Chapter 245: An unpleasant encounter

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'sample'

Author notes -sample-

Disclaimer: One Piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 245: An unpleasant encounter

"You want to fight the Taskmaster? Be very careful, that man is a former champion from the Coliseum, hired by the Doflamingo family. And he is extremely cruel. " Warned Rebecca. 

Vivi wrapped her fingers around one of the cell bars and pulled it out, breaking chunks of the ground and ceiling in the process.

"What the hell?!

"How is she so strong with those tiny arms?"

The gladiators looked at her with incredulity and shock.

"Get some weapons and go find a safe place to hide until things blow up, then…I don't know, try to help the best you can." 

"That's a very vague plan, Vivi." Rebecca blurted out.

Vivi shrugged.

"You can make a plan, I'll do the….you know, punching and stuff." 

She had barely passed the door frame when she stumbled upon a big muscular guy, with leather pants, a bare chest, and a whip tied to his belt.

He looked down at Vivi and his eyes opened for a brief moment in recognition.

"You are the one who won block C…tell me, woman, have you seen another female gladiator in there?" He demanded in a loud voice.

Vivi muttered something, too low for him to hear.

"What did you say?" He bent over to get his face closer to her.

"I said…"

She put a hand on top of his head, grasped his hair, and brought him even closer to her face.

"That you shouldn't be too trusting with strangers."

His eyes opened in realization and he immediately tried to get rid of her grasp, but it was too late.

Vivi made use of her superior weight and power to smash his face against the ground with enough force to create a small crater.

"That should keep him out for a few hours at least."

Vivi was making her way back to the waiting room when all the sudeen, she felt something strange wash over her and moments later someone called for her.

"Ah…wait wait!" A massive bearded man waved at her.

He wore a very light gladiator outfit and a mask. 

This man was no other than Jesus Burgess, also known as the Champion.

She looked around. The hallway was 

empty…suspiciously empty. 

'I have a bad feeling…there is something wrong about this place…'

She was not worried about Burgess himself, but she wondered what someone from the Blackbeard crew wanted with her. 

"Yes? Is there something you need?" She asked while pretending she wasn't scanning the surroundings for anyone suspicious approaching her. But still kept a good distance from him.

"Zehahaha!, can't blame you for being cautious, former princess of Arabasta, Nefertari Vivi." 

The voice came from a small snail that hid in their palm of Burgess. 

She flinched and she instinctively took hold of some of her hair to look at it…it was still blonde.

The eyes of the snail moved to look at her.

"No, your disguise is perfect…but I have my ways of knowing things."

"Blackbeard…I guess you will not tell me which ways are those?" She tried to remain calm.

'Why is he contacting me? Does he have another objective on top of getting the logia fruit?...don't tell me…-'

"That would depend…" Blackbeard interrupted her thoughts.

"If you can earn my.trust."

"Your trust?...you are trying to recruit me." she realized.

He started laughing again.

"Told you this one was a smart one. Yes, I am offering you a place as a crew member of the newest Emperor. You see, I have a good eye for talent. "

"And if I say…no?" asked Vivi.

Burgess's muscles tensed up and his smile disappeared from his face.

"Now, I'm sure you would not be so rude to immediately reject my kind offer. There are no disadvantages to joining my crew. Whatever goals you have, it would be easier to accomplish when you are part of the next King of the Pirates's crew. You can even bring that girlfriend of yours, we can always use another talented navigator."

Vivi clenched her fist, just for a second at the mention of Nami.

"You are well informed."

"I am better informed than you can imagine…I will give you some time to think about my offer. My associates are going to remain on this island for a bit longer. We  will contact you before leaving."

The feeling of isolation she had been feeling for the last few minutes, disappeared all of a sudden.

Sounds like she didn't realize were missing, came back and everything felt more lively than before.

People appeared out of nowhere and walked through the hallway behind her like nothing strange had happened.

'Was this done with Blackbeard's shadow fruit? if that's the case…then he must be here in person.'

She wasn't sure if that was the case or maybe this was created by some other member of his crew, one that she did not know about.

But the most terrifying thing was that she fell into a trap without realizing it. 

"Oh, one last thing before you go." said the voice of Blackbeard.

"If you have to fight Burgess, well… don't expect him to hold back. He wouldn't do it even if I asked him to do so."

"I won't hold back either," answered Vivi.  She was now more determined than before to make sure that fruit did not end up in that man's hands.

The muscular man grinned again.

"I'm looking forward to our fight."

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