Someone else probably would have said something like, "Victoria?", or "It can't be!". But it clearly was Victoria, and therefore could be, however that was. "How?" was what Siegfried settled for.
"Easily enough," Victoria said, standing up carefully. "But can it wait, until we're both out of danger?" Funny - she was dressed very differently from earlier that day, but even a change of wardrobe to a black sweater and pants didn't reduce her poise by much. Of course, it helped that the lady's head wound had disappeared along with her other look.
"I'm fine to walk," Victoria added as he offered a hand. Then she winced, bringing a hand up to where the cut had been. "That's going to smart for a while, though."
A phantom wound, then? Curiouser and curiouser. "It's fortunate we agreed to meet here, then. My room is just over there," Siegfried glanced over and frowned. "Through her."
One Piece: Bounty Seven
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Heroine of Love and Justice, Part Six
It was amazing how quick the woman could be wearing a dress like that. "What a coincidence," Cindy murmured, tracing her spear through the air. "I thought I would be rid of you before you could get in my way, and perhaps that you were in league with Victoria Lancaster. But here you are, one and the same."
Siegfried took a step in front of Victoria. "I'm not sure I like your tone, miss. I think it would be best if you went home."
She locked eyes with him, and the psychic felt a twinge of deep unease. He had only seen her at a distance yesterday, but looking at her now made one thing come to mind: this was someone who would hurt or kill as easily as they breathed. It was like if Adrian had her switch permanently flipped.
"I do not care what an impostor thinks, or why you defend another impostor," Cindy spoke calmly. "I will give you one chance to move, now."
Siegfried had heard Victoria breath in sharply, almost without knowing it. "Can you do whatever that was again, Victoria?" he asked under his breath.
"No, not right now," the noble replied. "Are you going to fight her?"
"If she insists. Stay behind me, or run if you feel up to it." Cindy began to approach, her heels clacking on the cobblestones ominously.
Victoria made no move to do the latter. "Are you certain? The last time you tried this with a Devil Fruit user, they would have sent you home in a cart if I hadn't pretended to faint."
Well now. "I'd call that unladylike, but that's a bit redundant by now," Siegfried murmured, tensing up his hands. At least that definitely meant she was all right - no-one could throw out a barb like that otherwise.
When she was just a few feet away Cindy sped up, lunging toward Siegfried with a wide sweep of her clock-spear. It wasn't meant for anything more than knocking him aside; she had a target, and he was an obstacle to it and nothing more. What a shame.
Siegfried brought out his hand and Cindy grunted as her pole-arm was stopped inches from her target. Careful not to actually break it with his hold (he'd seen enough of powers to suggest that would be a deadly mistake), he swung out his other fist. "Geist Faust!"
The woman grunted as the invisible blow sent her back a step or two, yet her face stayed perfectly composed. It was Siegfried who frowned: the blow had felt like punching armor, not a dress. When Cindy straightened up, sure enough there were slight cracks running up the front of the garment.
Face impassive, the woman made a flick of her wrist, and that enter section shattered, retaliating a hail of glass. Siegfried began to shout a warning but Victoria had already crouched down low. Smart girl.
The psychic quickly brought his hands apart and brought them together, creating a shockwave that dispelled the momentum of most of the glass. Siegfried grit his teeth as the rest sailed past him, one cutting open his cheek. It was easy to forget the stuff wasn't just pretty to look at until it was in jagged pieces.
This time Cindy took care not to get within his secondary range, lunging at him with a series of vicious jabs. Siegfried weaved to the left and then the right, getting closer each-time before ducking the third, snatching the weapon with a hard grip. Below, he went for a sweep.
Cindy hopped into the air as he did. Not a great leap like Adrian or Ve - Victoria were capable of, but it took her overhead, in a position to drop right onto her foe. As she did, the fruit user thrust out one gloved arm, which shimmered and extended a vicious spike.
Siegfried threw away the spear as far away from him and Victoria as he could quickly, raising a hand to grab the spike before it could run him through, then doing the same with a similar attack from Cindy's other arm once she had landed. It was absurd; her entire body was practically a weapon. He could feel the blades cutting through his gloves, but this close he could-
A smile like the one she gave him then was grounds enough to abandon any plan. Siegfried dove back, or at least attempted to, but he stopped short midway as his hands refused to budge. He grimaced at the sight of why: Cindy's glass no longer content to stay on here, and had crept straight over his hands. It quickly began moving up his arms as well.
There wasn't anything else for it, sadly. Siegfried grit his teeth, twisted his hands while he could still move them at all, and pulled. The gloves he used were always thick, but they thankfully gave this time, and his hands tore free. That left them with some scrapes, but it was better than losing them completely in this fight.
How much better going against her barehanded was remained to be seen, however. Cindy lightly tossed what remained of the gloves into the air and with a few quick movement reduced them to scraps. Her brief moment of amusement seemed to have dissipated. "You cannot beat me. Give me the girl, and I will let you live."
Before he could think up a cleverer way to say 'no' again, Victoria spoke up. She had moved to about the same distance away from Cindy as Siegfried. "What will you do if I come over there? Kill me? You said yesterday you wanted to stop me from marrying. Marrying who?"
Cindy remained perfectly silent, flicking her eyes between Victoria and Siegfried, no doubt thinking of only one thing.
There was an odd look in Victoria's eye despite that. She didn't look frightened - she almost looked angry. "You can kill me, or blind me in both eyes, or cut off an ear if it suits you. But do that, and his parents will turn around and send him off after some other rich girl. Not you."
Siegfried watched Cindy freeze, the words looking like they struck her harder than his blow earlier. For a moment she made no noise at all. Sometimes that could be scarier than any noise imaginable.
She was silent as she moved, too, abandoning all the subtlety and grace from her previous actions in favor of charging at Victoria as quick as she seemed capable of. Even with as savage as it was, though, Siegfried had anticipated her making some kind of move, and a quick hop and roll brought him in-between them again. He clenched his fists again - if a regular punch didn't work, he'd try something heavier.
It was only when she was in striking distance that Cindy seemed to notice him again and not just the girl behind. Her next steps were outright stomps that shattered her footwear with twin cracks. Not just into shards this time, either, but a step further into a thick mist. Siegfried grunted as it swept up around his eyes, striking out as he heard the woman running past him but hitting nothing.
The dust dissipated in a moment, but that was all Cindy needed to close the distance. Siegfried moved, knowing even as he did that he wouldn't make it in time. Victoria didn't move either - she just shut her eyes.
"...man, it's just a weird look when I'm the one making the save," a voice muttered. Victoria fluttered her eyes open to see Cindy had stopped short, her eyes glaring at the one who had stopped her: Adrian. The assassin gripped her by the wrist, and despite every part of the icy woman endeavoring to move forward regardless that hand didn't budge.
"Wonder what your boss would think, trying to kill the girl he's after?" Adrian asked mildly. She jerked her head aside from a strike by Cindy's other arm and dealt her a blow in return. This punch sent her stumbling back outright, though she kept her footing.
The Black Cat grinned as Cindy straightened up, adjusting her footing as her slippers reformed. "Still wanna go? I don't mind fighting a Devil Fruit user at all, especially if it's two - make that three on one," she nodded at Asakura, who had hopped down into the square.
Cindy's glare could have almost cut better than her powers. "They won't be around to protect you forever," she whispered. Then she turned and stalked away, her poise regained.
Once she was definitely gone Victoria let out a heavy breath of air, sagging low. "That was…not a good idea," she sighed. "Thank you very much, Sir."
"If the idea was to piss her off and almost get killed, I guess it worked?" Adrian said, shrugging. She looked around the square. "Really missed some fun, I see."
She turned and gave Victoria a once-over, then glanced over at Siegfried. "…man, couldn't you be somebody else under that dumb outfit? I was looking forward to grilling him about being wrong more."
"Well, you never know," Victoria replied, having caught her breath. "There could be any number of other reasons why I'm out here at night, out of breath, and surrounded by armed men." She paused. "I am Venus, but even so."
"Your attitudes are certainly similar," Asakura remarked. "But with due respect, if you are her, what happened to your strength? The girl from today was far from helpless."
Victoria chuckled weakly. "Ehehe, none taken, really. There's no point in secrecy now you know who I am, so I don't mind explaining, but it might take a little while."
"Well, we might not have that kind of time, actually, because-"
A crackle reached their ears from some distance away. "Testing, testing - damn this thing's loud. I'm speaking on behalf of Lord Rolando Tepes."
Victoria's eyes widened in realization.
"'Me and my men were very pleased to pay Lady Lancaster a visit just now, but were disappointed and concerned' - man, give me a break - 'to see she was not at home. I would be most relieved if she were to return by dawn to assure my worries, and I will be waiting with bated breath here until then.'
The voice paused. "'If she does not, I cannot guarantee that none within this abode will not shuffle off the mortal' - you know what, forget it! If she's not here by dawn we'll start stabbing and/or shooting the servants here! Over and out!"
"They had a hostage when they marched up, someone who'd been out shopping," Adrian explained. "Couldn't do anything without putting them in danger."
The three of them looked over at Victoria. She was still, toying with her hair, and took a deep breath. "That's enough time to think things over," she said calmly. "Let's talk before a crowd stirs, shall we?"
"So," Siegfried began. They were in the three's hotel room, currently a bit cramped with four of them in it. "Cards all on the table, alright?"
"Perfectly," Victoria replied.
"When I met Venus the day before last, that was you, correct?" The noblewoman nodded. "But," Siegfried added, "when she appeared yesterday, it wasn't. How is that possible?"
Victoria seemed to consider it. "I don't mind just telling, but I'm curious, Siegfried: did you get any further impressions about my Devil Fruit earlier? You don't need to think too deeply about when I lost, of course."
She really did like seeing what other people thought. "Let's see," he murmured. "You obviously don't like water, and not just like the average user: it was as if it shorted you out totally. But what happened at the end was the most odd. It was like…" This sounded incredibly stupid to even think, but there was a saying about the only explanation left. "It was like you were a different person, and became Victoria again."
The lady smiled, looking pleased. "But that's impossible, isn't it Siegfried? Just like being in two places at once."
Siegfried folded his arms, waiting.
Victoria reached down to her side. He'd been wondering about that, too: there, held by a thick strap around her waist, was a sturdy-looking bag. "And there's only one place where impossible things can happen," she went on, unzipping it. She retrieved what was inside and flipped it around so the trio could all see it.
Asakura said nothing. Adrian snapped her fingers and nodded. "Ah, that makes sense. Neat trick."
Their leader stared. Inside was a good-sized book, bearing a hard-cover and looking almost pristine. It was the cover that had his attention, though: on it was Venus, the spitting image of the girl he'd seen earlier.
"The Devil Fruit I ate is called the Read Read Fruit, and it allows-" Victoria trailed off as Siegfried snatched up the encyclopedia of Devil Fruits offered to him by Adrian and flicked through it quickly. Asakura, watching the proceedings, noticed the young lady wince slightly.
Siegfried reached the page he was looking for and traced his finger down to where it was. "The Read Read Fruit, Paramecia class. Said to allow the user to enter and interact with books, but the exact specifics are unknown due to vague or incomplete sources. It is possible this is a mislabeled term for the Book Book Fruit." Where the image of the fruit itself would have been was blank, and that brief description was all the book had to say about it.
"It's a good theory, but false," Victoria put in. "That fruit is supposed to let someone control books," she dropped her own on the bed and waved a hand. It didn't budge. "But I can't do anything like that. I've never met the person who ate it, though, so I couldn't say how else they differ."
"You should hope you never do, believe me," Adrian muttered.
"What I can do is this," Victoria went on. She flipped open Venus' book and reached down. Where she touched the page the words lit up, and her hand disappeared inside. She seemed to reach around a moment before pulling it back.
The three watched as she retrieved a glob of black ink from out of the book. Squirming in her hand a moment, the ink changed shape and grew color; a moment later the lady held a bright rose. "It takes practice, and you need to know what you're looking for. When I first ate it, just something like this would take me a while."
She snapped her fingers. "Oh, and I can't do it with any book that's non-fiction. I have my own ideas for why, but it just doesn't work that way."
Adrian grunted. "Starting to see why there's almost nothing written down about this one. You could eat it and think you got saddled with a dud."
Victoria flicked her free hand and the rose went in reverse, changing back to ink and returning to whence it came. Asakura nodded thoughtfully. "I see. If you can do it with objects, it wouldn't be impossible to do the same with characters from that book," the shinobi said.
"Or the ideas of characters," Victoria said. "I borrow her powers most of the time, but earlier today I asked her for a favor." Her brow furrowed. "She's probably not going to let me forget losing with her powers, though."
"So I got sassed by someone who isn't even real?" Adrian asked. She half-grinned. "Kinda neat, I guess."
Victoria shut the book carefully and returned it to her bag. "So, that's about it. Um, is anything wrong, Siegfried? You've been a bit quiet."
The bounty hunter's forehead was crinkled enough to leave marks. "How - how did I not figure that out? Rolando figured it out, and he's a, a-"
"Creep?" Adrian replied.
"Cad?" Victoria added.
"Coward," Asakura muttered.
"-all those things," Siegfried muttered. He sighed, and then smiled. "But I admit, I'm a bit impressed in hindsight. Those answers you gave me on the rooftop were all totally truthful, but without actually telling me anything. You have a way with words, Victoria." She could certainly pick out ones that cut like a knife, too.
"I'd hope, with how many of them I've read," Victoria said. Her face grew serious. "With that all settled, now what? I doubt very much that Rolando is bluffing given his conduct so far, and I'm sure he has his men dug deep into the manor by now. I can make fiction reality for a while, but dealing with them all without anyone getting hurt is still impossible if I'm alone." She bowed her head. "Will the three of you help me, please?"
Siegfried leaned back. "Is that a request from Victoria Lancaster, the lady of Noblesse Island, or Venus, the heroine of it?" he asked.
Victoria didn't raise her head, but her eyes flicked up at him. "Which would you prefer?"
"Would both be too greedy?" Siegfried asked, adjusting his glasses. "Getting to help two people like that at once would be its own reward."
"Yeah, c'mon, don't get all formal now," Adrian said, rolling her eyes. "It bugs me enough when normal people beg, and after everything you just told us no way you qualify as that anymore."
Asakura nodded, checking her weapons. "In a sense we have already fought with you once before. I would only object to any plan that let that pathetic man go free."
"...thank you, then," Victoria said, rising. "I shouldn't have felt I had to ask, really, but it's a bad habit." Her face grew serious, like earlier when she had spoken to Cindy. "In that case, have you come up with a plan, Siegfried? I don't mind following your lead, whatever it is."
The bounty hunter flashed a grin. "Certainly. If I can't outwit at least one noble in my time here, I may as well pack up and go home - I actually might be better off as a florist then."
"Well, you never know," Victoria said with a smile in return. "You can't know what you'd be good at until you try it, right?"
Rolando gave a suffering sigh as he leaned back in his seat. "I personally don't think what I'm after is all that unreasonable, I really don't. Yet people on this island seem to love putting so much effort into getting in my way." He stared at the person across from him. "Including you. I'll ask once more: where is Victoria Lancaster?"
Johnathan's hands were restrained, one eye was black, and he had bruises across his face and exposed chest. None of those hurt the defiant look in the old man's eyes. "This island is her home, so she may go wherever she pleases. No doubt you'd change that if you had your way, which is all the more reason not to-"
The nobleman stood up and dealt him a blow to the jaw. It cut off Johnathan, but not much more than that. Unlike Oxwald, Rolando left that kind of work to others. "Shut up," he sneered. "I've been as polite as a backwater island like this deserves and then-some, and it's being spoken to like that which has brought us here."
He spread his hands to indicate Victoria's sitting room, where they were now. "Look around you: an empty manor, no parents or siblings, only common servants as company! She stares at the end of her noble lineage, and ignores a hand extended in help!"
Rolando took a deep breath and waved a hand. "But no matter. We were all young once, and I suppose I can forgive some ignorance with that in mind. No doubt she is blind to the ways of the world, living like this."
The butler remained silent, and Rolando briefly considered hitting him again. But why waste the energy? Sooner or later Victoria would show herself - but if he had to pick one, 'later' would do just fine.
When the quartet came down the stairs, a crowd had gathered in the hotel's lobby and outside. They looked up collectively at Siegfried, until eyes shifted to the girl next to him. Siegfried moved aside as Victoria stepped forward. "You all heard the announcement, I expect? I will be heading up there shortly."
This brought a wave of protest from the crowd. Siegfried had gotten the impression Victoria was regarded nearly as highly as her alter-ego on the island, and it was nice to see that hold true. The noise continued a moment until the lady held up one hand, clearing her throat.
"I am glad to hear that concern coming from you all," Victoria began, "since, if we're to be frank, I am the reason for these people being here at all. I should have acted before, and only didn't because I was worried about involving you all in the process."
Siegfried saw her clench one hand. "But no more. If he is going to threaten the people I care about, I'm done sitting by like a wallflower. I intend to force him from this island, but not before he has personally apologized to all of you. Now, please get out of my way."
They made no motion to do so. The innkeeper opened his mouth, and flinched as a fist struck the wall. "Are you people -ing deaf?" Adrian asked, glaring at them all. "She just said she was going up there - you think she's gonna change her mind after all that? Besides, what the hell do you think we're here for, window dressing?"
That did the job better than any platitudes, and the crowd dispersed to let them by. Victoria lingered at the door. "If it comes to fighting we should be far enough away, but you should all stay indoors regardless."
"If we see Venus we'll send her your way, Lady Lancaster!" cried a voice near the back.
Victoria didn't skip a beat, bowing. "Thank you. I'd be most honored if she decided to help me."
Adrian waited until they were in the street out of earshot before snorting. "Real smooth. 'Oooh, I hope I decide to help myself!'"
"W-Well," Victoria sputtered as she went red, "I was honored when Venus first agreed to let me use her powers. So it's not exactly a lie, really."
"Hey, I ain't judging," Adrian said with a shrug. "Sounds like you worship her more than some real-life heroes, though. What's her book even about?"
Victoria's face, already a pleasant enough sight ordinarily, practically glowed at the question. "Well, for starters it's actually a series of books - the one I have here is just the first - and they're all amazing! The first starts here on the Grand Line actually, with a young marine on patrol by the name of Veera Jackson."
Her hands joined in on the retelling, making charades in the air. "One day on patrol she ends up falling into a whirlpool. But instead of taking her underwater to her doom, it transports her to another world." Victoria clapped both hands together. "One where magic is real!"
A few minutes passed. Siegfried was impressed: he'd never heard such an in-depth explanation that left him feeling totally lost. The actual plot could be summed up in a sentence: marine falls into strange world of supernatural creatures, marine takes up legendary artifact to defend helpless citizens, marine-turned-heroine fights evil. But to hear Victoria tell the tale, it was an epic of Gold Roger proportions.
It certainly sounded…unique, that was for sure. Siegfried didn't often read as recreation, though he vaguely remembered flipping through some non-fiction at the academy (all about marines, naturally, though marines without second jobs). None of it had been quite so...um, creative. Then again, whoever wrote the book didn't sound like they'd meant it for someone like him.
"...and so she heads back home, but agrees to come back whenever they need her!" Victoria finished, took a deep breath, and blinked slowly. "Um, I got carried away there, didn't I? Sorry. There aren't many readers on this island."
"No worries," Adrian said mildly. "Ya gotta like something, right? I have a few things I could talk people's ears off over myself."
Asakura cracked a smile. "You spoke quite passionately just now, without any reservations. It was pleasant to watch."
"Ehehe," Victoria said, toying with her hair again. "It's a little embarrassing to have cool people like you say that, but thank you."
"...maybe I could stand to relax a bit more," Siegfried thought. "I suppose after you began the act it wouldn't be wise to draw attention to that book, either. But has no-one ever mentioned that you, er," he paused, "'look like' a book character?"
Victoria shook her head. "No, though that isn't too surprising by itself; most people on the island have been here their whole lives, and me fighting pirates is probably the most exciting thing that's ever happened here."
She furrowed her brow. "But I've also never seen Venus' stories in any mail-list or magazine, and obviously they've never shown up in either of the book stores here. I was always a little worried about that happening."
"Especially once that silly pamphlet showed up," the lady added with a wince. "Venus' creator published her books anonymously, and I'd love to meet them someday, but can you imagine doing it because they thought I was plagiarizing them? I wouldn't know what to say."
Adrian whistled. "Sheesh. Guess 'you can drown in a pool' wasn't a big enough thing to worry about, eh? Hope it was worth tracking the thing down."
"Oh, not at all," Victoria said. "My father collects - used to collect all kinds of weird things like that. It was just sitting there in the room he set aside for them, maybe even for years. I was never allowed in there."
Asakura nodded. "Yes, fathers always have something like that," she said gravely. "Dangerous for you to even look upon, but still somehow safe enough for them to keep around."
Victoria waved a hand at her. "Exactly! When I finally went in to take stock of it all after…well, it was only a bunch of dusty items. Even the fruit was just sitting there in a case, unlabeled."
"Wait," Adrian interjected, raising an eyebrow, "does that mean you didn't even know what kind of Devil Fruit it was when you ate it?"
"Um!" Victoria's eyes widened, reminding Siegfried of when he'd caught her in the lie back on the rooftop. "Well, yes?" she said with a nervous smile. "I can sort of explain why, though."
"Siegfried," she said, pointing at him, "you mentioned before that you dropped out of the Marines for your current line of work. That was your decision, correct?" Her voice had grown serious again, like a pendulum swinging.
He nodded. "I would say it was more like something I felt I had to do than a choice. But yes, it was what I decided myself."
"That's what I thought," Victoria murmured. "Well believe it or not, despite my current state of affairs, for the longest time I never made a decision like that. Or any on my own, to tell the truth.
Another feeling crept into her voice: resentment. "Just about everything I did as a child was something my parents decided for me, from how I dressed to what I ate, to what I did outside once my condition became apparent. It was like…" she faltered. "Like I was their doll, but one made out of glass."
Siegfried thought back to the photo of the elder Lancasters he had seen: they had aged quite gracefully, and having met Victoria he could see much of her in them. The Lady bore the same color hair as her, while the Lord possessed the same refined features. But there had been an awkwardness to them in the picture that went beyond simple dignity. Her father in particular struck him as wanting to be anywhere else.
Victoria took a moment to find her words. "I only finally realized it the day after they disappeared, once it had sunk in for me. I was looking in that room - looking for anything to distract me, really - when I realized that all the things in it had some kind of story…and I didn't have any."
She blinked quickly and folded her arms. "So I decided to do something my parents would never have let me do: eat the fruit. I had no idea what it would do, or what I'd even use a Devil Fruit power for, but I wasn't thinking about any of that."
"Yeah, I get that," Adrian mused. "If parents set limits, it's a kid's job to try breaking them. How'd it feel?"
"Oh, amazing," Victoria said happily. "For about ten seconds, before I realized I had no idea what the fruit did. That did take my mind off it, though, first by trying to get any kind of reaction from it for half the day, then wondering how much my father spent on a fake Devil Fruit." She gave a little laugh. "I only found out what power I had that night, when I was reading in bed. Now that was a surprise."
"Much as you've piqued my curiosity, we're here," Siegfried said, pointing to their destination: the forest next to the Lancaster Manor. It surrounded the estate in a rough circle, giving them a clear view of the front gate without being seen themselves. From here they could see a pair of Rolando's men standing guard.
Adrian leaned against a tree, demeanor shifting to business. "Okay, so I know we went over this back at the hotel, but," she jabbed a thumb at the gate. "You're really okay going in there, Vee? Not trying to call you a kid or anything, but you do have some idea what he wants you for, right?"
"Of course," Victoria said. She had seemed fine on the walk here, but now leaned against a tree, breathing in and out carefully. "It makes the most sense. He wants me there, and he'll be on guard until he gets what he wants. According to Venus he gets a tremendously big head when he thinks he's won, and I don't mind making him believe that for a while."
She paused. "Um, 'Vee'?"
"Your name's kinda long. Plus it fits whatever shape you feel like taking."
Asakura looked unconvinced. "He is still a dangerous man, and there is a chance he is aware of your other identity. We will not be able to rescue his hostages and help you at the same time."
"I don't believe he does," Victoria murmured, putting a hand to her chin. "Venus left a bit of ink behind, but nothing linking us together. From your account it sounds as though Rolando broke into the manor about the same time his men attacked me in town; he probably wanted to be rid of one problem at the same time."
Siegfried nodded. "I concur. If he knew you were Venus, he would have sent more than a handful of men, surely. The men he sent didn't look like they had abduction on their minds for her, either."
"Yeah, but…" Adrian began, and sighed as she saw Victoria's expression. "Alright, it's your funeral. Let's go, bird."
"Have fun storming the castle!" Victoria called after the two. She turned to Siegfried. "Well, I'll…be off, then. Oh," the lady paused, unhooking her bag and offering it. "Can you take this and put it somewhere safe? If he sees the cover even a man like Rolando will put two and two together."
Siegfried nodded. "I don't mind at all. But you really can't transform again?"
"No, I'm afraid," Victoria said after a moment. She retrieved the book and held it open. With it right in front of him Siegfried saw a peculiar thing about the pages: there were holes in the text all across them.
"Those are where she's mentioned," the noble explained. "If I take something from the book, it takes a while to…reset itself, I suppose, once it goes back. When you lay it out, it's a pretty high maintenance fruit, really - so we have that in common.
Now Victoria fixed him with another firm stare. "Is there any reason you didn't bring up it while your friends were around? Not that I'm accusing you of anything, I'm just curious."
"Well, I think Adrian at least gleaned that much, given how she regrettably had to step in," Siegfried murmured. "But I think she feels about the same way I do."
"Which is?"
"That implying you're helpless without that power is selling you very short," Siegfried said, "whether you believe it or not." He took the book and bag, slinging the former over his shoulder. "Incidentally, my offer is still open," the psychic remarked as she made to walk away.
"Nothing delays you for long, does it?" Victoria asked, not looking back. "It would be better if you forgot about that, Siegfried. Having me around would be far more dangerous than the man in my home right now could ever be."
"I can assure you, I intend to do some of the most dangerous things in the world sooner or later," Siegfried replied, flashing a smile. "So whatever your kind is, it doesn't scare me. And frankly, hearing that kind of thing from someone just makes them more interesting in my eyes.
Victoria sighed wistfully. "'Interesting' - you know, I'd give a lot some days to be totally dull and boring. But I suppose today isn't that day. Good luck Siegfried."
He watched her go, stepping out from the trees and heading up toward the gate. In a moment she'd be in view of them. Now then, a house full of hostages, a would-be mastermind behind it all, and the four of them. Minus two factors unaccounted for, things were finally simple.
"Let's get started," the bounty hunter said happily.
To Be Continued…
Oxwald: The only proper way to woo a lady is to be her knight in shining armor.
Adrian: I'm sort of hired help myself, y'know?
Rolando: I assure you, so long as you are by my side, no harm shall come to your head.
The Heroine of Love and Justice, Part Seven
Victoria: How much do you feel you know about me, Mr. Tepes?
Guest - Glad to hear you're enjoying it, I've always thought a bounty hunter could be an interesting villain or supporting character but it's definitely a very unexplored concept in One Piece.