A little while after dinner with Hancock and the others, we relocated to a deserted island near Amazon Lily.
To be clear, it wasn't that animal-filled island where Luffy trained with Rayleigh in the original story. This was a different one—mostly barren, with only a few scattered trees and not a single sign of habitation.
No edible animals. No fresh water worth mentioning. Nothing that could sustain life.
Which was exactly why it was ideal for a one-on-one duel.
On that desolate shore, Hancock and I faced each other from a short distance away.
Hancock stood bare-handed.
I held my usual Japanese umbrella.
Farther back, Sandersonia, Marigold, and Elder Nyon watched as referees.
And there was Hancock's companion too—that skull-headed snake… what was its name again?
"Hm. Now then—are both sides ready?" Elder Nyon asked.
"Mm," Hancock replied.
"Whenever you are," I said.
Elder Nyon cleared her throat at our answers.
"Very well. Let us confirm the rules. This will be a one-on-one duel with no restrictions on weapons. The match ends when one combatant is incapacitated—either knocked out, or by admitting defeat. I will serve as judge, and my ruling will be final. Both of you will abide by these rules."
Hancock and I nodded.
Elder Nyon lifted her staff.
"Then… begin!"
And so the duel finally started.
But before we get to that, we need to rewind a little—to how we ended up here at all.
---
Even if it wasn't completely out of nowhere, Hancock challenging me to a duel left me just as stunned as her sudden recruitment attempt.
Fortunately, I recovered quickly enough to ask the obvious question right away.
"Um… so you're saying this is a 'if you lose, you join my crew' kind of thing?"
For a split second, I'd imagined she might be proposing something like a Davy Back Fight—Hancock refusing to give up and trying to force the issue through a game.
But she shook her head.
"No. That isn't it," she said. "This isn't about winning and losing for its own sake. I want you to fight me seriously. Without holding back. Not like our usual sparring—where you restrain your strength or your powers. I mean a true fight. Full strength."
Then she continued, calm and direct.
"As I said earlier, the life of a pirate has never appealed to you. You avoid it by choice. By your values."
Hancock wouldn't trample my wishes. She wouldn't force me into piracy and pretend my feelings didn't matter.
But she still wanted me under her command.
So what was she going to do?
Simple.
Change my mind.
Make me believe that being a pirate—being a pirate alongside her—might not be so bad.
More precisely, if she could make me think that sailing with Hancock as a pirate would be enjoyable… that reconsidering my stance would be worth it… then everything would fall into place.
That was what she believed.
And the method she chose was exactly what you'd expect from the Kuja's strongest warrior.
"Sue," she said, unwavering, "you will fall in love with me."
"…Huh?" My brain stalled. "What… exactly does that mean?"
"Not by using my Love-Love Fruit," Hancock said immediately. "Though many foolish pirates try to force such things, believing my power works that way. This is different."
Her gaze didn't waver.
"It will be done according to Kuja custom and values. And most importantly—according to my own principles."
Among the Kuja, strength is beauty. Strength is dignity. It is the core of their warrior culture.
That was why Hancock—the strongest woman on the island, and the most beautiful—was revered beyond all others. Her unmatched power earned her respect and admiration from every Kuja warrior.
For her, strength was the most immediate, undeniable proof of worth.
"To put it simply," she continued, "if I can make you believe that following me is desirable—if I can make you accept that living as a pirate under my command is not only tolerable, but worthwhile—then I will have won you over. I must inspire such admiration that you discard even your own deeply ingrained values."
Her voice was steady. Certain.
"The duel is merely the method. A means to demonstrate strength. A way to show you what I am."
"I see," I said slowly. "So you're confident you've become strong enough to make me believe it."
"Of course." Hancock's tone didn't soften. "I have not been idle these past few years. I have honed my body, my powers, and my Haki every day. I can say this without hesitation: I would not lose to you."
"…So that's why you didn't spar with me yesterday," I murmured. "Even though we finally had the chance."
Whenever I visited Amazon Lily, we would always exchange mock battles. Yesterday, though, the only fight had been between Sandersonia and Marigold, while Hancock merely watched—referee and spectator.
I'd wondered if she was tired.
Now I understood.
It had been a long time since I last came here. With such a gap, I had no way of knowing what Hancock had learned—how much stronger she'd become.
And this wasn't a playful spar.
This was a real duel—more practical, more dangerous, far closer to an actual battle.
For the first time in a long time… I might be seeing Hancock at full power.
Things have certainly taken a turn, I thought—dangerous, yes…
…and yet, part of me couldn't deny it.
I was pleased.
It was impossible to ignore how fiercely she wanted me. The sheer intensity behind her pursuit.
Even now, waiting for my answer, Hancock's gaze never wavered—earnest, unwavering, almost raw in its honesty.
"…Alright," I said. "I'll do it."
Since it had come to this… even though I wasn't some battle junkie, I felt it too—the pull to answer her challenge. To meet her head-on.
And then time snapped back to the present.
The instant Elder Nyon signaled the start, Hancock moved first.
She blew a kiss—mwah!—and a heart-shaped mark materialized in front of her. She gripped it like a pistol, aimed straight at me, and declared—
"Pistol Kiss!"
Dokyun!
The heart-mark shot toward me with the force of a bullet.
Knowing exactly how dangerous it was, I snapped my Japanese umbrella open and braced behind it.
The impact jolted through the shaft.
…It shook. Just a little.
Her power's increased.
Forced to respond second, I counterattacked immediately.
Using the shadow of my umbrella to conceal my movement, I slipped several thin, ribbon-like strips of paper from my sleeve and hurled them like throwing knives.
"Paper Knife!"
Those paper shuriken had an edge sharper than poorly forged steel.
Hancock blew another kiss, forming a heart-mark and expanding it into a shield. It appeared for only an instant—then vanished.
My paper blades dropped limp to the ground.
In that fleeting exchange, we both understood.
Long-range attacks wouldn't decide this.
The next moment, we kicked off the ground at the same time, closing the distance—
Armament Haki surged.
My umbrella and her legs met with a violent clash.
Gakiin!
The metallic clang echoed across the barren island, shockwaves rippling through the air.
Neither of us gave ground. Our strength was perfectly balanced—
And then Hancock flowed aside, spinning with effortless grace and deflecting the force.
I was still pushing forward with full strength when Hancock went soft—limp—at exactly the wrong moment, throwing my timing off by a fraction.
That fraction was all she needed.
She rotated into a roundhouse kick aimed at my head.
I raised an Armament-coated forearm to block—
But it was a feint.
Her leg shifted mid-motion into a lunging stomp, closing the distance until she was nearly pressed against my chest.
Her knee drove into my solar plexus.
A split second earlier, I'd already turned my body to paper and dispersed, letting the strike pass through emptiness.
In the same flow, I reformed behind her and thrust my umbrella forward with a piercing drive, aiming to skewer her.
Hancock twisted away without even looking.
A hair's breadth.
Perfectly timed.
Relaxed.
Her movement made one thing painfully clear.
Her Observation Haki had been sharpened to an impressive level.
She came in again, a kick snapping toward my head—
I blocked with my umbrella—
"Perfume Femur!"
Her retreating leg lashed out with even greater force.
That kick carried the Love-Love Fruit's petrification. Without Armament Haki, any part of the body it struck would turn to stone and shatter. A technique as lethal as it was versatile.
My umbrella held out for only an instant.
Crack.
At the point of impact, stone spread—and shattered.
I had used Armament Haki, but it felt like her Haki pierced right through weaker reinforcement.
I clicked my tongue and drew the concealed blade within the umbrella.
Steel flashed.
This time I parried—kick after kick, strike after strike—deflecting her relentless Perfume Femur barrage with practiced precision.
And this time, I managed to block without being petrified.
She's trained. Her Armament Haki overwhelms weaker applications, and one careless moment will leave me stone.
Terrifying.
And even when my sword met her bare legs directly, Hancock didn't suffer so much as a scratch.
As expected.
Her Armament Haki was on another level entirely.
Hancock pressed forward, intent on ending it quickly. Petrification laced every motion. Every kick threatened to turn me into rubble.
Then, in the briefest sliver of opening between her strikes, I condensed a massive amount of paper in my palm—
"Lion Paper War Cry!"
A paper lion exploded forward the instant she lunged, leaving her no space to dodge. I didn't aim for her face—I aimed for her support leg. If she lost it while her other leg was raised, she'd fall.
Hancock understood instantly.
She sprang upward, flipping into the air to evade—and used the momentum to whip out a spinning kick mid-flight.
The paper lion took the blow.
It petrified.
And shattered.
But I was already moving.
Two paper lions—far larger than the first—rose on either side of me.
Above, swarms of paper birds wheeled and dove, their wings and beaks razor-sharp.
"Origami—Paper Knife Bird Funeral! Lion Paper Dance!"
"Slave Arrow!"
Hancock fired heart-shaped arrows in rapid succession. The paper birds dropped one after another, each one petrifying on impact and shattering as it hit the ground.
She evaded both lions and pierced them with more heart arrows. The struck areas turned to stone, but the lions' massive bodies resisted total petrification.
Hancock frowned and leaped back as the petrified sections broke away—yet the remaining paper flowed forward again, continuing the assault like liquid.
This time, she conjured another heart mark with a kiss.
A gun? An arrow?
I watched intently.
But it was neither.
"Sword Kiss!"
Hancock crushed the heart mark in her fist, and a pink blade of light extended from her hand—almost like a lightsaber.
I'd barely registered the new technique when the real shock hit.
"Burning with longing… Striking Flash!"
She swung once—clean, horizontal.
Both paper lions were severed.
I braced for petrification—
But fire erupted from the cuts.
The lions ignited, incinerating in an instant.
"Fire?!"
Since when could she do that?!
The Love-Love Fruit was supposed to petrify through charm, and manifest heart-shaped projectiles like arrows or bullets.
So why—
Elder Nyon's words surfaced in my mind, and then Hancock's voice followed, calm as if explaining something obvious.
"Elder Nyon told me love and passion are like a blazing inferno," Hancock said. "Sadly, I cannot comprehend such feelings myself. But the romance stories you sometimes write… have been quite helpful in fueling my imagination."
…So she replicated it.
And her sources were Elder Nyon and my books.
I write romance, sure, but I'm terrible at serious love stories. Most of them are lighthearted romantic comedies.
This is ridiculous.
Devil Fruit abilities are way too vague.
So basically anything even loosely tied to love and romance is fair game for the Love-Love Fruit?
Well… Devil Fruit powers do evolve depending on the user's aptitude and circumstances.
Sometimes abilities appear that never existed before—because the user believes they can make them exist.
Brook developing ice. Kaku's giraffe nonsense. Doflamingo's string clones by a pun.
Devil Fruit "logic" has always been… flexible.
And if I'm honest, since my own Awakening, I've developed techniques that feel equally unrestrained.
So maybe there's no point trying to rationalize it now.
"Besides," Hancock added, and there was something wistful in her tone, "simply watching Tesoro and Stella together gives me a clear image of what 'love' is like. Seeing them happy… feeling warmth in my chest when I watch them… it does not seem like something bad."
Then, quieter:
"Though it is not something I will ever experience myself."
Could that be it?
Could simply witnessing those emotions—brushing against them—have shaped her growth… and nudged her power into new territory?
Whatever the reason, this was bad.
Fire and heat were my greatest weaknesses as a Paper Human.
Wait.
Is Hancock becoming a fire type?
No—
Maybe that was exactly why she developed it.
"Things are about to get much tougher, Sue," Hancock said, stepping forward. The pink blade still glowed in her hand as she raised her leg, poised to strike.
"If you intend to surrender, do it now. Otherwise…"
Her gaze sharpened.
"You will burn. Literally."
My heartbeat slowed, mind turning cold and fast.
Could she apply that heat to her kicks too? To her projectiles—like an enchantment?
If so…
That was disastrous.
Better to assume she could.
Better to act like she already had.
Even though I hadn't planned for it, this duel was about to become far more dangerous.
Hancock was already stronger than she'd been in the original story.
And just as she warned, the battle against the Pirate Empress was about to escalate—dramatically.
To be continued...