Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 32: Enter Stage Right: CP9

"Dang, did you really think that you could catch someone who's had twenty years of escaping the World Government under her belt that easily?" Franky asked them all, as he kicked out at a pinecone lying near his feet, glad to be able to touch something for a change.

"Nope," Nami sighed honestly, "But what else could we do? This was our only way to really get to the bottom of what was going on." She glared at Robin and hissed to her, "And next time, let us know before you choose to do something like this!"

Robin merely smiled back. "I did promise you all that I'd never do that again," she reminded her.

"You promise?" Chopper pressed as he came around her feet and she laughed.

"I don't know how many times I have to say this before you believe me, but yes, I promise," she said beaming down at him.

"So long as you mean it!" Chopper scolded her and both girls laughed at the seriousness in his voice. Suddenly, in the next memory, they were all in a dark room. It appeared to be someone's office, and at first they thought they were alone... but then they realized that there were two figures standing over a third.

It was Paulie...

He was lying on the floor, covered in what looked like bullet holes all over his body and was bleeding heavily as the two over him seemed agitated. The shorter of the two men was wearing a blue cloak and a skull mask so big that it covered his whole head and was even resting on his shoulders. While the other was in a light pink cloak with a large bull mask and thick hair draping over his shoulders and back.

"Paulie?!" Brook cried out as Chopper gasped and went running over to his side to run a diagnosis on him.

"I know this," Nami said quickly, recognizing those masks. "We went back to Galley-La that night and waited up in a tree until we found Robin."

"Yeah, and there was an explosion and we saw a few guys in masks causing problems," Zoro added annoyance. "Everyone thought they were part of our crew and boy did they cause us problems as we went running around the whole place."

"Naturally," Sanji sighed, "Don't these guys have any brains? If we were really were assassins, why would we bother hiding our faces? There would be no point."

The two masked men looked ready to leave just as something else happened. Something came crashing right through the wall with a blast, like a cannon, and when the smoke cleared, they could see him—Luffy was there, stuck halfway in the wall.

"Hell of an entrance, like always," Franky muttered, mildly surprised and exasperated.

"He must've tried to rocket into the building and not waste any time," Zoro said with a frown as he thought it all over.

"You mean the reason he just disappeared was because he got stuck?" Nami demanded. "Ahhhh! I swear, I don't know what we're gonna do with that idiot!"

"But more importantly, these are the ones who are trying to kill Iceberg-san?" Brook asked quickly, as he glanced at the two men, who seemed momentarily stunned to what just happened.

"Bastards, both of them," Franky hissed. "Which one of them are they though...?"

"Kaku," Robin sighed, point to the man with the skull mask. "And..." she added, looking to the second with the bull mask, "That's Lucci."

"I still can't believe that after all this, they would turn against their own friends like this?" Brook said furiously. "All those years of working with each other... do they mean nothing?!"

"CP9 is a secret organization for assassins," Robin answered dully. "And, naturally, to be an assassin... they need people who are hardened enough for that."