I Sell Gacha Jars in One Piece

Both Kizaru and Fujitora were the sort of men who had never given their appearance a second thought. Kizaru in particular couldn't be bothered to shave the patchy stubble creeping across his jaw. So watching Crocodarny offer a billion berries for a single pill left them genuinely stunned. A billion. Even for someone of Kizaru's rank, that wasn't a figure you threw around lightly.

What stunned them even more, though, was Robin's response.

She didn't sell.

Robin's hands closed around the Beauty Elixir, fingers gripping it tightly, eyes fixed on it with the quiet resolve of someone who had already made up her mind.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. 0. I want this one too."

What woman alive could turn down the promise of eternal youth? Robin's personality had its mysteries, but on this particular point, she was no different from anyone else. The desire to preserve what was beautiful was simply human, and Robin was very much human beneath everything else.

"Can I just eat it right now?" she asked, already lifting it toward her lips. Better inside her than sitting in plain sight for anyone else to covet.

"Go ahead. It's a little sweet, actually," Amon said with a small, amused smile.

"Thank you." And Robin swallowed it without another moment's hesitation.

The elixir did taste faintly of something sweet, not unlike a soft candy. The moment it went down, a warmth bloomed in her chest and began to move, spreading outward in slow, gentle waves that swept through her skin from the inside. The change was visible almost immediately.

The sun-darkened complexion she had carried through years of life at sea began to lighten and clear, the dryness fading as her skin took on a smooth, luminous quality that seemed to glow from within. The slight hollowness in her cheeks filled out into something softer and rounder. And then there were certain other changes that Amon absolutely had not been expecting, changes significant enough that he stood there blinking for a solid few seconds, mildly at a loss for words.

By the time the elixir had finished doing what it came to do, Robin looked like an entirely different version of herself. The difference was roughly what Amon imagined standing Luffy's first impression of her next to her appearance after the two-year timeskip would look like.

"This is..." Robin turned her hands over slowly, staring at her own skin with wide eyes. For once, words seemed to fail her entirely.

"My goodness." Kizaru stared. "That little pill is genuinely terrifying. The results are impressive."

He had seen expert cosmetic work in his time, but nothing that operated at this speed or with this kind of permanence. Even the most talented hands in the world couldn't have managed this.

"Incredible," Crocodarny said quietly, her eyes not leaving Robin for a moment. She wanted that pill. She had wanted it desperately. And now it was gone, already working its way through someone else's body, and all she could do was watch.

"Ha! Well? Didn't I tell you it was something special?" Amon laughed, watching Robin hold up a small mirror with the expression of a person who genuinely could not believe what they were looking at.

"It really is. I've never seen anything like it." Even Robin's composed exterior had cracked open into something unguarded and bright. She was practically glowing, in more ways than one. If there hadn't been quite so many people standing around them, Amon had the feeling she might have done something impulsive to express her gratitude.

"I really do want to open another jar," Kizaru murmured from the side, almost to himself.

Of everyone present, Fujitora remained the calmest. His eyes were long gone, and the spectacle that had everyone else reeling left him largely unaffected.

"No, you don't," Amon said flatly, cutting Kizaru off before the thought could develop any further. "Oh, and we still have one item left. The best one, actually."

He pivoted away from Kizaru's hopeful expression. Reaching into the collection, he produced the final item, the Growable Armament Haki Card, and held it up between two fingers.

With this in Robin's hands, her strength would take a great leap. Even Crocodarny at full power might not be able to handle her. It meant that whenever Amon eventually moved on from here, Robin would have the means to protect herself. Insurance, even if Crocodarny really did seem to have lost her appetite for conflict since the transformation.

Better safe than sorry.

"Another one?" Robin's face lit up all over again. The last hour had systematically dismantled her skepticism item by item, and now she was simply excited.

Kizaru and the others leaned in as well, curious what the final piece would be.

"The last item is a Growable Armament Haki Card." Amon kept his tone easy. "Use it, and you'll gain Armament Haki immediately. And this one grows with you. You start at the basic level and work your way up to advanced over time through training." He paused. "Once you reach the advanced tier, you'll be able to strike directly through elemental defenses. Logia users included."

"A Growable Armament Haki Card?"

"You can just... use that thing and instantly have Armament Haki?"

For Amon, cards like this had become a familiar enough part of life. But to Robin, to Kizaru, to the rest of them standing there, the idea that something as hard-won as Armament Haki could be acquired by simply activating a small card was the kind of statement that short-circuited normal thought. They stood there staring at him.

Then the full weight of it caught up with Robin, and the stunned look cracked open into joy. As an archaeologist who had read more than most people would in several lifetimes, she understood what Armament Haki meant in practical terms. She had always known its value. She had simply never been able to find a path toward it. And now Amon was telling her she was holding that path in her hands.

"Just hold it, focus, and activate it," Amon said and held the card out to her.

"Thank you." Robin took it, and for just a moment as their hands met, something flickered across her face, a warmth she quickly tucked away. A faint color rose in her cheeks.

"Don't mention it. Hold it to your chest and activate it in your mind."

"Alright." Robin took a breath, pressed the card against herself, and said quietly, "Activate."

She still half-expected nothing to happen. The idea that a technique as difficult as Armament Haki could just be learned this way was something even she was struggling to fully accept. Kizaru and the others watched with equal curiosity. They had each spent considerable effort, time, and hardship earning their own Haki. The thought that a card could shortcut all of that in a single moment was not something any of them had a framework for.