The Pirate King and the Rose Queen
Chapter 7
~Cereza's Plea! I Am No Fool!~
Cereza and her crew were baffled and dumbfounded as the Straw Hat pirates, Luffy, Nami, and Zoro fought to the last marine until reinforcements came, Zoro abruptly turned.
"What are you doing?! Get outta here! This is a rescue!" Zoro ran up to Nova and helped her up, I stood up with Spade. We turned to Luffy, he looked back at me and smirked. "Get going!" He yelped.
I nodded to my crew, we began to run away from the marines. I looked back as Luffy uppercut one of the marines in the jaw, he looked back at me and our eyes met.
Those eyes of his,...they really do resemble the Ebony Lion.
"Keep moving! Cereza! Eyes on the prize!" Nova yelped as we sped up, the marines began to chase us but that long-nosed guy, Usopp, threw down a smoke bomb and it helped us get away.
Cereza, Nova, and Spade got away safely and ran back to the tavern where the originally met the Straw Hat pirates, Cereza tried desperately to catch her breath. It was only a few hours before Luffy and the others caught up to him, there was an awkward silence but Nami broke it.
"Hey!...Uhh, are you guys alright?" Nami asked, Spade nodded.
"Yes, we're fine. How about you?" Nami nodded to Spade, "We're doing okay, I guess."
Then there was more awkwardness...Luffy pointed at Cereza.
"I told ya I'd make you my queen..."
Everyone gasped, "Ehh?!" they shrieked. I smacked Luffy's hand down, bastard. He's already getting arrogant! Damn him! I could've taken them myself! No problem!
"Don't get uppity, you monkey boy! I could've easily taken down those ships! I didn't need your help!"
"Is that so?" Luffy speaks in a matter of factly tone, I scoffed at him. "Yes!"
Luffy stares blankly at Cereza for a few minutes; the air is filled with tension. Nova nervously laughs and bumps Zoro's shoulder.
"Thanks for helping us, Zoro. I really appreciate it." Nova said, Zoro chuckled.
"Don't worry, if I had a nickel for every time a girl as pretty as you actually thanked me for something, I'd have 5 cents right now."
Nova blushes madly and turns from Zoro with her face beet red. Spade shakes his head in disbelief; everyone apparently begins to ignore the staring contest between Luffy and Cereza.
"Hey, what's your problem, Spade?" Nami asks. Spade looks at her half-heartedly.
"Nothing, it's just…The Rose Queen's been taken from us, we have no way to get to her and without a ship, what kind of pirate crew are we?" Spade complains, Nova glares at him.
"Hey! We are still Loanan pirates! We are still the Rose Queen's crew even if we don't have the vessel itself! We'll find a way easy!" Nova tries to cheer Spade in vain.
"Where are we going to get a ship, anyways?" Spade questions, "Hey, don't worry about that. You can ride with us. We'll help you get your ship back." Zoro responds, Nami's face lights up as she hopes that Spade will agree.
"Meh, I don't know. It all depends on Cereza so I couldn't care either or." Spade sits on a bar stool with his arms crossed, Nova dumps him in the arm.
"Don't get sassy! We need a ship and these guys are pretty strong! Let's go with them!" Nova pleas with Spade, he sighs.
"Ugh, fine…I'm in, but still we have to see what Cereza thinks." Spade insists.
"Right! So, whaddya think, Cereza?"
Nova enthusiastically turns to Cereza, they all do, but Cereza is still glaring at Luffy and Luffy is still shooting that same empty look at her. Cereza sighs and groans.
"We are not going with-"
The entire room goes silent when Cereza is stopped in the middle of her sentence when Luffy grabs her by the back of her head and kisses her.
"EHHHHHHH?!" Everyone yells, Nova is mortified, Spade is shocked and Nami and Zoro are both surprised!
Cereza starts to scream as Luffy is still kissing her, but after two minutes, Luffy releases his grip. They stop their kiss with a pop and Cereza falls back on the floor, screaming and yelling and using every cuss word there is. She pulls out her pistol, points it at Luffy but she just falls on the ground from shock.
"UGH! EWW! YOU DISGUSTING BRAT! GROSS! ARGH!"
Cereza is shocked, disgusted and angered by Luffy's sudden smooch; she glares at Luffy looking for an explanation. Luffy simply smiles at her and licks his thumb.
"Mm, you taste yummy, Lucre." Luffy chuckles as he walks away, "STOP!" Cereza yells as she grabs his shoulder. Luffy takes her hand and spins off of it, releasing himself from her grip.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU…YOU!...You!...you…ugh…" Cereza falls back and hits the ground.
"C-Cereza!" Nova yelps, Spade is still in shock so he can't really move. Nova tries to get Cereza up but it's no use, she's fainted.
Zoro follows Luffy angrily; he didn't like the way Luffy was acting towards Nova's friend, Cereza. He wanted a good explanation for his actions and if he didn't have one, he was going to beat some sense into him.
"Stop, Luffy!" Zoro orders, Luffy stops in the middle of his stride and looks at him with the same goofy, uncaring eyes as usual.
"Yeah, Zoro? What's up?" Luffy asks. Zoro just chuckles and looks at him with a disbelieving look.
"What's up? I should be saying the same thing. Luffy, what you just did was disrespectful and very rude! You need to get some manners!" Zoro complains, Luffy's expression became defensive against Zoro.
"Oh? And the way she acts isn't disrespectful. That little lip action didn't hurt her; she's just overly-dramatic because that was probably her first one. Besides, she's my queen now. I have to do that type of thing." Luffy explains, Zoro facepalms himself.
"Luffy! Nothing is set in stone! I want to know right now, why you even want a 'queen'. It's not you, what's going on?" Zoro asks, Luffy stares at him for a minute and then shrugs his shoulders.
"I don't really know. I just want her. That's all." Luffy answers, he turns and walks away. Zoro spits at the ground, what's going on? Why's Luffy so damn interested in Cereza?
"H-Hey! Zoro, we need help in here-! Ack!"
Nova is pushed out of the way of the door by Spade who is pushed by Cereza who has just now gone into Ebony Lion's Frenzy, the warrior instinct of the Ebony Lion to kill the person who's wronged her, same as the legends of his journeys go.
Cereza runs out of the tavern and glares at Zoro, he's shocked to see Cereza in this state so he unsheathes his blade. Cereza glares at him but Zoro notices that her attention isn't on him, it's on Luffy...
Cereza speeds right pass Zoro, it sounded like the heels in her shoes with clicking so fiercely. A worried expression for Luffy draped Zoro's face as he turned towards him.
"LUFFY! WATCH OUT!" Zoro yelled out to me, Luffy turned around to see why he was so upset, "Huh? What's going on?"
Luffy turned around and saw that Cereza was running at him with her pistol drawn and her eyes filled with rage, Luffy sighed as he tilted his hat down a bit.
"When are you gonna learn?"
Luffy waited for Cereza to get close, she prepared to pistol whip him but he grabbed her wrist and twisted her on her back. Cereza stood up quickly and kicked Luffy three times in the stomach with her heel. She then began to randomly punch him and kick him all over his body, Luffy was uncaring over her meager attacks until she tried shooting him.
Luffy got annoyed so he took the gun from her but her whining to have it back was even more annoying. Cereza jumped away from Luffy, she prepped her lips with her Sweet Dreams poison, a poison made from white loanan roses that was kept in her mother's locket around her neck.
She then ran at Luffy. She grabbed him by the collar and instead of a kiss on the cheek, Luffy spinned her and kissed her poisoned lips.
Cereza pushed away from him and chuckled, Spade yelped.
"You fool! You've sealed your fate!" Spade yelled but it was too late, I chuckled as I carefully wiped the poison from my lips. I glared at Luffy hoping that his face would soon melt or start burning at least. Luffy turned to me, after a few seconds, his pink stained lips began to sting then they burned. Luffy yelled.
"ARGH! HOT! HOT! HOOOOT! URGH!" Luffy fell back screaming as he clenched his lips in his hands, Zoro and Nami gasped and ran to him. Spade and Nova was mortified but already knew Luffy was as good as dead.
I just laughed my brains out, he's such a fool! That's what you get when you mess with the Rose Queen, you get the thorns, sweetheart! Ha ha ha!
"Luffy! Luffy! What's happening?!" Nami yelled, Luffy just screamed "HOT! HOT! OUCH! URGH!" Nami glared at Cereza who just crossed her arms with a "what are you going to do?" look. Nami got into a fighting position, but Spade stepped in front of Cereza.
"Do not forget, we are not on the same team. I will kill you ifnecessary." Spade took out his silver-tipped whip against Nami, then Zoro stood in front of Nami, but with that Nova stood against Zoro with her staff unlocked.
"Let's not make this bigger than it has to be. Captains of crews are killed every day, it's no big deal." Nova tries to reason but Zoro scoffs.
"Shut up, Luffy isn't dead so you can't say that. You attacked our captain, we have to defend him. Prepare yourselves." Zoro unsheathed his sword, Cereza laughed.
"Don't be foolish, swordsman. I can very much confirm that your little friend over yonder is very much dead, there's no antidote to the Sweet Dreams poison. It's a potent mixture of white loanan roses and the thorns of a Giselle bush. Since he depicts it as hot, I bet there's no doubt that it's probably burning his ugly face to ashes. It's his own fault, he opted to kiss my lips instead of me kissing his cheek. It would've been less painful that way. He's made his death painful out of his own doing, it's not my fault that he'll die screaming and crying for help." I laughed hysterically, Nami was pissed at me. I could tell by the anger in her eyes. I could care less what that orange-haired bimbo had to say to me. I won! I killed that monkey boy and successfully defended my honor.
Luffy continued to toss around and scream as his lips burned from his face, god, I wish I could see the painful burning process he was going through.
It seemed only right and it seemed I was right as well. If he really was my man with the eyes of the Ebony Lion, he wouldn't have died so easily.
Luffy finally stopped his futile struggling and he stopped moving as well, Nami and Zoro were shocked as they looked at his lifeless body. I laughed at their grief, "Come on, let's get out of here. I think I hear some marines nearby." Spade said, we followed him a few feet away from the mortified Nami and Zoro.
As Cereza walked away, she started thinking about Luffy's death and how he originally treated her. She began to think maybe she was a bit hard on him, but no matter, he's dead now so there's no need to regret.
But she did, if she could do this again, she'd do it in a different way. Maybe, she'd try talking to him instead of being unkind and misunderstanding.
It was wrong the way she treated him and she finally realized it, but she was still happy about killing him with Sweet Dreams. Oh well, she thought, no need crying over spilt milk.
Then Nami screamed out in agony as she held Luffy's body in her arms. Zoro was angry as he gripped his sword so hard that his palms began to bleed, he glared at Cereza as she walked away but then he looked at Nova. He seemed disappointed, she was so perfect, he thought.
Luffy's straw hat covered his face, the wind picked up and blew through his vest...
"WHOA! COLD! TOO COLD NOW!"
That entire dock froze, Cereza, Spade and Nova turned around and looked back at Nami and Zoro...
Cereza was mortified, completely and utterly mortified.
...No way...There's just...no way...
There Luffy stood, shivering from the wind's cool breeze. His lips...only slightly red. His face...still intact. Luffy looked at Cereza who jumped at his gaze, is this boy some type of monster?!, she thought. First, her pistol and now her poison?! This was too impossible, Cereza thought.
Luffy smiles at the love of his life, Cereza.
"That was one spicy kiss! Thanks, honey!" Luffy's arms stretch out towards Cereza, they wrap around her and pull her to him. She screams but Luffy steals one or two more kisses from Cereza before he immediately lets her go.
"Ugh! What are you doing?!" Cereza carefully wipes off her lips, frightened that the poison will kill her. Luffy licks his lips and laughs.
"That spicy stuff on your lips, what was it? It tasted yummy, or maybe that was just your lips I was tasting?" Luffy questioned himself, Cereza quickly stood up and took out her pistol against Luffy. Luffy notices her shocked and disturbed face and realizes what she just tried to do.
"That stuff...was poison, wasn't it?" Luffy looked emptily at Cereza but it felt like a glare even if it didn't appear as one, Luffy put his arms to his sides. He once again pointed the barrel of Cereza's gun at his center.
"If you want me to do so badly, don't use such lame and half-assed tactics. Have some dignity and fight me, because I won't let you kissing me become a touchy subject for everyone around us."
Cereza gasped, "H-how would something like that become...touchy?" Luffy pointed at Nami and Zoro, "When I kiss you, I want the world to know that that's natural and that it's not something that must be taken highly. If I kiss you, I kiss you. If you kiss me, you're trying to kill me. Shoot me, get that rage out and then let's talk. You need a ship and a crew, I got both."
Cereza is originally hesitant at shooting Luffy, she didn't want to kill him anymore. It was useless. It won't work. She started edging the gun away, she turned from Luffy and put her gun back into her holster.
"I want my ship back, will you help me?" Cereza asked bluntly, Nami got angry. "What?! Help you? You just tried to kill Luffy and you think-"
"Sure! We'll help." Zoro stops Nami, she's shocked at both Luffy and Zoro. "Hey! Did you guys already forget what just happened?" Zoro pulls Nami aside to explain the situation.
"It's clear that Luffy likes Cereza besides it's obvious to her now that she can't kill Luffy with normal means. So, she's going to get her ship before she deals with Luffy. But it's likely we'll never find her ship since it's been seized by the Marines. This was I can spend time with Nova and Luffy gets his time with his girl, feel us?" Zoro explains, Nami growls.
"That's a stupid plan!" "Oh? Don't forget you get to have time with Spade." Nami freezes with Zoro response and blushes, she agrees to the plan immediately.
"So, what now?" Nova asks, Cereza shrugs and looks at Luffy.
"We're gonna go to the Thousand Sunny and introduce everyone! Come on, let's go!" Luffy runs off, but the walk back was rather awkward between Nami and Cereza.
The day was winding down and coming to an end for Cereza and the Rose Queen pirates when they finally came to the Thousand Sunny, Luffy explained the situation and the other members of the Rose Queen pirates were rather upset that Luffy decided to bring Cereza aboard.
The days became weeks and the weeks became months and there was still no sign of Cereza's ship, however. Somewhere else...a former king was brewing up a plan to come together with his heir, a Kingsley to be exact.
On the Island of Mercy, near the great Islands of Loana, there was a kingsley planning revenge of the coldest yet sweetest kind with his crew of marauders and thieves...
"So, Oberon,...you got them to take the ship, right?" A man wearing an eye patch asks as he drinks his potent brandy. Oberon, the captain, laughs.
"Yeah, they should be coming here soon but I doubt she'll find it soon." He response, another man answers. "Why is that?"
"If she's anything like she was, she'll be rather stubborn and won't catch a clue for at least another few weeks or so. So, we'll sit here and let that bastard, Thomas, do his thing. I don't want anyone causing trouble or I swear I'll kill you." Oberon commanded as he smokes a cigarette.
The wind came through the forest where they sat and the gleam of the sun revealed that this man, Oberon, and his crew has killed over a hundred men and the bodies have been scattered along the beach of Mercy.
The wind blows the hood from the man called Oberon, he smiles.
"Be prepared, darling, daddy's coming for ya."
Author's Note: YO! Another fantastic chapter finally squeezed out! Phew, this one was really out there today! I'm glad so many of you like it! Thanks for reading but remember reviews = chapters! ^_^