Dereshi

Inside the Ohara Library, Professor Clover formally gives young Robin proof of what she has earned. Holding out a medal, he says, "Here, this certifies that you're a scholar." Then he tells her, "Robin, take this." The scholars around her celebrate with "Congratulations!" and "Congratulations, Robin." Clover, identified as the Ohara Library Head Librarian and an archaeologist, raises his voice so she understands the weight of the moment: "Listen, Robin! Remember well what being an archaeologist means!!" Robin smiles as she receives the medal. After years of loneliness, this room gives her a title, a place, and a responsibility.

Clover defines archaeology for Robin with a sweeping declaration: "Knowledge" is the "past"!!! He points to Ohara's heart, the 5000-year-old Tree of Omniscience, and explains that it holds countless documents brought from around the world throughout the years. "They are irreplaceable assets for all mankind!!!" he says. Beneath the tree, the library holds the world's largest and oldest base of knowledge, where excellent archaeologists have gathered. Clover's dream is bound to the scale of the world itself: "Under this 'Tree of Omniscience,' from every sea out there!! By us using these books, there exists absolutely no historical mystery that we cannot solve!!"

Robin answers Clover's pride with her own dream. She says, "Doctor! I... I want to solve the mystery of the 'Void History'!!" Clover praises her scholarship but warns her, "Understood. Be proud of yourself for being able to study archaeology in this place. And I expect you to contribute to the world with research on various cultures." But when Robin connects the Void Century to the Poneglyph, everything changes. She reasons, "Why!? We'll know what happened during the Void Century if we study the Poneglyph, right!?" The adults panic: "N-no!! That's prohibited!! Absolutely prohibited!!" Clover shouts, "You should know by now that deciphering the Poneglyph is a crime!!!" Robin reveals she knows more than she should: "I know! You used your ability to peek into the basement!!!"

The scholars are exposed. Robin says, "But, all of you... you're studying the Poneglyph late at night in the basement!!!" The adults recoil, asking, "How'd you know of that...? What's going on?" and warning, "Don't tell me you were peeking in on that, too!!" Robin explains her own pain: they never let her into the room even when she came through the front, and she tried so hard precisely because she wanted to stand with them. Crying, she says, "That's why... I tried my hardest to become an archaeologist, so you'll let me join in your research!!!" Her ambition is not childish curiosity alone; it is her desperate attempt to belong to the only community that has ever valued her.

The room falls silent around Robin's confession. Clover tells her, "It's true... you've gained the knowledge to claim that you're an archaeologist... but... Robin, you're still a child!!!" The scholars explain the danger: they are determined to continue even if it means risking their lives, because when the research became illegal 800 years ago, countless scholars around the world lost their lives. They say, "We, of Ohara, are the only ones who can decipher the ancient writings," and "We're already involved. We cannot turn back." But Clover draws a hard line for Robin: "I swear on the Tree of Omniscience...!! If you go near that basement again, we'll prohibit you from entering the research center and the library!!! Understood!!?"

Robin runs from the library at night, crying beside the immense Tree of Omniscience. The scene shifts to the scholars inside, who understand the tragedy of her position better than she knows. One says, "She's completely... following her mother's path." Another explains, "She still doesn't know... the incident from the other day... Robin's mother Olvia has been captured." Their conclusion is chilling: "Her fate is obvious...!!!" On the final panel, Nico Olvia is named and shown, linking Robin's forbidden desire for knowledge directly to the mother who has been absent from her life. Robin thinks she is only chasing scholarship and belonging, but the adults see history closing around her.

At the shore, Robin finds a giant washed up on the sand. He lies face down, huge and wounded, with the surf sliding around him. Robin approaches cautiously, her small footsteps marked by "tap tap," and asks, "Wha...?" The stranger twitches, coughs, and drags himself through the water with exhausted force. Robin watches silently as he struggles to breathe. The page is almost wordless because the scale does the work: an eight-year-old child stands before a giant, not as a monster this time, but as the first person to notice someone else abandoned and hurt.

The giant coughs, twitches, and finally lurches awake. He makes strange noises -- "Geh-bo-bo!!" and "Gu-gaa-aah!!!" -- as Robin stands before him without running. His enormous face comes close enough to fill the space around her, but she stays still. The giant is frightening in size, yet the page frames him as injured and disoriented, not as an attacker. Robin's silence is important: unlike the children who called her a monster, she does not immediately label him as one. She waits and watches the truth of him emerge.

The giant wakes properly, sees Robin, and panics. He tries to crawl away through the water, making a huge commotion, while Robin quietly asks, "Mimizu?" A note explains that mizu means water and mimizu means earthworm, catching her confusion at his movements. He crashes through the landscape and screams "Bhaaaa!!" as he drags himself inland. The fear is reversed from the town's cruelty: here the giant is more afraid of being found than Robin is of him. The scene turns strange and comic, but beneath it is the same theme of hiding from danger.

The giant eventually collapses inland and catches his breath. The page identifies him as "Drifter (giant) Saul." He mutters, "... Ya saved muh life..." and wonders whether that person is all right, too. Robin asks if this is a big land with a town, and he answers, "Yup," while admitting, "I see... I don't care where dis is... but I wish I'd drifted to sumplace uninhabited..." Saul is not interested in making trouble; he is wounded, stranded, and trying not to be discovered. Robin, still small and solemn, has stumbled into someone whose isolation mirrors her own in a completely different form.

Saul asks Robin, "Is dis da first time ya see a giant?" and she answers, "Yup." He warns her, "Lemme tell ya, don't think'a me like dose barbaric 'Elbaf.'" He explains that it bothers him that giants are all judged the same just because the famous ones are from Elbaf: "It bothers me dat since dey're very well-known, people t'ink giants're all like 'em. We've got some gentle giant races, too." Then he asks for secrecy: "I'll ask ya anyway, even if ya say nay, but... woul'ja please not tell anybody 'bout me?" Robin answers simply, "Okay." The trust begins quietly, with one secret kept between two outsiders.

Saul thinks Robin's answer comes too easily. "Ya answered too quick, it's impossible," he says. "Impossible. No way a child can keep any secret..." Robin insists, "I won't tell." When he asks why, she says, "It's 'cause... I'm not interested in you." The bluntness surprises him, and then his laugh bursts out: "Hoo! Dereshi!!! Dereshishishi!!! Dereshi!!!" Robin asks, "Dereshi? What does that mean?" He says, "What? I'm jus' laughin'!" and she replies, "You're laughing? Yer quite a character." For the first time in the flashback, someone strange meets Robin's strangeness without rejecting her.

Saul laughs again -- "Dereshi! Dereshishishi!!" -- and Robin answers with a small smile: "Hee hee." She says, "That's a funny way to laugh!" Saul tells her that people have been saying he is not good at laughing, but he insists, "It's jus' me." Then he encourages her: "Hey, yer cute when ya laugh. Ya should laugh more." Robin asks his name, and he answers, "I'm Saul! Jaguar D. Saul." When she gives her own, "Robin," he admits, "I don't really know. Everyone in my family line got it." The exchange is gentle, awkward, and important: Robin learns the name of someone who will become one of the first adults to make her laugh.

Saul grows honest about why he is hiding. "Robin, t'be honest, someone's afta' me now," he says. "An' if anyone finds me, it'd be trouble. I said I wouldn't tell." The story jumps to the fourth night after the giant had drifted in. Robin's household notices her absence and complains: "We're missing bread!! Our shares!!!" "Where's Robin!?" "Robin!!" and "Honey, why so noisy this early...?" Then the food is discovered missing: "The jams, too!!" Robin has been secretly feeding Saul. Her quiet promise to keep his secret has already become action, even if her home only sees it as stolen bread and jam.

Robin brings Saul food, and he accepts it with "Yum." He tells her, "I appreciate yer thoughts. Jus' eat da rest, Robin," but she insists she is okay because she caught fish last night and ate them. Saul thanks her: "I appreciate dat ya care." Robin says she will keep building her raft, and he asks whether she is bored after spending all day with him for a few days. She answers that her mother's job keeps her away on the sea and that she barely remembers her face. She has no parents nearby, but says, "I like the archaeologists," and wants to join their research group. Saul asks whether her friends and parents will get suspicious, and Robin's silence shows how lonely that question is.

Saul learns Robin is a Devil Fruit user when she sprouts a chain of hands along his arm, making him flinch and shout, "Fwah!!" She explains that the kids in town call her creepy, so she does not play with them. Saul does not condemn her. Instead, he says, "Dereshishi!! It looks so convenient, dereshishishi!!" and admits, "Actually, I envy ya. I've been to da Grand Line, and I've seen amazing Devil Fruit users." When Robin asks if he is afraid of her, he says, "Aren't you afraid of me?" Then he teaches her his philosophy: "Funny or not, doesn't matter, ya know what. If ya keep laughin', y'can be happy!" Robin smiles and says, "Heehehee! It's still a funny way to laugh."

Saul tells Robin why the laugh matters. "Why? Ya laff when yer havin' fun. Dat means, if ya keep laffin', ya'll have mo' fun." He recognizes how hard her life has been: "Y'seem t'be havin' a hard life, though yer jus' a child, so jus' laff! When ya have a hard time, jus' laff." He adds, "I'd be an idiot to laugh when I have a hard time... it won't be like dat, dereshishi!" The scene then cuts to "West Blue, somewhere on the sea," from Marine Headquarters to Chief Spandyne. Spandyne is annoyed: "Ignore 'em!! They're just calling for a status report. I already told them I'd notify them once we see the coastline." He snaps, "I don't care if it's Ohara or Opera. Why'd I have to come all the way to the West Blue?" The peaceful lesson beside Saul is now shadowed by the approach of Government power.

On Ohara, voices call for "Dr. Clover!!" while a report reaches the scholars: "Haa... Haa... Erm... I don't know for sure, but a Marine ship is anchored at the shore." Clover immediately says, "It could be an investigation! Let's take precautions," and orders, "Notify the scholars!!" Outside, Robin and Saul sit together. Saul, satisfied, says, "Good, good, dereshishishishi!!!" and Robin answers with her own "Dereshi!!" They are laughing together now, the very thing he told her to do when life is hard. The chapter closes on that warmth while danger arrives at the island's edge: Robin has found a friend, and the world is already moving to take Ohara away.

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