"Wealth, fame, power. The man, who once owned everything, the Pirate King, Gold Roger. The words he said before his death sent all the people of the world out to the seas."

"My treasure? If you want it, I'll give it to you! Find it! I left everything in that place."

"Men, searching for romance, pushed forward towards the Grand Line. The world is now in the Grand Age of Pirates!"

Chapter 15: Kiss of Deception, Valdivina's Secret

Eyes almost closed, tall glass of lemonade in hand, Claudio rocked back and forth in the hammock that was secured snugly between two trees. The inhabitants of Spicetown busily slaved away in the distance, but there was another body only several feet away from Claudio that was also working away.

"Ya know..." Claudio took a long sip of his lemonade, savouring every bit of it. "Ahhh, that hit the spot... but, yeah, you don't have to do any of that. We've got a whole town full of people that we could use." With his free hand, Claudio motioned to Morgan as he set up block after block of wood, chopping each for firewood.

"I don't care." Morgan paused for a moment, glancing over his shoulder slightly towards Claudio. "Gives me something to do besides watching these shitty people build our next ship." He turned his attention back to the current block of wood, bringing his axe-hand down on it hard and splitting it in two. "And I've been growing tired of not cutting anything since we landed."

Claudio took another long sip of lemonade before leaning back and closing his head. "Suit yourself, big guy." Letting out a relaxed sigh, he simply laid in the hammock to soak up the sun as Morgan continued to chop blocks of wood in half... but then the sun's warmth felt blocked, a cool shade spreading over Claudio, prompting him to crack one eye open. "Hm?"

"Claudio." Valdivina hovered over him, eyeing him through gritted teeth. "I don't remember almost half an hour of my day today. You used your power on me again, didn't you?"

After another sip of lemonade, Claudio simply smirked up at her and gave the most blunt answer possible. "Yeah, I did. I wanted to scare Pearl with that tiger form of yours. You should've seen his face when I jum-"

Claudio's words were cut off as Valdivina grabbed hold of his shirt, pulling him up and glaring at him. "Did you take my clothes off, you bastard!?"

"What!?" Claudio looked surprised before he burst into laughter, eyes tearing up. "Bwahahaha, why do you always freak out over that? I've never done that to you, Val! I don't care about your body, I'm no pervert! Cut me some slack here, eh!?"

Valdivina's glare continued for a moment longer before she simply released him, shoving him back into the hammock as she stormed off. After she was far enough away, Morgan paused and looked towards Claudio. "You're quite the liar, little pervert man."

"H-HEY!" Claudio sat up quickly, almost falling out of the hammock. "Don't say a word to her about that! I was telling her the truth though, I've never taken her clothes off! There's a difference between doing that and just grabbing those boobs of hers! I don't know why she's so uptight about people seeing her without anything on though, sheesh."

Morgan simply grunted before he returned to chopping his wood.

Sanji collapsed and stared towards the waterfall he likely dropped from before with a loud huff. He really needed a cigarette, especially after spotting the Marine ship up the coast. He had no idea why they were on the island, but he knew that he had to alert the rest of the crew. The only question was... where on the island was he? More importantly though, where were Nami and Robin? Sanji stood up and peered up towards the top of the waterfall. "Maybe I can see better from up there?"

"That depends on what you're looking for." The female response from behind Sanji was completely unexpected, but he seemed initially oblivious to it.

"Yeah. I need to find my way to that Marshmallow Marsh place and... meet up with..." Sanji blinked quickly before looking over his shoulder at the source of the voice, eyes widening suddenly at the sight of Hina staring back. He slowly turned around, staring at her through gritted teeth. "M-Marine! I... I can't hit you, damn it! Y-You're... too... BEAUTIFUL!" As Sanji immediately became lovestruck over Hina, she curled her lip in disgust before roundhouse kicking him in the face and sending him soaring into a nearby tree.

"Hina annoyed."

Sanji groaned as he sat up, staring towards Hina. What was he going to do about this? "I... I can't hit a face that pretty!"

As Sanji showed further apprehension, Hina started to swing her fist at him but paused. She stared at him, blinking slowly as an enamoured Sanji's heart-eyed face looked back. The realization of what she was up against dawned on her as she forced herself to don a seductive smile for Sanji as she leaned towards his face. "I'm sorry that I hit you! Do you really think I'm pretty?"

Sanji, mouth hanging open in a permanent smile of delight, nodded fiercely as he began to babble mindlessly. "M-Mellorine, Mellorine, Mellorine..."

Hina drew closer, her lips perilously close to Sanji's as he became even more enraptured. She wrapped her arms around him loosely before, suddenly, she tightened her grip. Hina's arms suddenly passed straight through Sanji's torso, creating a restraint around him that promptly bound his arms to his chest and pushing him over. As Sanji fell onto the ground, he looked up at her with puppy-dog eyed. "B-B-But... we were going to kiss!?"

Hina simply stared back at him blankly before leaning down and passing her arms over Sanji's legs, creating a restraint to bind them together. Reaching down, Hina grabbed him and hoisted him to his feet before pushing him forward. "Move."

"B-But..." Sanji looked towards her, teary-eyed and lustful. "Were we..."

Another shove, prompting him to move forward once again. As the lovestruck chef continued to wonder where the kiss was, Hina slowly forced him to hop out of the forest and back onto the beach and pointed towards her ship. However, after several minutes of listening to Sanji, who didn't seem to come out of his love trance, Hina gritted her teeth and growled angrily as she grabbed him and spun him around. "DO YOU EVER STOP!?"

Upon seeing Hina's face once again, Sanji's rambling resumbled. "Mellorine! Mellooooooriiiiine!"

Hina felt a vein in her forehead desperately wanting to pop as she glared at him. Why wouldn't he shut up? What was wrong with the man that she recognized as Black Leg Sanji? Was he really this useless around women? As Sanji's head bobbed back and forth, Hina eventually grew fed up and decided to try something drastic. Reaching up with a hand, she seized his chin to keep his head still, bringing her face in and planting a surprisingly passionate kiss on his lips. It meant nothing to Hina, but it was the only thing she could think of that might work. After a few seconds, she pulled back and glared at him. "Are you satisfied now? Will you shut up?"

"M-Mello..." Sanji's face was beat-red, his nose bleeding slightly as his head suddenly fell over, the embrace rendering him fully unconscious. Hina stared back at Sanji, glad that he was out cold, but at what cost? She growled to herself before wiping her lips on her sleeve.

"Hina disgusted."

Valdivina stepped into her quarters, closing and latching the door behind her as she approached her mirror. She stared at her reflection almost apprehensively before turning and lifting her hands to the back of her dress. Carefully, she unzipped it and let it fall to the floor as her two large, black wings popped out. Valdivina sighed to herself as she looked at her reflection, wings and all. Keeping her wings hidden was such a bothersome and uncomfortable thing to do, and the rare pleasant moments she had by herself that allowed her to let her wings out were few and far between.

Her eyes fell upon her wings, which were black as the night sky, which prompted a few stray tears to erupt and roll down her cheeks. Though Don Krieg's lust for the wings of those who lived in the sky was her main reason for concealing her wings in recent times, the reason for her wings being hidden dated back many years prior...

TO BE CONTINUED