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They meet there in the late afternoon, all ten of them together at last.
In a show of perception undoubtedly inspired by his time on the Sunny, Kin'emon had set the room aside for them while they were all waiting for Luffy and Zoro to wake up. He’d spent enough time shut out occasionally from some room or other, shipboard, while the nine of them gathered to confirm each others’ reality, that he’d eventually learned their needs.
It was the eight of them, the first afternoon of this, and then abruptly, joyfully, the ten of them.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” says Jinbe, settling down beside Nami. Robin waves at him with an idle hand, and Nami hands him a cup of tea.
The Straw Hat Pirates will always magnetize to each other after a separation, no matter how many years pass since the incident on Sabaody. Robin smiles to herself as she waits for the last stragglers to wander in. She wouldn't have it any other way.
“Brook!” That’s Chopper, waving him over from the doorway. “Come sit next to me!”
“Coming, coming, yohohoho!”
The space they’ve been given is a relatively barren room, by the standards of the Flower Capital. There's one low chair, reserved for Luffy, and the rest of them kneel on cushions in the Wano style or sprawl on the floor, depending on their mood. They look, thinks Robin to herself, giggling quietly, like nothing more than a king holding court.
“I’m exhausted,” declares Usopp. He’s the last one in, and he drops to the floor next to Sanji and immediately starts snoring.
Sanji pokes him with a finger to see if he’s really as passed out as he looks. Receiving no response, he scootches to the side so as not to get drooled on.
“We were working all night,” says Franky, indicating Usopp with his chin. “Got some super stuff we’re putting together for the folks here, and we need it all done before we set sail.”
“But Franky, you’re awake,” says Chopper. He’s become quite competent at disguising important health check-ups as innocent questions. It doesn’t work on Robin, of course, but it’s very cute.
“That’s the caffeine in my cola,” says Franky. Then, when Chopper narrows his eyes, adds, “Also, awesome cyborgs don’t need to sleep as much as normal humans!”
Chopper takes that with a sparkly-eyed huff. Robin’s sure that’s not the last Franky will hear of it. Nami rolls her eyes. “Just let Usopp sleep.”
Luffy snickers, leaning back in his chair. Usopp snores.
Robin looks at Franky. She’s placed herself next to where he usually sits, to be sure she’ll have his attention when she makes her announcement, and sure enough, when he sees the eyes she’s grown on her shoulder he turns to her and frowns.
“What’s up, sis?” he asks. The concern in his tone catches Sanji’s attention, and Sanji’s attention catches Luffy’s attention, and so on, until gradually her entire crew’s turned their heads toward her, waiting expectantly.
Yesterday, the main announcement was that Usopp had finally reunited with his friend Gama Pyonnosuke the frog and bid it a properly tearful goodbye. They know Robin very well, though, so:
“Is this a ‘we need to flee the country immediately’ sort of situation?” asks Nami, instantly. Ever-practical. She knows Robin would drop a calamity on their laps while everyone’s relaxed. Robin would get away with it, too.
“Nothing so urgent,” Robin answers. She smiles. It’s not a lie. It is misleading, because Nami will panic just as much when she hears what Robin actually has to say as she would have otherwise. This is, of course, why Robin doesn’t bother with any more sugarcoating or lead-in. “Today, I confirmed something very important: the location of Pluton,” she says. Dramatic pause. “It’s right here, in Wano.”
Maximum chaos descends on their little meeting room.
Nami does shriek, muffling her mouth with her hands. Jinbe’s eyes widen, and she even gets a reaction out of Zoro, fist tightening on the sword he’s been polishing in the corner. And, of course, Franky shouts. “What? Pluton is in this country?”
Robin’s work here is done.
Well, it absolutely is not. She’s very satisfied with herself, though, and with Luffy’s face, crinkled up in mirth as he watches the rest of them.
“Yes,” she confirms, when she’s done her giggling. “I wasn’t able to see it for myself, but it is here.”
Franky has to take a moment to compose himself. Nami hands him a fan, for his circuits, and he starts flapping it at his face.
Eventually, he says, in horror or in wonder, “Can’t believe that thing actually exists.”
Robin truly cannot blame him. It’s one thing to burn the blueprints that have been handed down to you in a fit of defiance, leaving the construction of the weapon an exclusive province of your own semi-mechanical brain. It’s another to learn that the original monstrosity has survived the test of time and lies, waiting, just beneath your feet.
Robin wonders idly if he wants to see it at all.
Luffy stretches, catching Robin’s attention. He looks perfectly at ease, faintly numinous as he’s been since his battle with Kaidou. Mildly curious. “The one Franky burned the plans for?”
Robin’s almost surprised he bothered remembering—normally he leaves that sort of thing to his archaeologist—but then, it was an important moment for Franky, so of course it would also be important to him.
“That’s right,” she confirms, and Luffy beams at her. “The Ancient Weapon Pluton, which bears the name of a god.” She looks at him, holding court, king of the seas on his wicker throne. “Do you want it, Luffy?”
He laughs. It’s bright and sharp and uncaring, and there’s little Robin wouldn’t do for it. “Nah, I’m good!”
There’s little Robin wouldn’t do for him, for this radiant numinous thing that calls itself her captain and has just, to Sanji’s disgusted protest, pulled its foot up across its thigh to pick at its toenails. If he’d said yes, Robin would have led him down to old Wano and gestured him inside, and Franky would have made repairs and Jinbe would have taken the helm, and they’d have all gone out to sea together to pull the mountains up at their roots.
Luffy already knows all that, obviously. Robin just likes to remind him, because their devotion makes him smile.
But, of course, doing any of that would be cheating. What sunlit king needs a weapon named for a god of the underworld? Thousand Sunny, Franky would surely say, can do anything the darkness can and more.
“That’s what I figured,” she says, and smiles back at him.