akatsuki in one piece

Ch 24 : book of reminiscence and redemption

The strawhat pirates managed to escaped from the enies lobby. The ship was badly damaged. But even so the ship kept sailing, trying its best to stay with the straw hat pirates even for a few more minutes.

The sogeking went to the back of the ship and took his mask off. He sat down giving his farewell to his beloved ship going merry.

The Straw Hat Pirates silently peeked at usopp, holding back their tears. They knew the going merry would not last any longer.

Usopp stood up with a small smile on his face. He didn't want to be sad on their last moment together. He forced a smile while gently tapping going merry's wooden floor.

The other strawhat member gave usopp some private time and went on their own corner.

Zoro sleeping on the bed, luffy leaning on the rail while looking at the ocean, nami practicing her climatact, chopper was treating the injured franky, sanji was cooking in the kitchen and robin sitting on the desk holding the book that she recieved from the masked marine.

She placed the book on the table and read the cover. "Ohara mini journal" written on the cover page of the old book. She flipped the page, slowly reading the content.

Her heart felt warm as remembered her family in ohara. Each chapters written by her family members. Each pages reminded her of their face, their laughter and their happiness when they wrote this book.

Her hand stopped a certain chapter titled [ohara my home] and at the bottom of the page [nico robin] was written as the author of the chapter.

The sentences were a bit messy, it was more like a kid's journal than a research journal. Tears  began to accumulate at the corner of her eyes as she read the story.

The small nico robin's advanture in ohara. The chapter was filled with her childhood experience in ohara.

It was kinda funny that the book was mostly about her advanture story when it should be an important historical record.

She kept flipping the page one by one until she reach the end of the book. She flipped the last page of the book, a photo of a small girl with her family inside a library printed at that page.

She smiled and closed the book. Just then she realized there was a small letter hidden in the back cover of the book.

She took the letter out and read its content.

[ Robin, im sorry that time i couldn't do anything. I am wrong and i regret it. This book is the only thing left on that island. I want to give this to you as soon as possible. I don't know when but i promise i will return this book to you. I hope you live a happy life.]

Tears dripping down onto the paper. The name of the author wasn't written there, but robin knew the guy who wrote this letter. An image of a certain ice user admiral appeared on her mind.

" Thank you, this book mean so much for me." (Robin)

...............

On the marine battle ship a aokiji was scanning the battle field with his binocular. A relieved sigh escaped his mouth as he saw the strawhat pirate ship moved away from the island.

He knew one day the world governent would cought nico robin. Thats why he requested the higher ups to assigned him as the captain of the buster call squad and gave a buster call authority to spandam.

That way he would be the first one to arrived if robin was caught by the marine. He prayed that the day never happened, but unfortunately his nightmare became reality.

He tried his best to delay the buster squad departure to gave robin sometimes to escape. In the worst case he planned to betray the marine and let robin escape. But this time luck was on his side, a mysterious group attacked the enies lobby and helped robin to escape.

The ice marine sighed again, it was a close call. But he knew he couldn't always rely on luck. One day he had to make his own decision and he already decided what he should do when the time came.

He looked at his marine admiral coat with complicated feeling. He want to help to bring justice into the world, he wasn't sure if this justice was what he wanted.

He stared at the grey sky. His eyes narrowed as he saw a black crow flying to him. The other marine raised their weapon ready to shot down the crow.

Aokiji shouted ordering them to lower their weapon. The crow landed on his hand, it carried a small letter on its beak. Aokiji took the letter, the crow flew back to its owner.

Aokiji opened and silently read the letter.

[ The book had been delivered safely back to its owner, She smiled and said thank you. ]

He felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulder. He smiled, the book had been returned to its owner. It didn't erased his guilt but atleast he felt a small happines knowing that the girl had recieved her precious book back.