.

"There must be a reason why your Boa Family has reached so far down the genealogical ladder, still taking the throne even today."

Primrose frowned and revealed a small detail. 

"... It is usual for the descendants of our family to have Conqueror Haki. I have it, one of my daughters has it... and if I recall correctly, my mother had it as well. It is a vast advantage for anyone seeking the throne as we Amazonians are a meritocracy. Most of the time when a Boa is not an empress, is because the descendant of that generation is still too young to take the throne, just like it happened to me. My mother died of Lovesickness... and when that happened I was still too young only four years of age. Hence, the throne was taken by Shakuyaku who was way stronger than me at that time and was my mother's vice-chief".

Seeing how attentive Robin was, Primrose let loose some of her knowledge, which wasn't a secret in itself, but most of the time foreigners wouldn't get interested in her Amazon Lily history. 

"Conqueror Haki?" Robin didn't know what that was but she was just as interested. The knowledge of Haki was not available to just anyone. Primrose explained to her that it was considered by the majority of people as a technique one was born with, an unyielding will that manifested at the time a baby was born. Robin, however, saw it from another point of view. 

"So that's why… don't you think this is something that may be related to your ancestors?"

"Oh?"

"I remember back in Ohara, the territory of Amazon Lily wasn't mentioned often, but when it was mentioned, it was associated with a very influential lady from the Void Century."

"... Girl, you should say no more," Tsuru warned.

"Even if I wanted to say more, there is no more to say. I don't know the name of this lady. I only know she belonged to the Void Century and was the first empress of Amazon Lily. That's why I must read about it."

"The first empress... our registries don't go that far" Primrose frowned, the latest they had in their archives were about ten generations before Gloriosa... but Amazon Lily had existed way before that, only... those records were gone. 

Standing her ground against the Marines, aware that they couldn't do anything to her in this situation, Robin gained some backbone. Her eyes looked toward Veyron, who was waving his hands, doing his thing, and smiling at her before nodding.

At the very least, she felt protected. 'He doesn't have a reason to lie to me, right?'

It was difficult for her to trust, but at least a young boy like him, she could try.

"Do you think this Nico Olivia once belonged to our island, Mother?" Sandersonia's curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to continue the conversation, much to Tsuru and Gion's chagrin.

"I know for certain she wasn't. But her father…"

"I thought you said women from Amazon Lily don't give birth to men," Veyron's voice rang out as he joined the conversation, adding the last touches to his forcefield, he had also been paying attention to their conversation.

"That's right, but you should know it is impossible for that oddity to be a hundred per cent. The regular procedure in that case is for the boy to be exiled the moment he becomes old enough to walk."

"That's quite cruel."

"And that's exactly the reason why this is not public knowledge. But a man hasn't been born on our island for dozens of years. I personally never had to exile any young boy from our terrain. Yet those are the rules. Although it is far-fetched, there is a possibility of that happening. But it is meaningless now."

Primrose noticed Robin cared very little about her ancestry. 

"Yes, I don't really care about my ancestry. My family died the moment my land was burned to the ground," Robin confessed, her heart still clenched at the memories. She only knew two individuals as 'family,' and they were all dead. She couldn't care less about her surname.

After a few more minutes, all preparations were set. Veyron wanted to be extra careful because it was his first time trying to fly an object this massive together with Youbi that although extremely heavy, was a more aerodynamic object. 

"I'm ready now. With this much, no one is going to die because of excessive G-Force."

"G-Force? Speak something we can understand, brat... that's why I hate geniuses," Tsuru groaned in distaste, leaving the boy speechless about the level of a boomer she had reached.

"The plan is that you all better hold yourselves together; we're going up fast."

*RUMBLE!!*

In order to levitate this massive ship, it wasn't difficult for him. But the sky islands were very far away, and to reach them as quickly as possible, he needed to put his power to the maximum. It was a tricky manoeuvre that would test his limits.

'I must use Conqueror Haki to power up my Psychokinesis... without affecting Robin, Gion, and Tsuru.'

He didn't know about Gion and Tsuru, but Robin definitely would not be able to handle his Conqueror Haki. Not only could she pass out due to the ferocity of it, but since he needed to use a lot of pressure, it may be too much to the point even her life could be in danger.

Hancock seemed to understand this. She walked up to Robin and held the girl's shoulders, brushing her hair.

"You don't need to worry about her, Darling."

"Can you do it?"

"Don't ever doubt your fiancée".

"That's why I love you~."

!!!

"Kya!"

"Big sis, don't faint now!"

With the assurance of success, Veyron's Conqueror Haki went haywire, to the point where a small storm of red lightning engulfed the ship.

Primrose and Hancock both served as a mantle for Robin, lightening the pressure she was feeling. It wasn't like they were completely immune to it, but since they had Conqueror Haki as well, it was easier to handle. They looked to their right, where the Marine group was, and looked in disbelief at how Vice Admiral Tsuru was holding up just fine. And she didn't have Conqueror Haki!

Tsuru and Gion frowned profusely. The former kept her ground, but Gion knelt on the floor in disbelief. It was impossible to conceive someone's Conqueror Haki had reached this degree of heaviness. Their willpower allowed them to resist. But seeing that Gion was struggling, it was Primrose who left Robin's side and approached her. 

Gion bit her lips and nodded in appreciation, she wouldn't say a word... but that much pressure was about to make her faint. 

'His willpower is just at another level. No wonder Garp had to go all out!'

As for Robin, all she could do was look at the lightning storm around them in awe and questions in her mind. She needed to know how someone could become that strong, 'So this is Conqueror's Haki?'.

There was another individual on the ship, but he had just fainted, becoming a cluster of pitiful sand.

"I can take us to the sky now, but I don't know the exact position of this island."

"I know where it is… just go there for now," Tsuru said, taking out some odd compass, her hands trembled as she resisted the boy's power, this wasn't her first rodeo.

"Very well! Liftoff of the Kuja Pirate Ship!"

WHOOOOOOSHHH!!

Slowly but surely, the ship started to fly away from the sea. Those aboard didn't feel anything, but they all walked to the edges of the ship, watching as the ship got farther and farther away at an ever-increasing speed.

"Course nominal".

"Approaching the point of most aerodynamic pressure".

Veyron grunted. It wasn't easy to carry both Youbi and this gigantic ship at the same time while flying this fast, but he could manage it. His eyes were set on the skies as he laughed.

RUMBLE!

BOOOOMMMM!

"Vehicle is Supersonic".

With another barrage of Conqueror Haki, even those aboard the ship felt a little push as the speed increased drastically. Now they didn't even have time to see the clouds passing. All they could feel was complete awe as the altitude kept increasing.

1km.

2km.

3km.

Robin instinctively leaned on the edge of the ship and saw how the sea became farther and farther away until the clouds engulfed it, and it disappeared. Never in her life did she think she'd experience something like this.

A bit more and they'd reach their destination. 

"I can't believe a snooty brat like you has such a power. How much weight can you carry?" Gion couldn't hold herself back; curiosity about this boy's limits was killing her, she needed to know.

"Your fat *ss and a bit more, Gion."

The rear admiral snorted and instinctively covered her bottom, "W-What did you say...?"

"Darling…" Hancock's ominous aura started to spread; she didn't like that he just complimented someone else's butt, even Sandersonia and Marigold were tapping their fingers.

"It was an insult! It was not a compliment, I promise!"

Robin giggled. 

Tsuru rubbed her forehead in exasperation, 'This brat is going to get himself killed before we finish the mission'.