Chapter 32. World Celestial

Ace finally understood how the heart formed waves from Hancock's devil fruit ability worked. It only worked on those whose heart felt adoration for her beauty, they would turn into stone.

And if he guessed correctly, her devil fruit made her radiate an aura that made those around her adore her lovingly, maybe it was pheromones. Or a combination.

But after seeing her, a person's heart would be moved, and then her waves could turn them into stone.

Ace suspected that his conquerors haki was the reason why he was able to avoid it but looking at Law, he felt uncertain.

Law's haki is way weaker than Hancock's, while Ace's is stronger.

"Do not be ridiculous sister! No one's heart could be exempt from being moved by your beauty! No Male nor female, no child nor adult, no human nor beast!" Marigold shouted.

"His fear must have overtaken his wicked desires!" Sandersonia tried to give an explanation, but she sounded completely doubtful of her own words as she spoke them.

Seing his face, and having felt his Haki, all of three sisters felt nervousness in their hearts.

"How did you know THAT secret?" Hancock finally spoke, slowly regaining her arrogance.

"Does it matter."

"In the end, you will also forgive me... Won't you?" Hancock asked with a soft tone that's ould turn any man's heart.

"You really are annoying." Ace said... But he didn't have his normal happy grin that one would normally see on him, rather, his eyes are covered by his hat as he seemed somewhat cold.

Honestly, Ace remembered from the manga that this woman would become a friend of his brother so he believed that they could've parted on good terms. Luffyhad an eye for those with kind souls.

But seeing her behaviour, he realised that he must remember the story wrongly, maybe they had just worked together to accomplish their goals.

Hancock had turned out to be someone he really wants to bet up, he found himself very annoyed and frustrated.

Yet his words once agait surprised the trio. They believed that after all this, he would finally fall for her devil fruits abilities but they now realise that Hancocks devil fruit is useless on this man.

They realised that they would have to kill him directly to keep their secret.

Luckily, Hancock had used her Haki to put the Kuja to sleep, so they didn't hear any of they conversation so far.

Hancock was just about to to tell her sisters to attack, but in the distance a sound was heard.

"Disgusting pirates, prepare to welcome world noble Saint Matlevo!" A voice echoed from a world government ship that was sailing towards them.

Ace and the Boa siblings all turned their sights towards the ship that was sailing towards them.

Ace felt the complicated situation get even more complicated. He had to make sure that Boa Hancock turned his Nakama back into living human beings.

As for the Boa sisters, usually, they stayed clear of World Nobles as they had a secret history with the world nobles, that they wish would never come to light.

Boa sisters had once, as children, been taken slaves by the world nobles. They later escaped and hid away their identities as slaves.

If it comes out that they were slaves, the whole world government and the Marines will go after them with all their might.

In fact, Amazon Lily will most likely get completely annihilated as they hid world government slaves and even made one of them their queen.

That's why, Usually, Boa Hancock would rarely even visit marineford. She just did the bare minimum so she could keep her warlord title. And so far, she had succeeded in hiding her identity as a former slave.

Normally she would have escaped by now, but because of the fact that Ace knew her former identity, she couldn't leave.

Ace had to be silenced.

The Boa sisters looked stressed.

"Listen, neither of us want anything to do with those, so just turn my Nakama back and we can avoid unnecessary problems." Ace said.

He didn't really care wether the world noble reached them or not. Sooner or later, he would declare war on them anyways.

But seing how stressed the Boa sisters were, he hoped that he could make them agree to turning back his Nakama.

"How can we trust you, a man??" Marigold spat out in anger.

"As soon as you get what you want, you'll spill our secret to the world noble in exchange of them letting your crew go." Sandersonia added in distrust.

Hancock didn't say anything, she just stared at Ace with clear distrust and disgust.

But this time, with them knowing that he knows their secret. And the fact that a world Noble is just a hundred meters away, Ace could clearly see despair in their eyes.

He understood now why they were so arrogant, annoying, aggressive and temperamental. It seemed like it was their way of acting strong, by becoming a force of fear for those that come near.

But in fact, no matter of strong they are physically, it seemed like they have deep trauma that haunts them.

Ace and Hancock stared at eachother, as if waiting for the other to break.

The two sisters became more nervous for every second as the World Government ship closed in on them.

"Warlord Boa Hancock! Hmph, you dare to be 1 percent as beautiful as a celestial dragon?" Suddenly whimpy, but arrogant voice was heard by them as the world government ship stopped beside their ships. And there stood a world Noble, also called Celestial dragons.

He was tall and fat, with long white robes. On his head he had a round glass helmet that protected him from the air that the commoners breathe.

Now, three ships stood still right beside eachother.

As soon as the world government ship was close enough that you could speak with them from another ship, Ace noticed that Boa Hancock's face hardened as an emotionless, cold demeanour once again graced her face.

It seemed like all her nervousness and weakness had disappeared and an arrogance equal to the world noble came forth.

"I Boa Hancock, Warlord of the sea, am conducting my marine responsibilities here. For what reason have you disturbed my work?" She asked coldly.

Ace noticed how she mentioned that she is a warlord, meaning that she works for the Marines, and is conducting business for them right now.

'She's smarter than she looks' Ace realised as he noticed how her word basically said 'I am working for you right now. Leave so I can continue my work' that way, she might be able to turn away attention from herself.

"Tsk, dare to talk back? Now that I look at you..." The world Noble said as he gazed at Ace and all the others before finally stopping at Hancock again.

"Kill all of them and take that girl in as a slave." The world Noble commanded to the one beside him.

-~-~-~-~-~-~

So I had a few comments regarding how things played out in the last chapters. And I'll explain it a bit more so it makes sense.

First of all, Ace didn't really consider her a true enemy, since he remembered that she and Luffy was friend in the anime, which would mean that she is a good person in his mind. He learnt his lesson.

Number two, it is actually canon that there are a few devil fruit abilities that can bypass Haki. For example, Kaidou's physique was super strong, but it was his devil fruit abiltity that made him invulnerable, to the point that even Haki can't harm him, this is canon and is confirmed in the Wano arc 909-1035.

I reread the Amazon Lily arc and realised that Hancock's devil fruit ability is way more OP than I remember. I used to hate that devil fruit but now I think it's up there with the strongest fruits.

Then why did it seem so unimpressive in my memories? It's probably because this was before the time skip. There's a huge difference between the power scaling in one piece, before and after the time skip.

Just reread the Marineford arc again and all of them seemed quite.... Unimpressive compared to after the time skip.

Just look at Whitebeard in marineford and Whitebeard in the flashback we got after the time skip.

Hancock is one of the few people with conquerors haki and I do believe she's stronger than Doflamingo, but that is just assumption because we haven't seen her fight seriously.