Luffy walked in, eating a shank of meat, and stared at the sitting Sonia curiously. She was still in the same position he had left her in, which seemed extremely strange to him.
"Forget something?" Sonia asked, keeping her voice as straight as possible. Hancock had again hidden behind a couple of trees, not wanting anyone to know she was there.
"Hmm not really. You didn't come back even after so long, so came looking for you. What's up? Why are you still here?"
"Oh, was just star gazing, that's all" she lied.
"Ooh, you like the stars too? I love them!" Luffy said excitedly as he sat down next to her, "I recently discovered my love for stargazing, you know. Have you seen meteor showers anytime? There was this one night when I was training when a buttload of shooting stars started falling from the sky! It was sooo amazing!"
"Heh, you like stuff like stars too huh? Yeah, I've seen meteor showers and yes, they're beautiful" Sonia said hoping to continue the conversation with him for as long as possible. He always made her relaxed and right now, she needed that more than anything.
"Yep! Leah also loves them. You know about her island right? Their houses are built on top of these huge trees, so they're closer to the sky and so, stargazing was this big social thing on their island apparently"
"Oh I see" Sonia said, her voice a bit strained as she wanted him to talk, but not talk about Leah.
Luffy noticed the change in her voice and the melancholic/guilty expression she got when he mentioned Leah. He sighed internally as he finished eating the shank of meat trying to read her face hoping to find out what it was about Leah that made her uneasy. But he couldn't notice anything other than melancholy and even that had disappeared as her face looked blank. Unnaturally blank. She was forcing herself to not show emotion and that in itself told him that she was hiding something.
Noticing the intense gaze, Sonia asked "Why are you staring at me like that?"
Luffy's instincts were screaming at him something was very wrong here. He didn't know what, but if she was guilty and sitting down here in the forest doing nothing, she was probably agonizing over something. And it probably had something to do with Leah. He was going to be respectful and leave them alone to hash out whatever issues they had with each other, but he couldn't help but worry thinking of the worst case. Leah was someone who knew that they had lied to the island, and considering how they were keeping her off the island by making sure she was on trips ever since she came back, it was clear that they didn't want her there. 'Then why not just banish her?' he wondered.
Knowing he needed more information, he started probing. "It's still bothering me…"
"What?"
"Why you and Hancock are here…"
Sonia instantly became annoyed and defensive. She was hoping he would make her relaxed like always with his stupid stories, but he was just making her think more about Leah. "I know I'm treating you like a friend, but don't overstep. You don't have the authority to question where we go or don't go"
Luffy gave an unimpressed stare as he continued, "It has something to do with Leah, doesn't it?"
He watched her closely and there was definitely a slight twitch in her eye that told him he was right.
"Do you want to kill her?" he followed up instantly not giving her a chance to think as he closely observed her. And that question made her eyes widen, her body slightly flinch, and her mouth began to say something before she stopped herself, schooled her expression to make her face neutral again and said, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"…So I was right…" Luffy trailed off as he stood up, loosening his body and cracking his knuckles. He was glad he ate as much as he could before coming here to check up on her. The effects of the earlier training were still there, but at least he had enough energy.
Sonia grew confused about what he was doing. "What are y-"
"Shut up" Luffy coldly cut her off which only made her bewildered at the sudden shift in tone from him. The friendly atmosphere that they had built amongst each other evaporated instantly being replaced with anger and annoyance from Luffy's end and confusion from Sonia's end.
"Did you just tell me to shut up?! Ho-"
"Shut up" Luffy cut her off again, "All that uncomfortable moments and unease I noticed from you whenever you talked with Leah… I didn't want to think I was right, but you're here to kill Leah? That's why you were feeling guilty whenever you talked with her? Knowing that you'll be killing her soon?"
Sonia flinched just as the words left his mouth and that was all Luffy needed to know he was right. She didn't know how the hell he had figured it out but she couldn't have this conversation with him, so quickly got up intent on running away.
"I don't know what the hell you're spouting" she spat as she started walking away.
"Why do you want to kill her?" Luffy persisted following behind her. When she didn't answer, he ran up in front of her and got in her way. "Why?!" he demanded.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Sonia snapped trying to move past him but she watched in shock as Luffy's whole demeanour changed, his blank face morphing into one of rage and a second later, she felt Luffy's fist connecting with her face. The punch was so heavy that she got flung backwards and ended up crashing through a few rows of trees.
She slowly got up wondering just how Luffy had figured it all out and why he was attacking her now. "What are you doing?!" she spat coldly treating him like an enemy now.
"Beating some sense into you" Luffy said as he went to punch her again but Sonia caught his fist.
"You have no business interfering with our matters. Leah is our subject and we'll deal with he-"
"You know who I hate more than I hate those Celestial bastards?" Luffy cut her off while punching her with his other fist which she caught again with her other hand, "People who betray their friends."
Sonia became downright furious when he insinuated that she was worse than a Celestial Dragon. "YOU DA-"
Luffy pulled his head back and smashed it against hers not giving her a chance to talk, "You've been treating her like a friend, enjoying your time with her. And this whole time, you were planning to kill her?!"
Sonia felt her anger rising as he kept cutting her off. Her mind didn't register whatever accusations he was hurling at her as she didn't want to listen to them cause he was right. She didn't want to face reality, so blocked him off and concentrated solely on what he was doing, which was attacking her out of nowhere. And so, she started retaliating.
She yanked him upwards by his hands and smashed him into the ground a couple of times like a rag doll before stomping on his head, "Do not interfere in our affairs, man"
"So what now? You're gonna kill me too?" Luffy spat.
"Oh you think killing you will be hard for me?" she glowered as she stomped on him harder.
Luffy let out a deep sigh "Leah respects you. She admires you and Hancock so much and is so loyal that she would give up her life for you if you asked… And you want to kill her? What the fuck is wrong with you?!"
Sonia couldn't bear to hear anymore so grabbed him by the neck and brought him in front of her as she choked the life out of him. "Stop…talking…"
Luffy didn't even struggle as he stared at her angry face that was hiding an anguished face behind it and instantly went into Gear 2. He kicked right up under her chin making her stagger and loosen the grip on his neck. He slipped out and delivered a blow to her gut making her bend in half, before grabbing her head and smashing his knee right up in her face.
"Gakh!" Sonia felt pain bursting on her nose so shoved him away first before checking her nose and it was definitely bleeding. The attack had happened in an instant and she was way too lost in anger, denial and shock to sense his attacks. "YOU!" she angrily spat as she lunged at him.
Luffy side-stepped her lunge but she changed her trajectory and smashed his head with her fists pummeling him into the ground. His head got buried and before he could pull his head out, Sonia grabbed both his legs and swung him in an arc over her head before slamming him into the ground.
"You finally showed your true colours huh? What was your plan here? Get me alone and fight me? Did you think I was that easy?"
Luffy was confused for a second by her random accusation before he realized what was happening. "You're so in denial that you're making stuff up now?" he said getting up and spitting out dirt, "You're making no sense. You don't want to think about the accusations, so you're just trying to escape the situation by making up baseless stories and making me the villain"
Sonia lunged at him wanting to shut him up and grabbed his leg again intent on whipping him a million times into the ground. Luffy felt himself being swung but before he could get slammed into the ground, he twisted his body and grabbed Sonia's arm tightly. When his back hit the ground, he used all his strength to yank her towards himself and delivered a crushing headbutt.
Sonia staggered back confused as she had not sensed his attack with her Observation at all but before she could process it, Luffy jumped on her head and slammed both his fists on her forehead again. He then jumped down to the ground while still grabbing her head, which had the effect of her bending backwards before he flipped her and smashed her into the ground.
"Guess I got my fight after all huh" Luffy smirked as he airwalked and escaped into the sky when he sensed a leg sweep from her.
"Get back down here!" Sonia raged getting up, "All men are the same after all! Are all the other kidnappers you're working with coming now? I thought you were different but all men ar-"
"Fucking shut up and face reality" Luffy coldly said before lunging at her. Sonia dodged his fist but was hit with his kick, again not having sensed it with her Observation at all. She didn't know how the hell he was doing that but she didn't have time to think as Luffy kept up his relentless attacks. She knew she was making up random stories to escape thinking about his accusations and knew how ridiculous she sounded. But she couldn't help it. If she didn't, then she would have to face his words which her mind refused to do. To be completely honest, she was terrified seeing the always happy and smiling Luffy looking so pissed off and angry, and to top it all off, the rage was directed at her and she knew she deserved it. His eyes especially were so cold and angry that she wanted to run away and hide.
"She looks up to you! She admires you!" Luffy said after delivering a Jet Stamp in her gut before using an armament Haki-coated fist to punch the same spot as he angrily glared at her, "And you want to spit in the face of someone so loyal, betray her and kill her!"
"Stop talkin-!" Sonia growled also getting frustrated and angry but Luffy punched her in the face again not even giving her a chance to talk.
"You don't even try to deny it, you fucking piece of shit!"
Sonia was downright thunderous now and she transformed into her full snake form growing huge. "I think I've been wa-" she began saying but Luffy, not even fazed by the transformation, yelled "Gum Gum Jet Gatling!" and delivered blow after blow into her midriff. He kept up the attack until she staggered back and crashed through a few rows of trees.
"If 'Sorry' isn't the first word that comes out of your mouth, I don't want to hear it!" Luffy yelled as he landed on her stomach and delivered a Jet Stamp.
Sonia finally realized why he wasn't letting her speak but didn't care as she continued attacking him. She was so very angry at him, at herself, her sister, her situation, her past that was making her do this… she didn't know what to do, so just channelled all that frustration into anger and took it out on the person in front of her.
Luffy sensed the change and became more vigilant as he kept jumping from place to place to escape her attacks while also delivering blow after blow when he got the chance.
Sonia only grew more frustrated as the fight went on as she couldn't get enough hits on him. She had even started using her snake hair to take a bite out of him but he kept dodging and attacking her. And most frustratingly, she couldn't sense some of the attacks directed at her and kept getting hit.
Luffy was using a combination of Gear 2, Soru and Airwalk to manoeuvre about on the battlefield. He hadn't realized it but he was using Kamisori to move around in the air in 3 dimensions. And as to how he was bypassing Sonia's Observation, he didn't try to. He was fighting on instinct and so, many of his attacks were purely instinctual without him having not even thought of it, and thus, Sonia couldn't sense some of his attacks. And to top it all off, he kept trying to coat his arms in Armament and succeeded once every 20 punches, but they were still very weak to have any significance.
Sonia, on the other hand, was having a mental meltdown. She didn't want to think about whatever Luffy was spouting but a part of her kept screaming at her that she was a monster who could kill such a close friend like Leah. And another part of her was crying and saying that she had no other choice. And another part was saying that she deserved the beating Luffy was giving her and she should take it. And with a disarrayed mind like that, she performed poorly in battle, thus giving Luffy the upper hand.
"Gum Gum Jet Bazooka!"
Sonia fell on her back after feeling the devastating blow Luffy delivered and didn't get up. Luffy landed back on the ground, all bloody and panting, having pushed Gear 2 to its limit. Seeing that she didn't get up, he thought that she was finally reflecting so walked towards her. But as soon as he came near her, her snake-like hair flew at him all at once.
He grit his teeth as two hair snakes bit into him on either side of his shoulders while two more bit into his wrists. Sonia slowly got up and stared at him with cold eyes holding him in place with her hair.
"You sure have some gu-"
Again, Luffy definitely didn't want to hear anything other than an apology, so he threw his head back and launched it at her. One of the snake hairs got in the way with its mouth open intent on biting his head off, but Luffy opened his mouth wider, bit into the lower lip of the snake before clamping his teeth down and biting it off, and then ploughed through the rest of the snake hair body and smashed his head against hers.
Sonia was way too mortified to see him eating and tearing her hair to dodge his attack and felt more pain than ever before burst on her forehead. She collapsed on her back clutching her bleeding forehead in pain while her other snake hairs that were holding him loosened allowing Luffy to slip out. Just as his head snapped back coughing and spitting out hair, he jumped high in the air not wasting any time. He threw his hands high above him and started winding both his hands together and before Sonia could even open her eyes, had launched it at her.
Sonia, who was just opening her eyes wondering what kind of hard head he had, paled when she saw his rotating fists coming right at her with frightening speed. Thankfully for her, someone pulled her out of the way and Luffy's fist landed on the ground creating a loud boom and a massive crater.
Luffy just sensed that she had moved but hadn't seen anyone else, so when he landed back on the ground, he was caught off guard when two dark and cold eyes met his own before he felt a blow to his stomach and got flung away.
He coughed and wheezed as he slowly climbed out of the splinters of wood he found himself in, wondering who had kicked him, and felt his mind blank when he saw Boa Hancock herself standing in front of Sonia defensively while glaring at him.
'When the hell did she get here?' he thought as he got back on his feet and walked back to the two sisters. Sonia also sat up but didn't stand back up and hung her head while Hancock stared at her for a moment before turning her attention back to Luffy.
"How dare you attack my sister?" Hancock said coldly. No matter how much admiration she felt for him, he had just attacked her sister so she was pissed off. She had waited knowing that Sonia was stronger but when it looked like her head wasn't in the fight and she was going to get hurt badly, she finally intervened.
Luffy just stared at her not knowing what to do in this situation. He had avoided her the whole time to the point that if she came out on the deck of her ship, he would immediately go below deck so that he wouldn't catch her eye. The last they had talked was when he had first landed on the ship which wasn't even a conversation, so this would probably be their first proper conversation.
He observed her angry face and she didn't seem to be asking Sonia what was going on nor did she look like she was curious. It was like she already knew everything that had transpired here, so Luffy concluded that she was probably hiding somewhere nearby listening from the very start. 'So, why is she even here in the first place? That too, secretly? She wants Leah dead too?…Idiot! Of course it's her! She wants Leah dead but Sonia doesn't want to. That's why Sonia's feeling guilty. She doesn't want to kill Leah but she can't go against her sister…shit, I should've realized that sooner…'
Hancock was mostly shown to be innocently cute in the story but that was after she fell in love with him. She was a stone-cold ruler before that though. In the story too, she had petrified Marguerite and the others just because they spoke up against her and scenarios like that must have happened before too. She had lied to her subjects but there had to be at least one or two who should've known about devil fruits and had information about the outside world, so had she killed them too? Like right now. Leah knew too much, so they wanted to get rid of her.
And Sonia was no less of a cold character. She had toyed and played around with the stone statue of one of the petrified women while fighting him and would have broken her too if Luffy hadn't unleashed Conqueror's. He could understand if they were cold and hostile to him, but they didn't mind killing their own subjects just for speaking up. Deep down they were kind, but their pasts and fears made them quite cold before Luffy changed them. And currently, he wasn't dealing with the cute version of Hancock, but with the stone-cold version of her.
Luffy was wondering what to do when Sonia suddenly started hysterically laughing looking at him, "Now you have nothing to say?! All this time you kept talking and talking and now that my beautiful sister is here, you're too infatuated with her to not say things to her face?!"
Hancock just stared at Luffy and scoffed, "All men are the same. No one can deny my beauty after all"
'Haaah…What the hell do I do here? If I fight and talk back, she's gonna start falling in love. If I don't, Leah will die by their hands…' He sighed internally as the answer was obvious.
"You want to kill Leah" Luffy finally said throwing caution to the wind. The most important thing here was that he had to save Leah, so it didn't matter what happened next. He would worry about the consequences later.
"So? What's it to you?"
"She's my friend. And I won't let you hurt her"
Hancock flipped her hair back and looked down on him, "She is my subject. I'm free to do whatever I please with her"
That sentence infuriated Luffy more than anything. "She's a subject. Not a slave" he spat coldly even more rage building up inside him.
"I kill her, I let her live… it's up to me. Whatever I do, I will always be forgiven… Do you know why?" she asked tilting her head a little before answering herself, "Indeed. It is because I am… beautiful," she said haughtily flipping her hair and then with a seductive smirk asked, "Don't you agree too?"
Luffy balled his fists up, her condescending words and the casual way she was talking about killing his friend pissing him off greatly. He understood that she was scared of being outed and shunned but that did not give her permission to treat others like this. He was resisting the urge to tell her off and was wrestling with himself not to say the words he had said to her in the story, but in the end, he decided to be honest with how he felt. "You're really pissing me off"
"Haan" Hancock dramatically swooned back holding her head unable to believe what she had just heard but her eyes widened with shock when she saw Luffy appear in front of her, with his arms stretched behind him, right before she felt a fist connect with her cheek.
She staggered back a couple of steps unable to believe that someone had so casually punched her out of nowhere. But Luffy wasn't done as he airwalked over her head, grabbed it and then proceeded to flip her in the air before whipping her into the ground.
Hancock found herself face up on the ground staring at the man's angry face directed at her in shock. Sonia was in the same shocked state staring at Luffy with her eyes wide open unable to believe that he had just attacked her sister.
They only got more shocked when Luffy followed that attack by stretching his leg high above him before bringing it down on her stomach. Hancock caught his foot before the attack connected and sat up slowly, physically unfazed by his attacks but was definitely mentally fazed by them. "Did you just… attack me?" she asked incredulously with anger and disbelief laced in her voice as she squeezed his foot in her hand.
"Yes" Luffy answered before whipping her with his other leg. Hancock only got angrier as she caught his other foot and threw him away into a row of trees where he crash-landed.
"How dare you?!" she snarled, "How is this even possible?! How did you resist my charms and manage to attack me?!"
Luffy didn't say anything as he got up and again lunged at her with Soru. She went to catch his arm just before it could connect, but already expecting it, he kicked off the air at the last moment to jump higher and brought his heel down on her head. Unfortunately, she managed to sidestep and dodge the attack before kicking him in the stomach. 'Oh fucking hell' Luffy cursed internally as he felt the pain of a Haki-coated kick and got flung backwards. He managed to keep himself upright as he flew back and planted his feet into the ground, creating a deep trail as he slid to a stop. 'Man, her legs sure are strong…'
"I can't believe this!" Hancock spat more angry than ever before, the casual way he was attacking baffling her. 'Does he not feel anything when he sees me?!' She brought her hands in front of her and made a heart symbol. "Die for that, you insufferable man! Mero Mero Mellow~"
Luffy stared at her and her beam coming right at him not even bothering to dodge. If it only worked on people who are infatuated with her, then there was no way it was going to work on him, especially in this circumstance. And as expected, nothing happened as the beam passed over him harmlessly. Both Hancock and Sonia were dumbfounded, and thinking the beam hadn't hit him, even though it clearly did, Hancock brought her hands forward and released her beam again. "Mero Mero Mellow~"
This time, Luffy ran right into the beam going through it straight for Hancock and lodged his fist into her gut trying to coat as much Armament as he could muster up. Hancock bent in half more shocked by the fact that her beam hadn't worked and came face to face with Luffy's angry eyes. "You piss me off" he reiterated only making her more bewildered and angry.
She grit her teeth in anger and kneed him in the stomach making him hover slightly in the air before delivering a roundhouse kick. 'God, I'm no match for her…' he concluded as he found himself crashing through trees again. Her Armament was on a whole other level when compared to Sonia and even that small attack was coated with enough Armament Haki to hurt him badly. He knew he was still weak when compared to the real monsters in the world, but having it shoved in his face like this was a humbling experience for him.
He didn't give up though as he grabbed one of the trees to the side and used it as a pivot to slingshot himself back at her with his hands raised and balled into fists while trying to coat it with enough Haki.
Hancock had never been more shocked in her entire life when she saw the man coming at her again and again to attack her. She grabbed his fists just as he flew at her, but already expecting it, Luffy used that chance to reorient himself parallelly to her before kicking up right into her chin making her head snap upwards.
"I can't believe this…" Hancock again said bringing her face down and staring at Luffy whose hands she still had in a death grip.
Sonia was just sitting to the side, watching the fight with a gobsmacked expression on her face. She just couldn't believe that her sister was being attacked the way she was. He would always hide whenever Hancock came out on deck, so she had even teased him saying that he was hiding because he was shy and infatuated with her… but now? She knew that wasn't the case. His words about her beam not working on him also turned out to be true.
Meanwhile, Hancock's mind was in even more of a disarray. First, her attack hadn't worked which was a reality she refused to accept and then he told her that she pissed him off which no one had ever told her. But that wasn't what was baffling her the most. The most baffling thing about this whole thing was that she couldn't understand why he was fighting her. His reason of wanting to save Leah just didn't make sense. She could understand if he was fighting her because he wanted her, or because he thought he could defeat and kidnap her, or because she had slighted him…or a myriad of other reasons but him fighting her because he wanted her not to kill a subject of hers? It was just too absurd.
"Why are you fighting me, man?" Hancock asked as she casually deflected his other hand which came at her face. Luffy was, of course, trying to yank his hand out from her grip but when he was unsuccessful, started attacking her with his other limbs.
"Really?!" Luffy snapped with disbelief, "Is your hearing bad or something?! You want to kill my friend! So, of course, I'm gonna stop you!"
"Your friend? You mean Leah? You didn't even know her a couple of weeks ago. You're willing to die for someone you met such a short while ago?"
"Shut up!" Luffy snapped as he got increasingly frustrated at how easily Hancock was deflecting all his attacks. "I'm doing this for you too! Do you really want to kill her?! She's one of your own, isn't she? What did she even do to get a death sentence?!"
"Silence" Hancock demanded kicking him with a Haki-coated leg and burying him in the ground in front of her. Luffy felt his insides breaking and grit his teeth in frustration as he realized the huge chasm of strength between them.
"Stay down, man." Hancock ordered, "You don't get to lecture me on how I rule over my subjects"
"What did…" Luffy said as he got up clutching his stomach in pain, "…she even do? Is it just because she's more knowledgeable of the outside world? You're scared she'll call out your Gorgon eye curse story as a made-up story? You're afr-"
Luffy suddenly felt his world turn white as he was repeatedly slammed into the ground by an irate Hancock. "Shut your mouth!" she growled in anger and didn't stop whipping him until a large crater was created in the ground and Luffy went limp in her hands.
She panted slightly as she studied the man in her hand, who was barely conscious and dropped him into the crater letting out a huff and staring at him with displeased eyes. She felt respect for him and she wanted to be closer to him and learn more about him, but the circumstances were just too complicated.
She understood what Luffy was trying to say, she understood that her sister also didn't want to get rid of Leah, but she couldn't take that chance. She had to protect herself and her sisters and Leah was a possibility that could lead their lives to become hellish again. 'Luffy, you don't understand…people are not like you.'
Her heart stung slightly for a reason she didn't understand as she saw him lying in the crater all bloody and battered. Killing him was the logical conclusion here but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She stood there wondering why just the thought of killing him made her sad and ultimately she decided to just leave him there. He was a man after all, so unlike Leah, if he did go and tell all the women that Hancock was lying, the women themselves would beat him up first.
"Let's go, Sonia" she said not wanting to think anymore about him and started walking away.
Sonia slowly stood up looking at the crater with sad eyes and then at her sister before following behind her. They didn't talk as both were too distressed and didn't know what to say either.
They hadn't even taken a few steps before they both jerked in shock when they felt a wave of Conqueror's spread over them. They turned around and almost let out a yelp when they saw Luffy standing there like a zombie, his whole body covered with blood and grime but his rage-filled eyes were still focused on them. Sonia took in an unconscious gulp and she couldn't understand why Luffy was doing this. And neither could Hancock.
"I'm not done yet…" Luffy wheezed raising his fists and getting into stance barely able to keep his eyes open. 'Can't beat her. Need to get Leah out first…'
"Why are you doing this?" Hancock asked her voice trembling, not able to believe his reasons. He wasn't defending himself, he wasn't getting anything out of this, and yet the amount of resolve needed to get up while being as injured as he was was no small order. And he was doing this for someone he didn't know for more than two weeks of his life.
"Leah is my friend. And so are you. I don't want to see friends killing one another for stupid reasons"
"What do you know of our reasons?!" Hancock snapped. "You don-"
"Shut up!" Luffy cut her off, "Doesn't matter if I know or not! You're the ones who are struggling. Just look at Sonia's face! She clearly doesn't want to. You're the one who wants to kill Leah and forcing her, so I'll put a stop to you!"
Hancock eyed Sonia, who flinched and averted her eyes before looking back at Luffy. "Yes, my sister doesn't want to. But it's a necessity. She understands that too," Hancock said and then glanced at Sonia, "don't you?"
Sonia hastily nodded her head scared, "Y-Yes, Sister"
"Stop scaring your own sister, motherfucker" Luffy growled seeing Sonia's scared face and lunged at Hancock. He only then remembered how Sonia and Mari were scared of Hancock in the story when the two looked like they were losing in their fight against his story counterpart. They were very close from what he had seen in reality, so didn't think there was any fear amongst them, but looked like Hancock sometimes got so cold that even her sisters got scared of her.
"Gum Gum Jet Gatling!"
Hancock grit her teeth getting angry and frustrated as she took his consecutive punches, her heart hurting when she saw Sonia clearly being scared of her and also when Luffy called her names. 'Why is he like this?! Why can't Sonia understand?! I'm doing this to protect us, protect her!'
She could see her sister swaying his way and her eyes widened as she came to a conclusion. She grabbed one of his arms and yanked it towards herself making him falter and fall on his face. "Are you trying to create a rift between us? Is that your plan here? Th-"
"Oh shut up" Luffy dismissed her having had enough of baseless accusations that made no sense and also frustrated that she was taking his hits without much trouble, "Stop trying to create some conspiracy here that makes no sen-"
"I don't get your goals!" Hancock snapped, "Just what is it you are trying to achieve here?! Are you telling me that you are sacrificing your life for someone you barely know?"
"All I'm trying to do is to stop you from making a mistake. Why do you even want to kill her? She's been with you for months now, hasn't she? And she hasn't called you out on your bullshit story. Just fucking talk to her and sh-"
Just like the previous time, the moment he said something about the made-up Gorgon eye story, she got angry, lost it and attacked him. She yanked his stretched arm towards herself again and Luffy didn't resist as he accelerated towards her direction too with Soru. He spun just as he reached her and used another Soru at the last moment for one more burst of speed before lodging a fist into her gut.
"Gah!" Hancock actually felt that one and Luffy smiled having finally hurt her in some small way. She didn't take that sitting down though as she grabbed both his hands before kicking right up into his chin. His head stretched upwards and he used that opportunity to let his head snap back at her with force, but she intercepted it with a Haki-coated kick this time and a Haki-coated blow to his head was definitely not good. Luffy almost lost his consciousness as he felt his world go white and went limp in Hancock's hands.
Hancock calmed down and dropped him with an irritated huff. 'Why does it feel so bad when I attack him?!' She really didn't want to but him mentioning anything about their made-up curse story agitated her and she wanted to shut him up.
She saw that he was still holding onto his consciousness even after the repeated Haki-coated blows and his hands started moving as he pushed himself back up again. Her eyes trembled as she saw him stand up again with blood leaking down his face and she just couldn't understand him.
She was still pretty close to him, so as soon as Luffy stood up, he used Soru to accelerate himself at point-blank range bodily slamming into her and grabbing her shoulders. Hancock wasn't expecting that and was caught by surprise as the momentum of the Soru shoved her backwards off balance and she started falling on her back.
During the less than a second short fall, Luffy tightened his grip on her shoulders and bashed his skull into hers three times in quick succession.
"Gakh!" Hancock felt the pain bursting on her forehead at the first head bash and was disoriented for a moment, thus allowing him to successively attack. As her back touched the ground, Luffy threw his head back, stretching it high up before letting it snap back.
Hancock opened her eyes cursing at the man and managed to spot the head coming at her just before the attack connected. She moved her head at the last moment causing his head to smash into the ground right next to hers. She slowly exhaled and felt blood leaking from her forehead not able to believe that someone was attacking her this relentlessly for a reason like his. But it looked like the fight was over as Luffy's body didn't move anymore and he collapsed on top of her.
She got up pushing him off of her and was surprised to see that he was still conscious, just barely though, and was having a hard time just keeping his eyes open with all the blood that was running down his own head. She touched her own forehead and found that she was actually bleeding too and it wasn't just his blood that had splattered onto her.
She stared at him, her mind having a really hard time processing the existence of such a man, who would fight for someone he barely knew by putting his own life on the line. She couldn't believe that there was someone this pure-hearted… Seeing his strong resolve, she could picture the scene of him inspiring the other slaves more clearly now and her heart beat faster feeling more admiration for him. She brought her hands forward and wiped his forehead making sure the blood wasn't getting into his eyes before she realized what she was doing and stopped herself. She didn't know why but her heart hurt even more when she saw his battered state and realized she was the one who had done that to him.
"Sister…" a soft voice shook her out of her thoughts and she turned to see the distressed, sad, and anguished face of her sister. Hancock regained her senses and slowly got up making Luffy collapse onto the ground. She stared at him for quite a while knowing she should kill him but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.
So she turned and started walking away, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing her ankle. She looked behind her in bewilderment and found Luffy was getting back up.
"Not done yet…" Luffy said his voice barely above a whisper as he pulled himself back up with shaky hands and legs. Hancock watched him pathetically collapse to his knees halfway up, curse, still proceed to get up anyway and stand up straight with his legs trembling.
'Leah will die if I lose consciousness. Leah will die if I lose consciousness' was the only thing keeping him conscious and he forced himself up. But that was all he could do. There was a limit to how much he could push his body and he had just hit it. Even though he was commanding his foot to move, it just stayed glued in place. The only thing he could do was raise his fists challengingly at Hancock and hope he got a few minutes of rest, so that his body would listen to him again.
He would fall down if Hancock just casually pushed him but seeing his determined expression and seeing him raise his fists made her admire him more while also confusing her more.
"I don't understand…" Hancock said her voice quivering, "You're in no condition to stand let alone fight. Why are you doing this all for someone you barely know?! Just what are you getting out of this?!"
Luffy, barely able to keep his eyes open as he swayed standing up, looked at her like she was stupid. He wanted to call her stupid for asking the same question again and again but he was having a hard time just breathing.
He took in slow and deliberate breaths wondering how he could get out of this predicament. He definitely could not defeat her, that much was obvious, but his end goal here was to save Leah, not Hancock's defeat. He thought of ways he could get out of the situation but was having a very hard time keeping his thoughts straight. 'I should run away and get Leah out, eat and then fight again. Should've done that from the beginning dumbass!… need Zoro to buy some time for me…where's my crew?...shitfuckingmemories! You don't have one yet, idiot!…okay, okay, rest and run when you get a chance…get Leah to safety and then eat…the fight again…'
When Luffy didn't answer and seemed to be lost in his own mind, Hancock was still getting agitated. 'Such a kind-hearted man cannot exist!' She just couldn't accept it and when she tried to think of any ulterior motive he could have, a sudden thought struck her mind, 'Is he stupid?… Yes, that must be it!'
There was no other explanation as to how he was choosing to oppose her and still get back up otherwise. Maybe he didn't understand what he was exactly doing and is just fighting based on instinct? Maybe he doesn't realize that he's dying for someone he barely knows? Maybe he doesn't understand that he's fighting a warlord? Maybe he doesn't realize that since they are the ones giving him a ride, if he fights them here, he wouldn't get a ride back? Maybe he's stupid and doesn't realize the gravity of what he's doing? No matter how ridiculous it seemed, that's the only thing Hancock could think of that could explain his behaviour… Or maybe he's just that pure-hearted was another explanation but there was no way that was true. So, she devised a test for him which would prove if he's just a hard-headed idiot fighting her or someone so pure-hearted that he would willingly give up his life to save another.
"Man," she addressed him who could barely hear her, "I have heard from Sonia that you need to get back to your home as quickly as possible?"
Luffy was confused by the random non-sequitur but talking did give him some time to recover his energy, so answered. "Yeah?"
"Do you not realize that we're the ones giving you a ride there? If you keep fighting me, we'll leave you here and there's no way you'll get back home any time soon"
Luffy grew annoyed as he just stared at her wondering where she was going with the conversation.
"So I'll grant you a choice. As you want, I won't kill Leah and she will be safe with us, but you will be left behind on this island itself. Or… I'll kill Leah and you get a ride back to your home. Choose one of these two options and throw the other one away forever"
This way she could confirm if he actually was just a stupid man who was just fighting without thinking of the consequences or if he knew of the negative consequences and still chose to do it. 'C'mon, reveal your true nature as a 'man'!'
'GODFUCKINGDAMMIT! IT'S THE SAME CHOICE FROM THE STORY!' Luffy internally screamed. It was pretty much the same circumstances with Leah being the one he wanted to save rather than Marguerite, so looked like she had thought up the same test. But still, he was extremely glad about it. He saw absolutely no way in which he could win or run away to get Leah to safety with how he was barely able to stand, let alone fight or run, so he was really glad when he finally saw a way and let out a huge sigh of relief.
He looked at Hancock, who was waiting expectantly for his answer and he took his time as if he was thinking about it. He didn't want to blurt it out instantly like he did in the story which had made a very favourable impression on her, so after a few seconds, he nodded "Okay, Leah lives. I'll find some other way to get back home"
Unfortunately for him, his pause was received with even more shock from Hancock and Sonia. They thought that even though he badly wanted to get back home and there would be negative consequences to himself if he didn't, he still chose to save Leah. That only cemented the fact that he was even more selfless in their minds.
Luffy's legs gave out when his mind relaxed knowing he had achieved his goal and he fell to his knees. He still hadn't heard anything from Hancock, so looked up at her and asked, "Do I have your word?"
Hancock slowly nodded her eyes trembling, "Yes"
"Thank you" Luffy said with a smile before falling forwards and fell unconscious.
"…How can such a selfless man exist…" Hancock whispered barely able to keep the quivering in her voice and the trembling in her body under control.
Sonia snapped out of her disbelief state when she saw blood pooling around Luffy and immediately went to him to check his condition. She grimaced at the truly bad state he was in and lifted him up intent on taking him treated in the city. Hancock also walked forwards to see his condition and caught Sonia's hesitant eyes.
"I'll get him treated…" Sonia softly said.
"Yes" Hancock nodded, both sisters wanting to talk a lot but didn't know where to start and neither were they in the right mindset. They still needed time to process what all had happened and needed some space from each other too.
"…Did you mean it?" Sonia asked, "Leah doesn't have to go?"
Hancock bit her lower lip in frustration as she slowly nodded. "Yes"
"Thank you" Sonia smiled before going towards the city carrying Luffy in her hands.
Hancock leaned against a tree with a sigh after she was gone and held her head in distress. She had proposed the test to see his reaction and was sure that he would choose his own self-interest over Leah, but now, she didn't know what to do. Of course, she was going to keep her word and not hurt Leah, but that didn't mean her threat was erased. Leah would one day out them and what would she do then?
She started walking to clear her mind and found herself back near the city where the party was still ongoing, no one having realized the events that had transpired. She spotted Leah sitting at a table having drinks with a couple of deer minks and just stared at her. 'She's a subject. Not a slave' / '…Just fucking talk to her…'
Leah seemed to sense the intense gaze on her and started looking around everywhere. She soon met eyes with Hancock and was surprised to see her there. She excused herself and happily made her way towards the forest where Hancock was waiting.
"Snake Princess?! You came to the party!" she exclaimed surprised and excited when she laid eyes on Hancock but soon turned worried when she saw the signs of battle on her. "Are you okay?" she asked cautiously.
"Yes, I am fine"
"No, you're not" Leah said looking at her forehead and carefully approaching her to take a closer look. They were childhood friends but Hancock was the Empress now and she had to maintain decorum with her. She had changed a lot and become a lot sterner and colder too, so she hadn't talked to or approached her much but she was still a doctor though, so pushed through even though she didn't know if it was disrespectful or not.
Hancock let her check her forehead as she thought of how to broach the subject.
"Looks like someone bashed you on the head?! Who dares to do such a thing?!" Leah said shocked and enraged.
"It is fine. I was just training with Sonia, that is all"
"Oh…I see"
Hancock couldn't think of any subtle ways to bring up the topic, so she just straight up asked her, "Leah, why…why have you not asked about the Gorgon Eye curse? You know Sonia and Mari's transformations and my powers are the results of devil fruits, do you not?"
Leah was surprised by the sudden question but scratched her cheek awkwardly letting out a laugh, "Ah that… well, I don't know to be honest. I just trust you I guess. I'm sure whatever the reason is, it's an important one. I would like to know sure, but only if you're comfortable enough sharing it with me. Even if you don't tell me, that's okay too… Sasasa Luffy said something recently that fits this situation. Everyone has things that they don't want anyone else to know. It's not a sign of distrust if someone doesn't tell you something, it's just life. You don't have to know every single detail of another person's life to like them or trust them"
"I see" Hancock slowly nodded and showed a relaxed smile when Luffy was mentioned.
"Ah do you know who Luffy is? He's the man th-"
"Yes, I know who Luffy is" Hancock said with a smile. "As for the lie, I would like for you to keep silent and not mention it to anyone"
Hancock was taking a huge leap of faith in trusting someone other than her sisters. She didn't know what would happen, but this was the only way she could keep her sister happy, keep her word to Luffy and also make sure no one learns of the lie. If Leah does betray them in the future, she would take care of it then.
"Sure! My lips are sealed" Leah smiled, "I was going to keep quiet anyway"
"Okay"
They stood silent for a second before Leah hesitantly spoke up, "Um Sandersonia-sama was here, so I had set up a tent for us alone so that we could enjoy ourselves without any men or others interrupting us. Would you like to join?"
Hancock looked at the hesitating expression on her face and nodded. "Alright" It would be good to build a relationship with her and keep a close eye on her too. Just because she had decided to put her trust in her didn't mean she wouldn't take measures. She was still the Empress after all and she had a responsibility to keep herself and her sisters safe.
"Yes!" Leah excitedly cheered as she led the way "Come come"
Hancock showed a small smile as she went with her but she was wondering when she would get to see Luffy again. In another timeline, Leah would have been abandoned on this island after Hancock and Sonia cruelly threatened her to never interfere in their lives again, and she would have lost all hope in life, while Hancock and Sonia would have only turned colder… but they had met Luffy here.
———
'I was so pathetic…' Luffy condemned himself as he sat under a tree staring up at the morning sky. He had woken up with a start the next morning, found himself alone in a tent with bandages wrapped around him and as soon as his memories came rushing back to him, he had frantically started searching for Leah. She or the Amazons were nowhere to be found, so he had run to the shore, spotted them all loading up supplies, spotted Leah walking around all alive and safe, and only then did he calm down.
He didn't want to meet anyone though, so went to the forest, collapsed under a tree and started reviewing the previous night's fight and realized how pathetic he had been.
He was so outclassed that he didn't think he had made Hancock sweat even a little bit and it was frustrating to think how much weaker he was compared to her. The way she deflected all his attacks, tanked all his attacks with little to no problem, the way how just one Haki-coated attack was all that was needed to cripple him, the way he had lost…
He buried his head in his hands letting out a silent scream at how weak he still was. He knew that Hancock was basically one of the strongest people on the planet but that wasn't an excuse he could use. What would have happened if Hancock hadn't given him the choice at the end? What would happen in the future if he came across someone like Doflamingo and he was powerless to stop them?
He also sighed and berated himself at how poorly he had handled the situation. He had been too rash when he punched Sonia just after trying to talk to her a couple of times. When she started going away, he should have persisted and tried to talk a bit more before attacking her. He should've realized that Hancock was the one who wanted Leah dead and was pushing Sonia into it. He should've also thought of the possibility of Hancock being there. He should've run away as soon as Hancock showed up, made sure Leah got out safely and only then, engaged in a fight… But he had just gotten way too angry when he got confirmation that Sonia was planning to kill her and by the time Hancock entered, the situation had already gotten out of hand.
He also realized that he was kinda happy to get a chance to fight someone strong like Hancock and thus, his mind had subconsciously decided to fight her without considering anything else. He let himself be in a mopey mood for five more seconds before letting it go.
'Need to do better, need to be calmer, need to make smarter and better choices, need to get stronger…' he slapped his cheeks a few times to come out of the depressive mood and thought about what to do now. He couldn't go back with the Kuja anymore and was left behind on the island. In the story, Hancock learns that he punched a Celestial Dragon and changes her mind and agrees to take him outside the island but here, there was nothing that would convince her otherwise, so he was stuck in the Grand Line.
He thought of all the rich donors at the charity gala and wondered if he could ask one of them for a ride. Reverse Mountain wasn't that far off from Callipe Island apparently, so if he could just get to the Twin capes at least, he could ask Crocus if he knew of a way to get to the other side.
All his speculation on how he could get back to East Blue wasn't needed though as he soon sensed Leah and Sonia coming towards him.
"Yo!" he greeted with a smile when he saw them but Leah instantly ran up to him and smacked him yelling, "How the hell did you get so hurt?! What's wrong with you?!"
"Shishishi just lost myself in training that's all. Don't worry about it"
Leah let out a tired sigh when even Luffy didn't tell her what was going on. Sonia had arrived at the party a bit after Hancock had joined her the previous night and she saw the signs of battle on her too. She thought that the two sisters had fought but when she later saw Luffy with all his bandages, she had figured that even Luffy was involved somehow. She didn't pry as it was something between the three of them, but she wanted to know badly.
"Training huh?" Sonia asked her voice full of guilt as she barely managed to look at Luffy.
"Yep!" Luffy answered giving her his blinding D-shaped grin. The message that he holds no hostility or grudge against her clear in his smile, but she still felt guilty. "Anyway," Luffy continued getting up, "everyone heading out?"
"Yeah yeah come along. We're leaving" Leah said as she began walking towards the shore, giving the two a bit of privacy.
"I think I'll st-" Luffy began to say but Sonia grabbed him and pulled him along as they fell in step a bit behind Leah. When he gave her a questioning look, she averted her eyes and sighed, "We're not going to leave you"
"Really?"
"Yeah really…" she then looked guilty at him, "…Sorry…and let's talk in private when we get back to the ship…"
"Sure" Luffy grinned as he studied her face, especially her forehead which had a bandaid on it. "Shishishi I got you good huh? Man, you're so weak compared to your sister"
Sonia felt a tick mark growing when he started teasing her and wanted to smack him but she just felt way too guilty to talk back, so just ignored it. Luffy didn't let up though as he continued making fun of her - "Man, did your hair grow back already? I did bite off a good chunk out of it. Be glad I don't find it to be tasty, otherwise, I would eat it all" / "When you transform, all you did was give me a bigger target. Man, you're so weak"… - and so on until she finally snapped and smacked him on the head. "Shut up idiot!"
"Shishishishi"
Sonia let out a huff seeing how unbothered he was with the whole thing and wondered how he could act as if nothing had happened. She wanted to ask but they soon reached the shore where the Amazon women and their partners, the Rock Five, the mayor and a few more citizens were waiting for him.
"Ah Luffy!" many of the Amazons and the Rock Five cheered upon spotting him.
"Oh my god!" Rite exclaimed after running up to him and seeing all the bloody wounds and bandages, "What the hell happened to you?!"
"Who did this?!" Giselle screamed while Scarlett grabbed him crying and making sure he wasn't dead.
"Shishishi don't worry. I was just training in the woods"
"Ah okay" the Amazons who were also getting worried nodded sagely. They underwent training that left them bloody and battered like him too, so it wasn't anything new for them.
The others however were gobsmacked and called them and Luffy crazy while Luffy just laughed. All the Amazons soon boarded the boats after having said goodbyes to their flings, but there are two men who had fallen in love and were begging the girls to stay with them. The Amazons bluntly, and quite cruelly, said they loved their home more than anything else and would never even consider leaving it which had the men collapse in defeat. Luffy just patted the two men's back pitifully before moving on and hugging each of the Rock Five.
"I don't get why you want to be a pirate, but I guess that's your dream" Jan said giving him a tight hug.
"Well, his definition of a pirate is quite different from the norm…Freest person on the sea who travels the world. Sounds like a great dream to me" Phil said as he gave a bone-crushing hug too.
"I respect your dream too," Rite smiled picking him up and squeezing the life out of him, "But I wish you would stay with us…"
"Yes! I want my chew toy!" Scarlett pouted chewing on Luffy's ear while holding onto him tight. "Don't go, Luffy…"
"Now now, don't be so clingy" Giselle said scooping her daughter off of Luffy before latching onto his other ear. "I'm sure we'll meet again~"
Luffy just grinned at each of them "Yeah, you guys will get big and travel the Grand Line on tour right? I'll be coming back as a pirate in a few months, so I'm sure we'll run into each other again! So, see you soon!"
The five grinned at him wide before chorusing "See ya!"
The mayor and a few other citizens also hugged him goodbye and he jumped into the boat just as they started rowing away while waving at all the people of Callipe who had come to see them off.
"That's quite an effect you've had on these people" Sonia said leaning over her own boat. She was in a slightly bigger boat which had a cabin on it too, and Luffy could sense Hancock inside it.
"Shishishi they're good people"
"Man, I still can't believe how fun the last week was…" Leah said wistfully as she leaned on Luffy, "Is this the norm for you Luffy? If so, I wouldn't mind joining your crew"
Luffy snapped his neck at her excitedly "You want to join my crew?! Yes yes, I want you on my crew! Ah but wait…I'm not gonna recruit anyone until I officially set out at 17… Ah who cares! Join my crew!"
"Wait wait" Leah quickly stopped him, "I wasn't really serious…I just said that. I don't want to leave the Amazons"
"Aww…" Luffy pouted. He liked Leah a lot and she seemed to like travelling and visiting new islands too, so he wanted her. But she really did seem to be set on being with the Amazons though, so he couldn't force her.
"Hey, don't go poaching our people now" Sonia said sternly.
"Yeah yeah…" Luffy said as his gaze fell on all the other women, "Anyway, how long does it take for them to realize if they're pregnant or not?"
"About 3 to 4 weeks should tell us" Leah answered.
"I can't believe I didn't ask this, but what happens to the baby boys?"
"Well, we pretty much give birth to girls almost all the time"
"Huh? How does that work?"
"We have a special herb that is found only on Amazon Lily" Leah explained, "Consuming it daily from the moment of conceivement will result in the birth of a girl almost exclusively and that herb is kinda like a staple food to us, so we consume it on a regular basis. There are rare cases where a boy is born, like 2 or 3 times a decade and when that happens, we just drop them off at an orphanage on some island… or sometimes…the woman leaves the island to raise the kid somewhere else"
"I see" Luffy nodded not missing that the last part was said with a bit of melancholic emotion. 'Did her mother give birth to a boy and thus, left the island taking her and her brother?' She hadn't mentioned any brother at all in all her childhood stories, so either he died early or he's a sore topic she doesn't want to discuss. He stopped himself from thinking further and prying too much.
"And all this," Sonia cut in with a tired sigh, "is a secret. No one outside Amazon Lily should be told this…"
Leah blinked alternating her gaze from Sonia to Luffy "But it's Luffy though…"
"So what?!"
"I think the secrets safe with Luffy. You wouldn't tell this to anyone would you, Luffy?"
"If it's a secret, then sure, I won't"
"See?" Leah said as if just his word was all that was required to trust him.
Sonia wanted to snap at her but considering everything that had happened, she really did see no problem in Luffy knowing.
"Then why didn't you stop me?" Leah continued tilting her head, "You were right here…."
Sonia's cheeks reddened in embarrassment causing Leah to smirk at her. "You also didn't see any problem with me telling him, did you? Only after I told him did you realize that it was supposed to be a secret…"
Sonia coughed into her hands averting her eyes causing Leah and Luffy to giggle under their breaths which only caused Sonia to get more embarrassed.
Meanwhile, Hancock was inside the cabin of the boat Sonia was on, staring at Leah leaning on Luffy and felt a pang of something shoot through her heart. She didn't understand what but couldn't keep her eyes off of them, and felt slight irritation for some inexplicable reason.
———
A couple of hours later they had joined back with the main ships and Luffy was sitting on top of the sea serpents telling them about all the new things he had seen on the island when Sonia came up to him still with a guilty expression on her face.
"Yo" he greeted with a smile.
"Can you come with me? Sister and I want to talk" she asked hesitantly. He knew this was coming judging by all the guilty looks she kept giving him, so just nodded and soon, the two were standing in front of Hancock's room. Sonia told a couple of warriors to stand guard and not let anyone in no matter what, and Luffy instantly knew what he would see inside.
Her room was extravagant, to say the least. A huge throne was against the wall at the centre, a huge bed with curtains to the right, and cabinets, cupboards and other things to the left. He wasn't interested in the room though as he couldn't see Hancock anywhere but he could sense that she was on her bed with the curtains drawn.
Luffy had a blank look on his face but he was crying on the inside. He knew this was gonna happen and knew he was facing the consequences of his actions right now. He was hoping that him fighting her, unlike in the story, would change something but looked like it hadn't affected anything much.
Sonia closed and locked the door behind them and sat in front of the bed while Luffy stood waiting for the inevitable.
"Luffy" Hancock's voice came from behind the curtain, "Come inside"
"I'd rather not get on bed with a girl" Luffy instantly responded getting an exaggerated sigh from both sisters. 'Wait, I'm sure I heard three sighs just now. Who's the third? Mari?'
"Just go inside idiot" Sonia hissed and Luffy relented begrudgingly. He walked up, parted the curtains and as expected, there she was, the most beautiful woman in the world, sitting naked on top of Salome with a tense expression on her face.
"I'm not gonna sleep with you either" he said bluntly causing the tense expression to turn into a slightly annoyed expression. Internally, Luffy was cheering for himself. He didn't like the sad expressions they had and so, was trying to lighten up the mood.
"Blunt and impudent as ever I see" Hancock commented with a sigh getting a grin in return as Luffy sat in front of her cross-legged and asked "So?"
Before Hancock could say anything, he heard rustling sounds from behind him and when he turned, he let out a loud internal scream as he saw Sonia was also removing her cloak. His brain panicked thinking that the worst possible scenario was happening. 'OH HELL NO! BOTH OF THEM? HELL TO THE FUCKING NO! QUICK! BE DISGUSTING AND DISGUST THEM! THEY'RE PUT OFF BY GUYS LIKE SANJI! ACT LIKE SANJI! CHANNEL SANJI'S PERSONALITY! SANJI! I'M SANJI!'
He tried to think of flowery poems Sanji usually spouted, but his mind blanked and before he could think further, his mouth said the first disgusting thing that came to his mind "You've both got huge badonkadonks"
"…" 'GOD, I FEEL TOO AWFUL SAYING STUFF LIKE THAT! STOP! STOP!'
"Bandanka? What is that?" Hancock asked tilting her head.
"Ah don't worry, it's an inside joke" Luffy said awkwardly as he berated himself. 'They just want to show their brands. That doesn't mean they have fallen in love, so calm the fuck down' he said to himself and managed to calm down. This was a very serious topic for them, so he realized he shouldn't be making light of it and should be hearing them out sincerely.
He sighed internally letting go of annoying thoughts and brought himself back to reality with a question, "You want to show me what's on your backs?"
"Yes" both answered.
"Why? If you're feeling guilty because of trying to kill me, I really don't care. We fought, things worked out. Let's learn from it and move on"
"…Two weeks ago," Sonia began, "This would have been unthinkable… I would rather die than have my back exposed… but now? To you at least? I don't mind. I don't feel the least bit scared or ashamed"
"Yes" Hancock added, "This is something we have hidden from everyone we know. We have deceived and tricked people, we almost killed a friend because of this… and if it were not for you, we would have gone through with it. So, I think you deserve to know… and also, I want to tell you the truth"
Luffy nodded seeing the sincere expressions they had. They were finally letting go of their fears and opening up to someone, so he faced them sincerely too.
Salome lifted her and turned so that her back was facing him. With her slightly trembling hand, she moved her long silky black hair aside and revealed her back. Sonia also turned around with her cloak removed and showed him her back, her body trembling.
Luffy blankly nodded. "You were slaves"
"Me too" came a voice from near the bed and Luffy saw a transponder snail perched upon a desk. "Mari?"
"Hehe, no etiquette in names huh? Yes, it's Mari. Nice to meet you, Luffy. I heard what happened"
"Yeah, nice to meetcha" he greeted with a smile before looking back at both sisters, who were still showing their backs to him, but their faces had contorted somewhere in between disbelief and amusement.
"Wow, can't believe someone saw my back and this is the reaction?" Sonia said with a fond sigh, "Just a simple nod and then talk to someone else with a smile"
Hancock also smiled letting out a sigh of relief, "This is something I've thought of a lot and had nightmares about. And a reaction like yours is something I had never ever imagined in my wildest dreams"
"What were you imagining?" Luffy asked.
"Disgust and contempt" Hancock said with pursed lips, "People will see it and shun us. Think lesser of us"
"Did Sonia tell you about what happened to me when I was enslaved? What my response is to such words?"
Hancock's smile widened as she nodded, "'No, I'm not'"
"…you missed the 'fucking' part"
"I will not use such crude language" Hancock said with a huff but had a faint smile causing Luffy to grin. He couldn't believe it but he was having a normal and honest conversation with Hancock.
There was a brief lull before Mari spoke up, "The most unbelievable part of this is how you are not affected by Big Sis's charms. Do you still not feel anything when you look at Big Sis? She's naked now right?"
"Yes, Luffy. I can understand and forgive you even if you are charmed by me now"
Luffy stood up with a grin. "Let's test it then. Hit me with your attack"
"Are you being serious?" Hancock asked bewildered.
"Do it, Sister" Sonia encouraged. "But I'll be betting on Luffy not turning to stone"
"As if! I'll be betting that he will"
Hancock took a moment to consider and she was also curious to see if he really did feel nothing even after seeing her naked. "Very well" she said as she stood up in front of Luffy completely naked and brought her hands up forming a heart. "Mero Mero Mellow~"
Luffy just stood in place and was completely unaffected as the beam passed through him. "Shishishi I win"
"How is that possible?! Is he hurting himself somewhere to negate the effects?"
"No, he's standing still" Hancock answered as she slowly sat back down on Salome. Luffy thought that him joking around like this would bring their moods up but for some reason, Hancock and Sonia's moods had dipped again. Even Sonia, who was betting on him happily, had put her head down as if in shame.
"Umm, what happened?" he asked confused.
"You…" Hancock began hesitantly biting her lip, "You are disgusted by us"
"What? What are you talking about? I told you I do-"
"Not because of the brand…" Hancock cut in, "You are disgusted by us because we tried to kill Leah. You called me a mot-…names last night too"
"What's your opinion of us?" Sonia asked hesitantly, "Don't you think I'm a monster? I spent all that time happily chatting with Leah while knowing that I would soon be betraying her… And when the time came, I accepted and was going to do it… but you… you, who barely knew her, fought so hard for her. Put your life on the line for her… almost died for her…and I-I….I just sat there…"
"And I was one who forced her and pushed her into it" Hancock added with a shaky voice looking at her sister guiltily and taking glances at Luffy.
Luffy turned extremely serious as they were really suffering and he thought of a way to comfort them. The scenario was similar to the story, but this hadn't happened in it. Was it because he seemed more mature here and so they confided in him like this? Because the person they tried to kill was a close friend? Nevertheless, he had to somehow make them feel better.
"Listen guys, I understand why you thought you had to do what you did. I'm really not judging you for it. It was a mistake and you stopped before it happened, so learn from it and move on"
His words had no effect on them and he could see he was getting nowhere. The two, and possibly Mari too, were still in distress.
He sighed crossing his arms and thinking hard on how to make them see his point of view. He remembered all the things that happened in the story, all his crewmates and friends, and finally opened his mouth.
"…This is a seriously fucked-up world, as you already know" he began slowly getting the attention of the three sisters, "…One of my friends is currently helping in inciting civil war in a country," he said remembering Robin.
"Another is stealing from people and sometimes maybe puts innocent people in danger," he said remembering how Nami had thrown him under the bus the first time he dropped in front of her when she didn't even know who he was or how strong he was.
"Another has infiltrated an evil organization and maybe sometimes does stuff like hurting innocent old men," he said remembering Vivi trying to kill Crocus.
"Another tried to kill me just because I wanted to be his friend," he said remembering how Ace had tried to kill him so many times and would have succeeded too if he wasn't rubber.
"Another is an assassin and has killed innocent people," he said remembering Reiju.
"Another stands by and even supports people who are hunting down slaves," he said remembering his grandpa choosing to stand with the World Government even after seeing Baterilla.
"…and so many more…" he looked back at the two sisters who had shocked looks on their faces, "I know all this sounds horrible, but each person I mentioned just now is an incredible person. They are some of the most kind-hearted and amazing people you'll ever find in this world… But they're all stuck in messy situations where they cannot allow themselves to be who they really are or allow themselves to be kind. They all have demons in their life… some in the form of pirates, some in the form of usurpers, some in the form of family, some in the form of duty and ideals, and some even have the whole world as their enemy…"
"They've found themselves in this messed-up world and doing the best they can with what they have. The world has been so very cruel to them but they still live, survive and strive to achieve their dreams under whatever circumstances they find themselves in… They cannot be kind because if they show kindness or weakness," he said pointedly looking at Hancock, "They're afraid they'll lose what they hold dear. So they all do things they don't want to do out of fear, desperation and necessity…"
He sighed deeply as he continued, "…I'm not exempt from that either. If it means saving my brother or people close to me, I will unleash hell upon the world if needed" he said remembering how he had freed a lot of Impel Down prisoners to rescue Ace in the story and if it happened in his reality, he would be making the same choice too. Some of them like Jinbe were definitely innocent but a vast majority of them are definitely scum who deserved to be jailed, maybe not in a place as cruel as Impel Down, but definitely locked up. That was a moral dilemma he would have to deal with if and when the time came.
He gave another deep sigh, already tired of talking so much and looked at Hancock, "You're a ruler who sits at the top and makes tough decisions, so you must know all these things already"
Hancock nodded more and more intrigued by him, "…Yes, I do"
"And now you know that I do too," Luffy grinned glad he was able to get his point across. "If this was a peaceful world, then yeah, what you did would be unforgivable. But we don't live in a peaceful world. Good people end up doing bad things out of necessity and desperation all the time… So, a bit of tolerance and understanding helps. Some people can forgive and forget, some can't… I definitely can in this scenario. So believe me when I say I understand your situation and I don't feel the least bit disgusted by you… I know it's unfair to Leah but that's something you'll have to deal with. You stopped before you did something irreversible so there's still time for reconciliation. You tell her, don't tell her… I honestly don't care. Do what you want"
"…What do we do if she ever outs us?" Mari asked hesitantly after a few seconds of silence, "I see your point. I really do. But I don't want to go back to that part of my hellish life…"
"How about telling her?"
The two sisters he could see flinched and physically recoiled in horror just by him suggesting it and he was sure Mari had had the same reaction too. They were about to protest but he raised his hand and stopped them, "Okay okay, I get it. You can't"
"That's right!" Hancock snapped at his outrageous idea, "I do not know how but you somehow really do seem to be 'over' it and you manage to talk about your time as a slave with no fear… but people aren't like you. They will shun us and look down on us if we reveal the brand… and I suggest this to you too that you don't go around showing it to people. Someone will call in the Marines and they will hunt you down and enslave you again under the Celestial Dragons"
"Yeah I realize that but I'm going to be the Pirate King, the freest man on the seas! There is no way in hell am I going to let this stupid thing," he said pointing at his back, "have any sort of control over me. If someone does come after me, I'll beat them into the ground. If someone looks down on me, I'll ignore them…" he trailed off with a sigh knowing that he was being way too idealistic. He understood the real world didn't work like that and he imagined Nami or Zoro looking down on him because of his brand and it really would hurt him. He understood that he was just too optimistic in his way of thinking and that he would never be able to understand how the brand affects others. "I get what I'm saying is too unrealistic and optimistic, but that's just how I work…"
Looking at the unsatisfied expressions on their faces, he came to a decision, "I know I'll never be able to comprehend how slavery affected you all but I do understand that you're scared of having your brand and pasts exposed… So, I'll change the world"
"Change the world?" Hancock asked confused.
"Yep! I just decided. You're scared of showing your back right? Then I'll change the world so that you can show your back and not care about it. I'll make it so that you don't have to feel ashamed and forget it even exists"
"…You sure do talk big" Hancock said with a sigh at the absolutely ridiculous claims he was making. A part of her remembered how he kept standing back up even when he shouldn't have been able to and thought that if he had the same resolve, then maybe…just maybe, he could do something outrageous like what he was claiming. But the sane and rational part of her mind was sure that there was no way he could do something like that.
"Just watch me" Luffy said with a shrug. He knew he looked like a kid who was spouting out grand dreams and really unrealistic goals, which would put anyone off. He probably came across as insensitive, annoying and obnoxious too, but he would just have to do it and show them. As to how he would achieve something like that, he had no idea. He decided he would ponder on it later and think of something. "Anyway, coming back to Leah. You guys do realize that she has seen my back right?"
The two sister's eyes widened with surprise and they seemed to realize it only then. "T-that's right…" Sonia muttered, "She must know what it signifies, right?"
"She does" Luffy confirmed, "She didn't ask about it, but she definitely knows. And do you see her shunning me?"
"…no….."
"See? Anyway, it's up to you. You don't have to if you don't feel comfortable. And I'm sure just telling Leah not to talk about devil fruits and all will make her agree to it"
"I already did back on the island…" Hancock said with a sigh, "But I would like to tell her in a more official manner"
"Sure" Luffy shrugged and got up with a yawn, "Anyway, if that's all, I need some sleep"
"Yes. You may leave" Hancock said with a nod.
"Bye" Luffy waved at them with a smile before walking out and closing the door behind him. Silence descended in the room as the three sisters pondered over all his words.
"He's quite the character…" Mari commented after a few seconds. "His claims are just too outrageous for me to take him seriously…"
"Yeah…" Sonia said still staring at the door he had just left from, "But… he truly believes in whatever he's saying. His determination is something you can see in his demeanour. I know what he's saying is ridiculous but… I just can't help but wonder…"
"Yes" Hancock was also looking at the door, "I do think his resolve will crumble in front of a Celestial Dragon… but he did surprise me yesterday when he kept standing back up while fighting me…"
Mari had just heard of what he had done and only heard his voice during the whole conversation, so for her, he just seemed like a crazy man making outrageous claims, but for the other two who had seen his resolve during the fight and seen his demeanour during the conversation, they couldn't help but think that there might be some validity to it, even though their rational mind was sure he was just crazy and delusional. Hancock, especially, was taken by his words as she was the target for most of it. 'He'll change the world…' she recalled his words, and her mind added two more '…for me?' as her heart rate spiked up and her small crush became bigger.
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This is quite frustrating. I ensured the 2nd part of chapter 6 would fit within the limits and be completed on this page, but it seems it will require an additional page. Apologies, everyone! <(＿ ＿)>
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