They noticed it in the most ordinary way.
Ragetti came up from below deck with a yawn, scratching at his hair, and said, "Where's the kid?"
Jack, who had been standing near the helm with the newspaper still folded in his hand, froze. Gibbs stopped mid-step. Pintel blinked like the question had bounced off his brain and come back.
"What do you mean, where?" Jack asked, too quickly.
Ragetti pointed downward with his chin. "Where she sleeps. She's not here."
Gibbs moved first. He went below deck in two strides, ducking into the cramped sleeping quarters where they had last seen Robin. The blanket was still there.
The girl wasn't.
Gibbs' stomach sank.
"Robin?" he called, voice controlled, as if the right tone might make her answer.
Nothing.
Jack followed him down, nearly tripping on the ladder. For a second he looked young again—nineteen and out of his depth—eyes wide, scanning corners as though the child could have folded herself into shadows.
"Robin!" Jack called.
No reply.
Pintel hurried in after them, already breathing hard. "Maybe she went to the deck?"
Ragetti leaned in from the doorway. "Maybe she fell into the sea like Pintel."
Pintel's face twisted. "That's not funny!"
"It's a little funny," Ragetti said. Then, seeing Jack's expression, he added quickly, "Not right now."
They searched the ship anyway.
They checked the galley. The storage. The tiny corners where only a child might fit. Ragetti even checked the barrel of salted meat, though no one knew why he thought Robin would be hiding inside it.
When the final corner was checked and the emptiness remained, Jack stood still and stared at the wooden planks like they had betrayed him personally.
"She left," Gibbs said, voice rough.
Pintel's eyes widened. "Or she was taken."
Ragetti flicked his head dismissively. "How can they kidnap her? We were all here."
Pintel pointed wildly. "That's why it's kidnapping! They sneak! World Government agents are sneaky!"
Ragetti frowned. "But if they're sneaky, why would they kidnap someone from a pirate ship? That's… not sneaky."
Pintel opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't have an answer that made sense out loud, only fear that made sense in his stomach.
Jack's hands clenched. He was trying not to picture the obvious.
Trying not to picture an eight-year-old hearing that the world wanted her dead and deciding to disappear because she thought she was poison.
Gibbs' face hardened. "Either way, we find her."
Jack nodded once, sharply, as if agreeing with Gibbs meant keeping the panic from showing. "We find her."
They went back to the tavern.
If Robin had been taken, someone would be boasting. Someone always boasted. If CP agents were on the island, people would whisper. And if Robin had fled alone, someone would have seen a small girl in disguise moving through a port full of sharks.
The tavern was busier than the night before.
News had spread. Ohara was on everyone's tongue, though the newspaper version—clean, official, hateful. The kind of story that turned murder into "necessary action." Pirates drank to it, laughed at it, argued about it.
Gibbs approached the bartender again, voice low. "You see any World Government agents around?"
The bartender shrugged, wary. "Sometimes suits come through. Sometimes Marines. Nothing official."
Jack leaned on the counter, eyes sharp. "Any rumors about the Demon Child? People talking about her being here?"
The bartender's gaze flicked away. That alone was an answer.
"Careful," the bartender muttered. "That's dangerous talk."
Gibbs' jaw tightened. He put a stack of berries on the table. "So you have heard something."
The bartender hesitated, then leaned in slightly. "Pirates talk. Someone said a girl matching the poster was seen near the docks."
Jack's stomach twisted.
Pintel muttered a curse. Ragetti went still, head turning as his ears caught something across the room.
A group of pirates at a table near the back were laughing too loudly.
"…telling you, she was right there," one of them said, slapping the table. "Little devil brat didn't even run fast."
Another snorted. "Captain Monty's got her. Marines couldn't catch her, but Monty did."
"Because Captain Monty's got brains," the first pirate said. "And a knife."
The third leaned in, voice gleeful. "Seventy-nine million berries. We're gonna be rich."
Ragetti stood up so abruptly his chair scraped the floor like a scream.
The pirates turned.
Ragetti walked to their table and, without hesitation, grabbed the loudest one by the collar and lifted him clean off the bench.
The pirate's feet dangled.
His laughter died instantly.
Ragetti's face was blank. That made it worse.
"Where," Ragetti said slowly, each word measured, "is the girl?"
The pirate swallowed. "W-what girl—"
Ragetti shook him once, enough to make teeth clack. "The Demon Child."
The other pirates stood up, hands going to weapons.
Pintel stepped forward too, his expression accidentally terrifying in the way it always was when he tried to look serious. One of the pirates glanced at Pintel and visibly reconsidered his life choices.
Gibbs raised his flintlock and pressed it against another pirate's forehead.
Jack unsheathed Wado Ichimonji.
The tavern went silent, as if the entire room had agreed to hold its breath.
Gibbs spoke without shouting. He didn't need to. "Sit down."
The pirates froze.
Ragetti leaned in closer to the man he was holding. "Tell me," he said, "or I throw you through the wall."
The pirate's eyes darted toward the door. "Captain Monty—he's… he's meeting Marines a little ways off the port! Out at sea. They're trading her for the bounty."
Jack's smile vanished completely. "How far?"
"Not far," the pirate babbled. "A short sail! They— they wanted to keep it quiet!"
Gibbs lowered the flintlock slightly, but not enough. "What ship?"
"A small pirate ship—Monty's," the man stammered. "And a Government ship. They said CP was involved."
Jack turned away immediately, already moving. "Back to the Pearl."
They left the tavern in a storm.
Ragetti was slightly behind because he was still processing the fact he had just lifted a grown pirate by the collar like a sack of rice.
The Black Pearl sailed within minutes.
The sea was calm, deceptively so. The horizon ahead looked harmless. It was not.
They found them.
A pirate ship bobbing in the water, smaller, dirtier. A World Government ship nearby—cleaner lines, disciplined shape, flags snapping in the wind like a threat.
And in the middle of it, a transfer about to happen.
On the pirate ship's deck, Captain Monty stood with his fake leg planted wide, beard hanging like seaweed, swaggering as if he owned the ocean. He held a small girl by the arm.
Robin.
Her face was bruised. Her eyes were wide with fear. She looked smaller than she had on the Pearl.
She stared at the Government ship with the expression of someone who knew exactly what waited there.
Spandine's voice crackled through a Den Den Mushi on the Government ship, loud and smug.
"Hah! Hah! Wonderful! Wonderful! At last, the last surviving archaeologist! This will be the greatest day of my career!"
The CP9 agents on deck looked bored, cold, displeased with the presence of pirates. They stood like predators forced to work with scavengers, waiting for the moment they could take what they wanted and discard the rest.
Monty yanked Robin closer. "Tell your boss," he shouted across the gap, "that I want the full amount. No tricks."
A CP9 agent—tall, dressed in white—tilted his head. "You are in no position to make demands."
Monty bristled. "I caught her. I can throw her back in the sea if I want."
Robin flinched.
Spandine's Den Den Mushi laughed. "Pay him! Pay him! And then arrest him! Arrest them all! Justice!"
The CP9 agent's eyes narrowed, irritation flickering. "Sir Spandine. Do not complicate this."
Spandine's voice rose. "Complicate? I am simplifying! Take the girl! Get promoted! Glorious!"
The pirate ship's aide suddenly rushed up to Monty, pointing. "Captain! Black ship! Coming fast!"
Monty turned.
His face twisted in confusion. "That flag…"
He didn't recognize the jolly roger. Skull in a hat. Cutlass. Bones.
The CP9 agents also turned, eyes sharpening.
For a moment, both sides looked at the approaching Black Pearl and came to the same conclusion for different reasons.
Monty snarled. "You set me up!"
The CP9 agent's gaze chilled. "You brought reinforcements?"
Monty shouted across the water. "I didn't!"
The CP9 agent's tone grew colder. "Liar."
Spandine's Den Den Mushi screeched excitedly. "Kill them! Kill them all! Bring me the girl! Bring me the—"
Monty's hand tightened on Robin's arm. "This deal is off!"
The CP9 agent stepped forward.
His movement was too smooth. Too fast for Monty to see.
Rokushiki.
He appeared in front of Monty in a blur.
Monty's eyes widened. "Wait—"
A sharp, precise strike landed.
Monty's body jerked.
Then he collapsed, dead before he hit the deck.
Silence fell for a single, stunned heartbeat.
Robin stared at Monty's fallen body, horror and fear tightening her throat.
The pirates screamed.
The CP9 agents shifted, readying themselves, their indifference replaced by clean, professional intent.
Spandine's Den Den Mushi laughed so hard it crackled.
"Forget the deal," the CP9 agent said, voice flat. "Take the girl."