One Piece: The Eldest Brother

… 

They quietly landed in the vast forest behind the mountain wall which was directly behind the palace too.

However, after reaching the place, there was immediately an awkward feeling in the air as none of them spoke but stared at each other's black and dark-blue eyes while their faces were being strangely attracted to one another. As close as they were, feeling the other's breath, and fragrance was inevitable.

"Pew, pew!" It was only after a while that the chirpings sounds of two birds echoed out.

The abrupt sounds totally broke the two off their own world bringing them back to reality, as they avoided their eyes with quick and embarrassing glance to the side.

Two birds, one black and white landed on their respective shoulders as the two youngsters weirdly seemed to glare at their own birds with a touch of dissatisfaction in the depth of their eyes as if to denounce the birds untimely appearances in here.

As they glanced back at each other, the awkward feeling permeated the air again but seeing this Edam decided to speak.

"Uh, ahem, how about we spar?" As soon as he said this, he felt the urge to punch himself with a fist imbued with both Haki and Ki.

Obviously, Hancock's eyes opened up wide in surprise at this. Although she didn't talk to a lot of men in her life, she was certain that the first thing you would ask a woman wouldn't be 'do you want to spar?'

Realising his blunder, Edam tried to make up for it.

"Uh you know what, forget-..."

"Okay…"

And now it was his turn to be surprised. He was sure that in a normal scenario, this wouldn't have gone this way.

"You sure?"

"Un." She replied quietly and gazed at him.

"Well, okay.…" He was somewhat awkward when he said this but he still felt his heart accelerating slightly at the thought of battling with her.

…

"Well, you can start whenever you want to." Edam said with a smile.

"Un, then [Slave arrows!]" Hancock didn't wait long before she kissed a heart out and shot multiple pink arrows in his direction.

In response, Edam's hand lit up with a golden halo and merely waved his hand forward as a huge number of small balls of ki flew out to collide with her arrows.

Poof, poof, poof, poof! There were a lot of mini-explosion in the air.

And amidst the screen of smoke, Hancock kissed out yet another heart bug this one was many times smaller than the previous.

[Pistol kiss!] Boom! The projectile heart-shaped tore the air rapidly reached Edam. 

"What?!" The latter dodged the projectile to a hair strands and was shocked to find that his beast-sense was off, non-available even. He didn't received this familiar tickling from his tail, as if to say, this is none of my business, you're on your own cya...

You damn traitor! He said in his heart and saw Hancock already kicking at him with a flying kick as he lifted his hands to block.

Clang! The sound of metal resounded as both his arms and her leg coated in Haki clashed. Don't look at her frail and fairy-like figure, Hancock strength was truly genuinely impressive for her age, truth be told, she might even be stronger than Rob Lucci, no she was stronger for sure.

Anyway, she didn't stop at that and continued to strike with powerful kicks and would combine them with her devil fruit power. She didn't hold back at all. She knew that she had to fight with all she got against him.

Meanwhile, as he faced her powerful attacks, Edam's heart was strangely beating faster and faster, feeling rather excited as the spar was going on. The more he looked at her fighting him, the more his heart beat faster and stronger. What the hell is wrong with me?

Shaking his head, he first jumped backward. "Good!"

Opposite to him, Hancock burst out with velocity and unleashed a powerful flying kick in the air. [Perfume femur magna!]

The kick was blocked but he was still sent flying in the back.

"Not bad, but not enough!" Edam said as his hands lit up with golden glow and he placed in front of him and…

A heavy and strident sound was heard as a beam of light rushed up at her with a threatening momentum.

Fortunately, she dodged it rather easily and the beam made its way to the sky separating the clouds while tearing open the celestial vault. When she turned to watch this scene she was of course stunned.

She turned toward him and then breathe in some air before she formed a heart with her hands and said.

[Mero Mero Mellow!] A pink and heart-shaped beam was fired at him.

But Edam didn't move at all, he didn't have any intention to dodge in fact.

Seeing this, anxiety overtook Hancock for no particular reason or maybe one in fact, because anyone with 'dirty thoughts' such as ŀust toward her person and hit by this beam would be turned into stone statues.

She had fought against a lot of people before and almost everyone before were already stone statues so far. She knew how much her beauty was lethal for the opposite gender.

She really had mixed feelings about the results to be 'cause if he was petrified then it would mean that he wanted to… just this though made her blush a cute red but at the same time if he wasn't petrified then, it would mean that he didn't had any impure thoughts? It was cute and worrying at the same time. 

Ah! What a troublesome fruit! She silently cursed in her heart.

Weirdly enough, Edam felt everything slowing down in an instant, even his thoughts began to come to a stand still. But his heart was still beating hard, in fact, it was accelerating.

Seeing this Hancock looked at him with worry but at the same time with eagerness too.

'He, he's slowing down?' That has never happened before. Normally, the two results would be to either turn into stone statues or not.

As for Edam, he could feel his body changing but the thing, along with this slowing effect his blood circulation would fasten making his Ki circulating fast too.

It then took but a moment for a strange thing to happen.

Edam's body lit up with a fiery blood-red aura and burst out with a Boom! 

The outburst completely broke apart the heart-shaped beam and sent a shockwave throughout the forest.

Swoosh!

"Ah!" Hancock was caught off guard and did try to block it but she was still sent flying in the air.

She was going to hit the ground, but two warm hands caught her and carried her to the ground like a princess. "There, I got you…." After saying that Edam smiled at her.

"That was a good fight, hehe…"

"You… you weren't turned into a statue?" She asked with doubts.

"It seems so…" Edam said looking at his own and then shot a smile at her in his arms.

"Why?" At this instant, there was a kind of grievance tone in her voice as she seemed to pout her lips.

"You… you sound as if you wanted to turn me into a stone statue…" He smiled wryly.

"No… but…" She seemed to complain about it but at the same time not really.

He wasn't really clear about this heart-shaped beam from earlier and didn't know the principles behind this love-love fruit powers, so he didn't understand the reason of her antics at all.

Seeing her face with complain and not really, he didn't wether to laugh or cry. And as he racked his brain to come up with something and suddenly had an epiphany.

He placed her down and then told her with a faint smile. "Can you turn around?"

"...?" She tilted her head but still turned around.

Ten seconds again, he heard his voice again. "It's done…"

When she turned around again, she was surprised to find a ŀustrous flower floating in front of her. It was radiating a magnificent light shining the same color as the sun.

"What is?" She glanced at him curiously and asked.

"This is a small gift, I've made it with my life force so you can say that it's a part of me I guess…" Edam said with a smile as the flower float in the palm of his hands and even seemed to dance and brought it to her hands.

Looking at the beautiful flower in her hands, her heart seemed to melt as she abruptly threw herself in his arms and hugged him with all her heart and soul.

"You like it?" He said gently.

"Hum, I like it..."

"Un, it's good then…" He gently hugged her in return as an overwhelming sense of satisfaction rapidly filled his heart.

....