•Black Hat•

•26•

The statue in the room where all the gladiators were nervously waiting for their turn to appear on the stage of the Colosseum, kept appealing to Luffy. He stood in front of it staring at the man's profile.

"That's Kyros" a soft voice suddenly said and Luffy turned to look at the person speaking. A young girl with long pink hair styled simply on a long braid that came over her shoulder. She was dressed pretty glamorously, with a golden bra and what looked like a pair of golden panties. Her back was covered with a green long cape and from her side a long sword was hanging. "I'm Rebecca!" The girl smiled at him.

"Lucy" Luffy replied having got used to his alias.

"Kyros is rumored to have won 3.000 battles without being defeated" the girl continued. "But no one knows who he is, or even if he was real or not."

"I see".

"Every time I go outside to fight I look at him and take up courage. I... I need to win this battle. I have to get the Mera Mera no Mi and take him down! Doflamingo!" He explained and Luffy looked at her sympathetically. Perhaps... she needed the fruit more than him.

He shook his head from side to side. No! It was Ace's fruit and he wanted it!

"Rebecca!" The girl heard her name and lifted her head. The female with the black curly hair from before was the one calling her.

"Excuse me, I hope we meet in the second round." She said hastily and left to follow Kuro.

"The gladiators of team A prepare yourselves you're going out in five minutes!" Someone said from the den den mushis that were all over the rooms where the gladiators waited.

Luffy looked at the two girls that disappeared in the crowd and noticed that the black haired bore the later A. While Rebecca the one of D. Curious about the girl named Kuro, Luffy found a spot near the huge windows that looked straight to the Colosseum's stage and waited for her to appear.

The girl, waited nervously in the gates with the rest of the gladiators. Seeing that boy, who called himself Lucy had made her uncomfortable. She had gotten used to fighting in the Colosseum and had stopped feeling nervous after her first duel. The silver blade inside her hand that usually relaxed her was now only making her more impatient. She wanted to wear her hat during this fight but seeing Lucy between the gladiators she thought that maybe the hat would uncover her. But, she thought, he didn't know that she owned this hat. She had kept it a secret from him.

The gates started opening so she shook her head trying to empty her mind and decisively put the velvety hat on her frizzy black hair. Now she felt completed. After taking a deep breath she entered the arena with her head facing the sky.

The crowd shouted and screamed her name.

KU-RO

KU-RO

She had become quite popular during the one month she had been fighting there.

Luffy from above looked at her carefully. The black hat reminded him of someone. It had two blue faces on the front, one smiling happily and one frowning. The red beads that held them together and went all around the hat looked like... he couldn't find the word. Her black hair made her look fierce and scary.

"Like a witch!" Luffy murmured and shivered at the thought. The strange thing was that they also felt familiar, her hair. He would have paid attention to the whole match if someone hadn't interrupted him.

The man was a huge, with all the meanings of it. Tall and fat. His head had a weird shape but he looked kind. Luffy smiled at him asking what he wanted.

The grandpa started talking about the rage he had against Garp, Luffy's grandfather. He was the one who had made the old man's head to look like this. He concluded saying that he would take his rage against Garp, to him and that now Luffy was considered his enemy.

"What? Old man-"

"Monkey D Luffy, you better be prepared! I Don Chinjao will wipe you out!" The old man said and the ends of his beard lifted strangely upwards.

"Shh! No one is supposed to know-"

Suddenly Cavendish emerged in front of them with his sword in hand.

"DID I HEAR CORRECTLY?" He shouted. "Are you Monkey D Luffy!

"Oh shut up I'm Lucy!!!" Luffy hissed trying to make them calm down.

"Grandpa, it isn't time yet!" Two men appeared and forced Don Chinjao to stay still. Luffy took this as opportunity to hide my hanging off the window's ledge.

He turned his head to look at the stage but exactly then the match for team A had finished. And who was the winner?He hadn't heard. Did Kuro get beaten? Was she alive?
Frustrated he hit his head against the wall cursing the old man that had distracted him from the fight.

"God what are you doing?" He heard a familiar voice saying and at the same moment someone announced:

"The winner from team A, I repeat, is Kuro!"