Twenty years ago, at the tender age of eight, Nico Robin passed her archeology exams with a perfect score. She became a certified archeologist, hailed by the scholars of the Tree of Knowledge as a genius comparable to her mother, Nico Olvia, and Dr. Fresnel.
Robin's mentor, Professor Clover, often lamented: if Fresnel were still with them, their research would undoubtedly have progressed much faster.
Robin had once asked about this Dr. Fresnel. The answer she received was that Dr. Fresnel was once Professor Clover's closest friend. However, years ago, he had left Ohara after opposing the scholars' continued research into the Poneglyphs. He had vanished without a trace.
"So, my grandfather was also a scholar of Ohara... No wonder you know so much about the Twenty Kings. I assume that information was left behind by him," Sherlock said, a look of realization crossing his face. After all, information regarding the Celestial Dragons was not something just anyone could access.
"The reason the World Government ordered the Buster Call to wipe Ohara from the map is likely inextricably linked to what you archeologists were researching. My grandfather probably foresaw the severity of the consequences and tried to stop it. It's just a pity you didn't listen..."
At this point, Sherlock pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cast a surprised glance at the intellectual beauty beside him, whose expression had suddenly turned somewhat melancholic.
"What exactly were you researching?"
Robin remained silent for a moment before answering.
"History. True history. The Void Century—that one hundred years unrecorded by time." Robin sighed softly. "There are many Poneglyphs scattered across the world inscribed with ancient text. One of them holds the record of that blank one hundred years."
"The reason I partnered with Crocodile was to find the Poneglyph hidden in Alabasta. Unfortunately, what was recorded on it wasn't what I wanted."
"Ancient text? The Void Century?" Sherlock frowned slightly. He hadn't expected that the half-baked ancient language he had taught himself from his grandfather's childhood notes would hide such a startling secret.
"The obstacles in front of me are truly too numerous." Smiling bitterly and shaking her head, Nico Robin stretched her shapely figure. She then rested her chin in her hand, her beautiful eyes turning back to the Sorcerer.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. Tell me about your sister. I heard from our Miss Navigator that your sister has silver hair."
"Yes, a very brilliant silver-white." At the mention of his sister, a rare warmth appeared on Sherlock's handsome face. "Although Lisanna is two years older than me, she really didn't act like a big sister at all. Her lively, happy-go-lucky personality was the complete opposite of mine."
"By the way, she admired the Pirate King greatly. She even claimed she was going to become the next Pirate King!"
Robin paused, her mind subconsciously equating Lisanna's personality with a certain empty-headed captain.
"When we were young, our parents were busy with the chamber of commerce. Lisanna would drag me all over Loguetown, running around blindly. I would just obediently follow behind her, no matter when, never getting tired of it. Thinking back now, I was truly foolish..."
Laughing self-deprecatingly, Sherlock leaned back, looking up at the star-filled sky, and murmured, "But all of that ended on my seventh birthday."
"That day, Lisanna deliberately snuck out to buy me a birthday gift. She bought the gift, but she was taken away by CP0, agents directly under the command of the Celestial Dragons, all because of that silver hair..."
"...Since then, I have never seen her again."
Sherlock's tone was extremely calm, but the sorrow in his eyes, thick and unmelting, was like the last withered leaf of late autumn—heartbreaking to behold.
"That birthday gift... it was those silver-rimmed glasses, wasn't it?" Robin looked at Sherlock, who was revealing such a sorrowful expression for the first time, and felt a pang of sympathy. "No wonder someone like you, who isn't near-sighted at all, always wears those non-prescription glasses."
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. Sherlock pushed his glasses up with an especially gentle touch. "Yeah. She was such an idiot. She kept saying I would definitely become near-sighted in the future, yet in the end, she bought me a pair of plano lenses."
(You really are attached to your sister, Sherlock...) Robin composed herself and asked curiously, "But, so many years have passed. Have you really received no news about your sister at all?"
"Given your influence in the East Blue back then, you should have been able to reach that level of information."
As one of the top trading companies in the East Blue, the Goldglint Trading Company had many high-ranking nobles as clients. Even contact with the lofty Celestial Dragons wasn't entirely impossible for Sherlock.
"I could have, but I deliberately chose not to pay attention to it."
"After all, the reason Lisanna was accepted by the Sarsalian family was because of her beautiful silver-white long hair. To maintain that sacred 'Sarsalian Silver,' intermarriage within the clan is all too normal for them..."
Sherlock suddenly smiled. It was a warm smile, like a spring breeze brushing against one's face—if one ignored the slight trembling of his facial muscles.
"...Her children could probably sail out to sea on their own by now."
As he said this, Sherlock's expression instantly turned ferocious. His fists clenched tight, and a terrifying, tyrannical rage erupted from his eyes behind the lenses.
His expression at this moment was shockingly similar to when he was drunk and went on a rampage!
Even someone as calm as Robin shuddered subconsciously, startled by the tone filled with icy killing intent.
(What 'deliberately didn't pay attention'? It's actually just that you, a sister-complex, didn't dare to face reality...)
Robin silently retorted in her heart. Seeing Sherlock's emotions spiraling out of control, she opened her arms and made a seemingly bold move.
Accompanied by a faint floral scent, Sherlock found himself enveloped in a warm embrace. The soft sensation against his chest instantly snapped the agitated Sorcerer back to reality, his pupils contracting sharply.
Resting her smooth, rounded chin on Sherlock's broad shoulder, Nico Robin gently patted the Sorcerer's back, like a gentle older sister comforting a sulking little brother. The expression between her brows was as tender as water, giving off an incredibly reassuring feeling.
Sherlock, whose hands had been awkwardly hovering, gradually relaxed and wrapped them around Robin's slender waist.
There was no romantic affection in it. This embrace, worth more than a thousand words, allowed Sherlock's heart—which had become extremely volatile after touching upon his inner demons—to gradually calm down.
Sometimes, nothing comforts a person who has lost their most important treasure more than a warm hug.
The man and woman held each other quietly in the cramped crow's nest atop the mast, silent and still.
After a long while, the two separated with tacit understanding. However, as he left Robin's soft body, a barely perceptible trace of reluctance flashed through Sherlock's eyes.
After speaking his heart, Sherlock let out a long breath, feeling much lighter.
"Robin."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"No matter what, I have to thank you. I feel much better now..."
Sherlock composed himself, his expression returning to its usual state—calm and unhurried.
"...You really are a good person."
"Hehe, you're welcome. You look much better when you're calm like this."
Nico Robin, completely unaware that the bespectacled man across from her had just given her the 'friend-zone' card, smiled elegantly. There was a layer of meaning in her voice as she said, "A good person? No, no, no. I am nothing more than an unwanted woman of twenty-eight who can't get married."
Sherlock frowned slightly, puzzled by the hidden barbs in her soft words.
(Strange, have I offended her recently?) Just as Sherlock was secretly pondering this, Robin suddenly pointed behind him, her beautiful eyes shimmering with surprise and delight.
"Look quickly! Sherlock."
Sherlock turned around to look. In the silent night sky, meteor after meteor dragged long tails of light across the heavens. In the fleeting moment before they vanished, they burst forth with all the light of their existence, illuminating the entire horizon.
"A meteor shower..." Gazing at this wonder of nature, Sherlock revealed a smile from the bottom of his heart. "It's truly beautiful."
With a thought, Robin crossed her arms in front of her chest, activating her Devil Fruit ability.
Moments later, Luffy and the others, having been slapped awake by Robin's sprouted hands, crawled out of the cabin in a daze. At first, they were quite grumpy about being woken from a good sleep, but the moment they looked up at the sky, their drowsiness vanished instantly!
"Oh, oh, oh! A meteor shower!!!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper danced excitedly on the deck, stars in their eyes.
"It's so beautiful!" Nami looked mesmerized, clearly adoring such a romantic natural scenery.
At this moment, the curly-browed cook was the first to snap out of it. He shouted anxiously to the others, "Wait, wait, wait! Luffy, Nami-san, this isn't the time to just be happy! We have to make a wish quickly!"
"It's rare to see a meteor shower! If it ends, the wishes won't come true!"
"What?!" Luffy and the others' expressions changed, and then...
"I'm going to become the Pirate King!!" The empty-headed captain pressed down on his treasured straw hat.
"I'm going to become a brave warrior of the sea!" The long-nosed brother shouted with all his might at the meteors streaking across the night sky.
"I'm going to become a Panacea!" The blue-nosed reindeer waved his little hooves, smiling cutely.
"I'm going to draw a map of the world!" The orange-haired navigator revealed a confident smile.
"I'm going to find the All Blue!" After finishing, the curly-browed cook looked at Zoro beside him. "Oi, Mosshead, your turn."
Zoro shook his head. "I don't want to. I'm not a kid anymore. Wishing on meteors is too childish."
Stare............ X5
Luffy and the others stared silently, exuding a roguish persistence that said they would keep staring until he made a wish.
"Oi, you guys..." Zoro's face darkened with black lines.
Stare...
Sighing heavily, the green-haired swordsman compromised. He shook his head helplessly, then looked up and shouted with full vigor:
"I will become the World's Greatest Swordsman, and let my name reach the heavens!!"
The empty-headed captain grinned. Then he looked around, puzzled. "Strange, where are Sherlock and Robin?"
Looking down at the group of goofballs on the deck, Sherlock and Robin, hiding in the crow's nest, exchanged a smile. Everything was understood without words.
Meanwhile, in the New World, on an unknown small island.
A beautiful figure wrapped in a moon-white robe stood quietly on the beach, looking up at the silent night sky. Her beautiful eyes, resembling rubies, flickered with moving light.
At this moment, a blonde woman with two fast swords at her waist walked over slowly and spoke softly, "Captain, why aren't you sleeping so late at night? What are you doing out here?"
"It's Shirona. I'm watching the meteor shower..."
"Meteor shower?!" Hearing this, the two-sword style swordswoman named Shirona rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to that idiot Kuroro's nonsense. Has her half-baked astrology ever been right?"
"No, it's real this time. There really is a meteor shower falling right now." The voice's owner was extremely certain. "It's just that we can't see it from here..."
A cool sea breeze blew past, gently lifting her waterfall-like silver long hair. That incredibly brilliant silver-white radiated a dreamlike luster, breathtakingly beautiful.
(Since you have stepped onto this path, then come quickly. Come quickly to the New World, Sherlock...)
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze