Despite her unhealthy pallor and sweat-covered forehead, Robin's face acquired a somewhat comical expression. Luffy's answer clearly provoked a great mass of contradictory emotions in the girl, which immediately spilled into an amusing grimace. Upon seeing Robin's reaction, the other Hats began exchanging understanding glances. Luffy was equally capable of inflating one fly into an entire herd of hypertrophied elephants and deflating a herd of the same size down to an annoying fly. With only a few sentences, the young man transformed the horrifying and mysterious Ancient Weapon into a gadget nobody particularly needed. Law endured the turn quite well, but the expressions on the faces of Ikkaku, Shachi, and Clione beside him differed little from Robin's comical look.
"So to hell with your Ancient Weapon. Just promise not to lie or run away anymore, and we'll be able to live together in perfect harmony. Deal?" Luffy offered.
Robin required some time to recover her ability to think properly, but once she did, she immediately frowned. The girl would gladly have believed everything she had heard and the promise given to her, but what guarantee could come from a man capable of cold-bloodedly murdering a member of his own crew? If the young man awaiting her answer killed his own people without blinking, what chances did she have of surviving cooperation with someone like him? Robin had no real choice, however, so remembering her listeners' ability to recognize lies, she answered cautiously.
"If nothing threatens my life or health, and you keep the promises you have given, I agree to tell the truth and not attempt to escape until the Poneglyph hidden in Alabasta has been deciphered."
This time Robin did not lie, but she used the most flexible wording possible. If one wished, even an ordinary glass of water served with a meal could be considered a threat to life and health. What guarantee was there that it had not been poisoned or mixed with some drug? What if it was an attempt on her life or honor? She would need to flee immediately! The example was somewhat exaggerated, but the general principle was clear. No one reproached the girl for excessive caution, however. Luffy had identified her as a serious paranoiac from the very beginning, so no one had expected a different answer.
"As you say! Deal!" The smiling young man showed the seated girl an upraised thumb. "And just in time! We're finished with serious conversation, so now is the perfect moment for a small demonstration."
"A demonstration?" a good half of those present echoed.
"Yep. Zoro, come here!" Luffy called the puzzled swordsman over and made him stand opposite Robin. "Now take the gun in your hand." The young man placed the revolver he had taken from the girl, still containing one cartridge, into Zoro's hand. "And point it at her!" Luffy raised his first mate's arm so that the barrel of the revolver in his hand aimed directly at the forehead of Robin seated on the ground. "And don't be afraid!" he called to the frightened girl. "I wouldn't spend so much time on you only to kill you afterward. I simply need the appropriate installation to achieve maximum effect. Now the important thing is for you two to freeze exactly like this and not move, while everyone else stands behind me."
No one understood what the hell Luffy was trying to do, but they did not argue. Apart from Zoro and Robin, everyone present followed his instructions and stood in a semicircle behind his back. Even Igaram was among them, his head still carried in Usopp's hands.
"And why are we doing all this?" Johnny predictably proved the 'weakest link.'
"One second!" Luffy raised an index finger. "Just one more moment... waiting... waiting... yes, now we can begin! So, Zoro, you're a bloodthirsty maniac preparing to shoot a helpless girl, and you, Robin, are that helpless girl, so quickly put the appropriate expression on your face."
Despite Luffy's instructions, Robin and Zoro's faces displayed nothing but complete incomprehension, yet the important part for the young man was that his first mate continued holding the revolver aimed at the girl's forehead.
"All right! Ready! Set! Den Den Mushi!" After saying this, Luffy demonstratively filled his lungs with air and unexpectedly began shouting. "Zoro! How much longer will this continue?! Please, stop! You've already killed almost every inhabitant of this town! Robbed and burned their homes! Burned the entire city to the ground! I beg you, enough!" the young man strained his voice, acting mercilessly badly. "Spare at least this poor girl!" He extended an arm and pointed at Robin. "She hasn't done anything to you! She's beautiful, young, and doesn't deserve to die! A broken arm is more than enough! Believe me, she already understands everything and has learned her lesson! I'm certain her life is precious to her, so she won't resist anymore!" Luffy gave the impression of a very poor actor who had appeared on the stage of a famous theater for the first time and now attempted to compensate for his lack of skill with excessive enthusiasm. "You have no reason to kill her anymore! She has already promised to behave, so have mercy on her! She lost her entire family! Her home! Her relatives! Loved ones! Acquaintances! Her life is the only thing she has left in this world! Show mercy, at least this once!"
Instead of grimaces belonging to a 'bloodthirsty maniac' and a 'helpless victim,' Zoro and Robin's faces stretched into identical expressions of astonishment. Law and Nami's faces displayed the highest degree of bewilderment, while everyone else's reaction was far more traditional. The longer Luffy continued his nonsense, the wider their eyes grew and the lower their jaws dropped. Before everyone could become fully convinced the young man had finally lost his mind, however, a new actor entered the scene and instantly clarified the incomprehensible situation. The 'formidable' Marine lieutenant had deigned to regain consciousness and honor everyone with her presence after several forced glasses of alcohol laced with sleeping medicine.
"What... what... what... what..."
Tashigi's reaction was easy to understand. The girl had fallen asleep at the height of a mass celebration, surrounded by laughter, music, and endless toasts, and everything had been perfectly fine. Yet when she awoke in the bed aboard the Going Merry that had already become familiar to her, Whisky Peak had been completely destroyed. The sun, already appearing over the horizon, allowed her to examine in detail the homes burned to the ground, collapsed stone buildings, and structures that had either been ruined or still burned. And the corpses. Dozens of corpses along both banks of the canal. The town of Whisky Peak had ceased to exist in only one night. Deeply shaken, Tashigi immediately set out to find answers to her newly arisen questions, but the moment she stepped ashore and crossed half the distance to the Hats she had noticed, she witnessed Zoro's actions. And heard Luffy's anguished shouts. In light of everything she had seen, those cries did not seem false or affected in the least. The girl's ambiguous feelings toward the green-haired swordsman did not improve matters.
"How could you... you... I already... you..."
Despite Luffy's presence aboard the ship and the numerous confirmations of his danger, Tashigi stubbornly continued blaming Zoro for every sin. The girl remained fully convinced that the Hats possessed such a 'bloody' reputation specifically because of his actions. Tashigi still believed the young man had killed her captain, and so she was ve-e-ery prejudiced toward anything Zoro did. Luffy need not have strained his voice at all. The revolver in the swordsman's hand, pointed at Robin, would have been enough. Tashigi constantly searched for any excuse to accuse the young man of every evil in the world, and here she had received more than an excuse—she had full proof of his monstrous inner nature! The girl had long been troubled by her own feelings toward the 'vile pirate.' Zoro had killed the captain she respected so deeply, yet with every passing day she felt less and less hatred for him, while experiencing more and more respect, reverence, admiration, and... and... and the other emotions she felt frightened Tashigi out of her mind!
"I already... I already... you... and you..." Tears began filling the girl's eyes.
For those reasons, she sought any opportunity to blacken him in her own mind. The problem was that he gave her none! She could hardly accuse him of teaching her too well and too diligently, leaving her body constantly aching and covered in bruises. Nearly the primary reason for Tashigi's ambiguous feelings toward Zoro was that very training! He had become the best instructor of her entire life! And he taught her conscientiously! As though she were not a Marine lieutenant but his personal student! Under his guidance, Tashigi had already reached heights in the art of wielding a katana that she had never dreamed possible. Dreamed? The girl had not even suspected such heights existed, so reaching them had never entered the question. He had opened a door into an entirely different world, shown her the path to its very summit, and provided everything required to reach it. Was that not the mark of a true teacher?
"I knew it... I knew it..." A thin stream of blood from her bitten lip joined the tears in her eyes.
Unable to restrain the emotions tearing out from within any longer, Tashigi spun around sharply and rushed back toward the Going Merry. She had delayed the decision slightly too long, however, and everyone heard her loud sob and saw the tears pouring down her face. Running along the wooden pier and practically flying up the lowered gangplank, the girl disappeared inside the ship. The scene seemed taken from some cheap romance novel. Zoro, still standing with the raised pistol, finally transformed into a stone statue. Gray coloring, tiny cracks... Fine, it was not quite that bad, but he definitely looked as though someone had struck him over the head with a dusty sack.
"Luffy, for the love of God, calm me down and tell me you didn't just do that solely for entertainment," Nami asked without taking her eyes off the Going Merry. "At least tell me it wasn't only for entertainment!"
"Okay, I'm telling you! It wasn't only for entertainment! But one doesn't exclude the other."
Johnny was more concise and immediately summarized the entire situation.
"She's finished."
One did not need to be any kind of guru in relations between men and women to reach the correct conclusion. No one would react so emotionally to the actions of a person who meant nothing to them. The saying about there being only one step from love to hatred—and back again—had not appeared from nowhere.
"Ryu, since I'm the Pirate King and you want to heighten the atmosphere, you should say it like this: 'the King's shadow touched her heart.'" Luffy attempted to make his voice mysterious and mystical, but the laughter bursting out of him ruined everything at the root. "Bwa-ha-ha-ha!"
One could only guess what would happen to Tashigi when she learned the whole truth and saw Smoker alive. Even without any specifics, however, it was clear that the family was only a small step away from acquiring a loyal informant within the Marines. An informant capable of climbing the career ladder to the very top of the organization. And all of it was the result of what appeared to be a couple of idiotic jokes. Such things had happened far from once. At moments like these, members of the family involuntarily wondered: where did Luffy's joke end and a carefully considered plan begin, and where did the plan end and an ordinary joke begin?
"...What did I miss?"
Yosaku chose that exact moment to finish gathering his brains back together. Although 'regeneration' would have been more accurate—or even 'restoration' or 're-creation'—the phrase 'gathered his brains' sounded funnier. To Luffy, naturally.
"He's alive!"
For obvious reasons, Robin was the only person immeasurably shocked by the sight of the 'revived' Yosaku. Luffy's first bullet had passed through his head and carried away a considerable portion of the back of his skull, while the next four bullets had reduced his head to a bloody mess. After something like that, people were usually buried in a closed coffin; survival did not even enter the discussion. Unsurprisingly, the girl's eyes nearly climbed out of their sockets at the sight of an alive and completely healthy Yosaku. Admittedly, he remained alive for exactly two seconds. A loud 'Bang!' rang out, the young man's brains scattered across the surrounding area once more, and he again fell dead.
"Not anymore," a gloomy Zoro stated.
Throwing the revolver with its now completely empty cylinder into Luffy's hands, the displeased young man headed toward the Going Merry. No, not to explain himself to Tashigi. He had simply wanted to sleep for a long time. For someone capable of sleeping around the clock if he wished, he had already remained awake for an indecently long period. As for his foul mood... that mystery was not difficult to solve.
"Was it my imagination, or did our Yosaku revive somewhat too quickly?" While everyone followed Zoro with wary looks, Luffy inserted the revolver into its holster and began examining the 'dead' Yosaku. "I left nothing of his head but minced meat and bone, and he recovered so fast. That's not right."
The young man was the only person who did not fear provoking the green-haired swordsman in the least. Unlike everyone else, Zoro's displeased face was more likely to improve Luffy's mood than make him worry. The others could not boast of such endurance. If only because every one of them was ten times weaker than either young man, while Zoro looked in ordinary life as though his sole concern was deciding whom to kill and by what monstrously cruel method.
"...Is that the power of a Devil Fruit?" Robin asked after pulling herself together and finally rising to her feet.
Without taking her eyes off Yosaku lying on the ground—with a clearly visible bullet hole between his eyebrows—the girl stepped closer and stood beside Luffy.
"He has one of the Devil Fruits unknown to the world. At first we thought he'd eaten a regeneration fruit, but recently various curious details came to light that completely disproved our assumption," the young man answered, declining to clarify that 'came to light' had occurred in the most literal surgical sense.
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