A love worth dying for!

"Hmm~. Luffy?"

Hancock woke up the next morning and realized Luffy wasn't next to her.

She looked around and spotted something in a corner of the cave.

It was limp, drowning in a black aura, and looked like it lost all hope.

Hancock cautiously approached the personification of despair.

"....Luffy?"

Luffy's body went limp all the way down to the ground when Hancock called his name.

"It's hopeless. It's all hopeless."

Luffy spoke with a low and pitiful voice. It made Hancock concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"What's the meaning of life?"

"Eh?"

Hancock looked at Luffy with dumbfound expression. She didn't expect to hear such a question from him.

"We all die anyway. Just like Ace and Sabo."

He sounded like an overly emotional teen. It was definitely the effect of the flower.

"Um, Luffy?"

"Sigh~. Living is so troublesome. I even tried committing suicide but it didn't work."

"Suicide?!"

"Yeah, I tried hanging but my neck just kept stretching. I tried jumping off a cliff but it didn't even hurt. I would try drowning but that's probably going to hurt, so I gave up. Sigh~ suicide is such a pain."

Luffy causally spoke a series of dangerous sentences, which made Hancock's head spin.

"Luffy, I don't want you to do anything like suicide again."

"Ah, I wish I was born a fly. Then I would die a couple of days after I was born."

Luffy ignored Hancock and continue to negatively and lazily complain.

He was like an ambitionless person, whose only reason he's still alive is because he's too lazy to properly commit suicide. And the type to stay home and complain all day.

In other words, a real pain in the ass.

'I swear. When I get home, I'm issuing a ban and eradication on all Mood Swing Flowers.'

Hancock thought.

She still didn't know him long, but she can tell that the current Luffy will be the most troublesome.

"Luffy, aren't you suppose to resume your training today?"

Luffy told Hancock that he was only taking a day off from training to rest. That one-day period is up. Even though he underwent 4 personality changes in the last 24 hours, Hancock couldn't allow him to waste his time lazying around.

"Training? Not doing it. Too much trouble. I just wanna lay here and whither away like a dried-up flower."

'Wow. So negative.'

"Then what about becoming stronger so that you can protect your friends?"

The lump of negativity finally turned his head and look at her.

"I'm still going to protect them."

'Well, at least he still cherishes his friends.'

Over the events of yesterday, Hancock was able to confirm that Luffy was still the same, but was only in a drunken state.

The flirty drunk.

The angry drunk.

The emotional drunk.

And finally, the gave up on all hope drunk.

Luffy has experienced all four of these states.

"I want to protect them, but at the same time, life is too tiresome. Brook is lucky. He got to die and come back again. I want to be a talking skeleton too...."

"......."

Hancock didn't know how to deal with someone like this, so she just stared at him.

"What should I do? He's completely unmotivated....Huh?"

While she was trying to figure out a way to motivate Luffy, Hancock sensed that they were suddenly surrounded.

"30? No, more than 50."

Hancock was reminded that this was an island that didn't sleep. The monsters will continuously try to dominate each other. So, it wasn't a place they could relax for long.

"But, why are they surrounding the cave? Luffy said that monsters tend to avoid this cave, so why now?"

As if to answer her question, the ground suddenly started shaking.

"An earthquake?!"

But, that wasn't it.

The ground inside the cave started to heat up. The walls started oozing a slimy liquid. The stones on the ceiling lost all of its light. And a foul smell was coming from deep within the cave.

"I-It can't be.....the cave is alive?!"

The cave that didn't have a presence before now feels like the insides of a great beast.

"Luffy!"

Hancock grabbed Luffy by the collar and quickly ran out of the cave. The cave entrance was closed shut by sharp fangs, not even moments later. Hancock stared in shock, as the cave started to undergo a sudden change.

The rocks covering it began to crumble, and hard black scales could be seen. It began to raise higher, accompanied by the ground being ripped open.

Hancock watched as limbs so big that they looked like a completely different giant monster, raise from out of the ground. Its claws were red as if they were stained in blood. Its eyes were gold and ferocious. Its fangs looked like they could rip apart anything in this world. Its scaly tail was so long, that looked like it measures a mile.

"W-What the hell is that thing?!"

Hancock could finally speak only after the beast made its presence known.

"Oh, it's King. I was wondering where he went. So, he was sleeping this past year."

Luffy spoke nonchalantly as he looked at the beast with uninterested eyes.

"King? Luffy, what is that demonic beast?!"

"Its name is King. Like Boss C and Queen, it's one of the bosses of the island. However, he's probably the strongest monster here. It even gave Rayleigh a really hard time. He kept complaining that if he was just a few years younger then it would've been a piece of cake. He sounded really frustrated."

It is the strongest beast on the island, Hancock could instantly believe it.

The first thing that came to her mind when she saw the black scaly monster was Death.

"Lu-?!"

Hancock was going to call out to Luffy, but she then notice that something was targeting him.

She quickly turned around and block an attack with her leg.

It was a golden stinger.

"Queen?!"

It was the Winter Bee Queen. It looks like she was still trying to kill Luffy for what happened yesterday. Queen distanced herself when she saw that her surprise attack failed. When Hancock looked around, she saw that they were surrounded by Winter Bees.

Not only that, there were dozens of other monsters surrounding King. It was like they all came to pay their respects.

The monster that block out the sun, didn't make a sound after it woke up. It just stared at the other beast with uninterested eyes.

"Rayleigh says, King seems to be some kind of wingless dragon. He said that it's really prideful and doesn't attack those that look weak."

"So you're saying that it thinks that we aren't worth the trouble and will just ignore us? I should be glad, but instead, I'm offended."

When Hancock glared at it, the monster just turned around and left.

Hancock was both relieved and frustrated by that. But, she didn't have the luxury to stay that way for long.

"BZZZZZZZZ!"

"Roar!"

The Winter Bees and the other monsters were closing in on Hancock and Luffy.

"I see. So the reason Queen turned back yesterday was that she fears the king. And now, that he's gone she's going to have her revenge, huh?"

Hancock looked at monsters and gritted her teeth.

"All of you plan to gang up on Luffy when he's defenseless? Over my dead body!"

All the monsters charged all at once.

Hancock met them head-on.

"Know your place!"

She kicked 3 bees that attacked her from her right and turned them into stone.

A pack of Snow Wolves pounced at Luffy who was behind her. She cut in and attacked them with lightning-fast kicks. A gorilla tried to sneak up behind her, but she quickly spun around and sent it flying with another kick.

"Slave Arrow!"

She jumped in the air and sent a shower of heart-shaped arrows at the surrounding beasts.

Around 20 of them turned to stone.

But, more was approaching fast.

'There's no end to this. The more I take down the more keep coming. Not to mention.."

Even while fighting, Hancock made sure to watch Queen's movement. She floated in the air and watched from above while the other monsters ganged up on Hancock.

'That thing is smart. It's waiting for the right opportunity to strike. If that's the case..'

"Luffy, we're running!"

Hancock grabbed Luffy's hand and dashed off. The beasts followed. Luffy wasn't running with all of his strength so Hancock had to drag him.

"Luffy, I understand that you're still under the influence of the flower, but I need you to help me out!"

"I want to, but isn't this situation already hopeless? Even if we beat these guys, there's no way to beat King. So, what's the point?"

Luffy still lacked the motivation to do anything.

"We can beat him! If it's the two of us it won't be a problem!"

Two saber-tooth tigers pounced from behind a tree and tried to ambush Hancock. She kicked one in the face but the other one was able to bite her leg.

"Ugh?! S-Slave Arrow!"

She turned it to stone and broke it. She continued to run with Luffy but she was moving too slow.

'My leg hurts! We can't outrun them like this!'

Hancock quickly assessed that the monsters would catch up to them if they continued this way. The two of them can't escape. Hancock was injured and Luffy was not himself. Not to mention that a really powerful beast was waiting to strike them down. It was the worst scenario.

'One of us needs to stall them while the other escapes!'

Only one can escape. The other will most likely perish.

Who should abandon who? Hancock didn't even need a second to make her decision.

"Listen, Luffy! Only one of us will probably escape! The other needs to sacrifice themselves!"

"Then throw me at them. I don't want to live anyway."

"No way!"

Hancock stopped and looked at Luffy.

"Listen to me, Luffy! You're going to protect your friends in the New World, right? You're going to go on a lot of amazing adventures and meet a lot of amazing people! You can't afford to be killed here!"

Hancock smiled at Luffy and spoke as if to let the whole island hear her.

"You're the man who will become the Pirate King! So you need to live! Even if I can't be your queen!"

Hancock kissed Luffy on the forehead. Before he could respond, she grabbed him by one hand and threw with all of her strength.

"Wha?! Hancock?!"

Luffy was sent flying far away.

When she sensed that he was out of the danger zone, Hancock turned and faced the stampede of beasts charging at her.

".....Even though I said all of that, I still didn't dare to steal his lips. Love is strange, huh Granny?"

Winter Bees, gorillas, bears, Tigers, elephants, wolves, etc. All of these and more were approaching Hancock.

However, she didn't cower in fear or shed a tear. She smiled fearlessly at them and declared.

"I am Boa Hancock! Queen of Amazon Lily! One of the seven warlords of the sea! The Pirate Empress! And captain of the Kuja Pirates!"

Her smile turned into a self-mocking grin.

"But none of those titles matter! Because the one title I wanted the most was outside my reach!"

If you asked her if she had any regrets, she would surely say she had a lot. But, none of that matters now.

"So, I'm going to be the immature brat I really am and throw the biggest tantrum in history!"

Hancock stood her ground without hesitation or fear. Only love in her heart.

"LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD!"

As if chanting a mantra, Boa Hancock's battle of desperation had begun.