Beautiful & Smart

"...!"

The leader of the riders woke up staring at the sky. After a few seconds of processing, he realized he was floating in the ocean.

"What the..."

He straightened his body and started looking around. Around him were his comrades' bodies floating along with their steeds.

"Hey!"

He swam to the nearest one and started examining her.

"...She's alive."

He checked on the rest and breathe a sigh of relief.

"They're all alive...What the hell happened here?"

He started looking around again.

"Is that...?"

He noticed large pieces of planks floating some distance away. He swam over there. When he reached he started examining the wood.

"...I knew it. This came from a ship."

He immediately knew what ship it came from.

"There's a lot floating around."

He looked around again and noticed something hitched to the planks. It was a piece of a dress. He immediately remembered Hancock.

"She was definitely wearing this."

He grabbed the cloth and spotted red stains on it and frowned. He turned his head and saw more torn pieces of female clothing. There was something else he spotted as well. It was a torn black cloth with a skull with nine snakes around it.

"The Kuja Jolly Roger...."

Around him were more broken or torn items he recognized from his time on the ship, even a steering wheel. He thought about everything around him in silence for a while before swimming back to his allies.

"Hey, hey wake up."

"Hmm...Captain?"

One of his comrades woke up with a confused expression.

"Hurry up and focus, we need to move."

He swam towards the others and woke them one by one.

"Captain, what happened? I thought we were done for?"

"Also, where are our wetsuits and helmets?"

His comrades started asking questions one after the other.

"Get on your Karros and let's go."

He hopped on his stead and everybody did the same.

"Wait, Captain. We can't dive with the Karros like this. Is that okay?"

"We don't have a choice. That's why we must hurry before the sea kings return."

The rest hopped on their steads, the Karros. The captain rode off first and they all followed.

"Alright, I can tell you're all wondering what the hell happened and why we're able to get away like this. Here's my theory, I'm not 100% certain but everything I saw when I examined our surroundings points to what I'm about to say."

The captain glanced back at his comrades before speaking again.

"I believe the Kuja Pirates were attacked by Sea Kings and suffered serious damage or possible annihilation."

Eyes widened in shock as he continued.

"I say this because of what I saw. There was debris of the ship floating along with their Jolly Roger, and pieces of clothing with blood on it; including Hancock's. Everything pointed to them being attacked by Sea Kings, probably drawn to them by our battle."

"Then why are we alive?"

"My guess is that we were spared by the Sea Kings because we were statues when they attacked. We fell in the ocean and started to sink. Once Boa Hancock's life ended, so did the petrification and we floated back up."

"Then why don't we have our suits and helmets?"

"They most likely were planning to rob us of our equipment and Karros when it happened."

"...That makes sense. They were searching us and taking everything off us. Although, Boa Hancock was so eccentric I couldn't make out what she was saying."

Everyone thought about it for a while and soon accepted the Captain's theory.

"Keep in mind, what I said is merely a theory. The Kuja could still be alive. Whether they're around or fled to save their lives, regardless we must report to the mayor."

The captain spoke with a serious tone and everybody nodded. Luffy's face flashed in his mind.

"I especially need to tell him about Strawhat."

He mumbled.

Unknown to him there was a massive shadow following them hundreds of feet below. This massive shadow was one of the Yuda Snakes that pulled the Kuja ship. Some great distance away.

"Hahahaha! They took the bait just like I said they would!"

Hancock was laughing while Elder Nyon looked at her in shock. Let's go back a bit to explain the situation.

"We're gonna fake our deaths?"

Mariegold asked with a confused expression.

"We don't need to convince them we're actually dead, we just need to make them believe we were attacked and they were spared by some miracle. Basically, as long as they let their guard down and willfully go home, we win."

Hancock explained with a small grin.

"I don't get it. What would any of that do?"

"I know one's mind gets slower with age, so I was going to explain it further, Granny."

Hancock ignored the enraged Elder Nyon and continued.

"First, we're gonna strip them of their wetsuits and helmets. Then we're going to tear parts of the ship and throw it into the ocean to look like ship wreckage. After we'll throw a torn copy of our Jolly Roger along with torn-up pieces of clothing with our blood on it. This is all to create realism."

"Wait, this ship is the pride of our tribe, especially the Jolly Roger! You can't just—"

"Silence, old woman. We're just going to discard the unimportant parts and the steering wheel. We'll collect them back later. Also, it's just a copy of our Jolly Roger."

Hancock dismissed Elder Nyon.

"After we create the perfect Sea King Attack aftermath, we throw them in the ocean, deactivate the petrification and sail away. Oh, we might need to free them once, knock them out, and then petrify them again first. After we sail away, we wait until they wake up and come up with their own theory of what happened and leave."

She pointed at the Yuda Snakes.

"These two were born and raised together. They can find the other no matter how far apart like a homing instinct. We'll release one and have her follow them. Because Sea Kings fear Yuda Snakes, she'll be fine. Also, because we took their suits they'll have no choice but to travel on the sea surface, so she'll go undetected. She follows them to Bounty Island and we follow from some distance."

Everyone looked at Hancock in shock before the girls started cheering.

"I don't really get it but we'll find a new island to explore right?"

Luffy asked. Hancock nodded.

"Let's goo!"

His face brightened up which causes Hancock to smile.

"I can't believe it....It's actually a great plan with small chances of failure."

Elder Nyon looked at Hancock with a perplexed expression.

"Where was this intellect all this time?"

"You know, it would be more convincing if we had at least one corpse floating among the rubble. It seems you're eager to volunteer."

Hancock walked away from Elder Nyon.

"If you must know, love makes a person go above and beyond to make their lover happy."

"....She said that earlier. She wasn't joking?"

Present time. Elder Nyon was looking at Hancock who was excitingly explaining to Luffy her plan worked. She looked at her in silence for a while and then frowned with wrinkled brows.

"What a waste of potential."

She shook her head and walked away.

"Can only be smart when it's for her man...A god damn waste."

The Kuja ship moved in the direction of the Yuda Snake trailing the riders.

"Elder Sister, I have a question."

"What is it, Sonia?"

Sandersonia approached Hancock who was watching Luffy help retrieve the pieces of the ship they threw into the ocean.

"Are we just going to land on the island as we are?"

"That's a good question. Attacking ships are our forte, but we don't normally raid islands."

(Also, what if Luffy gets angry? He's the purest soul in the world after all.)

Hancock looked at Luffy who was messing with the steering wheel he took out of the ocean.

"If our objective is just resupplying it wouldn't be a problem normally, but this is an island that's hidden from the world. If we go there as pirates a battle will break out. Worst case scenario we'll be forced to fight thousands of Bounty Hunters..."

She mumbled.

"So then we're not going as pirates? In other words, we're going to disguise ourselves?"

"That's right, Marie."

Hancock grinned.

"Girls, it's time for a makeover."