FicWad

ONE PIECE
SITTING ON THE WAVES
CHAPTER 9: RHINESTONE COWBOY
BY
Sgamer82

When Nico Robin spotted the burly man sitting behind a tree, he had been momentarily surprised. He reacted quickly however, reaching into a bag at his side and throwing some kind of liquid into the eye Robin projected. Whether it was on a tree or not, Robin's eye was still Robin's eye. She'd felt a strong burning in that eye since. She didn't know it herself, but it was horribly bloodshot.

If he had something that could do that, Robin didn't dare use her eyes like that again. Best to wait. Wait for her foe to make his own move. She didn't wait long.

"Well, now, it seems like the game has begun, eh Ms. Nico?"

Robin didn't answer.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Coverque."

With that he stepped out. He wasn't a large man. He wasn't necessarily fat, but was noticeably bulky. It was obvious even though he wore a long overcoat studded from collar to hem with little rhinestones. The coat was rounded down the middle, showing a chubby body. He also seemed to move slowly.

"You obviously know me already." Robin said, "Putting aside that you called me by name. You weren't so surprised by my Ojos Fleur that you couldn't act. Your weight, if I am correct, may also be a factor in making you my opponent."

Robin's physical strength never changed with the use of her powers. No matter how many arms she produced, each arm was just as strong as Robin's real ones.

"That will do you little good. /Cinco Fleur/!"

With the command five arms appeared. Two from the ground, three on the body of her adversary. They bent his arms backwards, wrapped around his legs, and pulled his head back. Something in his hand caught Robin's attention. It was a lighter. Though his hand was bent far behind him, he managed to light it and throw it to his left. Before Robin could react she was suddenly hit with a blinding flash. It caused her to lose her focus, causing her arms to vanish and release Coverque's body. It wasn't hard to figure out he had moved somewhere else while she was recovering.

"Nice try, Ms. Nico." Coverque said, "But thanks to my Phosphor Streamers you won't be able to do much."

Robin looked around her and saw, through her squinted left eye, bright white pouches strung up from the trees through the forest. She wondered how she had missed them. But then, she and Chopper had been following his nose, and were concentrating on the ground, when searching for Nami.

"Even if you weren't half-blind these would do you in." Coverque boasted, "The material inside the pouches is what is flashing. I got them by extracting the phosphorous fluids from inside creatures that live so deep under the sea their bodies have to create their own light to see. I'm a master chemist, y'see. With those extracts, I was able to create a formula several times brighter. All it needs to ignite is a little flame. Worse yet, one of your powers' limitations, unless I am mistaken; unless you're familiar with what's around you, visual contact is a necessity in creating your limbs."

He wasn't mistaken. In unfamiliar territory, Robin needed to see what she was doing to use her powers most effectively. She hadn't been in this forest long enough to be able to create parts without looking. It was very clear that this man knew her and her abilities very well. They had done research for this. Which meant only one thing. Pirate hunters.

What other surprises did this person have in store? What other surprises could Robin come up with? Trapped in an unfamiliar place with a foe who had familiarized himself with her powers. She had to think clearly. She didn't know where Coverque was. With his Phosphor Streamers creating blinding light around the area, she couldn't find him with her one uninjured eye.

But I possess other senses besides sight. Robin thought to herself. The problem came in how to use them effectively. She'd had but moments to memorize to train before Coverque had lit up the place. Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten much out of that since she had still been reeling from the initial attack on her eye. She needed to learn what was around her.

"/Trescientos Fleur/!!" Robin called out as an idea occurred to her. It was risky, but provided a chance to end this quickly. At Robin's words, hands began sprouting out from the ground around her.

"Search!"

The arms sprouted outwards from Robin. A few immediately around her. Then some around the first set. Then more around the second set, and so on. The arms appeared without a problem on flat soil around Robin. In places Robin couldn't feel arms appear objects were present preventing Robin from doing as she intended. Instead, in those places, arms would bloom from the ground near the objects and begin grasping them. When Robin felt bark, more arms would sprout from the backs of the hands on the ground and begin climbing up the tree. This continued until Robin was almost literally standing in a sea of three hundred arms.

"Not bad, Ms. Nico, not bad at all." Coverque said. He was clearly outside of Robin's initial range. Though he could hurt Robin by attacking her many arms right now, or even Robin herself, he knew it would risk giving away his position. He wouldn't act against Robin without certainty in his actions. To do otherwise against the woman was suicide. Robin couldn't tell where his voice was coming from. That was simple enough to remedy.

"/Oreja Fleur/." Robin whispered.

Robin was silent for a few moments. In that time the only sound was her many hands brushing the soil and tree bark. But then, a twig snapped. Robin, still with her eyes closed, turned towards the noise and looked straight at Coverque.

Coverque was surprised. His eyes, covered in protective sunglasses, locked with Nico Robin's eyelids. He told himself it had to be a coincidence. Nothing more. He stepped over to his left, and to his shock Robin, eyes closed, followed his movement. He was getting nervous, his breathing getting heavy. Without warning, arms suddenly shot out from the trees around him and grabbed him from his armpits. He looked behind him in surprise and saw, of all things, ears sticking out of the trees by the woman's arms.

Robin breathed a sigh of relief as the several hundred arms receded back from whence the came. She couldn't use her eyes. So instead she found her opponent by touch and sound. Trescientos Fleur helped her gain a clearer understanding of her surroundings. Following that, her Oreja Fleur created ears on the trees her arms had found. After that it was simply a matter of figuring out where the sounds Coverque made were at their loudest. And there would be her opponent, awaiting his defeat.

However, Coverque was not going to be defeated easily. Even though Robin held on to him tightly, she wasn't prepared for the sudden, massive lurch in weight when he suddenly lifted his feet from the ground and dropped. Robin had to let go to avoid breaking her arms. She heard Coverque pick himself up off the ground and move away. This wasn't right. He was a big man, but the weight she felt in that moment was far beyond what she believed it should have been.

"You're a real hard case, Ms. Nico." Coverque said, "But that wasn't quite good enough. Before my Streamers let up the place, you might have noticed the studs on my coat."

He was, clearly, referring to the many gaudy rhinestones that adorned his long overcoat.

"They do more than make me look good. Each one weighs about a pound. I have nearly two hundred on my person."

Robin understood now. Whatever he weighed normally, he also had an extra two hundred pounds on him. Which meant he was strong as well as clever. Robin had to make absolutely sure he didn't get close to her. Coverque wasn't about to let Robin make a clean escape. Though she couldn't open her eyes to see, Robin could clearly hear her enemy charging her. She didn't know what kind of attack was coming, and so didn't know how to dodge or block. She could barely squint with the bright light from the Phosphor Streamers. She prepared herself for the blow, but a voice from nowhere saved her.

"Gunpowder Star!"

Robin heard something fly by her and explode in front of her. She immediately recognized the voice as Usopp. He had come to aid her.

Perfect. Robin thought. Usopp was exactly the person she needed.

"Robin! Are you okay? I'm here to help!"

"Thank you, Long-Nose." she replied sincerely, "You arrived just in time."

"Well, this kind of battle is nothing for a warrior such as myself."

"I see." Robin said with a chuckle, "Do you have your sniper goggles on right now?"

"Of course." Usopp replied, "It's so bright around here it's the only way I can see to aim."

"Yes. It is rather bright here, isn't it?" Robin asked, as if making conversation, "May I borrow them?"

"What?" Usopp asked. That was when he noticed Robin had her eyes shut tight. That seemed to help Usopp realize what Robin was thinking. He closed his own eyes and helped place the headpiece on Robin's head. She moved the left eyepiece down to her own eye level. She ran her hand over the lens to make sure the darker, sun blocking lens was in place, and carefully opened her eye.

It was still unbearably bright, but Robin could see clearly enough now that Usopp's goggles blocked some of the light. She saw Coverque getting up off the ground. Now, Robin could fight him on more equal terms.

The first thing Robin did was spawn an arm right of out Coverque's chest and rip the sunglasses he wore right off his face. He was immediately blinded by his own trap and shut his eyes. He stumbled backwards a bit. When he was close enough to several trees, Robin called out.

"Doscientos Fleur! Pluck!"

With perfect aim, two hundred arms spawned out of the area surrounding Coverque. One by one, they ripped off the many rhinestones off his coat. Plucking them and dropping them to the ground. Coverque felt the pulling along his coat and was able to guess easily enough what was happening. A group of hands suddenly gripped onto Coverque's face and pushed him onto his back.

"Chrisantemo!" Robin cried out. The two hundred arms receded back into the trees and soil and reappeared underneath Coverque. A group of arms pushed up on his back and held on to his arms and legs. The many arms appeared again as they seemed to stack up on top of one another. The arms kept going up and up until Coverque was suspended high in the air. Then, with no warning, the hands holding Coverque let go and the arms began to sink back into the soil. Coverque hung in the air for just a second before gravity claimed him. He fell to the ground and hit it with a heavy thud. He stopped moving, meaning if he wasn't dead, he was easily out cold.

Business taken care of, Robin looked around and used her arms to dismantle the pouches that were strung up. Looking around she found a container Coverque had apparently used to transport the Phosphor Streamers and stuffed them inside. When they were gone and the level of light was more bearable, she informed Usopp he could open his eyes. On doing so, he saw Robin, holding his goggles out for him to take back.

"Thank you for letting me use them." she said.

"Anytime." Usopp replied as he put the headset back onto his own head. He looked over and saw Robin's foe spread-eagled on the ground. For some reason, Usopp wasn't sure he wanted to know just what Robin had done. Looking at her, Usopp noticed her right eye was still shut tight.

"Chopper said you were hurt. Your eye?"

"I'll be fine." Robin replied, "So long as we can locate our doctor. Otherwise he may end up removing this eye rather than saving it."

Usopp was a little green in the face at the statement. How could Robin be so blithe at something as serious as losing an eye.

Usopp right behind, Robin went west. To the path in the center. As they moved, Usopp told Robin what had happened up to that point.