The Daughter of the King (English)

Chapter 26 - On a knife edge

Raul had been right, the scaffold really wasn'tfar from his bar. The steel scaffolding stood there, a few meters away fromher. "There it is..." She simply blocked out the noise and people asshe stared at the object on which her father's life ended. "This is the place where the Pirat King wasexecuted." She swallowed a lump. "Inthis place the greatest pirate who ever lived.......died. The place of thebeginning. Did Dad know what his death would trigger?" "I wonderwhat kind of view he had before he died. I really want to see it! All right,time for me to climb that thing!" She walked up to it and started climbing upthe scaffold. Sure, she could have catapulted herself up, but she didn't wantto attract unnecessary attention. The people on the square had already stoppedand fell silent while they watched the black-haired woman. She was halfway upthe tower when she suddenly slipped and regained her balance at the lastmoment.

She breathed a sigh of relief before a voicespoke to her on the square. "Hey!" Surprised, she looked over her shoulder andsaw the man from the harbor. He had his hands on his hips as the people aroundhim backed away. "Hey, kid." "What's wrong? Can't you see that I'm busy?""Are you really the most wanted criminal in East Blue?" "I'mLuffy. What's going on?" She slid a little back down the tower beforestopping at a crossbeam. Couldn't he have spoken to her AFTER she reached thetop?! "I am the captain of the naval base here in Loguetown, name is Smoker.I'm here to arrest you." She looked at him in surprise. "Arrest me? Thanks butI forego," She replied with a cheeky grin. "I'm heading to the Grand Lineso I can become the new Pirate King!" His eye twitched for a moment. "PirateKing?" "So why should I let myself be arrested?" "Then you have to defeat me.If you don't get past ME then you have no hope of reaching the GrandLine." He cracked his knuckles. "In other words, it all depends onwhether you have the courage or not to fight me." "So I just have todefeat you to get to the Grand Line undisturbed, huh?" The anticipation inher hear voice was clearly to hear. "Then I will defeat you!""Just try." "Gomu Gomuno..." She turned around the scaffolding so that she was inside and onlyheld on with one hand while her legs clung to the metal struts . She reachedout with her arm and struck. However, her hand slipped and had to stop herattack to catch herself. The straw hat wearer grabbed her hat when she realizedthat it was about to fly off her head. This moved her backwards, with her legsstill holding her, and allowed her stomach to expand. Although she now saweverything upside down as she swayed back and forth a bit, she couldn't quiteinterpret the expression on Smoker's face. He didn't seem shocked that shecould stretch like the others present. She wounder why? "She's a...rubber human,huh?"

"Damn, my feet are stuck!" Why did somethinglike this have to happen to her NOW? "Idiot! What the hell are youdoing!?", he was rarely in a good mood, but such idiocy just made him angry.Did she do it on purpose or was she really that stupid? She stood back up andstarted pulling at her feet as she said, "I didn't mean to do that. It'smy feet that..." She was a little glad that the navy captain couldn't seehow red she was right now. Something so embarrassing hasn't happened to hersince she had control of her powers. Suddenly they broke apart. "I'mfree!" The black-haired woman turned in the air and swung her fist again. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Smokerjumped into the air, dodging it before her fist slammed into the ground. Shelanded on her feet as the Marine captain appeared behind her. "Too slow!" Hisfist hit the surprised woman directly in the cheek. Before she could hit theground, however, he suddenly stood there and kicked her high into the air. "You're really supposed to be worth30,000,000 Berries? I don't even have to use my devil fruit powers for it. Myfists are more than enough for this job." Luffy turned in the air again andsupported herself on the tower with her feet and hands before pushing off."Here I come!" She threw out her fist, but Smoker was faster and hit her squarein the face. She flew into the building behind the scaffold, bounced off itsplatform and fell to the ground, groaning. "I witnessed what happened here19 years ago." Her dark eyes widened as she heard this, although no onesaw it as her face was turned to the ground. "Even in his final moments, HEshowed pride and ambition, the Pirate King. You say you want to be Pirate King?Don't make me laugh! You can't even make it to the Grand Line." Luffy slowlybegan to get up. "It's pointless, no matter how many times you getup." But she had gotten up again and turned to him, a smaller grin on herlips. "Well, how do I know that when I haven't even tried?" He lookedat her wordlessly as she got into a fighting stance.