4 Chapter 3: Snakes in cage

>P.O.V Singularity<

So, here I am sitting in cage looking at girl sitting across me.

And there is others too. From ten year old children to elderly with grey hair. Everyone of them has handcuff and special collars. And I can hear commotion from other side of curtain. All in all classic slave auctioning process.

It has been 10 years since I was born in this world. One Piece, the Record that I spent in uninhabited island as panther or equivalent of it. Damn, life was good at that time, first life I spent as animal. God knows I liked life of panther, their were natural born hunter as expected of predator. Well, anyway I liked the fact I can laze around while hunting sometimes in middle. That life didn't last long though, since time-span of story itself was short.

I gained inhumane reflex, dexterity and sensory abilities from genetic update. Fortunately I still looks like pure-blood elf, only note-worthy addition being sharper canine.

Well, enough of past. This time I intent to spend few decades here at least and as elf at that, no matter what species I was born I will be ultimately elf anyway. Genetically at least and as I grow up my body will discard unnecessary parts while retaining perks of race. If my capacity can handle, then these perks will be added to base information. For example if I lived as panther for, maybe five years I will look like pure elf while retaining perks of being panther.

That is also one of reason why I come here quite often, though. Having elven ears and pleasant features makes good slave material, it seems. I can escape from here whenever I want, though. But when I saw particular sisters this time, I decided to wait for a while.

Eldest of sisters was little girl, barely getting into her early teens, she has glossy black hair and healthy pale skin and it is coupled with feature that can be considered beatiful even at young age. As such she was treated with care, since she can fetch hefty prize.

But her sisters were not that lucky, one with vibrant green hair and another with light brown hair. Even though they were beauty of their own, they didn't reach level of their sister. So, it seems they were used to break spirit of girl judging from their bruised, battered body and hollow eyes of elder sister.

If I'm not wrong, they are Boa Hancock, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold. Even though they seem like treated badly, but compared to ones I saw in other Records they are living in luxury. At least slavers didn't 'touch' any of them since their prize will drop if they do.

It seems slave traders who caught them is 'professional' as I call them. Slavery is very advanced in this world, since slave traders are dealing with pompous gits they learned how to maintain quality of their 'products' to please customers, so they can sell them at as high as possible.

At times like this I really want to just wipe out sapient races of every record from Great Archive.

'Well, let's start conversation at least.'

>P.O.V Narrator<

In dimly lit room full of slaves, boy with slightly long and pointy ear can be seen staring intently at girl front of him. After looking at her for second longer boy sighed with closed eyes. Then he opened took deep breath before asked girl.

"What is your name ojou-chan?" he asked with tone of older person while looking at girl clearly older than himself. And then made uncomfortable expression.

"Boa Hancock…" girl didn't seem to mind it, though. She just answered with flat and tired tone after lengthy pause while not particulary focusing on him. The girl looked like doll without soul with her hollow eyes and pale skin.

Hearing her name boy nodded his head in confirmation before making uncomfortable expression again.

"I'm Roy Alestus." with slightly strained smile.

'Just exchanging few word is awkward… At this rate I will spend eternity alone for real!' Roy thought internally grimacing at his social ability that reached negative zone. And living as magus at some point didn't help that either.

*sigh* he sighed again.

'Anyway…' he just shook his head soon refocused on girl who started ignoring him again.

"Do you want to escape?" he seriously asked girl. If she has no will to be saved then he can't save her. And the reason he is going out of his way to save her in the first place is in hope of gaining access to Amazon Lily from her.

Where is better place to search for partner than island full of women? And Roy always liked women who is strong enough to protect herself and confident enough to not to be taken advantage of. So he won't deny his interest in girl in front of him either, since Hancock he know was epitome of strong and confident woman. But Roy will not start to pursue her just based on what he saw on screen.

This is now reality after all, hold of Fate, Destiny and Karma is loosened to almost none, so anything can happen. And the fact Sandersonia has normal head instead of watermelon shaped one is biggest proof of that.

Hearing his words dim eyes of girl finally focused on boy in front of her. He had ashen blonde hair and unusaully sharp gaze, furthermore his features were undoubtedly masculine but it gives pleasant feeling when one look at him.

To be honest Hancock noticed this unusually calm boy from the moment he was stuffed into cage while they were on the way here. But she brushed it off after that. Her plate was already full as it is after all.

She and her sisters were with slavers almost month and it was nightmare for her and her sisters. Slavers did feed them aplenty but if anyone of them disobey, her sisters will be beaten. If she tries to escape her sisters will be beaten, if she refuses to eat her sisters will be beaten, if she complain her sisters will be beaten, even if she was obedient they will still beat her sisters at least once a day in front of her.

They had sturdy body compared to ordinary children, but that didn't mean they feels less pain. Even if she beg for it they won't even touch her roughtly while beating her sisters instead of her. It wore down her spirit.

When thay came to Auction House at Grove 1 of Sabaody Archipelago she fell into despair. Hancock felt truly helpless and world seemed to lost its color. She wanted to run away with her sisters, but she was powerless to do anything.

So when she heard word 'escape' from mouth of boy she was irritated. Hancock was thinking of ways to escape with her sisters but she can't and now they are already in Auction House famous for slave trade!

Hancock was about to lash out at him but she suddenly stopped. Because she felt absolute confidence from him that makes it impossible to doubt or refute him. Like, his words are absolute truth, she once felt this way, that was when she was in front of Empress of the Tribe. This extreme confidence is what she admired about Empress, so she decided to at least listen to him.

Unknown to her and himself, Roy actually subconsciously added Haoshoku in his words because he wanted to sound reliable to Hancock.

"Why do you ask?" Hancock asked with slightly dazed expression. While she didn't show it Roy can feel she is wary of him. But he didn't care.

"Just answer. Do you want to escape?" Roy asked with serious face.

"What do you mean by 'just answer'? Of course I want to escape! I don't want to be here! I don't want my sisters to be here either!" finally not being able to bear it Hancock cried out. She really couldn't withstand it anymore! Her spirit was grinded in mental torture for almost month and boy in front of her was just last straw it needed.

"That's all I need to know" Roy said softly. He didn't mind her outburst as it was understandable.

'Totally not because I was too socially awkward to react any other way! Yup! Defininetly not!' or so he comforted himself.

Without any further ado he touched his own collar. Moment his finger touched collar few runic letters flashed on it before it fell from his necks on its own! His cuffs did same shortly after that.

Without giving bewildered girl any chance of recovering he opened cage that meant to imprison him like he owned it and walked closer to cage that contained sisters.

All of this shook little Hancock to core! While she heard lots of stories about devil fruit and its mysterious powers during her 'ride' with slave traders, she never heard of magical power like this!

While little girl was questioning her reality Roy opened cage and walked closer to her and smiled brightly(as bright as cocky looking smirk can be) before reaching his hand out to her.

Before she could even react same thing happened to her collar and cuffs. And then Roy freed her unconscious sisters too.

She was unsure of intention of boy in front of her, but she knew for sure her life will change after this. For worse or better Hancock didn't know but at least she knew it is better than waiting to be sold off and hoping person who bought her and her sisters will be better than most.

>\/<

'Why no one has noticed us?' Hancock thought while looking around. Even though they are walking right in front of them none of slaves or guards seems to notice them.

But she put her questions aside since right now it is more important to run away as fast as they can. Even now she can't believe they are running away just like that. It feels like dream and she will wake up from this at any moment, so she kept quiet while running as fast as she can.

Hancock was afraid all of this is dream and she will open her eyes in cage again.

>P.O.V Roy<

We easily escaped from Auction House since I used my own runic version of notice-me-not charm on myself and sisters. By the time we came out it was already dark outside.

"Follow me." was all I can say while looking at Hancock who is carrying Marigold on her back. Well, since I'm carrying Sandersonia she will follow me without being told though.

"Where are we going?" even though I saved them Hancock's voice was still wary. Good, she is not naïve enough to follow me without question.

"To grove 21. I have shelter there. You can stay there until you can plan what to do next." I told her while running slightly faster than her.

She was strangely quiet after that for sometime and I didn't know how to start conversation.

So we quietly made our way to grove 21. From there I led her to non-suspectable tree.

When I came in front of ordinary looking tree Hancock was giving me skeptical look. Seeing that I just sent energy from my hand to tree.

As soon as my hand touched tree cyan colored magic formation came to life and there was wooden door before us.

When Hancock saw formation came to life her eyes widened in massive propotion. It looked so cute on her I can't help but chuckle at sight. Hearing my chuckle Hancock immediately came out of daze and slightly blushed.

Not wanting to embarrass her anymore I opened the door. What awaited us behind it was little cozy house I made by hollowing out big tree. Everything in this house made from wood from the time I hollowed it and furniture was what I bought with money I 'borrowed' from pirates or earned by 'selling' myself.

In Sabaody Archipelago grove 1-29 is lawless area where pirates and bounty hunters run amok. Because of that it is very easy to hide here, specially when I have formations to hide my little shelter. I just have to use store energy in jewel to power formation when I'm not here.

Without giving her chance to speak I have made my way to bedroom on second floor. Hancock hurried after me with still awed expression.

"Here is enough bed for you and your sisters, so sleep for today. You should be tired after what you went through, we can talk tommorow." I told her and left her sisters in my guestroom.

'I should sleep too...' I thought while heading to my own bedroom.

Anyway, now I brought them home, so I have to think about how to contact with Kuja pirates without being mistaken as kidnapper.

"Argh, that's why I hate anything with intelligence!" I grumbled in flustration.

Calm, calm! We are here to fix this problem and Boa sisters might as well be good start. If not I can wait few years for Luffy as well. If it is Strawhats I'm sure they will be good start for socializing. And even if their personalities changed from what I know I can easily wait for decade or two.

'Ahh, no matter how I look at this I'm too passive…' I grimaced while diving face first into bed.

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