DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE OR KYOU KARA MAOU!

"speaking"

thinking

- flashback -

A few days before 'The War of the Best'

Yuri's POV

"This was THE BEST you could think of?" asked Wolfram angrily. His eye twitched.

Conrad placed one hand on his shoulder to calm him down, but it didn't really help.

"I never asked you to follow me, Wolfram!" I exclaimed.

"I am your fiancée, you wimp, of course I will follow you!

You sure as hell know that I get sea sick if I only STAND on a ship! Why can't we go by horse? Why has it to be a ship, you wimp?!"

"Don't call me a wimp! It's not my fault that you get sea sick every time you just see a ship and if you really want to know why, it wasn't my idea to go by ship!" I shouted at him, before I pointed at a blonde woman who was coming our way.

"Chérie asked me if we would want to come onboard her ship."

"Mother?" Wolfram asked puzzled, before he turned towards the woman.

"I should have known it." he muttered under his breath. I had to hold back a smirk as he said this.

Chérie stopped and smiled at us.

"Conrad! Wolfram! Your Majesty! I'm glad you could make it!" she said, still smiling as she began to hug every single one of us.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, mother." Conrad said, now also smiling.

After Chérie welcomed us, what seemed to take hours, we went onboard the ship. I was about to lean against the railing and look at the ocean, but Conrad stopped me.

"You should disguise yourself first, Your Majesty."

I sighed lightly.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but Conrad please call me by my name!"

He nodded lightly and smiled at me as he lead the way towards the cabin that Chérie had arranged for Wolfram and me.

As we arrived there I looked around for a moment, something was missing. Only seconds later I realized that Wolfram wasn't with us anymore. He was probably held back by his mother who didn't want to let him go. I smirked at the thought.

I sat down on a chair and waited for Conrad to put the contacts into my eyes. I still wasn't good at it, even though I needed them almost every time I left Blood Pledge Castle. I didn't like the idea of always disguising myself only because I wanted to go out for a bit. Most human countries were our allies by now, but there are still too much humans who dislike our race.

As soon as Conrad was done, I looked at the floor and lowered my head. Every time I was remembered that there were so many who wanted to see us dead, I got depressed. I mean Mazoku are like humans! They… We just have a longer life-span and we can make a contract with one of the elements, so why do humans hate us so much?

I knew it wasn't always this way. One of Shinou's best friends was a human. Conrad's father was a human. My mother is a human! Half of my friends are human!

"Yuri? What's wrong?" Conrad asked. I could hear the concern in his voice.

"Nothing, it's just that I thought about the humans who still dislike, even hate, us. I don't really understand it. When I first came here nearly every human thought this way and I am really glad that I could change the attitude of so many, but…"

"You should not think about it too much. I know how much it bothers you. In some way we are like pirates."

"We are like Pirates?"

I looked at him curiously. I did have nothing against pirates. To be honest I was really excited when I first heard that they still existed here, even after my first encounter with pirates on the ship where we met Beatrice and her father, but I didn't quite understand what Conrad wanted to say.

"Yes. You probably know that nearly everyone things of pirates as bad people and of the Navy as the good ones, right?"

I nodded.

"Not all pirates are like this. Before you became our king we had many alliances with pirates and they still think of us as their allies now."

"Alliances with pirates? Why didn't you tell me earlier? I wanted to meet a nice pirate since I don't know when!"

Conrad laughed lightly as I began to pout. However, I was very grateful. I didn't like the fact that pirates were treated as bad people even if they could be good people, but at least Conrad succeeded in cheering me up.

Just as I was about to say something, Wolfram came in.

He looked at me.

"You never told me that you liked pirates so much."

"Not all of them." I admitted as I, once again, thought back to the time we met Beatrice and her father. The pirates who attacked us back there weren't really the one's I wanted to meet, but if there were good ones, then I wanted to meet THEM!

"Thought so, but you know, some of the most wanted pirates were our allies and they were really good men."

Wait a second! Since when was Wolfram such a nice guy who complimented others?!

I looked at him suspiciously.

"Don't give me that look, wimp! I was just concerned, because you were in such a bad mood!"

That's the Wolfram I know. I smiled at him.

"You said some of the most wanted pirates were our allies? Who exactly?" I asked excited.

He nearly face palmed as I just went on as if nothing had happened. I had to hold back laughs.

"Let me think for a moment. The so-called king of pirates himself for example, but he was executed more than twenty years ago. However, a few years after his execution one of his former apprentices visited us and suggested to take his former captains place as our ally."

I got even more excited, but then I thought of something and got a little depressed.

"Let me guess. He was also executed, because he was an apprentice of the Pirate King?"

"No, he still lives. He's a Yonko now, that means he is one out of four very powerful and strong pirates who rule over this half of the Grand Line. Akagami no Shanks. (1).

I tilted my head a little.

"Akagami no Shanks? I heard of him! Isn't he the one who-"

I was interrupted as a soldier stormed into the room. I looked at him and blinked.

"Your Majesty, please hold onto something! We are in the middle of a storm all of sudden!"

Just then I noticed how much the ship was shaking. I didn't even realize it when we moved out.

I looked at Wolfram. It seemed that he also just then realized that the ship was moving. He sank to his knees and became like a zombie. I pitied him, to be sea sick every time had to be kind of hard.

I helped Conrad to lay Wolfram on one of the beds as the shaking suddenly increased. What the hell was going on outside? I knew that strogn storms weren't rare here on the Grand Line, but luckily I never experienced one until today.

I looked out of one of the bull's-eyes, but I barely saw anything except for lightning, it was too dark.

I sat on the floor and looked at Conrad who sat beside me. Suddenly I got worried.

"I hope we will get out of this storm safe."

He returned my look and smiled.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, if it gets too worse I will protect you at all cost."

Present time

Greta looked at me with wide eyes as she interrupted me.

"No one was injured, right? All of you made it out safely, right?"

"If you wouldn't interrupt I could tell you what happened next!"

I looked at her with a fake stern look. She pouted a bit, but smiled eventually.

"Then go on, Yuri! I want to know what happened next!"

(1) I just had to bring Shanks into this, because I really love him :D

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter (:

Please review and tell me what you think.

Until next time :D