•Black Hat•

•27•

Previous Chapter

"God what are you doing?"

Kuro was standing in front of the window and looked at Luffy as he was hanging from its ledge.

She won, he thought but he zoned out for a moment while staring at the hat that she was still wearing on her head.

The red beads reminded him of... pearls. Yes! That was it. Pearls.

"Pearls!" He said loudly and lifted himself to sit on the ledge across Kuro.

The girl seemed to be shaken by the sound of the word Luffy had spoken and didn't move even when Luffy's face was only a few centimeters away from her's.

"You look like her" Luffy muttered and he fought with his urge to touch her. The girl in front of him reminded him of Pearl so much that he felt like he was dreaming.

Suddenly Kuro turned around and ran inside an empty corridor. Luffy followed her.

"Wait!" He said and grabbed her with his extended arms from her shoulders. The girl threw him over and climbed over his body pressing a blade against his throat. No one was there to stop them from fighting, otherwise Luffy would be in danger of being expelled.

"Stop running behind me!" The girl hissed and Luffy gulped as he felt the cold silver of the blade touching the skin of his neck. He could have easily escaped from that hold by covering his neck with the Haki of hardening and then pushing the girl off of him. But either because he felt she wouldn't harm him or because he was too caught up on his memories he did nothing to escape. Instead he took some time to figure out why her hat looked so familiar to him. He closed his eyes and slowly a face, a beloved face appeared wearing it; only that this time it was orange.

"Where did you find the hat?" He asked her calmly.

"I stole it" she replied calmly and took the knife away from the boy's throat. After twisting it skillfully in between her fingers she placed it on the belt that went around her loose pants.

"You look like her" Luffy repeated not being able to comprehend what was happening. "You use knives... you even wear the same clothes that she wore. It's just the hair..." he mumbled and got out his hand to touch her hair. She slapped it off while still sitting on top of him, her legs pressing on his hips to keep him still. Luffy didn't give up; he raised his hand again and touched one of her black curls.

She jumped up, setting him free in that way and attempted to disappear inside the rooms of the Colosseum once again.

"Kuro wait!" Luffy yelled again and grabbed her from her wrist.

"Let me go, let me go Luffy!" She shouted at him.

"No wait! Stop moving!" He said and pinned her against the wall by pressing his hand against her chest. Suddenly something shined from inside her hair. Luffy got his free hand behind the girl's neck and saw a ginger colored curl. "Your hair... it's you! Pearl, you dyed your hair!" Luffy said and looked at her as if he was terrified.

"You're mistaking me for someone else, let me go!" The girl shouted trying to push the boy off of her.

Luffy didn't know what he was feeling. He was happy to meet Pearl again but at the same moment he was... confused, disappointed and angry. Yes he was angry.

"Why did you leave?" He asked her taking the red tuft of hair inside his hand.

"I didn't leave, I don't know you!"

"Where did you find the hat?"

"I said I stole it!"

"You didn't!" Luffy said firmly. "You wouldn't!"

The girl laughed sarcastically. "How would you know?"

"It's Ace's hat!"

"Luffy let me go!" She hissed.

"You called me Luffy again but I introduced myself as Lucy here. Pearl, I know it's you!"

The girl seemed to give up. "Okay... you won." She said and let her hands fall down.

"Why are you here?" Luffy asked her.

"Why are you?" Pearl returned.

"For the Mera Mera no Mi!"

"Yeah same here".

"Great!" Luffy said. "I knew I wouldn't be able to eat a second fruits and I didn't know what I would do with it. But now that you want it, it's perfect. Ace would be delighted-"

"I'm not going to eat it!" She cut him off.

Luffy stared at her confused.

Pearl took a deep breath and continued. "Devil fruit users are weak!" She spat. "They can't swim, the water is a constant danger for them, how good is this?"

Luffy didn't flinch. She expected him to become really angry but Luffy didn't react badly. He simply said:

"I see... sad because I would love it if a nakama of mine ate his-"

"I'm not your nakama!" The girl shouted and pushed him away.

"Pearl-"

"Shut it! I'm not!"

"Why did you come in the ship then?"

"I followed you on a trip in Fishman Island, I wanted to visit Jinbe".

"Then why did you leave?" He shouted at her.

Pearl tried really hard to put some words together to make an excuse for herself but the only thing that came out was a cry of despair. She threw her head back and covered her face with her hands pulling on her skin as she moved them downwards. Luffy stood there and looked at her a bit shaken. He had seen her acting crazily before and perhaps even worse but now she seemed so confused and troubled. When she calmed down and her voice stopped echoing in the old corridor with the tall open windows, Luffy approached her and looked at her face carefully.

"Why-"

"Stop it!"

"Let me finish a goddamn sentence!" Luffy shouted in a childish way but Pearl stiffened. He had never yelled at her. "Why did you leave the ship?"

"I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to belong to a WEAK CAPTAIN!" She shouted and jumped out of one of the windows behind her. Luffy screamed her name in terror and didn't have the time to realize what she had just said as he looked for her scared that she had died. But when he saw her jumping skillfully around the ledges of the Colosseum he relaxed.

"Weak captain..." Luffy muttered. "I'm not weak anymore Pearl!" He said and clenched his fist.