In Hopes of Reaching the Future

A Buster Call vessel is dragged from the water and crushed by Saul, and the bombarding Marines reel in confusion at his betrayal. Across the island the scholars work in a frenzy beneath falling shells. To save what a thousand years had recorded, they fling their books through the windows and into the lake, trusting the words to outlast them.

Saul presses Robin to flee toward the rescue boat before the chance is gone, yet she cannot tear her eyes from the burning tree that still holds Olvia. The moment she nears the boat, the other islanders sneer at her, calling her a devil and the child of the criminal Olvia. A rope is offered, then dropped in terror when she conjures her own from sprouted limbs through the Hana Hana no Mi. Locating her, Spandine commands the crew to bar her from boarding, naming her one of the operation's targets.

Lunging at CP9 in retaliation, Saul is intercepted by Kuzan. The giant argues the entire assault exists only to make Ohara a lesson for the world, while Kuzan replies that justice itself changes shape according to where one is standing. An explosion then rips the rescue boat apart, and Kuzan reads Sakazuki's intent in it at once, since no scholar could be allowed to slip free aboard such a ship. When Saul retaliates against him, Kuzan confesses he never wanted matters carried this far before sealing the fleeing giant in ice.

Robin is lowered to the ground, and Saul begs her to run on without stopping, whatever may come. He assures her that people somewhere are waiting to find her and will guard her for life, then he laughs and grins as the freeze overtakes him. Inside the toppling Tree of Knowledge, Clover weighs the choices of humankind while Olvia mourns leaving her daughter with no parting words. Robin later encounters Kuzan, who tells her he will spare her to witness what she becomes, warning he is no ally and will be first to hunt her should she turn to evil. He insists the blaze left no survivors, and she departs amid the wreckage.

Aokiji encases Saul in ice and then lets Robin escape, while Vice Admiral Sakazuki obliterates the citizens' rescue boat. Olvia, Clover, and the remaining archaeologists perish guarding the history books. This chapter is a hinge in Robin's backstory, forging both her lasting trauma and the seed of faith that a crew would one day take her in. The cover continues the Miss Goldenweek infiltration tale.