The Snake Princess's Secret

Amazon Lily, Kuja Castle.

Boa Hancock stood on the balcony at the highest level of the castle, spinning in place with both hands pressed to her cheeks. Her long hair swept across the stone statues on the railing, knocking a decorative snake head flying.

"Sister, please calm down." Sandersonia reached out with her snake tail to stop her.

"I am calm." Hancock's voice was two pitches higher than usual.

"You're not calm at all," Marigold said with a sigh.

"An unspoken confession! A woman who watched only one person's back!" Hancock clasped her hands to her chest, the blush on her face spreading from her ears to her collarbones. "That's the story of Luffy and me!"

Sandersonia and Marigold exchanged a glance, reading the same thought in each other's eyes: here we go again. She's started again.

"The Sky Screen is telling the whole world about Luffy's and my love. It's destiny!"

"Sister, there's no love between you and Luffy yet."

"That's because I haven't had the chance to confess!" Hancock turned around confidently. "Even the Sky Screen said it was an unspoken confession. That means the whole world already recognizes our feelings for each other!"

That chain of logic made her two younger sisters give up on communicating with her entirely.

The golden characters on the Sky Screen had fully formed.

[Ten greatest regrets, eighth place]

[Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock]

The world's reaction was unlike its reaction to any of the previous names.

Before, there had been shock, anger and heartbreak.

This time, people wore extremely subtle expressions.

In a pirate tavern somewhere in the New World, a group of burly men looked at one another. One of them spoke.

"The Empress?"

"Boa Hancock, one of the Shichibukai?"

"Her regret is a confession? Are they serious?"

"Wait, who does she want to confess to?"

"That hint just now said she only watched one person's back. Who was it?"

When another group connected the hint to the footage the Sky Screen had shown earlier of Hancock secretly helping Luffy during the Paramount War, the answer became obvious.

"Straw Hat Luffy?"

"The Empress likes Straw Hat?"

"That little brat in the straw hat?"

"That can't be right. The Empress is the most beautiful woman in the world, and Straw Hat's only seventeen. How does that work?"

In Water 7, Franky was repairing a damaged passenger ship. When he heard the name on the Sky Screen, he turned his wrench the wrong way.

"Oh, it's that super-beautiful Snake Princess."

"Her regret is a confession? Who's she fallen for?"

Iceburg pushed up his glasses.

"Didn't they show it during the war criminal ranking? She helped Luffy fight the Marines on the battlefield."

"You mean she helped Luffy because she likes him?"

"Have you ever seen a Shichibukai help a pirate for no reason?"

Franky thought about it, then slapped his thigh.

"I get it. This is super big news! The world's most beautiful woman has a crush on a wanted man!"

The question appeared on the Sky Screen.

[Question: What was Boa Hancock's greatest regret during the Paramount War?]

[A. She failed to tell Luffy how she felt before he set out, missing what might have been her last chance to see him]

[B. She entered the battlefield as a Shichibukai but could not openly take Luffy's side, and could only watch from afar as he rushed toward the Execution Platform]

[C. She witnessed Luffy's mental collapse after Ace's death, but the chaotic battlefield kept her from reaching his side]

[D. All of the above]

As soon as the four options appeared, the mood around the world shifted to a different channel.

The ranking of the previous nine war criminals and Rouge's story just now had dragged everyone's spirits to rock bottom. Their tears had run dry, their anger had burned out, and everyone's heart was heavy.

The four options were like a plate of dessert brought to the table, changing everyone's expressions from heavy to a kind of complicated anticipation.

On the balcony in Amazon Lily, Hancock read the four options and fell silent for three seconds.

Then she slowly crouched down, wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head in them.

"Sister?"

"The whole world knows I like Luffy now." Her muffled voice came from within her arms.

"Uh, yes."

"Luffy saw it too."

"Probably."

Hancock's body trembled.

Sandersonia thought she was about to cry and hurriedly crouched down to comfort her.

Instead, Hancock raised her head, and the expression on her face made both her sisters take a step back.

She was smiling.

Her face was bright red, stars shone in her eyes, and her grin stretched all the way to her temples.

"This is wonderful."

"The whole world is telling Luffy how I feel for me."

"Now Luffy will surely understand my feelings."

"Then he'll come and propose to me."

"We'll hold the wedding on Amazon Lily."

"I've already thought about my wedding dress."

"The veil has to be fifty meters long."

"The flowers must be the rarest red evening primroses on Amazon Lily."

"Luffy will look so handsome in a black suit."

"I'll make him lots and lots of meat."

"Then we'll have five children."

"No, ten."

"They'll all wear straw hats."

The concern on Sandersonia's and Marigold's faces had turned into a deep sense of helplessness.

"She's beyond saving," Sandersonia whispered.

"She's been beyond saving for three years," Marigold replied.

Sabaody Archipelago.

Luffy looked at Hancock's name on the Sky Screen and tilted his head.

"Hancock?"

"What's wrong with her?"

Zoro leaned against a wall and glanced at the Sky Screen with his good eye.

"It says she has an unspoken confession for you."

"A confession? Confess what?"

"Read the options yourself."

Luffy carefully read all four options from beginning to end. He read them twice, his expression changing from confusion to even greater confusion.

"What does 'tell him how she felt' mean?"

Zoro looked at him for a long moment.

"Do you really not get it, or are you pretending?"

"I really don't get it."

Zoro rubbed his temples.

"She likes you. Do you understand?"

Luffy blinked.

"I know. She's a good person, and I like her too."

"Not that kind of like."

"There are other kinds?"

Zoro gave up.

Rayleigh, standing some distance away, heard their conversation. The corners of his mouth curved up, but he immediately stopped himself.

He remembered Roger when he was young. Before that man met Rouge, his understanding of such things had been exactly the same as Luffy's now.

The countdown to answer on the Sky Screen had begun.

Three minutes.

Lin Qi sat in the tavern with his legs crossed, cracking open sunflower seeds from a freshly opened bag as he watched live footage from around the world on the screen.

"Things are finally a little lighter."

He tossed a sunflower seed into his mouth.

"First we had Akainu killing civilians, Dragon being an absent father, Imu being an eight-hundred-year-old monster, and Rouge being pregnant for twenty months, all one after another. The emotion values nearly went off the charts."

"Time for a change of pace."

"The Empress and Luffy's storyline is natural comedy."

"The most beautiful woman in the world fell for a rubber man who's completely oblivious to romance."

"The audience loves this kind of one-sided crush that'll never be returned."

He watched the global emotion data on the screen: sadness was dropping rapidly, while curiosity and pleasure were climbing fast. He nodded in satisfaction.

The countdown on the Sky Screen reached the final ten seconds.

The atmosphere surrounding this round was completely different from before. There was no heaviness or fear; everyone was eager to watch the excitement, the bigger the better.

"It's definitely D. The answer in this livestream is D every time."

"That makes a lot of sense."

The countdown reached zero.

[Correct answer: D]

The golden characters lit up, and the Sky Screen began playing the explanatory footage.