"Karl, who is she?"
After Karl and Little White brought Robin to an inn in Nanohana and found Karina and the other two,
both Karina and Nami couldn't help the flash of awe and envy in their eyes at the tall woman before them, who carried an air of mature grace—Robin.
They were only fifteen this year—strictly speaking, not even fifteen until their birthdays.
Standing before a fully blossomed twenty-five-year-old Robin, they, like most beauties in the world when facing Hancock, instinctively felt a twinge of inadequacy.
If she didn't know Karl inside and out, Karina might have felt jealous.
That scoundrel Karl—did he go out just to find a gorgeous big sister?
"Her name is Nico Robin. From now on she's one of us, and also the teacher I found for Karina."
Shouldering a black stone coffin, Karl introduced Robin to the three, then left the inn again with Little White, tossing back a hurried line: "Get to know each other—I'm putting this on the ship first."
"Nico Robin… I feel like I've heard that name somewhere!"
Watching Karl go, Karina and Nami both wore pensive looks.
Before they could dredge the name up from memory, Robin smiled mischievously. "The Devil's Child, Nico Robin. Bounty: 79,000,000."
"That's it, that's the name!"
Karina and Nami nodded on instinct—then, realizing, both turned pale as they stared at Robin.
Nami even stumbled back a few steps to hide behind Karina.
Karina, however, not only trusted in herself and the crew's strength—she had complete faith in Karl.
Startled by Robin's identity for a heartbeat, she quickly calmed, recalled what Karl had just said, and held out her small hand with a friendly smile. "Welcome aboard, Robin-nee."
"Thank you. You must be Karina."
Seeing the iron composure that set Karina apart from a bewildered Perona and a hiding Nami, Robin took the offered hand, smiling in kind. "Please take care of me from now on, Madam Vice-Captain."
By the time Karl and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon returned, the socially adroit Robin—far beyond Karina in that regard—had already hit it off with the three.
Simple-hearted Nami and Perona were won over by Robin's gemstone greeting gifts and the stories she shared, dissolving the faint wall between them.
Only Karina, who had accepted Robin first, remained wary beneath her friendly surface.
When Karl came back, Karina immediately found a chance to pull him into a side room, her expression serious.
"While you were gone, what exactly did you do?"
"And that black stone coffin you couldn't wait to stash on the ship—and Robin being a wanted woman unlike us—what's the story there?"
Karl slipped an arm around Karina's shoulders and sat with her on the edge of the bed. "I just went to trade blows with the island's strongest, and met Robin on the way to the challenge…"
This time Karl did not give Karina the unvarnished report.
He changed "staking out Rain Dinners and forcing Robin to join" into "Robin wanting to slip free of Crocodile's control and coming to him of her own accord."
As her price of joining, Robin not only helped him bring Crocodile down but also procured a secret of the Nefertari line.
Her demand—and her goal in joining—were to read and seek out the histories of legend.
"What kind of person is she?"
After listening, Karina asked.
Having already coordinated their story with Robin on the road, Karl nodded. "She doesn't have Haki, and when she told me the truth of Ohara on the way, her emotions never wavered. We can trust her."
"Good."
Karina finally let out a breath.
Then, as if recalling something, she asked again, "Wait—if you've recruited someone the Government has wanted for years, are we not bounty hunters anymore?"
"Yeah…"
Karl grinned. "My next target is the Golden City. If it's real, I'll never have to worry about money again. So rather than bounty hunting, I think finding Karina a teacher is more important."
"With a scholar like Robin around, we won't have to keep buying books everywhere—we can just ask."
Karina couldn't help the warmth in her eyes.
"Heh… don't get sappy. How about a reward?"
Seeing her expression change, Karl leaned in, pushing his luck with a wicked smile.
"A… a reward?"
Karina's mind flashed, and a faint blush rose.
"Of course… help me bathe!"
Since Karina didn't refuse, Karl immediately took her hand and tugged her toward the bathroom. "I fought that guy Crocodile for hours—I'm covered in sand. Filthy!"
Night passed without further words.
By late morning, Karl's crew set sail from Sandy Island.
"So few people for such a big ship?"
Stepping aboard for the first time, Robin used her ability to help Nami shorten the time needed to get the sails up, then showed rare surprise. "Only four of you, yet you ordered a large three-masted ship?"
"Yeah—don't you think a big ship is comfy?"
Hands on her hips, Nami said, "With Karl and me around, I'm not afraid of foul weather. Aside from being a pain to start up and dock, this ship is basically a moving mansion."
Then her eyes sparkled as she looked at Robin. "And now, with your ability, even the start-up time drops a lot. It's amazing."
"If there's anything you need me to do, just say the word, Miss Navigator."
Hearing Nami's confidence and recalling Karl's monstrous strength—and seeing that even the girls around him were no lightweights—Robin returned to her usual self, smiling in agreement.
"Mhm, mhm…"
Having accepted—been won over by—Robin as a comrade, Nami nodded without reserve.
"This is big… we all underestimated it!"
A few days later.
On an uninhabited island in the New World—the strongest sea acknowledged as the latter half of the Grand Line.
No one would have guessed that on this ordinary island, with no unique features of its own, the mobile headquarters of the World Economy News Paper was hidden.
One day, when one of the News Coos, trained and scattered around the world, returned carrying a packet of material—
Morgans read it and at once grew excited. "Crocodile, whom Mary Geoise used alongside Marine Headquarters and the Four Emperors to balance the seas of the Grand Line, and one of the earliest Warlords, has been defeated by a rookie. Now that is big news!"
"Never before—or rather, never allowed to—has a Warlord been reported beaten. For one to fall now is the greatest slap in the face to Mary Geoise and the system."
The more he spoke, the more animated he became. "Once this runs worldwide, the Warlords will be questioned; their prestige and value will drop. Mary Geoise will be indirectly humiliated…"
"And I, for publishing it, will be a thorn in the eyes of the big shots for a while."
"But…"
He slammed both palms on the desk. The avian features of the albatross-man in his hybrid form burned with fanatic light. "Compared to a scoop like this, their threats aren't worth a feather!"
"Overtime, overtime… tomorrow's front page is mine to write!"
Thus—
At the stroke of midnight, countless News Coos—returned from all over the world to eat and rest for a few hours—again took wing with the freshly printed edition, flying to the New World, to Paradise, and to the Four Seas.
Barring the Calm Belt and certain islands with savage weather, they reached every land—peopled or not.
Hence the News Paper's near-monopoly.
As the Albatross-Model Bird-Bird Fruit user, Morgans had the power—or the knack—to command so many clever News Coos, and wielded public opinion like a great scythe. Even the great powers who longed to tear him apart had to acknowledge his station.
Beyond being the head of the world's largest paper, Morgans walked both white and black roads—a king of the underworld.
When he wrote a story, not only the masses but even the forces perched atop the sea—looked and listened.
In the original era, Luffy was touted as the fifth Emperor and his bounty jumped from 500,000,000 to 1,500,000,000.
A king of the dark, the News Paper's president could make stars.
Therefore—
when the headline "First Defeat of a Warlord—Dragon Knight Fells the Sand Crocodile!" sold across the world,
the sea erupted.
"You're kidding!"
"That sand crocodile lost to a newbie? For real?"
"So a dog of Mary Geoise got beaten? Great—those 'legal pirates' were never worth trusting!"
"The Dragon Knight—I remember him. Didn't he hit the paper twice recently in smaller columns? Turns out he's that strong—enough to beat a Warlord!"
"I'm curious how Mary Geoise cleans this up."
"If a Warlord can be defeated—by a rookie, no less—do they deserve to stand as a third pillar beside Marine Headquarters and the Four Emperors?"
"Can they intimidate pirates?!"
"Fuffuffuffu… took out Bellamy and stole those tributes, did he?"
In the Kingdom of Dressrosa, Doflamingo read the day's paper, the corners of his mouth curving back with wicked glee as his signature laugh spilled out. "Not bad, brat. To beat the Sand Crocodile, a Logia, you must have mastered Haki."
"Not yet in the New World, yet already wielding a strong man's power—and maybe not even a Devil Fruit user himself. With a dragon at his side and a Barrier-Fruit user following him… a rookie with limitless potential."
He then dialed a call. "Seka, have the special unit return. Consider that money a gift to him."
Like his String-String Fruit, Doflamingo loved and excelled at weaving networks.
Losing tens of billions and not getting angry would be a lie.
But he was never rash. First investigate strength and background, then reclaim face.
If the target was weak, he'd make them crawl across the sea, tasting society's lash.
If they were strong—or promising—he'd recruit or invest.
He'd trade a present loss for greater returns.
Clearly—
seeing Karl beat a peer of his like Crocodile, Doflamingo's love of talent stirred. He was ready to recruit—or invest.
Doflamingo, the world's greatest socialite of the seas, connected everywhere: up to Mary Geoise and the Emperors, down to kingdoms and gutter thugs.
"Gururara… that kid beat Crocodile? Not bad."
"'Dragon Knight'—I hear it's because he wears knight's armor and keeps a white dragon."
"A white dragon, huh? Wonder what Kaido thinks when he hears this."
"A bounty hunter from the East Blue, is he? The East Blue… how nostalgic. I wonder how Luffy's doing."
"He beat Crocodile, and that's a slap to Mary Geoise. I'm curious how the Government and Marines will handle a rising star among bounty hunters."
"With the Crocodile defeat everywhere, even fools won't try to punish a rookie like him. Neither Crocodile nor the Dragon Knight is a pirate in this case… at worst, a junior challenging a senior. If Mary Geoise or the Marines 'punish' him, they'll just invite more ridicule."
"Most likely, the Government and Marines won't sanction the Dragon Knight. They'll even ride Morgans's wave and hype him up."
"But a Warlord has fallen, the stain spread across the world—how can he keep the title? Don't be surprised if Mary Geoise quickly finds a pretext to drop Crocodile, to preserve the Warlords' standing."
"They say the Dragon Knight is only fifteen. To beat a Warlord at that age… what astounding potential."
All day long,
the world discussed and judged Karl the Dragon Knight.
From commoners and nobles, to Warlords, the underworld, the Emperors, Marine Headquarters—even to Mary Geoise.
As Morgans predicted, Karl became famous in a single battle, shocking the globe.
Firsts are always the most dazzling.
Had a Marine beaten Crocodile, people would call it a Government plot. Even with photos, they'd think Morgans was helping the Government and Marines make a star.
But the one who felled Crocodile was a bounty hunter from the East Blue. That's different.
As the classic line adored by weak and strong alike goes:
Beat a Supernova, and I am a Supernova;
Beat the World's Greatest Swordsman, and I am the World's Greatest Swordsman;
Beat the Strongest Man in the World, and I am the Strongest Man in the World…
By stepping on Crocodile's head to stride onto the world stage, Karl in an instant gained a reputation no less than a Warlord's.
That's why fools who are truly weak still throw themselves at assassinating the strong—
chasing overnight fame, a skyrocket to the top—all now phrases that fit Karl.
For this day, and for some time to come, Karl was the world's darling.
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