Chapter 49 – So thoughtless
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(Nefertari Vivi POV)

After we arrived at the castle I asked bunny a question I’d had since I could see the island. “How is the snow here pink?”

“I don’t know much of the specifics but from what I do know it’s caused by a type of soil, it was launched into the atmosphere and since then the snow has become the color it is now.”

As we approached the castle I noticed that the entrance was wide open and there stood a small figure. Suddenly the figure turned around and ran away from us at a speed that could beat Karoo.

“Well, at least he could move this time.” 

That comment made me look at the fox masked person.

“KYAKYA, I'm surprised he didn't cry the second he saw you.”

‘They seemed nice, what did she do to that figure?’ 

They seemed to feel my gaze as they turned to me. “It’s not what you think, I’m innocent.”

“SUSUSU, of course, you are.” Next to her a person who wore an owl mask pet her on the head and seemed to jump slightly for some reason before she appeared to fall into a daze while patting the fox masked person’s head.

‘What?’

“Don’t mind them.” With a dramatic gesture, the bunny masked person put one of their arms over their stomach before they bent slightly and used their other arm to point us towards the inside of the castle.

"After you Princess."

I was taken aback by her sudden actions, before I could react, though,  she stood back up and began to laugh.

"KYAKYAKYAKYA! That's another one off the list." Following her words, she pulled a small notebook out of her cloak and flipped through it before she made a mark then put it back in her cloak.

"Ok, enough theatrics. I'm sure you're curious as to why we kidnapped you. But you're just going to have to remain curious for a little longer since I was cooking when you all arrived." After they were done speaking they took the lead in walking into the castle.

'I should be infiltrating Baroque Works right now.' With Karoo in the lead, we both followed the bunny masked person until we made it to a dining hall, the others having separated from us on the walk here.

‘At least it doesn’t seem like they’ll have someone following us everywhere.’

"Your bird and you can wait here or explore the castle, we'll talk about everything important over food later." Without any delay, the bunny then walked through another door in the back of the dining room.

'This isn't the type of kidnapping situation I was taught about.' 

"Quack. Quack." 

"What do you want Karoo?" 

"Quack." While he quacked Karoo nudged me with his head before he pointed his beak towards the door. 

"You want to go explore the castle?" 

"Quack, quack. Quack."

"Ok, let's go then. Make sure to be careful." 

As I stood up Karoo motioned for me to get on his back. 

"Thank you." Now as I sat on Karoo’s back he made his way back to the door where I realized a problem. Feeling slightly embarrassed I got off Karoo so that I could open the door.

"Sorry Karoo looks like I'll have to walk if we want to go through doors." 

"Quack."

'Thankfully no one is in here to witness that, or I wouldn’t be able to show my face to them even if they are my kidnappers.' Shaking my head I walked through the door with Karoo closely behind me to which he then took the lead. As we made our way through the castle Karoo would intently stare at everything around him. 

"C'mon at this rate we'll have to head right back." Ignoring Karoos' protest I walked past him, to the nearest door and opened it. Inside there were walls of books along with a large pile of books that looked to be thrown onto the ground in a corner.

"What kind of storm came through here?" 

"Probably the last pirate crew that came here, the place was a lot messier when I first found it."

The sudden reply caused me to jump backward in turn bumping into Karoo.

"Qua-." 

"Don't say it." Before he could finish I already pinched his beat closed.

"HAHA, you must be Vivi. For now, you can call me Wolf, the same goes for everyone else, just call them by what their mask is." From seemingly nowhere someone in a similar cloak to everyone else, who wore a wolf mask appeared in front of me.

"Good to know, I've been a little confused on how to refer to you all." Although they shocked me with how they showed up I managed to keep my cool this time.

"What brings you to the library? I'm sure Bunny wouldn't have had enough time to explain everything to you."

"The person in the bunny mask said that she had to finish cooking and that we would talk over the food." 

Unexpectedly she sighed before she closed the book she had in hand. "How can she be so thoughtless?" 

While she turned away from me she motioned for me to follow. Once we got to a table she sat down first then pointed to a chair opposite of her. "Sit down, it'll be a long talk."

“Well I’m sure you have a lot of questions and unlike someone else, I don’t mind taking time to answer them. So ask whatever you would like and I’ll try to answer it.”

“I can just ask anything?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you kidnap me.”

“It was the easiest way to get you here.” 

Wolf’s blunt response shocked me but I kept a straight face as I continued. “Why do you want me?”

“There are a few reasons but the main one right now would be that we want you to join us.”

“Join you?” No longer able to keep a straight face it felt like my eyes were about to pop out of my skull.

(Nico Robin POV)

“That’s a pretty extreme reaction.”

“Sorry, you just really shocked me there for a second.” After she said this Vivi coughed into her hand before she continued.

“Why do you want me to join you, and couldn’t you have handled it in a better way than kidnapping me?”

“No, this is definitely the best way to handle this situation, for why we want you to join us. Although it may sound hypocritical we can’t tell you until you join us because if we were too then we would have to force you to join.”

After a second of silence, Vivi looked me in the eyes. “You mean you’re not forcing me to stay here right now?”

“Only until we deal with Wapol after that Alabasta is our next destination, you can go home then.”

When I mentioned Alabasta Vivi narrowed her eyes. “What do you want with my Kingdom?”

“HAHA, you don’t need to be so on edge, this is actually part of one of the reasons we kidnapped you. We know you planned on infiltrating Crocodile’s organization, we thought we might be too late, however, and had prepared to travel to Whisky Peak to retrieve you there.”

“WHAT! HOW!” Suddenly the chair Vivi was sitting on was toppled over as she shot to her feet.

“Calm down, no one close to you told us this, we just happen to know a lot of things. Instead of you going through the ranks in Crocodiles organization we want to train you to the point you could beat him yourself.”

After Vivi regained her composure she picked the chair up before she sat back down and looked at me. “Why would you do that? What do you have to gain from helping Alabasta Kingdom like this? You are willing to go against a Warlord of the sea? How do you expect me to believe your words?"

Just as I was about to answer her barrage of questions the door to the library was pushed open as Emma came through. “The food is done, I hope I came in at a critical moment.”

‘Her shamelessness never fails to impress.’ While I shook my head I walked up next to Vivi and her pet duck. 

“You won’t have a chance to ask any more questions with Bunny here so get ready to take in a lot of information, all those questions and more will be answered.”

Once we made it to the dining hall I found that all of the food had already been laid out on the table, everyone except Monet, Sugar, and Chopper already here.

‘I wonder where those two are? There’s no way they’re alone together right? Would Sugar allow that to happen?’

“Come, sit down and eat. After we’re done I’ll explain everything.” Right away Emma began to make three plates of food.

As I sat down Vivi sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table to me, her pet ducked seemed to be fixated on a pile of cooked vegetables on the edge of the table. Once Emma was done with our plates she floated them in front of us and one to the chair next to me while she approached the duck.

“I don’t know what you eat so I cooked anything we had that wasn’t meat, all of this is yours.” 

Just as Emma walked away from the pile the duck began to eat away at it.

“He’s so cautious about everything else but not the food.”

“KYAKYAKYA, that’s because my food is irresistible.” While she proudly proclaimed this Emma sat next to me before she also began to chow down on the small mountain of meat she made for herself.

After the meal which during Vivi surprised me when she asked for seconds much to the joy of Emma if her smile was anything to go off of; Emma made sure she had Vivi’s attention before she began to speak. “I heard the questions you asked Wolf so let me answer them first. We are kidnapping you to stop you from trying to rise through the ranks or Baroque Works as it's a pointless endeavor.”

Vivi was about to cut in but quickly stopped herself before she apologized and asked Emma to continue.

“There is something inside Alabasta Kingdom that we need to see and we figured that helping you with the problem of Crocodile would be the best way to do so. And yes we are aware that this would mean that we are going against a Warlord but to us, one Warlord means nothing, as our enemy is the World Government itself.”

Before Vivi could ask anything Emma continued. “The reason I said that raising through the ranks in Crocodiles organization would be pointless is because no matter how close to him you get you won’t be able to hurt him, even when you become stronger.”

“What do you mean by that?” 

“Exactly what I said, Crocodile is a sand-sand human and can only be hurt by someone who can use Haki, or I suppose if you could somehow manage to get him wet you could hurt him.”

Clearly confused Vivi had her head slightly tilted. “What is Haki?”

“Is it such an unknown thing in Paradise that even a Kingdom as old as Alabasta doesn’t know about it? No, your father must at least know about the existence of Haki.” 

Clearing my throat I nudged Emma with my elbow to get her to continue on with the explanation.

After she fake laughed for a second Emma continued. “Until Wapol comes back to this island and we have a chance to take care of him we will be training you. As of right now, you are far too weak to even think about being able to use Haki. Don’t worry however if we start you on one of our old training regimes then you’ll be able to use it in no time.”  

“You’re going to train me to get stronger so that I can beat Crocodile myself?”

“Correct.”

“That doesn’t explain why you want me to join your crew.”

As if she just realized something Emma hit the side of a closed fist on an open palm. “That would be because the shadow leader of the world government has a weird obsession with you and plans on kidnapping you at the next Reverie, along with some other reasons like one of the ancient weapons.”

“Shadow leader of the world government? Ancient Weapons?” It seemed like Vivi was just repeating those words as she stared blankly at Emma.

“Yes, the person who sits on the empty throne and has direct control over the five elders.”

“Could you not just say the biggest secret in the world so openly.” As I scolded her I whacked Emma on the back of the head to get her to close her mouth.

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