"When I was little, I realized I wasn't like other people."
"I found my appetite was astonishing, my strength grew by the day, and even falling from heights never hurt me."
"Not only that, my stamina was overflowing. I barely needed sleep."
"So I was hardly ever bullied growing up, and my sailing has gone smoothly ever since I put to sea."
"Until one day, I ate a Devil Fruit. After taking down an ability user, I understood my body was far scarier than I'd imagined."
As he spoke, Yami raised his right hand. Black mist poured from his pores. "The Logia Dark-Dark Fruit. This Fruit is called the most vicious power in history."
"Unlike other Logias, the eater cannot turn into an element, and any injury hurts twice as much."
"Such a massive drawback proves how terrifying the power is."
"When I ate it, I discovered a black-hole space in my body. Or rather, I became a small black hole."
"My gravity can swallow everything, and it can swallow a user's Fruit power. Anyone I touch loses their Fruit ability for a time."
"Now I see."
Robin's eyes cleared a little. She finally understood why she'd lost her power that day.
"That's not the key."
Yami took the coffee Karina handed over, sipped, and went on. "The key is, after I felled my first ability user, I realized my gravity drew something into that black-hole space."
"That something was the Devil's power within the Fruit."
"I can make that power my own and become an unprecedented multi-Fruit user, or I can draw it back out and bind it to a piece of fruit in my hand to rebirth it on the spot."
Hearing this, Karina and Nami both brightened. "So that's the principle behind Master taking Devil Fruits?"
"Yeah. My constitution must be special."
Yami nodded slightly and warned, "Never try to become a multi-Fruit user. I once wondered if everyone could do what I do. I fed a pirate two Fruits. He burst and died on the spot."
"Mm-hm."
Picturing the explosion, Karina and Nami shivered and nodded hard.
"BOSS, and then?"
Having heard Yami's story, Robin was even more interested in what came next.
What had he gone through, and what was he seeking now?
Besides reading history, he should have no other specialty.
Or was he after the Ancient Weapons too?
But Yami's next words made Robin happy enough to tremble.
"After I became a multi-Fruit user, I grasped how special I was—and how small."
"I knew that if I made my nature public, the world would shake, and endless trouble would come for me."
"Fortunately, my second power is the Paramecia Gaze-Gaze Fruit, and my third is the Paramecia Door-Door Fruit."
"Those two powers give me the backbone to fear nothing."
"Especially the Gaze-Gaze Fruit. It widened my horizons and knowledge at breakneck speed. I learned things."
After laying all the groundwork, Yami finally went to the point. "I discovered a break in the world's history."
"Exactly."
Robin's face lit with excitement. "The World Government has stood for eight hundred years, but there's a hundred-year gap."
"Right. It was man-made, and the culprit is the World Government."
Yami nodded, expression solemn. "What kind of force does it take to turn a full century into blankness? What happened on the seas in that hundred years that the Government would erase it at any cost?"
Hearing this, Robin's gaze toward Yami filled with recognition.
In that moment, she felt she'd found a like-minded companion and was no longer alone.
If she had a visible affection meter above her head, it would be ticking up.
Yami's next line filled her with hope.
"From my investigations, I found that the blank century was carved by a certain people onto special stone tablets. Those stones are called…"
"Poneglyphs."
Robin and Yami spoke in unison.
After that, Robin's whole body trembled.
There was fear, and there was joy.
Ohara was destroyed because of the Poneglyphs.
Now she had finally met a captain who cared about true history.
Saul, I think I really have found comrades.
A spark flashed through Robin's mind. She reacted, eyes bright with excitement. "BOSS, you recruited me to read history. Does Alabasta have a Poneglyph?"
"Correct."
Yami nodded and made an OK sign, utterly certain. "I used the Gaze-Gaze Fruit's farsight and x-ray to look into Alabasta's royal palace."
"At first I only wanted to see if their vault held any Fruit I needed. Instead, beneath a tomb, I saw a Poneglyph."
"Wonderful."
Robin couldn't help cheering, leaving Karina and Nami staring in surprise.
In all their days together, it was the first time they'd seen their big-sister Robin show that expression.
It seemed those stones meant the world to her.
Curious as she was about the unknown, Karina didn't press.
Yami had laid the groundwork so everyone could follow, and it was crystal clear.
The World Government has stood eight hundred years, but recorded history is only seven hundred because a full century was erased.
That erased century is the Void Century.
Parts of that history were carved by a certain people onto special stone tablets.
Only those who learn the ancient script can read the carvings and know that portion of the past.
Thus those stones are called Poneglyphs.