I'm Not Interested in Devil Fruits

After being controlled by the Medusa Stoneheart toxin, it seemed that, deep down, Hancock didn't completely resist it. In fact, she may have even enjoyed the experience. 

Robin's whispered "secret" left Liam confused. 

Liam frowned. "So you're saying… Hancock likes being enslaved? That she's a masochist? That doesn't make sense!" 

In the manga, after being enslaved by the Celestial Dragons for four years and escaping back to Kuja, Hancock's heart held nothing but fear, shame, and hatred for them. 

"Enjoy it? Not a chance!" 

"A masochist?" Robin shook her head slightly. Back then she had almost thought the same thing. "Hancock has a very strong sense of pride. If she's enslaved or mistreated, she just gets angry..." 

"Then why did you say she likes the feeling of being controlled by the Stoneheart Toxin?" Liam asked, still confused. 

Robin blinked, staring at Liam's face. Suddenly, she smiled in a way that was inexplicably mysterious. 

As Liam met her gaze, it was as if he could read the meaning hidden in her deep green eyes: 

Enjoying the sensation of her body being completely out of her control didn't necessarily mean she liked being "abused"... 

But still, given her stunning beauty, what would be the odds that someone controlling her body would 'not' force her to do strange and questionable things? 

Liam stroked his chin, thinking. 

Then he heard Hancock's authoritative yet indifferent voice: "All right, you can open your eyes now." 

On the deck, the Kuja warriors opened their eyes one by one, and there were immediate exclamations. 

The pirates, who had been carrying crate after crate of goods to their ship, were now all stone statues! 

"Take care of them," Hancock said with a casual wave of his hand. 

Liam noticed something strange: Hancock seemed to deliberately avoid looking in their direction, her gaze constantly averting from him and Robin. 

Her actions made it clear that she was aware of their earlier whispered conversation. And as for what they might be discussing - what else could it be but the "strange incident" in the cabin earlier? 

Surely Hancock knew that as well. 

Robin chuckled softly close to Liam's ear, "Don't bother trying to confirm it with her. She'll never admit it." 

"She won't admit it, but her body certainly cooperates," Liam quipped, then put things together in his mind. 

Every time Hancock needed to borrow his stand, she either avoided showing up or just stood silently nearby, leaving Robin to make the request. 

Earlier in the cabin... Hancock had deliberately put on that aloof and dismissive demeanor to send some kind of signal to Robin. That's why when Hancock yelled, "Enough! Stop it!" Robin replied with a laugh, "Weren't you the one who started it?" 

Liam suddenly asked, "By the way, how about that slap in the face?" 

Robin waved her hand and a limb sprouted from Liam's shoulder. The slender hand gently pinched his cheek. 

"So it was you who slapped yourself," Liam muttered. "Was that really necessary?" 

No wonder the events in the cabin felt so strange - half hidden, half revealed. Hancock was just so embarrassingly inconsistent! 

'I know you know, but you can't let me know that you know.' And I know you know I know, but you can't tell me that you know I know you know. 

'What a tangled mess!' 

Robin's ability to synchronize with Hancock was remarkable. It was almost as if she could read Hancock's mind with a single glance, or know instantly if she wanted to "play a game. 

"Splash!" 

"Splash!" 

The Kuja warriors pushed the pirate statues overboard into the sea one by one. 

Sandersonia and Marigold were already familiar with Hancock's Medusa Eyes ability and didn't find it surprising. But to the other Kuja warriors, turning an entire ship's worth of pirates into statues felt like a mythical power - like magic from the fabled Gorgon! 

The warriors on deck gazed at Hancock with awe and reverence. 

Liam noticed a faint blush creeping up Hancock's earlobes and down the side of her neck. 

With a sudden, powerful kick, she sent the last pirate statue flying from the ship with a loud "bang," followed seconds later by the splash of it hitting the water. 

Cheers erupted on the deck of the Kuja as the warriors, led by Hancock, celebrated their victorious haul. 

Seemingly to avoid Liam's teasing, Hancock kept her distance and pulled out a chart of the South Blue. She consulted with an older Kuja warrior familiar with navigation, occasionally pointing to the endless horizon to confirm their course.

Hancock's gaze inadvertently brushed the eyes of Giorno, who watched her thoughtfully from a distance. The unexpected encounter startled them. 

'Why is he still looking at me?' 

Of course, this kind of preference... it's just too strange, isn't it? He must think I'm... 

Hancock's thoughts became a tangled mess, and a wave of inexplicable irritation swept through her. 

Meanwhile, Liam had already looked away and was talking to Robin. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something strange about the pirate ship they had just passed. 

Its hull, now empty of any crew, bore clear damage from cannon fire, as well as deep gouges that resembled the claw marks of some ferocious beast. 

"Huh?" Liam squinted at the damage, something caught his eye. He muttered something to Robin before jumping over to the abandoned pirate ship. 

--- 

"Hancock Sama?" 

The middle-aged Kuja warrior, who had some knowledge of navigation, called out softly. She glanced at the young Empress, only fifteen years old, and bit her lip lightly as her face shifted between shades of red and pale. 

Though the sight made her heart race ('She's so stunning... so adorable!'), the older warrior maintained a calm exterior and asked with gentle concern, "Are you feeling unwell? Should you rest in the hut for a while?" 

Hancock snapped out of her thoughts, calmed her emotions, and replied coolly, "I'm fine. Where were we? Ah, right, here." 

She extended her slender, porcelain-like finger and pointed to a small black dot on the map of the South Blue Sea, marking a point on their route after leaving the Calm Belt. 

"That indicates an island, and there's even a nation on it. Why don't we stop there?" 

--- 

Liam wandered around the pirate ship that Hancock had already looted. His gaze lingered on the claw marks etched into the cabin walls and the faint scent of gunpowder lingering on the scorched deck. 

Pausing in front of a shattered wooden wall, he reached into a crack and pulled out a bright, oversized feather. 

He continued to search, finding more feathers of similar size but different colors, all far larger than those of ordinary birds. 

"This feels strangely familiar..." Liam muttered to himself. "South Blue... if I'm not mistaken... given my luck so far, could it be 'those' birds?" 

Without wasting any time, Liam summoned his Dark Stand and accessed its memory bank to compare images. 

"Do you believe in gravity, Liam?" 

Liam murmured softly before suddenly looking to the side. On the deck, petals swirled and gathered to form Robin's torso. She tilted her head to look at him and reminded him, "Liam, if you don't head back soon..." 

(End Of The Chapter)

You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my patreon and I've also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395