Chapter 97: We gain the strength of the temptation we resist

“Turn your wrist! Snap this little thing’s neck! Do it! JUST DO IT!”

The sea devil was back again full force this time. Rick was trying his best to not submit to his influence, to his own anger but while he did so, the humanoïd dog he had in hand was choking. Robin intervened and restrained him, and calmed him down. The poor victim was released and fell to the ground, coughing and trying to breathe oxygen in as she was rubbing her throat.

“Wanda!” yelled the bunny as she forgot about Zoro and rushed to her friend.
“I’m… alright…Carrot.”

The bunny, whose name was apparently Carrot, stood and was ready to take the fight to Rick but was grabbed by the sleeve.

“They’re not… the enemy.”
“But…”
“We need to go… There’s an intruder in the Whale Forest.”
“I don’t think so.” said Rick.
“None of you are going anywhere until you tell us where our friends are.”
“That’s what we’ll s…” began Carrot being interrupted by Wanda.
“They are safe! I’ll bring you to them but we need to go. An intruder is on the island and since you’re here I believe it’s your captain. He’s currently fighting with our people and we need to stop that fight.”
“... Lead the way but I’m warning you, if you lied to me…”
“I get it.”

With a temporary truce achieved, Wanda climbed back up on her giant crocodile mount, as did the rest of the crew with the exception of the vice-captain who preferred to float. The crocodile was quite fast despite the number of people on its back. It never slowed down no matter the terrain and actually went faster while crossing a river. They arrived at their destination and saw Luffy fighting a big gorilla. He wasn’t alone though as Trafy’s crew was there too. Stopping the fight, Wanda said that the strawhats were guests and that she was leading them to their crewmates next.

Trafy stayed with his men to enjoy their reunion while the crew followed Wanda. Signaling Zoro to fall behind with him, Rick let the others go up ahead.

“What do you want to talk about?” asked the swordsman.
“I need a favor from you.”
“That’s unusual.”
“The situation is unusual.”
“What do you need?”
“ If I ever lose control, don’t hesitate, cut me down.”
“...”
“Thrice already I almost transformed, thankfully Robin was there every time.”
“But she may not be the next time.”
“Yes and while I’m doing my very best to resist his influence I have to make preparations just in case I break.”
“His influence?”
“The sea devil. The cure Vegapunk used… To make it simple the sea devil has an easier time to take over.”
“...”
“...”
“Sea devil? As in the one from the stories for children?”
“It’s not just a story, Zoro.”
“When it’s not Luffy, it’s you.” replied Zoro and sighed.
“Can I count on you? Everyone else may falter at the crucial time, that will be their end.”
“You can.”
“Good. Just… Check that it’s not me before.” Rick said with a smirk which Zoro gave back.

They picked up the pace and joined the rest of the group. Reaching Robin’s side, Rick took one of her hands in one of his.

“What were the two of you talking about?” she asked.
“You didn’t listen?” He replied in surprise.
“No.”
“Really?”
“I don’t spy on you anymore. I don't need to since you tell me everything when I ask, which is what I’m doing now.”

The ex-marine sighed. It would have been better if Robin kept her question to herself because now he had the choice to lie, tell her he won’t answer her or tell her. The lying option was tempting but for the second time he went with the truth.

“You won’t always be my side Robin.”
“Of course I will.” she replied with a frown, squeezing his hand.
“Not physically. Sooner or later we’ll be separated, because of a fight, because I have something to do. You can’t always be there.”
“...”
“...”
“It’s about the sea devil isn’t it? You asked Zoro to…”
“I did. He’s the only one who would not hesitate to do what’s necessary.”
“I won’t let him, I won’t let you…”
“You may not have a choice, Robin. Thrice, in a bit more than a week, he tried to take control. And I know that if he does… I don’t think you’ll be able to reach out to me, to bring me back. He’ll hurt everyone or worse and I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“I’ll find a way.” she stated.
“Robin, that’s irra…”
“I. Will. Find. A. Way.” she said, grabbing his head in her hands looking at him straight in the eye.
“You may…”
“Enough., we’re done with this conversation and we’ll never speak of it again.” She firmly announced letting go of his head and went back to hold hands.

They kept walking in silence until Rick couldn’t hold it anymore.
“I don’t like us fighting.”
“... Me neither.”
“We never fought before being married.”
“Are you saying you regret marrying me?” she said, turning her head to the side to look at him.

“Never! I’ll never regret marrying you. I was just wondering if it was linked somehow.”
“Of course it is.”
“What?” Rick replied confused.
“We married because we didn’t love each other anymore but because we were in love with each other and we acknowledged it. To the point where we’re being stupid sometimes. With Momonosuke, I was the one being stupid. With Zoro you were the one. But we’ll get through it, we’ll get use to the other being stupid and react apropriately without fighting. We love, trust and respect each other, there is nothing we can’t do with that.”
“...”
“...”
“Goddess if you keep talking so intelligently I will drag you behind a bush and have my way with you.”
“As much as I would like to experience sex in a forest, we can’t; we arrived.”

Indeed they had arrived at one of the entrances of the city and it didn’t take long for the group to meet with the missing crewmates. Nami jumped into Robin’s arms then Rick.

“I missed you so much!” she exclaimed.
“We missed…”
“You too.”
“That one was on purpose!”
““Yes”” The married couple replied, making their kitten pout.
“Nami, what happened after your departure from Dressrosa?”
“We followed the piece of the vivre-card Tra-guy gave us. It took a few days to reach Zou and that was because I constantly had to change the weather, otherwise It would have taken a week. Once we arrived, we found a group of pirates attackings the minks…”
“The minks?”
“That’s the name of Wanda and Carrot’s race. Didn’t you listen to Tra-guy's explanation?” explained Robin.
“If you were by my side at the time, probably not.” replied Rick in a matter of factly way making both his wife and kitten roll their eyes.
“Anyway. We chased them away and when we got into the city everyone had been poisoned by a gas. Chopper did his best to treat them all and that earned her their hospitality. When they knew we were the strawhat crew they became even friendlier. See the dress that I’m wearing?”

She took a step back and spun on herself to show her owners her beautiful purple dress.

“It was a gift. Some sort of national treasure!”
“Hey! Where is Sanji?” Asked Luffy a few feet away…
“Oh boy… He won’t be pleased.” Nami said in a somber tone.


~~~~~

It turned out that the Big Mom’s ship they had encountered on Dressrosa wasn’t there to fight but to give an invitation to Sanji to a wedding. His own wedding with a daughter of the emperor. Apparently the cook was the prince of a royal family who wanted to secure an island with Big Mom through a marriage. While Sanji didn’t want to, refusing would have set the sight of his family and the emperor on the crew. That brought up a problem though. If Sanji were to marry into Big Mom’s family that would make the strawhats her new subordinates or to prevent it from happening leave the crew. No one was happy with that.

“He’s pulling a Robin.” Rick said.
“A what?!” asked Usopp.
“He does. I’m not sure I like the way you use my name to describe it, though.” the brunette said with a frown.
“What are you two talking about?” Brook asked.
“Sanji is stupidly leaving the crew to protect it. Just like Robin did back at Water Seven.”
“Stupidly?!” Robin objected, love slapping her husband.
“I-It’s pretty noble though!”
“Uh-huh.” the brunette answered while love slapping one last time.
“One thing I don’t understand is why would Sanji’s family allied themselves. Aren’t they royalty?”
“What’s even his family name?” asked Baby-5.
“Excuse me, but why are you here? Don’t you work for Doflamingo?” asked Nami.
“I used to.”
“She’s with us now, as my assistant!” explained Franky.”
“Oh! Okay, welcome to the crew.”
“Once we’re all together we’ll have a big welcome party!” yelled Luffy.
“Thanks!”
“As for his family name… It’s Vinsmoke.” announced Nami.
“That name is familiar.” Robin said.
“It should. It’s a family of assassins. They are better known as Germa 66.” explained Rick.
“I remember now… That’s not good.” replied the brunette
“Why? They’re just assassins.” Zoro said entering the conversation.
“The Germa 66 is a whole kingdom of soldiers and assassins. They are always in war but what they are known the best for is their technology. They can make super soldiers. Many hire them to win a conflict.”
“Super soldier?” asked Chopper.
“Let’s take Zoro here for example.”
“Me?”
“You train harshly, to have the physical abilities you currently have but with their technology the super soldiers don’t have to train to reach that level.”
“That’s…”began Chopper.
“Terrifying.”
“I don’t care about all that!” screamed out Luffy.
“I’m going to get Sanji back!”
“We can’t! The moment we started our alliance with Tra-guy we were set on the path to defeat Kaidou. We can’t start a conflict with Big Mom.” Zoro said.
“I’m not going to fight with Big Mom. I’m going to sneak in, grab Sanji and leave!”
“““““...””””””

The conversation was dropped when Wanda came to warn them that one of the kings of the island had woken up. He thanked the strawhats for helping his people, saving their lives. When asked what happened he fell asleep. Apparently the two kings ruled the island on a 12 hours cycle and the king they were talking to had just ended his shift as the day went to night. With the other king awake, Wanda led the crew to him. The smartest of the bunch understood why there was only one king awake at a time. The king that had fallen asleep was a dog Mink while the one currently awake was cat Mink.

Rick didn’t care much for the story. It may have been about Kaidou and his men but it wasn’t one of his priorities. No, his priorities right now were to formulate a plan to get back Sanji without starting a war with Big Mom, to find a way to fight back the sea devil, and to find the poneglyph on this island.

“There is no way, this island doesn’t have one. The island is secluded, and on the move since 800 years ago. Right about the time period of the void century. It’s the best place to hide a poneglyph. The question is where is it?”

His thoughts were interrupted when looking around he saw Wanda.

“One more thing I have to do.”

The occasion didn’t present itself to make an apology to her. She did her very best to welcome the crew, to stop any fight with the minks and he almost snapped her neck. With everyone still listening to the big cat story he approached her.

“Wanda, right?” he broke the ice with.
“That’s correct.”
“I would like to offer you my apologies for earlier. I wasn’t really…”
“Fully in control, I know.” Wanda interjected.
“Oh?! So my friends already filled you in, I see.”
“No. The only thing they did was to apologize on your behalf and  tell me that you were very protective of others.”
“How did you know then?”
“I’m a mink, my senses are sharper than humans. I felt the conflict inside you, so did Carrot.”
“She was ready to take me on but you; you went for a peaceful approach. Why?”
“Because you were doing your best.”
“My best?”
“To be in control.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I would be dead by now otherwise. That’s how I knew.”
“...”
“Does it happen often?” She asked, surprising him. He didn’t think she would want to talk to him further, despite his apology.
“Only when I believe the people I truly love are in danger, or in extreme anger. Most of the time the two go together, if not always.” Rick confessed.
“Since I was wearing Nami’s clothes you jumped to the simplest conclusion.”
“Yes, once again I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. I understand the need to protect ones’ mate.”
“Mate?”
“Aren’t you and Nami mates? When she arrived on Zou she had other odors on herself. She doesn’t have it anymore now, but I recognized it, it’s yours.” Wanda explained, pushing Rick into a serious panic.
“It’s complicated.”
“Considering you seem to be mates with Robin too. I would think so.”
“Shhh! Not so loud please! The others don’t know. And before you imagine anything both are…”
“Aware. I smelt Robin on Nami too.”
“... At least I don’t have to explain.”
“Why the secrecy?” She asked in curiosity.
“How can I explain this… I don’t know about minks but humans are not supposed to have multiple… mates. Only one at a time. Those who do are not well regarded as it is considered amoral.”
“That’s peculiar. While most minks find only one mate, sometimes they find more.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s not taboo or amoral like you said, it’s just rare for it to happen. I do wonder, though, how the three of you relationships came to be.”
“Well… I was thunderstruck with Robin when I saw her the first time and it took some time, a lot of pain and boldness, to have her return my feelings. At the same time, Nami got along very well with the two of us. She was always prying into my love life and she’s pretty smart so when she saw that Robin wasn’t really responsive to my advances she tried to help us out by making her jealous, claiming she would be my partner instead. In the end the joke never stopped after Robin and I got together. To make the story short, Robin likes both men and women and we were both attracted to Nami, so we kinda invited her into our couple. While Nami was in for the sex at first, her feeling grew from very close friendship to romantic love.
“...”
“Was that too much?”
“No, not at all. “
“Why so quiet then?”
“I was thinking how lucky the three of you are to have found two mates when I can’t even find one.”
“I have a hard time believing you don’t have one.”
“Why is that?”
“You seem talented with a blade, are calm and collected, very kind and very pretty.”
“Thank you for the compliments but most of those qualities are not sought for a mate in mink’s culture.”
“Well, search among another culture then.”
“... As in human’s culture?”
“Yes.”
“... Are you propositioning to me?”
“Not at all, but I wouldn’t say no to you.”
“... Robin and Nami then?”
“Not for them either but why not? What I meant was don’t limit yourself to your own people. The garbage of one could be the treasure of another. The world is vast, Wanda.”

Rick didn’t add anything more and left her thinking about what he had just said joining Robin’s and Nami’s side. The tale of the cat king seemed to be over and everyone started to walk towards another location to have a feast.

“How did your apology go?” asked Robin, knowing why her husband approached the mink.
“Well. To my surprise she was really understanding.”
“Wanda is really nice, she’s the one who has taken care of me the most since I arrived.” Nami shared, before asking,
“What did you have to apologize for?”
“Loving you a lot.” replied Rick, sending a wink towards the redhead before taking to the air and began his exploration of the island.

Turning to the brunette Nami asked:
“Loving me a lot? What did he mean by that?”
“We were attacked by Carrot then Wanda appeared to stop the fight but before she could, Rick saw she was wearing your clothes and feared the worst and went all devilish on her. He caught her by the throat and nearly choked her to death.”
The explanation froze Nami in place and tears began to run down her cheeks, to the confusion and worry of Robin.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, taking Nami in her arms.
“He loves me!” the red head replied with a big happy smile on her face.
“Of course he does, that’s nothing new.”
“You don’t understand, he loves me! The only people he got all horny for are you and Vivi. He never did that for me, until now!”
“Did you really doubt it? That he would not get angered like that for you? That he didn’t love you enough for it to happen?”
“I… yes. He did say the reason why it didn’t happen was because I never was in a situation that allowed it but I had doubts about it.”
“That’s silly. You are the first person he thinks of when he wants us to do something with someone and you’re the one he turns to when he can’t talk with me.”
“I know, it’s just… nevermind, it doesn’t matter anymore, he loves me!” she repeated for the third time. The comforting hug turned into a loving hug with Nami putting her arms around her owner.
“...”
“...”
“What is wrong with the two of you and my ass?” asked an exasperated Robin, punctuating her question with a sigh as Nami was fondling her bubble butt.
“It’s perfect Robin, I just can’t help myself. It’s a great stress relief.”

~~~~~

Meanwhile Rick had reached a good enough altitude to have a good look of the island. With the forest everywhere it was difficult to see properly.

“I guess I will have to search everywhere… Now If I wanted to hide a poneglyph where would I put it? Considering the landscape… Either inside one of those mountains circling the city, underground, or in the middle of it all. Underground is out, since the ground is actually Zunesha’s flesh. I doubt the minks would have carved such a big hole into it. The center of the city is a huge hole but that’s from where the water Zunesha uses to bathe himself, comes from, so no. That only leaves the mountains around. Even though some habitations have been built inside them, there may be a secret passage.”

He started his search first by the habitations and when he didn’t find anything tried to find a secret passageway by floating up and down the mountains’ sides. He had spent the night in his endeavor but was not tired one bit, the thrill of his quest keeping him awake and vibrant. When the sun began to rise he had just finished inspecting every single inch of the mountains.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I refuse to believe that there is no poneglyph here. That can’t be.”

He sat on the edge of a cliff and looked around, trying to see what he had missed. His eyes landed on a giant tree at the back of the city. In the shape of a whale, Rick had dismissed it as that wouldn’t be a good place to hide something.

“Well… It’s not like I have anywhere else to investigate.”

He flew to the whale tree and looked at it from every angle. One thing caught his eyes were the big vines along the trunk and branches. He couldn’t have distinguished it from afar as the vines were more like veins and the same color of the trunk.

“It thought they wouldn’t carve into the wood of the tree or if they did it would have been close to the ground, but with vines that size, barely visible and leading to the top…”

He followed a vine’s path and ended in a dead end, forcing to back track and take another. After his third try he noticed a big spot of moss against the trunk. Taking his change he put his hand on it and pushed forward. His idea was the right one as his hand just went through.

“Bingo!”

He sprouted arms on the side that pushed away the moss and held it in place. Now with the entrance inside the trunk free he went through it. After walking up a long series of stairs he finally arrived in some kind of wooden alcove. At the back of it were three things. A giant symbol of some kind of bird, perhaps a crane or a heron, and just below it on an elevated platform a red Poneglyph with someone chained on it.

“Who are you?! Are you one of Kaidou’s men?! What did you do to the minks?!” yelled the short man in an accusatory tone.
“...”

Rick was a bit annoyed with the man, so he just restrained him with sprouted arms, gagged him and broke the chains he was tied up with previously. Making his captive float, he brought him outside with him and flew towards the direction where everyone was.

“A special poneglyph, and a prisoner, the minks have a lot to answer to”

Reaching his friends’ location he saw Luffy and Momonosuke having some kind of childish brawl. Next to them were Kin’emon and Kanjuro.

“So they finally climbed all the way to the top.”

““RAIZO!!”” the two samurai exclaimed.
“What?” asked Rick.
“Sir, Rick, could you free our friend please?” asked Kin’emon.
“That guy is a friend of yours? I find that hard to believe with how rude he is.” replied the ex-marine while putting his captive on the ground and removing his sprouts.
“How did you find him?” was a question that came from behind him.

Turning around, Rick was face to face with the dog king.
“I spent the night scouting the island. That’s a really neat hiding place you got there. It took me sometimes but I found it.”
“Why scout in the first place?”
“Because of the poneglyph.”
“You found a poneglyph?” asked Robin, coming to his side.
“How did you know?” Questioned the cat king this time.
“Conjectures mostly. Zou is an old place, drifting at sea for the past 800 years. The same time period as the void century. It’s difficult if not impossible to find and there is a whole population making sure it stays that way. If I wanted to hide something important, Zou would be the first place that comes to mind.”
“That’s…”

Both kings were speechless. The man before them had discovered the secret their people have been safekeeping for centuries and in less than a day not only knew about it but actually found what they were protecting. His mind was sharper than a blade.

“I don’t understand the bird symbol, though.”
“A bird symbol? You mean, a crane with his wings wide open inside a circle and a sun on its chest?” asked Kin’emon who was listening to the conversation.
“You know that symbol?”
“This is the crest of the Kozuki family. The rightful rulers of Wano.”
“I thought Wano’s borders were close, how come their symbol is here with a poneglyph?”

Kin’emon looked at king cat and king dog who nodded.

“This is a long story…” the samurai began.

~~~~~

“... I can’t believe it.” said Rick.
“That’s all true.”
“Oh, I know, you didn’t lie about anything. Oden, his time on Roger’s ship, his time here. No, what I don’t believe is how could such a great man be the father of his perverted little runt!” Rick replied pointing at Momonosuke behind him with his thumb.
“Hey!” protested the aforementioned pervert.
“Speaking of lord Momonosuke like that!” said the king dog frowning at the insult to his master.
“It’s the truth!”
“There is a reason he doesn’t have his top knot anymore.” interjected Robin in defense of her husband.
“Oh, yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask about that.”
“That was his punishment.”
“You’re the one responsible for that?!” yelled the king cat, furious.
“You know I understand your loyalty to Oden, but to Momonosuke, I don’t. I mean Oden earned your trust, your loyalty but what did the kid do besides being born to get the same treatment as his father?”
“Sir Rick…”
“You know I’m right, Kin'emon. You serve Momonosuke because of your loyalty to his father.”

The words Kin’emon was about to say died in his throat because that was true. He was loyal to Oden even if his master was dead. It was out of loyalty and a better future for Wano that he was serving Momonosuke.

“My take on the situation is; if you continue to serve him like that, he may turn out like a celestial dragon.”
“A celestial dragon?”
“800 years ago tenwty nations banded together to form the World government. 19 of them went to live on the highest and biggest mass of land in this world and ever since their descendants rule the world as gods. Their every childish whims answered no matter what. Treating the people as less than human. All because their ancestors founded the World Government. They never did anything worthy in their lives for their people except abusing them. The way you’re all treating Momonosuke is the beginning of that.”
That left the Kozuki retainers speechless.
“I don’t understand why everyone is treating Momonosuke differently. Lord or no lord he’s still a stinking kid.” Luffy said, making the said kid grumble.
“You’re all making plans to take back Wano and bring Kaidou down, but Momo what do you want?” he added.
“What?!” replied the child.
“Are you just a figurehead?! Will you let the others do everything for you?”
“B-but I’m just eight! What can I do?!” said Momonosuke as tears of frustration fell down his cheeks.
“Learn. Learn to be a ruler, a commander to your people. Learn to be a man.” answered Rick.
“What do you want to do Momo?” Luffy asked again.
“I.. I want to defeat Kaidou! He killed my father and he’s responsible for my mother’s death! I want to grow up so I can avenge them both! I want to protect my loyal servants and be a good ruler for my people! But I need help!”
“Just ask then.” Luffy said.
“Luffy, will you help me?” Momo said, looking up at the future pirate king.

“Sure, let’s make an alliance.”

Luffy and Momo shook hands and everyone rejoiced about the alliance. Rick, while holding Robin’s hand, got close to king dog.

“King dog…”
“King dog?” replied the mink with an eyebrow raised.
“His name is Inuarashi, and the big cat is Nekomamushi.” Said Robin facepalming.
“You didn’t know our names?” asked the cat.
“Do you know mine?”
““...””
“That’s what I thought. Anyway I had a question about the poneglyph. Kin’emon spoke about their origins, the Kozuki clan, but he didn’t talk about them in detail. The one you’re guarding is different from the poneglyph I’ve seen until now.”
“How do you know that without being able to read them?” asked Robin curious.
“This one is red.”
“Red? I never came across a poneglyph which wasn’t grayish blue.”
“That’s because its function is different from the regular poneglyphs.” replied Inuarashi
“Just as we thought, there are more types than the history and map types.” noted Robin.”
“I’m surprised you came to this conclusion as there are only four red poneglyphs in the world.” Nekomamushi said.
“Back on fishman island there was a poneglyph, but it wasn’t a regular one.”
“No, it was a message from a man named Joy Boy.”
“How did you…Oh! Right you were with Oden on Roger’s ship. Did Roger really bring this poneglyph from Shandora?”
“You know about Shandora?!” exclaimed Inuarashi.
“We went there and saw the text Roger left. Oden was the one that carved it right?”
“Yes, and your mother was the one who translated it.”
“My mom?”
“Lord Oden knew how to read the poneglyphs but he wasn’t perfect at it, since the transmission of the language is done orally. Your mother was really helpful.” explained Nekomamushi making Robin smile.
“You are correct, Roger brought with him the poneglyph to fishman island.” said Inuarashi getting back on topic, then continued speaking.
“The red poneglyph are a fraction of a map, not leading to another poneglyph containing history but …”
““To Laugh Tale.”” the married couple interrupted in sync.
““How did you know?!””

“We didn’t.” Rick said.
“We were not sure.” added Robin who related to the two kings their theories. When she was done, Inuarashi had a big grin on his face and Nekomamushi was laughing heartily.

“You’re even smarter than Olvia.” the dog mink complimented.
“I didn’t come to this conclusion alone, I had the help of my very intelligent husband.” She replied, kissing Rick on the cheek.
“You better take good care of her or else…” began to threaten Nekomamushi while looking at Rick.

“He already does, more than anyone ever did.” Robin replied, looking at her husband with nothing but love in her eyes.
“Good. I hope you’re strong too.” said the cat mink.
“Big Mom and Kaidou own each one of the four parts of the map. Two emperors will be after you, that is if they aren’t already.” explained Inuarashi.
“I have friends ready to protect me and a husband ready to burn the whole world to ash if someone lays a finger on me.”
““Good.””

Robin asked the rulers some questions about her mother. Most of the answers she already knew from Rayleigh but it was alright to her, she loved hearing about her mom.


The celebration of the creation of the alliance was cut short, when sound of explosions were heard The ground began to shake violently making many fall. Rick gave a kiss to Robin.

“I’m on it, I’ll be back soon.”

He floated way up and flew to take a look at what was happening.