One Piece 521

1
One Piece
Chapter 521: Hoof of the Soaring Dragon
CP9's Independent Report, Vol. 27: "Pursuers Arrive to Capture CP9"

2
[insert text: The situation changes abruptly!!]
Sandersonia: We must apologise, Sister!!
Marigold: Not only did we lost, but we were saved by the enemy...!!
Hancock: .........
Luffy: So... / Are you gonna fight me next.........?
Hancock: !! // No, that is enough... I am no longer in the mood for this...!!
Luffy: Oh, okay... // She's not broken anywhere, right...?

3
Luffy: Then put these people you turned to stone...
Hancock: !
Luffy: ...back to normal, please!! // You should be able to do that somehow, right?!
Hancock: !!
Luffy: All they did was try to protect me! They've done nothing wrong!!
Hancock: ......!! // Indeed, I have the ability to reverse their petrification. However... / You were saying there was somewhere you wished to go, by ship, yes?
Luffy: !
Hancock: I shall grant you only one request......!! // Either I reverse the petrification of these women... / ...or you leave this island safely!!
Luffy: .........
Hancock: Choose one, and abandon the other forever!!! // (Now, show your true nature, "man"...!!!)

4
Luffy: Really?!! That's great!! // So you'll turn them back for me, right?!!
Hancock: ?!!
Luffy: Thank you so much!!
Hancock: ...............!!
Sandersonia/Marigold: ........................!!
Nyon: ......... / Without a single moment's hesitation... // A man with a Haki of that calibre... for the sake of those who helped him... // ...would willingly bow his head.........

5
[box: Arena exit]
Kuja: Margaret!! // Sweetpea!! // Aphelandra!!
Margaret: Everyone! // So this is where you were!
ThatOneKuja: Thank goodness... so you were de-petrified in the end after all! // We were so worried!! All of you suddenly protecting that man like that...!! // We didn't know what might happen!!
Margaret: Petrified?
Aphelandra: What exactly happened, then.........?
Sweetpea: "I Have No Idea" what could have happened...

6
Margaret: When I came to, the man seemed incredibly happy... // ...and everyone was gone...
Flashback!Luffy: Ahhhh!! This is great!! // I don't know what I would've done if you'd died!!
Flashback!Aphelandra: ?
Ran: Yes, your memory would be a little blurry right before and after being petrified... I'll tell you all about it later.
ThatFatOne: So Margaret, do you know what happened to the man?
Daisy: And Hebihime-sama? Did she turn the man to stone? Zahahahah!
Margaret: I'm not really sure, but...... / I think he was called to Kuja Castle...
Kuja: What?!
[box: Amazon Lily, Kuja Castle]
Kuja: ......?!! The "man"... // ...is in Kuja Castle...?!!

7
[box: The Empress' Hall]
Sandersonia: So what could this be about? ...Ah! / Perhaps we're just going to be having a meal, after that nasty battle.
Luffy: Ohh! If that's what it is, I'd love to join you...!
Sandersonia: .........I suppose we really ought to show you some gratitude...... / Thank you.
Luffy: No, no, that's fine. / It's not like thanks are something I can eat.
Marigold: If anyone had seen what lies upon our backs, we would have been unable to remain in this country...
Hancock: You may enter!
Luffy: ? // Hm?
Hancock: Enter the chamber... "man".
Luffy: Chamber?
Hancock: Behind the curtain.
Luffy: Oh! Is there food?

8
Hancock: ..................
Luffy: Coming in~! ...Aw, no food, huh... // Hey! What're you doing all naked and stuff?
Hancock: ...Your rudeness never ceases to amaze me... // But no matter......... // (......!!)
Luffy: ?
Hancock: This mark.........!! // You said that you had seen it somewhere before... // Take a look at it once more.

9
Hancock: Where did you see it......? // And are you aware of what it signifies......?
Luffy: ..................
Hancock: (......!!)
Luffy: .........
Hancock: Answer me, quickly......!!
Sandersonia: ...............!!
Hancock: I do not enjoy putting it on display...!!
Marigold: ...............!!
Luffy: .........Y'know, it's actually not quite the same... / ...as the one that I've seen before.........!!
Hancock: !
Luffy: There's this fishman friend I've got, called Hachi... // I mistook it for a mark he's got on his forehead that looks kind of like that! // I haven't actually seen that mark before!
Nyon: If you do nyot know of it... // ...then it is time you were informed!!
People: ?!!

10
Hancock: Elder Nyon.........!!
Nyon: .........
Hancock: !! / You again... where did you......?!!
Nyon: The breadth of this man's heart... / ...is something you have witnessed with your own eyes!!
Hancock: ......!!
Nyon: You need nyot fear telling him the truth...!! // Boy! Are you nyot the pirate Monkey D Luffy?!
Luffy: ......!! Yeah, I am! Why do you know my name?
Nyon: You show great modesty for one who has shaken the world to such an extent... // Observe this nyewspaper from only last month! // This man is the central culprit of a momentous incident... / ...occurring on the Shabondy Archipelago, right beside Central itself... / ...in which a Tenryuubito was sent flying with a punch...!!!
Hancock: ?!! // A...?!! A Tenryuubito...?!!

11
Nyon: Though I find it difficult to understand how after committing this incredible crime...
Sandersonia: Wha.........?!
Nyon: ...and miraculously escaping from Central's most powerful forces only two days ago... // ...he has arrived in such a distant land as this......
Marigold: ..................
Luffy: Like I said, I was just suddenly blown here!! / I don't even know where this place is!! // And I don't regret what I did to that Tenryuubito, either! / Do you know what that asshole was doing to my friend?!!
Hancock: ...So it is true that you raised your hand against the Tenryuubito...
Luffy: ?!
Hancock: ......To think that a fool of that calibre......... // ...might still exist in this world.........!!!
Luffy: !

12
Hancock: A man to challenge the "heavens" without a thought for his own life... // ...A man such as him......!!
Luffy: "Him"...?
Hancock: I will tell you......... everything. // Including the meaning of the symbol... / ...your fishman friend bears upon his head...!!
Luffy: ......The mark on Hachi?
Nyon: ..................
Hancock: This... is the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon"... // The crest of the Tenryuubito.
Luffy: !

13
Hancock: It is burned into the flesh of those who are enslaved by the World Nobles...... // A mark that will never disappear... signifying that one is "less than human"...!!!
Nyon: .........
Luffy: ......!! / The Tenryuubito......!!
Flashback!Chalros: Oh, Father~~!!! I caught me a fishman slave for nothing~~~~~~!! // Fre~~~e~~~! Fre~~~e~~~! An octopus for fre~~~e~~~!!!
Hancock: Long ago, I and my sisters......... / ...all three of us... // ...were slaves of the World Nobles.........!!!
Luffy: ?!!

14
Luffy: You guys......?!! You were slaves......?!!
Hancock: I was only twelve years old.........
Flashback!Kuja: Hancock~~~~?!
Hancock: ...when the three of us were taken... / ...captured from our Kuja ship by slave traders and sold off...
Flashback!Kuja: Sonia!! Mari!! Where are you~~~?!
Hancock: The days that followed... // ...............!! / I can barely even bear to remember those horrors...!!! // The first man I ever saw in my life... to me he was an embodiment of terror itself.
Sandersonia: Unnnhhhh... Waaaaahhhhhh~~~~!!! // Aaaahhhhh~~~~~!!!
Marigold: Sonia-neesama!!! Come, now...!
Luffy: Whoa, whoa!! That's enough - don't push yourselves! / You don't have to talk about it!!!
Hancock: The memories just keep flooding back... // Those days were terrible... We had no hope, none at all... // All we could wish for was death...!!!
Luffy: Hey - c'mon...!

15
Hancock: ...But then, after four years, one night... / ...an incident occurred to shake the World Government itself. / Nobody ever stood up against the Tenryuubito; that was an absolute rule of our world. // But then one man climbed the Red Line with his bare hands... / ...and all by himself, broke into Mariejoa, the Holy Land where the Tenryuubito reside. // That man...... was later to become the Captain of the Fishman Pirates. / Fisher Tiger the Adventurer!
Flashback!Tiger: Run! And never get caught again!
Hancock: To free all the fishmen who were being oppressed in that city...... // ...he raged through the town, causing chaos in his wake. And though he had no love for humans... / ...when it came to slaves, he did not discriminate; he freed thousands of slaves of all races. // We, too, ran as though our lives depended on it...!! // We owe that man an immeasurable debt.........!!!

16
Hancock: Tiger freed many fishmen, and released them into the seas... / ...yet the brand upon those who were once slaves cannot disappear... // Tiger, who had made an enemy of the World Government itself... / ...took those fishmen in, forming the "Sun Pirates", and led them out into the open seas...!! // Just as though erasing a curse... // ...he took the Tenryuubito mark, burned upon all of their bodies... // ...and turned it into a Symbol of the Sun!!!
Luffy: ..................
Hancock: I daresay the symbol for which you mistook my brand... / ...was that "Symbol of the Sun", mark of the Fishman Pirates.
Luffy: ......... // ...Yeah, that's right... the symbol on Hachi's forehead... // ...is shaped just like a sun!!

17
Luffy: ...Does that mean he was a slave too, then...?!!
Marigold: ...That is not necessarily the case. // That symbol was used to erase the distinction between those who were once slaves and those who were not. // Though it does indicate, at least, that he was almost certainly a member of the Sun Pirates...
Nyon: Incidentally, Fisher Tiger is now long dead... / ...and the Fishmen Pirates, I hear, have split off into a number of individual pirate crews...
Luffy: ...I guess Hachi's been through a lot...
Marigold: ...And that is the reason why the mark upon our backs resembles the mark of the fishman.
Luffy: I see... that figures...
Hancock: Thankfully, during the time we were slaves, for the purposes of entertainment... / ...we were fed the "Mero Mero no Mi" and the "Hebi Hebi no Mi", and gained their abilities. // Thanks to those, we were able to deceive our brethren... and keep our secret safe. // If you had not protected Sonia's back, in the arena back there... // There would no longer have been any place for us here on this island... // .........Nobody must ever discover the truth about our past......!!!

18
Hancock: ...Even if it means deceiving an entire country...!!! I will never once think of giving in!!! // I never wish to be controlled like that, ever again......!!! // I am too afraid to let my guard down with anybody...!!
Luffy: .........
Hancock: .........The fear is too great... I cannot face it...!! / *hic* / ...............!!!
Marigold/Sandersonia: Sister...!!
Nyon: ...Ah, it has been a long time indeed...
Hancock: !
Nyon: Since the last time I saw you express your own feelings, that is... / Why, recently, I had begun to fear... // ...that Hebihime-sama had turned to ice......!!

19
Hancock: SILENCE! YOU COUNTRY-ABANDONING TRAITOR!!
Nyon: You are the ones who should be silent!! You miserable little girls who escaped from the Tenryuubito... / ...only to realise that you had nyo idea... // ...how on Earth to find your way back to your homeland!!
Sandersonia/Marigold: .........
Nyon: Who do you think it was that brought you all the way back here, hmmm?!! // What would you have done if I had NYOT been living out there away from my homeland, hmmm?!!!
Hancock: Hmph! It always comes back to that silly little debt...
Nyon: WHAT WAS THAT~~~?!! // I LOOKED AFTER THE THREE OF YOU LIKE A MOTHER...!!
Hancock: So......!! Now that you know about my history as a slave......... do you scorn me?
Luffy: Look, I told you already... I hate those Tenryuubito!!
Hancock: ! // Fufufu... I think I like you!! // Say where it is you wish to go!! My ship is yours to use.
Luffy: REALLY~~~~~~~~?!!
[insert text: Score one ship!!]