[EotB] 060. Sabaody Park (Patreon)

14 years, 6 months, 7 days before Romance Dawn (1524.10.29)

Hancock woke up the following morning painfully conscious of the fact that, after today, she wouldn’t see her little sisters for what might be a considerable time. The two of them, along with Gloriosa, would set off to intercept the Kuja Pirates and get a ride back to Maiden Island, while Hancock and Salome would leave the Grand Line entirely.

That this day would come was no surprise. Hancock wasn’t so indecisive that she’d waffled on her next steps for long after her assault on Marie-Joie. She’d had the past six months to consider the idea.

It was rather bittersweet, but at least, this separation wouldn’t be as fraught as the last.

Still, now that it was upon her, Hancock did find herself a bit more... sentimental... than usual, she supposed.

So, after getting dressed and performing her ablutions, she turned to her sisters, in the room they all shared, and said, “Let’s spend the day together. Enjoy Sabaody’s attractions one last time.”

The girls exchanged a glance, looking about as conflicted as Hancock felt.

“That’s a good idea,” Sandersonia said.

Marigold also nodded. “Yes. But don’t you want to dress more casually if we’re going out to have fun?” she asked, giving Hancock a look.

Hancock blinked and looked down at herself. Busy with her thoughts, she’d moved on autopilot and put on the clothes she used when working as a waitress for Shakuyaku.

A white shirt. Dress pants, a waistcoat, and a bow tie, all in black. Gleaming leather shoes. It was actually a croupier uniform she’d copied from one of the archipelago’s numerous casinos, though Hancock filled it rather better than any of their employees did theirs, if she said so herself.

...Actually, she was starting to fill it a little too well.

Now that she was really getting into her adolescence, her fourteenth birthday less than two months past, she was growing like a weed. Nothing like her little sisters, of course, who had both left her in the dust, but still...

She’d already had to visit a tailor a couple of months ago, to adjust all of her clothing. It was annoying to have to do so again so soon. Hancock might have to learn how to work a needle and thread and do the job herself, at this point. It would cost her less in the long run.

She wasn’t actually sure how tall her manga counterpart eventually got as an adult. She’d always remembered Boa Hancock as having a normal human height, but maybe, standing next to Sandersonia and Marigold had skewed her memories, because she suspected that, at this rate, she was going to shoot past two meters.

Or perhaps, it had to do with manga-Hancock spending years as a malnourished slave, whereas this Hancock was not only well fed, but also made sure to always keep her body optimally healthy with Life Return.

Well, either way, though it might be a bit tight on her, her outfit was still fine for an outing, casual or not. There was nothing wrong with looking spiffy, in her not-so-humble opinion.

More to the point, she was too lazy to change.

“It’ll be fine. It makes me look like a local.”

Sandersonia pursed her lips. “It’s still weird to see you dressed so modestly.”

Hancock chuckled. “Walking around in the nude wouldn’t exactly be conducive to my goal of staying inconspicuous, I’m afraid. But all right.” She pulled her bow tie off her neck and tossed it onto the bed, then unbuttoned the top half of her shirt. “There you go. Ask and ye shall receive. Cleavage.”

“Thank you so much,” Sandersonia said, voice desert-dry.

“So where are we going, then?” Marigold cut in, ignoring the byplay. “Sabaody Park?”

“I kind of want to go on the Ferris wheel again,” Sandersonia mused. “The view is great from up there.”

Hancock nodded. “Sure, why not?” With the Ferris wheel’s private bubble-cabins, she would even be able to take off her blindfold and enjoy the view in question. “I think there was a concert scheduled, today, too. Salome, do you want to come with us?”

The snake let out a sleepy hiss and burrowed deeper into the cover.

Hancock chuckled. “All right, then. You do you.”

The three of them continued discussing options as they left the bar, with a quick word to Shakuyaku on the way out so no one would wonder where they’d disappeared to.

It obviously wasn’t the first time the three of them enjoyed the archipelago’s entertainment.

During the first couple of months after Marie-Joie, the Marines had cracked down hard on Sabaody, and bounty hunters had also arrived in droves – Shakuyaku had even reported a few people looking into the destruction of Disco’s slave auction house, investigating possible ties with Hancock’s activities. That had fortunately tapered off after a while, but Hancock had still chosen the better part of valor and stayed cloistered inside the bar for a long time.

It had tested her patience, but better that than to bring an ungodly amount of trouble down on not only her head, but everyone else’s too.

After that, though, when the heat really died down and the world accepted that Hancock had disappeared into thin air after escaping from Marie-Joie, she’d started working as a waitress, and once she grew confident enough in her disguise, began accompanying her sisters when they went out to have fun.

As usual, Sabaody in the morning was at its calmest, when most of the tourists were busy sleeping off the previous night’s drunken revelry. All of the attractions were still open – they only ever closed for maintenance – but the queues were much shorter than usual.

That suited the girls just fine as Hancock blew through some of the money she’d saved up working for Shakuyaku – the woman had insisted on paying her a generous salary – on one ride after another.

Sabaody Park, helped by the gravity-defying resin bubbles produced by the mangrove trees on which it was built, could get much wilder with its architecture and its thrills than any of Earth’s amusement parks, and though Hancock couldn’t get the full experience of some of them with her blindfold on, she did enjoy hearing her little sisters squeal in the steep drops of the roller coasters.

Which was kind of funny, actually. With a bit of training, they could easily learn to move faster than a mere roller coaster, and in that context, they would never scream or shut their eyes at the sight of the ground rushing toward them.

It was all about context, Hancock supposed.

Around midday, the crowds began to thicken enough that the strain of keeping track of so many people with her Observation started giving Hancock a headache. She could have pushed through without too much trouble, or reduced her use of Haki and instead relied on her Devil Fruit’s emotion sensing to track everyone around her – despite her more modest outfit and the blindfold covering half her face, the effect of her beauty seemed unchanged, and there was no shortage of lust directed at her – but the three sisters instead took that opportunity for a quick break and stopped in one of the park’s many restaurants. They were all overpriced and overrated, as tourist traps usually were, but after skipping breakfast, even subpar food was acceptable.

They took things slower in the afternoon, mostly strolling along aimlessly, chatting as they soaked in the constantly festive atmosphere.

The background knowledge that the archipelago was rife with slave traders might have spoiled this atmosphere, but fortuitously, their population had dropped vertiginously over the last couple of months, as they, one after another, experienced unfortunate and deadly accidents.

Hancock had needed a way to shake off the rust after those months spent in hiding, after all, and she’d wanted to practice her stealth.

And hey, before becoming a pirate, hadn’t Nico Robin started her career as an assassin for crime lords like Crocodile? They’d have a hobby in common over which to bond, then.

Eventually, when the sun began to sink toward the horizon, the three boarded the Ferris wheel Sandersonia had been keen to ride again.

As they slowly gained altitude, Hancock untied her blindfold and leaned back in her seat. The view from up there, unobstructed by the transparent walls of the bubble around them, was indeed amazing. The entire Sabaody Park stretched out far below them, crowds milling about like disturbed ants, notes of overlapping, cheery musics reaching them all the way up there, carried by the wind.

“It really is pretty,” Marigold said quietly, mirroring Hancock’s thoughts.

Sandersonia nodded. “Hmm.”

Quickly, however, Hancock found her gaze pulling away from the scenery, and falling instead onto her sisters.

They both looked strong and healthy, their injuries either gone entirely, for Marigold, or well on their way there, for Sandersonia. The latter’s burn scars had faded to pretty much nothing, while her missing eye had already grown back. And though one of her sleeves still hung empty, even her severed arm had started to regenerate. At this point, it was nothing but a matter of time.

All of that in just six months... Truly impressive.

Even Hancock couldn’t boast of such amazing progress. Her lost fingers had grown back too, of course, and her own eye was complex enough to excuse some of the extra difficulties she was facing, but she was still unreservedly proud of her little sisters, of what they’d accomplished in the face of all that hardship.

Her staring eventually got Marigold’s attention. She turned to look back at Hancock. “What is it?” she asked.

Hancock smiled and shook her head. “Today’s been fun. I’m going to miss you.” That wiped the smile off her sisters’ faces. Oops. Hancock hurriedly continued. “Don’t look like that. It’s not like we’ll never see each other again. It might take a little while, but we’ll catch each other.”

“What does ‘a little while’ even mean?” Sandersonia muttered.

“Who knows? A few years, perhaps?” Which, admittedly, was even longer than the last time they were separated, but again, knowing that they’d be relatively safe made all the difference.

“I wish you could come back to Maiden Island with us,” Marigold said.

“That... would be difficult. The laws of the empire when it pertains to deserters are quite clear.” Hancock had known what she was getting into, when she abandoned the Kuja Pirates at Wynbridge Island. Still, she felt a sly smile pull at her lips. “But, hey... If you don’t like those laws, you know what to do, don’t you?”

That notion took a few seconds to percolate, both girls looking at Hancock without understanding.

But then, it struck.

Marigold’s eyes widened. “You... You want one of us to become empress?”

Hancock shook her head. “What I want is irrelevant. The question is, what do you want? If you want to become empress, then go for it. Hell, if both of you want the throne, then just change the laws to make it possible for you to share it. If you don’t want that, then don’t. Simply decide. What do you want, what do you have, and how can you leverage the latter to achieve the former. It’s all up to you. You don’t need me – or anyone else – to tell you what to do. You’re not children anymore.”

They literally were children, of course – only thirteen and eleven years old, even now – but that detail didn’t fit the message Hancock wanted to impart.

Mostly, she didn’t want her little sisters to feel adrift, without her at their side. They’d have Gloriosa, of course, but...

Well, Hancock was sure they’d be fine. They could take care of themselves.

Still, with that part of canon firmly going off the rails, what would they choose to do? How would the Kuja empire evolve in the next few years? Would a member of the Boa family still become Pirate Empress, despite everything?

As Sandersonia and Marigold fell into a thoughtful silence, Hancock had to admit she was curious what the future held in store.