Chapter 10 - You have 5 seconds

(Nico Robin POV)

Hearing Emma's exaggerated and fake laughter I couldn't help but feel a little helpless and think. 'She should just talk about what's bothering her, what's the point of keeping secrets, I'll let her off for now though on account of how much thought she put into this scheme, letting her indulge herself for a little while will hopefully lighten her mood. Though I'll still have to ask her what's wrong later.'

"Hey don't rub yourself on me like a cat marking their territory". Although I said this I didn't do anything to stop her and let her continue having fun and so started my new life as a living cuddle pillow for a month and a half.

Leaving the New World and arriving back at the Calm Belt Emma and I was let back onto the deck of the ship and able to see sunlight for the first time in a month but the only thing I could think about was how Emma acted when we were locked inside.

Although she started doing a good job at hiding it after a few days there is no way I wouldn't be able to notice that whatever she thought about in the beginning was still on her mind the entire time we were inside... 'I didn't ask her when we were locked inside because it felt like it would be too forceful demanding answers in a confined space. Also because I feel like if I cornered Emma like that something bad might happen although I don't know why I get that feeling.'

Before I could continue to curse Emma and all the weird things about her anymore in my mind though I quickly understood the reason why she would be putting on such dramatic acts and trying to cover up her feelings. 'I know she just doesn't want to worry me but still, it would be better if she talked about what's bothering her.'

Understanding this though didn't change the fact it feels like I'm not useful as her first crew member and friend though, so with this in mind, I turned to Emma and was about to ask her again if everything was really fine and if she said no I would just find a way to force her to tell me. To help her somehow, being teased as caring for her won't stop me from getting an answer this time, but before I had the chance to she ran away from me and jumped headfirst into the Calm Belt causing a small splash before I could comprehend what just happened her Dad also dived into the water chasing after Emma.

This caused me to stand there and just gawk at what had just happened before starting to get worried for Emma's safety. "I know she has no sense of danger but isn't that going too far, there's no way she can do anything against a sea king".

As I was getting more worried for Emma's safety the more I thought about how dangerous what she just did was her Mom came up to me from behind and wrapped both her arms around me before pulling me into her embrace and starting to talk in the same tone she did when she first spoke to me all those years ago. "Don't worry too much about Emma's safety although what she did was reckless Gauge followed in after her immediately so she won't be in any danger."

I understood that she'll be safe because of her Dad but I still wanted to complain about how absurd what Emma just did was, though before I could Geina continued to speak with a different tone, irritation now dripping from her voice. "However, that doesn't mean I'll let her off the hook for using herself as bait for sea kings. Oh no, I'll make sure she understands that is a stupid idea.

The hug I had found myself in was gradually becoming tighter and tighter and I was about to ask her to loosen it a little when I found my words cut off once again right before I could speak as a sea king that looked like a giant goldfish but having a lower lip that was large enough to cover most of its face, two large eyes that shouldn't be possible to close and sporting a pink and black color scheme sprung out of the water and slightly into the air before it crashed back down on one of its sides causing massive waves to rock the ship before everything calmed down and the sea king now just lay there floating but unmoving.

After a few seconds of total silence, I was just about to ask where Emma and Gauge were but before I could I was stopped from speaking for a fourth time by the loud sound of something bursting open. Looking at the head of the oversized goldfish, its entire lower lip was ruptured and inside of it was both a laughing Emma and equally laughing Gauge.

"KYAKYAKYAKYAKYA, That marks another item off my bucket list although that wasn't a whale it's close enough!" While shouting in joy with both arms over her head and jumping up and down using the sea king's tongue as a type of bounce pad Emma acted as if she didn't just use herself as human fish food.

"YAYAYAYAYAYAYA, at first I was worried you had gone crazy from being locked inside for so long but now I realize you just had an amazing idea to have fun you couldn't wait to try out". Joining in with his daughter Gauge started to bounce around on the tongue of the sea king as well.

Looking at the scene in front of me I couldn't help but feel like my earlier worries for Emma's safety were sorely misplaced. "I thought I would be prepared for anything Emma planned to do in the future after I accepted to join her when she was still a newborn with how outlandish that was. If I'm to follow her I need to completely throw away my common sense of this world."

"JAJAJA, I know how you feel Robin when Gauge and myself first sailed together it took me a while to get used to his wildly carefree personality, this is nothing compared to what's to come, so have fun and takes notes on what I'm about to do, it will come in handy in the future for you." After responding to the thoughts of my worldview shattering that I had unconsciously let slip out of my mouth, Geina then proceeded to rub my head for a second and then let go of me as she started to walk towards the edge of the ship getting as close as possible to Emma and Gauge with a noticeable change in the air surrounding her.

"PIETAS D. EMMA! PIETAS D. GAUGE! YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO GET BACK ON THIS SHIP AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" Before Geina even had the chance to start her countdown Gauge had grabbed Emma under his arm like a piece of luggage and shot towards the ship faster than I could follow with my eyes as he had already placed the now confused Emma on her knees facing her mother while he was in an identical position next to her with his face looking at up at her in hope.

"Don't think you'll get out of this because you reacted quickly." After hearing this all of the life seemed to leave Gauges eyes as he accepted his fate. After seeing that Geina humphed in contentment before looking down at Emma.

"Emma". Just saying her name seemed to snap Emma out of her stupor from being effectively teleported and then she started to sweat with a real nervous expression on her face, unlike the one she used to trick me.

"I can expl-". Looking up at Geina with little hope in her eyes she started to make up an excuse but before Emma had the chance to continue her explanation the gaze that Geina was giving her grew colder causing Emma to make an audible Gulp and stop talking.

"Good just sit there quietly like your father is doing" After saying this with a false smile on her face Geina started a lecture that lasted until swarms of sea king shadows started to gather near our ship due to the dead goldfish sea king that was still bobbing up and down.

"Don't think this is over yet, neither of you is allowed to make any sounds or act out until we enter the North Blue." After staring both of them in the eyes for a second longer and seeing them nod their heads she then ordered Gauge.

"Scare those sea-kings away, I'm tired of the Calm belt already." With this, she left to steer the ship out of this stretch of the sea but not before winking in my direction and having a smile on her face that I didn't quite understand. After she was gone Gauge walked to the edge of the ship and stared at the water for a second before all of the shadows retreated in a hurry.

"Was that Conqueror's Haki? I thought only Emma had that?". Asking out of pure shock Gauge answered my question by pointing to himself then at Emma and finally pointing back to himself with a proud smile on his face while flexing his biceps. Emma seemed to understand what he was trying to convey as she then pointed at herself then at Gauge and finally towards the now empty ocean before placing both hands on her sides and without making any sound and pretended to laugh with a slightly raised chin.

"Sorry but you lost me once you both started pretending to be mimes, I'll just ask again once you're allowed to talk". Ignoring the still communicating Emma and Gauge I decided to just go read something to clear my mind.

(Emma POV)

After a few days of near-total silence, Dad and I were able to fully communicate with each other through hand movements and mimicry alone but sadly whenever I tried talking with Robin like this she would just laugh me off before looking away to read her books.

After leaving the Calm Belt and crossing over into the North Blue Mom gave both Dad and me permission to speak again, however, this wasn't much of a punishment, for me at least. Dad seemed ready to burst the closer we got to the North Blue with anticipation of being able to make loud sounds again.

Thinking about it if I could go back in time and do it all again then I would, Robin was about to ask a serious question that I didn't want to answer to and that was the first thing that popped into my mind to get out of the situation and draw all her attention away from my thoughts.

'It's not that I don't want you to know Robin, It's just my view on this world has slightly changed since I first came here so I don't want to raise any flags for the safety of our crew if at all possible. But don't worry too much once we have gathered everyone I will make sure to tell you whatever you want to know regardless of the flags that will be raised.' Making this silent promise to myself I hoped that my luck with finding Robin so easily would rub off onto my other crew members before talking over the plan of action with Mom.

"So we have to be on the far side of the North Blue within the next year and after that, we'll have one more year to find two sisters that could be anywhere in the North Blue all while tracking down Germa and stealing one of their ships to cross over the red line before they migrate their entire kingdom over it". After Mom said this I realized that I may have made this more complicated than it has to be.

"Yes." But that still didn't change the answer that came out of my mouth.

"Well it's not like I didn't already have a good idea of what we have to do but saying it all out loud sure does make it seem harder than it is, oh well we'll just have to run your dad like a racehorse." Mom became lost in thought after saying this and after a few minutes, she snapped out of it and spoke.

"Do you know anything at all that might help find the two sisters, that's the only thing I see being a real problem since your father and I already had plans to track down Germa." Responding to her with a shake of my head I answered.

"Not much, all I know is that both of them lived hard lives until they're picked up by someone and join his crew except I'd not let that happen for a variety of reasons, mainly that I want them and he can't have them. Besides that, they both have devil fruit abilities or at least will if not already." Looking at me like how she normally looks at Dad, Mom sighed before saying with some disappointment in her tone.

"You love dragging out the suspense by saying a lot but nothing at the same time. What are the names of their abilities? If either of them ate their devil fruit before joining that guy's crew then it may be a lot easier to locate them than I first thought."

After finishing our conversation Mom was in a state of both panic and excitement because of what one of the devil fruit's abilities are. There are certain devil fruits that our family is trying to rid from this world and one of the two happens to be one said fruit. Although it's not surprising considering how stupidly broken it is, I would have chosen that fruit to reincarnate with if I was going for pure world domination with no concern for human life.