Not Strong Enough [One Piece| Luffy X OC]

07: Boa Hancock's visit

It was quiet in the Impel Down.

The only occasional voices from the prisoners were complaining about the lack of food, being bored, or even being cold. Or the jailors. The clothes were sufficient to last the prisoners, including Mana's, but not from suddenly dropping temperature. Her own cell was quiet as well. Both Ace and Mana were too exhausted (too drained from energy) to muster up any sort of strength. Jinbei seemed to be okay. He'd been here the least amount of time.

Unlike both Ace and Jinebi, Mana was used to the darkness - she'd spent most of her childhood, restricted and a slave to the worst Tenryuubito she knew. Although, it didn't mean that she likes the darkness. In fact, Mana hates it.

Back at Moby Dick, Mana always slept with a light on (Ace had once asked her why and she'd told him, after lots of pestering from his part. He hadn't been happy, far from it). At some point, Mana had started to hallucinate herself back at MarieJois - the scents, the voices, the darkness, and the handcuffs on her wrists took her back to that time.

The chains moved as her body convulsed.

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It wasn't long after Mana was trapped in her memories that they had an unexpected visitor. She was unable to recall anything related to the plot. She didn't even feel like opening the said Pandora's box (as she'd named it).

The previously calm atmosphere was broken by loud leering from the prisoners, whispering something she couldn't comprehend. Cautiously, Mana cracked open her purple eyes and blinked upon finding a familiar woman staring at her.

The Empress of the Sea, the Kuja Princess - Boa Hancock - stood in front of their cell.

She wasn't alone but accompanied by the Warden, the idiot Vice-Warden, and a strangely familiar purple-haired Marine officer.

"Tsk," Mana grimaced, wondering what it was that had brought him here. Her purple eyes glanced at both Ace and Jinbei, who had similar expressions on their faces.

"You've got a special visitor, Ace, Mana."

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Most pirates had heard of the Blackbird Mana, the Vice-Captain of the 16th Division in the Whitebeard Pirates, and a prominent member of the underground world. Thus, when Luffy told Boa Hancock about wanting to save both his older brother, Ace and Mana, a woman he saw as his first crew member - she couldn't help but be surprised.

The woman was surrounded by stories that had reached even Hancock, and not all of them were good. And yet, it would seem that Luffy didn't care for it - he was determined to save them both. It irritated Boa Hancock to no end, the fact that he'd be so keen to save a woman, who not only had run away from him but hadn't seen him in the past ten years.

She couldn't understand it. She refused to!

But nothing had prepared her for the sight that stood in front of her. All former slaves, at least those who'd been in the MarieJois, had heard stories about a slave, who had never been outside - she'd been claimed to have been born in captivity. Boa Hancock remembers the escape. She'd seen a Fishman breaking them all out - all while carrying a small child with him. She'd managed to see the child's eyes, finding them to be shockingly purple.

Exactly like Mana's eyes that were looking at her curiously, alarmed.

The Sun-shaped red tattoo on her left shoulder confirmed the girl's identity.

"What do you want from us?" It was Ace's voice that finally snapped Boa Hancock out of her unexpected trance. However, the look in Mana's purple eyes would haunt Hancock.

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"Nothing, I just wanted to look at you two only. Because you both will be the cause of the war that I'll participate in," the words she spoke felt strangely odd. It took Mana a minute to realise that she wasn't talking only about Ace.

She was included. A change that wasn't supposed to happen. Mana was never supposed to become essential to the plot. It's the very reason she ran from Luffy when he asked her to join his crew as a kid.

But hadn't she already become as important as Ace was? By being sentenced to death - being held as a prisoner in Impel Down around the same time - ?! Wait!

Her memories of MarieJois were slowly being replaced by the story of One Piece. The one from Before.

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"The Snake Princess, who has rejected all the calls," Jinbei spoke up, looking at the woman with evident distrust. And confusion, he couldn't understand why she was there. Not to mention the fact that the Empress had suddenly decided to join the war. "But you're suddenly joining the war? Is it because you're suddenly interested in keeping your Shichibukai position?"

He'd seen the look the Empress gave Mana, the girl he'd abandoned. It unsettled him.

Behind them, chaos had erupted due to the appearance of Boa Hancock - the prisoners were demanding her to come closer, to let them see her closer, and spouted nonsense towards the Warden. It got bad enough that the attention went from the three infamous prisoners to their fellow prisoners - and Boa Hancock used it as a chance to whisper the words that neither Ace nor Mana expected to hear.

Ace paled, and Mana felt her heart drop.

"Is it true what you just said?!" Ace demanded in shock and fear. His voice was hoarse but emotional due to the shocking news from the Empress of the Sea. Mana's purple eyes narrowed, knowing that it wasn't a lie.

The Future Pirate King was reckless like that, even as a kid. A fact both Ace and Mana knew well.

"What reason do I have to lie?" Hancock responded, glancing at Mana before pretending she wasn't interested in her. She turned around, ignoring the Warden's inquiry about what they'd said. She'd done her job. She'd relayed Luffy's message to the two.

The look on Mana's face...the look on Ace's - they didn't match. One was that of shock, while another had that of resignation.

"Ace-san, what did that woman tell you?" Jinbei asked, watching the group walking away from them, sounding cautious and wary.

"She said that my little brother is here to save us both."