Chapter 68: Merry's Final Ride

On the Merry.

Kai landed on the deck on his right foot. His skin shone with a slightly blue tint and he was violently shivering. He had ended up landing next to Usopp.

Kai tried to speak up, but barely managed to get out in a raspy voice. "Get the dog."

Kai fell to the ground and lay down on his back as Usopp started screaming. "WAHH!! A Ghost!"

Kai chuckled. "Waha! That works too." He said as he struggled to stay conscious.

Kai was lying on the deck of the Merry shivering as he looked up towards the sky. "Fuck me. That guy didn't hold back at all." Kai was a little pissed at Aokiji for threatening to go after the Merry at the end.

The cause of the worst of both of the two's injuries came from the last couple of attacks that were made by Kai in order to stop Aokiji from attacking the Merry and the crew.

After Kai had a little bit of rest while staring into the blank sky a group of people walked up to where he was lying down. One man was cowering in fear behind the rest of the group. This man pointed over the shoulder of someone. "S-s-see! It's a G-ghost!" Suddenly one of the people in the group rushed forward.

Robin crouched down over Kai with a pained expression on her face. Robin turned to face the rest of the crew and looked directly at one of them. "Chopper, he needs help. Hurry!" She said in a panicked voice. Kai heard this and laughed. "Tis nothing but a scratch milady."

Chopper heard this and almost fainted. "The ghost spoke!! RUN!" He screamed as he tried to run away. Nami saw him running away and grabbed his scruff. "It's not a ghost! That's Fujin!" Chopper was still shivering in fear and peaked through his hooves at Kai.

Once he recognized Kai he shouted. "Oh no! He's badly injured! We need a doctor!"

Kai heard this and laughed, before it turned into a pained groan and cough. "Wahahaha! The best dog ever! *cough* *cough* Urgh, shit, it's cold out here."

Robin looked at him in concern as she was still crouched over him. She felt his body, before immediately retracting her hand at how cold he was. Robin's eyes widened in shock and her head snapped to Chopper. "Chopper, you need to help him fast! You're the doctor!"

Chopper had an epiphany and realized that he was in fact, the doctor. Chopper rushed to help Kai and checked his body for injuries. "This isn't good. He has severe frostbite in his entire body, his right hand and wrist are broken badly as well as his left foot. Both his right hand and left foot have the worst frostbite of all. His body is also extremely worn out, as if he was hit by a train head on. What the hell happened?"

Kai chuckled to himself. He bet Aokiji was hurt pretty bad too, he only slightly lost this fight.

"Not bad against an admiral. Hehehe!" A mysterious voice said out of nowhere.

Kai smiled when he heard this. "I'm only hurt this bad because I had to save your ass." He replied as he lightly knocked on the ship's deck.

The voice replied with a giggle. "Hehehehe! I'm going to break anyway, so you didn't need to do that."

Kai lightly shook his head, ignoring Chopper who was telling him to stay still amongst other things that Kai didn't care much about. He'd survive anyway as long as he took a warm bath or something, so who cares?

Kai answered the mysterious voice once more. "That tin can is gonna find a way to bring you with us. Isn't that right Franky?"

Franky was looking around in confusion. He looked down at Kai and asked. "Am I hearing things? Where's that voice coming from? And how am I supposed to help them?"

Kai smiled. "That's Merry. I thought you would know about klabautermann. Considering you are a shipwright."

Franky had his jaw drop. "THAT'S YOUR SHIP??"

The whole ship buzzed slightly along with a childish giggle. "Hehehehe!"

Franky started to go into a daze as he muttered about meeting a real klabautermann and about how to go about saving Merry.

At this point Kai started listening back to what Chopper was saying as he had been tuning him out for a while. "... and your hands and feet are almost completely destroyed. It's a miracle they are still functional. We need to get you to a warm bath right away and you need to rest. Make sure you REST. Rest a lot!"

Kai nodded. "So a nice cozy warm bath and a nap? Sounds good to me! Wahaha!"

Robin looked at him with a slight smile plastered to her face as she shook her head. She was just glad that Kai was okay, err… at least functional, errr... at least he was still alive. She used her devil fruit to carry Kai towards the bath.

Kai finally got into the warm bath and sank down to his neck in the warm water. "I never wanna fight that guy again. So fucking cold!" He said as he was still trying to warm up.

Outside the bathroom Robin was sitting on the deck with a worried look on her face. She looked back at the sea behind her and the Gates of Justice in the distance. She felt bad that Kai had to get injured for her and the other's sake. She was still very grateful to Kai and every time that she remembered that Kai fought an admiral one on one for her she got a warm feeling in her chest.

She finally felt at home, and like she had a family. That's kind of what the Straw Hats were, a family. Sure they fought and messed around with each other all the time but at the end of the day no one cared more about each other than the Straw Hats did. They were the first ones to have your back if you were ever in trouble, no matter what.

Robin smiled softly at her own feelings. She was truly home and with a family, she even had a new boyfriend. Her life had really come together and she was happy. Truly happy. Robin didn't want to lose this newfound happiness, no matter what.

As Robin was in thought, a pair of footsteps slowly approached her. Nami walked up and sat down next to Robin without a word. Robin looked at her curiously with a slightly raised eyebrow. Nami thought for a moment before she said.

"Fujin is like a big brother to me..." Nami slightly trailed off and looked towards Robin who nodded signaling Nami to continue.

"*ahem* Well, he really saved me back when I was in the East Blue, he helped me out a lot, and I want him to be happy and help him out if I can too." Nami paused for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I don't know much about him, or his past, but I can guess that he's had a rough time. What I mean is, I don't think he had a happy childhood."

There was another pause. "I just hope that he can be happy, and that you can too Robin. I hope you two can be happy together, truly, but I also want to say that if you can't be someone who can help him out, save him. Then please don't get his hopes up or hurt him. He needs someone he can truly trust and care about with him as an equal. So I hope you can do that for him. If not, then please don't hurt him." Nami finished as she looked out to the ocean for a moment before getting up to walk away.

As she stood up and was about to take a step she heard. "You don't have to worry. He saved me too. I really care about him deeply and I want to help him out like he helped me. I would never think of doing anything you might be thinking of." Nami had a smile on her face as she walked away without looking back, leaving Robin unaware of what Nami was thinking.

In the bathtub Kai smiled and blew a few bubbles. He muttered into the water along with his bubbles. "Thanks, Tangerine." Before he felt the butterflies in his stomach at Robin's answer. His smile widened. "She cares deeply about me, huh. Hehehehe!" Kai giggled like a little child who got the candy he really, really wanted as he continued to soak in the bath.

After Kai finished warming up he finally went to his room to get some rest. He reached his bed and went to sleep. The next morning Kai woke up and felt something heavy on his chest. Kai looked down towards his chest and allowed a smile to form on his face.

He took off his mask and put it down on the nightstand as he patted Robin's head, which was resting on his chest. As he lightly ruffled her hair Robin's eyes fluttered open. She wiped her eyes lightly and looked around. When her eyes landed on Kai she stopped looking around and smiled, meeting his eyes in the process.

Robin looked at Kai's hand on her head then back to Kai and giggled. Kai smiled at her and asked. "Were you here all night?"

Robin got up and stretched before she replied. "Mhm. You're not a bad pillow."

Kai chuckled and stood up, getting out of bed.

He also stretched out before he walked over to his drawer to get dressed as he slept in only underwear. Once he got dressed he walked back over to Robin and gave her a kiss before putting his mask back on.

"Shall we head to breakfast?" He asked Robin who nodded eagerly. "I'm starving."

The two walked out of the room together and went to get breakfast. Kai was already feeling a lot better even though he was still limping and using his left hand for everything as his right arm was in a sling and bandaged and his left foot had a boot on it.

When they got to the dining hall they got Sanji to make food for them and sat down to eat together.

Chopper walked in and looked over at Kai before running up to him and punching him. "I told you to rest! What are you doing?!"

Chopper's barrage of punches went straight through Kai who just laughed. "Wahaha! Aren't you supposed to be healing me doggo? Why are you punching me?"

Chopper just started punching even harder. "I'm not a dog!! And I'll kill you before I heal you for not listening to me!!"

Kai just laughed even harder. "WAHAHA! A little counter productive, no?"

Chopper just kept yelling and trying to hit Kai only to miss every single punch he threw.

After a while everyone else in the crew trickled into the dinning hall and everyone ate together and had a bunch of fun and joked around with each other until Kai excused himself and went back to his room, with Robin following him.

When they two arrived in the room Kai went over to his bed and sat down before he yawned. "I'm gonna have a nap, wanna join?" Robin thought for a moment and nodded as she climbed into bed with Kai. The two went to sleep in each other's arms.