•Black Hat•

•30•

"AND NOW THE FINAL ROUND CONTESTANTS WILL MARCH IN!" The narrator screamed.

Pearl was standing between Bartolomeo and Luffy and to her surprise and relief he hadn't tried to talk to her. One by one the gladiators marched in the arena. Bartolomeo was booed and so was Rebeca while the crowed remained silent when 'Lucy' appeared. But when she stepped inside with her hat lowered down to hide her eyes everyone cheered. During these two months she had created a profile of an unbeaten and incredibly skilled woman that was able to see everything. The main reason behind this was that after her first match, when she had slid the throat of one of the crowds most beloved gladiators, someone in the heat of the moment had thrown a rock at her back.

She was swift enough to turn around and grab it leaving everyone dumbfounded. Ever since that day someone would aim something at her just to try and catch her off her guard. And she would always grab it and either throw it in the water if it was useless or if it was a knife store it in her belt. She made money off of that as well. People made bets and in every match one, and only one, different every time would have his chance. so when they lost the money would always go to her via the man that narrated the fights.

This time it was something enormous. And it came at her with so much force that she had to jump, to dodge it and then grab it from its hilt. It was a big sword. One she knew too well. She raised her eyes and saw one of Doflamingo's subordinates. Diamante.

"You never drop your guard dove!" The slender man shouted at her as she threw his sword back at him. The sword hit at his cape and fell down on his feet. That was the power he had. He could make every material able to resemble a flag and the way a flag moved, so the cape he wore was made out of steel. Diamante continued to gallantly grab it with his right hand and Pearl glared at him. She kept walking and when she reached the arena Luffy approached her. That was when she noticed something queer about him. His hair was blonde and he had a scar on his left eye. It wasn't him. Before she was able to speak the man whispered in her ear.

"Where did you get that hat?"

"Where's Luffy?" She asked ignoring his question.

"He went out to save law-!"

"That idiot!" She hissed interrupting him. "And who are you?"

"His brother! Sabo! But where did you-?"

"Luffy didn't have another brother!" She hissed.

"Well turns out he does!" The man said but they were interrupted by Diamante.

"Fellas! I'll be participating as well in this round. These fishes too!" He exclaimed as a couple of huge black monstrous creatures that looked like piranhas emerged from the water. "Oh and one of them carries the fruit!" Diamante said and the match began.

Bartolomeo rushed to attack one of the fighting fishes and Diamante landed on the arena ready to confront Rebecca who had won the d match. When the fish with the Mera Mera no Mi popped up. Sabo leaped on its back, and Diamante attacked him momentarily forgetting about the girl.

He lifted his enormous sword and was ready to slice through the young man but Sabo shattered the executive's sword in two with his bare hand. Rebecca then attacked Diamante, but her blunt blade did nothing as he hit her with a mace.

"Bartolomeo!" Sabo shouted. "Protect the girl!"

But Pearl was faster and jumped in front of Diamante, and landed on his blade like a skilled circus dancer. She armed herself with six blades, three in each hand and attacked his neck managing a few scratches at him before he got ready to hit her with his sword.

Sensing that she jumped backwards and only took a light scratch on her stomach.

• • •

Luffy was running alongside Zoro and Kin'emon towards the palace, where Doflamingo had taken Law. Soon enough the had reached the hill that it was located and as they prepared to enter it, a dark skinned, slim and beautiful woman, Viola approached them to help them get in. Sanji had spoken about her when they had called him. Apparently she was a member of the previous royal family and she knew a secret staircase that would help them get in the palace without drawing suspicion. But rather than using that, the Straw Hats went up using the chamber's pulley. And afterwards Viola proposed to take them to a secret rampart entrance, Luffy... punched through the main gate instead.

But it didn't take long until one of Doflamingo's subordinates appeared in front of them. His name was Pica, he was pretty scary, with his puffed chest and strong arms but his voice ruined his image completely. It was really high pitched and so ridiculous that Luffy broke down in tears of laughter.

"Luffy!" Zoro barked trying to contain his laughter as well. "Go, I'll take care of this... thing!" He smirked and unsheathed one of his three katanas.

"Okay! You got it!" Luffy grinned and ran pass them with Viola tailing him.

As they were approaching the lift they began to hear loud noises and that sound of fighting. A slender man called Gladius, member of the Donquixote Pirates had grabbed a toy soldier and was ready to rupture him when Luffy threw a punch at him. Luffy and Viola took the Soldier away and Gladius attacked them with shrapnel. Not seeing any other possible solution Luffy stretched his arms, hugged both Viola and the Soldier and burst out the window pulling all of them to the second floor.

"Luffy-San!" The girl screamed when they found themselves in the middle of the air.

But soon enough luffy had grabbed onto a window and had pulled them up effortlessly, like a monkey going for a stroll.

"Hush!" The soldier hissed and signed at the window from who's ledge they were hanging. It was one of the windows that viewed in the throne room and inside of it, Doflamingo was interrogating Law about Straw Hat's actions.