Chapter 30. Unrecognisable Mountain

"Empress, we have caught up to them now." Boa Marigold, a redheaded, 4,32 m tall woman said to her older sister, Boa Hancock, the captain of the Kuja Pirates.

"Hmph, after this we hunt down the Marines that sent us a distress signal for help." Boa Hancock said irrationally.

"He's just a weakling with 5 ships." Boa Sandersonia, a 4.5 m tall girl, and the youngest sister of Hancock said.

"Let's handle this rookie first and loot him, then kill the marine captain!" Hancock commanded in a cold voice.

"Yes Empress!" Both accepted as Hancock went into her captain's cabin, leaving the work for her two trusted sisters.

After a while, the Demon Ace pirates raised their sails as the ship crossed paths with the Perfume Yuda, pirate ship of Kuja pirates.

Ace stood at deck with his crewmembers around him and soon, the Perfume Yuda stopped beside their ship.

"We are the Kuja pirates, disgusting men, give up your loot willingly and we'll let you live." Boa Marigold said. Sandersonia stood beside her.

Ace stepped forward.

"Kuja pirates, bring your captain here, let me speak with her!" Ace said with a smile.

"You dare speak so insolently?" Sandersonia instantly got angry. A rookie thinks he can speak with the Amazon Empress just because he wants to?

"Arrows, ready!" Marigold suddenly shouted. And before the Demon Ace Pirate could even understand what's going on, the Perfume Yuda filled with female Amazon warriors with bows and arrows, all aimed the Demon Ace pirates.

Ace felt all the arrows filled with armament haki. This surprised him that all the Kuja pirates could use Haki that well. He looked his crewmates and saw on their expressions that they all noticed the Haki as well.

"The Kuja pirate live up to the rumors!" Ace laughed.

"I'm afraid that our Empress-sama won't be showing herself to you today!" A shorthaired Amazon warriors said in a smirk.

"Look at them, it's always weird seing something as unsightly as men!" Another one commented. Their island had no men, so it was very rare for them to see the opppwite gender.

"You men! You men,you men have no grace at all!" A little shorties said, she looked like a weird baby with a big head.

"Zihihihi To think we had to waste time sailing here, to handle these punks, it's all because as a warlord, our captain is forced to at least do one mission for the Marines every 6 months!" Another lamented.

Marigold and Sandersonia just frowned at how Ace wasn't taking this seriously. They despised men, and even more so, men that looked down on them.

"You 11 evil spawns will soon understand what it means to be the target of our arrows." One of the Kuja Warriors threatened.

"11?" Ace repeated as he looked around, shouldn't it be 12? Indeed, Apoo had once again disappeared.

Scratchmen Apoo was one of his strongest nakama, but also one of his most cowardly.

"Apoo!" Ace barked.

Suddenly, a door opened as Apoo walked out while scratching his head nervously.

"I... Needed to go to the toilet!" He lied.

Ace turned the Kuja pirates with pride.

"See, we are 12!" He said with a smile, as if he had gained something by their wrong count.

"Hmph, captain these fools actually think there's someone more beautiful than me on this sea, beat them up for me!" Cavendish said as he pointed while hiding his face behind his other hand.

The Kuja weren't entertainment by him, instead they got ready to kill.

"Kill." Marigold coldly commanded.

Everyone was just about to release their arrows, but just as the command was given, a big slam was heard from behind the Kuja pirates.

They halted their actions and looked back, there they saw their Captain, Empress Boa Hancock getting out of her captains cabin.

Seeing how she chose to showcase herself today, they assumed that she had some commands for them, as such they waited for her word.

Boa Hancock walked to the ships railing and her eyes gazed over all the Demon Ace Pirates before falling on Ace.

She had felt the haki of a someone strong, and that's why she came out.

As she stared at Ace, there was an obvious scowl on her face as she even tilted her head slightly upwards.

All the Demon Ace pirates dropped their jaws when they saw her. No one had seen something so beautiful before.

"Ah, she's so pretty, to bad she doesn't have enough muscles!" Urouge commented.

"No, it would be better if she had a yellow afro, so near perfection." Yennow said with hearts in his eyes.

"You're all mistaken, her perfection could only be greater with spiky hair!" Spikewards said as he had started drooling.

"No no, she's perfect!" Gaga said as her eyes were the shape of hearts.

In fact, all of them were almost hypnotized.

Ace was the only one that was looking at her normally.

He had to agree that aesthetically, she was indeed the most beautiful person he had seen, in fact, he was confident that he wouldn't meet someone as beautiful as her ever again. That's how good she looked.

However, he saw the coldness and disgust in her eyes as their gaze met, and suddenly she didn't seem like all that.

"To think you would not try to escape, how foolish." She commented.

"The foolish is the one that doesn't recognise the mountain.... No wait?" Ace tried sounding wise, but he failed.

"No, I meant the mountain is the foolish tai!... Erm....."

"NO NO! WAIT, THE FOLISH MOUNTAIN TAI DIDNT RECOGNIZE ME!" Ace started panicking slightly as he felt like he was almost there. He had forgotten the saying, but it was right there on his tongue.

Just as he was about to try again, he got cut off by the Empress.

"Enough, I have no intention helping the Marines defeat you." She stated as if she was sparing nobodies.

Apoo and Nami sighed, but in contrast, Gaga seemed slightly disappointed.

"However, I would like you to handover your cargo!" She finished.

"I don't wanna!" Ace chuckled, not afraid of them at all.

But he suddenly lost his composure when he found Ronaldino, Nami, Yennow, Spikewards and Gaga carrying over their loot and cargo with hearts in their eyes.

Suddenly a small a wave conquerors haki bursts out from Ace and awakened them from their trance.

"Take those back." Ace commanded somewhat coldly, not happy at all that the Empress could command others with her beauty.

His Nakama seemed confused at first, then horrified by their actions as they turned around after realising what they were doing.

Ace frowned. Was her devil fruit so strong that it could control others minds that easily?

Her devil fruit is much scarier than he originally thought. He hadn't even notice her using it at all.