After a while, glancing at their newly updated wanted posters, a palpable sense of joy enveloped them—a potent morale boost to dispose of the World Government's secrets.
"I will ask you folks again," the elder stated, her voice laced with stern authority. "Since your story of being ambushed by pirates is a fabrication, and my people believed it, I hope you pirates will not bring harm to this country and will leave here in one piece?"
"I give you my word, elder Nyon. We came here merely to rest and train for a while before entering the Grand Line," Gojo replied, adjusting his marine cap with a nonchalant air.
"Do you not realize this is the domain of Boa Hancock, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea?" She intoned solemnly.
"Yes, we are aware. It is just that we came here to ask her for something."
Elder Nyon's brow twitched in disbelief. "You came here to ask the Snake Empress for a favor?"
"Precisely. Knowing full well she might hand us over to the Government at any moment, we came here to petition her to become our ally."
She was rendered speechless, never having imagined she would hear a pirate audaciously request a favor from a Warlord. "I will not pry further into this," she finally conceded. "Be good pirates and remain in your cell until she returns from Marineford."
"You have my word, elder Nyon," Gojo hummed, watching her silhouette fade into the horizon.
The trio exchanged significant gestures amongst themselves long after Gloriosa had departed with the newspapers. They were profoundly surprised that she had not raised an alarm regarding their true identities as pirates in disguise.
Subsequently, the warriors of Amazon Lily brought them fruits and water before resuming their patrols to scout the island for any other intruders.
… [Marineford]
In a vast, quiet room, the Seven Warlords of the Sea sat awaiting their orders from above; the World Government's logo was etched ominously upon the wall, and the banner of justice was prominently displayed. This assembly of formidable pirates had been granted a sanctioned status by the World Government, essentially legitimizing their power.
They were afforded special privileges and immunity from marine pursuit in exchange for their services as privateers, a strategic arrangement to help maintain the global balance of power.
Mihawk, renowned as the world's strongest swordsman and a rival to the great Red-Haired Shanks, sat with his hands folded, his legs propped arrogantly upon the table.
Witnessing such a brazen act, Donquixote Doflamingo could scarcely contain his anger; his veins bulged on his forehead before his lips contorted into a villainous smirk, his laughter echoing derisively throughout the chamber.
"Hey, Hawk-Eyes, don't you think you are unbearably full of yourself?" He taunted, his fingers twitching with manic energy.
Mihawk merely opened his left eye at his peer's provocation, offering no retaliation, secure in his knowledge of his own supremacy and deeming it pointless to initiate a conflict. "I believe it is right about the time I took my leave," he stated flatly.
Unfolding his hands, he let out a sigh and lowered his legs, utterly unbothered by the continuous glares shot in his direction by the other Warlords.
"What do you think you are doing, Hawk-Eyes?" Gecko Moria slammed the table in frustration.
"What does it appear I am doing? I am leaving, as I have no further business here for the day," Mihawk retorted with infuriating calm, collecting his sword and departing, leaving the other Warlords simmering in collective frustration.
"Damn that Hawk-Eyes," Crocodile grumbled, sliding a hefty cigar into his mouth.
"Being the strongest here does not mean I will tolerate such disrespect! I will get you for this, Mihawk!" Doflamingo's laughter echoed relentlessly before a predatory smirk played upon his lips. "Then, I too have somewhere else to be."
"Shishishishi, arrogant fools," Moria cackled, "you will all make for magnificently strong shadow soldiers, shishishishi."
"Why are all men so intolerably noisy and arrogant?" Boa Hancock retorted with disdain. "I shall take my leave as well."
"Oi, oi," the smile on Doflamingo's face twisted into a menacing grin, "what the hell did you just say, you crazy woman?" He wanted to attack Boa Hancock but was restrained by their shared, precarious affiliation.
"Hey, snake woman," Crocodile uttered, "we could understand Hawk-Eyes dismissing himself, but you—you have no particular reason to depart until our orders from above are bestowed upon us."
Approaching the exit, Hancock halted and turned to face Crocodile with imperious grace. "It is of no consequence what I do. Why, you ask? Because I will be forgiven… for I am beautiful!"
She exited the room, leaving the five remaining Warlords behind. Kuma, the stoic buccaneer, merely observed the scene unfold over the top of his massive book without uttering a single word.
The snake coiled around Boa Hancock's shoulders hissed majestically as she walked with a calm, hypnotic sway, moving her hips from side to side.
She knew she must return to Amazon Lily immediately, preferring her homeland to that stifling room filled with her so-called peers—these reluctant allies of the Government.
"I hope they are all alright," she whispered under her breath as she approached her ship, the Perfume Yuda.
The Perfume Yuda is a colossal red vessel resembling a junk. Its prow features two Yuda harnesses, allowing it to traverse the perils of the Calm Belt with ease.
Hopping aboard her ship, she set sail for Amazon Lily as a gentle breeze whizzed past. Her serpent companion slithered away, fetching a bunch of bananas and juice for her to consume while she sailed through the calm yet treacherous waters toward her residence.
After sailing for a while, she spotted her hometown in the far distance, her initial grin softening into a genuine smile. She was home. Back to her family and sisters.
Her sisters, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold. Boa Sandersonia is a statuesque woman with a distinctly serpentine resemblance. Her head is disproportionately large and wide for her body, and her long, forked tongue often flicks from her mouth; her eyes are a piercing sea-green.
Marigold, a powerfully muscled and large woman with long golden hair, is the younger sister to Sandersonia. These three sisters are collectively referred to by the Kuja as the Gorgon Sisters.
"Sister!" Sandersonia yelled, waving her hand enthusiastically to her beloved elder sibling who had been absent for several days.
"Notify everyone, including Elder Nyon, that the Snake Empress has returned," Marigold ordered one of the Kuja warriors, who immediately dismissed herself to relay the information.
The ship sailed slowly into the shore, and she dropped the anchor before hopping gracefully onto the sand.
"Welcome back home, Snake Empress," the sisters welcomed her with diligent reverence.
"Thank you, my lovely sisters," Hancock said. "First, I must take a bath before anything else."
"Understood!" The sisters chorused, guiding her toward the palace for her to wash, as it was forbidden for anyone other than the sisters to enter when she was bathing.
Alongside her sisters, she bore on her back the slave mark of the Celestial Dragons—a secret she was fanatically intent on keeping, willing to petrify anyone other than her sisters and Elder Nyon who saw it.
To ensure it was never discovered, she and her sisters had concocted a lie that what was truly on their backs were pairs of Gorgon eyes, which would petrify any who gazed upon them.
After a long, hot bath with her sisters in the palace, Marigold and Sandersonia picked up her coat and gently slid it onto Hancock's shoulders as she led the way to her room.
She had suspected something was amiss since her arrival at Amazon Lily but had decided not to ruin the mood until now.
"Tell me, Marigold and Sandersonia, what is the issue? You both looked pale the moment you saw me!"
The sisters exchanged a fraught glare before nodding in unison. "Well, we have apprehended some intruders," Sandersonia confessed, sweat sliding down her brow.
Hancock, sitting upon her throne with one leg crossed over the other, raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Intruders?"
The sisters swallowed nervously. "Yes. They claim to be marine soldiers. According to their testimony, they were attacked by pirates and found themselves shipwrecked on the shores of Amazon Lily with a marine warship."
"Oho," her lips curled into a dangerous grin. "How many are they?"
"Three men, Snake Princess," Marigold uttered.
"Three men, you say? Take me to them. Now." Hancock bit her lip so hard she nearly drew blood, struggling to contain her rising fury. She might have spared them had they been marine women, but the presence of men invading her homeland meant a sentence of sudden death.
"Follow us, and we will take you to the cell where they are held captive."
The sisters led the procession to the cell, followed by a retinue of Kuja warriors who trailed behind them as the Snake Empress was escorted by her massive serpent.
Anxious whispers lingered in the atmosphere, each Kuja warrior speculating on the grim fate that awaited the prisoners, regardless of their purported rank as marine officers.
"Over there, Snake Princess," Marigold declared, pointing a finger toward the now-visible prison cell where the three marine officers were held captive.
Thud!
Upon hearing the chatter and synchronized footsteps approaching the cell, the trio realized their predicament had become critically dire.
"Guess we have a visitor. Brace yourselves, guys," Gojo hummed softly to his comrades, a defiant smirk playing on his lips.
"If the situation escalates, we will have no choice but to retaliate," Jake chimed in.
And then, she arrived.
Boa Hancock.
One of the Seven Warlords.
"Oho, it seems we are about to receive some very special guests," Gojo's grin widened perceptibly.
Boa Hancock observed the three men in their marine uniforms until her eyes locked onto Gojo—his stark white hair and piercing blue eyes triggering an immediate recollection of the wanted poster circulating across the globe, depicting a certain infamous pirate who had escaped from the world's greatest prison.
"Satoru Gojo, captain of the Blue-Eyed Pirates," Hancock stated, flicking her fingers in barely restrained frustration.
"I suppose I do not have to introduce myself anymore," Gojo replied, his grin broadening with every passing second.
Witnessing the scene unfold, the Kuja warriors immediately concluded that these three men were the very pirates wanted by the Government, now clad in marine attire as a disguise to infiltrate Amazon Lily.
Without affording them a second to explain, Boa Hancock immediately outstretched her hands, forming a heart shape with her fingers to transmute the interlopers into stone.
"Mero Mero Mellow!!!"
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