"Wait, why would she do that? I mean, wouldn't it be easier for her to betray us?" Vivi didn't understand Valentine's mind as she asked.
"Sometimes, you are forced to join a crew that you don't want to join. But, after you join a crew where you finally feel like you belong there, even if you are forced to, it becomes really hard to betray them." Nami spoke but her voice was very unnatural.
Even Vivi who knew nothing about Nami could feel the tone of pity from her. She didn't understand but she didn't ask anything either.
Zoro on other hand knew what she was talking about. He decided to stay silent on this matter.
In front of them, Luffy was fighting against Mr. 3 who was wearing armor made out of wax. With Luffy's strength, he was easily able to crush Mr. 3.
On the corner of the forest, Usopp and Valentine were watching this battle closely.
"Hey, why aren't we moving yet? That guy is busy with Luffy. We can free Zoro and others." Usopp asked with an anxious expression on his face.
Valentine shook her head and said "That little girl is Miss Golden Week. She might be a kid but she possesses an extraordinary ability to manipulate someone's will with her drawing."
"We need to wait until she is distracted by Luffy. And, besides, without melting the wax, we won't be able to free them. The kerosine is ready, right?"
Usopp nodded his head as he took out a bottle filled with kerosine. He looked at her hand and asked "Are you sure you should do this? The flames might catch you."
"Don't worry, this kind of flame will be nothing for me." Valentine shook her head.
"Hey…. Why did you choose to betray them? They are your former comrade, aren't they?" Usopp asked.
Valentine didn't reply instead felt a bit drained. She actually didn't join Baroque Work on her own accord. She was invited by them because of her special devil fruit.
Although she was a bit cruel, she learned it from her past experience. If you want to survive in this world, you need to be cruel. After joining Baroque Work, she had no intention of betraying them.
She didn't hate being the officer of Baroque Work. In fact, she liked it. She could do whatever she wanted and always felt happy about the organization but that changed today.
She hadn't even betrayed the Baroque Work yet. She was willing to help Mr. 3 and others take down Luffy but still, she didn't think it would be possible unless they truly use different tricks.
But when she was greeted with a death warrant instead of a warm welcome, all of her good feelings about the organization instantly disappeared. Especially after living with the Straw Hat crew for four days, she has grown to be more attached to them.
She didn't want to betray both of them but one choice from Baroque Work made her choose Straw Hats.
"Miss Valentine, look! Luffy doesn't seem to be able to move. Is that her devil fruit power?" Usopp woke her from her own thoughts as she looked in the direction his hand was pointing.
"No, she doesn't have a devil fruit. It's a unique ability that she possesses from her birth." Valentine shook her head and spoke. For a moment, she paused, and just before Usopp could say anything, she continued.
"And, you can call me Mikita. Valentine was only my alias when I worked for Baroque Work."
Usopp was surprised by her words and nodded his head. He looked at Luffy who was still under the influence of Goldenweek and asked.
"Shouldn't we go now?"
"You go and distract her while I will go and put kerosine in the wax. After that, you can use your Fire attack to lit the wax on fire. It will help the wax melt quickly and so they will be able to come out quickly." Valentine nodded and spoke.
Usopp also nodded his head and rushed toward Golden week. Valentine didn't rush immediately instead hesitated.
'What am I doing? It's not like Straw Hats will help me, right? They will definitely drop me off once they reach Alabasta. Should I really betray my comrades to help people I only know for a few days?'
Valentine struggled for a moment but quickly heard a scream.
"Ahhh!"
She raised her head and saw Usopp get smashed by Mr. 3. He somehow managed to stand up even though he had blood coming down his mouth.
Seeing this, her heart instantly made a decision. She picked up a bottle and ran toward the wax statue. Although she tried, she couldn't succeed in dodging Mr. 3 and Miss Golden week's eyes.
Mr. 3's eyes widened when he saw her throwing kerosine at the statue. Although he didn't know what it was, he wasn't going to let her free them.
"Valentine, you dare to betray boss!"
Mr. 3 screamed as he rushed toward Valentine in his newly formed armor. When she saw him rushing toward her, Valentine panicked for a moment.
She saw Usopp lying down on the ground and bit her lips.
'Now it has come to this, I don't have any reason to go back. I will fight.'
Valentine instantly activated her devil fruit ability. She adjusted the weight to how much her body can handle. She rushed toward Mr. 3 and thrust her fist.
"Tch! You think I don't know anything about your ability. If you had increased your weight by a lot, you would be on the ground."
Mr. 3 sneered at her and thrust his fist covered with Wax. Valentine didn't punch his fist but rather tried punching his chest, letting his strike hit her as well.
Bang!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Under the stunned eyes of Mr. 3 and Valentine, the wax armor slowly started cracking. There was a massive hole in the chest part and the arm part was already broken.
Thud!
Valentine didn't understand what happened but when his armor fell, she punched him in his face.
Bang!
Mr. 3 flew out like a cannonball and went several hundred meters away.
"Fire Star!"
Suddenly, Usopp shot a fire star at the wax. The fire caught the kerosine and started burning the entire statue.
"You bastard, I won't let you live." Suddenly, Mr. 5 stood up when he saw Usopp freeing his crew. He jumped toward Usopp in order to explode him but suddenly, a demonic figure approached him.
"Three Swords Style- Fire Onigiri"
A man with three swords covered in flames slashed him and Mr. 5 fell to the ground before he could catch Usopp.
"Man, that scared me." Usopp sighed a breath of relief when Zoro saved him.
"Thanks for getting us out of there." Zoro looked at Usopp and thanked him. He was extremely frustrated for letting himself get into this situation.
'Damn it! If only I was strong enough to cut the wax. No, I must become strong enough to cut the wax.'
"Valentine, are you okay?" Nami rushed toward her when she saw Valentine bleeding heavily from her hand.
"It… The wound must have broken out." Valentine sighed but she didn't care about it. She was more concerned about her newly found strength.
Her fruit was indeed amazing. She was able to increase her weight to 10000 kilograms but because she couldn't stand up like that, she could only use a sneak attack from the sky.
When she managed to crush Mr. 3's armor, she understood that her body can easily handle up to 200 or maybe 300 kilograms weight. She couldn't help but remember the training that she had to go through with Zack.
Originally, she thought that was a huge punishment for her but now, she got the feeling that it was more like a blessing in disguise.
"Jeez! I know you are dumbfounded at your strength but you can't ignore the injuries like this so carelessly."
Nami pulled her hand and once again block the blood flow with some clothes. She realized that her clothes were burned, exposing her skin. Although she frowned a bit, she didn't think too much and focused on helping Valentine.
"I didn't think you would help us instead of helping them." Vivi also approached them and spoke to Valentine. She slowly found that her understanding of pirates is very shallow.
While it was true that most pirates are bad, there are some pirates who only want adventures.
"Humph! I didn't help you because I like you guys. The boss just wants me dead even though I didn't even betray them. So, I was only angry at them." Valentine was still arrogant as she didn't accept the fact that she really helped them.
Hearing her words, Nami and Vivi simply smiled and didn't say anything. They have met people like her a lot.
"So, what are we going to do with her?" Luffy approached them while holding Miss Goldenweek by her shirt.
"I am getting quite hungry." Zoro made a devilish expression as he stared at her. Seeing his gaze, Miss Goldenweek got so terrified that she passed out.
"Zoro, you shouldn't make that face, or else, no kid will like you." Usopp also approached them and spoke.
"I was born with this face." Zoro shouted at Usopp.
"Well, then it isn't your fault that you scare the children. It's your face's fault." Usopp nodded his head and replied.
"Damn it Usopp!" Zoro got angry and chased after Usopp.
"Hahahaha"
...…
Somewhere inside the forest,
There was a small hideout made out of wax. There were two people sitting on the couch while sipping tea. Suddenly, they paused and looked at each other.
"This isn't the time to drink tea."