Chapter 448 - 99
"What's happened to Robin?" Shaxia was on her feet before she had finished asking, the worry plain in her voice.
"Nothing life-threatening, from what I can tell. She's run into some trouble, but she's not in any immediate danger. It does look like she'll be sitting in a cage for quite some time if we don't go and collect her." Rosinante's tone was easy, unhurried.
He turned to Raijin Kisuke. "The Navy returned our cruise ship a few days ago, didn't they?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It came back in poor condition. They'd converted much of the interior, replaced the furnishings and amenities with more utilitarian fittings. Repairs have been underway since it arrived. It's available if you need it now."
Ten years ago, Rosinante had sailed to Naval Headquarters aboard that vessel, a grand luxury cruiser of considerable size. After the battle, the Navy had seized it, apparently decided it was wasted as a pleasure ship, and refitted it as a warship. When Momousagi had come to Sabaody, she had brought it back with her as something of an afterthought.
"Then let's go," Rosinante said, rising from his chair. "Robin can take care of herself, but apparently Raki, who is supposed to be a core member of the Oathblood Imperial Guard, keeps getting herself captured. That's going to need addressing when we get back. Some proper training is long overdue."
"I'm coming too!" Elsa appeared from the direction she and Enel had been sparring, having caught enough of the conversation to know what was being discussed. Robin and Raki were the people she loved most in the world outside her own family. There was no question of being left behind.
"Of course you're coming," Rosinante said with a smile. "It'll be a good chance to see some of the sea."
Truthfully, he had already planned to bring her. Leaving Elsa at Sabaody without him made him uneasy in a way that was difficult to argue away. His own strength was no longer something he worried about. There was very little in the world that could threaten him directly. But strength had a way of creating vulnerabilities through the people attached to it, and anyone with ambition and patience who couldn't reach Rosinante himself might very well look at Elsa instead. Until she was strong enough to handle that kind of attention on her own, he intended to keep her close.
...
"Rosinante has left the Sabaody Archipelago."
In the chamber of the Five Elders, one of the five figures spoke without particular urgency.
"His destination is almost certainly Crocodile."
"Crocodile has no idea what he's walked into. Nico Robin had a hand in building Nightless City. You don't touch someone like that and expect no consequences. He should be removed from the Warlord roster."
"Agreed. It's time to find someone new for that seat."
"We had been considering using Crocodile to apply some pressure to the Nefertari line. That opportunity appears to be gone."
"Good riddance to it. I opposed that plan from the start. There will be other chances with the Nefertari family. As for Crocodile, the man's ambitions have always been disproportionate to his abilities. Reaching for the Poneglyphs, attempting to locate Pluton, and now provoking Rosinante's people on top of it all. He's become more trouble than he's worth. Let the Navy handle the cleanup."
"That's the only sensible course."
...
The spies embedded throughout Sabaody wasted no time. The moment the great cruise ship moved away from the archipelago, word went out to every party that had placed observers there, and the World Government had the news within the hour.
But knowing Rosinante had left didn't translate into anyone doing anything about it.
For one thing, he hadn't left Sabaody unguarded. Katakuri and Enel remained, two fighters of admiral-class strength holding Nightless City between them. Whatever force might have considered testing the city's defenses in Rosinante's absence would have needed to be something extraordinary, and the World Government and Navy had no particular interest in provoking that kind of confrontation.
For another, Rosinante had taken Binks with him. With Binks's ability available, the distance between Rosinante and Nightless City was effectively meaningless. If anything required his immediate return, he could be back before most people could finish reacting to the problem. In practical terms, he had never really left.
He had also stopped by the Navy to collect a permanent Log Pose set to Alabasta before departing, and the cruise ship was now cutting a direct line across the sea toward the kingdom.
...
"Captain! There's a ship out there. A luxury cruiser, and a fine one."
"Whoever owns that thing is either a merchant prince or a noble. What do you say, Captain? Worth a closer look?"
On a pirate vessel somewhere between open water and Alabasta, a lookout with a spyglass had spotted something gleaming on the horizon. The crew gathered with the easy interest of people who have learned to see opportunity in unexpected places.
Their captain raised his own glass. Then his expression changed entirely.
"If you want to die, go ahead. I'd rather not. Look at the flag."
"That's... that's the Grey Kingdom's flag. What are they doing out here?"
The first mate had taken the glass by then, and spent a moment looking before lowering it with wide eyes.
"The Grey Kingdom," one of the ship's officers said, taking his turn. "The ones who've been all over the papers lately? Their captain is the Dragon King, the one who used to stand alongside Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom? The man who held a Four Emperor seat before Red-Haired Shanks took it?"
"That's them," the captain said. "Ten years ago they were the rulers of the sea. I don't know where their strength sits now, but they're not something we can tangle with, and that's before you factor in that their captain is now a senior Celestial Dragon with a seat on the Elder Council. Touch them and we'd have a Marine Admiral on our doorstep inside a week."
For a crew like theirs, that particular consequence outweighed almost any other consideration.
"Wait," the first mate said suddenly, glass back at his eye, voice going up half a register. "Captain, Rosinante is actually on that ship. He's right there."
He had been scanning the deck and found a young man stretched out on a deck chair in a posture of complete relaxation. The newspapers had run his face often enough recently that there was no mistaking him. And as the first mate watched through the glass, the young man on the deck chair looked back across the water directly toward them and raised a hand in a cheerful wave.
The color drained from every face on the pirate ship.
"Turn us around," the captain said, his voice cracking slightly. "Right now. Get us away from here."
...