Seventeen years ago, there was an incident involving a Super Marine-Class battleship known as the "Dragon's Claw Graffiti Incident."
The event caused a major headache for Navy Headquarters at the time.
One of the Celestial Dragons—noble World Government aristocrats—borrowed a Super Marine-Class battleship from Navy HQ.
Just preparing the ship for handover, which involved dismantling all its weapons, took a full month.
Reassembling it took two more.
The reason given? "My leisure yacht broke down, so I'll use this one for now."
Over the course of three months, dozens of Celestial Dragons passed the massive warship around for amusement.
By the time the ship was returned, it had been thoroughly desecrated. The worst part: one of them had forced a giant slave to paint the Celestial Dragons' crest—a massive "Dragon's Claw"—onto the ship's outer hull.
This was a ship reserved for Admirals. For them to deface it with the same branding used on slaves was utterly disrespectful.
Navy HQ feared this act would spark an international scandal, but, by sheer fortune, a member of the Five Elders (Gorosei) was furious when he saw it.
He scolded the Celestial Dragon responsible and extended the return deadline by three more months—on the condition that the graffiti be completely removed.
Even after three months of scrubbing, the mark still faintly remained.
It then took another full month for Navy specialists to completely erase the image. In total, the battleship had been out of commission for seven months.
This is the story Rengoku knew about the Super Marine-Class battleship from 17 years ago.
"Could this truly be related?"
Rengoku posed the question to Gloriosa, the elder.
Instead of replying, Gloriosa glanced at Hancock, then to Sonia—asking silently for permission.
"Kgh… Just say it. If telling the truth can save my sister… then say it."
It was a secret they'd sworn never to speak of. But facing the possibility of Hancock's death, Sonia chose to reveal it.
With her approval, Gloriosa began to explain.
This is the story of the "Dragon's Claw Graffiti Incident"—from Boa Hancock's perspective.
...
The famed "Three Gorgon Sisters" of the Kuja Pirates were, in truth, former slaves of the Celestial Dragons.
They had been ordinary girl warriors born and raised on Amazon Lily, training as part of their island's warrior tradition.
Until, one day, a human trafficker kidnapped them and sold them to a Celestial Dragon.
His name: Saint Budashiri.
He was infamous even among the Celestial Dragons for his twisted eccentricity. If it amused him, no cost was too great. He once fed three Devil Fruits—each worth tens or hundreds of millions—to his slaves.
Even other Celestial Dragons found that wasteful, but his answer explained everything:
"Heehee~ I just wanted to see humans turn into animals~!"
A normal person would call him insane, but he was always surrounded by those just as depraved.
"Ohoho~ Sounds fun~ I'd love to watch that sometime~!"
His latest demand: to borrow the Navy's largest battleship for his amusement.
Navy HQ resisted. The Super Marine-Class was a strategic weapon—not something to casually loan out.
But when conflict loomed, the Five Elders intervened and negotiated a compromise: Budashiri would receive a demilitarized version for three months.
What happened during those three months, Rengoku already knew.
Eventually, the Five Elders ruled the Celestial Dragon had gone too far and stripped Budashiri of his privileges.
"Heeheeh~ The Gorosei scolded me~!"
Whimpering, he returned home—only to see a small girl sweeping his massive courtyard with a broom taller than she was.
That girl… was Boa Hancock.
Lord Budashiri, a Celestial Dragon, had little interest in young or petite women and thus didn't sexually abuse Hancock.
However, like many Celestial Dragons, he viewed humans as inherently inferior—merely toys for amusement.
One day, while watching young Hancock sweeping the vast courtyard of his mansion, he suddenly had an idea.
Thud!
Despite lacking combat training, the overweight adult Celestial Dragon charged at her and struck her with a sudden flying kick. Hancock, still just a child, was thrown to the ground without resistance.
"L-Lord…"
"Hehehe… Slave No. 1 of Kuja, how about we make a little deal?"
"A… deal, sir…?"
The young Hancock had no idea what new torment awaited her this time.
"That's right! You seem to like cleaning, so how about a special job for three months?"
"Three… months?"
Smack!
"Are you disobeying me? How dare you speak before your master finishes his words!"
"I—I'm sorry!"
"Good. Know your place. If you complete the task, I'll give you and your sisters a sea king meat feast!"
Though Hancock had no interest in such rewards, she nodded, thinking only of her sisters, who were suffering in the slave quarters.
"What exactly do I need to clean?"
"Hehehe, follow me!"
He led her to the harbor, where dozens of platforms had been erected alongside a massive Supermarine-Class Navy warship, its hull towering ten stories high.
'No way… you want me to work on that?'
Hancock was already overwhelmed by the sheer size of the ship. But even more staggering was the sight of hundreds of slaves laboring around it.
"See that mighty ship?"
"Yes…"
Smack!
"Watch your tone! Want me to hand your sisters over to Lord McDonald?"
That name—known even among slaves as a notorious pervert—made Hancock instantly fall to her knees.
"I'm sorry! This lowly one apologizes for offending the great master!"
"Remember that I'm the only reason he hasn't taken you for himself. He wants you, you know."
In truth, Budashiri mostly said this to tease his friend.
"See that noble emblem on the ship's hull? The great Dragon Claw? Your job is to scrub it clean in three months."
"All of it? In three months?"
"Yes, I'll give you tools. But you'll be working alone."
"Alone…?"
"Hehehe. A giant slave took three hours just to draw that. So now you, a mere human girl, will remove it in three months. Good luck!"
And so began young Hancock's solitary, grueling mission to erase the emblem of the Celestial Dragons.
But because of the symbolic power that emblem held, even a task as "simple" as cleaning became a daily ordeal.
It wasn't uncommon for Hancock to be whipped by Celestial Dragons who came out for a stroll, curious to catch a glimpse of the Supermarine-class warship, and who would shout, "How dare a lowly slave defile the noble crest of a Celestial Dragon?"
Ironically, the physical whipping was the least painful part. What truly tormented her were their constant insults and humiliation.
"A slave from one of those savage warrior islands, huh? No wonder she's tougher than the usual ones."
"Uhehehe~ Hey slave, how about ditching Budashiri-sei and becoming my property? I'll take real good care of you."
"She's as ugly as a peasant and just as useless. Can't even clean properly."
Some hurled food waste at her. Even fellow slaves, in similar bondage, treated her with scorn. Day after day, it was endless labor—physical and mental.
One grueling month passed. The spark had long faded from Hancock's eyes. Eventually, she collapsed from fatigue and a high fever.
Even though she had once trained as a warrior on Amazon Lily, scrubbing the massive outer hull of a warship for 20 hours a day under verbal abuse and interference was beyond exhausting.
"Ihihik! Slave #1 of Kuja! You can't just collapse here, y'know! I promised my father I'd prove a human slave could clean up what a giant slave drew all by herself!"
But it was no use. The relentless 140-hour workweeks took their toll, and her body simply gave out.
After being bedridden in the infirmary for several days, Hancock approached death's door. In a panic, Budashiri-sei rushed to his private quarters and returned with a pill in hand.
The pill was jet black and marked with streaks of toxic yellow—a color combination that practically screamed danger. Anyone with even basic medical sense would have known not to administer it lightly.
But Budashiri-sei was a Celestial Dragon. Concepts like common sense didn't exist in his world.
"No, you can't give her that, Lord Budashiri! If you do, she could really die!"
"What was that?! My father told me it was a good medicine! Are you insulting my father? That's treason—off with your head!"
Budashiri-sei gave a sly, twisted grin.
"Besides, if she's gonna die anyway, may as well try it, eh? If it works, jackpot!"
And so, under his urging, the medical staff administered the mysterious pill to Hancock—
The Forbidden Drug: Neural Activation Agent.
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