Removing the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon

"Mm…" Boa Hancock slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying in her own large bed, a cool sensation brushing against her side.

Turning her head, she saw a giant red-and-white patterned snake lying beside her. It wore a skull-shaped hat and stared at her with wide eyes.

"Salome, it’s you!" Hancock let out a soft sigh of relief and slowly sat up. The experiences from Tsukuyomi flooded back into her mind, and she could even vaguely feel pain coming from her back again.

But she knew it was only phantom pain. Clenching her hand, she discovered that her skin, which had become somewhat aged and rough after having her vitality drained, had now returned to normal.

"So they let me off? They really underestimated me." Hancock gritted her teeth and was about to stand when a question suddenly occurred to her.

"That illusion… could they have learned about my past?"

At that thought, Hancock’s expression completely changed. Even the phantom pain in her back grew more intense. After hastily tidying herself up, she hurriedly pushed open her bedroom door and headed for the hall.

Halfway there, she heard her two sisters’ voices. "It’s fine! It’s only a Devil Fruit. Let him take it! As for Amazon Lily’s savings, if they can be exchanged for…, then that absolutely won’t be a problem!"

"What!?" Hancock hurriedly pushed open the doors, only to see her two sisters cheerfully carrying Amazon Lily’s treasures aboard Yota’s Azure Dragon.

Her vision went dark, and Hancock nearly fainted from anger. Hearing the door open, her two sisters turned to look at her and immediately cried out happily. "Elder Sister, you’re awake? That’s wonderful!"

"I don’t think it’s wonderful at all! Have you two also been mentally controlled by that three-eyed woman?" Hancock roared furiously. "Do you even know what you’re doing? Those are my treasures!"

Indeed, in Hancock’s eyes, all of Amazon Lily belonged to her, so those treasures naturally belonged entirely to her as well. As for Amazon Lily’s inhabitants, even they themselves belonged to her, let alone mere money.

At this point, her two sisters exchanged a glance, then sneakily approached Hancock as though they were thieves, seemingly wanting to tell her something.

Unfortunately, they were simply too large. No matter how stealthy they tried to be, it looked absurdly conspicuous and rather amusing.

"Sister, look at our backs! Yota cured our curse. Gorgon’s eyes are closed!"

"What are you talking about? The Gorgon curse was never…" Hancock began with a baffled expression, but when she saw the Amazon Lily residents helping move the treasure, she swallowed the rest of her words.

To conceal the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon on the sisters’ backs, the three sisters had publicly claimed that, at the end of an adventure, they had defeated Gorgon, a monster from the Central Sea, but had been cursed by it. Petrifying eyes had grown on their backs, and if they took off their clothes and exposed those eyes, everyone nearby would be turned to stone.

But that was merely a lie for everyone else. The three sisters knew perfectly well that they had never been cursed at all. Those who supposedly saw their backs and became petrified had merely been turned to stone by Hancock’s Devil Fruit abilities.

Hancock had only failed to grasp it at first. After thinking for a moment, she realized something, and a delighted expression appeared on her face.

She then lowered her voice and said to her sisters, "The mark… was removed?"

Her two sisters hurriedly nodded, then pointed at the treasures. "That’s the payment he asked for!"

The treasure she had once cared so much about no longer mattered at all in Hancock’s eyes. "Fine, give him all of it! As long as he can help me eliminate… the curse."

With the modification abilities of Yota’s Munch-Munch Fruit, the so-called Hoof of the Celestial Dragon naturally posed no problem.

It might have used some special materials, making the mark nearly impossible to erase by ordinary means, but Yota could even directly transfer the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird Curse Mark. What was a mere burn scar by comparison?

A short while later, inside Hancock’s bedroom.

After emerging from Dark Space, Hancock unhesitatingly removed her top and looked into the largest mirror in her bedroom, one as tall as a person.

When she saw her fair, smooth, flawless back, she could not help covering her mouth as she began to sob softly.

After a while, seemingly remembering that Yota was still standing in her bedroom, Hancock straightened her clothes and maintained her haughty posture as she spoke to him. "In any case, I suppose I should thank you."

Yota shook his head. "There’s nothing to thank me for. You paid, and I did the job."

"Hmph! Restoring my body to perfection cannot be measured by such a small amount of money." Hancock lifted her head so high it nearly pointed at the ceiling, speaking to Yota with her chin raised.

Yota was speechless. In manga, that pose only looked amusing and funny. Seeing someone do it in reality, Yota felt his embarrassment was about to kill him.

I’m always out of place with you guys because I’m not goofy enough.jpg.

Perhaps her neck was starting to ache, or perhaps she sensed Yota’s discomfort, but Hancock quickly lowered her head again. She then asked, "I thought you wanted to take my Devil Fruit, but I didn’t expect your target really was my sisters’ Devil Fruits."

"But does the Snake-Snake Fruit really have any significance to you?"

Hancock knew that Yota already possessed the Azure Dragon Fruit. Even the combined value of dozens or hundreds of Snake-Snake Fruits could never compare to that powerful Devil Fruit.

"Of course it has significance." Yota gave her a perfunctory reply. "But I don’t think I have any obligation to tell you."

Hancock immediately gritted her teeth in anger. She had not met many men who dared to brush her off.

Then, as if he had remembered something, Yota turned to Hancock. "Oh, right. You used to be a Celestial Dragon’s slave, so there’s something else I can ask you to do."

"What is it?" At Yota’s mention of being a Celestial Dragon’s slave, Hancock’s breathing stalled, and her voice turned somewhat cold.

Yota casually took out a sea chart from his clothes. "It’s nothing major. Last time, I rescued quite a few slaves from Mary Geoise. I think there were some people from Amazon Lily among them too?"