Luffia can vaguely feel the irritation building inside Zoro. It's the way he sighed, huffing with exasperation at the chasing that he had to do when Luffia ran away. All she did was dodge all his attacks.
"Bastard. Come and face me!" Zoro shouted, still chasing after Luffia. He's always been confident when it comes to chasing after his targets, but this bastard is much quicker than he thought he would be.
Quick, agile, and very sharp. Strawhat knew where to go and how to dodge the slices from Zoro's two swords.
Time passes by without them noticing that they have been running for almost 15 minutes now, covering more than 1 kilometer from the warehouse. They're still quite close, but not close enough for backups to support either of them.
Unless there's a sniper somewhere, waiting for the right time.
"They're going away." Strawhat's voice sounds weird, Zoro thinks.
"And?" He huffs in annoyance, sword pointing at Strawhat. It's surprising to the Mafia Hunter that even with the chances Strawhat had in the several minutes of fighting against Zoro, never did he ever draw the gun at his side.
It is what puzzles Zoro the most since he started hunting Strawhat. How many times has this been? Of all the people he went against, he can feel their will to fight back and kill him. Not Strawhat. Never did he ever feel any killing from this man.
"Don't you want to go away?" Strawhat said while dodging Zoro's sword. The green-haired man took this window of chance to speed up his swing, taking Strawhat by surprise. The swing came from the left, slicing Strawhat's chest area. It is a pity that the mafia leader was able to take a half-step away. But it doesn't mean that he got away unscathed.
"Ugh!" Strawhat groaned while tracing the blood flowing from the scratch on his collarbone. Zoro managed to slice through the coat Strawhat is wearing, and the tip of his sword brushed past the white skin that is now visible to the Mafia hunter.
With the coat sliced open, Zoro was able to see the bullet-proof vest underneath, but that's not what surprised him the most. It's the fact that Strawhat's body is not molded like a man's. The certain bumps on his chest and the curves of his waistline tell Zoro that Strawhat is not a man.
She's a woman.
"You..." Zoro trails off, surprised that after all this time, the people of Grandline had been wrong about Strawhat.
"What? Don't tell me you will discriminate against me because I am a woman? Did you change your mind about killing me?"
Zoro is silent. While he doesn't discriminate on who he will hunt, it does not mean he's keen on killing a woman.
"Do not worry. I have not." Zoro swings his sword to get rid of the blood as he steadies himself for another attack.
"Shishishi! Just what I thought."
Zoro suddenly stops, chills traveling his spine when he heard a burst of very familiar laughter.
"That laugh..." He trails off, frowning. Someone's face flashed in his mind right after hearing Strawhat's laugh.
Luffia instantly froze after noticing Zoro's reaction. Before she can correct anything, a few vehicles arrived, signaling that their operation should be ending now.
Alarmed, Zoro instinctively reached for his gun and started shooting the vehicles. Lucky for him, they are all bulletproof.
"Can we shoot at him too?" Usopp had his gun ready. Licking his lips, he positions his finger, ready to pull the trigger any time. There's no doubt he can shoot his target even if it's a moving target given his sniping skills that surpasses all members of Strawhat's group.
"I would have shot him at any chance possible had it not been for our Leader." Sanji who is sitting next to Usopp clicked his tongue in frustration.
Zoro, while fleeing, saw the sniper inside the van. He thought they would have shot him by now, but the sniper didn't.
And just like that, the group left, not even showering Zoro with bullets. He was left in the area, baffled, confused, and curious about Strawhat.
"That laugh..." He frowns. An idea came to his mind but no matter how many times he thought of it, he still can't believe such a crazy idea. "It can't be. It's impossible."
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Days pass by with Marco being busy with the business as well as keeping an eye out for their territories. When his workload lessened, he noticed the distance between him and Ann.
He noticed something is bothering her, something she won't tell him no matter how many times he tried to persuade her.
"Ann... If anything is bothering you, please tell me. I can tell, yoi." Marco brought Ann to his house to have dinner after days of relentlessly working 18 hours a day.
Ann puts the utensils down, mind in deep thoughts. She calms her senses to avoid the suspicions. She can't be consumed by these thoughts while she's undercover. Especially not now when she has to execute her plans.
"It's the orphanage." She started. It is the only excuse she can come up with at the moment. The validity of this reason won't make Marco suspicious of her.
"What happened?"
"One of the children needs a heart operation. And the funds are running low. So, yeah. I'm just worried about them. The money I earned since working won't be enough." She's not lying at least. Technically speaking, the amount of money she earned since she started that Car repair shop and since she started working in this company won't be enough to cover the expenses.
"I know you are worried, but please do not, yoi. We can help. What is the name of the orphanage? We can add it to the list of our yearly beneficiaries. If it's the hospital bills for that child, I'll take care of it."
"No, no. I can't possibly - "
"Ann." Marco softly murmurs her name before lovingly squeezing her hand. "It's my choice, yoi. And I know what you are thinking. You might be thinking you're taking advantage of me, but you're not. I'm offering it, okay?"
'But I am taking advantage of you,' a small part of her mind answered but she did not dare voice it out. Guilt seeps into her heart whenever she looks at Marco's sincerity.
The execution of her plans is not the only thing that is bothering Ann for the past few days. Slowly, the guilt starts getting in the way of her that she must constantly remind herself what she came here for.
She came here for revenge. She came here to use him to kill Whitebeard. How long had she waited for this to happen? For her to come to this point?
Years! She spent years to be in this position, a few steps from killing one of the people that drove their father's demise.
'Pull yourself together! You heard it from Shiki! Whitebeard's been trying to find us to finish what he started!'
The constant reminder is what kept Ann's resolution firm. The guilt that crawls into her mind is slowly disregarded, forgotten, and thrown into the abyss of hatred that is rooted in her heart.
Memories of devastation replay in her mind, serving as the anchor of her hatred. Ann feels as if she's walking into the abyss of darkness, with the light on her feet. She stomped on them, keeping it where it belongs for what matters now is to go to the end of the tunnel, to get her revenge.
"I owe you one." The sincerity in her voice almost startled Marco. But she meant it more than what she's supposed to. She owed him this opportunity.
"You know that I will help you no matter what, yoi. I dislike seeing you so worried."
"Thank you."
"That's good. You're smiling more, yoi. Now, let's wash the dishes - "
"Nope! Let me. You cooked. I'll wash the dishes instead." Marco did not argue further and let her do the job. Staring at her back, he can't help but have his eyes travel from her head to toe.
She bent down to get something from the drawer, only to give Marco the view that makes him drool. The reaction from his lower part is instant. It's laughable to be horny at his age, but he can't help it. No matter how many times he told himself to calm down, his dick won't.
So he stands up, wraps his arms around her, and inhales her familiar scent.
Ann is startled when she felt his strong arms wrapped around her as well as the bulge poking on her ass. She could be wrong, but to test her assumptions, she wiggled her waist a little, rubbing Marco's hard on.
"Damn," Marco mumbles as he tightens his hold of her.
"Well..." Ann turns around to wrap her arms around his neck. "Someone is horny."
"You can't blame me, yoi." Marco lunges to capture Ann's parted lips. His tongue automatically explores her mouth while he lifts Ann off the ground only to place her on top of the counter.
"This..." Marco exhales, fingers hooking the hem of Ann's underwear. "This should go." He's never been thankful that Ann wore a dress tonight. It makes things easier.
"Your dick is begging to be free." As if to tease him, Ann moves his right foot to rub on Marco's bulge.
"Oh, very."
Both are impatient. They have no time to take off all their clothes. Ann's still wearing her dress albeit her brassiere and panties are gone. The dress was left crumpled on her stomach while Marco ravages her on top of the counter.
Marco's in a similar situation, with his long sleeves torn open. The fly of his pants is open, with his cock hanging outside, harder than ever.
"Fuck! The condom!" He left all his supplies in his room. Despite knowing that, he didn't stop fingering Ann while sucking on her breast. She's so wet that some of the fluids are dripping down the kitchen counter, making Marco want to leak every single drop.
"Damn! Marco, fuck! Just fuck me, please, ah!" Ann's in a state of euphoria. She wants him inside her, to piston his cock inside, and drill into her as if his life is dependent on it. It might be true about what others are saying that once you taste what sex feels like, you will never get it out of your system.
The tingling sensation crawling in her mind spread throughout her body, especially in her lower parts. Just thinking about Marco's cock going inside made her tighten on his fingers.
"Damn, it's tight, Ann, yoi."
"Hurry. Just fuck me. I want you." She does not know where these words are coming from. This is not part of her plan at all. Sure, she won't mind having sex with Marco if it means getting his trust. Yet, at this moment, her brains are empty except for her desire. Her plans for revenge and using Marco are not in her mind at all.
"You asked for it, yoi," Marco growls. He warned her earlier when he thought about the condoms, but she didn't seem to have taken that simple warning to mind. If she won't, so will he.
He aligns his cock to her entrance, rubbing the tip and the sides, making sure it is drenched with her fluids. The teasing had her moaning, almost begging Marco to do it already.
And who is he to deny her?
The raw cock goes in. He prepared her well enough to welcome the intruding rod. Every time the tip of it scrapes the walls of her insides, Ann's voice skyrockets, moaning so loud.
Marco loves it so much. He continues his ministrations, thrusting in an erratic rhythm while calling out her name like a prayer. She responds to his calls with equally erotic moans of his name, matching the rhythm of his thrust.
Had it not been for their voices echoing the walls of the kitchen, Marco could swear that the squelching sounds coming from their joined bodies would have been louder.
It's hot. They both felt like melting into this union.
"Oh, tight, baby." Marco's change of rhythm caught Ann off guard. His pace is now slow but hard, making sure to angle himself properly so he reaches the deepest part of her. Ann hiccups each time his cock kisses the entrance of her womb. It's not because it hurts but because it feels so good.
There are no words that can describe this feeling of pleasure. And she lets herself drown in them.
'It's okay. Let me be myself even in moments like this.'
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Marco's feeling the best. Literally. Last night was out of this world. Well, most of the time, it is the best when he's with Ann, but something is different last night. They had sex till around midnight, fulfilling their desires.
This morning, he dropped her off at the orphanage, meeting some of the children when he decided to get out of the car. The building is pretty old which is proof that they are not maintained well. He can't blame them because of the lack of funds.
After a brief meeting with the head of the orphanage, he promised to come back to discuss the donation and the benefits from the company itself. In addition, he gave them a fair amount of donations to ensure that the medical bills are covered.
He left Ann there. She won't be reporting to the office since she requested time off today which he understands.
The hours went past quickly with Marco getting a lot of nonsense questions from his siblings because of his creepy smile. He shrugs all of them off in favor of focusing on the for tonight.
Tonight will be their quarterly underground arena matches. Many participants are waiting for this event because of the big prizes and betting pools. Millions of money will flow tonight, and so as blood.
Underground arenas are usually brutal and bloody - that much they cannot change. Although, as the hosts, they want to keep the death count as low as possible, sometimes, death is inevitable.
If the opponent won't admit defeat, then the other participant can continue unless the owner of the participant decides to throw the towel.
For the past two weeks, everything was pretty quiet on their side. Firefist is no longer seen lurking in their territories but was seen in Kaido's instead. Despite that, they still kept their securities as tight as ever especially tonight because their leader will attend tonight's battle arena.
By four in the afternoon, Marco, Izou, Blenheim, and Rakuyo left the main building to go to the arena. Thatch and the others will be there by seven.
"Who's going to accompany Pops?" Marco asks.
"It's Thatch," Izou answered.
"Okay, now I can't trust him. He's a pushover when it comes to Pops, yoi. You have to make sure Pops is wearing his bullet-proof vest."
"Marco, you worry too much, you mother hen!" Blenheim jests.
"I know I may be overreacting, but we can't be too careless. Last time someone tried to assassinate him, he wasn't wearing his bullet-proof vest because Thatch didn't manage to convince him."
"Fine! Fine! I'll call Thatch and tell him that Pops cannot leave the house unless he wears it, okay?"
Satisfied with the answer, Marco nodded, signaling for them to get into their cars.
When they arrived in the arena, their security team and members are busy making sure everything went according to plan. Nothing must be amiss!
Not all of the commanders will be attending since they also need to safeguard their other territories. But with Marco taking the helm in tonight's underground arena, things will be much easier.
Or so they hope.
Around seven in the evening, Thatch and Whitebeard arrived in the battle arena. Other Mafia groups that are not affiliated with them can still come to this arena so long as they can abide by their rules.
One mistake from the audience and the Whitebeard's members will not show any mercy.
The amount of deaths because of the assassins infiltrating their arena far exceeds that of the death in the actual battle.
"Did he wear it, yoi?" Marco's menacing stare is directed at Thatch instead of Whitebeard sitting right behind where they stood.
"You worry too much, son. You will look older than you are. Gurarara!"
"Shut it, Pops. We don't want any incidents." Only Marco can talk like this to the legendary Edward Newgate.
"Okay, buddy. Relax! He's wearing it. I made sure that he did. You know I almost got my salary for the month reduced to nothing!" Thatch was complaining madly. Pops threatened him not to give his salary this month if he won't let him off, but Thatch persevered.
It's either Pops will threaten him or Marco will. And this is a well-known fact that even if Marco may look easy-going from the outside, he is sure as hell brutal on the inside. Hell, he's far scarier than their Pops!
"Good. Now, we can begin, yoi." Marco signals their members to start the announcement and the betting rules for this battle arena.
For tonight, some of Big Mom's commanders are attending and have their 'players' participate. They will be up against Kaido's men led by Jack.
So many big names tonight, anticipating this event. Millions of Berries are placed in the betting pool for the first match alone. This lasts till around 2 AM, depending on the number of participants. One can imagine how much money it will be.
Aside from the money, most people came here to see entertainment. And who are the Whitebeards to deny that?
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
The loud noises coming from the arena but no one from the outside can hear them. The arena building is equipped with the latest sound-proof architecture that Ann is sure as hell costs billions. From their quarterly income, those costs are nothing worth mentioning.
Those are the least of her worries. What she needs to worry about now is how to execute the plan.
She's standing in one of the buildings right across the arena, but even where she is, the distance is too great that her sniper rifle may not be enough to breach the glasses of the building.
Thankfully she stole the blueprint of the arena. It wasn't easy at all. Acquiring it from Marco's home was no easy feat. She had to be careful of the cameras in the house. The topic of security cameras became a topic after their sexual adventures in the living room last week.
He has a mini-office in his home where some of the blueprints are lying on the table. It's also one of the most secured rooms in his home, which makes stealing difficult.
Timing is the key. She's surprised that he even allowed her inside when she insisted not to look around.
Now, she's benefitting from this. Any guilt is driven out of her mind while she focuses on what she needs to do. With the blueprint, she managed to pinpoint a focal point to carry out her assassination.
For the past few days, she busied herself sneaking into the building, finding the small details that will assist her. The VIP room is almost impenetrable, that is until she found a small broken window. There's a crack in the window that made it easy for her to remove and replace. It took a lot of sneaking to finish it without alerting anyone.
And here she is. Looking at her wristwatch, it's now 15 minutes past 9 PM. She waited for more than 2 hours here to see what the activities inside will be.
Hacking into the security cameras was a piece of cake for her given the tools that she acquired from Koala who was a genius when it comes to technology.
With this, she had visibility as to what's going on or the positions of his enemies.
Right there, she sees Whitebeard beside Marco. For a second, she trembled a bit upon seeing Marco's face on the screen.
"I have to do this." She told herself before assuming a position, her sniping rifle ready, and pointing to Whitebeard's chest.
She swallows the nervousness forming in her throat and focuses. Several times she reminded herself of what these actions are for. Shiki's words played in her mind several times and that strengthens her resolve to do this.
With a deep breath, she draws the rifle, making sure that the bullet will hit Whitebeard's chest.
Bang! Bang!
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Marco was in the middle of his conversation with Izou when they heard the heavy sound of glass shattering, and the next thing they knew is a bullet piercing through Whitebeard's chest.
"Pops!" The cheers of the crowd came to a halt when they also heard the glass shattering. The security team of Whitebeard's group is quick to get into position to secure the perimeter and the safety of their leader.
"Ugh." Whitebeard groaned while looking at his chest. Cursing on the top of his head, Marco looks in the direction where the bullet came from.
Thankfully, he's unharmed. The bullet-proof vest that Marco and Thatch forced him to wear served its purposes.
"Hey! Get going and catch the bastard!" Thatch shouted at their men. With the battle halted, the members of the Whitebeard Mafia Group took their guns and hastens outside of the building to find that culprit. "Pops looks fine, I will go with our men." Thatch excused himself to lead the search.
"I'll come with you. I know exactly where that came from." Izou, one of their master snipers said.
And as they left, Marco positioned himself right in front of Pops to shield him from any bullets that may come raining again.
"Marco! Get away from there!" Blenheim shouted as soon as he noticed the red dot pointed at Marco's head. His shouts fell to deaf ears as Marco is eager to know who exactly is the person who tried to kill their father.
For some reason, he knows it is Firefist. No one would be capable to launch an attack like this aside from that damnable.
'Come on. Shoot me if you dare, yoi.'
While Marco is standing there, Ann draws a deep breath. Her fingers are shaking while hovering over the trigger.
'Pull it! Pull it!' A part of her mind is shouting. If she kills Marco now, she is eliminating possible conflicts in the future. Besides, this is Whitebeard's heir, an enemy in the making. Once he finds out that it was her who tried to kill Whitebeard, he will never show her mercy.
He will hate her, curse at her, kill her.
This is the rule of this world, and even she cannot change it.
Getting rid of him as early as now will help her tremendously. But despite the chance, and the advantages she will get in killing him, she cannot find it in herself to pull the trigger. It's as if her hands had turned numbed, frozen on their spots.
Even from this distance, she can feel the intensity of his anger. She can't bear looking at him anymore.
With a worn-out sigh, she withdraws from her position while cursing her stupidity.
The loud noises coming from the streets are her signal to get away from here now. With trained movements, she gathered all her devices and ran away.
Every mission she takes will involve at least two escape routes. With Whitebeard's group coming from the North, she had to take the Western route to escape from them.
"He's escaping!" Thatch shouted from the streets and starts shooting at the escaping man. Sadly, the distance is too great that all bullets he fired are rendered useless.
"He's escaping to that alley! Come on!" Izou was pointing in the direction of the culprit's possible escape route.
They ran for about 10 minutes but before they can catch him, he already escaped using a very familiar motorbike.
"Firefist," Thatch muttered. "Now, you've done it."
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
AN: Finally had free time to update this. Next is the Fates of the Hidden World