Chapter 66

[Whiskey Peak]

"Hello?" Nojiko cried out in front of the hollow town. "Anyone here?"

"It's no use Nojiko." Nami shook her head as she gazed at the hill full of tombstones, "It seems that whoever used to live here decided to move out. At least on this side of the island, there is nothing to explore here."

Spadina slumped in disappointment, "How can this be?! After going through that terrifying storm, this is all we get? How boring, I can't even sight a single coin!"

"Wait..." Nojiko crouched down and inspected numerous footprints that remained on the ground, "It's too early to say that, Spadina. The footprints here are too fresh; they may still be somewhere within this island."

From behind, another member of the Twin Cat pirates walked up, a tall woman with red hair approached Nojiko with a grin. "Hehe, does it matter captain Nojiko?! We successfully arrived at our first island in the Grand Line—we should be partying right now, instead of worrying over small matters like this!!"

"You guys..." Nojiko sweatdropped as she saw her and Nami's crew members all staring at her with sparkly eyes.

*BOOM* Suddenly, from the opposite side of the island, a booming noise was heard. The Twin Cat pirates immediately tensed and took out their respective weapons, readying themselves for a battle.

"A smoke... cannonball? I can't clarify." Nami muttered with a bo staff in her hands, her eyes squinted.

"H-hey, someone's flying this way!!" One member exclaimed as they sighted a blue-haired woman, Miss Wednesday, flying towards them at a rapid pace, unconscious with bruises and cuts all over the visible parts of her body.

"Sofie!!" Nojiko quickly ordered to one member with short height, who had a pink hair and round body.

"Got it captain!!" Sofie responded and wobbly ran to where Miss Wednesday was falling towards and cried out, "Piro Piro no... Soft Pillow!!" She slid underneath Miss Wednesday and her body transformed into a giant, rectangular, and white-coloured pillow.

*Boing* Upon landing on top of Sofie, the unconscious body of Miss Wednesday bounced without sustaining any damage.

Everyone quickly gathered around Sofie and Miss Wednesday, in a mix of curiosity and caution.

"Who's this woman?" Nami said in curiosity and immediately began to look around the woman, checking if there is any worthwhile valuable to take.

____________

Within the desert between Tamarisk and Katorea, the sun set and moon has risen. The temperature dropped to a frightening degree; Rowan, his crew, and Robin were seen to have positioned themselves around the large campfire in the middle.

While his crew was chattering and enjoying a warm meal prepared by Carmen, Rowan positioned himself next to Robin.

"...Is this really necessary?" Robin weakly said with her eyes blindfolded and her hands still cuffed by the Seastone cuff.

"That's nothing, I've tried worse before." Rowan said while thinking, 'Try a Seastone cuff plus a large rock on you.'

Robin remained silent, before speaking out once again, "How about we make a deal?"

Rowan's eyebrow quirked, "Deal?" He leaned forward, ready to listen.

"If you desire to know what's going on here, I am the best informant you got. However, for you to attain the information, you have to do two things for me." Robin spoke in a calm tone. "First, an obvious one, but release me. I can't run away from you anyway, as long as that teleport girl is watching. Second... I will tell you when you accept the deal."

"Hmm..." Rowan placed a hand on his chin, before turning his head to his crew, "what do you guys think?"

The chatters abruptly stopped, and his crew, who were grinning, turned around to face Rowan and Robin.

A hollow chuckle escaped from Robin, "So they were listening from the start, huh?"

Ignoring Robin's remark, Rowan's crew began to voice their opinions.

"I'm leaning towards yes." Dan said with his arms crossed, "Sounds pretty logical to me."

"Hahaha, just leave it to me, the dashing Cavendish!" Cavendish smiled with a wink and a rose between his teeth, "Deal or not, my charm will enchant her to spill all the information!"

Carmen shook her head in disagreement with her sharp eyes narrowed at Robin, "No. She's literally been a pirate for twenty years. We don't know what kind of underhanded tactics she got."

Carina was squinting her eyes at Rowan with a suspicion, as she placed her hands on her waist and leaned forward, "You aren't thinking anything weird, are you?" She looked back and forth between Rowan and Robin, "No. Don't accept her deal."

'Is today the day of the month for Carina?' Rowan thought as he slowly nodded his head, before turning to Alfred, "How about you, Alfred?"

Alfred pushed up his monocle, which flashed, "If I may speak... accepting her deal may not be necessary... with a particular skill I got."

Under the curious looks of others, Alfred stood up and began to approach to Robin, who was intently listening to the conversation.

Crouching down in front of Robin, Alfred reached into his pocket... and pulled out a feather.

Rowan's eyes widened seeing that, 'Don't tell me-"

Alfred suddenly broke into a savage grin as he began to flop the feather up and down on Robin, "Tickle tickle tickle!!!"

"Alfred," Dan called out with his jaw dropped, "you, my friend, are genius."

"Ah-" Robin yelled out from the sudden tickling sensation, before biting on her lips to endure the tickling sensation. In the past, she received many brutal hits and slashes, and built substantial tolerance for pain, but when it came to tickling, she was completely vulnerable.

"Kekekeke..." Cavendish stood up with a dark grin on his face, holding bunch of roses on his hands.

With a determined face, Dan too stood up and pulled out a feather pen from his pocket, with the feather part pointing towards Robin.

"Seems like I should join too-" Before Rowan could take out his weapon from his pocket, Carina was right next to him all of a sudden, pulling on his ear with a tick mark on her forehead. "Ow ow ow, Carina, w-wait!"

Carmen was left sitting alone, staring at the scene with a dull expression. "Idiots." Carmen said with a disgust on her face, as she witnessed three men crouching down on a blindfolded Robin, rubbing the feathers and roses on her.

After a few moments, Robin was seen to be huffing heavily, with Dan, Cavendish, and Alfred staring at her in amazement.

"How is she able to endure this?!" Dan expressed his surprise as he stared at his broken feather pen with a shaky hand.

"She... she is born different." Cavendish closed his eyes and nodded, acknowledging Robin's tenacity.

"Well well," Alfred adjusted his monocle, flashing once more, "time to move onto level two."

"""There is next level?!""" Dan, Cavendish, and blindfolded Robin all cried at once.

"Alright, that's enough," Carmen stepped in while massaging her forehead, "let me guess, you are going to tickle her again with something else."

Alfred stared at Carmen weirdly, "You are seriously mistaken, mademoiselle Carmen. Gentlemen like us do not resort to those kind of degenerate means."

"Well, what is it, then?" Carmen snorted and crossed her arms haughtily.

Alfred widely grinned once more, as he rubbed his hands together, "Apply Farul's feces on her face."

On his sides, Dan and Cavendish's jaws opened wide hearing this, while Robin's face turned green and her mouth tightly shut as her cheeks puffed out, trying to prevent herself from throwing up. Carmen froze on her spot as unexpected words came out of Alfred's mouth.

"You creepy old man!! I think you need some torture for yourself!!" Carmen growled as she charged to Alfred with her hands ablazed. She wildly swiped her hands, but Alfred, who had superior Observation Haki, dodged her attacks with ease.

"I-I give. Please, no more." Robin weakly spoke, dreading what may happen if she hold on any further.

Rowan couldn't pay his mind though, with him kneeling and holding his hands up in the air, at some distance away from rest of the group. Carina was barking in front of him comically, shouting about how he should be careful with women.

"And here it is." As Carmen stopped her light attacks and growled in annoyance, Alfred stared back at Carmen with a haughty smile of his own. "My skill managed to make another one yield, yet again." He placed his feather back into the inner pocket of his black suit, before taking out a white handkerchief and wiping his hands.

A spark formed between Carmen and Alfred, as they glared at one another. Watching such a scene, Dan and Cavendish turned to each other and shrugged.

Meanwhile, Farul was seen to be doing one leg push-ups with a grunt, not paying attention to what is going on around him.

______________

"Alabasta kingdom is in turmoil at the current moment." Robin spoke softly, as she was seen sitting up and blindfold off of her face. "Through discrete interventions, Crocodile's Baroque Works managed to form a distrust for the king within the plebeians. As the result, a rebellion has risen, and Crocodile plans to use this civil war for his benefit."

"Ironic, considering how he is hailed as a hero here." Carina muttered.

"And?" Rowan quirked his eyebrow as Robin ceased talking.

In seriousness, Robin directly looked at Rowan, "...I am about to spill the credentials of the Baroque Works agents. If I am not guaranteed with safety and protection, I would rather die than talk."

"Should I?" Alfred narrowed his eyes as he asked to Rowan. Robin's eyes shook for a slight moment, but nonetheless, she firmly focused on Rowan.

Rowan raised his hand to stop Alfred met Robin's firm gaze with his own. "And why exactly do we need this information?"

"Because Crocodile doesn't have a choice." Robin answered calmly, "As a Warlord, he received an order to arrest or kill you guys. Now, in usual cases, he wouldn't have stooped so low to listen to the orders from the marines. However, he's at the most crucial stage of his plan right now; he cannot afford to raise any attention from the World Government by rejecting the order."

"...Know your enemy." Muttering to himself, Rowan lowered his head. 'Information is indeed crucial, if we are guaranteed to face Crocodile. After all, if we encounter a problem like we did in the marine base G-11, which happened because we didn't know the existence of an Eternal Pose and underestimated the marines... we won't be as lucky as we were back then.'

"How should we assure our protection for you?" Having determined to accept Robin's deal, Rowan lifted his head back up.

"Simple," Robin's eyes looked resolute as she spoke, "accept me into your crew."