An icy chill rolled off Admiral Kuzan, so palpable it felt like the very air around him might crystallize.
The two men faced each other, gazes locked in a calm standoff.
But just as Kuzan, radiating cold, opened his mouth to ask something, his expression frosty-
"Hold on," Dante cut in, shattering the tense atmosphere. "Let me handle something personal first."
He turned his head, looked at Robin standing beside him, and let out a quiet sigh.
"I was waiting for you to tell me."
As the words hung in the air, Robin, who had been frozen stiff, flinched. Her bright eyes flickered with a memory, that time she'd asked the Boss if he would stop anyone who tried to take her away. It seemed she'd broken their agreement.
"Boss, I…"
Before Robin could finish, Kuzan scratched his head, looking genuinely inconvenienced. "Oi... can you wrap it up?" he grumbled. "I've been waiting out here ages. Froze my butt off overnight waiting for this."
"Funny," Dante shot back without missing a beat. "I heard you spent a week lounging at Romance Dawn, only showed up here yesterday, and grabbed a our town's specialty on the way. Complained the Marine branch beds were lumpy, ran back to the inn this morning, and just got here. 'Waited overnight for this', my ass."
Silence.
Robin and Kuzan were both momentarily speechless.
Robin, who'd been rigid with fear only moments before, now gave the Admiral a curious, almost baffled look, scanning him up and down. Romance Dawn? A week? Something felt off, but she couldn't quite place it.
Kuzan's lazy, troubled expression vanished, replaced instantly by the serious mask of a Marine Admiral. The biting cold returned, thicker than before, pressing in on them.
Ignoring Dante's earlier comments entirely, he stated flatly, "So you knew."
"Yep." Dante admitted it without hesitation.
'This is my territory, after all,' he thought. 'I'd have been court-martialed long ago if I couldn't spot an Admiral strolling into town, especially one who barely bothered with a disguise beyond using a fake name at Romance Dawn. The staff had already reported the strange guy who turned the hot foot bath water cold just by dipping his feet in.'
Still, Kuzan wasn't like those investigators who'd come snooping before. He'd known Robin was here for ages without making a move.
Dante had figured he was just passing through, maybe hoping for another massage. But apparently, playtime was over.
Dante nodded, meeting Kuzan's gaze. "I even know you asked Romance Dawn for an bill of charges."
'Does this guy even understand the situation?' Kuzan's composure seemed to crack for a second, his face darkening slightly. He shifted his gaze away from Dante, focusing his full attention back on Robin.
"Nico Robin," his voice was sharp, cold steel. "You will come with me to face judgment."
The frigid air seemed to solidify around Robin. She trembled, familiar fear coiling in her stomach, her thoughts scattering. Just as panic threatened to overwhelm her, a broad, firm hand clamped onto her shoulder. Warmth seeped through her clothes, steadying her, pulling her back from the edge.
This moment.
Robin looked up at Dante's impassive face and felt her resolve return. A faint, familiar smile touched her lips. Hadn't she already decided?
"Boss," she said, turning away from Kuzan completely, her voice regaining its usual elegance despite the tremor beneath it. "Sorry, but… can I take back that resignation letter?"
"Yeah."
"Then," she asked, her eyes searching his, "can you win?"
"Not sure." Dante released her delicate shoulder, taking a step forward, his right hand settling naturally on the hilt of his sword. "We'll find out." He regarded the Admiral with a serious expression.
Of course, while his face was grim, inwardly, Dante wasn't panicked. He knew Kuzan, or at least, he knew of him. If the Admiral really wanted to arrest Robin, he wouldn't have spent days getting foot massages at Romance Dawn or conveniently waited until Smoker had already left the area.
Kuzan operated by his own code of justice, one that sometimes seemed at odds with the rigid doctrines of Headquarters. This was the man rumored to have ostensibly frozen Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul on orders, yet somehow the giant survived. The man who'd let Robin slip through the World Government's fingers since she was just eight years old.
Dante suspected this 'capture attempt' was more of an assessment. Kuzan wanted to see if Robin's new protector, this exiled Marine Captain, was worth a damn. Worthy of keeping her safe.
This moment.
The two men locked eyes again.
Kuzan, too, was reassessing the Marine Captain opposite him. Dante Ashford. Once heralded as a genius at Headquarters, then exiled to the quiet East Blue where he seemingly faded into obscurity.
No notable achievements surfaced, just whispers of him falling from grace, or perhaps never being a true genius at all. But Kuzan knew better.
The kid was cunning, he remembered reports linking him with that old schemer previous Base Commander of Loguetown, Shawn, back in the day, bending rules and securing funds. His actual strength remained an unknown, but he definitely wasn't simple. Faced with his associate being taken, was Dante finally dropping the act?
A flicker of anticipation, maybe even appreciation, touched Kuzan's eyes. He prepared himself to finally gauge the cunning kid's true power.
Suddenly, Dante broke the charged silence again.
"So, are we really doing this?" he asked, attempting a hopeful expression. "We're pretty close to the Conomi Archipelago and the Marine 16th Branch here… alot of potential collateral damage. Maybe we could just… forget this happened? You pretend you didn't see her, I pretend I don't know anything." He leaned in slightly. "I'll even treat you at Romance Dawn. All expenses paid?"
Silence fell once more, thick and strange.
Robin, behind Dante, let out a sigh, a weary sort of fondness in her expression despite the danger.
And unexpectedly… the intense cold emanating from Kuzan seemed to waver, just for a second, as if he were actually considering the offer. He raised his head, looking at Dante's expectant face. A lazy smile spread across his own, slow and thoughtful, and then…
*Fwish!*
Ice crystals bloomed violently in the air between them.
An even more biting, intense cold than before swept outwards in a wave.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Wait a sec! How rude! You didn't even answer! And why is it suddenly getting colder?!"
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