The Pirate King and the Rose Queen
Chapter 3
~Cereza, the Wo-Man!~
It was well into the afternoon, the Marines were outraged by Cereza's revelation and her crime. But as a woman, she was not going to get special treatment, she knew this even before she killed Stewart Evans.
This was about notoriety to her, morale for her crew and her peers. She planned to make her appearance the beginning a new era, A Great Pirate Era, but little did she know that the Great Pirate Era had already started long before her arrival.
However, in a tavern near the shores of the Red Line, Luffy, Nami, and Zoro all relaxed in a table full of empty plates and glasses.
The news of the Rose Queen pirates was very known now, everyone in the town knew about Cereza's appearance and how she went back into her ship's cabin, completely disrespecting Albert Wolfstein.
It interested Luffy how she acted, though. She was a woman with breasts, full lips, and hips and everything but why in the world did she act like a guy?
Did she not know she was a woman? Maybe somebody should tell her, he thought. He looked off into the orange sky and noticed the Rose Queen's flag. Aeternaliter elegantes was the words that they lived by. Luffy turned to his friend, Nami.
"Hey, Nami, what does aiton nalighter elephant mean?" Nami looked at Luffy wierdly and looked into the direction that he did and laughed.
"Luffy, that says aeternaliter elegantes, it means eternally elegant." Nami explained, Zoro chuckled.
"A flashy name for a even flashier crew, did you see that chick? She jumped across gap of 14 feet! That's a lot even for a human." Zoro said as he sipped his tea.
"It's not impossible! But she didn't need a running start, so I guess it is a bit unreal." Nami put his finger to her chin and started thinking, That guy with the dark hair was kinda cute though! If I see him again, I'll just work my womanly charms and before too long, him and that gorgeous ship'll be mine! Ho ho ho!
"Hey, you guys think that lady was actually the captain of that huge thing?" Luffy questioned as he picked his nose.
"Nah, no man in his right mind would follow a woman with that type of ship." Zoro said cattily, Nami growled at Zoro's male chauvinistic ways.
"What's wrong with a woman having a ship that size exactly?" Nami questioned Zoro who chuckled and got in her face about the fact.
"It's stupid, a woman could never handle that much ship, ever." Zoro said, Nami scoffed.
"Oh, yeah? Well, if a man had a ship that size, I bet he'd be compensating for something!" Nami cut Zoro deep with her words of wisdom.
"Oh, really? I bet a woman could never even pilot a ship like that, she'd be too dainty, too fragile, and way too soft!-" Luffy smacked his fist on the table in anger at Zoro and Nami, he glared at them both.
"Zoro, it's rude and cruel to put a female pirate in a fragile seat like that. It's disrespectful to Nami and to me. Nami, just because you feel something must be said doesn't always mean it should. A pirate is a pirate no matter the gender or race." Luffy was completely serious, he was upset that his friends put a fellow pirate on the bench like that and it reminded him of when certain people thought he too wouldn't make it as a pirate.
Always follow your dreams, even if they sound impossible!
In the Captain's Cabin of the Rose Queen ship...
"Kyaa! Kyaa! Oh, Spade! You are so handsome and muscular! Kyaa! Kyaa!" I laughed as Nova blatantly copied how the women of the Red Line were drooling all over Spade, he sighed off the jokes and shtick like a hard ball.
"They didn't even sound like that, matter of fact, they didn't even want me. They were more interested in Cereza!" Spade removed the attention from himself to me, I chuckled.
"Oh please, with that big black hair, nobody could've guessed that Cereza was a woman! Wow, Cereza, you looked so cute as a guy! If I wasn't in my right mind, I'd date you myself!" Nova laughed so hard she could barely contain it, Spade chuckled silently in a corner.
It's not like I meant to crossdress, I liked that hat. I don't see the big deal in it though, I mean is being a female pirate captain that bad. If so, I wonder how my mother made it through times like these.
I mean, I have breasts, but...they are kinda small, but still! Anybody could've noticed I was a woman by checking under my hat!
"I don't really care, you guys. It's not like i'm a woman who wants to be a man. I'm fully satisfied with the way i've been portrayed today. I think this is the beginning of a very fun time here on the Red Line. Maybe, we'll get some type of rare jewel here! Ha ha ha!" My friends and I laughed together as we drunk brandy from Loana.
I sighed as I looked at my mother's locket around my neck, I miss my home terribly. But I am a grown woman now, I can't let foolish things deter me from my dream.
I will become the Pirate Queen and I will become the most notorious woman in the pirate world! Everyone will hear my name and say here he comes-I mean, here she comes!
I laughed as I thought of the immense riches that would befall us with our up and coming victory of the seas, Nova turned to me in worry after Spade left to get more brandy.
"You know, Cereza, you are still a woman. Nothing has changed." Nova scratched the back of her curly blonde hair and looked at me with a sad expression as I took one last sip of my brandy.
"Of course, i'm a woman, Nova. I know that. I was just joking to frighten Spade, that's all." I stood up from my captain's chair and laid down on my bed.
Nova scoffed, she walked over to me and held me down lightly by my wrists, I looked at her with an intimidating but careless expression.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a demanding voice, Nova sighed.
"One day, a man will have you in the position and there will be nothing you can do. You are a woman, it's natural that you are weaker but you think that there is no difference between the two and that is where you are wrong!" Nova stated to my face the weakness of being a woman, something that I didn't exactly feel like getting into with her.
"Look, I'm strong, Nova. You know that! I'm stronger than any and every man on the sea! Even Spade! You can't honestly believe that I'd be overtaken by some scrawny wimp like that Albert guy!"
Nova looked at me with a disbelieving and amazed expression, a she's crazy! look.
"That's not what i'm saying! Even for Spade who is so close to you, any grown man can easily reach out to you! You are a petite girl, Cereza! You ain't no full-figured Bonny Anne!" I chuckled at Nova's comparison to me with the Great Bonny Anne of the Neabbirac Seas, she was a great and well-known female pirate and was known for her curvaceous body, I scoffed at Nova.
"Oh please, Nova, I know i'm not the fullest girl at sea but come on, Bonny and I have nothing in common!" I pouted, Nova groaned and sat on my legs.
"Ugh! That's not what i'm saying! Even Bonny Anne flaunted her body to get what she wanted at sea! She was full woman of Neabbirac Islands, you are a Loanan woman, you two aren't that different! Our bodies are small! You are 5 feet 4 inches so don't lie and say that you can take the weight of 220 to 300 pound guy!"
"Oh, please! I'd have killed a guy at 300 pounds!" I exclaimed, Nova facepalmed herself.
"ARGH! Cereza! You! Are! A! Girl! Act like it!"
"What do you mean?! Do you mean that if a guy holds me down, I can't get loose?" I kick Nova off my legs, making her fall off the bed with a thud. I stand up and walk back to my chair; I put my legs up on my desk and sigh.
"I am strong, Nova, I can beat any guy I want to and hell will freeze over the day a man sends me runnin!" I laugh with great pride but Nova seemed disappointed by my words, she walked off to the doors and turned back to me.
"You aren't as strong as you think are, Cereza...We are women, this world is cruel to us and you say you'll never fall in love-"
"I never said that! I said i'll never let a man beat me!"
"No, Cereza...If you keep acting like a guy, someone will come around and start beating the facts into your head!"
"I'll beat the facts into their head first!" I stood from my desk and glared at Nova, why was she acting like this?
"I'm just saying...One day,...a genuinely serious guy will come along, see you and when you show him that manly façade, he will break it down with every ounce of his strength-" I stomped my foot on the ground and beat my hands against my desk.
"Whoever it is, wherever it is and whoever it is, I will do it! I will beat down any guy that dares to get fresh with me! I will never break cover and I will not be a weakling!"
Cereza banged her fist on the desk and turned from Nova angrily and with a childish temper as she crossed her arms and hid her face. Nova sighed with a tired expression but before she could leave, Cereza asked her a question in a small and ill tone.
"Why would a guy want to do that to me? It's not fair..."
Nova chuckles at Cereza's fear of change.
"Because for one, people only put up walls to see who's brave enough to tear them down and two, because any guy that's willing to go through that much can almost certainly love you."
"Like a brother?" Cereza turned to Nova, she shook her head. Cereza was quick to put herself on even grounds with even an hypothetical man.
"No,...as a lover." Nova chuckled as she left the cabin room, I was duly angered, frustrated and sad.
"I am not weak..." I spoke to myself as I wept into my hands, I am not a weak little girl! I will not be treated as such! That's it!
I refuse to be treated as a second-rate pirate just because of my gender! I will become a Pirate Queen and rule the seas with an iron fist! Just so I can prove them wrong!...All of them! A woman can do anything a man can do! It's easy! Just a little hard work and determination! It's easy!
On the forecastle deck, Nova and Spade treated themselves to some Loanan brandy while they talked about Cereza's fear of being outcasted and changed by a man.
"It's understand, I believe. The girl's spent most of her life without a hand to guide her and with the way that Loana is set up, a woman her age should've been married a long time ago." Spade said as he sipped his brandy, I laughed.
"True, but because she has no parents, she's neither here no there. She couldn't be with the boys because she was girl and she couldn't play with the girls because she acted like a 's been apart of both worlds, separately I told her that one day, a man will come along and change all of that. It won't be confusing anymore, she'll know she's a girl and not a mixture of the two."
"That's the truth, Cereza's weaknesses lie in her mindset, she truly does believe that she can do it all. But she's been like this for so long, it can no longer be called being a tomboy. She's a woman who believes she can operate as a man when needed but become a woman if she needs to." Nova nods her head in agreement with Spade.
"Yes, Cereza thinks that it'll be easy as a women if she just acts like a man. But her face and body won't allow it to her, she is a woman and that shall ever change. She has a good body and very pretty face, I know that as soon as we hit that town, she'll be treated in a way that she's never been treated before. I think it'll be funny to see how she reacts." Nova chuckles, Spade grabs her wrist and shakes his head in disagreement.
"No, Cereza has a horrible temper, she'll kill a man and won't think twice!"
"So? I'll kill a man and not think twice!" Nova chuckles, Spade sighs.
That's not the point i'm trying to make, though, Cereza is a very problematic woman, her anger is paralleled and she is impatient.
I feel the worst when it comes to her, I pity the fool that falls in love with her...
Author's Note: This chapter and 4 and 5 was originally a complete 20 page document, but I was like NAHHH that's too much to read! XD
This was a great time to upload too, three chapters in a day! Awesome! XD
Remember, everyone Reviews = Chappies!