•Black Hat•

•29•

Law was trying to escape from Doflamingo, who had easily overpowered the exhausted pirate, and was now running towards the colosseum with the schichibukai and a blind man dressed in purple tailing him. It had been a while since the last time Pearl had seen the doctor, so she called out to him.

"Oi!" She shouted and law took his eyes off Luffy and the rest of them. He seemed somewhat confused and surprised and for a moment he stopped, since he had already reached the straw hat group, to look at her. But that lasted just a brief second until he turned to Luffy in an attempt to tell him something.

He had opened his mouth when:

BANG

Everything froze!

"Traf-guy!" Luffy yelled

"LAW!" Pearl screamed as two more shots followed.

Everyone looked at the man who had done it. Doflamingo. Pearl had immediately armed herself with two of her blades and without a second thought she threw them towards him, putting behind them all the strength she had. But Doflamingo caught both of them between his fingers and crashed them inside his palm.

Pearl was getting ready to grab two more blades from her belt when she felt two strong hands wrapping around her, dragging her away from that corridor and deeper inside the colosseum. She knew it was him, she didn't even have to look. She started shaking her arms and legs frantically as she yelled at him to let go of her.

"Don't be dumb!"she heard Luffy shouting at her as he pinned her against a wall. Her curly hair were completely messed up and had fallen all over her face, making it hard for her to see. Her chest was going up and down fast from how tense she was. Luffy loosened his hold by taking one arm off her and carefully putting aside her hair from her eyes, tucking them gently behind her ears. "Don't be dumb" he repeated in a softer voice. "He'll kill you!"

"Let him kill me then!" She hissed. "He killed Law!"

"No!" Luffy cut her. "Trao is still alive"

"And he'll be dead soon enough if no one does something!"

"I'll beat Doflamingo! I'll kick his ass I swear!"

"What? You?"

"Who else? You perhaps?" Luffy snapped. "He crashed your blades without even trying! If I'm weak then perhaps you're weaker!" He spat and let go of her.

"I never said I was strong" she said after a few moments of silence. Swiftly she grabbed his head and pressed her silver blade, Ace, against his throat. "But if you call me weak again i'll cut you down!" She hissed and disappeared once again.

She ran back to her cage and curled up in a ball. Her eyes were burning but she had no tears to shed. Luffy knew nothing about her. He didn't know what she'd been through and even though perhaps she wasn't physically powerful, she was definitely strong mentally, she thought. She had managed to stay alone when every part of her wanted to die and

Luffy from the other hand just collapsed to the floor and sat there not knowing what else to do. The urge to punch something was suffocating him but he overcame it, fearing that he would destroy the building. He heard Bartolomeo's footsteps behind him and he got up brushing the dust off his pants before turning to look at him.

"Luffy-senpai" Bartolomeo called "Zoro told me that you should find a way out and instructed me to give you this!" He said and gave him the den den Mushi Zoro was previously holding.

"Luffy?" He heard Sanji's raspy voice from the other side.

"Sanji? What's going on?" Luffy asked.

"Caesar got us into some deep shit!" He hissed. "He owned big mom money or something, anyway!" Sanji said and made a pause to breath out the smoke from his cigarette. "Momonosuke and that bastard are our priorities no?"

"Well, I think" Luffy muttered taking a confused expression.

"Yeah, if we want them safe it would be a good idea to-" he started saying but he was interrupted by Nami.

"Luffy, we have to travel to Zou for the sake of everyone's safety. Do we have your permission?" She was speaking fast and anyone could detect the fear in her voice.

"Yes you do. You can also strike back at big moms pirates!"

"Hai captain!" Nami said and turned off the den den Mushi.

Luffy remained silent for a moment. "I have to get out, I can't let a comrade die because I'm too busy trying to get something I won't use!" He declared. "But still I..."

"I can get it for you Luffy-senpai!" Bartolomeo suggested.

He could, Luffy thought, but could he trust the man?

"I'm afraid I can't let that happen!" An unknown voice said behind them. Luffy turned around to look at the owner of the voice and every second he spent gawking at him his eyes filled with tears. The man was tall and had a huge scar across face. Still he was gorgeous as his blonde curls were neatly trapped under his hat and framed his kind face perfectly. Luffy recognized in him a brother he had long thought dead.

"Sabo?"

"Luffy!" The man smiled and before he could even speak another word Luffy landed on him hugging him tightly

"I thought you were dead!!" He stuttered in between his sobs. They remained hugged for a couple of minutes as if they were trying to make up for all the years they had been apart. And even Sabo's eyes watered slightly.

"I'm here for his fruit!" Sabo said after they had both calmed down. "And I have a plan"

"What is it?"

"Give me your disguise, and let me fight as Lucy, you run out of here and go meet your nakama!"

And that's exactly what happened. Luffy gave Sabo his attire and started running around to find a way out of the Colosseum. He only stopped for a bit to hear the names of the gladiators that walked in for the next and final round. Pearl was there... fighting his brother.