This chapter has R-18 at the end.
Chapter 26:
The bar’s owner never returned.
Whether he had fled Rainbase during the fighting, taken one look at the ruined city and decided to begin a new life somewhere else, or simply possessed enough survival instinct not to confront the pirates squatting in his establishment, no one knew.
By midnight, no one particularly cared.
The Straw Hats had claimed the bar for the night. Tables had been pushed together to form makeshift beds, coats had become blankets, and the surviving bottles behind the counter had been quietly appropriated in the name of defeating Crocodile.
Lucy slept across an entire booth with her head in Nami’s lap, snoring softly as tiny sparks danced through her hair. Chopper had fallen asleep sitting upright beside them, his medical bag clutched against his chest. Vivi rested near the window, still dressed in her desert clothes, though the tension that had haunted her for weeks had finally eased from her face.
Robin occupied a dark corner with a book open against her chest. She had stopped reading several hours ago, but old habits kept her back to the wall even while she slept.
Pearl sat motionless near the entrance, black wings folded around her body. It was difficult to tell whether she was asleep or merely standing guard. William suspected that, as a ship, she might have an entirely different relationship with sleep.
Only Kuina was missing.
William noticed because he had been watching her all evening.
Their earlier conversation had lasted nearly three hours. Everyone except Lucy—who had slept through the entire thing despite Nami repeatedly shaking her—had gathered around a table while Kuina told them about the world she remembered.
It had been similar to theirs. Disturbingly similar.
In Kuina’s world, she had survived the accident that should have killed her. Zoro had died instead, leaving his dream behind for her to inherit. She stole her fathers sword, Wado Ichimonji, and left her Island and sexist father to become the greatest swordswoman in the world. She had eventually met a young woman named Monkey D. Lucy and joined her pirate crew.
Nami had been there. So had Vivi and Chopper. Along with Sanji and Usopp…
But that crew’s journey had ended in Alabasta. Kuina remembered Lucy fighting Crocodile beneath a sky filled with sand. She remembered Nami screaming. She remembered Vivi crying. She remembered blood soaking into the desert and Lucy lying still beneath Crocodile’s hook.
Then Kuina had awakened in Rainbase, with Wado Ichimonji still in her hand and the memories fading like the remains of a nightmare.
She had assumed that was all they were.
A nightmare.
Then she met them.
William slipped quietly out of the bar. He climbed the fire escape along the side of the building, his enhanced balance carrying him up the rusted ladder without so much as a metallic rattle.
He found Kuina sitting near the edge of the roof.
Wado Ichimonji rested across her lap. One hand lay loosely on its sheath, her thumb occasionally brushing the guard as if she needed the familiar contact to reassure herself that at least one part of her life remained real.
Above her stretched a sky William could never have seen back home. There were no city lights drowning the heavens, no orange haze lingering over the horizon. Thousands of stars burned against the darkness, dense enough to look like pale dust scattered across black silk. A faint band of the galaxy stretched from one horizon to the other.
Kuina did not turn when he approached. “I could hear you coming,” she said.
William glanced at her. “Really?”
“No.” A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “But it sounded better than admitting your cat feet are annoyingly quiet.”
“They’re technically human feet at the moment.”
“You have cat ears and two tails.”
“Fair point.” He sat beside her, leaving enough space between them not to crowd her. His tails curled around his waist before settling on the rooftop behind him.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Kuina stared at the stars. William watched her from the corner of his eye.
She held herself with the rigid posture of someone determined not to break in front of a stranger. Her shoulders were straight, her chin lifted and her breathing carefully measured. But her fingers had not stopped moving against Wado Ichimonji’s guard.
“How are you feeling?” he finally asked.
Kuina gave a humorless laugh. “I’m deciding whether that is the kindest question anyone has asked me today or the stupidest.”
“It can be both.”
That earned him a brief glance.
Her expression softened for half a second before she looked back at the sky. “I don’t know how I feel,” she admitted. “I thought I did before your navigator spent three hours interrogating me.”
“Nami was trying to understand what happened.”
“She threatened to hit me with sea stone if I lied.”
“That’s how Nami tries to understand things.”
“She also threatened to hit me with it when I called myself the first mate.”
“That was more of a territorial dispute.”
Kuina snorted.
William’s mouth lifted into a small smile, but it faded quickly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This must be overwhelming.”
Kuina’s grip tightened around her sword. “This world is wrong.” There was no anger in the statement. That would have been easier. There was only exhaustion. “Zoro is alive here,” she continued. “He got to grow up. He got to leave the dojo and chase our dream.” Her jaw clenched. “And then he abandoned Lucy.” The anger arrived then, sharp enough to put steel in her voice. “He watched his captain die and decided the answer was to run away? He left her because he was afraid of losing her again?” Kuina shook her head. “That cowardly bastard. If I ever find him, I’m going to beat him bloody.”
William wisely declined to mention that Zoro would probably consider that an excellent reunion.
“And Sanji left too,” Kuina continued. “Because apparently following a female captain threatened his precious principles. Usopp stole the ship and ran. Three men abandoned their crew, and somehow they were replaced by Nico Robin, a living pirate ship with wings, and—” She finally looked directly at him. “—a catboy with a very suspicious backstory...”
William scratched behind one ear. “When you say it like that, it sounds strange.”
“It is strange.”
“Fair.”
“And Miss All Sunday is sleeping downstairs.”
“She prefers Robin.”
“I know what she prefers.” Kuina’s eyes narrowed in the direction of the bar beneath them, as though she could see through the roof and glare directly at the sleeping archaeologist. “She worked for Crocodile.”
“She also betrayed him.”
“She tried to kill us in my world.”
William’s tails stilled.
Kuina closed her eyes and exhaled. “But that wasn’t this Robin,” she conceded reluctantly. “Your Robin helped save Alabasta. She protected your crew. She looked genuinely worried when Lucy was fighting Crocodile.”
“She’s had a difficult life.”
“So have most criminals.”
“That’s also fair.”
Kuina opened her eyes again. She studied him as if she had not expected him to agree.
William did not try to convince her. Trust forced into existence was not trust at all, and Robin did not need him speaking on her behalf as though she were incapable of earning Kuina’s respect herself.
“I suppose I should be grateful,” Kuina said eventually. “Whatever happened, I was given a second chance.” Her gaze rose toward the stars once more. “Lucy is alive here. Nami is alive. So are Vivi and Chopper. They aren’t exactly the same people I knew, but they’re still them.” She hesitated. “And I suppose I won’t mind getting to know you.”
One of William’s tails began swaying behind him.
Kuina noticed immediately. Her eyes followed the slow sweep of crimson fur across the rooftop. “And that bitch Robin,” she added.
His second tail joined the first.
Kuina’s gaze traveled upward from the tails to the ears rising through William’s red hair. One twitched beneath her scrutiny. Her attention then drifted, entirely against her better judgment, toward the rest of him. The lean muscle. The soft expression that made his face seem far less dangerous than the purple fire she had watched melt through steel.
He was admittedly handsome. Annoyingly handsome. Kuina felt heat creep into her cheeks and immediately resented him for it. “Don’t get the wrong idea!”
William blinked. “About what?”
“I said I wouldn’t mind getting to know you. That doesn’t mean I’m planning to join your harem!”
“Pfft! My what?”
Kuina turned toward him, her blush deepening despite the stern expression she attempted to hold. “I’m not that easy,” she declared. “And the fact that every woman on this crew seems to be in love with you is deeply unsettling.”
William’s ears flattened. “They’re not all in love with me.”
“Nami kissed you in the middle of a battlefield.”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“Lucy called you squishy in her sleep.”
“We’re together too.”
“Princess Vivi spent half our conversation sitting close enough that her knee never stopped touching yours.”
“She—”
“Robin grew an eye on the ceiling when you changed your shirt.”
William slowly looked upward, as if the offending eye might have followed them onto the roof.
Kuina folded her arms. “And all five mermaids apparently propositioned you at the same time.”
“Who told you about that?”
“Lucy. While she was half asleep.”
William covered his burning face with both hands. “I still don’t know how any of this happened.”
For the first time that night, Kuina laughed properly. It was not loud or especially graceful. It escaped before she could restrain it, shaking tension from her shoulders and briefly making her look like the young woman she should have been rather than a swordswoman displaced from a dead world.
William lowered his hands and smiled. “I can promise you one thing, though,” he said. Something in his voice made her laughter fade. “The crew is the most important thing in my life.” There was no embarrassment now. No stammering or flattened ears. William looked across the rooftop toward the battered city they had helped liberate. “I don’t have some incredible dream of my own yet. Not like Lucy becoming Pirate Queen, or Nami mapping the world, or Robin finding the true history. But I want to make sure all of them get the chance to fulfill theirs.” His tails had gone still behind him. “If that means fighting people stronger than me, I’ll fight them. If it means throwing away the story I thought I knew, I’ll do that too. And if keeping them alive costs me my life…” William looked directly into Kuina’s eyes. “I’d pay it happily.”
Kuina forgot how to breathe for a moment.
There had been no performance in his words. No effort to impress her and no expectation of praise. He spoke about laying down his life with the same plain sincerity he had used when asking how she felt.
As if protecting his crew were not heroic. As if it were simply obvious.
Heat spread across Kuina’s face again. She looked away before William could notice, glaring at the stars as though they had personally betrayed her.
Damn it. Now she understood how he had done it.
The idiot probably had no idea he was doing it at all. He wandered around being kind, sincere and unfairly attractive, making women feel safe while offering to bleed for their dreams. Then he acted surprised when they kissed him.
Kuina tightened her arms across her chest. “That,” she muttered, “was an extremely dangerous thing to say.”
William’s ears tilted forward. “Why?”
“Never mind!”
One of his tails resumed swaying behind him.
Kuina watched it from the corner of her eye.
She absolutely was not joining his ridiculous harem.
But perhaps getting to know him would not be so terrible…
William awoke with a lazy yawn and the distinct feeling that someone had beaten him with a sack of bricks while he slept.
Every muscle in his body ached. His ribs still protested whenever he breathed too deeply, his developing Haki made his arms feel as if he had spent the previous day punching iron walls, and his Nekomata regeneration was demanding enough food to feed a small village.
Staying on the roof with Kuina until nearly dawn probably had not helped.
Still, he thought the conversation had been worth it.
They had spent another hour beneath the stars after Kuina’s suspiciously emphatic declaration that she was not joining his “ridiculous harem.” Most of their conversation had been less emotionally dangerous. Kuina told him about Shimotsuki Village, her father’s dojo, and the world she remembered. William had carefully filled in more of what had happened in this timeline without overwhelming her with every absurd detail at once.
Eventually, Kuina had fallen asleep sitting up with Wado Ichimonji across her lap.
William carried her downstairs, placed her on an empty booth, and covered her with his leather jacket. She had been too deeply asleep to threaten him for it.
Now she remained curled on the bench, one hand still wrapped possessively around her sword’s sheath. William’s jacket covered her shoulders and torso. Her brow was furrowed as though even asleep, she was arguing with someone.
Probably Nami.
William pushed himself upright from the two chairs he had claimed as a bed. His spine popped three times. His ears rose through his tangled red hair, swiveling toward the sounds and scents filling the bar.
Something was sizzling.
Something else smelled slightly burned.
Behind the counter, Vivi stood over a small iron stove with her sleeves rolled above her elbows. She had found a pale blue apron somewhere in the bar and tied it over her desert clothes. A frying pan occupied one hand while she stirred a pot with the other.
Several plates covered the counter: eggs, toasted bread, fried potatoes, sliced fruit, and thin strips of spiced meat.
William had not realized Vivi could cook. Judging by her intense concentration and the small pile of blackened bread hidden beside her feet, neither had Vivi.
“Morning, William!” Lucy’s enthusiastic greeting cut through the bar. She sat at the largest table with a plate of food large enough to qualify as siege equipment. A mountain of eggs, sausages, potatoes, bread, and roasted meat rose before her. She had already eaten a deep trench through its center.
Lucy looked considerably better after a full night of sleep. Bandages still wrapped one shoulder and several smaller cuts marked her face, but the dark circles beneath her eyes had faded. Her storm-black hair stuck out in every direction, and her straw hat rested on the table beside her plate.
She waved a turkey leg at William.
He could not stop himself from smiling.
His captain was alive. Crocodile was defeated. Lucy was sitting in a stolen bar eating enough breakfast to bankrupt the missing owner, and she looked unbearably cute doing it.
His captain girlfriend, some reckless part of his mind supplied. William’s smile widened.
Lucy noticed and immediately smiled back with her cheeks full. “Why’re you looking at me like that?” she asked around the food.
“No reason.”
“Hmmm.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but the effect was ruined when she shoved half the turkey leg into her mouth.
Nami sat beside Lucy with a cup of coffee and a map spread across the table. She looked annoyingly well-rested despite having slept sitting against the wall. Chopper occupied a chair stacked with cushions, carefully inspecting one of Lucy’s bandages while she continued eating around him.
Robin had already found a replacement book and sat near the window, reading with one hand and drinking coffee with the other. Pearl stood in the corner in her angelic form, her black wings folded neatly behind her.
Kuina remained asleep beneath William’s jacket. Or she had been asleep. Her eyes opened when William’s tails brushed the edge of her booth. She looked down at the jacket, then up at him.
William braced himself.
Kuina’s cheeks turned faintly pink. “You carried me downstairs?”
“You fell asleep.”
“You could have woken me.”
“I tried.” That was a lie. He had not tried very hard.
Kuina knew it too. She narrowed her eyes but pulled the jacket more closely around herself instead of returning it.
William decided to count that as a victory.
“Breakfast is nearly ready,” Vivi announced.
Lucy froze with an entire sausage suspended between her teeth. Her gaze moved from Vivi to the colossal plate in front of her. “This isn’t breakfast?”
“That was the first serving.”
Lucy’s eyes shone. “I LOVE THIS KINGDOM!”
“It is my sincere hope that your affection survives after we stop feeding you,” Vivi said.
“No promises.”
William claimed a chair near the end of the table. One of his tails dragged a second chair closer for his feet before he realized what it was doing. He lowered them again, cleared his throat, and attempted to look dignified.
Nobody commented. Robin’s faint smile indicated that everyone had noticed.
“So,” William said, “what’s the agenda?”
Nami tapped a finger against the map. “We need to intercept Kouza’s army before it reaches Alubarna.”
The effect of Kouza’s name was immediate. Vivi’s stirring spoon stopped halfway around the pot. Her shoulders stiffened.
Lucy stopped chewing.
Even Kuina, who knew only the abbreviated version of what had happened in Erumalu, noticed the change in the room.
Nami saw Vivi’s reaction and briefly looked apologetic, but there was no gentle way to discuss an army marching on the capital.
“They were already moving when we left Erumalu,” Nami continued carefully. “We don’t know whether Crocodile’s defeat will slow them down. If anything, Kouza might use the confusion to accelerate his attack.”
“The traitorous bastard,” Vivi muttered. The spoon creaked in her hand.
Lucy stared at the halted spoon in horror. “Vivi,” she said urgently.
Vivi did not answer.
“The eggs.”
Vivi blinked. A thin trail of smoke began rising from the pan. “The eggs!” Vivi lunged for the stove, dragging the pan away from the heat just before its contents crossed the line from slightly overcooked to a crime against breakfast.
Lucy sagged with relief. “Those were almost ruined.”
Nami gave Lucy a flat look. “Yes. That was clearly the most important part of the conversation.”
“Food is always important!”
“She has a point,” Chopper said quietly.
Nami’s glare shifted toward him. Chopper shoved half a bread roll into his mouth and became deeply interested in Lucy’s bandages.
Robin closed her book around one finger. “Before we pursue the rebel army,” she said, “I would like to search Crocodile’s vaults.”
Nami’s head turned so quickly that her hair whipped across Lucy’s face. “Never mind,” she said. “WE’RE DOING THAT.”
“Nami!” Vivi protested.
“What?” Nami sat straighter. “Robin said there could be important information.”
“I said treasures or information,” Robin corrected.
“Exactly. Critical evidence. Possibly stored in the form of gold.” Her expression had changed completely. The exhausted navigator planning a dangerous desert pursuit disappeared, replaced by a woman who had once emptied an entire bounty-hunter settlement’s treasury while her crewmates fought in the streets. “We have a responsibility to secure Crocodile’s criminal assets,” Nami continued solemnly. “We can’t leave dangerous materials lying around where innocent people might find them.”
“Dangerous materials like jewels?” William asked.
“Especially jewels!”
“And what about gold bars?”
“Those can be highly dangerous if you drop them on your toes! They will need an expert like me to properly manage them!”
William loved how adorably shameless Nami could be when it came to treasure. He hoped she never changed.
Lucy raised her hand. Everyone looked at her. “Can we buy meat with Crocodile’s money?”
Nami placed a hand over her heart. “Captain, I have never been prouder of you!”
Lucy cheered.
Vivi carried the rescued pan of eggs toward the table. “Fortunately, we do have time for both.”
Nami’s attention remained fixed on the phrase Crocodile’s vaults. “How much time?”
Vivi set the pan down, then moved to retrieve the remaining dishes. “Kouza’s army consists of thousands of people moving on foot through the desert. They have wagons, wounded soldiers, families, and limited supplies. Even if they march aggressively, it should take them at least a week to reach Alubarna.”
“And Pearl can cross the desert in hours,” William said.
From her place near the wall, Pearl lifted her chin. Her black wings shifted and caught the morning light coming through the windows. “On land or sea,” she declared, “I am the greatest pirate ship ever to sail.”
“Or fly,” Lucy added.
“Or fly,” Pearl agreed.
Lucy thrust both fists into the air. “THE BLACK PEARL IS THE BEST SHIP EVER!”
The floorboards beneath them gave a pleased creak. Everyone turned toward Pearl. She looked faintly embarrassed.
Kuina cracked a small smile beneath the collar of William’s jacket. Her world had contained strange creatures, impossible islands and Devil Fruits capable of violating every law of nature. Yet even by Grand Line standards, a prideful ship spirit who had eaten an Angel Fruit and transformed into a beautiful winged woman was difficult to process. Kuina decided not to try before breakfast.
Vivi brought the last dish to the table and untied her apron. “With Pearl carrying us, we can leave Rainbase later today and still reach the capital long before the rebels. We have plenty of time to search Crocodile’s casino.”
Nami cheered loudly enough to make Kuina wince. “VAULTS FIRST, CIVIL WAR SECOND!”
“That order sounds morally questionable,” Chopper said.
“Only because you’re saying it wrong. It’s evidence first, civil war second.”
“Is the evidence shiny?”
“Probably.”
Chopper stared at her.
Nami took a long drink of coffee without breaking eye contact.
Vivi almost smiled, but the expression did not last. She looked toward the bar’s front windows.
Outside, morning had arrived over a battered Rainbase. Smoke still rose from several blocks. Broken glass covered the streets, buildings had been damaged, and sections of Rain Dinners were visible even from here, collapsed beneath the force of Lucy and Crocodile’s battle.
The fighting had liberated Alabasta from the man destroying it.
It had also damaged the homes and livelihoods of people who had never known what was happening beneath their city.
“There is something I need to do first,” Vivi said. The humor around the table faded. She rested both hands against the counter. “I need to address the people of Rainbase.”
Nami lowered her cup.
Vivi’s gaze moved across the room, touching each member of the crew before settling on the brightening windows. “This city was partially destroyed because of the battle. Its people woke up to pirates, Marines, Baroque Works agents and a Warlord tearing apart their streets. Most of them still don’t know why any of it happened.” Her fingers tightened against the wood. “Crocodile spent years making himself their hero while turning them against my father. If we leave without saying anything, the rumors will fill the silence. Some will say the royal family sent pirates to destroy Rainbase. Others will say we abandoned the city after using it as a battlefield.” Vivi drew a slow breath. “I need to show them that I’m alive. I need them to know their princess came home and that the royal family never abandoned them.”
For two years, Vivi had moved through Alabasta beneath a false name. She had hidden her face, swallowed her pride and allowed strangers to curse her father while she searched for proof of Crocodile’s conspiracy.
Now she intended to stand in front of her people without a disguise. The thought terrified her more than facing armed Baroque Works agents had.
William stood before he had consciously decided to move. “I’ll go with you.”
Vivi turned toward him.
“You have my support,” he said. “And I’ll guard you.” His voice held the same sincerity that had unsettled Kuina beneath the stars.
Vivi felt warmth rise into her face. Her rifle leaned against the counter beside her. She reached over and patted its polished wooden stock, attempting to summon something resembling royal composure. “I probably won’t need a guard,” she said. “I am armed, and most of Crocodile’s agents have either fled or been arrested.”
“You shouldn’t have to stand out there alone.” William’s tails swayed once behind him. “If anyone causes trouble, they’ll have to get through me first.”
Vivi’s blush deepened. “Thank you, William.”
Around the table, several women exchanged knowing looks.
Nami raised one eyebrow.
Robin’s lips curved over the rim of her coffee cup.
Lucy paused with both cheeks full of egg and glanced between William and Vivi with a slight pout.
Even Pearl tilted her head.
Kuina watched the entire exchange and felt last night’s realization return with renewed force. There it was again. William had not flirted. He had not tried to impress Vivi or draw attention to himself. He simply saw that she was afraid and offered to stand beside her.
The princess looked at him as though he had handed her the moon. Kuina pulled William’s jacket farther over her shoulders and scowled down at the table. The idiot really did not know what he was doing.
Vivi cleared her throat and reached for another plate. “Breakfast first,” she said, trying to ignore the warmth in her cheeks. “Then we’ll address the city.”
Lucy immediately lifted her empty plate. “More breakfast first.”
Vivi stared at the plate that had held enough food for six ordinary people. “Of course,” she said with the weary dignity of a princess discovering the true cost of piracy.
An hour later, Princess Nefertari Vivi stood on a hastily constructed platform in the center of Rainbase.
The platform had originally served as an outdoor stage for casino-sponsored musicians. Its purple-and-gold decorations remained, though one side had been scorched by lightning and a section of railing had been torn away during the fighting. Someone had draped Alabasta’s sun-emblem banner across the front, covering most of the damage.
Beyond it waited the people of Rainbase.
Hundreds had already gathered when Vivi arrived. Hundreds more poured in from surrounding streets until the central plaza could barely contain them. They filled the roads, leaned from cracked windows and climbed onto rooftops for a better view.
Thousands of faces stared up at her. Some were frightened. Others were furious.
Their city had become a battlefield without warning. Homes had been damaged, businesses destroyed and entire streets buried beneath sand or coated in wax and ash. Rain Dinners—the glittering casino at the center of their economy—had partially collapsed. Many people had spent the previous night searching for missing relatives or attempting to extinguish fires started by combatants who had already moved on.
They wanted answers.
William stood several feet behind Vivi and to her right. He had offered to remain closer, but Vivi had decided that addressing her people with a visible pirate looming at her shoulder might send the wrong message. He remained within easy reach regardless, his ears turning toward every movement in the crowd.
Vivi’s rifle rested against the platform railing behind her. She did not expect violence, but she had learned long ago that hope was not a substitute for preparation.
Nami, Lucy, Robin, Chopper, Pearl and Kuina watched from the edge of the plaza. Nami had made Lucy promise not to interrupt the speech unless someone attacked. Lucy had agreed, then spent the next ten minutes asking for increasingly precise definitions of “attack.”
Vivi took a breath. The murmur running through the crowd gradually faded.
She had addressed soldiers, diplomats, palace officials and entire rooms of Baroque Works agents while maintaining a false identity. None of it had prepared her for this.
These were her people.
If they rejected her, she could not hide behind the name Miss Wednesday.
“My good people of Alabasta,” Vivi began. Her voice trembled on the first word.
She felt William’s presence behind her. He did not speak or touch her. He simply stood where he had promised he would stand.
Vivi lifted her chin. “I am Nefertari Vivi, Crown Princess of Alabasta.”
Recognition moved through the plaza like wind across grass.
Several people gasped. Others whispered her name. An elderly woman near the front covered her mouth with both hands, while a young man pushed through the crowd for a better look.
The missing princess had returned.
“For years, our kingdom has suffered,” Vivi continued. “Our wells have dried. Our crops have failed. Families have been driven from homes their ancestors built. Citizens who once called each other neighbors have taken up arms against one another.”
The plaza became still.
Vivi looked across the gathered faces and saw what the drought had done to them. Even in wealthy Rainbase, cheeks had grown thinner. Clothes had been repaired too many times. Anxiety lingered in the eyes of parents who had learned that comfort could disappear without warning.
“Many of you blamed the royal family. Some believed my father had hoarded water in Alubarna while the rest of the kingdom died of thirst.”
A few people lowered their eyes.
“I do not condemn you for believing it,” Vivi said. “You were shown evidence. You watched Dance Powder fall over the capital while your own skies remained empty. You were told that King Cobra had chosen Alubarna over the rest of Alabasta.” She pressed one hand against her chest. “It was a lie.” Her voice carried more strongly now. “The drought was not caused by my father. The Dance Powder was not used by the royal family. Both were part of a conspiracy created by the man this city knew as its protector.” Anger sharpened her next words. “Sir Crocodile!”
The crowd stirred.
Several voices protested. Others went silent in disbelief.
Rainbase had lived under Crocodile’s shadow for years. His image decorated newspapers and tavern walls. Stories praised him for driving pirates from Alabastan waters and protecting travelers from desert raiders.
Vivi allowed the reaction to run its course before continuing.
“Crocodile was never Alabasta’s hero. He was the leader of the criminal organization Baroque Works. He used Dance Powder to steal rain from the rest of our kingdom. His agents spread lies, destroyed supplies and inflamed resentment against the throne.”
Robin’s expression remained calm at the edge of the plaza, but her fingers tightened around her book. She had helped build that organization. She had also helped destroy it.
“He created this suffering deliberately,” Vivi said. “He intended to drive the royal family from power, seize the throne and claim Alabasta for himself.”
Disbelief became fury.
A man near the front shouted that his sister had died in the drought. Another demanded proof. Someone else screamed that Baroque Works agents had forced his family from their home.
Vivi did not retreat.
“Yesterday, Crocodile admitted his plan before witnesses. He attacked me and those who came to Alabasta’s aid. He fought to preserve his conspiracy—and he lost.”
A cheer rose from a small section of the crowd. It was uncertain at first, quickly swallowed by arguments and questions.
Vivi raised both hands.
The plaza quieted again.
“Crocodile has been defeated. He is in Marine custody, and his organization is collapsing. Documents within Rain Dinners will be recovered and made available to the royal court. The truth will not remain hidden.”
Behind her, William smiled.
Vivi was beautiful when she spoke with such conviction.
Her long blue hair moved in the warm desert breeze, catching the sunlight each time she turned her head. She stood straight beneath Alabasta’s banner, passionate and determined, every inch the princess she had been raised to become.
William had always known that Vivi was beautiful. Anyone with functioning eyes could recognize that. Yet standing there, watching resolve overcome fear, he felt struck by more than her face or figure.
She looked like a princess from one of the fantasy stories he had grown up reading, not because of a crown or jeweled gown, but because thousands of frightened people looked to her for hope and she refused to let them down.
He still could not believe he had kissed her. Twice. The memory of her pressed against the rifle crate in Drum Castle tried to return in inappropriate detail. William forced it away and focused on scanning the crowd.
This was Vivi’s moment.
“This city has suffered as well,” Vivi continued. “I have seen the damage to your streets. I know homes and businesses were destroyed in the fighting. I know many of you spent last night wondering whether anyone in Alubarna would care.” Her voice softened. “We care.”
The simple declaration crossed the plaza more powerfully than a shout.
“The royal family will provide the full resources necessary to rebuild Rainbase. Engineers, physicians, food and clean water will be sent from Alubarna. Those who lost homes will receive shelter. Those whose businesses were damaged will receive assistance.”
Nami’s eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of royal financial aid. Somewhere inside her mind, numbers were already reorganizing themselves. How rich was Vivi’s family exactly?
“The Nefertari family has not abandoned you,” Vivi said. “I have not abandoned you. I returned because Alabasta is my home and you are my people.”
Silence followed.
Vivi lowered her hands.
Her heartbeat pounded so hard she could feel it in her throat. She had expected anger, accusations and perhaps demands that she step down. Rainbase had suffered less visibly than most Alabastan cities. Crocodile had protected the appearance of prosperity around his headquarters, filling the streets with water, lights and music while villages elsewhere collapsed.
The people here might have viewed his removal as a disaster. They might have preferred the Warlord who kept their fountains running to the royal family they believed had forgotten them.
A woman near the front raised her fist.
“LONG LIVE PRINCESS VIVI!”
The words seemed to catch the entire crowd by surprise.
Then someone else shouted.
“OUR PRINCESS CAME BACK!”
A third voice joined them.
“RAINBASE IS SAVED!”
The plaza erupted.
Cheers rolled through the streets and rebounded from damaged buildings. People lifted their hands, waved scarves and embraced strangers beside them. Children climbed onto their parents’ shoulders to see Vivi above the crowd.
“Hurray for the princess!”
“The royal family didn’t abandon us!”
“Down with Crocodile!”
A broad-shouldered woman wearing a baker’s apron climbed onto a broken fountain. “Good riddance to that damned casino!” she shouted. “Maybe our husbands will bring their pay home now!”
Laughter burst through the crowd.
A thin man beside her looked deeply uncomfortable.
Another woman raised both arms. “And our children won’t grow up thinking drinking and gambling are the only things to do in this city!”
“That casino took my brother’s house!”
“My son owes them half his wages!”
“They gave free liquor to teenagers!”
“Turn it into a school!”
“Turn it into a hospital!”
“Turn it into a butcher shop!” Lucy shouted from the back.
Nami slapped a hand over her captain’s mouth. Fortunately, the crowd was too loud for most people to hear.
Relief escaped Vivi in a shaking breath. Of course. Rainbase had looked prosperous from the outside. Its fountains still flowed, its hotels remained open and its streets had glittered with music long after other towns went dark.
But Crocodile had never brought prosperity without poison.
Rain Dinners had consumed fortunes, homes and families. It kept citizens drunk, indebted and desperate while Crocodile presented himself as their generous protector. His casino had offered false hope to people frightened by the drought, promising that a single winning hand could save them from ruin.
A man like Crocodile could not live among ordinary people without harming them. Even when he pretended to help.
Vivi’s eyes burned. She blinked rapidly before tears could spill. She turned slightly and looked toward William. He was watching her.
His smile held uncomplicated pride. There was no surprise in his expression, as if he had never doubted the crowd would accept her. As if he had known all along that she could stand before thousands and give them hope.
Their gazes met.
Vivi’s heart fluttered.
William’s left ear twitched, and one of his tails began swaying behind him before he forced it still.
Vivi smiled. These were her people. She had saved them, not alone, never alone, but she had returned to them. She had exposed the man destroying their kingdom and stood before them when they needed someone to promise that tomorrow would be better.
For the first time since returning to Alabasta, Vivi felt more than fear and obligation when she thought about her title.
She felt proud to be their princess.
That did not change the decision quietly taking shape inside her.
When this crisis ended, Vivi wanted to continue sailing…
She wanted to see impossible islands and foreign kingdoms. She wanted to stand on the Black Pearl’s deck while Nami fought the Grand Line’s weather, hear Lucy announce another suicidal adventure, watch Chopper dance when someone praised him, and listen to Robin tell horrifying stories in the gentlest possible voice.
She wanted to help Kuina understand her second chance.
She wanted to know Pearl not only as a ship, but as the strange angelic woman she had become.
And she wanted to remain beside the red-haired young man looking at her as though she had just done something magnificent. The young man I am beginning to love...
Vivi’s duty and her freedom did not need to destroy one another. She could help restore Alabasta, ensure her father and the kingdom were safe, and still choose a life beyond palace walls.
Perhaps one day, when Lucy had become Pirate Queen, Nami had mapped the world, Robin had uncovered the true history, and all their impossible dreams had been fulfilled, they could return.
They could settle somewhere in Alabasta.
Perhaps near the coast, where the desert met the sea. Somewhere Pearl could rest in a sheltered harbor. Somewhere Lucy could summon rain without flooding an entire city, Chopper could open a clinic, and Robin could fill a library with books gathered from across the world.
Somewhere William and Vivi could set up a home and adorable little children that looked like both of them could run around and play.
The future was distant and uncertain. Their current problems included a rebel army, a destabilized kingdom, Crocodile’s remaining agents and an unexplained swordswoman from another reality.
But for the first time in years, Vivi allowed herself to imagine a life beyond saving Alabasta. She faced the cheering crowd again and raised one hand. The people of Rainbase answered with another roar.
Princess Vivi had come home.
The upper floors of Rain Dinners had ceased to exist in any architecturally meaningful sense.
Lucy and Crocodile’s battle had torn through the casino from the main floor to the roof. The grand staircase had collapsed, chandeliers lay embedded in gambling tables, and large portions of the ceiling had been scattered across Rainbase. Sand filled the halls in knee-deep drifts, broken pipes sprayed water into the rubble, and occasional sparks flickered from damaged lighting fixtures.
The lower levels, however, remained remarkably intact.
Rain Dinners extended much farther underground than it ever had above. Hidden elevators and concealed staircases connected the public casino to storage rooms, secret meeting chambers, interrogation cells and the administrative heart of Baroque Works.
Nami had needed less than ten minutes to find Crocodile’s vault.
The door was an enormous slab of steel set into reinforced stone, equipped with three locks and a complicated wheel mechanism. It looked capable of withstanding cannon fire.
Nami had stared at it for several seconds. Then she had calmly walked back upstairs, taken Lucy and Pearl by their hands, and dragged both women into the basement.
“Break that,” she ordered.
Lucy rolled her shoulders eagerly.
Pearl examined the hinges.
The resulting noise shook dust from ceilings three floors above.
Nami was inside the vault less than a minute later.
Her delighted scream echoed through the entire underground complex.
Vivi remained outside with Chopper, helping Rainbase’s injured citizens and organizing temporary shelter for families whose homes had been damaged. Kuina volunteered to guard them, partly because the city remained dangerous and partly because she had taken one look at Nami’s expression upon discovering the vault and decided she wanted no involvement in whatever came next…
That left William alone with Robin.
Together they descended to Crocodile’s office at the lowest level of Rain Dinners.
The room screamed evil villain lair so loudly that William was surprised Crocodile had not installed a sign.
The office was enormous, with black marble floors, tall stone pillars and walls decorated with maps of Alabasta. Heavy curtains framed alcoves filled with stolen artwork. A long desk stood on a raised platform at the room’s center, positioned so anyone approaching Crocodile would have been forced to look up at him.
Behind the desk stretched a massive glass tank.
Several Bananawani swam through the murky water.
William’s ears flattened when one passed close to the glass. The creature resembled an enormous crocodile with a banana-shaped growth on its head and teeth large enough to bite a person in half. Its yellow eye tracked William as it glided past.
His tails puffed slightly. Every feline instinct in his body rejected the tank.
Large water. Larger reptiles. Transparent barrier of uncertain durability.
Nothing about the arrangement was acceptable.
One Bananawani bumped its snout against the glass.
William took two steps away.
Robin noticed from across the office. “Are you frightened?” she asked.
“No.”
The crocodile opened its jaws, displaying several rows of teeth.
William moved behind a pillar. “I’m assessing the structural integrity of the room.”
Robin’s lips curved. “From behind cover?”
“It provides a different angle.”
“How methodical of you.”
William peered around the pillar. “Those things eat Sea Kings.”
“Yes.”
“That was not reassuring.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.” Robin returned to Crocodile’s desk.
She had already opened every drawer, including two concealed compartments William had failed to notice. Files, ledgers and rolled maps covered the desktop. Several piles had been organized according to a system that existed only in Robin’s mind.
William stepped away from the pillar once the nearest Bananawani swam out of sight.
He joined Robin near the desk, intending to help. Then she bent forward to reach into a low drawer. The dark jeans she had taken from Whiskey Peak fitted her with almost malicious precision.
William stopped walking.
His attention dropped.
Robin possessed a figure that could derail coherent thought under the best circumstances. Bent over Crocodile’s desk, with her long legs framed by tight denim and her upper body stretched across the polished surface, she presented William’s inexperienced brain with a problem it was neither prepared nor willing to solve.
His right ear twitched.
One tail curled upward behind him.
He told himself to look away.
He did not.
Robin had survived twenty years by noticing when she was being watched. William’s openly appreciative stare was considerably less subtle than the assassins who had once tracked her across the West Blue.
She let him look for several seconds.
Then she straightened abruptly with a folded document in one hand. “I found something interesting.”
William’s gaze snapped upward so quickly that his neck popped. “Documents,” he said.
Robin raised one eyebrow. “Yes. Those are generally what people find inside desks.”
“I was looking at the desk.”
“Of course.” Her smile made it obvious that she knew precisely what he had been looking at.
William’s face burned.
Robin mercifully turned her attention to the document. “This is a distribution schedule,” she said. “Baroque Works moved Dance Powder through several fronts along the western coast. There are warehouse numbers, shipment dates and coded locations.” She unfolded another page. “If these records are still accurate, they may lead us to the remaining stockpiles.”
“That could help Vivi prove what Crocodile did.”
“It could also prevent someone else from using the powder.” Robin scanned the lines with increasing speed. “There are more locations than I expected.”
Something in her voice made William’s embarrassment fade.
She moved too quickly through the pages. Her fingers tightened around their edges, threatening to crease the paper. Her composure remained in place, but it had become fragile, a carefully held mask rather than her usual effortless calm.
William stepped closer. “Robin? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
His ears tilted toward her.
Her heartbeat had accelerated.
“Robin.”
She closed her eyes. For a moment she stood motionless behind Crocodile’s desk, surrounded by the machinery of a conspiracy she had helped sustain. Then her shoulders lowered. “I saw the people outside,” she said quietly.
William remained silent.
“While Vivi addressed them.” Robin opened her eyes and looked down at the distribution schedule. “I saw their faces when she explained the Dance Powder. I heard them talking about the people they lost. Crops failed. Families were driven from their homes. Children died because the wells ran dry.”
“You didn’t create Crocodile’s plan.”
“No. I merely helped him carry it out.” Her tone was too controlled. “I translated his documents. Organized intelligence. Passed orders to agents who never knew his identity. I knew people were dying, William. I told myself it was temporary. That I only needed Crocodile until he led me to the Poneglyph.”
The Bananawani tank cast rippling shadows over her face.
“I have always been a survivor,” Robin continued. “That was the only rule I trusted. Survive the next betrayal. Escape the next organization before it collapses. Find the next person willing to hide me.” She looked toward the documents scattered across the desk. “I never wanted to be good. Good people died too quickly.” Her fingers trembled. “But I never wanted to become evil.” The final word barely escaped her. “Not like them.”
She did not need to explain who she meant.
William knew about Ohara. He knew about the island of scholars erased from the world because they dared study forbidden history. Robin had watched government warships destroy her home, murder everyone she loved and condemn her as a criminal when she was only eight years old.
She had spent the next twenty years becoming whatever she needed to be in order to survive those hunting her.
Now she looked at the suffering Baroque Works had caused and saw an echo of the people who destroyed Ohara.
William did not know what to say.
No sentence could absolve her. Telling Robin none of it was her fault would have been comforting, but it would not have been true, and Robin respected truth too much to accept a beautiful lie.
So William crossed the remaining distance and hugged her.
Robin went rigid.
The distribution schedule crumpled slightly between her fingers as William wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her against him. His cheek rested near her shoulder. His tails curled around the backs of her legs almost protectively.
For several seconds, Robin did not move.
People had grabbed her before.
They had restrained, threatened and searched her. They had dragged her from hiding places and held knives against her throat. Even affection had usually carried an expectation she would eventually be required to repay.
William simply held her. “You made mistakes,” he said.
Robin’s eyes closed.
“But you’re trying to make up for them. You turned against Crocodile. You helped us save Vivi and Alabasta. You’re finding these records so no one can use the Dance Powder again.” His embrace tightened. “That matters.”
Robin shuddered in his arms.
William continued before his courage failed him. “And you’re not evil. You’re beautiful and smart and amazing. You survived everything this world did to you, and you can still care about strangers outside.” His voice softened. “I think that makes you stronger than any of the people who hurt you.”
Robin slowly lowered the document. She was slightly taller than William. When she leaned back enough to look down at him, their faces were only inches apart.
Her blue eyes met his slitted ones. For one unguarded moment, William saw twenty years of loneliness behind them.
Then Robin smiled. It was small, warm and entirely sincere. “Ara,” she murmured. “You always seem to know exactly how to make me feel better.”
William’s ears warmed. “I don’t know about always.”
“No?”
“I mostly panic and say whatever seems honest.”
“Yes.” Robin’s smile deepened. “I believe that may be your secret.”
William had not released her.
Robin had made no effort to step away.
She glanced around the office.
The enormous chamber was empty except for them, the documents and several man-eating crocodiles who were unlikely to gossip. Lucy, Pearl and Nami remained occupied with the vault several floors above. Vivi and the others were outside.
No one would interrupt them. Probably. Robin looked down at the young man holding her as though she deserved comfort without owing him anything in return.
Something playful and hungry entered her expression. “You know,” she said, “we are entirely alone.”
William gulped.
Robin slid one hand slowly up his chest. “And you currently have a beautiful older woman in your arms.” Her fingertips reached his collar and rested there. “A woman who would not mind being comforted a little more thoroughly.”
William’s tails went rigid.
One of the Bananawani struck the glass behind him.
He did not even notice…
(R-18 Start)
Robin leaned down and kissed William softly.
For all her teasing, the first touch of her lips held surprising tenderness. She kissed him as though testing whether the moment was real, lingering just long enough to feel his startled breath against her mouth.
William froze. His ears stood perfectly upright. Both tails went rigid behind him, and the arms around Robin’s waist forgot whether they were supposed to tighten or release her.
Robin smiled against his lips. She had been waiting for this opportunity with considerably less patience than she pretended.
Nami had claimed William’s first kiss and his first night. Lucy kissed him whenever emotion overwhelmed her. Vivi had discovered her courage in a freezing armory, and even Camie had enjoyed an intimate farewell before returning to Fishman Island.
Robin had watched it all from the edges.
Sometimes literally.
She told herself she was merely curious. Then that curiosity became attraction, and attraction became a sharp thread of jealousy whenever another woman drew a helpless purr from him.
She had kissed William once in Kureha’s castle, but that had been gratitude offered to the man who saved her life. This was different.
This time Robin wanted him to understand that she was choosing him.
Her second kiss carried no hesitation.
She tilted her head and pressed closer, parting his lips with hers. Her tongue slipped into his mouth in a slow, deliberate stroke.
William released a muffled sound.
Robin swallowed it and deepened the kiss.
He was still inexperienced enough to respond rather than lead, following the rhythm she established. Yet Nami had clearly taught him well. His hands settled more confidently against Robin’s back, fingertips spreading across the fabric of her top as he returned her kiss.
His low, resonant purr began in his chest.
Robin felt the vibration through their bodies.
Her composure slipped. She caught William’s lower lip between her teeth and tugged gently before releasing it. He inhaled sharply, pupils widening into dark feline circles.
“There you are,” Robin whispered.
William barely had time to ask what she meant.
Robin’s hands moved to his jacket and pushed it from his shoulders. It dropped onto the marble floor behind him. She found the hem of his shirt next, lifting it slowly over his stomach and chest. William raised his arms to help. The shirt caught briefly on one ear. Robin paused to free it with careful fingers, stroking the soft red fur in the process.
His purr grew louder.
“How sensitive,” she murmured.
“You already knew that.”
“I suspected.”
“You grew an eye on the ceiling when I changed clothes last night.”
Robin pulled the shirt over his head. “That allegation remains unproven.”
Before William could respond, two additional arms blossomed from the back of his waist.
He jerked in surprise.
Each manifested hand curled around one of his tails.
“Robin—”
Both hands began to stroke.
William’s protest collapsed into a helpless sound somewhere between a moan and a feline cry. “Mrrrrow—!”
The noise echoed through Crocodile’s underground office.
Robin’s eyes brightened. She had heard him purr before, but this was far more satisfying.
Her phantom hands moved slowly along the crimson fur, beginning near the middle of each tail before gliding toward the base. William trembled when they reached the sensitive nerves where his tails met his spine.
Purple embers flickered briefly around his fingers.
“Too much?” Robin asked.
William’s mouth opened. One manifested thumb pressed into the base of his right tail while the other hand repeated the motion on his left.
His back arched. “No,” he gasped. “Definitely not.”
Robin laughed softly. “Good.”
She kissed the center of his bare chest.
William’s skin was hot beneath her lips, warmed by the supernatural fire living inside him. Fading bruises crossed his ribs, remnants of his recent battles. Robin traced one with her fingertips before pressing another kiss beside it.
The phantom hands continued their work.
They stroked from the base of his tails outward, then returned with lighter pressure. Each pass sent pleasure racing along William’s spine. His hips shifted involuntarily, and his breathing became increasingly uneven.
His pants rapidly grew uncomfortably tight.
Robin noticed the hard outline beneath the fabric.
She took immense satisfaction in how quickly his body responded to her.
William never tried to conceal his attraction behind practiced confidence or crude boasts. Every reaction was open and sincere: the twitch of his ears, the widening of his pupils, the purr he could not suppress and the erection straining against his clothes.
Robin had spent most of her adult life surrounded by men who treated desire as another weapon.
With William, it felt like praise.
She reached for the bottom of her tank top.
William watched, breathing hard.
Robin drew the fitted fabric slowly up her torso. Her abdomen appeared first, followed by the lower curves of her breasts. She lifted the top over her head and let it fall beside his discarded shirt.
She had not worn a bra. Her breasts settled free, large and full against her slender body. Her skin was warm and deeply tanned, her nipples dark and already tightening beneath William’s stare.
He gulped audibly.
Robin suppressed a pleased shiver.
His eyes moved across her with naked awe. He did not merely look at her as if she were desirable. He looked as if he could not understand how something so beautiful had chosen to stand in front of him.
“You’re incredible,” he breathed.
The simple sincerity of it struck harder than any rehearsed seduction could have. Robin stepped into him before the emotion showed too clearly on her face.
Her bare breasts pressed against his chest, soft warmth flattening between their bodies. William’s purr became a deep vibration against her skin.
Robin kissed him again.
This time William met her eagerly. His arms wrapped around her, hands spreading across her bare back. One moved tentatively lower, settling at the curve of her waist as though asking permission without words.
Robin pressed herself closer in answer.
The additional hands at his tails increased their pace.
Their fingers curled through the thick red fur, stroking insistently around the hypersensitive bases. William groaned into Robin’s mouth. His hips pushed forward, the hard ridge beneath his pants pressing against her.
Robin felt it clearly.
She rolled her hips once against him.
William broke the kiss with a sharp gasp. “Robin.” The way he said her name sent heat pooling low in her body.
She kissed the line of his jaw, then the sensitive skin below one ear.
His knees nearly buckled.
“Careful,” she whispered. “I would hate for you to fall before we reach the desk.”
William glanced past her. Crocodile’s enormous black desk waited several feet away, its documents still scattered across the polished surface.
Robin stepped backward without releasing him.
She guided him with one arm around his shoulders, continuing to kiss him between each slow step. Her manifested hands kept stroking his tails, leaving him panting and pliant as she led him across the office.
Behind them, a Bananawani glided past the glass. Neither noticed.
Robin’s thighs touched the edge of the desk. She leaned back against it and drew William between her legs, pressing her breasts to him once more.
His erection pushed firmly against her through both layers of clothing.
Robin smiled against his lips. At last, she had him alone.
Robin’s hands moved to the fastening of her jeans.
She held William’s gaze as she opened them.
The button came free first. Then she drew the zipper down with deliberate slowness, letting the faint metallic sound stretch through Crocodile’s cavernous office.
William’s attention followed every movement.
Robin hooked her thumbs inside the waistband and pushed the tight denim over her hips. She bent slightly as she worked the jeans down her thighs, presenting William with another view that made his mouth go dry.
The pants gathered at her ankles. Robin stepped free of them one leg at a time and kicked them aside.
A tiny, almost transparent blue thong was all that remained.
The delicate fabric concealed very little. It rested low across her hips, emphasizing the long lines of her legs and the soft fullness of her ass.
William gulped.
His cock ached inside his pants, confined so tightly that every beat of his heart sent another pulse of pressure through it. The phantom hands stroking the bases of his tails ensured the feeling never eased.
Robin watched his reaction with unconcealed pleasure.
She had imagined this moment more often than she cared to admit. Imagined standing bare before him and seeing that open desire directed entirely at her. Reality was proving even more satisfying.
Her hand settled against the front of his pants.
William inhaled sharply.
“You appear uncomfortable,” Robin murmured.
“That is one word for it.”
“Then allow me to help.” She opened his belt.
Her fingers brushed the hard outline beneath the fabric as she pulled the leather through its buckle. William’s hips twitched toward the contact before he could stop them.
Robin smiled. She unfastened his pants and pushed them down. William stepped out of them awkwardly, his balance compromised by the two phantom hands continuing to tease his tails.
His boxers remained stretched tightly around his erection.
Robin slipped her fingers beneath their waistband.
For the first time, a trace of uncertainty crossed her face.
She had seen William naked before. In Kureha’s castle, she had helped undress him while he lay unconscious and poisoned. Later, she had watched him with Nami through a manifested eye, telling herself that surveillance was necessary for the crew’s safety.
This was the first time he had willingly stood before her.
The distinction mattered.
Robin pulled his boxers down.
William’s cock sprang free, hard and flushed, rising from a patch of red pubic hair. His balls hung heavy beneath it. With his clothes discarded around his feet, he stood completely naked before her.
Robin stared. A blush spread across her cheeks despite all her experience and carefully cultivated composure.
William noticed. “You’re blushing.”
“I am not.”
“You definitely are.”
Robin curled her real hand around his cock.
William’s teasing dissolved into a gasp.
She stroked him slowly, feeling the soft yet rigid weight of him in her palm. Her thumb passed across the sensitive head, gathering the small bead of moisture already forming there.
His purr broke into a ragged moan.
Robin tightened her grip slightly on the downward stroke. “There,” she whispered. “Much better.”
William’s hands found the edge of the desk behind her, gripping it as she continued. Her real hand stroked his cock while the manifested ones worked his tails, coordinating their movements with unnerving precision.
Each time her palm reached the head, her phantom fingers pressed into the sensitive nerves at the bases of his tails.
William’s thighs trembled.
Robin leaned closer, her bare breasts brushing his arm. “I’m incredibly wet for you,” she said against his ear.
His entire body tensed.
Robin’s own breath caught at the honesty of her admission, but she continued. “I have never wanted a man as much as I want you right now.”
William looked at her as if she had stolen the remaining air from the room.
The reverence and hunger in his expression sent a fresh pulse of arousal through Robin. Heat gathered between her thighs, dampening the thin blue fabric.
She released his cock.
William made a faint, disappointed noise before catching himself.
Robin laughed softly. “Patience.”
Her fingers slipped beneath the sides of her thong.
She pushed it down.
The damp fabric peeled away from her pussy and slid along her long legs. Robin stepped out of it, leaving herself completely naked.
William’s gaze dropped between her thighs.
Her dark curls were neatly trimmed. Beneath them, her swollen pussy lips glistened visibly with arousal.
He could see how wet she was.
The knowledge that he had done that to her—Robin, beautiful and composed and almost impossible to read—made his cock throb.
“You weren’t exaggerating,” he managed.
“I rarely need to.” Robin stepped close enough that his cock brushed her lower stomach.
She kissed him once, slow and deep, then pulled away with a knowing smile.
Without breaking eye contact, she turned around.
Robin placed both palms flat on Crocodile’s desk and bent forward.
Her long legs spread slightly. The position raised her ass toward William and presented every intimate part of her to his gaze: the firm curves of her cheeks, the tight pucker between them and her wet pussy below.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, making her hips sway.
William stared.
The office, the documents and even the enormous reptiles behind the glass vanished from his awareness.
Robin looked back over one shoulder.
Her dark hair fell across her bare back, framing the teasing smile on her face.
“Well?” she asked. “Are you only going to admire the view?” Robin looked back over her shoulder, her blue eyes dark with desire. “Slide your cock inside me already.”
William’s breath caught.
There was no uncertainty in her voice. Robin wanted him, and she had positioned herself across Crocodile’s desk with her legs spread to make that desire unmistakable.
William stepped closer. His hands settled on her hips, and Robin shivered beneath his touch. He guided the head of his cock between her thighs, brushing it through the slick heat of her pussy.
Robin exhaled sharply.
“You really are wet,” William murmured.
“I believe I already told you that.”
He drew himself through her folds again. Her body coated him with warm moisture, but he hesitated at her entrance.
Robin pushed her hips backward.
The head slipped partway inside.
Both of them gasped.
“William.” Her fingers curled against the desk. “If you continue teasing me, I may become violent.”
“Noted.” He pressed forward.
Robin’s lips parted as his cock slowly stretched her open. William entered her a little at a time, giving her body the opportunity to adjust. The heat surrounding him was overwhelming—tight, wet and impossibly soft.
Robin’s composure shattered by degrees. A low moan escaped her when he reached halfway. Her back arched, lifting her ass toward him. She had imagined how he might feel, especially after secretly watching him with Nami, but imagination had failed to capture the intimate pressure of his body filling hers.
William paused. “Are you all right?”
Robin looked back at him with a mixture of affection and exasperation “I will be better when you are entirely inside me.”
His face warmed.
William tightened his hands around her hips and thrust forward.
His cock sank the rest of the way into her.
Robin cried out. Her breasts shifted against the desk as her body rocked forward. William stood buried inside her, his hips pressed firmly against her ass.
For several seconds, neither moved.
William struggled to breathe. Robin’s pussy clenched around him in slow, involuntary pulses, each one sending pleasure through his body.
Robin lowered her forehead toward the desk. “Move,” she whispered.
William pulled back carefully.
Her inner muscles dragged along every inch of him, reluctant to release him. He stopped with only the head remaining inside, then pushed forward again.
Robin’s moan echoed through the office.
William repeated the motion.
The second thrust came more easily. The third found a rhythm.
At first, he moved with cautious, measured strokes, still afraid of hurting her. His hands remained steady at her hips, guiding her body gently into each thrust.
Robin endured his restraint for less than a minute. “Harder.”
William increased the strength of his next thrust.
Her hips struck the edge of the desk. “More.”
He drove into her again, deeper and faster.
Robin moaned her approval. “That’s better.”
The phantom hands at the bases of William’s tails resumed their movement. They stroked the sensitive fur in time with his thrusts, sending additional waves of pleasure racing up his spine.
William’s rhythm faltered.
Robin felt his cock twitch inside her.
She smiled against the desk. “You enjoy that.”
“You know I do.”
“I wanted to make certain.” The manifested hands gripped both tails more firmly and massaged the hypersensitive bases.
William released a rough feline moan. His hips snapped forward.
Robin’s body jolted beneath him. The harder thrust struck somewhere deep inside her, drawing a startled cry from her throat. “There,” she gasped. “Again.”
William obeyed.
He pulled almost completely free and drove back into her at the same angle. Robin’s fingers dragged across the polished wood.
“Yes.” Her voice sharpened. “Again.”
He thrust harder.
Robin’s ass rippled against his hips. The desk creaked beneath her. Documents shifted toward the edge with every impact, several pages fluttering onto the floor.
William began to understand what she wanted.
He tightened his hold on her waist and stopped treating her as though she might break. His thrusts became longer, harder and more decisive, each one burying him fully inside her before he withdrew.
Robin responded enthusiastically.
She pushed backward to meet him, turning every thrust into a collision. The tight muscles of her pussy squeezed around his cock, slick enough now that he moved inside her without resistance.
“Just like that,” she said. “Don’t slow down.”
William’s purr deepened into a growl.
Robin heard the change. Excitement pulsed through her. The gentle, flustered young man who had comforted her minutes earlier was still there, but desire had begun stripping away his hesitation. His grip grew firmer. His movements became confident.
Robin wanted more of it. “Pull my hair!”
William hesitated.
Robin glanced back. “I said pull it.”
He gathered her dark hair in one hand, winding its length carefully around his fist. Then he pulled.
Robin’s head tilted back. A broken moan left her lips.
William’s other hand remained on her hip as he fucked her harder, using her hair to hold her arched toward him. Her throat became exposed, her back curved beautifully, and her breasts lifted from the desk with every forceful thrust.
“Harder,” Robin demanded.
He pulled more firmly.
Her pussy clenched around him.
William groaned. “You like that?”
“Very much.” Robin’s phantom hands squeezed his tails.
William drove into her with enough force to push the heavy desk several inches across the stone floor.
The movement startled them both.
Then Robin laughed breathlessly. “Again.”
William obeyed.
The desk scraped forward another inch.
His restraint finally broke.
He fucked her from behind with growing force, hips striking her ass in a rapid, punishing rhythm. The office filled with the slap of skin, Robin’s increasingly uncontrolled moans and William’s low feline growls.
Robin loved every second. She had been composed for so long. Controlled every expression, every word, every vulnerability. Even desire had been something she observed from a safe distance. Now William held her by the hair and drove into her hard enough to shake Crocodile’s desk. There was no reason to remain composed.
She cried out freely. “William—yes!”
His confidence surged at the sound of his name. He released her hair and placed both hands on her hips, pulling her back onto his cock to meet each thrust. The new leverage let him penetrate even deeper.
Robin’s mouth fell open. “Oh, fuck.”
William felt something primal inside him respond to her voice. The Nekomata did not communicate in words, but its approval washed through him as heat, possession and satisfaction.
He slapped Robin’s ass. The sharp crack echoed through the chamber.
Robin gasped.
William froze for half a heartbeat, shocked by his own action.
Then Robin looked over her shoulder. Her eyes were full of playful delight. “Do that again.”
He struck her other cheek.
Robin moaned, and her pussy tightened around him hard enough to disrupt his next thrust.
William did it a third time, slightly harder.
A pink mark bloomed across her tan skin.
“Good boy,” she breathed.
The praise made William’s ears twitch.
Robin noticed. Even bent across a desk and being fucked breathless, she filed the reaction away for future use.
William resumed his pace. He alternated between gripping and striking her ass, learning from every sound she made. Robin wanted force without cruelty, control without fear. She trusted him to listen, and he treated that trust as seriously as he treated every promise to his crew.
When her moans sharpened, he eased the angle. When she pushed back harder, he gave her more. His uncertainty became attentiveness, and attentiveness became skill.
Robin’s slick arousal ran down the insides of her thighs. Her body had become so sensitive that every thrust sent pressure rolling through her abdomen. The edge of the desk rubbed against her hips, while the roughness of the position intensified the feeling of surrendering control.
She manifested another hand against her lower stomach.
William watched it slide down between her thighs.
The phantom fingers found her swollen clitoris and began rubbing in tight circles.
Robin cried out.
Her entire body tightened.
William nearly lost control as her pussy contracted around him.
“You’re close?” he gasped.
“Yes.”
Her manifested fingers moved faster. “Don’t stop!”
William had no intention of stopping.
He bent over her, pressing his chest against her back. One arm wrapped around her waist while the other hand gripped the desk beside hers. His thrusts became shorter and faster, keeping his cock buried deeply inside her.
Robin turned her head.
William kissed her. The angle was awkward and hungry. Their mouths met as his body continued driving into hers. Robin moaned against his lips, one real hand reaching back to tangle in his hair.
Her phantom hands squeezed both of his tails.
William growled into the kiss.
Robin’s orgasm struck.
Her body arched violently beneath him. She tore her mouth away and screamed his name, the sound filling the underground chamber.
“WILLIAM!” Her pussy clamped around his cock in fierce, rhythmic contractions. Her thighs shook, and her manifested arms flickered as concentration briefly failed her.
William held her through it. He kept thrusting, though the pressure around him made every movement difficult. Robin’s orgasm seemed to pull him deeper, squeezing pleasure from him until his own control began to fray.
She collapsed forward onto the desk, gasping.
William slowed.
Robin immediately pushed her hips back. “I didn’t tell you to stop.”
“You just came.”
“And?”
William stared at the flushed woman looking back at him.
Robin smiled. “I told you I was pent up.”
His hands returned to her hips. “Then I’d better do something about that.”
Robin’s eyebrows rose. The confidence in his voice sent a renewed shiver through her. “There you are,” she whispered again.
William pulled out until only the head remained inside. Then he slammed back into her.
Robin’s breasts dragged across the desk as she cried out. Several more documents cascaded onto the floor.
He established a brutal rhythm, faster than before. His hips struck her reddened ass repeatedly, producing sharp sounds that mingled with her cries.
Robin had asked him to be rough. William gave her exactly what she requested.
He gripped her hips hard enough to leave fingerprints and pulled her back against every thrust. His tails lashed behind him whenever her phantom hands found their sensitive bases. Purple sparks occasionally flickered across his shoulders, harmless but bright against the dark office.
Robin surrendered to the sensation.
Her second climax built far more quickly. She could feel it gathering with every deep impact, tightening her abdomen and making her legs unsteady.
“Touch me,” she gasped.
William reached around her.
His fingers found her clitoris. Robin guided him for only a moment before he understood the pressure and rhythm she wanted.
He rubbed her while continuing to fuck her.
Robin’s breath became a sequence of broken cries. “That’s it. Harder—fuck me harder.”
William complied. The desk slammed against its stone anchoring bolts.
A crack appeared in one wooden leg.
Neither cared.
Robin’s second orgasm tore through her with even greater force than the first. Her legs nearly gave out, and William had to hold her upright as her pussy spasmed around him.
The sudden pressure pushed him over the edge.
“Robin—I’m going to—”
“Inside me!” The command left no room for hesitation.
William thrust as deeply as he could. His body seized. A feline roar escaped him as he came, his cock pulsing inside Robin and filling her with repeated bursts. His hips jerked against her ass with each wave.
Robin moaned at the sensation. Her body milked him through the remainder of her own orgasm, tightening around every pulse until neither of them could tell where one climax ended and the other began.
At last, William collapsed over her back.
They remained bent together across Crocodile’s desk, breathing heavily.
William’s arms wrapped around Robin’s waist. His tails, temporarily forgotten by the vanished phantom hands, curled weakly around her legs.
Robin turned her head enough to look at him.
His hair was disordered. His face was flushed, his ears drooped with exhaustion, and his expression hovered between satisfaction and disbelief.
She smiled. “You learn quickly.”
William managed a breathless laugh. “I had a very encouraging teacher.”
“Ara. Flattery afterward too?”
“I meant it.”
“I know.” Robin shifted carefully beneath him. His softening cock remained inside her, and the movement drew a shared shudder from them both.
Around them, Crocodile’s once-pristine office had become a disaster. Documents covered the floor. The desk had moved more than a foot and now possessed a visibly damaged leg. Their clothes were scattered from the entrance to the platform.
Behind the glass, several Bananawani had gathered to watch.
William noticed them. His ears flattened. “Were they staring the entire time?”
Robin glanced toward the tank. “Probably.”
William buried his face against her shoulder.
Robin laughed. She reached back, stroked one of his ears and allowed herself to enjoy being held.
XXX