The Princess And The Bandit [2016] [P/UP]

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With a sigh the raven haired princess re-read the scroll in her hands for the third time that day.

It was without a doubt the most abrupt invitation she had ever received.

The southern shogun, Eustass Kid, was calling royals from nearby kingdoms to attend a banquet of his. Apparently he had a new and exciting samurai to show off in one of those atrocious dog fights of his.

The Princess shuddered at the very thought of attending, but her mother, the empress, had told her that she needed to go in order to establish good relations between the two kingdoms.

The woman scoffed. Good relations? The shogun didn't even have the decency to sign his name on his own invite!

Never the less, she was required to attend.

So here she was, stuffed inside a cramped palanquin in the middle of the muggy southern summer, wearing one of her finest (not to mention heaviest) silk kimonos.

Oh, how she wished she were in some northern kingdom where it almost always snowed.

With yet another sigh, the invitation was set aside and replaced with a fan—which did little but move the hot air around the sweat-damp skin of her neck.

There was a sudden shout outside and the palanquin came to an abrupt halt, dropping to the ground. The princess lurched forward, her fan nearly slipping from her grasp.

After recovering from her initial shock, the princess's painted lips curled down into a frown and she furrowed her pretty brows.

"Mister Two? Mister Three? What's going on out there?"

There was a pregnant pause before she heard the former male's voice call out.

"Robin-hime, do not exit the palanquin."

Her guard's voice, though seemingly strong and steady, wavered just the slightest in an all too obvious indicator of fear.

A different male voice suddenly laughed, making the poor princess jump.

"Hime?" The crass voice laughed. "Seems like we've got a little princess on our hands, boys!"

There were several whoops and hollers at that, the sounds seeming to come from at least seven men. Robin shrunk a little against the far side of her palanquin in fear.

The door suddenly slammed open, and a tanned forearm about as thick as a tree branch with a star tattooed on the skin reached inside and grabbed the princess by the silk of her kimono.

Robin let out a fearful yelp and began hitting the man's arm as hard as she could with her fan, praying to every god she knew of for him to let go.

She received no such luck as her slim body was easily pulled from the small compartment and into the overly large arms of a blue haired man with a star mask covering his face.

Immediately she was received with cat calls and wolf whistles. The man who held her laughed again.

"LET THE PRINCESS GO, YOU DAMN BANDIT—" She heard Mister Three shout, only to be silenced by the sound of a blade running through flesh.

Fear gripped Robin's heart as she was brought around to see her two guards kneeling on the forest floor, both littered with small injuries and a large, shallow gash stretching across Mister Three's chest.

"Galdino!" She shouted his name, in hopes that he was still alive, but when he didn't respond Robin's sapphire eyes narrowed in rage.

Snapping her head up to the blue haired bandit that had her, Robin snarled and clawed at the exposed skin of his arms with long, sharp nails.

The Bandit cried out and dropped the Princess, who scrambled to her feet immediately in order to run to her protectors.

"Ussop!" The Bandit shouted, and Robin yelped as she was scooped up once again by another masked bandit, this one with olive skin and a long nose that protruded from a hole in his sun-decorated mask

The man laughed at the princess, then turned to the rest of the group. "Brook, catch!"

And again Robin was in the air.

She was caught by a pair of thin, pale arms. This man's mask looked like a skull.

"Yohohoho! Pass the princess!" The man laughed, tossing the poor woman to another bandit.

"STOP IT!" The man known to the bandits as Mister Two shouted, watching helplessly as his kingdom's princess was tossed fom bandit to bandit like a sack of rice.

"Oh?" The Bandit leader questioned as he caught Robin in his tattooed arms once again. "What are you gonna do about it?"

Mister Two snarled. "I'LL—"

He cut himself short as the blue haired bandit threw the princess over his shoulder and grabbed the poor guard by the collar of his shirt. He pulled him up off the ground to meet his masked gaze.

"I'll tell you what you're gonna do." The bandit snarled from behind his mask. "You're going to go back to your kingdom and tell them that Franky and the Franky Family are demanding as much gold as they got for their precious princess's safe return. Got it?"

The guard nodded in fear at the bandit's menacing tone.

Behind the mask, the bandit—Franky—grinned and dropped the poor guard to the ground.

Mister Two scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, draping one of Mister Three's arms over his shoulders and pulling him up as well before running back the way they came with their perverbial tails between their legs.

The group of bandits roared with laughter at the sight.

Franky laughed with them, then playfully slapped the buttocks of the princess draped over his shoulder, earning himself a surprised yelp. "So what's your name, beautiful? Where ya from?"

Robin clenched her teeth in rage, as an embarrassed blush spread across her face at the bandit's actions.

"I am Nico Robin, princess of the kingdom of Ohara! Now release me, you brute!" She exclaimed, pounding her fists against his chest.

Franky went rigid, his eyes widening behind his mask as his men began to cheer over Ohara's wealth.

Robin narrowed her eyes at the bandit, glaring at the shocked wide eyes that stared back at her from beneath the mask.

The interaction only lasted a second before Franky was back to grinning and slapped the princess's ass once again, earning himself yet another yelp.

"Well then, boys! Let's celebrate our super good fortune with a party, eh?" He shouted over his group.

The bandits let out another chorus of cheers at that, and the last thing Robin heard was Franky's voice before something hit her on the back of her head and she lost consciousness.

"Goodnight, princess."